Office software: May 2008 Archives

Microsoft announced that customers of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with a qualified Volume Licensing Software Assurance enrollment can benefit from SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS), a new, partner-delivered offering designed to help customers successfully plan their deployment of SharePoint. Microsoft Corp. SDPS introduces new knowledge offerings to the SharePoint partner community for customers' benefit. These tools include SharePoint Deployment Plan Templates, Architecture Design Guidance Documents, and SharePoint server farm deployment guidance. Microsoft partners that currently have Microsoft Competencies in Information Worker Portals and Collaboration, Enterprise Content Management, or Search specializations can now advance their skills and become certified to participate in the SDPS offering. In return, these partners will be reimbursed by Microsoft to deliver SharePoint deployment planning consultation to customers. In addition, SDPS-certified partners will be able to participate in a new online community that Microsoft has established to enable collaboration and information sharing among partners on SharePoint deployment best practices. SDPS is available now. Partners can get more details and register to be an SDPS provider at http://www.microsoftsdps.com/

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced a new version of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, the company's Web conferencing and eLearning solution. Acrobat Connect Pro includes new features for Web conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with instant messaging (IM) clients; and compliance and usage reporting tools. eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes. Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture participants' attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class. Combined with the new version of Adobe Presenter, also introduced, Acrobat Connect Pro can enable users to hold online meetings that incorporate Adobe Flash Player compatible presentations. Adobe Presenter can give you the ability to turn Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that include video, narration, animations, interactivity and advanced quizzes. New capabilities in this release include question pooling and randomization, easy-to-work-with video, and the ability to publish presentations to mobile devices or within PDF files. Acrobat Connect Pro is expected to be available by the end of May 2008, on a hosted or on-premise basis. It will be available in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese. http://www.adobe.com/