Alea jacta Ouest

The Flip4Mac Blog just announced that version 2.1 nears release 🙂 I’m looking forward to the release. Even though early versions of their WMV solution were not really usable on my Mac, they’ve brought continuous updates and version 2.0 is pretty good on my Mac. Since I never ever play Windows Media DRM protected contents, I really don’t miss WMP9. They solution now integrates flawlessly in QT through either the Player or the internet Plug-in. the list of new features for version 2.1 looks pretty good to me:

• significant export optimizations for PowerPC Macs
• multi-language audio support in WMV player
• overlay when importing WMV content in trial mode
• improved support for MMS servers and live streams
• fixed DCT Blocking issue (progressive deterioration with increasing distance from previous keyframe)

A localized version would be much welcome indeed 😉

Le Blog de Flip4Mac vient d’annoncer la sortie prochaine de la version 2.1 de sa solution de lecture du format Windows Media 🙂 J’ai hâte de l’avoir sous la main. Alors que les distributions initiales de ce produit ne fonctionnaient pas terriblement bien sur mon Mac, ils ont apporté des mises à jours successives qui ont rapidement su réparer ces erreurs de jeunesse pour aboutir à un ensemble qui marche maintenant vraiment bien. La version 2.0 tourne parfaitement sur mon Mac. Comme je ne tente même jamais de lire des fichiers Windows Media protégés par DRM, la version 9 de WMP ne me manque vraiment pas. La solution de Flip4Mac s’intègre parfaitement dans mon système et joue les fichiers WM soit par QT Player soir par le module externe QT dans mon navigateur. La liste des nouvelles fonctions de la version 2.1 me parait prometteuse :

• significant export optimizations for PowerPC Macs
• multi-language audio support in WMV player
• overlay when importing WMV content in trial mode
• improved support for MMS servers and live streams
• fixed DCT Blocking issue (progressive deterioration with increasing distance from previous keyframe)

Une version localisée serait plus que bienvenue… 😉

The new Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.2.4 Update is out 🙂

Security update plus a bunch of smaller corrections here and there in almost all applciations. The list of updated files is rather impressive.

La nouvelle mise à jour Microsoft Office 2004 pour Mac 11.2.4 est disponible 🙂

Mise à jour de sécurité plus un ensemble d’autres corrections par-ci par-là. La liste des fichiers mis à jour est impressionnante.

UPDATE: Don’t bother, they closed the survey (they had received enough responses).

I received this information recently. It looks like MS would like help revamping MacTopia and have this study to try and figure out what users really want:

Dear Mac User,
As part of our efforts to redesign the Mactopia website, I would like to invite you to participate in a short, but nonetheless important, research exercise. We are conducting an online card-sort that will help inform how content on the site should be organized according to your (the user’s) preferences. This study is not intended to take more than 5 minutes, so try not to spend too much time on any one particular item. The idea is to sort as many cards as you can as quickly as possible, and not to “perfect” your groupings.
Additionally, I would like to ask you to send this invitation to other Mac users whom you know and would be willing to participate. We’re still in need of around 25 – 30 participants. We are looking for all levels of Mac and Mac Office experience, from the novice to the IT Pro.
The link to the Websort application is provided below. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns. Finally, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to you for taking the time to participate in this research. Your efforts will have a direct impact on the organization and design of the Mactopia website.
websort.net/go/macto…
Thank you kindly.
Sincerely,
: Ryan Clukey
: ZAAZ
: Usability Analyst

Je viens de recevoir cette nformation. MS va refaire son site Web pour MacTopia (Office Mac) et ils on mis en ligne un questionnaire pour tenter de coller au mieux aux besoins des utilisateurs.
Le questionnaire est en anglais, aussi je ne traduis pas l’annonce ci-dessus car si vous ne comprenez pas du tout l’anglais, vous ne pourrez sans doute pas participer 😉

Another post on Schiew.com

. This one presents the status of Messenger for Mac and the reasons why we don’t already have audio and video support. Pretty interesting. A very honest way to present the facts IMVHO.

Une autre nouvelle sur Schiew.com. Ce billet présente le statut actuel de Messenger pour Mac et les raisons pour lesquelles nous n’avons pas encore de support audio et video dans la version Mac. Une présentation assez honête des fait à mon sens.

A new MacBU developer blog: Schwieb
🙂

Un nouveau blog d’un des développeur de la MacBU : Schwieb 🙂

David Weiss posted on his blog today an announcement about the new Mac Office Resource Kit 2.0

Very nice indeed!!

David Weiss a posté sur son blog une announce sur le nouveau Mac Office Resource Kit 2.0

Je vais m’empresser de lire…

Jim Gordon released an Add-In (shareware) for PowerPoint today.

GSToolbar add-in for PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint has the built-in ability to print slides, handouts, and notes in grayscale. Sending grayscale output can significantly reduce printing times for black and white laser printers. The add-in may benefit large organizations that share networked laser printers.

Jim Gordon a mis en ligne aujourd’hui un module externe (shareware) pour PowerPoint.

GSToolbar add-in for PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint propose la possibilité d’imprimer des diapo, livrets ou notes en niveaux de gris. Envoyer des diapo PowerPoint en niveau de gris peut permettre de considérablement réduire les délais d’impression pour les imprimantes noir et blanc. Le module externe peut être particulièrement utile à certaines compagnies dans lesquelles les imprimantes sont partagées.

Rick Schaut recently posted a very good article describing how apps are ported to MacIntel and explaining why porting Office is not as simple as simply recompiling the app.

Buggin’ My Life Away : Of Intel Macs and Red Herrings

Rick Schaut a posté (en anglais) in très bon article sur le portage d’application sur MacIntel où il explique pourquoi une simple rtecompiltion ne suffit pas pour une appli comme Office.

Buggin’ My Life Away : Of Intel Macs and Red Herrings

EntourageABMenu: ”
“EntourageABMenu is a convenient and intuitive way to utilize your Microsoft Entourage address book data through a system-wide menu.”

A new add on for Entourage I hadn’t heard of before.

EntourageABMenu: ”
“EntourageABMenu est une nouvelle façon de simplement accéder à votre carnet d’adresse Microsoft Entourage depuis un menu Système.”

Une nouvelle appli qui travaille avec Entourage dont je n’avais jamais entendu parler avant.

The Entourage Help site is currently offline. As a temporary solution (until the site is back online), I decided to post this here:

With the Office 11.2.3 update, Entourage is now offers Spotlight integration in Mac OS X 10.4.3 and up, allowing us to search for messages, contacts, appointments, etc.. For some users, Spotlight searches did not seem to work straight out of the box. Here are a few tips and trick allowing you to find out where the problem is (and hopefully fix it).

• Make sure the system is up to date.
• Make sure Spotlight is set to index e-mails, contacts, calendar events… in the System Preferences (Spotlight Prefpane).
• Enable Spotlight integration in the Entourage preferences
• Check that ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage/2004 is not in the “no index” list in the Spotlight PrefPane (replace 2004 by 2008 for Office 2008).
• Wait for Spotlight indexing (this can take time)

In order to integrate all its data in the Spotlight searches, Entourage creates cache files in a special format allowing Spotlight to identify and index them. Once Spotlight integration is activated in the preferences, you can double check in your system that the corresponding files are indeed being properly generated. Check in ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage (~/ represents your User folder). You should see folders and subfolders with names looking like “1.vRgeContact”. If you have these files, Entourage did its part of the deal.

Sometimes, even once Entourage has generated the indexing files and you have waited for what seems to be ages, none of your Entourage items show up in the Spotlight searches. Here are a few commands to be performed in the Terminal to find out what’s going on.

• mdimport -L This command will list all the mdimporter your System detects on your Mac. These files allow Spotlight to index different file formats. The result should list /Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Entourage.mdimporterIf it doesn’t, then a bug in the System prevents it from using the Entourage mdimporter located in /Library/SpotlightMost of the time in this case, none of the mdimporter in this folder are being picked up by the System (it’s definitively a bug – it also means that the other mdimporters for other file types in this folder are not being used either). One workaround is to copy the “Microsoft Entourage.mdimporter” in the proper location in your user folder: ~/Library/Spotlight (create the folder if it doesn’t already exist). You will have to do the same thing for all users on your Mac. You will also have to be careful if a new Office update comes out since the updater will probably not look for files to update in this folder. Hopefully, future System updates will correct this problem. Running mdimport -L again should now list the Entourage mdimporter in the new location (wait a little while before you run it to really make sure the System has time to pick it up). There are other “proper” locations to place these importers. You could move it to /System/Library/Spotlight for instance, but I strongly advice against placing *anything* in the /System folder.
• If the previous command properly lists the Entourage mdimporter but you still get nothing in your Spotlight searches, you can manually trigger the indexing. For Office 2004, use mdimport ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage/2004 to trigger the indexing of the Entourage data (replace 2004 by 2008 for Office 2008 obviously). If you are really desperate, you can even force the indexing using mdimport -f ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage/2004 (again, replace 2004 by 2008 for Office 2008) but there are very few circumstances where it should make any difference.
• If this still does not work, there might be a corruption in your Spotlight Indexes. When everything else failed, you can nuke the index and force Soptlight to completely re-index your drives. This will take hours….. First, make sure the drive you want to index is indeed “on” for indexing (don’t trust the Spotlight PrefPane for that: it is notoriously buggy). sudo mdutil -i on / (you will have to authenticate) will turn it on. If you have more than one drive, you can turn it on (or off) for the other drives by simply replacing / by the path to the other drives (another tip: you can use drag and drop in the windows of the Terminal to take advantage of the auto-completion of the path. Dragging a drive to the window enters the proper path to this drive automatically). Then you can nuke all previous indexes: sudo mdutil -E / (again, you will have to authenticate and again you can use the same command for other drives by replacing / by the path to your other drives). Complete re-indexing should start immediately.

MS also released today a security update for Excel X.

MS a aussi mis en ligne une mise à jour de sécurité pour Excel X

Messenger 5.1 is out on Mactopia.

Not much really exciting for the regular user… The release notes are not very easy to find. It appears that they brought some improvement to the file encryption for corporate users.

Messenger 5.1 est sorti sur Mactopia.

Pas grand chose d’excitant pour l’utilisateur de base. Les infos sur la version sont assez difficile à trouver. Il semblerait qu’il y ait des améliorations pour le cryptage des fichiers pour les utilisateurs en entreprise.

Office 2004 was just udapted today. The new release is available on the Mactopia site. You can either use the updater from this site or use the Check for Update command from any Office 2004 app.

The new update brings Spotlight search integration as well as Tiger SyncServices support. It means we can natively sync to the System address book and to iCal 🙂

Office 2004 vient juste d’être mis à jour aujourd’hui. La nouvelle version est disponible sur le site de Mactopia (le site US, le site Fr n’étant pas à jour :-\ ). Vous pouvez télécharger la mise à jour là ou utiliser la commande “Rechercher les mises à jour” depuis le menu Aide de n’importe laquelle des appli d’Office.

La nouvelle mise à jour apporte l’intégration à Spotlight et le support natif des SyncService de Tiger. Cela veut dire qu’Entourage peur désormais se synchroniser directement avec le carnet d’adresse système et avec iCal 🙂