by Susan Woodside, Team Editor
Hi, I’m the team editor for the Office Live Workspace User Assistance team. One of the reasons I’m excited about Office Live Workspace is that it’s a service that can replace the many pieces of paper we need to manage our busy lives with online documents that we can share with others. Remember the “paperless office?” I look at the piles of paper on my desk, and on the desks of the other editors in my office, and see that dream hasn’t arrived yet. Office Live Workspace is a step in the right direction.
Let’s look at the pile next to my skull mug pencil holder. On top is a tuition bill for my son, away at school. He printed this off of his school’s Web site (they don’t mail bills to parents anymore). I have to put in a request for funds from our 529 account, see how we’re doing budget-wise, and remember to pay the bill on time. I created a new workspace called “University of Washington expenses” using the Blank workspace template. Now, my son, his grandmother in Michigan, and my husband can keep track of tuition and living expenses, as well as due dates and account numbers. Next in the stack is a printed e-mail message from a friend with information about trip insurance… I’m going on the first cruise of my life this summer, and we are doing research about visa requirements, shore excursions, laundry on the ship. To keep all of this information organized in one place, I created a Travel workspace and shared it with my travel companions. The Travel workspace contains a number of documents, including packing and travel checklists, that you can modify to meet your needs. You can also add documents about your other travel research. For more information, see Use lists to track and share contacts, events, and tasks.
In case anyone thinks that none of my clutter is work-related, paper number three is a note showing the date for my presentation to my team about Office Live terminology. This is on my Outlook calendar, and I have some hand-outs that I’ll pass out to my group. To keep track of everyone’s presentations, we use a group workspace spreadsheet, Sign up for your demo. Is my office paper-free yet? No, but we’re finding better ways to share information, and finding that workspaces help to give those buried bits exposure to the people who can benefit. For more ideas about how to save paper with Office Live Workspace, see the article Go green: 5 ways to reduce paper using Office Live Workspace.
Are workspaces helping you in an unexpected way? Let me know….
Susan Woodside, Team Editor