Welcome to “Nota Bene”

Although I've been privately blogging for the past four years or so, I've always wanted to maintain a tech blog as an extension of my work where I could more openly communicate with the user community. Does the world need another blog? I'll leave that up to you to decide. One thing I'm certain of: People can help each other enjoy technology and software much more often by documenting and sharing their own experiences. Most of us also seem to have a better time learning new things when we can informally look over each other's shoulder — literally or figuratively.

Over the past decade or so, I've spent a lot of time and effort helping friends and family set up, use, and enjoy their computers. I've learned a lot of things along the way by way of their questions and confusion about all aspects of the hardware and software they use. Helping people enjoy their computers is what I'm most passionate about, and it's been part of my work in different ways over the years. I've provided International Technical Support at a PC-to-Mainframe connectivity company, served as a network administrator in a mixed PC-and-Mac shop, and taught classroom courses for early versions of Microsoft Office. Along the way, I discovered that writing is something I enjoy a great deal, and I've been fortunate to fuse my experience with my interests in recent years. I'm a Technical Writer at Microsoft, creating Help and How-to content for Office programs and the Office Online Web site.

Aside from offering a variety of useful tips and tricks about OneNote, Office, Windows, and other software on my pages here, I want Office users gain a better understanding of our Office Online site and show readers how they can help writers like me deliver better and more useful content. Microsoft may be a big company, but there are many of us who genuinely care about the people who use the tools we create. It's my life's work and although I have many other interests, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

From my previous blogging experiences, I realize that it can take a while to build up a readership. If this blog sounds like something that may be of interest to you, now or down the road, please add it to your Favorites. You can also subscribe to my RSS feeds to receive alerts about new posts (click the “RSS 2.0” link under the main page banner). Comments make blogs more interesting and they are always welcome here. Whether you're an avid blogger yourself or you happened upon this site by chance, please feel free to post your feedback on any items of interest that you may find here, even if it's just to say hello. (You must be a registered user to provide feedback, but signing up is easy, quick, and free.)

Thanks for visiting. I hope you'll return again soon.

Michael

PS If you're wondering what the title of my blog means, click the “About” link under the main page banner.