This is the same Microsoft, right???

Sometimes you just have to sit back and ask yourself, "Now how does that happen?" Often times, those are times when you have to laugh to yourself about how the basics just sometimes get overlooked. This morning was one of those times and I caught myself asking, "So the Microsoft you work for is the same one that I work for, right?" Here's the situation:

Let's start with a quick quiz... Anyone know what PowerPoint is? How about OneNote? Any takers on InfoPath? Maybe SharePoint? Even if you don't specifically know what each of those programs does (I hyperlinked each to the appropriate pages so you can find out), you probably know that they are all Microsoft products, right? As such, it would make sense that Microsoft would know about them and at least recognize the name, wouldn't you think?

Well, I was typing up a segment in Microsoft Windows Live Writer (a Microsoft product) this morning, I received the following messages:

Click images for full-size

That's when I thought to myself, "So how is it that a Microsoft product doesn't recognize our own products?" Just one of those things that make you go "Hmmmmm....." This isn't the first time something like this has happened at I'm sure it's not the last but it seems like just one of those little things that you'd think someone would have picked up on.

Oh well, Windows Live Writer is technically still a "Beta" product, so we'll wait and see what happens. All joking aside, outside of not knowing our own products, Windows Live Writer is really a very nice program for anyone who publishes to a Blog. I have been using it for quite awhile now and it has some nice features built right in. So if you have a Blog of your own, you can download Windows Live Writer and try it out for yourself. Plus, you can simply click "Add..." in the spell checker to add those Microsoft product names to your dictionary when you see the messages above. (So no flame-mails from anyone on the Windows Live Writer developer team, please. :-) )

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights