Touring Lodi's Bechthold Vineyard with Microsoft Sway

As part of the Microsoft Office Insiders group, I get the opportunity to test out some new technology. Microsoft is getting ready to release a new Office application called Sway. Disclaimer: I'm receiving no compensation for this test and what you're seeing here is a preview of the technology. It's not completely ready, but I'm excited about it. Sway is sort of like PowerPoint but designed in such a way that you can easily create and display projects on mobile devices. The layout and format of the entire project can be changed with a tap, and it will also adjust itself to whatever device you're using.

For my first attempt at this new application, I thought it would be fun to put together a Sway about the Bechthold Vineyard in Lodi, California. I have lots of pictures that I'd not previously used, and thought that this was a fun way to present them. Bechthold was my first stop on my press tour earlier in the year, and recently we had an online tasting featuring four wines from that small patch of land:



Be sure to click on this link for the full screen experience which is easier to read:

A Sway About the Bechthold Vineyard in Lodi

Note: These wines were provided as samples for review.

#WorkWonders with Microsoft Office 365

This is what an industry or press tasting often looks like. A lot of times you have a dozen glasses in front of you, plus a water glass and a spit cup. (Keeping the rhythm of spitting into one and drinking from two others while listening to lectures and taking notes is the most important skill in wine tasting. Getting them mixed up is a Bad Thing.) And this layout is before the bottles hit the table. You've got a writer to the left and right of you as well as across from you, and there is precious little real estate to hold a notebook, laptop, DSLR camera, and other equipment--much less the folders of notes and promotional material that you've been handed.

I was a late convert to the smart phone revolution, but I've really enjoyed using Microsoft OneNote to take wine notes during these events. It's the way that I Work Wonders on the road. I can take photos, scribble notes, link to websites, and have a great set of stream-of-consciousness pieces that I can later decipher back in the hotel room and convert into useful and legible prose. And better yet, I only have to keep track of a single phone, not a backpack's load of gadgets and notepads. I've done these tastings both ways and I know which one I prefer, particularly when you're shuffling around to a half dozen of these in a single day.

Technology is often seen as an impersonal, isolating force, but using apps like OneNote on a smart phone actually facilitate socialization. In these environments, my head is not buried behind a laptop screen. If I get tired of typing I can record audio instead. As I meet new people, we can exchange contact information and weeks later I can easily get in touch with someone halfway around the world without having to make sure I didn't lose his business card... which I don't have to keep, because I can take a photo of it in OneNote and append some information about the particular wines we tasted.

I'm running a little contest for my readers. The randomly-chosen winner will receive prize donated by Microsoft: a one-year subscription for Office 365 Home ($99). Tell me how you have "worked wonders" with Microsoft applications, whether it was doing your first Christmas letter mail merge in Word or using Excel to track your daughter's Girl Scout cookie sales. Either leave a comment here or on Twitter, using @benitowine and #workwonders in your entry. The winner will be drawn in a week!

No special rules or restrictions, except that family members and employees of Benito's Wine Reviews are not eligible.

Note: Evaluation of this software was enabled by participation in the Microsoft Office 365 advocacy program, though there was no payment involved. Access to the various programs was provided for free, but the opinions are my own.

Microsoft OneNote for the Mac

As part of my involvement with the Microsoft Office 365 group, I'm getting some great opportunities to network with other Office users around the country. I've particularly enjoyed conversations about math and Excel in my day job (quality assurance), but that doesn't fit too well with what I write about here. However, I was really excited at the recent announcement about the release of OneNote for the Mac desktop. Even better, it's free.

As faithful readers know, I've been an Apple user since 1983, though I've also been using Windows, OS/2, various flavors of Unix, and other more obscure operating systems throughout, and I've been using Mac versions of Microsoft applications for decades now. OneNote is a note taking application that syncs with your free Microsoft account. What this means is that you can edit the same document on your desktop, iPhone, iPad, or even via the web on any computer connected to the internet. On top of that, you can share documents for collaborative editing with other people. It's not like Word or PowerPoint, but is more of a virtual whiteboard where you can jot notes, post photos, highlight items, make to-do lists, etc.

Here's an example of a way I was able to use OneNote in my blogging life to build my Monday post. I took photos with my iPhone and added a photo of the bottles to a note. Later when doing the initial sips, I jotted simple tasting details on the desktop app. I got the idea for the Portuguese mussels and added a shopping list, which I was later able to check off on my phone while at the grocery store. Then I was able to take the photo of the dish with the iPhone and later have a basic set of jottings with which to build the bigger article.

My desktop MacMini is upstairs, the laptop tends to live downstairs (or travels with me when I leave town), and the iPhone lives in my pocket. I can easily work on any note wherever I am and not have to constantly e-mail documents back and forth to myself.

Once you get used to working with the program, it's as easy as dealing with an index card, except that the index card can be multimedia (music, hyperlinks, photos, video, etc.) and is backed up in cloud storage, so you don't have to worry about leaving your tasting notes on the restaurant table or accidentally throwing away that pile of envelopes that contained important musings. I've lost physical tasting notes and photos in the past, and look forward to using OneNote for a more modern and efficient workflow.

This is one way to use OneNote for wine blogging, but in my group I've gotten to hear about how people use this for taking notes in college, handling schedules for children, building sermons, and coordinating weddings. My parents have installed it on all of their Apple devices, and Mom and Dad are already testing it out with the to-do lists and having a blast.

Like I said, it's completely free on all platforms, so give it a whirl and let me know what you think.