DEPARTMENT Taking Technology To New Height (NAPS)—In today’s world, the technology you use at work is becoming more and more handy for everyday scenarios. You can send a birthday card via e-mail, use a spreadsheet program to create a family budget or use a word processing program to write your holiday letter. Whatever you’re doing, the tools you use at the office can help you be moreefficient, keep in touch more easily with friends and family, and even save money—doing the things you love to do. Even Ed Viesturs, America’s foremost mountaineer, has been applying technology to pursue personal interests. He’s using Microsoft Office XP to plan his climb up Annapurna in Nepal and get one step closer to climbing each of the 14 highest mountains in the world. When not planning a climb, Viesturs uses Office XP to handle the business portion of his climbing career: working with sponsors, keeping track of contacts, scheduling speaking opportunities and more. Making Communication Easy As they planned the Annapurna expedition, it was critical for members of the climbing team to be able to work together to develop equipment lists, manage budgets and makedecisions. Viesturs and his international team were able to simplify their planning process by using SharePoint Team Services, an easy-to-use Web site that enables small groups to communicate and share important information such as documents, calendars, announce- ments and other postings with each other. The team’s site was customized to fit its specific needs, and provided a place for team members to create documents using familiar tools such as Microsoft Word and Excel. They could then store those documents on the Team Services site, where each person could review them and make changes. As a result, they were less affected by differing time zones and the costs and delays associated with international phonecalls and faxing. The site also served as a place for the team to hold discussions and conduct surveys on topics such as what food to pack for the ascent and different climbing routes, and even the type and awe = “ Pursuing your interests is easier with new computer programs. amountof rope to take. KeepingIt All Organized Viesturs uses various programs in Office XP to help keep himself and the many facets of his career organized. With the Microsoft Outlook 2002 messaging andcollaboration client, he easily communicates with his sponsors and stores all his contacts so he doesn’t have to refer to a stack of business cards. Using Excel 2002, he keeps track of the gear he takes on climbs and can refer back to it for future trips. And with Publisher 2002, he creates professional-looking handouts about his experiences that he can give to fans during his speaking tours. Creating an Experience During speaking tours, Viesturs uses the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation graphics program to share his climbing experiences, bringing them to life with sound, video, animation services and photography. He can store several versions of his presentations on a laptop, which is less bulky for travel than a slide carousel and hundreds of 35mm slides. And having everything on his laptop makes it easy to customize his presentation for any audience. If Ed Viesturs can prepare to climb a mountain and managehis career with technology, think of all the things you could be doing, too. Why not do things the easy way, and plan your next family reunion or share your vacation memories using Office XP? To learn more about how Viesturs is using technology or to follow Viesturs and his team through video and audio dispatches posted regularly to the site, visit http: //www.annapurna2002.com/. For more information on Office XP, visit http://www.microsoft.com/office/.
