The Microsoft Crabby Office Lady

In 2002, for Microsoft Corporation, I created and developed the online tech + humor advice columnist, the Crabby Office Lady.

For 9+ years, I wrote and produced the a column, blog and podcast. At its height, the “Crabby” column garnered 1 million unique visitors per month. Site visitors and call-to-action responses increased more than 1200% from 2002- 2011.

On this page are several of the hundreds of columns and blog posts I wrote and published between 2002 and 2011.

• Buy the Crabby Office Lady book @ Amazon
• View the Crabby Office Lady videos
• Take a gander at some Crabby Office Lady P.R.
  
  I’ve been featured on NBC news, in various newspapers and other publications, and online, mentioned in many blogs and on several organizations’ websites (including the instructional design website, The Writer’s Gateway, and Bridgewater State University, that acknowledged my work in explaining what accessibility is and how it must be considered in software design).

Crabby Office Lady: Solid advice with an attitude

• Working it from home–Crabby’s tips for telecommuters
• Woo your valentine with help from Crabby
• Why Crabby seems smarter than she is: Meet your Office MVPs
• Word has a mind of its own and so do you
• Track changes in Word–don’t let them track you
• To market, to market, to buy a fat Office service
• Secure printing–no more mad dashes to the copy room
• Step up and thank your administrative professionals
• Tackling big projects without getting crabby
• Take it easy–Tips for managing stress at work
• Take shelter in Office with Crabby’s tax-time tips
• Pretty Darn Fancy, those PDFs
• Plan your summer getaway…and your return
• Plan a birthday party with no crabbiness
• Take your elbows off the table and mind your email manners
• Pivot, swivel, and roll–data management with the stars
• Outlook and Outlook Express–Brothers, not twins
• How Crabby learned to delegate (and get her life back)
• How I learned to stop worrying and love the Ribbon
• Let’s go multimedia shopping with Crabby
• Meet the real Crabby Office Lady
• My Crabby-inspired template
• More of Crabby’s favorite Office tips
• Hop on the RSS bandwagon
• Guide to Outlook profiles versus email accounts
• Gimme the lowdown on downloads
• Getting to know you again–the ribbon
• Get the lowdown on Office downloads
• Get ready, get organized, and get hitched with Office
• Delay your crabbiness–Outlook features for itchy trigger fingers
• Demystify a few computer terms and get on with your life ]
• Demystify e-mail terms and get on with your life
• Don’t get crabby with me–choosing the Office features you want
• Ergo your way to less crabbiness
• Fear not about unemployment–there’s a Monster in the Office
• Crabby’s tips for choosing the best program for the job
• Crabby’s tips for Internet safety
• Crabby’s top 10 spam-fighting tips
• Crabby’s Windows 7 House Party
• Crabby’s shorty-shortcut tips for working smarter (Part II)
• Crabby’s tip of the iceberg graphics tips
• Crabby’s telecommuting tips, redux
• Crabby’s shorty-shortcut tips for working smarter (Part I)
• Crabby’s recipe for balancing your work and your life
• Crabby’s Office Community courtesy chat
• Crabby’s guide to surviving performance reviews
• Crabby’s holiday survival guide
  Crabby’s (and Deep Throat’s) top 5 features of Project 2007
• Crabby’s Font Facts 101–Some basics
• Crabby’s Font Facts 102-best practices
• Crabby’s Font Facts 103-Designing with fonts
• Crabby’s Font Facts 104- Your questions
• Crabby’s get-away-from-it-all checklist
• Crabby’s gift for high school grads
• Crabby’s favorite tips for every Office program
• Crabby’s favorite Outlook 2007 features
• Crabby’s etiquette guide for working ladies and gentlemen 
• Crabby’s back-to-school tips for parents
• Crabby’s criteria for effective meetings
• Crabby is in love again…with the new PowerPoint
• Crabby is your college research adviser
• Crabby marks International Women
• Crabby sings the praises of OneNote 2007
• Crabby tackles Microsoft Office for Mac 2008
• Crabby welcomes you back after your lengthy leave
• Crabby inFORMS you about InfoPath 2007
• Crabby helps you avoid email scams
• Crabby goes chart crazy with Excel 2007
• Crabby gets personal with E-mail Merge in Publisher
• Crabby gets over her database fears with the help of Access 2007
• Crabby finds answers to some of her own problems
• Crabby demystifies Publisher terms
• Crabby demystifies strange Internet terms (part 1)
• Crabby demystifies strange Internet terms (part 2)
• Crabby demystifies Visio terms
• Crabby demystifies Word terms
• Crabby diagrams it for you with Visio 2007
• Crabby demystifies email protocols
• Crabby demystifies even more e-mail terms
• Crabby demystifies Excel terms
• Crabby demystifies OneNote terms
• Crabby demystifies Outlook terms
• Crabby demystifies PowerPoint terms
• Crabby demystifies Access terms
• Crabby celebrates Black History Month
• Crabby answers three common password questions
• Crabby tips for middle school teachers
• Crabby tips for high school teachers
• Crabby  tips for elementary school teachers but wrong problem.
• Crabby helps out
•  Button, button…Crabby has a button
• Camping is a Family Tradition
• Collaborate with difficult people the Crabby way
• Crabby – Back to School round up
• Crabby – innovative teachers
• Boost your efficiency with Crabby’s suggestions
• Be your own top chef with Office templates
• All versions of Office can play nice —  Crabby shows you how
• Accessibility features make all of us less crabby
• Women’s History Month—Trailblazers in technology
• Work-life balance
• Writing AND designing in Word—Your audience will stick around
• Your Office Web Apps questions
• Your workplace—Navigating the curves and styles
• A question of Word or Publisher–use Crabby’s special recipe to decide
• ScrLk key—Hoodlum or helpful
• ScreenTips, document tooltips, and other things readers have taught us
• Romance in the office Romance in the office—Part II
• Romance in the office—Part I
• Read receipts and the people who need them
• Hate spam? There ways to avoid it
• Office for Mac 2011—Now we’re synced up
• OneNote for the iPhone— Keeps getting better
• Our OneNote-planned trip to Viet Nam
• Outlook delegate access helps shoulder a principal’s burden
• Gardening with Office
• Four hot text tips from Crabby
• Finding and fashioning fonts
• Excel poses file name problem. Man seeks and finds answers
• Delay that email! How Outlook 2010 can save your hide
• 5 Office features you need to know about
• Use mail merge to create and print letters and other documents
• When your mobile device & Exchange are at odds