I only recently discovered the ability to have multiple home pages in IE . Since then, I've tried to give home pages a shot -- I've been using a blank page for the past 8 or so years. By default, IE comes with a toolbar icon which allows you to open your home pages. The problem I have with this button is that it reuses existing tabs, no matter what your settings are. I'd like this button and the menu items under it to support Ctrl+Click to open them in new tabs.

In Word, when you right click on a word, there's a Synonyms submenu. This typically works great, but when you try to get a synonym of a plural word, the only option you have is to select the singular form of the word. From there you can right click again and select the synonym you want from the Synonyms submenu. Of course, your word is now singular, so you'll have to change it to the plural form. This seemingly easy task is now complicated because of an s. I'd like to see one of two things happen here. (A) Update the built-in thesaurus to understand plural forms of words; or, (B) instead of forcing the user to change the word to its singular form, make that selection a submenu with the related synonyms under it. I can only assume the former would be an easy update since they already know the difference between the singular and plural forms of the word. As for the latter, perhaps a picture would better describe what I'm talking about. On the left, you'll see what Word 2007 does when you right click on a plural word; on the right, you'll see my suggestion, where the singular form is a submenu.

I've taken a look at Expression Design before, but with the new release, I decided to take another look. In the Expression Design (Dec 2006 CTP), there is a workspace zoom, which allows you to display all toolbars at 50-150% their normal size. I think this is a great feature, which speaks to the benefit of vector graphics; however, I don't like the fact that all toolbars use the same zoom level. There are three toolbars in this release: Property Inspector, Layers, and the Toolbox (which, I believe is called something else). The standard size for the Toolbox is too big, in my opinion, so of course I want to dial it down as much as possible. The only problem with this, is that the Property Inspector and Layers toolbars are both affected by this change as well. So, I either have to deal with a larger than desired Toolbox or Property Inspector and Layers toolbars that are too small to read. Obviously, I stick with the former, since it's more palpable; but I'd really like a work-around for this.

Reported @ https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=254143&SiteID=15

Windows Vista includes search capability in the Windows (aka Start) menu. I love this feature. I've been using tools like Launchy  and Slick Run  for this type of capability. Part of me wants to go back to the Alt+Space shortcut because I feel like it responds better, but that might simply be in my head. Despite that, Slick Run has the nice capability to add custom commands. I'd like to see this in the Windows menu search. This is, in part, the same thing as having keywords for favorites in IE , but it goes a lot farther.

If you've ever used Slick Run, you probably don't need an explanation, but if not, here are a couple examples. First, I read a lot of blogs and try to keep up with them everyday. With this, I'd like to have a search keyword that automatically opens my blog reader. For instance, I want to type Win, blogs, Enter and have Bloglines  open. Of course, if you use a desktop feed reader, the shortcut could be configured to open that instead. With this, you're probably asking why not create a shortcut and simply type bloglines or maybe even blogs and find the item in the search results. All I have in response to this is that I want something that has a very snappy response time with as few characters as possible. If I have to type 10 characters or dig thru a list to find my item, I don't like it. I'd rather spend the time beforehand to identify the small handful of keywords I use the most and make sure those come up first. One other example would be typing Win, mf, Enter to bring up my site, www.michaelflanakin.com. This might show a little more benefit since I'd have a mere 2 vs 8-15 characters. Still, this isn't anything you can't work around with the existing feature-set. Perhaps a slightly more complicated example would be a search for a TV show or movie. I'd like type type Win, tv stargate, Enter or Win, imdb stargate, Enter and have a new browser tab/window open with the search results for either TV.com  or IMDB . Another example would be Win, wiki stargate, Enter, which would search Wikipedia .

Despite the fact that these are all browser-based examples, I'd like to have this baked into the OS. This way, I don't have to take the extra step of opening a browser window, if I don't already have one open.

On a side, but related note, it would also be nice to be able to open a few things with one command. For instance,Win, daily, Enter might bring up my blogs, my website, and my email. I typically open these three things in tandem first thing every morning.

Edit: While this isn't in Windows, yet, Start++ is a great solution to the problem. If you're looking for this type of feature, check it out!

The Outlook Upcoming Appointments Vista sidebar gadget  shows a list of 3 or 5 appointments. This is basically the same view Outlook 2007 gives you on the To-Do Bar, which is on the right side of the default Outlook view. When I look at these lists, I always pause to check what day the appointments are for. Granted, there is text in the appointment block that says the day, but I'd like something that's outside of the appointment that groups them together. The reason I'd like it outside of the appointment info block is because it would make it easier to see what appointments are on what days. One of the first things you learn when it comes to formulating user interfaces is that white space is good. Too much info in a small area takes longer to consume. Adding a small break between appointments with the name of the day would be very simple and I think would make it easier to scan thru this information. Of course, my this applies to both the gadget and Outlook client view.