Clickable Phone Numbers

Now that we have the ability to click-to-call with Office Communicator, it’s natural that we come to expect to be able to click phone numbers wherever we see them!

Just like web links and email links in the past, what we really need is a ubiquitous way to identify phone numbers and make them clickable…

tel: to the Rescue

In Windows, where http: makes a web link clickable, and mailto: makes an email address clickable, tel: makes a phone number clickable.

So looking at my screenshot below, the first number is just text, the second number has “tel:” in front of it so is now clickable, and the third has the visible text different from the hyperlink value – so the user doesn’t see the “tel”.

The conversation window is what came up when I clicked on the link.  It gives you the second chance to actually dial, because as I’ve shown, the visible text can be different from the actual hyperlink text.  The number could show 905… but really be 900!

Applications can render their phone numbers this way, so that the consuming application, in this case Outlook on Windows, can display the number as clickable.

IM/Presence in Office? Be sure to buy the right version!

It recently came to my attention that in order to enjoy Presence and Instant Messaging from within Office applications such as Outlook, you must be running the Professional version of the Office Suite.  Even if you have Office Communicator and Office Communications Server deployed!

It’s all outlined in the comparison of server integration features between Office suites available through volume licensing:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/compare-server-integration-features-between-office-suites-available-through-volume-licensing-FX101850719.aspx#d

Unified instant messaging, presence, and voice Easily communicate with others in different locations or time zones using familiar Office tools. Communicator and Office Communications Server operate with popular Office programs to provide a range of different communication options, including instant messaging (IM), phone, and voice, video, or Web conferencing.   Office Standard Office Professional Plus See the availability of others—via author indicators when co-authoring to the address field when composing an e-mail—from directly within Office applications through Office Communications Server.   Initiate IM and voice directly from Office applications, through integration with Office Communications Server. Point to an author’s or manager’s name in File Properties—available from the Info tab in Backstage view—to surface a contact card and initiate a voice or IM conversation.   Record and listen to name pronunciation recordings wherever presence is found with the new contact card, which includes a recording tied to the user's voice-mail box for name pronunciation. Have IT staff configure MailTips to give users of Outlook 2010 and Exchange Server 2010 important information before they click Send to avoid distributing messages to inappropriate recipients. For example, users can be notified that they are about to send a message outside the organization or are using Reply All. Take advantage of voice-mail transcripts that are now sent directly to a user's inbox along with the recording. The Microsoft's voice-to-text engine automatically transcribes a text preview of recorded messages.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been running the Professional version for so long that this hasn’t come up for me, so I thought perhaps others might benefit from the information as well.