Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Recording Narrations

PowerPoint lets you record narrations for every slide. This can be helpful if your availability is not possible when the slide show has to be shown.

To record narration:
• Click the Slide show tab.
• Click Record Narration icon.
• Here you get options for setting up microphone.
• If you want to start from current slide just select Current Slide, or you can choose First Slide.
• Save at the end and you will be asked if you want to save the timings for each slide.

Remember to speak clearly and don't rush!

Microsoft Excel 2007 - Row Height and Wrapped Text

It is fairly easy to put more text in a cell than can be readily displayed. While you can widen the column to fit your text, sometimes this is not a good option. Instead, you can wrap the text within the cell, so that the cell height is increased to display all the text.

Follow these steps:

1. Select the cells whose formatting you want to affect.

2. Press Ctrl+Shift+F. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.

3. Click on the Alignment tab.

4. Make sure the Wrap Text check box is selected.

5. Click on OK.

The text should now be wrapped within the cell and all visible.

Writing Your Elevator Speech

The American Family Business Accelerator program had an excellent presentation on writing your elevator speech. Here is the tool they provided. Even if you have an elevator speech I suggest working through this tool to see if it spotlights any fine-tuning you need to do.

In a nutshell:
     F  -  Find their pain point
     A  - Answer their problem
     R  - Reasons why you're different
     M - Make them want more

In theory, it's easy to tell someone what you do. You're asked that question all the time. But in reality, it's hard! And it is so important!  You want to wordsmith your answer so that it can be stated in 30 seconds. The words have to be clear and concise to give a total stranger the picture of what you do. It's that pivotal "first impression."

Beyond answering "What do you do?" your elevator speech plays a major part in your entire marketing plan. It is the first step, the foundation of the whole plan.

• When you create a company brochure, you would start with the elevator speech and expand to share examples and details to support the speech.
• When you are writing content for your web site, each page should support and expand upon that basic elevator speech.
• If you participate in any review sites such as Angie's List, Yelp or Kudzu, your elevator speech would be the content you fill in for their format.
• The elevator speech would be the starting point for your Summary section on your LinkedIn profile.

Take the time to write a good elevator speech. Use this excellent tool. Call Your Computer Lady for help if you need it. We'll brainstorm with you and help edit the speech until it's just what you need!

Microsoft Word 2007 - Understanding the Different View Options

Word provides different ways you can view your documents, depending on your particular needs. The major views available in Microsoft Word are:

•  Print Layout
•  Full Screen Reading
•  Web Layout
•  Outline
•  Draft

You can choose which view you are using by clicking on the view controls at the right side of the horizontal scroll bar or by selecting a view from the View tab of the ribbon.

Print Layout view is the one most closely related to what your document will look like when you actually print it. This viewing mode, which is the one you will probably use most of the time, allows you to see your headers and footers in place, what your margins look like, how your text boxes appear in relation to text, and what your graphics look like in your document. This is the viewing mode you should use if you want to always see what your document will look like.

Full Screen Reading view allows you to read your document using the full screen of your system. The view gets rid of the ribbons and uses the maximum screen space available to display your document. Typically the document will be displayed in two facing pages, but the number of pages displayed can be affected by the size of the monitor you are using. There is no editing allowed in this view. You can exit this view by simply pressing the Esc key.

Web Layout view is designed to allow you to easily see how your documents will look if used in an online environment. It is provided for those who intend on publishing their Word documents online.

Outline view is used when you want to work with large portions of your document at the same time. It allows you to collapse your document and view only the major headings. The text under each heading can be hidden so it does not obscure your view of document organization. When you select Outline view, an additional Outlining tab appears on the ribbon. This tab allows you to control what is displayed in this view.

Draft view can be considered a "pared down" version of the Print Layout view. It allows you to generally see how your text will appear on paper. This means you can see what each line will look like, how the text appears, and where the lines will break. You can also see where each page will break. This view is helpful if you are using an older, slower computer that can't display the Print Layout view particularly quickly.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Globally Change All Fonts in Your Presentation

Have you ever started a new presentation and copied some slides from another presentation into it and then realize that all the fonts are different. Did you know that PowerPoint has a convenient feature that allows you to make a global change to all the fonts in the presentation at one time?

Follow these easy steps to globally change your font in your presentation:

1. In the Editing section on the Home tab of the ribbon, click the Replace > Replace Fonts...

2. In the Replace Font dialog box, under the heading Replace, select the font you wish to change from the drop down list of fonts in this presentation.

3. Under the heading With, select the new font for the presentation.

4. Click the Replace button. All the text in the entire presentation that used the original font is now replaced with your new choice.

5. Repeat the process if your presentation contains a second font that you wish to change.

Note - Just a word of caution, all fonts are not created equal. By that I mean, that a size 24 in Arial font is very different from a size 24 in Barbara Hand font. Make sure that you check the sizing of your new fonts so that they will be easy to read from the back of the room during a presentation.

Microsoft Excel – Clear or Delete? Is there a difference?

Yes, there is a difference. As you are editing your Excel workbooks, one of the most common actions is to clear or delete cells.

Clearing cells means erasing everything within them, whereas deleting actually deletes the entire cell (or cells). This may sound like an odd distinction, but it is not really.

When you delete a cell, the other cells around that cell move to fill where the cell used to be.

To clear the contents of cells you have selected, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the Clear tool in the Editing group. When you do, you will see a submenu asking what you want to clear. Your choices allow you to clear any of the following:

• Clear All - Everything related to the cell except the cell itself.

• Clear Formats - Any formatting applied to the cell.

• Clear Contents - The information in the cell. Any formatting and comments remain in place.

• Clear Comments -The comments attached to the cell.

You should make your selection based on what you want cleared and then choose the appropriate menu item.

Deleting is done by selecting the cells you want to delete and then choosing Delete from the Edit menu. When you do this, Excel attempts to determine how the remaining cells in the worksheet should be moved to close up the hole that will be created by deleting the cells. If it can figure it out (for instance, if you are deleting an entire row or column), then the operation is completed. On the other hand, if it is not obvious how the remaining cells should be moved, Excel displays the Delete dialog box, which allows you to specify whether cells should be moved up or to the left.

Constant Contact Email Marketing Classes - FREE!

Ron Cates with Constant Contact is presenting two email marketing classes in Phoenix on June 23rd.  Ron does a GREAT job presenting the benefits and how to's of email marketing. Call me for details if you would like to attend. If you aren't sure you should be doing email marketing, go to one of these classes!!!  If you are just getting started and need to know how to do a great job, go to one of these classes!!!!

ASID Past Presidents Meeting

Thank you, Past Presidents, for the invitation to talk with you about social media. I had a great time!  After an overview presentation about social media, we opened the floor and simply talked about the pros and cons of social media and its impact on our businesses. 

Where do I find the time?
Just like any other marketing you do for your company, you have to set aside social media time. When you join a new organization, you plan on attending the monthly meetings. You know it will take ___ hours each month. Add some more time if you're going to serve on a committee which, of course, you really need to do to truly benefit from the organization. Schedule a set amount of time for social media.  Start with 1 hour a week. Measure your results. If the results are good, add more time. (Only count real business social media, not the time you spend on personal networking! Sharing photos with high school friends or your family is important but don't mislead yourself into thinking that is your marketing/social media time!)

Measure the results
Doing email marketing via Outlook is not the best use of your time or efforts. You can't measure the results. It is well worth the small monthly fee from a service like Constant Contact in order to have traffic reports. (FireDrum internet marketing has a free account for up to 750 emails.) Use the reports to ensure that what you're doing is having results.  All of your social media should be giving you results. Did you meet a new prospect? Did you get the chance to make a new proposal?  Track what you do and what you get from the effort. Sure, there are intangible benefits to social media as there are to any marketing effort. But you should have tangible results and you definitely should have a system in place to measure each marketing effort. (This is where your Customer Relations Management (CRM) software comes into play.)


Consistentcy
It's important with any marketing effort to be consistent. If you join an organization, show up for 90% of the meetings. If you set up a profile at LinkedIn, show up and participate on a regular basis. You can't blame LinkedIn or social media if you show up once a month, send a message to an old friend and post a half-hearted article. Show up on a regular basis. Send messages even if it's a simple Happy Birthday to a colleague. Give your opinion. Share your expertise.

Let me close with my social media mantra. Maybe it will inspire you too. It's from the legendary Dale Carnegie.

You can make more friends

in two months

by becoming interested

in other people

than you can in two years

by trying to get other people

interested in you.

Microsoft Word 2007 - Add a Drop Cap

Do you want to add some flair into your Word 2007 documents?

For artistic reasons or to separate groups of text, you may choose to add a drop cap to one or more of your paragraphs. A drop cap is simply the first letter of a line or paragraph of text written in a larger font.

To insert a drop cap in a Microsoft Word 2007 document:

1. Move your cursor to the line or paragraph where a drop cap should appear.

2. Click the "Insert" tab in the ribbon at the top of Word 2007.

3. In the "Text" group, select the "Drop Cap" command.

4. Select whether you want a "Dropped" or "In Margin" drop cap, and you can also select whether to remove a previously-placed drop cap. Or, click "Drop Cap Options" for more advanced options including:

Microsoft PowerPoint – Base Your Content on Your Audience

When you create the content of your presentation, first consider the needs and desires of your audience.

Ask and answer this question:

• What does the audience want to get out of the presentation?

You can refine this question as follows:

• What knowledge does the audience want to get?

• Why is the audience attending?

You may have to do some research to get the answers. For example, if you're speaking at a conference, you may be able to get some demographics from the conference organizers. Look on the conference's Web site to see what the conference is promising the attendees.

Write down your answers to the question (or questions). Then write your content with this in mind. When you're finished creating the entire presentation, go back to the answers you wrote down.

Does your presentation meet the needs and desires of the audience? If not, it's time to rewrite!

How to Retweet

Practical advice on how to retweet and why you want to!  Read the article.

Microsoft Excel – Short Cut Keys

Short cut keys are very useful, especially for those people who like to keep their hands on the keyboard. Here are some common Excel short cut keys. Try them!

• F2 - Edit the selected cell.

• F7 - Spell check selected text and/or document.

• F11 - Create chart.

• Ctrl + Shift + ; - Enter the current time.

• Ctrl + ; - Enter the current date.

• Alt + Shift + F1 - Insert New Worksheet.

• Ctrl + B - Bold highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + I - Italic highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + K - Insert link.

• Ctrl + U - Underline highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + 5 - Strikethrough highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + Z - Undo last action.

Microsoft Word 2007 – Text Boxes

Text boxes will give you control over the position of a block of text in your document. You can place text boxes anywhere in the document and format them with shading and borders.

To insert a text box in your Word 2007 document:

1. Click on Insert

2. Click on Text Box. You will see a gallery of pre-formatted text boxes. These are an easy way to add well-designed text boxes to your document. Scroll through the list and click one to insert it in your document.

3. Your text box appears with a border that you can use to resize or reposition the text box.

4. Click inside the text box to start typing.

You can also draw your own text box. To draw your own text box, click Draw text box. Position the cursor where you would like to place the corner of your text box. Click and drag to draw your text box.

Text boxes are very useful whether you want to add a caption under a picture or image or just to have text stand out differently in your document.

Experiment and have fun!