November 29, 2010

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Don't Accidentally Show a Menu During a Slide Show

By default, when displaying a slide show in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, if you click the right mouse button a pop-up menu appears. This lets you jump between slides, change the pointer type, immediately end the slide show, and other options.  While some appreciate this feature, others might access this menu by accident, causing a displayed presentation to appear less professional.

If you want to disable this feature, follow these steps:

1. Click the "Office" button.

2. When the popup appears, click "PowerPoint Options".

3. The "PowerPoint Options" dialog box appears. Select "Advanced" in the left pane.

4. In the right pane, underneath "Slide Show", uncheck "Show menu on right mouse click".

5. Click "OK" on the dialog box to close it.

November 24, 2010

8 Tips to Get More Out of LinkedIn

Clear, concise article about how to best use LinkedIn. Read the article.

There is no magic bullet. It's just day in, day out pounding the electronic pavement.

.

November 23, 2010

Microsoft Excel 2007 – Hiding Worksheets

There may be times when you want to hide a particular worksheet so that it cannot be easily accessed. This is often done to protect information on a worksheet or keep it from prying eyes.

To hide a worksheet, follow these steps:

1. Select the worksheet you want to hide.

2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.

3. In the Cells group, click the Format tool. Excel displays a menu.

4. Choose Hide & Unhide, and then choose Hide Sheet.

The worksheet is immediately hidden. Once hidden, there is no way to tell that it is "missing. If you later want to unhide the worksheet, follow the steps above and click “unhide”.

November 18, 2010

5 Good Computing Habits

Working on a slow, disorganized computer can be frustrating, and it happens to the best of us. This article will give you some easy-to-follow guidelines on how to keep your computer on the right track using tools in Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Microsoft Office 2010.

Click here to read this great article from Microsoft to help you increase your productivity and organization.

November 16, 2010

Microsoft Word 2007 - Clearing Formatting From Text in Word 2007

When you’re cutting and pasting text into your Word document, it is easy to introduce formatting inconsistencies. But, it isn’t always so easy to remove these inconsistencies in your document.

There are several solutions you can try; you can try to apply formatting so that the text matches surrounding portions of your document; you might even use the Format Painter to help with this. But, sometimes, the best solution is to clear formatting from your text. You can then format it from scratch the way you want.

To clear formatting from text in Word 2007:

1. Highlight the text that contains the formatting you would like to
    remove.

2. Click on the Font section of the Home ribbon.

3. Click the Clear Formatting icon. The Clear Formatting button
    shows a white eraser, along with some letters.

When you click the Clear Formatting button, text and paragraph formatting is removed from the text. You can then apply new formatting. Or, you can leave it so that it matches your document template’s default formatting.

November 12, 2010

November 11, 2010

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Page Setup for Presentations

Depending on the type of projector or screen you will be using for your presentation, you may need to change the page setup of your presentation. For example; a standard 4:3 resolution will look bad on wide screen like a projector. You can change the page setup as follows:

1. Click on View

2. Click on Slide Master

3. Click on Page Setup 

4. Select your setup

November 9, 2010

Microsoft Excel 2007 View Multiple Worksheets at the Same Time

When working with Excel you may need to see two worksheets on the screen at the same time. You can do this using the same general technique that you use to view multiple worksheets from different workbooks. Follow these steps:

1.  Make sure you have only a single workbook open.

2.  Display the View tab of the ribbon and click New Window in the
     Window group. Excel opens a second instance of the same
     workbook.

3.  On the View tab of the ribbon, click Arrange All in the Window
     group. Excel displays the Arrange Windows dialog box.

4.  Choose the method Excel should use to arrange your windows.

5.  Click on OK. Excel arranges the windows as you directed.

In each of the windows you can display different worksheets, even though they are part of the same workbook. When you are done, simply close one of the windows.

November 5, 2010

Microsoft Word 2007 - Remove Extra Space Between Paragraphs in Word 2007

Word 2007 adds a space between paragraphs by default. This space cannot be removed by using the backspace key, and it can be difficult to find the option to remove the space.

If you don’t want Word to add the extra space, you can turn it off. However, you will need to turn it every time you open a new document unless you alter the Normal.dot template.

To turn off the space between paragraphs, follow these steps:

1. On the Home ribbon, find the Paragraph section

2. In the bottom right corner of the section, click the button to show
    the Paragraph dialog box

3. Select “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”

4. Click OK

November 4, 2010

How Ford Uses Social Media to Sell Cars

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-ford-gets-more-sales-with-social-media/

Yes, Ford is a little bit bigger than most of our companies but the concepts they are using to sell cars via social media apply to all companies large and small. Watch this video to hear what they are doing.

November 3, 2010

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Publisher 2007 – Format Painter

Everyone knows how to copy and paste text to in more than one document. But did you know you can do the same thing with formatting only?

The Format Painter is located on the Home tab, and it looks like paintbrush icon. When you click the Format Painter, Microsoft copies only the formatting of your selection and the cursor changes to a paintbrush.

When you click in your document, that same formatting will be applied. Your selection can be just text formatting or both text and paragraph formatting. That all depends on what you included in the selection.

If you want to keep pasting the same formatting, you can double-click the Format Painter button to make it “sticky.” When you’re finished “painting” just press Escape to release the painter.

You’ll find this tool in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher. This tool is really handy when you have a large document and you want to ensure that all your headings are the same font, size and color.

Try it next time; it will quickly become one of your favorite tools.

How to build your blog by commenting on other blogs

Here is an excellent example of how someone added a comment to a blog post that linked to their blog and promoted it to a brand new audience.  This is a good way to build traffic and followers for your blog!
  • He complimented the host.
  • He added to the discussion.
  • He linked to his own post.
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/commentary/five-ideas-for-great-holiday-email-marketing/

PS - Good article about holiday e-marketing too!

November 2, 2010

Email Interruptions

A new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicates that on average each email interruption you allow costs you 17 minutes. The study was sponsored by Microsoft (one of the big culprits in the email frenzy!).

              See the alert flash on your screen or on your Blackberry.
              Stop what you are doing.
              Go read the email and respond.
              Go back to what your project  and get your focus back
                   17 minutes of your day


And you wonder why you can't get your work done!!

Instead follow this simple procedure to improve your email handling. I go into more detail in the Outlook Email Management class but even these minor changes will improve your productivity.

  1. When you see an email alert or message pop up, look to see if it is a TRUE emergency. If it isn't, let the message go to your Inbox.
  2. Check your Inbox every 2 hours. People would wait that long if you were in a meeting or out to lunch so the short wait won't kill anyone, lose a client or irritate your boss. Remember that you did look at the incoming message to confirm it wasn't an emergency.
  3. Now you can handle all of the emails as a group which makes the process more efficient.
  4. First sweep through the Inbox, delete the junk. Move the "read later" newsletters, jokes, etc. to a Reading folder to be perused at a more convenient time.
  5. Second sweep through the Inbox, take care of any email that can be handled in 2 minutes or less. Reply or forward as needed then delete or store the original email in the appropriate folder for retrieval if ever needed.
Also store all of the FYI emails. You were copied to keep you in the loop but the message requires no action from you. Put the message in a folder so you can find it if the subject comes up and you need the background material.

    6.  Third pass through the Inbox is where you have to use your
         thinking cap.

You don't want to allow an email to become a priority for your day just because it was an email. So turn the message into a Task on your To Do List so it can be prioritized and managed along with your other tasks for the day.  Outlook has a feature to do this very easily. We can figure out how to make it work in your task management system if you use some of software or method.

If necessary, reply to the message just to acknowledge the sender. "Cindy, got your message and will take care of _____ on Wednesday."  Cindy feels respected and knows that her issue will be addressed.

Now store the message in the appropriate folder where you can find it Wednesday when it shows up on your task list.

   7.  After the third pass, your Inbox is empty!  It's ready to gather the
        next two hours of emails.

You are ready to go back to your Task List to work on the projects you had planned for the day. You've saved time by not jumping at every individual email. You're responded as needed to keep everyone happy.

As I mentioned Outlook has features to help you be more efficient. This is where software can really make an improvement in your daily life. Take advantage of it!