With most companies relying heavily on computers and IT systems nowadays, any small problem could easily snowball into a much bigger problem which could in turn harm the company.

One of the most common problems is data loss which could be due to a wide range of circumstances. There is a simple solution that can limit the amount of damage caused if your company suffers this problem. The solution is to backup your files & folders regularly.

You can choose to do these Back-ups manually or you can choose to have your computer automatically back itself up. You just need to decide where you are going to back up your files to. If you have a portable hard drive, then that would be a great option or you can simply use CDs or a USB Pen Drive. If you don’t have any then you can just back-up to a separate folder on your computer.

Backing up manually: Windows XP

1. Click the Start menu and select All Programs and scroll to Accessories. The Backup tool is located in the System Tools menu.
2. Once the Backup & Recovery wizard appears click Next. Ensure that the backup option is selected and click Next again.
3. On the ‘What to backup’ page, ensure that ‘All information on this computer’ is selected and then click Next.
4. Then select where you want to save the backup to (your removable device or CDs) and then click Next.
5. On the ‘completing the backup’ page, click Finish.

Windows will then save a backup of all your files to your removable device. Once it has completed, just click Close.

Data loss can be a nightmare, but by following the steps above, you are limiting the amount of damage that could happen depending on how often you choose to backup.

How to schedule backups of your data: Coming Soon – watch this space.

Back up your files in Vista: Coming Soon – watch this space.

Well, we’re back again with another Microsoft Word Tip for you lucky readers.

This time we’ll look at securing Microsoft Word Documents with a password so that the only pair of eyes that read the protected documents is yours.

Having a password protected document is useful in case something happens to the device the documents are stored on such as a USB memory stick or Laptop. Now, let’s secure our documents:

1. Open Microsoft Word and click the Office button in the top left corner.

2. Scroll down to Prepare and select Encrypt Document.

3. Enter the password you want into the dialog box and click Ok.

4. Enter the password again for verification and click Ok again and now from now on, whenever somebody tries to open that document, it’ll ask for you to input the password.

This way, if the device is misplaced or stolen, you wouldn’t have to worry too much about people looking through the documents and finding out any information from the secure documents because if the person can’t access the file, they’ll most likely just delete them.

Therefore, it is also crucial to keep a separate back-up of your entire device just in case something like that happens.

Would you like more Word tips? Then visit our Microsoft Word Hints & Tips page.

If you’d like to learn more about Microsoft Word, attend one of our Microsoft Word Training Courses.

As technology becomes more advanced, more and more people are choosing to work whilst on the move. This includes the creation and editing of documents anytime, anywhere. One of the good things for this kind of user is that the software needed to do this is available for free such as Google Docs and Microsoft’s Office Web Apps.

But which one is better to use? Well we’ll compare both on various points and see which ends up the victor.

1. Free Online Storage Space.

If you are looking for lots of online storage space then you need to use the Office Web Apps. Sharing storage with SkyDrive, it offers a huge 25GB of free online storage for your documents. These documents can be set to private so that just you or you and your friends can access them or you can share them publicly which gives anybody access to them.

Google Docs offers only 1GB of free storage which, although is alot, pales in comparison with the Office Apps.

2. Live editing.

Sometimes it is best to have many eyes to be able to look at a document and edit it together, especially if one of the people is elsewhere. Google Docs allows you to do this, as well as allowing the editors to talk between each other in the group chat as they edit the document.

Office Apps also allows multiple people to edit the document, but only allows them to do it one at a time. If somebody tried to access the document whilst it was being edited by somebody else then they would get a message saying that the document cannot be opened.

3. Supported File Types.

In Office Apps, you can only open, save or edit documents created in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.

Google Docs gives you all of these and more which make Google Docs a clear winner for the modern day user.

4. Features.

Google Docs has many features in its Word Processor which make it extremely useful such as the spell-check as you type, ability to insert tables into your text and add footnotes.

The ability to reinstate a past version of the document if you have found that something has changed which you don’t want is also a useful function which can be done using the Revision History.

The Spreadsheet in Google Docs seems to be even better, offering lots of features and options which you would find useful when creating a spreadsheet.

With Office Apps, Microsoft seems to have put Word on a strict diet and have unfortunately left out some of the features which people enjoy such as footnotes, line-spacing and much more, leaving just the bare basics to play with

They seem to have also fed Excel with the same diet, having Functions (such as Formulas) axed from Office Apps as well as other functions like graphs.

Whilst Office clearly has the space advantage, Google Docs users get more features to choose from and this ultimately hands the crown of Web Document Editing to Google Docs… at least for now.

Want to learn more about the diet-free Office? Then come on one of our Office Training Courses!

Well, here we are again with another Microsoft PowerPoint tip for you. In certain cases, PowerPoint presentations can be useful to more than just one group of people.

But what if you have already inserted some Custom Animation into the slides which wouldn’t be appropriate for the group that you will be presenting to the second time around? You will have to go through each slide to remove the animation right?

Wrong! With Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 there is a way to disable the Custom Animation without having to change anything else. Here is how you do it:

1. In the Microsoft Office ribbon, select the ‘Slideshow’ tab.

2. Select the Set up Slideshow button and wait for the ‘Set up Show’ dialog box to appear.

3. Once the dialog box appears, check the box which says ‘Show without animation’ in the ‘Show Options’ section and then click Ok.

4. To check that you have stopped the animation, press F5 to test your presentation out

It is as simple as that and takes literally no time so that you can spend more time getting ready to present the presentation itself.

Would you like more PowerPoint tips? Then visit our Microsoft PowerPoint Hints & Tips page.

If you’d like to learn more about PowerPoint, attend one of our Microsoft PowerPoint Training Courses.

When running a business, keeping on top of your cash flow by keeping track of your customer’s payments is a number one priority. Because otherwise your business loses money and invoices go unpaid and lost.

This will in turn have a devastating effect on the health of your business because whilst small businesses can survive for a short time without sales or profits, if there is no cash flow then the business will die.

To keep track of the invoices of your customers there is software available out there such as SAGE. It is highly likely that most big businesses will already be using this or has an existing system in place.

But what if you are only a small business? The cost of the software can be expensive. Did you know that you can also use Microsoft Excel to do this task?

That’s right; Excel can serve as an effective tool to manage your finances. You can create your own simple template noting all your invoices and their due dates. Alternatively you can download a correct template such as this Small Business Cash Flow Projection Template from Microsoft.

Don’t let your business fail just because of poor handling of finances. Make the most of the tools at your disposal and watch your business flourish.

If you would to know more ways in which Excel can help you, take a look at our Excel Training Courses.

Want to know more how Microsoft Excel can help you? Click on Microsoft Excel Articles. 

Everybody loves tips which are simple to follow as well as carry out so we have compiled 5 quick tips for you to use in Microsoft Project. These tips work in any version of Microsoft Project to date so everybody should be able to follow them.

1.       Easily insert new rows/columns in your Gantt chart.

This simple tip is so easy to do. All you have to do is click the tab at the top of the column or at the end of the row to select the entire row/column. Then press the `Insert’ button on your keyboard to insert a row/column to the left of the selected column.

2.       Quickly hide columns in tables.

To hide columns in your Gantt chart table, simply click on the right edge of the column header and then drag it to the left until it disappears. If you then wish to see this column again, then click a little to the right of the column separator bar and then click and drag to the right.

3.       Changing information for multiple tasks at once.

If a few of your results share common information and you need to change them, don’t do it one at a time.  Highlight all the tasks you want to change (if the tasks aren’t next to each other then hold down the CTRL button whilst you click them) and then input the common data into one of the fields in the Multiple Task Information box.

4.       View all tasks after applying a filter.

If you have applied a filter to your data and want to see all the tasks you have again without applying the All Tasks filter, then simply pres the F3 button on your keyboard.

5.       Browse through Drop down menus quickly.

To find what you are looking for quickly in a Drop down menu, just type in the first letter of the item you are looking for and you will quickly go to that item.

When you are using Cloud computing, there are various Pros and Cons for you to consider and then to weigh up whether Cloud computing is for you or not. We have just taken two Pros and two Cons from the list to show you what we mean.

Pro: Saving money

A big advantage when using Cloud is the fact that you are saving money on both the equipment you need to buy and the software itself because most of the software itself, such as Google docs is free to use. Due to the fact that the apps and data are all stored on a number of computers and servers accessed via the internet, you don’t have to worry about not having an up-to-date machine or having to go out and purchase new equipment.

Con: Spending money

However a downside is that you need to have a constant, high speed connection to the internet to get the most from Cloud computing. If you have no internet connection then you simply can’t use the Cloud applications. If your connection is slow, you could find yourself just doing nothing for a while whilst you wait for a certain document to load.

Pro: Improved computer performance

If your computer is set up as part of a cloud, you will notice your computer will perform better too and boot up and run faster. This is due to the amount of processes and programs loaded into the systems memory has been greatly reduced compared to a normal desktop.

Con: Possible complete data loss threat

Also, be weary of relying heavily on the Cloud because if your data vanishes for some reason from the cloud then your data won’t be backed up unless you have downloaded all of your Cloud documents to your desktop, but very few users actually do this.

In conclusion, Cloud computing can prove to be extremely useful, especially to those who travel alot and can’t afford to be tied down to a desktop machine such as salespeople. But as with anything, a degree of care and thought should be given too when using it.

While working in Outlook you may have a situation when you need to save dozens of outlook messages in a single document. Of course, you can open each message and use copy and paste to assemble them in one document. Well if you copy 12 messages, you will need to do it 12 times!!!

There is a quick way to came to the same result!

1. Select the messages that you want to save in a file using <Shift> or <Ctrl> keys when necessary
2. From the Standard Toolbar click on File and choose Save As option
3. In the Save As dialog box in File Name enter a filename you would like to use ; check that the Save as File option displays the file type as Text Only (.txt) and click on the Save button
4. Using any text editor such as Word open the saved file (for example, right click on the file and choose Open With and then Microsoft Office Word). If you get File Conversation dialog box, click OK. You will get the similar result.

If you want to comment on this tip or share your own Outlook tips, please post a comment or email us.

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Outlook Tips & Tricks

Once you have set up a meeting, the clients could potentially ruin your well planned out schedule. Here are 3 tips which can help you to avoid these disruptions.

Don’t get left standing on your own.

To ensure this doesn’t happen; a good suggestion would be to ask the clients to arrive 5 to 10 minutes before the start of the meeting so that you can start going over the schedule briefly and then this won’t affect the start of the meeting.

Don’t let your meeting be disrupted by anything!

A good idea is to request that clients switch off their mobile phones or anything else that could go off and disrupt the meeting.

Avoid unnecessary meetings.

Clients can also majorly eat up your time if they request face to face meetings with you to discuss minor points and you have to travel to meet them. To try and avoid this travelling, you should try to extract from the client exactly what they hope to gain from these face-to-face meetings and see if you can settle their qualms over the telephone or some other way which wouldn’t dramatically affect your schedule.