Dear Reader,

A year ago I embarked on the journey of blog writing. I knew that I would receive no remuneration for writing, only the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience, and create a web space for anyone interested in working efficiently.

It certainly was an adventurous journey! Starting on the WordPress hosting, we soon moved to our own hosting server. We started sending biweekly e-newsletters, and introduced a wider range of topics than Microsoft Office.

We published 70 articles and tips on helping you to work effectively. As a result, we have more than 450 regular readers of our e-newsletter and it is growing every week. People who are searching for our tips and tricks coming not only from the United Kingdom, but also from other 86 countries including the Unites States, India, Canada and Australia. 75% of the visitors to our blog are unique.

Our most popular posts were:

• Why Microsoft Excel is Magic for Your Business Inventory,
• Hints & Tips: MS Project – How to Unhide Columns in Gantt Chart,
• Putting the ‘Wow’ in to PowerPoint Presentation Part 1 Readability,
• Putting the ‘Wow’ into PowerPoint Presentation Part 2 Images,
• At Home with Microsoft Word Checklists,
• and Why your Business Needs to be More Like a Penguin.

So if you missed them here is your chance to read them again.

It was great to get your comments, messages and support. When we had problems with our blog hosting in April, some of you were impatient to receive your regular e-newsletter. J I almost lost my motivation to write then, and it is your regular messages to me enquiring on e-newsletter, which gave me the drive to start it again.

I would like to thank you all for your support! Without you this blog would disappear in the web of the Internet. I cannot express the impact comments you left have touched me. Thank you for your encouragement!

Yours truly,

You’ve done a great job by creating a project plan in MS Project. You’ve sent the file to your client or colleagues via email and ops – they do not have a Microsoft Office Project installed on their computer and therefore cannot read the attached file. What should you do?

It would be so much easier if Microsoft Project 2007 had an option of saving a file in a PDF format as in the case with Word or Excel. But unfortunately it does not. So what are the alternatives on how to save and view the project files in a graphical manner?

You can save MS Project 2007 files as images. It will take a snapshot of a project plan in the form of a non-editable picture.

1. Open the Project file you want to take a picture of
2. From the Standard toolbar, click the Copy Picture button, or from the Report select Copy Picture
3. In Render Image decide on either For Screen (for the image to be used on screen), For Printer (for the image to be used on printed materials), or For GIF Image File (if you will be using a file on a web page)
4. In Copy choose either the selected rows or all the rows on screen to be included in the picture
5. In Timescale indicate the time frame within which you want the project to be copied.
6. Click on OK
7. Start the application where you want to insert the picture. Just some applications to use are Paint, Word, Visio, PowerPoint, an email, or even Excel
8. Insert the picture in the desired location

Now enjoy the sharing of the project schedule.

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Project Tips & Tricks

Have you ever opened a Word 2007 document using Microsoft Word 2007 and had your hyperlinks display

{ HYPERLINK “http://www.inferotraining.com/info.html” } instead of Info?

You try to make these hyperlinks display properly with correct links. You check different view options and they all work fine. However, you cannot get rid of this display. What can you do?

To solve the hyperlink problem here are a few options:

• use Alt+F9 to toggle between the Hyperlink display and Normal view.

• Alternatively,

1. Click on the Office button
2. At the bottom of the displayed menu, select Word Options
3. From the Word Options dialog box, on the right hand side, select Advanced
4. Scroll down until you see Show document content and turn off the Show field codes instead of their values setting

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Word Tips & Tricks

If you find that gridlines in your Excel worksheets are distracting, make them invisible!

To turn off the gridlines in Excel 2007, follow these steps:

1. From the Ribbon, click the View tab.
2. In the Show/Hide section, clear the Gridlines check box.

Now your gridlines are hidden.

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Excel Tips & Tricks

You probably get very upset when your Microsoft Office application crashes down (closes down unexpectedly) while you are working on something important. It is not necessarily that the problem is within the Microsoft Office code. Computer viruses (read How to Protect Yourself from Viruses from Your Computer Health Part Two), disk failures, or laziness with respect to installing updates (read How to Stay up to Date Automatically from Your Computer Health Part One) are just a few issues causing this condition.

Microsoft Office Diagnostic is a tool included in Microsoft Office 2007 pack, allowing you to run a series of diagnostic tests that can help you discover why your computer is crashing. These tests will either solve problems directly or may help you with the ways to solve them.

These are the diagnostics that are run:

Setup Diagnostic – Files and registry are checked for errors occurring due to viruses or by hardware that is faulty or incorrectly configured. While running for about 15 minutes, the test may require the original installation source.

Disk Diagnostic – Hard disk is examined for errors logged by the Windows system and SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature of your hard disk (if provided by disk drive manufacturers) to notice potential hard disk failure.

Memory Diagnostic – Random Access Memory (RAM) is verified for integrity.

Update Diagnostic – Your computer is tested as to whether it has the latest updates installed to make Microsoft Office more stable. You can install updates from Microsoft Office Online.

Compatibility Diagnostic – Different versions of Microsoft Office are checked for conflicts, as two different versions of Office installed on your computer can cause instability.

Check for Known Solutions – The crash report is tested and checked against the database of Microsoft’s crash cases for available solutions.

To find out how to run diagnostics, read How to Fix Errors Using Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

Every industry has its myths and misconceptions. And one of those is the problem that many IT professionals have with Access. Access is sometimes seen as one of the trickiest Microsoft Windows applications. Yet with the right know-how and training, it can be an asset for all kinds of organisations.

So why do IT professionals react against the idea of Access as a possible database solution?

Reason 1: It grows

Access is frequently used for everyday work activities – even when a larger, more powerful system is available. Sometimes a relatively small-scale Access database outgrows its original purpose to become central to an organisation. The challenge at this stage for IT professionals is to put a lot of work into revamping or upgrading the Access database. This is where some of them get grumpy. They want to know why the system wasn’t developed with a more sophisticated platform from the start. But unless you’re good at reading tea leaves, it’s not easy to look into the future and see how important an Access database is going to become for a company. The secret at this stage is to adapt the database to suit the changing needs of the business.

Reason 2: It needs support

The average Access database isn’t created by an IT professional. It’s set up by anyone from an office administrator to a sales manager. Any person who needs to store, manage and analyse information, basically. Which means it’s often not seen by an IT professional until there’s a problem. The glitch might be due to too much information, lack of training or the need for a new feature. The IT person might be called on, but not want to help because of the complexity of sorting it out. This is why in some companies, IT departments have banned the use of Access. But this is missing the point. The best approach is to assess how Access could work as an asset for an organisation.

Reason 3: It’s not professional

IT professionals can be tough critics. Some of them see Access as a toy instead of a real database and won’t use it. This could be something to do with the fact that a lot of Access developers are from a non-programming background. Unfairly, this prevents IT professionals from recognising the potential of Access. Perhaps they’re a little bit jealous. After all, Access is the most popular desktop database on the market.

Reason 4: It’s too easy

What’s wrong with something being easy to use? A lot, according to some people. Believe it or nor, there are IT professionals out there who won’t use Access precisely because it’s too simple to use. Daft, isn’t it? That’s exactly why clever people use it. It’s flexible, fast and it can help resolve a range of issues.

Reason 5: It’s not strategic

Access is so versatile it’s often the basis for a database used by just a few people. This type of database usually has one clear purpose and gets on with the job. In contrast, at enterprise level, an organisation will use highly complex, powerful and expensive to develop databases to drive its needs. Some IT professionals have a problem with organisations that don’t use these powerful databases at all levels. But why apply one answer to a whole range of different issues? After all, a flexible approach can help an organisation get the best out of IT, at every level.

You can choose from a wide selection of slide design templates to create a background for your PowerPoint presentation. But sometimes you may want something more unique, which matches the content of the presentation more directly. In these cases, create your own background in PowerPoint. Follow these steps to add a photo or a clip art as a background in PowerPoint.

1. From the Ribbon, select the Design tab.
2. In the Background section, click on the Background button in the right corner. This will open the Format Background dialog box.
3. Select Picture or texture fill and from the Insert from section, click on File or Clip Art to choose the photo or clip art you want to use as a background. If the object is small, PowerPoint will stretch it to cover the whole slide. However, this can deform the graphic object.
4. If the graphic object is small, you can tile it. This means that the picture or clip art object will be placed repeatedly across the slide in rows. To do that, check the Tile picture as texture box.
5. If you don’t want to stretch or tile the picture or clip art, you can offset it from the edges of the slide. Simply, edit the text boxes for the percentage of Offset you want from each edge of the slide. As best practice – use the same number to offset for all four sides of the slides to keep the proportion ratio of the picture.
6. If you use a picture or clip art as a background it is the best practice to keep it faded or transparent. To make it transparent, in Transparency use the transparent slider or type in a transparency percentage.
7. Click on the Close or Apply to All buttons to apply a background to an individual slide or to all slides in the presentation. If you are not happy with changes you can always click on Reset Background button.

Microsoft Word can’t do the hoovering – or make you a nice cup of tea. But it can put you in more control at home. Word checklists are ideal for helping you manage all kinds of activities in your very own castle. Who would have guessed that some simple Microsoft Word training could give you so much extra organisational oomph?

To do – stop using scraps of paper

Do you have scraps of paper with ‘to do’ tasks scribbled on them? Confusing isn’t it? And bits of paper have an uncanny knack of getting lost just when you need them. Keep it together with a Word activities checklist.

Keep track of the kids

Everyone knows that taking care of little ones requires extreme organisational resources. Even a trip to the local park can feel like an outing for an ‘A’ list celebrity. There are the bags, the toys, the clothes, the demanding dietary requirements….and that’s before you even get to the park! Why not create your own checklist to keep all those child-related chores on track?

Dream a little dream (and make it happen)

You know the saying – “What gets measured gets managed.” Create your very own dream checklist to state your goals and keep tabs on how close you are to them. Whether you’re working hard towards your ideal home or that perfect job, a checklist can help you clarify exactly what you want. And that should get you closer to your goal.

A gift for giving

Every year we know when those important birthdays are due, not to mention Christmas. But most of us still find ourselves rushing around the shops at the last minute to find the perfect present. How much would a present shopping checklist reduce your stress levels? You could even build in your time and budget for when the sales are on and grab the perfect present and a bargain at the same time!

Something for the book lovers

Still wondering where that favourite book went? Wish you could keep track of all the books you’d like to read in the future? Once you’ve got the knack by taking one of our Microsoft Word courses, you can create your very own Word checklist to keep track of your fiction, your non fiction and that new biography you’ve been wanting to read for ages….

There are so many other ways you can put Word checklists to good use. From preparing for big life changes like having a baby, to everyday essentials like keeping track of your bills. And all that gives you more time for a sit down and a nice cup of tea…

There are many ways you can enter the current date into an Access’s record.

First of all select or click in the Date/Time field. Then do one of the following:

1. Type the date or time

 

Or

 

2. Click the date picker, located to the right or left of the field. From the appearing calendar control click Today

  

Or

 

3. Select a day in the current month.

 

Or

 

4. Press simultaneously <CTRL> and <:> keys on a keyboard

Access will add the current date to the record.

It’s stronger than coffee, more powerful than any energy drink and more beneficial for your business than you could ever imagine. And it can help create a happier and more motivated workforce. Have you realised the power of praise in making the most of your team’s talents?

Employee motivation is a must for every business – especially in the current economic climate. You believe in what your business has to offer, but if your staff don’t, what’s it all worth? Research has revealed that staff perform better and achieve more with the timely application of genuine praise. Not just from managers but from colleagues, too.

We human beings need to feel valued. It’s what interests and involves us and gets us at our best. Yet it’s all too easy in the hurly-burly of daily life to overlook the valuable contribution that individual staff members make every day. But with the right kind of approach and motivation training, you could be on your way to boosting your team’s performance.

Don’t Fake It

Keep your praise real and you’ll keep your people on board. Make your compliments genuine and honest. They’ll mean more to your team.

It’s the Little Things that Count

You don’t have to deliver an elaborate compliment in flowery language. Just regular, thoughtful praise. A quick, but considered comment recognising someone’s hard work is all it takes. You don’t even need to use words. Friendly, appropriate gestures such as a pat on the back, a nod, or even a thumbs-up can do the trick too.

Don’t Hold Back

As a new manager or with a new employee you may think you need to be cautious with praise. But the sooner you start recognising your employees’ achievements, the sooner you’ll develop a rapport with them. They’ll associate you with feeling positive and that can only be good for your business!

Be Creative

Try smart little ways of showing your staff how much you value them. Ask them what they think by saying things like: “I’d like to hear your view on this, Clare.” There are other ways to boost employee morale and business performance. You can recognise outstanding effort with simple, but meaningful gestures such as writing a note, sending an e-card, or giving a small present or even time off.

So now you know. Don’t ply your people with coffee to get the job done. Motivate them with recognition. After all, genuine praise is the ultimate energizer. Staff morale is a wonderful thing. It gets things done, it creates a better working environment and ultimately it helps keep your business healthier and happier.

Find out how to make the most of your workforce with our Motivating Your Employees training course. We can give you straightforward, no-obligation advice on your training options and tell you how to access training grants. Contact us now.