Archive for June, 2009

"tmot shortcuts r gr8t" Or "Trust Me On This – Shortcuts Are Great!" (VOL021)

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

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Probably one of the most baffling things I see today has to be messages sent via Twitter, SMS, or IM. Thanks to people even lazier than myself, there is now an entire generation of people who can confuse even the most skilled Native American code talkers of World War II.

It’s absolutely amazing how being limited to 140 or 160 characters can really change our spelling and sentence structure. For instance, if I wanted to invite my friend out for drinks at the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio, I might send a text message like, “U Wan2 meet up @ HOB L8R?” WOW! This reminds me of a game I used to play as a kid on road trips where I would try to figure out what someone’s license plate might mean if it were a sentence or phrase. (more…)

Posted in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word, Podcast, Productivity Tools, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Of Mice and Computers – How Keyboard Shortcuts Can Save You Time

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Of Mice and Computers

When my great-great-grandmother was young (only about 20 years ago), there weren’t very many external things plugged into a computer. Life was simpler; people typed away and we electronic beings did our jobs.

My son, Chip, complains most about the external rats – known to you humans as a mouse. He says they don’t always allow him to work as fast as he can. I keep telling him show off those keyboard shortcuts. They have worked since the early days of computers, they save time, and there is no problem understanding them. But he is young and stubborn.

So, humans, oh humans… Take a look at your menus or ribbons, your dialog boxes and tool tips, and look for those keyboard shortcuts. Many of them start with Ctrl+ and have a letter or number to press. They really are easy, and some can even make sense to you humans, such as Ctrl+S for Save and Ctrl+P for Print. (more…)

Posted in DigIT, Microsoft Windows, Productivity Tools | No Comments »

Ancient wisdom of the gods revealed! – Which Chart to Use? (VOL020)

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

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Charts are everywhere in daily life; from news commentary, to stocks, to web polls, right down to entertaining sites like www.graphjam.com.

Who really knows which one to use? We all understand the old phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” but which picture (or, in this case, which chart) gets me closer to that thousand instead of 3?

Today we are going to cover some basic chart types and what picture they draw. So, like Prometheus giving fire back to man, I now give the knowledge of Redmond back to the masses.

The four most commonly used chart types are Column, Bar, Line, and Pie. These are not the only chart types, but they cover what most mere mortals like you and I can probably get the most out of. (more…)

Posted in Data Analysis, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Office 2007, Podcast, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Of Charts and Burma Shave

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009


“Ben / Met Anna / Made a hit / Neglected beard / Ben-Anna split / Burma-Shave”

What, you may ask, do charts have to do with some now defunct shaving cream?

When I was younger (much younger), a great era was just coming to a close. From 1925 until 1963 the Burma Vita company installed a series of small billboards along a roadside spaced for sequential reading by passing motorists, almost always ending with the name of their flagship product Burma-Shave. Over the years, more than 600 unique slogans were developed, but they were always delivered in the same format. (more…)

Posted in Microsoft Excel, Professor Addenhauer | No Comments »

Organizing Your Mail and Contacts – Things that Rock (VOL019)

Friday, June 12th, 2009

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Welcome back to the podcast!

This week’s episode: “Organizing Your Mail and Contacts”.

You know, nothing’s more honest than a 7 year old kid. He tells me things he likes, he tells me things that he doesn’t like, but one of his favorite likes happens to be organizing and arranging things, or just searching through one of those “Where’s Waldo?” books. You know, it can actually be fun looking for one thing in the midst of others. Heck, there’s even a game on the Nintendo Wii where you can sort and organize your Miis. (more…)

Posted in BlackBerry, Microsoft Outlook, Office 2007, Organization and Time Management, Podcast, Uncategorized, Windows Mobile | 4 Comments »

Danger, Will Robinson – You Are About to Duplicate Data!

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

It is astounding how a phrase spoken only once by a fictional robot/guardian on a “B” (at best) television series from the 1960s has entered the English language as a way to call people’s attention to potential mistakes. If you would like the full history of the phrase, and a description of the appropriate arm movements to use when saying it in person, you can visit Wikipedia.

The danger I want to warn you about is much more common than an encounter with hostile extraterrestrials. I hope you will hear the Robot (the character was never given a name) every time you consider making copies of data. This is particularly true of data about people, because of all the things you may keep computerized information about, people are the most likely to change their information in ways that can cause problems if that information is not updated thoroughly and properly. People change their phone numbers. (more…)

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5 Secrets to Improve Your Presentations (VOL018)

Monday, June 8th, 2009

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If you’re in business, you will either be the victim of a bad PowerPoint presentation or possibly be the perpetrator who exposes others. I know one of my worst experiences was going to see a computer company who presented a show that had different colors of text and backgrounds on every slide. Not only was it distracting from what they were trying to present, but it was tiring just to watch. I happened to see the same presentation done at a later date via a webinar where, because of the colors and high resolution, images looked horrible and cheapened the message they were attempting to present.

(more…)

Posted in Business Communication, Microsoft PowerPoint, Office 2007, Podcast, Uncategorized | No Comments »