DigIT and I will be discussing how to use different views when trying to locate files or other items on a computer.

Editor: DigIT, can you explain why this topic recently caught your interest?

DigIT: My regular computer operator (my human friend) was recently complaining that she could not find a file on her computer. I asked her which one and when she told me, I was able to find it immediately. I could not understand why my friend had trouble. She attempted to explain it to me, but I found her reasons confusing; she mentioned a strange character named Waldo that seemed to always be missing.

E: Oh, you’re referring to the Where’s Waldo book series. Those are fun—what don’t you get?

D: Why do you humans like Where’s Waldo?  It seems pointless to me if you do not like looking for things.

E: Well, Where’s Waldo started out for younger children, most of whom would only be playing games or doing learning activities on a computer.  The adults, like your friend, would typically be working; trying to produce things for other people.

D: She told me that finding a file is like looking at a Where’s Waldo picture, without the fun; that finding one file among all the other files should be easier.

E: That’s probably because Where’s Waldo is a game, and finding files is typically thought of as work for us.  Maybe you need to understand that we humans see the two similar tasks as entirely different things.  Work for a human is something we have to do if we want to eat, have a place to live, or have a computer.  Something like Where’s Waldo is for entertainment, something we make a choice about doing, which has an entirely different value scale.

D: That explanation makes it somewhat clearer, although I doubt I will ever understand you humans completely.

E: It works both ways, believe me. So, were you able to offer any suggestions to make files easier to find?

D: I really do not find those Waldo pictures very challenging, and finding files is something I do without even thinking. I recommended that she try eliminating some of the files; even rearranging them might be beneficial.  We discussed displaying the files in a different order, such as sorted by size or date.

E: Oh, yes, the Details view in Windows Explorer can sort items that way. It can be very helpful. But what can you recommend for locating other types of items, like e-mail messages? I often have trouble finding specific messages in my Inbox.

D: In e-mail, there are many ways to arrange items to make it easier to find the one you want, such as sorting by columns. You can also filter out some of the items to give you a smaller group to look at. In Outlook, Search Folders provide an efficient method of filtering messages by using a specific set of criteria.

E: Search Folders are great, and so are the built-in views.

D: I could elaborate further on changing views, but the options depend on which program you are using.  My human friend said she was going to provide some tips for some of the most common software applications.

E: She did, and I’ll be sure to post those on the blog entry for this podcast. Any last words, DigIT?

D: Please try to remember the view options, and the other tools at your disposal, to assist you when searching for specific items. It is unfortunate that most of my family has not mastered the trick of talking to humans. If they could, it would probably make life for you humans much easier, but I am afraid it might also shock many of you.

By the way, here is a trick you can use for solving those Waldo pictures. Just look for the pattern in his shirt, then check for the hat and glasses to find the exact match. But I digress; I will stick to those bits and bytes.

E: Thank you for joining us this week, DigIT. We look forward to speaking with you again in the future to gain more insight on the computer world from your unique perspective.

Here are the tips for this week. You can find links for these in the blog entry for the podcast, at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

• Changing the view in a Windows Explorer folder
• Using different views in Outlook
• Using different views in Lotus Notes
• How to create your own view in Outlook
• How to use the Full Screen Reading view in Word
• Creating and using Custom Views in Excel
• Using the Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint
• Changing the Zoom level in PowerPoint
• Using different message views on a BlackBerry device
• Using different calendar views on a Windows Mobile device

Thanks for listening to our podcast. If you have any recommendations for future episodes, be sure to let us know by writing an iTunes review, or by droppping us a line on Twitter @productiveUcast.

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

But it’s a little early to be thinking of summer, isn’t it? So why would I mention this in the middle of February?

Oddly enough, even in the dead of winter, with temperatures in the single digits and several feet of snow piled up around the house, I still love a good ice cream sundae. Especially if it has peanut butter ripples, frozen pieces of candy, or chunks of cookie dough.

Some things are just better when they’re frozen, but a computer is definitely not one of them.

When your computer decides to freeze up or hang, it usually does so at a crucial moment, like when you’ve just spent several hours editing a Word document and haven’t saved it yet.

That feeling of dread sets in. You begin to panic, and then you fear the worst: that all your hard work will be lost.

Sometimes, unfortunately, this is the case. But there are some steps you can take to ensure that your work will be recovered in the event that Word crashes.

If you enable the AutoRecover feature, which is available in several of the Office applications, it will periodically save a backup version of the file you’re working on. Then, if the program quits unexpectedly, it will prompt you with the recovered file the next time you open that program.

There is no guarantee offered with the AutoRecover feature, and at times it will fail to recover your work, so your best bet is still to save frequently when working in a file. You may find it much easier to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+S to save your work as you’re typing, without your fingers ever leaving the keyboard. If you can get into this habit, you might just find your left hand automatically reaching for those keys without you even realizing it!

When the Deep Freeze sets in, whether it’s Windows, an Office application, or a mobile device, we don’t want you to be left out in the cold. The tips for this week will provide you with a starting point for when it seems like all is lost.

• What’s Frozen? – How to determine whether it is Windows or an application that is frozen
• An Ounce of Prevention for File Loss – How to enable the AutoRecover feature for Microsoft Office applications
• Mittens for Your Computer – How to clear out temporary Internet files, cookies, and browsing history
• Save Your Fingers By Letting Your Fingers Save Your Work – Using a keyboard shortcut to save while working in a file

And since you can also experience crashes on mobile devices, here are a few tips that can help you with BlackBerry and Windows Mobile:

• Just In Case – How to back up your BlackBerry data
• How to Thaw a Frozen BlackBerry – Resetting a frozen BlackBerry device
• Frozen In Your Hand – Resetting a frozen Windows Mobile device

We hope you’re enjoying the podcast and all the tips. If there are any topics you’d like to see covered in a future episode, please let us know in an iTunes review, or leave us a message on Twitter @productiveUcast.

That’s all for this week. Try to stay warm even when your computer is freezing, and we’ll see you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

One of the more thoughtful gifts I received recently was a GPS system. I am plagued by a complete lack of direction, so before acquiring this device, I had a keen ability to take two turns while driving and promptly find myself lost and very afraid.

Eventually, I would find a road that would lead me to something familiar, but having a GPS guiding me along is like knowing secret shortcuts to every destination. What was once a three hour journey along the scenic route is now a twenty minute trip in the express lane.

I’ve always been fond of shortcuts. There are levels in Super Mario World that I can’t even describe because I always used the Warp Zones to skip them. Life is short! I’ve got places to go and naps to take once I get there! Show me the shortcut and then get out of my way!

I guess I’m just a true product of our impatient society. We like our oatmeal instant, our photos developed in under an hour, and our computer files close at hand. Just look at a typical Windows Desktop: it’s a beautiful mosaic of icons that open programs and network folders. Without them, we’d be digging around in the Start Menu to launch an application, or spelunking in the darkest depths of a network server to reach a folder that’s buried ten levels deep.

So for this week’s tips, we offer you quicker ways of getting there. The tips include:

• Man, He’s Quick – Using the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows
• Favorites Folders Faster – Creating shortcuts for the Office applications’ Open and Save dialogs
• Short and Sweet – Creating shortcuts in Windows
• Files in Files – Embedding a file as an object in a Word document
• Ready for Action – Linking to a file with Action Buttons in a PowerPoint presentation

You can find links for these tips on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com. If you’ve got any feedback, comments, or suggestions, let us know in an iTunes review, and write a review of our podcast while you’re there. You can also find us on Twitter @productiveUcast.

That’s all for this week’s edition. Until next time, get lost—and let modern technology swiftly guide you home.

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Welcome back to the podcast!

This week’s edition…

“Out with the Old and in with the New”: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Office

I’m a bit of a digital packrat. I keep everything. Not only do I keep stuff, I also have multiple back-ups of the documents I have saved.

I suspect I am not unique, either. Recently, I was talking with a colleague and she admitted that she keeps everything too – but she never goes back to use it again. She said she makes backups so she has “just-in-case” copies, but readily admits that she creates the same documents over and over again from scratch.

When I hear her complaining about how she cannot remember how she worked around a particular glitch, I ask her the same question: “Why didn’t you just copy the old one and change it?” Her reply: “It’s too much work.”

It may seem like too much work, but repurposing content is an age-old practice. For example:

Did they cancel “Bewitched” when the first Darren didn’t work out? No, they just found another Darren

And then there’s Shakespeare. Why create new content when you can just replacê Romeo and Juliet with Maria and Tony and call it “West Side Story”?

Make your life easier; use Find and Replacê.

Almost every Microsoft Office program enables you to Find and Replacê, even the basic text editor Notepad.

In this week’s podcast, we offer Find and Replacê tips for a gaggle of Office apps. Among them:

• Change is Not Always Hard: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Excel
• Presto-Chango: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Word
• Go Green with PowerPoint: Recycle slides using Find and Replacê in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Adding can be Maddening: Using paste special to alter numbers in a worksheet
• Up to Date: Using update queries in Microsoft Access to update values in a table

That’s it for this week’s podcast. Until next week, and keep this in mind: It’s OK to reuse files, but not OK to reuse tissues.

You can find all of our tips on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com. Hate us? Love us? Have a suggestion? Tell us in an iTunes review. We would love to hear what you have to say.

See you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Sounds kinda Twilight Zone-y, doesn’t it?

“You’re traveling through another dimension—a dimension where there is no screen less than a light-year wide. On this journey into the unforgiving abyss of your imagination, maximum resolution spans multiple infinities. You’ve just entered…the Widescreen Zone.”

Not everyone has a monitor that requires a yardstick to measure, but a lot of people enjoy multi-monitor setups for their computers. Having two or three monitors at your disposal can be just as useful, especially when you need to have several windows open at one time.

Whether using multiple monitors or a high screen resolution, the problem you occasionally run into is one of increased distance. It was once only a stone’s throw from the bottom of your screen to the Formatting toolbar at the top of a Microsoft Word document; now it feels like your mouse cursor is trekking across the Sahara. I think I see the Bold button! Nope, it was just a mirage.

Well, let go of that mouse and rest a while at the oasis, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: there’s a shortcut. In fact, there are hundreds of shortcuts, right at your fingertips. They’re called keyboard shortcuts, and once you get comfortable using them, you might just want to bury your mouse in the sand.

That Bold button that you wish could be just a little closer? You don’t need it. Just hold down the Ctrl key and the B key together to toggle Bold on and off. Ctrl+I for italics, Ctrl+U for underline. Looking for more advanced formatting options? Use Ctrl+D to open Word’s Font dialog, chock-full of all the wonderful checkboxes you need to add Strikethrough, Small caps, and Shadow effects to your text. I know what you’re thinking:

“Checkboxes, eh? Sounds like something I’ll need to click on. I’ll just reach for my mouse…”

Not so fast! Even within the Font dialog box, you can keep your hands on the keyboard and still apply any of the options you see before you. In fact, you can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate through any menu. While you’re still in the Font dialog box, take a look at the underlined letters for each option. Those are little cheat sheets for keyboard shortcuts that work in conjunction with the Alt key. Hold in the Alt key and press K, and you’ve got Strikethrough.

These keyboard shortcuts work in every Microsoft Office application, and some extend to other programs, too. There are links in this week’s blog entry to some great tips on using keyboard shortcuts. This week’s tips are:

• Showing Off Your Keys - displaying keyboard shortcuts in menus and ScreenTips
• Feeling Bold? – using keyboard shortcuts to apply text formatting
• Ctrl+D, Alt+K – navigating through menus and dialog boxes with the keyboard
• Text Downsizing – increasing and decreasing font size with the keyboard
• One Touch Formatting – applying number formats in Excel with keyboard shortcuts
• Hands-On Control – learning the keyboard shortcuts for Office applications

Thanks for joining us for week’s podcast. Armed with these keyboard shortcuts, hopefully you’ll find that the Widescreen Zone isn’t so scary after all.

Until next time, be sure to stop by www.productiveupodcast.com to leave us your comments. Also, follow us on Twitter @productiveUcast and visit our podcast on iTunes, where you can write a 5-star review for us!

See you next week!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s edition: “Inventing the Wheel was a One-Time Deal”

If you hang around any business office long enough, you’re likely to hear workers uttering the same banal buzzwords or expressions:

• “Is it Friday yet?”
• “Take that off-line and we’ll circle back later.”
• “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.”

Some of these are examples of corporate jargon and some are just phrases that have become so overused that they no longer have any real impact on the listener.

I know someone who asks, “Is it Friday yet?” every day of the work week. Yes, even on Friday. The phrase has just become so deeply entrenched in his vernacular that it’s now as common a greeting as “Hello.”

You probably know people like this, too. Maybe they don’t use these particular phrases, but I’m sure you’ve heard them spout off common business slang without ever giving a thought as to how frequently these expressions are being used. Don’t they ever stop to listen to themselves? Can no one stop them??

Sadly, no. Tell your boss you’re sick of hearing him use the phrase, “thinking outside the box,” and you may find yourself living inside a box on the side of the road.

But let’s back up a moment to the expression, “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.” As tired as I am of hearing people use this phrase over so many years, its meaning still rings true: “Why create something new when you can reuse something already created?”

To me, this points to one simple solution: templates.

Templates, in their many forms, serve the purpose of allowing us to create a basic design for something once, then apply that design toward creating many more similar things. Templates promote efficiency in many different industries. Even the clothes you’re wearing started out as templates in the form of clothing patterns. From just one pattern, several thousand identical t-shirts were created. Now don’t you feel unique?

In much the same way, template files can be created in many software applications. Microsoft Word, for example, allows you to create a document template. You can start with a new, blank document and then set all the options to your liking: create styles, set a default font, include some text in a header or footer, even include AutoText entries. Save this file as a document template, and now you can reuse it to create countless other documents that require the same styles, font settings, and other options. You can then add or subtract anything you like from this new document without changing the original template.

Sounds useful, doesn’t it? Maybe you’ve found yourself in this situation before: every month, you need to create a document on company letterhead. This might include a logo in the header with some contact information, and maybe a very specific font size and page margins. Maybe what you do every month is find the document you created the previous month, delete all the text from it, re-save the file with a new name, then type in your new text. Well, those days are gone. Today you can find that document you created last month, delete the old text, and then save it as a template. When you open the template, it’s already blank and ready to go with all the proper settings. Using this method greatly reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally overwrite any changes to that previous document.

Word isn’t the only application that makes use of template files, either. The tips included in this week’s blog entry will show you how to create templates for Excel, PowerPoint, and even Outlook.

This week’s tips include:

• Set the Standard: Creating new document templates in Word
• Making Normal Your Own: Setting formatting defaults on Word’s global template
• You Set the Rules: Creating a default template for Excel workbooks
• Put Some Style Into It: Creating and applying design templates in PowerPoint
• Déjà Vu: Creating an e-mail template in Outlook
• Give Your E-mail a Makeover: Using Stationery in Lotus Notes

So think about the files you work with on a frequent basis and consider creating a template for these. You’ll save yourself some time and effort, and you’ll avoid having to reinvent the wheel or anything else.

Thanks for joining us this week! If you have any other examples of corporate jargon that gets under your skin, let us know in the comments! Also, feel free to keep up with us on Twitter by following @productiveUcast, or visit our podcast on iTunes and write a review.

See you next week!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s episode: How to quickly produce DVDs in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

For the past few episodes, we have walked you through creating photo albums and presentations with music using Microsoft PowerPoint. Now it’s time to take that final leap of evolution:  creating a DVD!

After putting so much time and effort into a PowerPoint presentation, you may find it difficult to turn it into a DVD. The main reason is the feature to do this just isn’t built into the application.

So what do you do when you have family members, co-workers, or even your boss asking you to turn that presentation into a DVD? If you really want it to be perfect and have the ability to control every little aspect of the DVD, there are high-end applications and even Windows Movie Maker available to help.

But let’s come back to reality. Here is a dilemma I ran into recently…

It was the night before a family get-together to celebrate my mother-in-law and father-in-law’s anniversary. Unknown to me all day while I was at work was the conversation my brother-in-law had had with my wife. During the conversation he had mentioned that it would be great if she could put together some photo collages or some sort of presentation. She had agreed, but didn’t let me know until 8:00 pm on the night before.

Even if this doesn’t exactly match your scenarios out there, you may have been approached at work for some miracle similar to this from your boss or a sales manager. I am sure your first instinct is to say, “TONIGHT?! Are you out of your mind?!” But instead what comes out is, “Sure, I would be happy to help,” even though you know you’ll probably now get no sleep at all.

Well, here’s what I did next:  cracked open the laptop, picked out the images, picked out the music, and created some slides for groupings.

Then I searched my machine for some program that could create DVDs. I came across Windows Media Maker and some Ulead software that came with a video camera, both of which would take days of editing to get the DVD just right. Then I noticed this sweet little gem called Windows DVD Maker. I thought it was just going to be for burning and not editing. Turns out I was able to export some PowerPoint slides to images and drag them all in with a simple interface.

Besides the quick options that you use to define the DVD menus and play options, the thing that makes this program so fast is adding the background music. One tiny, slightly hidden feature automatically adjusts slide timings to match the length of the music you have picked.

All in all, it took longer to pick out the images and songs than it did to actually set up and burn my production-quality DVD.

Total time spent: 3 hours (although one of those was spent sitting back playing Mario Kart on the Wii while the disc actually burned).

This week’s visual tips for you are:

How to export your PowerPoint Slides to images

• Text for PowerPoint versions 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007
• Video for PowerPoint 2003
• Video for PowerPoint 2007

How to create a DVD using Windows DVD Maker

• Video for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Disclaimer: Not all versions of Windows come with this program. So far it comes with Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. Since Windows 7 has not yet been released, we have to speculate somewhat, but the beta version of Ultimate still has it, and I suspect Home Premium will too.

Well, that’s all for this week. So just remember: the next time you’re asked to pull a miracle out of that place we can’t mention by name right now, just sit back, have a nice cool beverage, and look like you are able to manipulate time and space, and then take all the credit!

While you’re enjoying that beverage, feel free to send us your comments at www.productiveupodcast.com, visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or write a review of our podcast on iTunes.

See you next time!

This week: Adding Sound to Your PowerPoint Presentations.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why would anyone want to add spoken words to a presentation of images? Seems like overkill, doesn’t it? Well, maybe not.

Take a look at any movie trailer; what elements do you see? I see moving or still images, brief verbage to peak your interest or to inform, and music.

How does this apply to your presentation? Well, you have probably already figured out the images and animation part, but have you forgotten your narration and soundtrack? How much of an impact would movie trailers have made without the voice of Don LaFontaine saying things like: “In a world where one man’s podcast stands out among the crowd…” Or the wonderful voiceovers for pharmaceutical product warnings being presented by a soft female voice stating things like: “Although not life-threatening in 10% of the population, massive bleeding can occur and cause copious amounts of hemorrhaging.”

How the speaker sounds makes a huge impact on the message being sent. The Don LaFontaine voice gives you the rich, intense feel of an action movie, and the soft-spoken female voice sounds reassuring and less threatening even though it presents a much grimmer topic. Do you think that was purely by mistake?

How many movies have you noticed that have no background music behind them? Virtually none, if any. As an avid fan of horror films, I have become keenly aware of the impact that music (or, in some cases, a lack of music) can have on the mood being presented. If you have ever seen the movie The Exorcist, you might notice that virtually the entire movie is without music except for the theme song in very few scenes. Do you think this was by mistake? Not really; this effect made it hard to predict the sudden scary parts, so that they would startle you when they occur. Likewise, the sound effects in Halloween really let you know when you should be getting scared and are sometimes used to mislead you so they have more impact later.

So what can you do to spice up your presentation? Well, this week’s tips are just what you need.

Recording narrations for your presentation

You, too, can be Don LaFontaine by adding narrations to your slides. When might you want to do this? Think about the trade show booth or kiosk at the mall. Adding narrations allows anyone to man your booth but still maintain the professional sound you want for presenting your information.

• Text Instructions: PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003
• Video Instructions: PowerPoint 2007

Playing a sound file throughout your presentation

Now that you have your narrations, let’s add the music. First thing you need to decide when adding music is whether or not it should play for a single slide or throughout the entire presentation. Included in this week’s blog entry are video tips for PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007 that demonstrate inserting a sound and setting it to play for the entire presentation.

• Text Instructions: PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003
• Video Instructions: PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003

Inserting sound into a presentation

• Video Instructions: PowerPoint 2007

Well, that’s all for this week’s tips. Be sure to stop by again next week, when we’ll show you an easy method for exporting your slides and creating a DVD for your friends or clients!

If you enjoy this podcast, you can send us your comments at www.productiveupodcast.com, visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or tell the world by writing a review of our show on iTunes.

See you next week!

This week’s edition: Photo Album Slide Shows in PowerPoint

The problem: Too many pictures to insert into a presentation one at a time.

The Solution (for PowerPoint 2002 – 2007):

Inserting images into a slide presentation is not really a problem. It’s easy: just use the Insert menu (or Insert tab in PowerPoint 2007), select the option for picture, browse to the file, click on it, select Insert. So what’s so hard about this? Now you create another slide, repeat the process, then start the third slide, and so on. This method isn’t too bad unless you’re trying to create a slide show that will consist of more than 10 images.

The problem for most people is time. How many photos could you do in an hour if you worked non-stop? That’s assuming that you don’t still need to add your transitions, animations, and text on the slides. Now think about trying to create a photo presentation to show off your vacation pictures from this year’s trip to the beach. How many digital pictures did you take?

In my family, I have become the unofficial photographer. I take a ton of images, and my primary duty after vacations or family gatherings is to create some sort of slide show to play later on, or to burn onto a DVD.

I like using PowerPoint so I can quickly add captions, borders, background colors, combine images together, etc… What’s the hardest part? Getting all the images inserted into PowerPoint. If you find yourself in the same dilemma, try doing the following.

Step 1: Pick out the best photos

When you have over 500 to choose from, you probably won’t want to use them all. So create a new folder on your desktop and make copies of the ones you want to use. This way, you haven’t separated your original images from their group.  Besides, when you’re separated from your herd, there is a greater chance that someone will remove you permanently (AKA “delete” you).

Step 2: Create a blank presentation

After you create that blank presentation, decide your theme. Themes are important, whether your pictures are from a wedding, vacation, family reunion, office party, or just the latest cat pictures you want to work into a LOL show for your friends. You should decide what background image or color to use and choose a font style. Remember:  it’s more engaging for your viewers if you work around a theme.

Step 3: Insert all the pictures

Prior to PowerPoint 2002, you would have been stuck inserting pictures one at a time or writing a macro (PowerPoint VBA = not so fun). Now there is actually a feature to do this. The only issue is that you have to know it exists and where to find it. I don’t think I am really unique in my desire to insert a bunch of images, each on their own slides, so I have placed a link to the written instructions for this on the blog entry for this week’s podcast.

Step 4: Organize your photos

Organizing your photos so they are grouped in meaningful ways helps keep your audience focused and doesn’t leave them wondering why some pictures are with others. Once you decide on your grouping method, add title slides at the beginning and actually explain in a few words what this group is. For instance:

• Our Day at the Beach
• Eating Lobster with Nanna
• My LOL Cats

Now moving your slides into the right group will be a snap. Simply drag your slide into the position after the title for its group using the Slide Sorter. You may find in this phase that some pictures really belong together on one slide as a collage. No problem! Just use Cut and Paste to move those images onto one slide and delete the blank ones.

Step 5: Add embellishments

In this step, you can start adding your slide transitions, animations, captions, and borders to make your image look better or more meaningful. You might also consider cropping your photos to highlight what you consider the most important portion. Adding music or sound can also help in spicing up a slide show.

In future episodes, we will show you how to add music to your presentations and create a DVD presentation.

If you’re looking for ways to enhance your presentation, try checking out this week’s recommended eTraining class, Top 10 Tips for Working with PowerPoint. I’ve created a link to the schedule for this class, which you can find in this week’s blog, located at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

Well, that’s all for this week’s podcast. Stop by next week to learn more about adding sound and music to your presentation.

If you like our podcast (and I know you do!), why not stop by iTunes and write your review, or send us a comment on Twitter @productiveUcast.

Thanks for stopping by!

Links:

• Copy and Paste
• Inserting Slides Using Photo Album Feature
• Moving Slides in Slide Sorter
• Cut and Paste
• Adding Slide Transitions
• Cropping Images in PowerPoint
• eTraining Class: Top 10 Tips for Working with PowerPoint

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.

Some say people have been forced to adopt this message convention to meet the character limits; others think it is code invented by teens so their parents don’t understand them (so much so you can find all kinds of lists on the Internet for translation). Heck, when we were kids we just used double-talk or really poor pig Latin. Whatever happened to the need to actually learn useful foreign languages? I can see it now, next year’s high school language offerings; Spanish, French, Esperanto, German, BFF Jill.

Well, we geeks were the original speakers of language very few understood. We spoke of “If this, Else that,” Goto, Megabyte, Terabyte, etc… In fact, if you listen closely enough, you can find the Geek in his native habitat, WoW (or, to average mortals, the World of Warcraft), speaking Geekinese.

Listen closely to the male Geek attempting to attract a mate…

“Since these are not the droids you are looking for, how about we blow this place together and battle the Sith?”

“Are you also in search of the Allspark? If you want, I can give you a lift… Autobots Transform!”

As it turns out, Microsoft has a long-forgotten language, too. It’s called keyboard shortcuts. With the invention of the mouse and a more visual interface, these shortcuts are usually overlooked by most. I have found that getting to know these can considerably speed up your workday. Here are a few of my favorites. If you learn the pattern, it is easy to remember them.

Let’s start off with controlling windows. Since I am controlling Windows itself with my shortcuts, these all use the Windows Key (usually located between the Ctrl and Alt keys on the left side of most keyboards) in conjunction with another.

• Windows Key = When pressed by itself, opens the Start menu.
• Windows Key + D = Think D for Desktop. Pressing this combination takes me directly to the Desktop, minimizing all my applications.
• Windows Key + M = Similar to the D, minimizes all open applications. If you add the Shift key to the mix (Windows Key + Shift + M), you are doing the reverse and restoring all your Windows that were minimized.
• Windows Key + F = Think F for Find. This pair activates the Find All Files window, useful for searching.
• Window Key + E = E for Explorer, meaning it opens a Windows Explorer window.
• This last one for me is a real time saver.
• Windows Key + R = This activates the Windows Run command.

In order to get the most out of it, you need to know the following words:

• EXCEL is for Microsoft Excel
• OUTLOOK is for Microsoft Outlook
• WINWORD is for Microsoft Word
• POWERPNT is for Microsoft PowerPoint
• and MSPUB is for Microsoft Publisher

So to quickly start Microsoft Excel, you simply press Windows Key + R, then type EXCEL, press the ENTER KEY, and Excel fires up like magic.
These are only a few of my favorites, but I posted some links to more useful shortcuts that work in almost any application in the blog posting for this edition of the podcast at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

This week’s tips include:

Save Your Fingers By Letting Your Fingers Save Your Work
If you have not learned the hard way already, save yourself the heartburn by heeding this bit of advice: AutoRecover and AutoSave, while handy for recovering work after crashes and other computer failures, should not be substituted for manually saving your work at frequent intervals.

Cut… Paste… That’s a Wrap!
We usually think of Cut, Copy, and Paste all together, but we usually use them in pairs. Most often, we use Copy and Paste. This tip talks about the lesser-known Cut. For moving text rather than just copying it, the Cut command is a champion when combined with Paste.

Take It Back
Most of us are pretty good friends with the magical Undo button that resides on the toolbar of most Office applications. Have you ever accidentally deleted an entire paragraph from a Word document? Ever hastily made a change to a complex formula that now causes an error in an Excel worksheet? We all have; and the always-forgiving Undo button has been there to comfort us by restoring our lost work. What could be better?

Seek and You Shall Find
We are busy people. We often do not have time to read through entire documents, web pages, or spreadsheets. Sometimes we need to locate just one piece of information so that we can go on our merry way. Perhaps the most time-saving tool that is near-univeral is the magical key combination of Ctrl+F.

The Fast and the Furious
When working in various programs, we often find ourselves doing a lot of repetitive actions. Certain functions in programs are assigned to keyboard combinations called shortcuts. Many programs have similar functions and fortunately, they often assign the same keyboard shortcuts. Using these shortcuts can considerably speed up your daily productivity.

Well, that’s all for this week’s edition. But before we go, I would like to say a special thanks to Doug Mosiondz, my silent grammar guy (I’m a geek, but I never said I had good sentence structure), and David Clayton of Clayton and Fulcrum for the excellent beats behind my podcast.

See you next week for another exciting episode of “Pigs in Space” (just kidding!).