Chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, and gingerbread men by the dozen. We humans have a tendency to celebrate various occasions with food, and I am by no means opposed to this time-honored tradition.

More than the joy of indulging in the sweet treats, however, I am fascinated with the process of creating all these dozens of cookies, especially those for which a cookie cutter can be used.

Using just one gingerbread man cookie cutter, for example, one can amass an entire teeming population of a gingerbread village. But even though they are all born from the same dough and cookie cutter, are they all really the same? Heck no! During the decorating process, each one can be customized with gumdrops, icing, or other accessories. For instance, you can sharpen a candy cane to a fine point and arm your gingerbread village inhabitants so they can protect themselves in case the evil fruitcake monster attacks!

Oh, what? Like you’ve never armed your gingerbread men cookies with sharpened candy canes so they can protect themselves in case the evil fruitcake monster attacks?

Anyway, another process which many people undergo during this time of year is that of sending holiday greeting cards. And it just so happens that there is a tool that can aid in this process. A tool which, like the cookie cutter, allows you to create dozens of greeting cards from a single document, yet still personalize each one with ease.

I’m referring to a software tool in this case: the Mail Merge feature in Microsoft Word.

Performing a mail merge operation greatly simplifies the process of sending out personalized mass mailings. All you need is a merge document and a data source. The data source is typically a set of contact information fields, such as first name, last name, address, etc. These fields can be housed in an Excel workbook, an Access database table or query, or it can even come right from your Outlook contacts.

The merge document can be in the form of a letter, a set of mailing labels, or envelopes. This document gets associated with the data source file during the merge process. Then, wherever a piece of personalized information needs to appear, you can insert a merge field from your data source. During the last step in the merge process, you can choose to either create a set of documents from the merge document (one for each record in your data source), or just send the documents directly to the printer.

Of course, a Mail Merge will really only save you time if you know your way through the process. Since it can be a bit tricky for novices and pros alike, we’ll include some tips that should help you through it.

The tips include:

• Mass Messages: getting started with Mail Merges in Word
• Start at the Source: tips for setting up Excel data to be used in a merge
• Do Not Label Me: using the Mail Merge feature to create mailing labels
• Pushing the Envelopes: using the Mail Merge feature to create mailing envelopes
• Split ’em Up: using Excel’s Text to Columns feature to split data into separate columns
• Published en Masse: performing a mail merge in Publisher

In all seriousness, I think you need to really think this through. I mean, if the evil fruitcake monster attacks the gingerbread village and they don’t have any sharpened candy canes with which to protect themselves, it’s really going to get ugly.

Oh, well. Don’t forget to stop by and visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or head over to write a review of the podcast on iTunes!

Until next time, keep cranking out those cookies and holiday greetings by the dozen!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Have you heard? We’re all doomed! You may have even seen the signs. Well, you may have at least some signs being held by some very “out-there” kind of people wandering the streets in front of your favorite coffee house.

According to some doomsday predictors, the next apocalypse is scheduled for December 21, 2012, when all the planets in our Solar System will supposedly be aligned. What can we expect to happen? Floods, earthquakes, and other natural calamities? Or will it be just another day, like Y2K—where I spent my New Year’s Eve with my friend from a telecom company on call with our cell phones and pagers strapped to our waists like we were wearing Batman and Robin’s utility belts.

Before you go stocking up on bottled water for your bomb shelter, try to keep in mind that much of the hype surrounding this galactic phenomenon is pure sensationalism. Once every few decades, someone conjures up a similar theory to get everyone into a panic, and it always fizzles out into nothing. But at least we’ll get another box-office hit depicting a gruesome demise of the human race by natural disasters. Or a sudden surge in Kool-Aid sales. Those are always fun. Oh, yeahhh!

While we’re on the topics of alignment and disasters, we might as well mention how a misaligned list of bullets or numbers can have cataclysmic effects on your Word document. If you’ve ever struggled hopelessly trying to get those bullets or numbers to line up the way they’re supposed to, you know where I’m coming from.

Don’t get caught in a crossfire when your disaster moment hits! Stray bullets can be dangerous!

Thankfully, there are a few tricks you can try out to wrangle those lists into formation. Here are links to some tips that should help you avoid a catastrophe when working with bullets and numbering:

• Stray Bullets – A few things to try to get your lists in order
• Off the Mark – Using the Format Painter to align bullets and numbers

Having alignment issues with something other than bullets and numbering? Here are some more tips to set you straight:

• Where Does It Stand? – Using Word’s text alignment feature
• Start a Tab – Setting up tab stops in Word
• Get to the Point – Using decimal tabs in Word to align numbers on decimal points

That’s all for this edition of the podcast, but be sure to leave us your comments at www.productiveupodcast.com, visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or write a review of our podcast on iTunes.

Until next time, keep watching the skies…but don’t hold your breath waiting to see those planets line up. And certainly don’t drink the Kool-Aid!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s edition: “The Cybercouth Tiger Returns.”

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from our friend and loyal listener, the Cybercouth Tiger. Today he joins us with more tips for how you can observe common courtesy when communicating at light speed.

Delighted, as always, to be here. Productive U listeners, I come to you today to present some simple methods for minding your manners in e-mail.

When I was just a cub, my mother instilled in me the most basic elements of good etiquette. I was taught to properly introduce myself when meeting others, to keep my stories brief so as to allow others a chance to participate in the conversation, and to refrain from being a snitch to the others in my streak.

In the cyber world, carelessness will allow you to offend more people faster than ever before, but those simple lessons from my cub days can still be applied to help you avoid doing so.

I pose a conundrum: you receive an e-mail from a business associate (let’s call him James) who proposes a meeting to discuss an exciting opportunity to advance on the corporate ladder. He informally concludes this correspondence with the following statement, “Call me to discuss. -j.” Hands trembling with nervous excitement, you lift the telephone receiver and prepare to dial—but alas, you realize you have no contact information for this individual!

Oh, James. Your pitiful e-mail signature offers nary a method for contacting you; indeed, it lacks even your full name. Loyal listeners, I beseech you: take the time to compose an informative and comprehensive e-mail signature to be appended to your outgoing mail messages. Be sure to incorporate basic identification and contact information such as your full name and the best way to reach you. On a business e-mail account, this should include your telephone number, and a fax number if applicable. Your recipients will thank you, and I will personally applaud your courteous efforts.

Now a word about brevity. While an e-mail signature is clearly beneficial for those messages that require a body of message text, let us now observe how a brief message may not even necessitate a body. In such cases where only a short message needs to be conveyed, consider typing it directly into the subject line, followed by the acronym “EOM.” For those not in the know, this stands for “End of Message.” To your recipients, it means, “Don’t even bother opening this message, since there is nothing more to read.” Once they catch on, however, it will sound much more like, “I’ve extended the courtesy of being so concise as to eliminate the need for you to open this e-mail message. Please use that extra time as you see fit.” I feel compelled to inform you that I’m paraphrasing here; I can only assume they might actually be thinking something similar.

(I elaborate further on the topic of e-mail brevity in a recent letter I sent to the computer support staff at Productive U Podcast. You can read it here.)

While we’re on the subject of subjects, I might add this recommendation: never send an e-mail with a blank subject line. Common features in most e-mail applications include the ability to sort and search for messages according to their subject text. Quickly locating a message with no subject can become quite an ordeal. Do your fellow e-mailers the simple service of including some informative text in the subject line, so that they may properly prioritize and categorize your message.

Lastly, dear listeners, we are far past due for a discussion regarding CC and BCC. Allow me to clarify the purpose of these oft-abused fields.

When you include an e-mail address in the CC field, you are notifying your direct recipients in the To field that others are listening in because this message might also pertain to them. CC should not be used as a means of coercion. I recently observed an instance in which a manager was suddenly CC’d on an e-mail conversation between two co-workers. The intent in this case was to notify the manager of some petty squabble that was arising between the two co-workers. If a referee is required to resolve a dispute, there are proper channels that should be used. If a referee is required to resolve a dispute, there are proper channels that should be used. Don’t simply invite someone’s office superior to the conversation as a mediator.

Similarly, the BCC field should not be used to secretly or sneakily include a recipient on an e-mail message. While it is true that the addresses in this field remain hidden to all recipients, the actual purpose of this feature is to protect the privacy of your recipients when sending an e-mail to a group of people. Wanting to prevent everyone’s e-mail addresses from becoming public property on such messages is an acceptable use of BCC.

I shall now take my leave of you, but you can expect to find me here again. When there is a lapse in cybercouth, the tiger shall pounce! Of course, I prefer to educate rather than pounce, so I will return to share more tips to help you avoid becoming a cyboor. Cheers!

Links

• Create an e-mail signature: Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007
• Show the BCC field: Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007

We’d like to thank the Cybercouth Tiger for sharing his netiquette advice with us, and we’d also like to thank you for listening! If you have any comments for us, feel free to share them at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

Don’t forget to visit us on iTunes! While you’re there, you can write a review of the podcast. Or, see what we’re up to by following us on Twitter @productiveUcast.

See you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s episode: “What’s in a name?” OR “Not Breaking Up is Hard To Do.”

You know, using hyphens can be a real pain, but more so if you’re dealing with names in Microsoft Word.

What set me off thinking about this was an article I had read about one woman’s woes after hyphenating her last name in marriage. It sounds like a common enough situation; but in the article, she describes her exasperation as dry cleaning clerks, doctor’s office receptionists, and film developers fail to grasp that her full last name is Chance-Rainwater. She winds up having to offer some guidance when they try to locate her prescription under R instead of C, and correcting them when they refer to her as simply “Mrs. Rainwater.” You can read the full story here.

I have to wonder if Rebecca Romijn-Stamos ever encountered similar tribulations during her marriage to John Stamos. It seems as though we have no trouble getting celebrities’ last names correct, even when they contain hyphens. Luckily for her (and maybe also for her career), Ms. Romijn and Mr. Stamos have since divorced and she has reverted to using only her maiden name. Maybe the constant gigging of Jesse and the Rippers was simply too much for their marriage to endure?

As much trouble as we may have when it comes to hyphenated names, the trouble is even greater when working with those names in Microsoft Word. Maybe you’ve stumbled upon this conundrum while typing in a document: if a hyphenated word falls at the end of a line, that word will often get split at the hyphen and the rest will get moved to a new line. This can be understandably vexing; if that was your last name, I’m sure you wouldn’t want it to be split up like that. If you happen to be a fan of The Simpsons, you’ll surely realize what a terrible situation this would be for Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Stu-Simpson. But maybe a multi-hyphenated name isn’t really her biggest problem anyway.

Another, possibly worse situation would be having a phone number in a document that gets split onto two lines at a hyphen. As you can imagine, this is not the ideal method for displaying such data. Word doesn’t know any better, of course; it thinks it’s doing you a favor by using that document space efficiently. And naturally, Word is equally oblivious when it comes to spaces. But you may have a group of words separated by spaces that you want to keep together on the same line, such as a company name or even your own name.

Shouldn’t any break-up be mutual? Ideally, yes, but rarely does this happen to be the case. So how do we tell Word nicely that we don’t appreciate it breaking up our text without our permission?

Luckily there are special characters called nonbreaking spaces and nonbreaking hyphens that you can insert between words to prevent them from being separated when they fall at the end of a line in a document. When it encounters a nonbreaking hyphen instead of a standard hyphen, Word knows to move all of Chance-Rainwater to a new line if there is not enough space, instead of keeping Chance- at the end of one line and moving Rainwater to the next. The same goes for nonbreaking spaces; they can be used in the place of regular spaces any time you want to ensure that a group of words does not get split up onto multiple lines.

The tips in this week’s blog entry will show you how to insert these special characters:

• Let’s Stay Together – Using Nonbreaking Spaces
• Break Up Your Way – Using Nonbreaking Hyphens
• Whose Line is It, Anyway? – Using Optional Hyphens
• Bridging the Gaps – Using Word’s Hyphenation Options

Well, that’s all for this week’s edition. Hopefully you’ve come to the conclusion that when it comes to Microsoft Word, not breaking up really isn’t that hard to do, after all.

If you find these tips useful, be sure to leave us a comment at www.productiveupodcast.com, visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or write a review of our podcast on iTunes.

See you next time!

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…

“What do Psychics, Family, and Microsoft have in common?”

Well…

They all seem to know me pretty well, or at least they think they know me well enough to correct me as I speak or write, or try to finish my sentences.

Let’s use my son as an example. He has discovered that when he asks a question like, “Daddy, can I stay up and [insert fun activity here]?”, my typical response tends to be: “Well, once you have finished [chore assigned by me], we can talk about it, but it might be too far past your bed time.” He knows that this response can be substituted with: “Probably not, it is way past your bed time and you haven’t even showered yet.”

In a way, he is doing something in his head that is a common Microsoft Word feature. Microsoft calls it AutoCorrect. Its usefulness resides in its ability to allow you to type something like your initials and have it automatically replaced by your entire name or signature line.

It kind of works at the same speed as my mother-in-law (a retired Latin teacher). I could be talking with her about anything and halfway through a sentence, I’ll find her auto-correcting my grammar and replacing the words I chose with better ones. I think you all probably know someone like this. It can become very aggravating as you’re trying to get out what you want to say. I tend to lose my train of thought (not hard for me, actually) and working in Microsoft Word sometimes makes me feel the same way.

So, like most gifts, it can be both a blessing and a curse. But if you understand the benefits of the feature, you can really take advantage of it to help you be more productive, freeing up your time to do more important things like writing your review of our podcast in iTunes.

If you were to talk to my wife, she would tell you that I can be lazy when it comes to repetitive tasks. You know, like emptying the dishwasher (I have been known to just take clean items out and use them instead of putting them away). I prefer to think of myself as not lazy, but efficient. Why put the dishes away if I can just use the clean ones, put the dirty ones in the sink, then when the dishwasher is empty, fill it up again? Efficiency and extra cabinet space. I don’t see why this doesn’t work for her.

So when it comes to using AutoCorrect, you’re not being lazy, you’re being more efficient. Learning about some of its features can turn you into David Copperfield with your co-workers. Not only will you have debunked the mystery of the ghost that lives in Word, you will have shown them tricks they never dreamed possible.

Let’s take a look at a few…

There is a feature to deal with little chubby fingers like mine that will automatically correct when you accidentally type two capital letters at the beginning of a word.

Too lazy…ahem…efficient to capitalize the first letter of a sentence? Just keep on typing, and let AutoCorrect fix it for you.

Go ahead and spell the days of the week in lowercase letters! Forget what my mother-in-law says, Microsoft will fix it for you.

If your pinky tends to go astray when typing the letter “A,” the “Correct accidental usage of Caps Lock key” feature could help you today.

All of these are great, but the most powerful feature of AutoCorrect has to be the “Repláce text as you type” feature. This feature is pre-populated with words and symbols to fix issues like when you type “teh” instead of “the.”

I know it’s a little early for April Fool’s Day, but you can use your newfound powers of AutoCorrect for evil as well as good. Try adding an AutoCorrect entry in someone else’s computer for the word “the” so every time they type it, it will change to the phrase, “blah blah blah.” Now when that person tries to type a sentence like, “The elephant at the circus is scared of the big scary cats,” they will instead get, “blah blah blah elephant at blah blah blah circus is scared of blah blah blah big scary cats.” This can be loads of fun!

Well, that’s it for this week. Don’t forget to stop by www.productiveUpodcast.com and check out our visual tips for working with AutoCorrect in the blog entry for this episode.

Tips this week are:

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Using AutoCorrect to insert frequently used text into your documents

You’ve Got it All Wrong: How to access the AutoCorrect feature in Office 2007 and earlier versions

Correct Me if I’m Wrong: Using AutoCorrect to help enhance your email in Microsoft Outlook

Until next week, how about if you and I empty out the dishwasher at least one time to show we’re really not that lazy?

So I decided to revise a set of tips I used when teaching business students how to use PowerPoint.

Tip 1: Use a consistent template and color scheme.

Impress your audience with simplicity. Do you have a corporate logo? If so, you should have this on each slide. This helps your audience feel that this is more of a professional presentation. Colors can also give the same impression. Where I work, we have a specific branded color scheme we use for marketing materials. It may be useful to define your presentation’s style guide before you create the presentation. When you do, focus on the following items and keep them consistent as your presentation develops:

• What font color and graphic will be used on your title slides? You should have one for each logical section of your presentation.
• What bullets will you use? Will they be graphics or standard circles? What will subtopic bullets look like?
• What colors will be used to emphasize your main points, and what color for supporting text?

Once you have decided these, set up your slide master so you automatically get the right look each time you add a slide to your presentation.

Tip 2: Use graphics, video and sounds that are relevant to the subject matter

Nothing is worse than seeing animated graphics on a slide that have nothing to do with the subject of the slide. You may be tempted to be gimmicky and put funny videos (like Keyboard Cat) or wacky sounds like typewriter keys typing. Just remember:  if you’re going to add these elements to your presentation, they should be there to reinforce your topic and help the audience remember, not to give them a distraction that sticks while the intended message does not.

For example, I did a customer service presentation a while ago and decided to include a little “Jeopardy!” game at the end to review what we covered. I had a little animated picture of the “Jeopardy!” set with my face pasted onto Alex Trebek’s body, and had it slide in from the side saying, “This is Jeopardy!”

So, was this a distraction or was this helpful? In my case, it was helpful. I started by just saying, “Okay, let’s review,” and when this slide appeared, it caught them all off guard and caused a couple of chuckles. It helped people relax, and they knew exactly how we would review without any detailed explanation on how to play.

The review went well, and weeks later I was still getting called Trebek, but the conversation about the subject matter continued and caused more discussion on the subject, therefore helping spread the information to those who missed my presentation.

So choose graphics, videos, or sounds that have a purpose, rather than the latest Keyboard Cat video. Not sure what I’m referring to? Check out the link to see one of my favorite Keyboard Cats.

Tip 3: Don’t supersize the content on the slide

Presentations typically need to convey very in-depth information to an audience and you may be tempted to put an entire spreadsheet of data or a form on your slide. Resist the urge! Do not go into that Forever Knight! If you have to ask yourself how you can get your spreadsheet to look better onscreen because the text is way too small to be seen… JUST DON’T INCLUDE IT.

It is generally a good practice to NOT include them on your slide, but instead create a link to them, so you can open them onscreen and then close out when you’re done. So what is the difference? Isn’t it still going to be hard for the audience to see? No, the biggest advantage of using the actual software and file is you now have control over zooming in to areas of interest or even walking the audience through how you actually fill out the form or update the spreadsheet. It is always more effective when you can demonstrate or emphasize specific data, in case you receive unexpected questions.

Tip 4: Use the notes and handouts feature

I had on pet peeve in school as a student and it was note-taking. I was never very good at focusing on writing things down. When I did take notes, I wasn’t as engaged in the lecture and lost out on understanding some of the key elements because I was fussing with my notes. The next time you find yourself presenting to an audience, my recommendation is that you do the note-taking for them.

When you create each slide, you likely need to make notes for yourself on what to cover in the presentation, so why not give a copy to your audience so they can refer to it later? If you happen to be doing this as a webinar, print the slide notes or handouts as a PDF file and offer to e-mail it to them after the presentation.

If you tell your audience at the very beginning that there is no need to take notes because you have done it for them, they are likely to be more relaxed and able to focus on what you have to say.

Tip 5: Be prepared before you need to present

Before presenting, there are some basic questions you need to ask yourself, such as:

• Will I be using my computer, or one provided?
• If using another computer, is their software version compatible with my presentation or will it mess up the look and/or my animations?
• Will I be presenting using a projector or other external monitor?
• Do I wish to see my notes on the screen while others do not?
• Does my presentation link to other files or the Internet? Is there an available connection?
• How will I be controlling the presentation?

All of these questions are very important for giving presentations.

The most helpful way you can prepare yourself for a presentation on your PC, laptop, or another computer is to make sure you have all of your files in one main folder. By keeping your presentation and all linked supporting files in one folder, they can be easily moved to another location or machine without the need to re-link them.

Take the time to learn different ways to run your presentation. Some people prefer to use the arrow keys, spacebar, or Enter key to advance the slides. I use a combination of many things. I have yet to give a presentation that went perfectly from start to finish. Sometimes I pressed Enter too many times or someone asked if I could go back to previous slides to talk more on a topic. Keeping a slide printout with slide numbers is extremely useful to have on-hand. This way, if you need to jump to a specific slide, all you need to do is type in the slide number and press Enter. This will allow you the flexibility to jump around or shorten your presentation on the fly if needed, without it looking like a mistake.

There are many navigation shortcuts for presentations that most people don’t know exist. To get a quick list for reference, open any presentation and launch the Slide Show mode. Press F1 at the top of your keyboard to get a Help window. This window will contain keyboard shortcuts specific to navigating presentations. Press your “Print Screen” button, go back to a blank slide, and then click Paste. Now all you need to do is print this slide and you have a convenient reference tool.

Here are this week’s tips:

• How to modify a master slide
• Setting up a color scheme
• Inserting Sound into a Presentation
• Printing Note Handouts
• Printing a List of Navigation Shortcuts

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

I see poor quality images everywhere I go and you probably notice them too. Here are some real easy places to spot them — see if you can.

• Placemat at a diner or restaurant
• Ads in a magazine
• Logos in the newspaper

Although it is becoming more commonplace, do you really want someone’s first impression of your work to be one of a high school amateur?

So what does make a good image, and how do I know what will work best?

There is a one word answer: resolution. No, not the New Year’s kind, but you will need more diligence than you did for that “all asparagus, lose 20 lbs over night” diet from last year, if you’re going to show your best work.

What is resolution? In short, it can be summed up as how many little dots, called pixels, are being shown. Okay — if you look close enough, they are actually squares, but I trust we all know our shapes by now.

Think about this from your middle or high school art class. Ever hear of a painting style called pointillism, like paintings by Georges-Pierre Seurat? (There is a link to a Wikipedia article included in the blog so you can see examples.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Pierre_Seurat

Resolution is determined by the count of how many little dots there are to make up the picture you are viewing. Sometimes this is referred to as DPI or Dots Per Inch.

Depending on the medium that you use to view the image, the resolution can make a huge impact. For instance, let’s say you have bought one of those new fangled HDTV’s. You probably noticed that some of your old TV stations look a little wonky on them while other stations do not. The reason is resolution. Your basic TV set saw pictures at 640 by 480 dots per inch (or 480i) and most HDTV’s see them at 1980 by 1080 (or 1080p).

So here is a little test for you to try to illustrate what I am talking about. Get a magnifying glass, or, if you’re like me and have 20 pairs of those grandpa reading glasses lying around, grab a pair of those. Now hold it near your TV. What do you see? You should see are the little squares that, from a distance, blend together to make the image. The more you magnify or zoom in, the bigger they become and the fuzzier the image appears.

So how does this really apply to your files?

There are certain resolutions that are better suited for different tasks. First, you need to decide how the image will be displayed; will it be on a website, in a presentation, printed for customers or friends, or on sticker paper to be used to create a third eye on your forehead?

Good resolutions for screen displays (like presentations or websites) are between 72dpi and 96dpi. In fact, if you have ever had a really large file size for PowerPoint, your image size is likely the culprit. You can easily shrink the file size by right-clicking on one of your pictures in the file and choosing Format Picture; in that window, there is in option to Compress Pictures, which gives you various resolution choices. If you’re in version 2007, then all you need to do is select any picture and click on the option from the ribbon labeled “Compress Pictures”.

A general rule of thumb for files that will be printed is:

300dpi for most printers or 600dpi for professional printing.

Now that you have some basic understanding of resolution, you can move on to this week’s tips on images. Included this week are:

• Inserting an Image
• Changing How Much of Your Picture is in Your File
• Text Wrapping and Images
• Creating Images from Your Slides for Use in Other Applications
• Saving Drawings as Images
• and Fixing the Color of an Image

Once you have these basics under your belt, you can jump up and down excitedly while showing your friends. Just do us a favor and don’t act like Tom Cruise on Oprah. Our listeners have a little more dignity than that.

Don’t forget: you can find more than just these tips by visiting us on the web at www.productiveupodcast.com, where you can find more tips or sign up for the expanded edition of our tips and tricks newsletter.

Thanks for stopping by!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

I found as a child that I often see possible connections in strange ways (not always useful) that others do not. But this has proven to be an asset to me time and again in helping others use obscure ideas to remember a feature or concept that I was teaching.

It’s almost like making up a nonsense sentence to remember a list of items, like the notes on a musical staff using first lines then spaces. I remember “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge on his FACE” or EGBDF for the lines and FACE for the spaces.

So I decided to drag you on-board one of my mental trips and take you from start to finish. Keep in mind that memories are one of the best triggers to recalling information (like when you remember a vivid memory just by hearing a song).

Here we go… See if you can find the connection before we get to the station.

I have many fond memories of growing up in a small town in rural Illinois with little to do other than watch TV and movies. Knowing that alone about me, you will find it no surprise that I was influenced greatly by my choices in entertainment, even at an early age.

I watched shows like Bewitched, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and The Lone Ranger. I could often be found playing outside, hiding in the bushes with a cowboy hat, mask on, cap gun in hand; jumping out as our elderly neighbor walked by, yelling, “Stop right there, you varmint!” Then promptly getting wacked with a cane and scolded.

As I grew older, I traded in the Lone Ranger for Vampires and Werewolves. I spent many long days after school and on weekends at the library researching the various legends. Werewolves were most interesting because I was intrigued with the story of the Lugaru of Romania with their origins in the myth of Remus and Romulus raised by wolves (yes, later on this myth does also remind me of a certain group of Star Trek characters). Like most teenage Van Helsing wannabes, however, what I really wanted to know was how to destroy them in case I should ever find myself in that situation.

In my early twenties and more into the dating scene, I pursued the “man of mystery” angle of the James Bond movies, two of my favorites being Gold Finger and the Man with the Golden Gun.

More recently, I have been watching Supernatural on the CW network, where there were several episodes that featured a gun with special ammunition that could destroy demons.

“Where is he going with this?” you might be asking yourself (or maybe just, “AHHH, he’s crazy!”). So let’s recap to make the connection and the final TV stop.

The Lone Ranger used what kind of bullets? Yes! Silver, like you could use to take out a werewolf. James Bond had a couple of arch-enemies that used golden bullets. And finally, Sam and Dean Winchester used a special gun that shot magic bullets to destroy demons. Which led me to a very SHAM WOW final stop.

The Magic Bullet Infomercial. So why an infomercial, and how can this help me?

Infomercials are filled with direct and repeated points that need to be reinforced or stand out to make a point and drive home the value proposition of the sales pitch. These are often done verbally but, for added effect, are also done visually. You may already use this technique in PowerPoint and Word. They are called bullets and they come in several shapes and sizes.

They can be dots, dashes, images, arrows, and numbers. Often these are used to focus a reader or audience member’s attention on the main points being made.  For instance, let’s take the Magic Bullet…

• It Does ANY job in 10 seconds
• You get two 21 piece sets for the price of 1
• Order now and get a 30 day supply of our Fat Burning Boost
• 30 day money back guarantee

So does all this talk of bullets make you want to get those tech tips now?

In the blog posting for this podcast you will find tips for:

• The Magical World of Bullets (Create or Modify)
• Creating Bullets or Numbering
• Change Spacing of Bullets
• Creating Bullet Points in Excel
• Bullets and Numbering Giving You Trouble?

Choose Format | Bullets and Numbering, and click on the appropriate tab. Select each bullet or number option and click the Reset button.

• Adjusting Your Bulleted Text Using the Outline Pane

Just remember, just because someone wants to know your method or process doesn’t mean they won’t throw Mamma from the train when you explain it.

Thanks for listening, and don’t forget to sign-up for the expanded text edition of our Tips and Tricks or send us your ideas for future entries to the blog.