Excel Video Clips

Individualized training can be provided to focus on the specific needs for any circumstance.

Here are some video clips published by Microsoft that you will find interesting & helpful.

Microsoft Excel Clips

Posted in Microsoft Office | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Video Clips

Individualized training can be provided to focus on the specific needs for any circumstance.

Here are some video clips published by Microsoft that you will find interesting & helpful.

Microsoft OneNote Clips

Microsoft Groove & OneNote Integration Clip

Microsoft Office 2007 Clip

For more information about scheduling training, please e-mail us.

Posted in Microsoft Office | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Docs – what a great tool!

Have you used Google Docs yet?  If not you are missing a fantastic free tool.  Google Docs is a very useful platform for group collaboration or sharing information to others.  It is very easy to use and fairly intuitive if you have used other word processing, spreadsheet or presentation software packages.  I am going to share access links to some quick documentation that I wrote up on getting started with Google Docs.  Please keep in mind that these are just the very beginning of what you can do.

Creating a document in Google Docs

This document walks through the process of creating a new document in Google Docs.  You can either create new documents from scratch (from a blank document, spreadsheet, presentation, form or drawing) or you can start from a template.  Google Docs provides thousands of templates  which you can use.

Uploading a document to Google Docs

You can upload virtually any document to Google Docs.  For word processing files, spreadsheet files and presentation files, Google Docs can convert many popular formats into the Google Docs format.  If you convert the document to a Google Docs format then you can edit the document online in Google Docs.  If you do not convert the document or it is a different type of a file then the file must be downloaded and modified on your local PC.  Any changes to the document must then be uploaded back to Google Docs.

Sharing a document in Google Docs

In my opinion, the real power and value of Google Docs comes from the ability to share documents.  This provides the collaborative benefits of having multiple people edit the same document at the same time while retaining a revision history of the changes made.  It also provides the ability to restrict access settings on an individual user basis.  In addition to individual users, you can also chose to share your document publicly.  The public access can either be made as an open public link, available to anyone, or as a restricted public link which is only available to the people that you provide the link to.  These public access links are read-only by default but can be configured with edit access.

Give Google Docs a try and I think you and your collaboration team will be sold on the concept.  It is a great tool to publish content as well while retaining the flexibility of being able to edit the document easily.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARE1jMMw1BtGZGd0MzhtajVfNThkYmJwanhmNQ&hl=en&authkey=CO-w_foD
Posted in Google Docs, Online tools, Productivity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Include any RSS feed into your website or blog

There are a number of good RSS Feed readers available on the web. There are also some that will allow you to embed an RSS feed into your existing website or blog site. Some blog sites, like WordPress, have built in widget which allow you to display an RSS feed in your blog (like the one displayed here at the right).

If your site does not have a built in widget for RSS feeds, then you can create one for free at sites like feedwind.com/en, feed2js.com or springwidgets.com. The notes that I am providing here are going to be related to FeedWind but the concept is the same regardless of which provider you choose.

  1. Locate the desired RSS source and obtain the RSS feed link.
    1. Right click on the RSS feed icon & select ‘Copy Link’ or ‘Copy Shortcut’
  2. Create a java reader widget for the RSS feed
    1. On the feedwind.com site, paste the RSS feed link in the ‘Feed URL’ box

      Feedwind screen shot

      Feedwind screen shot

    2. Customize the size of the reader widget in the ‘General’ settings box
    3. Select the color for the reader banner in the ‘Feed Title’ settings box
    4. Edit the length of the ‘title characters’ to be displayed in the ‘Entry Title’ settings box (select the ‘advanced settings’ link to display the parameter values in this box – the parameter value title says “words” but it is actually characters)
    5. Edit the length of the ‘entry text’ characters to be displayed in the ‘Entry Contents’ settings box (select the advanced settings link to display the parameter values in this box – the parameter value title says “words” but it is actually characters)
    6. A preview of the reader widget is displayed and updated on the right as the various changes are made.
    7. Once the reader widget is configured as desired, copy the code displayed in the code window (copy all of it by using Ctrl-A to select all and then Ctrl-C or right click and copy)
  3. Go to your website or blog and paste this copied code into the html code of the site or a widget frame

This same approach can also be used to embed RSS content inside of a learning management system or content management system.

Posted in Productivity, Web 2.0 Tools | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment