office2010: 2014

Saturday 23 August 2014

Office 2013 Quick start guides

Friday 18 July 2014

Using Excel Data for creating an Organization Chart in Visio

You’ve painstakingly typed up all the organizational chart info in an Excel spreadsheet and your boss says he’d like it in Visio. Groan – now I have got to retype it. Stop! No you don’t. Visio allows you to important names and titles stored in list format into Visio.

Here’s how:

1. Select File, New, Organization Chart

2. Start the Organization Chart Wizard

3. First step: Select the 'Information that I enter using the wizard' option, and click Next

4. Second step: Select Excel, then type the name of the file

5. Click on Browse to choose the location you wish to save the file to, click Save, and then click Next

6. Click OK - a Microsoft Office Excel workbook will open with column headings already entered for you

7. Replace the sample text with the text you wish to appear in your organization chart. By holding your cursor over each column heading, you should be able to view data entry tips

8. Save the Excel file, then close

9. Continue through the remaining steps in the wizard to create your organization chart from the data you entered into the Excel file

a. Visio's organization chart wizard will recognise the following file formats (besides .xls):

b. Microsoft Exchange Server Directory (Microsoft Exchange e-mail Address Book)

c. Tab- or Comma-delimited text (.txt)

d. Org Plus (.txt)

e. Microsoft Office Access (.mdb) or any other file format for a database created in an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)-compliant database application.

The Value of Pivot Tables

As a freelance trainer I often find delegates are “frightened” of pivot tables. All those buttons and new terminology. They incorrectly think that using AutoFilter will give them equally effective results. As a freelancer I used to shy away from them too. Far too complicated. That is until whilst surfing on the net one day I came across a fantastically easy example. So now I always start with a very simplistic example. Take a list of invoices with date of invoice, company and amount paid. There are over 600 lines of data but only 8 clients. From this we create a pivot table that gives the total revenue for each company. 600 lines whittled down to 8 rows of data. Wow! The delegate thinks – Cool – this is easy and indeed it is. So we play with that for a bit and then I say to them “Wouldn’t it be great if we could find out the revenue per month?” “Yes” they say. So then I get them to add the Date field and group by month on it. They are then sold. Of course you can do so much more but first you have to take away the fear. For further help go to www.catraining.net

The Magic of DATEDIF

A frequent request I get is how to work out someone’s age from that data of birth quickly and easily. They’ve seen those long formulas involving integers and 365.25 – scary. Isn’t there an easier way? Well – yes there is. Excel has an undocumented command called DATEDIF which allows you to work out how many years, months or days there are between 2 dates. Great! Tell me how. Write your DOB in cell A1 (remember to type in date format) and =TODAY() in cell B1. In cell C1 type this formula: =DATEDIF(A1,B1,”y”) and as if by magic your age appears. Easy Peasy. For further help go to www.catraining.net

Access v Excel: When to Use Access

Due to the learning curve involved many people use Excel for their database data when it would be much more efficient using Access. They are probably using Excel because they are comfortable with it and do not have time to learn Access. However in some areas Access is far more efficient managing large amounts of data and the training investment would be well worth it.

Some examples below:

· You have data that is constantly changing and you frequently need to produce reports based on it. Your Reports and Queries in Access are dynamic. What this means is that you are storing the instructions and not the results. The results are only produced once you run the report or Query. The benefit of this is that if the data you are querying or reporting changes you do not have to rewrite your reports and queries. In Excel this would present you with quite a bit of extra work editing and reformatting.

· Creating additional reports and queries is so much easier in access as it does not involve creating links and transferring data.

· As you are able to store several tables within an Access database it enables you to organise your data more logically and efficiently. Your Reports and Queries are able to reference multiple tables in a much easier way than Excel.

· If you are using a version of Excel prior to 2007 you are limited to 65,536 records. Access is able to handle much larger numbers.

· With a large amount of data Access will be much quicker at extracting records that meet multiple criteria.

For further information go to catraining.net

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint

Picture the scenario. You arrive for a Presentation. You walk into the room. And there whizzing about on the screen are lots of jumping and spinning letters and graphics. Another PowerPoint treat!

To avoid boring your audience to death take time when preparing your presentation and take into account the following:

Slide Master

Use it! You can use this option to create a consistent and clutter free look. Don’t copy your logo onto every page. Put it on the slide master and then it will appear on every page, in exactly the same position and it will be the same size. This will help prevent the messiness that occurs when different fonts, colours and sizes appear on each page.

They don’t want your life story

Don’t write an essay on each slide. Keep it simple! Just write short phrases and only include essential information. Remember these are prompts for your talk. If it is all written then they don’t need to listen to you.

White Space

Make use of white space. Avoid clutter. Use bold, italics and shadow to enhance points. Avoid using CAPITALS. Capitals do not make text easier to read.

Don’t be too Fancy

The audience is there to hear your message not to see how brilliant at PowerPoint you are. Make a nice clutter free master that uses contrasti ng colours for text and background. Avoid patterned backgrounds at all costs. It is often though that dark text on a light background is best.

Don’t Make it Too Busy

Yes I know. Animations, sound, transition – it’s fun! Yes it is when you are learning but not when you are presenting. Keep those special effects to a minimum. Use them sparingly and to highlight particular slides rather than every one. Over use of animation and special affects can look unprofessional and reduce your credibility.

If you like this article go to www.catraining.net for more useful tips.

Use of Images

When using images whether they are clipart, graphics or photos ensure they are good quality and that you have not distorted them when resizing or cropping. It is best not to use an image at all than use a bad quality one.

What is Your Output?

Are you presenting this on a large screen? If so test it out! What looks good on your PC screen may look totally different on the big screen. That nice photo may look grainy on the big screen. Do not wait until the day to find out.

How many slides???

Gosh – do we really have to sit through 70 slides? Yawn!!!! Don’t bore your audience. Keep the number of slides down and don’t be constantly flipping to the next slide.

Navigation Tools

Learn how to use PowerPoint’s navigation tools effectively. Sometimes one of your audience may ask to see the previous slide again. Make sure you know the best way to navigate back and forth without it looking messy.

Do Not Read Your Slides

Your slides are an aid memoire for your real content. The bullets are simply there as reminders for topics on which you will enlarge.

Face Your Audience!

Don’t look at the screen when talking. Look at the audience.

Don’t Rely on Removable Media

If your presentation is on a CD, USB or other form of removable media copy it onto the hard drive of the system you will be presenting for. This will cut down the margin of error.

mc post

General Advice: · It is advisable that for every presentation you create you should have a folder and in that folder you should include all your graphic files, sounds, and movie files. This can be done even before you start linking them into PowerPoint. You should also put in this folder all the Word, Excel, PDF or any other type of files. · Always keep your version of PowerPoint up-to-date use one of the site to do that: o http://www.microsoft.com/powerpoint o http://www.microsoft.com/mac · If time and cost permits then always try to upgrade to the most recent version of PPT as the latest versions will have very few compatibility issues · Before saving always use the compatibility checker. Unfortunately the PC version only lets you know the issues raised in previous versions of PPT in Windows but the MAC PPT even tells you the issues raised in PC version on PPT. · Some Compatibility issues are non editable but still viewable. The Compatibility checker should point those issues out to you. Typical examples are Smart Art Graphics that are viewable but can not be edited in older versions and Motion path animations that is allowed in PC PPT can be viewed in Mac PPT but cannot be added or edited in Mac PPT.
Category	General Compatibility Issue	Issues in PowerPoint 2008 (Mac)	Issues in PowerPoint 2007 (Windows)
Fonts	· Some fonts are incompatible when used across platform · If the text is to tight within fonts then either the Mac or PC PPt may add extra line in eth text place holder	· Cannot embed True Type Fonts · Open Type Fonts from Adobe’s Pro Font collection show on PPT 04 and 08 but do with PPT 01

General Advice: Try to use fonts that are standard and can be found in both Mac and PC. These fonts include Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, etc…
Graphics		Don’t use PICT graphic
General Advice: Use GIF, JPG and PNG that are compatible on both OS platform. If you are using Illustrations then it is advisable to use WMF or EMF formats
Media (Videos and Audios)	Some video or audio are not supported in PPT (Both Versions)
General Advice: · Stick to the video formats such as MPEG that can be played in Windows Media as well as Quick Time thus being compatible in both OS Platform.

· If possible use the DRM-free MP3 for audio files

· Linking narrations or sound files in Windows can be heard in Mac but vise a versa is not possible. The reason being Mac uses Quick time format ( AIFF) to store the recording and Windows is unable to detect the format.

· It is best to embed the audio files which is done by default by both PC and Mac versions of PPT.

· Inserting an Active X such as Flash Movie in Windows PPT will not play in Mac PPT.

Sections in MS PowerPoint 2010

It is very all to easy to lose you place in a large MS PowerPoint presentation especially in a collaborative project. Fortunately In MS Office 2010 Microsoft has created the capacity to group slides into sections for the first time.

MS PowerPoint 2010 allows the grouping of slides into different categories like Introduction, part 1, Part 2, Conclusion. Allowing the author(s) to organize and arrange slides into sections to easily manage them.

Adding a Section to a PowerPoint 2010 Presentation

Sections can be added from the ‘Add Section’ button from the Slides section found on the Home ribbon. As an alternative you can also right click on a slide and select ‘Add Section’ from the context sensitive menu that appears.

Manipulating sections in PowerPoint 2010

The Slides Panel View allows the user to view a section once created. It is possible to Rename and rearrange sections by dragging up or down with the Mouse . The same view facilitates collapsing or expanding a section.

This is a improvement on previous version on organizing your presentation by grouping related slides within one section. Whilst this feature allows for ease of finding, printing and editing slides this option is not compatible with creating custom screen shows comprising of different sections.

To summarize Sections are like folders to organize your files. You could even assign sections to colleagues to clarify who is editing which section of a large presentation.

We have established that Sections can be printed. But not synchronized set up as a Custom Slideshow. As a good alternative sections can be hidden just as a single slide can be hidden from a screen show..

Detailed Instructions on Creating a PowerPoint 2010 Section

To create a new section in PowerPoint 2010 follow the instructions below.

Select the area between the slides you wish to separate in the Slide Sorter View

Ensure that the Home tab is selected and click on the Section icon. From the menu appears, select “Add Section”. The section appears as a bar dividing the slides.

Renaming Sections in PowerPoint 2010

Each section starts life as a “Untitled Section”. By default all of the slides after the section name will be automatically part of that section.

To rename the section. Just choose right Click and “Rename Section”.

Expanding and Collapsing Sections

You can right click a section and Choose Collapse All to collapse al sections in the presentation.

With all sections collapsed the section name shows the number of slides in the section automatically to the right. Individual sections can be expanded or collapsed

Moving Sections

and sections can easily be dragged into different orders.

Apart from clicking and dragging. The context menu allows you to move sections up or down.

If you need more help you are welcome to our training manual for free and quick card. If you want a course follow the link below for Mouse

What is SharePoint?

What is SharePoint?

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 makes it easier for people to work together. Using SharePoint 2010, you can set up Web sites to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.

SharePoint isn’t a program, its platform and is a collection of many products and technologies. SharePoint is a server product, which is shared across your network accessed through office programs or via the Internet.

SharePoint is split into 6 areas;

Site – SharePoint allows you to create websites. You don’t need to be a web designer to create these websites as they are easily changeable.

Communities – SharePoint helps you work together with other people – shared documents, calendars, task lists and calendar boards.

Content – SharePoint gives you a place to put your content. The documents you store on SharePoint can be accessed by other users and changed in real-time.

Search – SharePoint has a complex smart search engine that allows you to securely search your content in multiple ways as well as other colleagues’ documents too.

Insight – SharePoint helps to bring all your information together and understand it better. It organises documents and presents it in a way that makes sense. Data can be combined into reports so that you can understand the information you have.

Composites – SharePoint can be extended and customised without being a programmer. SharePoint can talk to your systems and databases.

Why use SharePoint?

The capabilities of SharePoint 2010 work together to help your company quickly respond to changing business needs. Using SharePoint 2010, your people can share ideas and expertise, create custom solutions for specific needs and find the right business information to make better decisions. For IT, SharePoint 2010 helps you cut training and maintenance costs, save time and effort and focus on higher business priorities.

Ribbon Flexibility

One aspect I am glad to see has been addressed in 2010 is the ability to create and interact more with the ribbon environment and customize it. This was a big problem with Office 2007. Although the arrangement of tools and features may not be perfect in 2010 at least we have some degree of customisability with the ribbon environment. (As well as the Quick Access toolbar but since that was customisable in 2007 I’ll mention it no further here.)

The only problem I can still see is the inability to customise the default ribbons we can make them not visible and create our own instead, but we cannot seem to affect the prelayout of existing ribbons. (Maybe that’s being saved for a future version of office) At least we can create our own macro ribbon now and arrange our macro types in groups and export these items for deployment across a number of machines. This was a big problem in 2007 as we could only add our macro’s to the Quick access toolbar which, dependant on screen size and resolution has a very finite number of spaces and no organisation.

The ability to Minimise the ribbons as we work and only have them appear when we need them is useful for those with limited screen size or a large resolution where the ribbon could use up to a third of the screen, leaving very little space left to work with your document.

Contextual tabs in 2007 and 2010 are for me the best feature of the ribbon environment because why have the tools displaying and cluttering your screen when you don’t need them the ability of the office applications to determine the object type and display the appropriate tools in the contextual tabs is great. In previous office versions it was normal to see the toolbar area crowded with 10 – 15 toolbars that were used very infrequently but still around ‘Just in case’. I have seen many mentions on the web from people saying they can’t find things and they hate the whole ribbon idea but I believe that given the chance to use and work with the 2010 features for the ribbons and toolbars for a while they will be converted and actually start to appreciate the improvements and will eventually wonder how they managed before.

Spark lines Excel 2010

Blog 1

Just a few words about the new Excel 2010. I believe it’s the best one yet with some new tweaks to update the previous 2007 version to a completely new application compared to the old clunky 2003 version. I particularly liked the Sparklines which made a good deal of sense and quickly transformed my Data into something visually informative at the click of a button. It was far preferable than having to go through the hassle of inserting a whole chart into the sheet just to give a quick glimpse of the data trend.

Sparklines in an excel spreadsheet (2010)

The clean and simple use of the standard and contextual tabs makes a pleasant experience (for me) in using any of the 2010 office applications. The Ability now to create and customise your own Tabs has rectified one of the main failings of the office 2007 environment. The fact that this environment of the Microsoft office ribbon has gone right through the whole application range is all to the good. The ability to also import and export these customisations to the ribbon makes deployment of standard ribbons across a business with macro, template and standard business styles buttons absolutely brilliant.

Monday 30 June 2014

We all like freebies and when it comes to excel this is an area we like to look at everyone knows about the excel function dictionary well its been taken to the next level a jump from the original 150 pages to almost 500. Done primarily in html the guys at cat training assure me that a new excel version will be available in the fall, for the mean time you can access free help to excel via http://www.catraining.net/excelFunctions/excelfunctionindex.html Cat training wish to empower our clients to see a list of our current courses available please go to http://www.catraining.net/programme-index.html we are also making available training manuals for office 2003, 2007 and 2010 at http://www.catraining.net/CourseMaterials/TrainingManuals.html