Take 5 Minutes and Learn Something New

Each of these videos is 5 minutes or less in length.

OneNote is the most amazing application. Everyone that uses it, loves it. If you haven’t tried it yet. This would be a great way to kick off the new year.

How to create and use notebooks

 

New to the Ribbon interface in Office 2007 and Office 2010? Take a tour to learn how it’s organized. Once you learn it in one app, it’s the same in all of the others.

Tour the Windows 2010 Ribbon

 

Learn how to setup a Master Slide in PowerPoint. Once you have a master setup, you can standardize your templates across the company and have each new slide in your presentation automatically have the correct formatting.

How to Create a Master Slide in Powerpoint

What’s new in Office 2010: PowerPoint

Although there are more components of Office like InfoPath, Sharepoint Workspace and Sharepoint Designer, Access, Project and Visio this will be our last installment. I’m happy to share information with you about these applications for those who want them. Contact me and I’ll send them to you.

PowerPoint has transformed everything from business presentations to school science projects. PowerPoint 2010 builds on the HUGE number of new features seen in 2007.

Presentations to live and virtual audiences - PowerPoint has a remote slide show capability that lets you present a slide show over the Web or a network connection to virtual attendees or live attendees, or both. No expensive video conferencing account required!Some common broadcast scenarios are as follows:

· Ad hoc one-on-one broadcast.

· Invite multiple viewers to view a presentation remotely at any time.

· Present a slide show to both live and remote attendees at the same time in the context of a training session, meeting, or conference call.

Working with text and objects - PowerPoint provides improved editing tools with a new set of Photo Effects that enable you to transform your images.

· Video and audio editing

· Graphics, transitions, and animations

· Help and translation

Presentation security - In PowerPoint 2007, new security features were introduced to help ensure that a presentation was safely managed after it left the user’s hands. In PowerPoint 2010, the permissions can still be set, but now through the Backstage view. Security features include the following:

· Prevent unintended changes to a final version of a document by using the Mark as Final command.

· Provide assurance as to the authenticity, integrity, and origin of the presentation by adding a digital signature.

· Assign permissions that prevent other users from copying, printing, or editing the presentation by selecting the access level specific to their requirements.

· Manage document properties through the Backstage view.

PowerPoint Viewer - The Viewer lets you view presentations created in Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, PowerPoint 2002, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2007, and PowerPoint 2010. The Viewer also supports opening password-protected PowerPoint presentations.

And now for a little training:

Make the switch to PowerPoint 2010 (about 45 minutes)

What’s new in Office 2010: OneNote

You’ve never heard of OneNote? Unfortunately that is the case for too many of our clients and yet everyone who uses it can’t imagine what they did without it. It is the best kept secret of the Office suite. If you haven’t used it before then you might want to skip to the bottom of this post and click on the links there to learn more about how you use it.

This is one of many posts on Office 2010. If you missed the others please visit our blog to read them.

What’s new in OneNote?

Improved access to information - OneNote provides virtually uninterrupted access to notes by allowing you to view and use your notebook files anywhere — at work, home, or in transit.

· Sync to Windows Live   You can access notebooks from any computer. You can also synchronize notebooks by using shared folders, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, and USB drives.

· Microsoft OneNote Web App   You can access and edit notebooks from a Web browser, even on computers on which the full version of OneNote is not installed.

· Microsoft OneNote Mobile 2010   By using a compact version of OneNote on a Windows Mobile-based smartphone, you can access and edit your notebooks stored on Windows Live and SharePoint.

Improved search, which can find information on either the current page, within selected sections or notebooks, or within notebooks. Search improvements allow for rapid search and navigation within the search results. For example, by typing the first few letters of a title, users can quickly jump to recently visited pages, or repeat a previous search.

Outlook integration improvements:

· Create Outlook tasks from OneNote.

· Improved organization and search features:

· Section and page tab improvements.

The ability to easily add links to content within other content — for example, pages, sections, or section groups — and to quickly navigate through these links. This enables you to create Wiki-like notebooks.

Quick Filing feature, which lets you choose where in your notebook you want to send information (such as mails from Outlook, pages from Internet Explorer, and so on).

Quick Styles for creating and applying headings.

Support for mathematical equations.

Formatting improvements for bulleted lists.

Mini Translator, which lets you use your mouse to point to a foreign word or phrase and see a translation into your native language in a small window (you can also use the Play button to hear the pronunciation of the word or phrase, and use a Copy button to paste the translation elsewhere in your notebook).

Linked note-taking to Web page URLs, Microsoft Word 2010, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

Automatic text wrapping.

Sharing and collaboration features -OneNote supports simultaneous editing of notebooks by multiple users. For example, a group of users can work on a notebook at the same time, or a single user can work on the same notebook from different computers simultaneously, all without locking the file.

The changes are as follows:

· New content is automatically highlighted.

· Author information for any added or shared content is identified by a color-coded bar and the author’s initials.

· Version support lets users see when and by whom changes were made to a notebook. Changes relative to earlier versions of the notebook are automatically highlighted.

· Faster synchronization of pages so that changes are displayed to all authors in near real time.

· Display recently added content (by last day, week, month, and so on). You can also get an overview of what specific users changed on specific days.

· Merge feature allows merging two sections of a shared notebook.

Support for touch-enabled computers -OneNote provides support for computers that run touch-enabled operating systems such as Windows 7. The features include the following:

· Panning and auto-switching   On compatible computers that run Windows 7, the user can scroll and pan around any page in OneNote 2010 by using a finger and, depending on the input device, OneNote automatically switches between pen, pan, and selection.

· Zooming   On multitouch devices, such as a computer that runs a touch-compatible or multitouch-compatible operating system such as Windows 7, using a pinch gesture with the fingers allows a user to zoom in or out of a notebook page in OneNote to customize the page view.

· Improved navigation   Several navigational enhancements have been added to OneNote 2010 for users who have computers that run touch-enabled operating systems.

 

But if you’ve never used OneNote before than that’s probably all gibberish, so here’s how you can learn more about OneNote:

Make the switch to OneNote 2010 (about 30 minutes)

Doing basic tasks in OneNote (document)

What’s new in Office 2010: Publisher

If you are still using an older version of Publisher then you are really missing out. By now most of you have installed a copy of Office 2010 and if you were previously using Office XP or Office 2003 as many were then you are in for a real treat. Publisher 2007 introduced a lot of new things and 2010 builds on those. It is a really useful program to master for your flyers, spec sheets, invitations, and other business marketing materials.  I’m going to do is just post what’s brand new and then point to some quick and easy training courses at the end.

If you missed our other post on Office 2010 you can read them on our blog.

Here’s what brand new for Publisher:

Integrated print and preview experience - Print and Print Preview are integrated so that it is easier to get a more accurate view of what publications will look like when they are printed. This includes the ability to make print adjustments while viewing the effect of the changes in a large preview of their publication. You can view multiple pages at the same time, view page boundaries, page numbers, and sheet rulers while in print preview, and even view a simulation of a two-sided document as if it were held up to a light — to see the front and back at the same time, as the publication will look when printed. This is really handy stuff.

Save file as .pdf or .xps - Users can save files in the .pdf or .xps file format. No PDF writer required.

Improved picture technology - You can more easily work with pictures in their publications with the following picture technology improvements:

· Cropping   Rotate and resize pictures, crop them into non-rectangular shapes, and preview the images while keeping the picture in the desired size, shape, and location.

· Replacing pictures   Replace pictures by drag-and-drop, swap two pictures in a single operation, and paste pictures copied outside from Publisher into a placeholder in Publisher.

· Using picture placeholders   Maintain placeholder dimensions when a picture is inserted. For example, pictures either too small or too large for a placeholder are automatically resized.

· Add captions   Add captions to their pictures, choosing from a gallery of caption designs and layouts, and make changes easily.

Publisher is one of those applications that is better seen that described. So here are a few short training courses that will help you get going. These are for Publisher 2007, but since that was when the major changes happened in the application they will be useful for 2010 as well.

Get started designed professional publications (about 45 minutes)

All about handling objects, moving forward and back (5-10 minutes)

Everything you ever wanted to know about pictures (5-10 minutes)

Those last two items are help documents, not courses but you will find them very helpful and clear.

What’s New of Office 2010: Outlook

This is the third installment of our series on Office 2010. The previous ones were on Word and Excel and you can read them on our blog site.  As with Excel and Word, there are many changes to Outlook, so I’ll only mention what’s brand new and then point to some quick and easy training courses at the end.

Outlook has arguably become the most important application for many businesses. Our communications, calendar and tasks are here making up the organization of our days. Microsoft has really put in a lot of effort to making an already amazing application even better and I’m very impressed with the changes.

Here’s what brand new for Outlook:

Calendar Preview in meeting requests - Outlook shows a preview of your calendar in meeting requests. The Calendar Preview feature shows where the meeting appears in your Calendar together with any conflicting and adjacent meetings. No need to open your calendar when you get a meeting request in your Inbox!

Conversation actions - Outlook can help you manage your Inbox more effectively, with the Ignore and Clean Up commands. The Ignore button on the ribbon moves all of a conversation and any future replies to that conversation directly to the Deleted Items folder. The Clean Up button moves older, redundant messages in the conversation to the Deleted Items folder but keeps the most recent message.

Quick Steps - Quick Steps are one-click buttons that can perform multiple actions at the same time. You can create your own quickstep to create a new email and address is to a group of people for example with the push of a single button.

Roaming AutoComplete list – This had to be the most requested feature of all. Recipient AutoComplete lists are now stored on the Exchange Server. A user’s recipient AutoComplete list is now available to any computer on which Outlook 2010 runs that is connected to the same Exchange account. Names can be easily removed from the list by using the new inline Delete function.

And now for a little training

Make the switch from an older version of Outlook to Outlook 2010 (about 45 minutes)

Tame your Inbox and manage that mail (about 30 minutes)

Get Familiar with the Calendar (about 45 minutes)

What’s New in Office 2010: Word

This is the second installment of our series on Office 2010. If you missed the first one on Excel you can catch it here As with Excel, there are many changes to Word, so I’ll only mention what’s brand new and then point to some quick and easy training courses at the end.

Here’s what brand new for Word:

Fluent UI – The fluent user interface consists of several components but the important part of it to understand is that Word is going to change the options available to you in the ribbon based upon what you are doing at the time. So if you start making a list, the ribbon menu will change to expose Word’s list features. Most people find this very helpful as it helps you use features that you may not have realized were there.

The Ribbon – The ribbon is the name for the menu at the top of the screen. This was new in 2007. What is new in 2010 is that you can customize and create your own tabs in the ribbon. People use this to organize their favorite features into one easy to find place.

Backstage view – Backstage view replaces the file menu of old. It is used to manage files and the data about the files, such as creating and saving files, inspecting for hidden metadata or personal information, and setting file options.

File format - The Word 2010 file format enables new features such as co-authoring, new graphic and text effects, and new numbering formats. Word 2010 works with Office Word 2007 documents.

Protected View - Files from a potentially unsafe location (such as the Internet or an e-mail attachment) or files that contain active content (such as macros, data connections, or ActiveX controls) are validated and can open in Protected View. When you open files in Protected View mode, the editing functions are disabled. This will help protect you from opening an attachment only to find it was a virus. You can open and edit files from trusted sources by clicking Enable Editing.

Collaboration and sharing features - Word 2010 supports co-authoring functionality. Co-authoring functionality simplifies collaboration by enabling multiple users to work productively on the same document without intruding on one another’s work or locking one another out.

Graphic enhancements -Word 2010 provides improved editing tools with a new set of Picture Tools that enable you to transform your documents into artistically engaging documents. New editing tools are as follows:

· Picture Correction Options

· Artistic Effect Options

· Background Removal

· Picture Layout Options

Now for some quick training to demonstrate a couple of these new features.

Make the Switch to Word 2010 from earlier versions ( about 30 minutes)

Understanding new Word security messages (about 10 minutes)

Create visually compelling documents using image editing, screen clippings and new SmartArt (about 30 minutes)

We hope that these references will help you make a smooth transition to Office 2010.

What’s New in Office 2010: Excel

By now most of you have installed a copy of Office 2010 and if you were previously using Office XP or Office 2003 as many were then you are in for a real treat. There are so many changes from those versions that it’s not possible to list them. So what I’m going to do is just post what’s brand new and then point to some quick and easy training courses at the end.

Here’s what brand new for Excel:

Backstage view -The new Backstage view replaces the traditional File menu. All file management tasks are available in Backstage. Click the File tab to access the Backstage view. Although it was previously possible to save and publish worksheet data to a SharePoint site, in Excel 2010, the options for doing this are now conveniently located together on the Share tab in Microsoft Office Backstage.

Sparklines - are a new kind of visualization in Excel 2010. They are small cell-sized graphics used to show trends in series of values by using line, column, or win/loss charts. Click here to see what they look like.

Slicers - make filtering and interpretation of data easier. They improve PivotTables and CUBE functions in a workbook. Slices filtered data interactively. They float above the grid and behave like report filters so you can hook them to PivotTables, PivotCharts, or CUBE functions to create interactive reports or dashboards. Click here to see what they look like.

Excel 2010 64-bit advantages - Applications built with the 64-bit version simply can use more physical memory than ever, especially important for those who need to work with really large data sets. In Excel 2010 investments were made in our 64-bit architecture to optimize our memory consumption while keeping the cell table (and related operations) as fast as possible.

Compatibility mode tool - New features in Excel 2010 are disabled when you are opening previous versions of Excel in Excel 2010. For example, new 2010 Sparklines and Slicers features are disabled with opening earlier version of Excel. Workbooks created in the Excel 97-2003 file format (.xls) automatically open in Compatibility Mode. Workbooks created in Excel 2010, but destined for others who use earlier versions of Excel, should turn on Compatibility Mode to prevent accidental use of functions and features that are incompatible with the earlier versions of Excel. This is very important for users who plan to share workbooks with other users who have not yet migrated to Office Excel 2007 or a later version.

File loading performance - File loading (opening and saving) lends itself well to parallel processing and the multi-core functionality of Excel 2010. However, the structure and content of workbooks significantly affects the performance gains. For example, if there is only one very large sheet in a workbook, a proportionally large amount of file loading time will be spent simply loading the one sheet. But if you have two very large sheets, Excel can fetch the second sheet off disk while the first sheet is still being loaded into memory.

PivotTable enhancements - PivotTables are easier and faster to use in Excel 2010. The description of those changes are too lengthy to recount here.

Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel add-in - If you need to model and analyze very large amounts of data, you can download the PowerPivot for Excel add-in and work with that data inside your Excel workbooks. By using this add-in, you can quickly combine data from multiple sources, including corporate databases, worksheets, reports, and data feeds.

Calculation Improvements – new version of solver, 50 new statistical functions

Filtering - For large worksheets filtering enables the quick location and display of specific data in tables and PivotTable views. Use new Search Filter capability to spend less time sifting through large data sets.

Excel Services enhancements - Many organizations use Excel Services to share workbooks and data with other people.. If you use Excel Services on a SharePoint site, you can take advantage of the following improvements:

· Share workbooks from Backstage   Before Excel 2010, it was previously possible to save and publish worksheet data to a SharePoint site. In Excel 2010, the options for doing this are now conveniently located together on the Share tab in the Microsoft Office Backstage view.

· More support for Excel features   Before Excel 2010, if a workbook contained unsupported features, it could not be opened in the browser. In Excel 2010, most workbooks with unsupported features will open. In addition, more Excel features are supported in Excel Services, including new Excel 2010 features such as Sparklines and Slicers.

· Edit and collaborate on workbooks   If you publish a workbook to a SharePoint site where Excel Services is installed, you can edit your workbook in a supported Web browser, in addition to viewing it. In addition, you and your colleagues can work on the same workbook at the same time. This means that you no longer have to e-mail a workbook around, or wait for someone to check it back in on the server before you can edit it. For example, imagine that you and your manager are currently viewing the same worksheet in different offices. If you make a change to the data, your manager will see that change on her screen.

Conditional formatting - Conditional formatting allows references to be made to different sheets on the workbook (cross-sheet conditional formatting). Use conditional formatting to discover and show important trends and highlight data exceptions. More styles, data bar options, and new icon sets made available. References to other worksheets allow in conditional formatting rules. Conditional formatting stores dependencies of the formulas used so reevaluation of the entire conditional format is not necessary as often. Pivot tables or scrolling refresh more quickly so they can display faster.

Icon sets - Icon Sets are a new kind of conditional formatting. An icon is drawn in each cell representing the value of the cell relative to the other cells in the selected range. Icons sets are a great way to create groups of similar data as a part of your data analysis.

Data bars -Data bars now drawn proportionally according to their values. Negative values more clearly displayed and zero values are suppressed.

Pattern fills - Pattern fills removed in 2007 have been reintroduced in Excel 2010. Charts formatted with pattern fills in previous versions of Excel will retain and display the pattern fills when they are opened in Office Excel 2007.

Charting - In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, you could have up to 32,000 data points in a data series for 2-D charts. In Excel 2010, the number of data points in a data series is limited only by available memory. This enables users — especially those in the scientific community — to more effectively visualize and analyze large sets of data

High Performance Computing Clusters – which in english means if you’re doing a huge amount of computing you can assign a group of computers to process the data and get it done faster.

Macro recording support for chart elements – even more places to automate Excel repetitive activities

So now that you’re overwhelmed with just the list of what’s new, never mind what’s changed, how about a little training? Microsoft has free bite-sized training bits available online. Here are two that you should make the time for right away.

Here’s a 30 minute short course on getting up to speed on the new version of Excel. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/make-the-switch-to-excel-2010-RZ101809963.aspx

A 15 minute course on new security features in Office 2010. You’re going to need to know how to use these for all parts of Office. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/office-2010-security-protecting-your-files-RZ101665538.aspx

New Year – A Whole new World

This new year is screaming out for change. It may be a cliché but nothing is more consistent in computer network technology than change and boy are we getting a lot of it this year. The interesting thing is that this change isn’t simply a new version of this or that. It’s change of the seismic shift order. Everything in IT is turning on its head.

What was real is now virtual. What was on-site is now in the cloud. What was unthinkable is now the ordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s before my time in IT, but I think it must be like the change from mainframe to PC’s. We are entering a new era and those that don’t move with it will be left holding the punch cards. 

So how do we make dramatic change without chaos? We learn, we train, we test and we educate.  We’re to the point now, where internally we have learned, trained and tested these new technologies. Now we’re ready to educate. It is important to me that you understand why we make the recommendations that we do. I don’t want it to seem as if they are coming out of left field or we’re suggesting something you’ve never heard of before. So expect to see a large number of opportunities educational opportunities. We promise to keep the geek speak to a bare minimum and focus on how these new technologies can improve the bottom line of your business, will have a very quick ROI and will make you money. We’re going to sponsor in-person education events and web based ones too. Most of them will be web based because we understand the value of your time and the necessity for you to remain at your office. I hope that you will be able to join us at these events.

Our first invitation will be coming soon.

Free Outlook 2007 Training

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC101000901033

Each last from between 20 and 50 minutes and is a short video on how to use a specific feature or perform a task. Below is just a sample, there are many more courses than just these.

Not following us on Twitter yet? Do it. http://twitter.com/harborcomputer

Not a member of our Facebook Fan page? Do it.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Royal-Oak-MI/Harbor-Computer-Services/157213751055?ref=ts