Author Archives: Greg

About Greg

Technology, Education, and Entertainment are my services and I am THE Speaker for events and meetings (THE - Technology, Humor, and Entertainment). I have many certifications and awards for my unique learning experience for technology, life, and business management.

Microsoft Office Specialist – Study/Support Group

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Propeller Geek HatI am leading a FREE Microsoft Office Specialist Study/Support group for the next 18 months to help people with certifying in the Microsoft Office suite. Selfishly, I want companions and I need to complete ALL of the 2013 Office application certifications, include Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word, and I like to have much support along the way. I am certified in Office 1997 and 2007 as a Master Educator and Microsoft Certified Application Specialist – Instructor having completed all certification exams. I have helped Certiport develop exams, too. I found the certification process lonely and frustrating. I want companions to help me achieve and I want to be a companion to help others.

I have 100 + folks who are tagging along with me and want to certify. I and team members will offer advice, cheer leading, and education to help achieving our certification action plan. The first webinar is August 27, at 8:00 PM EST and will continue for 18 months at monthly or as needed intervals with guest presenters and experts. Here is the link to register for the webinar: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=EA59DE83864930.

You may join this group until January, 2015 at that time the clock ticks too fast for you to certify in our 18 month program – September 1, 2014 – April 1, 2016. Email me at creechgreg@bellsouth.net to become a member of this team. Webinars are free and you may replay them at no cost. Please remember me for your organization’s training needs, operational projects, entertainment, and emptying trash cans for a modest fee. Thank you and let’s enhance our skills and knowledge in technology.
Remember, no one has ever been fired or not hired because they knew too much about Microsoft Office and certifications never hurt a career.

Smart Guides: A New Microsoft Office 2013 Feature

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How Smart it is! Office 2013 New Feature Smart Guides.

Placing pictures, text boxes, and other items EXACTLY aligned can be a painful process in PowerPoint, Word, or Publisher. Microsoft Office 2013 provides Smart guides that pop up to show you when you have items centered, aligned with each other, when you are going outside the margins and other areas. PowerPoint’s Dialogue box at right displays your option. The screenshot at right shows PowerPoint 2013 View tab’s Show group that you may turn on or off your Guides, Gridlines, and Rulers. You’ll find these very helpful in aligning your objects. I’ve circled the Dialogue Box launcher that activates the Grid and Guides options displayed here.

2013 PowerPoint Grid and Guides

2013 PowerPoint Grid and Guides

Windows 8 or Windows Hate: You decide

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Read the full article – Windows 8 or Windows Hate: You Decide Article

Here are honest eight points about Windows 8.1 from my clients and me – “average” users (if there ever was such a thing as an average user!). To be fair, four points are Love it and four points are Hate it. You decide – do you love Windows 8.1 or is it Windows hate for you?

  1. Love it! Touch me, Touch me – The touch screen capabilities are great and you can even right click (or secondary mouse click) to get shortcut menus through tap and hold on the screen.
  2. Hate it! So darn buggy it needs an exterminator! Windows 8 has more updates than you could count and will update when you need your computer the most (or so it seems) and the system declares, “Do not turn off your computer.”
  3. Love it! Ribbons and Quick Access Toolbar. Adopting the Microsoft Office Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar interface, the Windows 8 ribbons allow you to get to great features quickly and easily, such as managing your drives, showing your file extensions, and using check boxes to select files.
  4. Hate it! Downgrade instead of Upgrade. After upgrading existing machines from Windows 7, I felt as if I had been downgraded instead of upgraded. Do not upgrade existing computers wait until you purchase a new computer that has a touch screen with Windows 8.1
  5. Love it! Cloudy with a chance of productivity. Windows 8 is very cloud friendly and works fantastic with OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.
  6. Hate it! Looked good on paper, but. . The idea of having an operating system appear and act the same on various devices looked good on paper (even I was excited and got Windows 8 on the release date), but in reality, many of us use our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops differently. However, time will tell as we acquaint ourselves with Windows 8.
  7. Love it! Have it your way – I like customizing my desktop and taskbar, plus moving, resizing, and grouping tiles on the start screen apps are terrific
  8. Hate it! Need improved apps. While some of the preloaded Start screen apps, like weather, are good. You may want to avoid some of the store apps you can download. Pay attention to reviews and comments about the app before installing. Use your desktop apps for multitasking, more functionality, split screens, etc. instead of the start screen apps.

Celebrate TODAY() in Excel!

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TechTip: Celebrate TODAY() in Excel. The TODAY() function in Excel is versatile. Simply typing =TODAY() in a cell displays your computer’s current date. Using this function in a formula calculates the information in days. For example, in a blank worksheet in cell A1 type 01/15/2014 and in cell B1 enter =TODAY()-A1. Excel may display the result as date, so change the cell’s format to a number as displayed below. Excel displays the number of days (after changing your format to number). This is great for calculating 30-60-90 day money or days since a customer appointment; anytime you want to calculate the difference in days. The calculations for measuring in years is: =(TODAY()-A1)/365.25; my birthday and age appear below (SHAME!). Both calculations display below in a picture. So, enjoy TODAY()!

Excel's TODAY function

Excel’s TODAY function

Welcome Back! New Microsoft Office 2013 Feature

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TechTip: New Office 2013 Feature – Welcome back! When you open a document or presentation that you have edited, Word and PowerPoint 2013 provide a bookmark at the right edge of your screen. Hovering on the bookmark provides a message “Welcome back! Pick up where you left off.” The message even tells you the title where you left off and when. Clicking or tapping this quickly goes to where you closed the document ready to begin again. Welcome back, and Thanks!

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back!

 

E is for Empathy.

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E is for Empathy. As I present my “Customer Service Excellence” Workshop at Athens Technical College, the word for today is Empathy. Empathy is a primary skill I learned in acting school and theatre 101 in order to develop my characters and “become” them on stage. Knowing and experiencing what another person endures carries over into many areas of our business, especially when evaluating job performance and providing customer service excellence. Like the old joke says, “Walk a mile in another person’s shoes – you’ll have new shoes plus good exercise!”

Projection Pane Shortcut

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TechTip: After connecting your computer to a projector or additional monitor, you may need to change your display settings. On your keyboard, pressing the Windows Key with the P key activates the Project pane for you to select the display you would like, such as Duplicate usually for projectors or Extend usually for a second monitor or display. No need to wade through the Control Panel for these settings. The Windows 8.1 screen appears below; Windows 7 the pane is horizontal but works the same. You may access this through your Charms bar, too.

Project.

Your Signature, Please

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TechTip: My pet peeve – Your Signature please. Often I receive emails with “Sent from my iPad/iPhone”, etc. with no name or contact information. These smart devices and computers have enough advertising – you should advertise you. No matter the device or software, they all have signatures. Please go into your Settings or Options and personalize the signature to include your contact information. Many devices and software allow you to customize the signature based on your email account(s) and different replying/forwarding signatures.  Following your contact information use the free advertising for the device with some fun lines like these from my clients:

  • Sent with iPhone autocorrect issues plus a few (harried) operator errors.
  • Sent from my mobile phone.  If there are errors, it’s Siri’s fault.
  • Sent from my iPhone with my iFingers and using my iBrain. Please excuse brevity and typos.
  • Sent from iVan my iPad who has a mind of his own and writes things he shouldn’t.

 

Common MS Office Function Keys – Adds Functionality, Saves time

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TechTip: In Word, Excel, Outlook (Email, Appointment), and PowerPoint (PC versions) these four Function Keys at the top of your keyboard work the same:

  • F1 is Help (not that I would EVER need help HA!),
  • F7 runs your Spell Checker,
  • F10 is Key Tips (Keyboard shortcuts for using the Ribbon and tabs), and
  • F12 (my personal favorite) key quickly activates Save as for you.

The other Function Keys work differently in the applications, such as F5 is Go To in Excel and Word, but begins your PowerPoint presentation from the beginning and activates Find and Replace in Outlook.

Stay Tuned! Plenty more keyboard shortcuts coming soon.

Text-to-Speech – Talk to me, Baby!

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TechTip: Text-to-Speech – Talk to me baby! Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook (2010 and 2013) can read any of your selected text. Outlook speaks my selected email text and Word helps me proofread by reading back my document. Add the Speak button to your Quick Access Toolbar by clicking the arrow at the end of your toolbar and clicking More Commands – pictured below. At the next pane (displayed below), in your Choose commands from list choose Commands Not in the Ribbon and scroll to Speak and click the Add button. Click OK. Now, in your application select text (paragraphs, pages, sentences – whatever) and click the button – Michael Microsoft reads to you! I’m not so lonely anymore.Text-to-Speech - Talk to Me!

Text-to-Speech – Talk to Me!

Word – Readability Statics – Make the Grade!

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TechTip: Make the Grade with Word. Word has a neat feature called Readability Statistics. After using your Spelling and Grammar check, Word can give a pane showing you the percentage of passive voice (editors/publishers do not like more than 8% – 10% passive voice) and what grade level you are writing. To activate Readability Statistics, go to your Word Options from the File Tab (Office 2010 and 2013) or the Office Button for (Office 2007) and click Options and check Show Readability statics as displayed below. After you run your spell/grammar check (use the F7 key at the top of your keyboard to quickly activate Spelling and Grammar), the pane below displays. Mrs. Wyman, my high school English teacher, is very proud that I’m writing this post at the 11th grade level AND no passive voice; however, my Flesch Reading Ease should be at 70 – 80. This works in Outlook 2010 and 2013 for your email messages, too.

Word's Readability Statistics

Word’s Readability Statistics

 

Outlook 2013 Tech Tip

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TechTip Outlook 2013: If you write something like see attached or I have inserted and DON’T attach/insert file (not that you have ever done this), Outlook’s message box says: You may have forgotten to attach a file; you may choose the button Don’t Send or Send Anyway. This new 2013 feature did not take me and my clients very long to discover. Enjoy!

2013 Outlook - You may have forgotten!

2013 Outlook – You may have forgotten!

Windows 8.1: Tip 3 of 8 – Keyboard Shortcuts

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Thankfully our good, old (and some new) keyboard shortcuts are available. No matter what keyboard device you use tablet, laptop, or desktop these Windows shortcuts save time.

Click here for a free download of my Windows 8 or Windows 7 PDF cheat sheet of more shortcuts, but here are some of my favorite:

Windows 8.1 - Some of my favorite shortcut keys

Windows 8.1 – Some of my favorite shortcut keys

 

Windows 8.1: Tip 1 of 8 – The Start Screen – Off to a nice start

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Microsoft has taken the good, old familiar Start menu and promoted it to its own screen after the login screen. Initially reaction to this new screen was less than enthusiastic (awful) by many users as we were use to our Desktop and Start button The new Start screen looks the same on any Windows device which is nice to have the same look and feel of our operating system no matter the device plus Windows 8 has great touch screen abilities.

You may right click using a mouse or tap and hold for a moment using a touchscreen to get a menu at the bottom of your screen that allows you some neat and productive actions for each of your application’s tile, such as Pin to your Taskbar, Pin to your Start, Uninstall, and other options. Some customize options offer the resize option for your tiles. You may group your apps and rename the groups, too. You can click and drag your apps as you like to rearrange your tiles to suit your needs and organize your apps.

As pictured below, I have rearranged my apps and grouped them by my favorites and Microsoft Office on my Start screen.  If you click the arrow at the lower left of your Start screen or swipe up on a touchscreen, the All Apps view appears. This displays ALL of your apps, tools, accessories, and other items. I have my Outlook tile selected with the customize menu displayed at the bottom of this post. You should pin your favorite and often used apps to your Start screen and your taskbar from the All Apps view – we’ll learn later why this is helpful too you. So, have it your way and customize your Start screen.

Start Screen

Start Screen

Customize WIndows TIle

Customize Windows Tile