Executive Training Solutions

PowerPoint Tip: CompFight Visual Search Engine

Melanie — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:57:22 +0000

When you’re trying to create dynamic presentations, you don’t want to use the same pieces of clipart that your audience has seen a hundred times. At the same time, you don’t always have the budget to create, or purchase, unique photographs.

CompFight is a comprehensive visual search engine that allows you to search the Internet for graphics and images that will give your presentations that extra boost of creativity. It will search for images, based on the keywords you enter. It will also filter out images based on different licensing options and whether or not the image is the original. When Creative Commons licensing has been applied to an image, you can check to see what the requirements for use were set by the creator.

It is up to you to properly attribute any work that you find and use, but CompFight makes it easy to find powerful images and help you create PowerPoint presentations that stand out.

Outlook 2010 Tip: Delayed Delivery

Melanie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:48:52 +0000

Have you ever scheduled a meeting to occur right after you return from a vacation? You usually send out reminder emails a few days before, but when you’re lounging on the beach you don’t want to think about meetings you need to attend after your return!

With Delayed Delivery in Microsoft Outlook 2010, you can create the email before you leave, but have Outlook hold it and deliver it while you are gone. In order to do this:

Create your email message
On the OPTIONS tab, in the MORE OPTIONS group, click DELAY DELIVERY
The dialog box will check “Do not deliver before”
Fill in the date and time you want the message to be sent
Impress people with your dedication to work!

This feature is also great to set up a years’ worth of reminders, or perhaps special birthday greetings to go out on co-workers’ birthdays.

If you would like to learn more about Microsoft Outlook, or any Microsoft application, visit our website for course outlines and calendars. We look forward to seeing you at Executive Training Solutions soon!

Office 15 ?!?

Melanie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:01:09 +0000

Microsoft has begun the “Technical Preview” for Office 15, and plans to release a beta version of the latest Office suite sometime this summer. The “Technical Preview” is when a select group begins testing and using the software so they can provide feedback to Microsoft. You may feel like you just got used to all the new features in Office 2007 and 2010, but this latest release promises to be the most ambitious update of Office products — including updates in all the usual Office applications, as well as SharePoint, Visio, Project and more. There will be more focus on cloud computing and collaborating with others.

We’re excited about the upcoming changes and look forward to helping our clients quickly get up to speed with all the new features that are bound to appear. As soon as the new version is widely released, we will begin offering New Features classes at Executive Training Solutions in Phoenix, AZ. Until then, we are always teaching students how to be more productive using software and we are looking forward to helping you, too!

New Social Sharing Site – Clipboard

Melanie — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:16:39 +0000

New social media / sharing websites pop up on the Internet every day. One that has been around for a few months, but seems like it has great potential, is Clipboard. Clipboard allows you to surf the Web and quickly (and easily!) copy pieces from websites and save them to your Clipboard account. It’s similar to Pinterest, but seems to be filled with more tech-related clippings rather than crafts and recipes. It is also easier to use, and provides completely functional mini-windows into the websites that were clipped. When you choose to clip something, your mouse changes functionality and you are able to select anything from a website. The service maintains the HTML code, and then saves it to your account.

Right now, it’s an invite-only site, but you can easily request an invite from their main page. The time to receive an invitation varies, because they’re trying to grow slowly and keep up with the technical, behind-the-scenes magic. I think it’s going to prove to be very popular, and suggest you request an invite if you love to save information you find on the web.

If you love to learn about how to use computers productively, why not take a class at Executive Training Solutions? We offer all levels of classes — whether you’re a beginner or of the office guru. We are sure that our instructors can teach you some new tricks! Visit our website and check out our classes today.

Excel Functions: SMALL and LARGE

Melanie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:10:23 +0000

If you have been using Microsoft Excel for a while, you are probably familiar with the functions MIN and MAX that find the smallest and largest numbers in a range of data. You may not be aware of two other functions that do something similar, but with something added.

Using the SMALL and LARGE functions, you can choose where in the range you want to find your value. For instance, if you wanted to find the 3rd largest number in a range, you could type: =LARGE(A1:G35, 3). It would return the 3rd largest number in the range of cells A1 through G35.

SMALL will do just the opposite. =SMALL(A1:G35, 3) will return the 3rd smallest number in the range. With the added flexibility, you can begin using SMALL and LARGE in place of MIN and MAX.

If you would like to learn more about all the functions in Excel, consider taking the Excel Level 4 we offer at Executive Training Solutions. You will have the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of financial, statistical, text and more advanced functions.

Office 2010: Contextual Tabs

Melanie — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:12:13 +0000

Most have been working with Microsoft Office 2010 for a while now. After a little time, most are used to the Ribbon and found ourselves navigating the different tabs and groups to find the items we need to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. One thing that may still be confusing are the extra tabs that sometimes appear on the Ribbon.

These are contextual tabs. They appear when specific objects are being worked on in an application. For example, when you create a table in Excel, tabs appear on your Ribbon to make it easier to format and modify that table. As soon as you navigate away from the table, the extra tabs disappear.

There are six different types of contextual tabs:

Format
Design
Layout
Playback
Arrange
Page Setup

The next time one of these tabs appear, take a few minutes to explore the different commands they provide. You’ll probably find a new tool!

If you would like to take a class to learn more about Microsoft Office 2010, Executive Training Solutions would love to have you as a student. Check out the website and register for a class today!

Microsoft Project Conference Coming to Phoenix!

Melanie — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:26:43 +0000

This March (2012), Microsoft is having their Microsoft Project Conference here in Phoenix, AZ! You can get all the details from their conference website. It’s an excellent opportunity to spend a few days immersed in all the possibilities that Microsoft Project can create for your organization. There are a few different tracks available, and more details will continue to be posted on their site. If you’re already in Phoenix, you can save all the travel expenses.

If you’re unfamiliar with Microsoft Project, but know that it would be a useful tool, consider taking a 2 day class at our Phoenix training location. We would be happy to introduce you to the best project management software available.

Excel “Instant” Hot Keys

Melanie — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:16:39 +0000

There are keys that you can press in Microsoft Excel to instantly do something on your worksheet. Here are a few of the most popular that we like to tell our students about:

F11 will instantly create a chart on your worksheet
ALT + + will instantly create an autosum function in the selected cell
CTRL + ; will instantly record the current date
CTRL + 1 will instantly open the FORMAT CELLS dialog box

To learn more useful tips, attend one of the 4 levels of Microsoft Excel classes offered by Executive Training Solutions in Phoenix. We have a seat waiting for you!

Quickbooks Transaction Journal Tip

Melanie — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:59:57 +0000

Quickbooks is an excellent accounting software to help keep the books for small to medium sized businesses. One thing that accountants wonder about is what happens “behind the scenes” when transactions are created in Quickbooks. It’s easy to create invoices, pay bills, etc., but there are times when the accountant wants to make sure all the debits and credits are going to the correct accounts.

When you are in any transaction form screen, press CTRL + Y and you will see the Journal Entry. This is a great tool to verify that everything will show up in the proper accounts.

If you need to learn more about Quickbooks, Executive Training Solutions in Phoenix, AZ offers 2 levels of Quickbooks training. Visit our website today to find out when the next class is scheduled.

Windows Key Uses

Melanie — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:38:18 +0000

You have probably noticed the Windows key on your keyboard, but did you know that it was useful for a variety of shortcuts?

If you press the WINDOWS key, it will open your START menu
Pressing WINDOWS + D will minimize all open windows on your screen and show you the desktop
Pressing WINDOWS + M does the same thing (minimizes all open windows)
Pressing WINDOWS + SHIFT + M opens all the windows you minimized with WINDOWS + M or + D
Pressing WINDOWS + E will open your FILE EXPLORER
Pressing WINDOWS + TAB will move through the icons in your task bar

Try some of these shortcuts today and save time searching for things on your computer!

If you would like to learn more shortcuts, we offer a variety of computer classes to help make you an expert. Visit our website to find a class, then visit our office in Phoenix, AZ to learn new skills. We look forward to seeing you soon!