Archive for November, 2009

Business Skill Classes

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

At Executive Training Solutions, we love to help people succeed in their careers.  While the majority of classes we offer are computer training classes, did you know that we also offer a variety of business skill classes?

If you’re nervous about making presentations, and not sure how to effectively share your message, attend our next Presentation Skills class!  You’ll learn how to avoid common mistakes, how to warm up an audience, how to deliver a strong message and control your body language.  You’ll leave with more confidence and even excitement about your next presentation.

If you find yourself doing a lot of business writing, consider our Business Writing class. This half day class will give you a comprehensive grammar review and help make your writing clear, concise and effective.

Struggling with how to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy? Attend one of our social media classes and learn how to create a strategy, manage your time and find the sites that will give you the most return for your time.

Browse the Executive Training Solution website for more business skills classes and register for one today! Give your career a boost as the year ends.

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Do You Need a Kindle?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

If you follow tech gadget news, you probably know that Amazon recently lowered the price on the second generation Kindles.  The Kindle is an e-reader created and sold by Amazon.  I resisted e-readers for a long time, but recently received one as a gift and am hooked!

The Kindle allows you to download books into a very light, slim device.  I currently have over 30 books loaded on mine, and it can hold over 1500! Instead of carrying a bag full of books on trips, or trying to choose which book to take, I can just carry my Kindle.  I can also download large technical manuals and never lug a 15 lb book in my bag again!

Most Kindle books are $9.99, but there are quite a few free books available.  Of the books currently on my Kindle, I think I purchased 2 — and those were both 99 cent books. It helps if you read a wide range of genres if you want to take full advantage of all the free books available.  You can also pay a small fee for magazines, newspapers and even blogs.

While I thought I would miss the physical act of turning pages, I have found that I don’t.  Instead, it’s actually easier to read in bed when I only have to click a button to flip the page.   I also love the fact that I can increase the text size of any book!

So, do you need a Kindle?  It is a gadget, but I think it’s a useful one.  If you read a wide variety of books, and find yourself juggling multiple books, I think it can be a great addition to your library.  I didn’t “need” a Kindle, and wasn’t even sure I wanted one. Now that I have it, I am very pleased with it.

The cost is a bit steep ($259), but aren’t the holidays around the corner?

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Visio Tip: Text Edit

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

When you’re working with text in Visio, you can double-click on text and usually find yourself in Text Edit mode. If you have a group of shapes, the double-click does not allow you to edit your text, and instead selects one of the sub-shapes.

If you press the F2 key after selecting a shape, your text will be highlighted and ready for you to edit.

You can also change the behavior of shapes so that double-click always allows you to edit shapes.

Choose a group of shapes on your drawing.  Choose FORMAT / BEHAVIOR / DOUBLE CLICK TAB.  Then select the radio button EDIT SHAPE’S TEXT and click OK.

From that point on, you will be able to double-click any shape and enter text edit mode!

For more tips and tricks on Microsoft Visio, please visit us an take one of our Visio classes.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

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Excel Tip: Adding Dates and Times

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

There are times when working in Microsoft Excel when you want to quickly time stamp your workbook.  You may want to remember the last time you updated a worksheet, or let others who use the same workbook know when it was last updated.

While you can simply remember the date and type it in, you can also press CTRL + ; (semi-colon) to enter the current date in a cell.  Press CTRL + SHIFT + ; to enter the current time.  If you want both the date and time in the same cell, press SPACE between CTRL + SHIFT + ; and CTRL + SHIFT + ;

To learn more useful tips and tricks for Microsoft Excel, attend one of our training classes!  We offer both full day and half day classes in Excel.

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Office 2010: What to Expect?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Sometime in 2010, Microsoft will release Office 2010!  This news may encourage some users to upgrade to 2007, or they may decide to wait until 2010 hits the shelves.  No matter what version of Office you’re currently using, there are some great new features that will be available in Office 2010.

What can you expect in Office 2010?  While much of it will look the same, they have added the Ribbon to Outlook, Publisher, Visio and Project!  Each piece of the suite will now have a similar look and feel. Users will also be able to customize the Ribbon to make it more efficient for individual needs.

For users that loved the improvements to Pivot Tables in 2007, they will be excited at the upgrades for Pivot Tables in 2010.  Not only are there more features, but they have added Slices — which makes Pivot Tables even more useful and user-friendly.

Feel free to visit Microsoft’s website and watch short videos about the changes in Office 2010.  And, then plan to come in for some training so you can learn all the new tips & tricks next year!

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Word 2007: What’s No Longer Available?

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

When Microsoft upgraded Word in Office 2007, they added many new features. While it may seem that nothing has been taken away, a few things were actually removed from this latest version:

  • Two WordPerfect emulations: the ability to view documents with white text on a blue background and most WordPerfect compatibility support, including WordPerfect Help
  • Personal Address Book for mail merges (replaced with Microsoft Outlook contacts)
  • Inserting bar codes in mail merge documents
  • Many file converters

If you were still using any of these features, you can still accomplish the same things in Microsoft Word 2007, except for the bar codes. You might need a little bit of training to find your way around Microsoft Word 2007, and we’d be happy to help.

Please check out our Word classes and visit us soon to learn great tips and tricks to make you more efficient!

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Visio Tip: Zoom In and Out

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

You can use your mouse, or you can use your keyboard but sometimes you can use both! In Microsoft Visio, you can press CTRL + SHIFT and then click your drawing in order to ZOOM IN.

Press CTRL + SHIFT and then right-click on your drawing and diagram in order to ZOOM OUT.

Microsoft Visio is a wonderful tool to create diagrams and drawings — including flow charts, network diagrams, furniture layouts, maps and more. To learn more about this wonderful tool, attend one of our classes.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

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