Email Management Tips

Posted on November 2, 2009, 10:00 pm, by ShawnC and received Comments.

Email is a great tool. Unfortunately, its easy to think of it as a Swiss Army Knife and use it ways it’s not well suited. Here are a few tips to help you get a handle on email:

  1. Your inbox is not permanent storage. Work through it and take action:
    1. File, Flag for follow-up, reply or delete.
  2. Use folders for longer term storage and getting organized. Some good examples of useful folders might be:
    1. Follow-up – Items that need research before replying.
    2. Read Later – News letters or messages that don’t require a response.
    3. Archive – Longer term storage.
    4. Projects
  3. Turn off Email alerts and only check email periodically through the day.
  4. Use the tools offered by most of email applications like flags,labels,stars to make it easier to keep track of messages.
  5. If you are out of office, make sure you use the auto-responder feature to make sure people understand it might be a while before you respond.
  6. Make sure understand your Anti spam software and Junk Mail options so it doesn’t block your important emails and try to check spam folder at regularly.

For a more comprehensive list of ideas for getting email under control check out InboxZero.

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Windows 7 Launch Keynote Video

Posted on October 22, 2009, 11:53 am, by admin and received Comments.

If you missed the keynote this morning for the Windows 7 launch in NYC you can catch it here. There are great demos of features in the latest version of Windows along with some fantastic new hardware. Check it out!

Xobni – My Inbox Hero

Posted on October 21, 2009, 8:41 pm, by admin and received Comments.

Email, a great tool but, sometimes it  a real time killer. One fantastic tool that has helped me better manage email is Xobni.  It’s an add-on for Outlook 2003 and 2007 and the latest version, 1.8, adds some great new features. Here are a few of my favorites:

Search

Xobni indexes all of your email for super fast, ‘as you type’ searches. You can put in all kinds of keywords, names or even partial phone numbers. Xobni breaks email into more that just messages, it also manages your connections. A simple search for “‘Bob”, (because you  have forgotten that potential new clients last name) returns a list of every “Bob” you have ever had an email conversation with and every message where ‘Bob’ is referenced. Now, you can be quickly reminded of “Bobs” last name, click on him and see all the messages you have exchanged.

Conversations

Xobni groups all of those threaded conversations together so you can quickly find the parts that matter most to you without having to track back through each message one at a time. Xobni also relates all of the people you have been talking to by analyzing the To, From, and CC lines to make connections with people you may not have seen before.

File Attachments

Finding that report from last week or last quarter can really be difficult. Xobni has a special section for files. If you can find “Bob”, you’ll see a list of every file you and “Bob” have ever exchanged.

If you live in your Outlook inbox, you should try Xobni.

Environmentally Friendly Printing Tips

Posted on October 20, 2009, 9:42 pm, by ShawnC and received Comments.

Here are a few ways you can help the environment and save money on printing:

  1. OK, this is not really a printing tip but, if you can, try to avoid printing email and documents. They’re safe, right there on your computer. That paper copy will end up in the recycle bin any way.
  2. If you can, upgrade your equipment. Laser printers for example, are more efficient than ink jet printers and if you can find one with double sided printing, you’ll save on paper.
  3. Use collaboration tools if you need work on documents with other people. Microsoft SharePoint or Google Apps provide great ways to store, search,  and share document with your team.
  4. Move your shared printers a bit father from your team, if you can. If you make it a little harder, they might just stay at their desk to read.
  5. Have special recycle cans along with normal trash cans and encourage people to recycle paper products.
  6. Take that one extra proof read. If you must print, make sure you don’t have to make multiple copies because of mistakes.
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Tips and tricks Microsoft Word 2007

Posted on October 20, 2009, 9:14 pm, by ShawnC and received Comments.

Split Document:

Have you ever been working on a large document and needed to refer to another part of it? It  can be frustrating having to scroll from  once section to another. By using the split document feature, you can independently navigate two sections of the same document. Here’s how:

  • Click View Tab.
  • Click Split and slide the “splitter bar” under wherever you need it.

For a more detailed description check out a video tutorial on split document.

Encrypt your Documents:

Need to share a document but don’t want the information to be accessed by everyone? Protect it with a password. Here’s how:

  • Click the Office Button (the circle in the upper left hand corner of Word 2007).
  • Click Prepare and choose Encrypt Document.
  • You’ll be prompted to enter your password.

This will prevent unauthorized access to your document. Don’t forget that password! :)

Generic/Dummy Content:

You can easily put generic/dummy text into the word document a couple of ways. Here’s how:

  • Anywhere in your document type the following function  “=rand()” and press Enter. You’ll see three paragraphs of sample text.
  • Anywhere in your document type the following function  “=lorem()” and press Enter. You’ll see three paragraphs of generic placeholder text sometimes known as “Lorem ipsum” or “Greeked Text”
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System Requirements For Windows 7

Posted on October 9, 2009, 1:15 pm, by ShawnC and received Comments.

System Requirements for Windows 7

Want to install Windows 7 on your system,here is what you need:

  1. 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  2. 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  3. 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
  4. DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
  5. Other requirements:
  • Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on
  • DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
  • BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive

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New Features in Windows 7

Posted on October 2, 2009, 12:59 am, by ShawnC and received Comments.

The Windows 7 launch is Thursday October 22. Here are some of the cool new features we like and think you will too:

1) There are several new features to help you stay organized

  • Aero Shake – Get rid of too many open windows with a little mouse shake.
  • Aero Peek – Shows you the position of all the windows you have open.
  • Aero Snap -A quick way to resize and compare windows on your desktop.

2) Themes and Wallpapers – great looking themes and tons of options if you get bored.

3) Windows XP Mode –  allows you run older Windows XP business software right on your Windows 7 desktop.

4) Jump Lists – Short cuts in applications that make it easier to access the documents, pictures or songs that you use everyday. To open a jump list, right click on any program in task bar or start menu. Different application have different options.

Check out what Cali over @ geekbrief.tv has to say!

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Compare Windows 7 Versions

Posted on October 2, 2009, 12:45 am, by ShawnC and received Comments.

With the big launch in just a few days I wanted to provide a short comparison of the features and pricing for Windows 7. For home users, we have to recommend ‘Home Premium’ .  The starter edition just won’t provide the experience you’re probably used to. For our business users, we think you’ll get everything you’ll probably need in the professional edition. The price difference is negligible but, unless you’re a gadget geek who has to have it all, we’d suggesting saving a little money.

Features Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Professional Windows 7 Ultimate
Estimated Upgrade Price $119.99 $199.99 $211.99
improved desktop navigation YES YES YES
Load programs faster ,easy to find documents that are often used YES YES YES
IE 8 YES YES YES
Run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode. NO YES YES
Domain Join to connect with company networks easily, securly NO YES YES
Backup to network NO YES YES
Data Protection on pc and remote storage using BitLocker NO NO YES

For more details about moving to Windows 7 visit Microsoft’s Windows for Business site.

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Microsoft Office 2010:Preview

Posted on September 30, 2009, 7:32 pm, by ShawnC and received Comments.

Way back in 2007, Microsoft made a huge leap by making a major redesign of the user interface in its’ Office suite.  Like most, I found the new design a bit strange at first. I had many questions like: where was my old friend the ‘file menu’, what happened to the print settings, and what do mean older versions can’t see this new format? But then, after using it for a while and seeing some of the new features in action, I was sold on the new approach and wouldn’t go back. It’s so much easier to make fantastic looking documents in Word and a breeze to do some really fancy stuff in Excel. I’m excited with the announcement of Microsoft Office 2010 and some of the new features that will be included. Here is a sample:

Common features:

  • Co-Authoring lets multiple people work on the same document and tell you who else is working on the document.
  • Online Files.  Access your files from anywhere and edit right in your browser.
  • New Smart Art Templates help you create engaging document and presentations.
  • Improved author permissions.
  • Improved Copy / Paste from the web.

Microsoft® Word 2010

  • New features to create high quality and professional documents.
  • Screen clippings allow you to grab snapshots from your screen right from Word.

Microsoft Excel 2010

  • Sparklines. This new features allows you to display data trends in a single cell.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

  • Background removal tool allows you to edit graphics to match your PowerPoint slides.
  • Video editing.
  • Enhanced Transitions.

Microsoft Outlook 2010

  • Threaded conversations allow you to follow a conversation without hunting through your inbox.
  • Inline views allow you to see your calendar right inside a meeting request.

Office Web Apps

  • Access online Word, Excel®, PowerPoint® and OneNote® applications.
  • Allows you to access documents from anywhere.
  • Simultaneously share and work on documents with others online.
  • View documents across PCs, mobile phones, and the Web without compromising document fidelity.
  • Create new documents and do basic editing using the familiar Office interface.
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