Two Tips for using Excel

Microsoft’s Excel has been, and continues to be, our most popular course topic for applications.

This month, we wanted to send out some of the popular tips we cover in our Excel courses.

Keep your numbers′ leading zeros in Excel(2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

If you need to enter the Zip code 02364 in your Excel spreadsheet, you′ll probably throw your hands up when Excel automatically changes the value to 2364. Your Zip code must have five digits, but by default Excel doesn′t display leading zeros.

Here′s the solution: Create a custom number format with five digits. This custom format forces Excel to display leading zeros.

To create a custom number format that keeps leading zeros intact:

1. Select the cell(s) in which you must show leading zeros, such as the column in which you′re storing Zip codes.
2. Press [Ctrl]1 to open the Format Cells dialog box.
3. Select Custom from the Category list box.
4. In the Type text box, enter 00000. This forces Excel to display five digits.
5. Click OK to apply the change.

Center data on your printout (2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

Printouts look best when they're centered both vertically and horizontally. If you've been playing around with column widths and margins to center your data, try this easy shortcut instead:

1. Choose File | Page Setup from the menu bar to open the Page Setup dialog box. (In 2007, click the Office button, then select Print | Print Preview. Click on Page Setup.)
2. Click on the Margins tab.
3. Select both the Horizontally and the Vertically check boxes in the Center On Page panel.
4. Click OK to accept your changes.

When you look at your print preview, you’ll see that your data is now in the center of the page.

Five Word tips that will improve your projects & save you time

Takeaway: Searching for ways to increase your Word productivity may get in the way of your productivity. So here are a few tricks you don’t need to go looking for. Efficient, simple to use, easy to remember.

As an admitted intermediate user of Word, I was hesitant of using this article when I first came across it. My thought was: who would want Word tips – they’re probably tips we all would already know. Of course, I was wrong. Not only was I not aware of most of the tips, I quickly realized they all could have saved me time on projects. So, here is a great Tips article from our friends at TechRepublic.com.

Most of us don’t have time to discover all the ins and outs of the software we use on a daily basis. We learn on the fly, we occasionally pick up a tip or shortcut, and we grudgingly plow through the Help system when we absolutely have to.

But sometimes, just a few little tricks can make a big difference. Turning off an annoying feature, learning a keyboard trick that bypasses three dialog boxes, or taking advantage of an obscure option can save you a few headaches and a lot of time. Will they really change your life? Well that might be a stretch. But they could. Try these tips on for size and let me know.

1: Make vertical text selections

Usually, we select text horizontally — a word, a series of words, a paragraph — from left to right or vice versa. But sometimes the selection has to be vertical. For instance, suppose you wanted to delete the leading characters in Figure A.

Figure A

To make a vertical selection, hold down [Alt] as you drag down through the text you want to highlight. Figure B shows the column of unwanted characters selected using this technique. Hit [Delete] and bam, they’re gone.

Figure B

Although we selected text at the beginning of the lines in this example, you can make vertical selections anywhere on the page.

Note: Some users have reported that the Research pane appears when they try this selection technique. Here’s the secret: Release the [Alt] key before you let up on the mouse button. Word should retain the selection. If you hold down [Alt] but release the mouse button, Word may think “[Alt]-click” and open the Research pane in response.

2: Undo automatic changes you don’t want

By default, Word imposes lots of changes on the text you enter in a document. For example, it might convert a Web address to a hyperlink, replace straight apostrophes and quotation marks with their curly counterparts, or turn a pair of hyphens into an em dash. If that’s a welcome convenience, you’re in good shape. If you want to suppress those types of changes, you can disable them. To disable those features on an individual basis, reach for the Undo command — [Ctrl]Z. Undo isn’t just for reversing something you’ve done; it also undoes some of the actions Word takes. Don’t want that em dash? When Word inserts it, hit [Ctrl]Z and change it back to the hyphens you intended to enter.

3: Get rid of a persistent border

Word offers a sometimes-handy option that lets you insert a border automatically. Type three hyphens on a blank line and press [Enter]. If the option is enabled, Word will replace the hyphens with a horizontal line. You can get rid of it if you press [Ctrl]Z after Word inserts it (see above). But if you try to select the border and delete it, you’re out of luck. You’re not dealing with a line object here. Word has applied the Bottom Border format to the paragraph.

To remove that format in Word 2003, click in the paragraph and choose No Border from the Borders drop-down list on the Formatting menu. In Word 2007/2010, click in the paragraph and then click the Border button in the Paragraph group of the Home tab. Just select No Border from the drop-down list (Figure C).

Figure C

If you like the automatic border feature, here’s a bonus tip: In addition to typing three hyphens to apply a bottom border (3/4-point), you can trigger different border styles. Typing:

• Three tilde characters (~) will create a wavy line.
• Three underscore characters (_) will create a 1.5-point line.
• Three asterisks (*) will create a dotted line.
• Three equal signs (=) will create a double line.
• Three pound signs (#) will produce a “thin thick thin” line.

4: Move selected text up or down

This tip is probably most useful when you’re working in a table, although you can use it to reorder paragraphs outside a table, too. Let’s say you decide you want the third row of a table to be the top row. Just click within the third row, hold down [Alt][Shift] and press the up arrow key twice. Each time you press the arrow key, Word will move the row up one. You can select multiple contiguous rows to move them as a block, and you can use the down arrow key if you want to move text down instead of up.

Using this shortcut gets a little tricky if you’re moving big pieces of text outside a table. It’s easy to lose track of what’s being relocated where, and you might find it easier to take a standard cut-and-paste approach in those situations. But when the text is small and manageable, the shortcut is great. For example, if you need to move an item up or down within a bulleted or numbered list, you can just click in the item’s paragraph and use the [Alt][Shift] and arrow key combo to move the item to the desired spot.

5: Save changes to all open Word documents at one time

This simple technique comes in handy when you’re working in multiple documents and want to make sure you’ve saved your changes to all of them. I actually use it most often when I’ve made a change to a template and want a quick way to save that change on the fly (before I’ve had a chance to forget I made a change I want to keep).

In Word 2003 and earlier, just press the [Shift] key and pull down the File menu. Word will display the Save All command on the menu, above the Save As command. Choose Save All and Word will prompt you to save each document (or template) that has any unsaved changes. This is more efficient than having to navigate to each document individually and click Save.

If you use Word 2007/2010, this won’t work. But you can add the Save All command to your Quick Access Toolbar:

1. Click the Office button (File in 2010) and click Word Options (Options in 2010).
2. Click Customize in the left-hand column (Quick Access Toolbar in 2010).
3. Select Commands Not In The Ribbon from the Choose Commands From drop-down list.
4. Scroll down and select Save All.
5. Click the Add button and then click OK.

 

As we've discovered more and more clients moving toward Microsoft's daunting single-point product, we thought we could send some information to help you think about your implementation plan and processes.

Just to make sure we got this right, we asked our resident SharePoint expert, Instructor Stacy Shannon, to help us identify the top things to consider:

1. Why will this be better for our organization? What areas do we want to improve? Narrow the focus and define the goals.
2. Who is our audience, and what do they specifically do now? Review your processes with your business staff – not just the IT folks who will be implementing SharePoint. It’s the everyday end-user who defines success or failure with SharePoint. How will this make their jobs better?
3. Plan ahead. Decide the scope and features of the project before doing any installation. Develop a pilot program for user acceptance, but don’t let the pilot installation turn into the production installation.

We asked instructor, and resident Outlook expert Michael Harrison to share a couple of his favorite tips and shortcuts for MS Outlook. Here they are:

1. Create new tasks and appointments using email messages.

Often, we get email messages that have details in them and we have to set up subsequent appointments or tasks from those messages. Rather than going to the calendar or tasks folder and manually creating those objects, drag the email message to the Calendar or Tasks button. This initiates a new appointment or task form, and the email message is the content of the notes of that new appointment or task, thus saving me the extra task of looking up the details later. Also the subject of the new appointment or task is the same as the subject in the email message. All that remains for me to do is set the date and any reminder I want.

2. Use categories for my appointments.

With me, I usually have only one appointment per day (teaching one class). Classes are added to my calendar with a category (color) that identifies the location of the class (Wilkes-Barre = blue, Allentown = orange, Reading = red, corporate onsite = yellow). When I print my monthly calendar, it displays my appointments (classes) with the designated colors, showing me at a glance not only what I’m teaching, but where I’ll be for that day.

New Horizons Wins Best Performance Award from World’s Largest Learning and Talent Measurement Solutions Provider Conshohocken, PA, January 18, 2011 — New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, the world’s largest independent IT training company, today added the prestigious KnowledgeAdvisors Best Performance Award to its ever-expanding trophy case. Headquartered in Conshohocken, PA., with 300 centers in 70 countries, New Horizons was one of only two companies honored by KnowledgeAdvisors, the largest learning and talent measurement solutions provider in the world. New Horizons was named this year’s winner for top Customer Education. In good company, New Horizons is joined by Sprint Corporation who was named top Corporate University. According to Kent Barnett, chief executive officer of KnowledgeAdvisors, the annual Best Performance Awards are the only awards of their kind where no applications are accepted. Instead, they are based on real data from day-to-day programs, and the judges look for the following: effectiveness of instructors, coursework, learning, job impact, business results and return on investment; demonstrated consistent improvement of upwardly trending values and use of data to improve courses; high-volume collection of evaluations annually; the process of setting goals and monitoring performance, and the strategy for engaging leaders with useful data for decision-making. Organizations use KnowledgeAdvisors to access its measurement expertise, on-demand software and integrated human capital analytics to ensure a high-performing workforce. Using KnowledgeAdvisors’ Metrics That Matter, a proprietary evaluation tool used to assess training effectiveness, New Horizons ranks first or second in five of the six effectiveness criteria when measured against all companies and organizations. Performance data is shared monthly with all learning centers so they can continuously improve. The number of learning centers that exceeded New Horizons’ performance goal increased by 15 percent. Additionally, New Horizons honors its best locations with a “5-Star Award”, given annually to those locations that demonstrate the highest level of quality according to the Metrics That Matter standards. Since inception, the number of centers to receive the award has increased by 50 percent. “It’s a great honor to win KnowledgeAdvisors’ inaugural Customer Education award,” said Mark Miller, chief executive officer of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers. “It validates our commitment to deliver the highest quality IT training in the world, and further demonstrates why we are the largest educational institution dedicated to meeting the needs of the expanding market for qualified IT professionals.” About New Horizons Computer Learning Centers With over 300 centers in 70 countries, U.S.-based New Horizons Worldwide Inc. (Pink Sheets: NWRZ) is the world’s largest IT training company. Through an integrated learning approach that ensures that new knowledge can be applied to real-life situations, New Horizons delivers a full range of technology and business skills training from basic application and desktop productivity tools to complex and integrated business systems. New Horizons continues to expand its offerings, locations, and solutions to meet the growing demands placed on organizations and their employees. For more information, visit our global website at www.newhorizons.com.

TrainingIndustry.com Bestows Prestigious Ranking to New Horizons for IT Education Three Years in a Row Conshohocken, PA, January 11, 2011 – New Horizons Computer Learning Centers today announced it has again earned a spot among the Top 20 Information Technology (IT) educational companies in the world for the third straight year, according to TrainingIndustry.com, a leading industry website. New Horizons, which is headquartered in Conshohocken, PA., was founded 29 years ago and now has more than 300 learning centers in 70 countries. It is considered the world’s largest IT training firm, offering a wide range of technical, application and business skills training, from basic PC productivity tools (Microsoft Office, etc.) to more complex business systems (Cisco, system security, networking, virtualization and cloud computing). “TrainingIndustry.com’s review committee worked to ensure a comprehensive view of the IT training sector to include companies that demonstrate outstanding capabilities in the design, delivery and management of training services,” said Ken Taylor, chief operating officer of TrainingIndustry.com. “We recognize New Horizons as a top IT training company that provides great training programs and is a market leader in their approach.” “We strive to deliver the highest quality training to our millions of clients around the world,” said Mark Miller, chief executive officer of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers. “Recently New Horizons was named this year’s winner for top Customer Education by KnowledgeAdvisors, the largest learning and talent measurement solutions provider in the world. Winning these awards shows us that we are performing above our clients expectations and delivering on their needs.” About New Horizons Computer Learning Centers With over 300 centers in 70 countries, U.S.-based New Horizons Worldwide Inc. (Pink Sheets: NWRZ.PK) is the world’s largest I.T. training company. Through an integrated learning approach that ensures that new knowledge can be applied to real-life situations, New Horizons delivers a full range of technology and business skills training from basic application and desktop productivity tools to complex and integrated business systems. New Horizons continues to expand its offerings, locations, and solutions to meet the growing demands placed on organizations and their employees. For more information, visit our global website at www.newhorizons.com.

New Horizons is honored to be recognized as the fastest growing Cisco partner for the United States and Canada for 2009. Press Release October 6, 2010 | Conshohocken, PA - New Horizons Computer Learning Centers has once again been awarded a top honor from Cisco. In recognition of outstanding growth in Cisco training delivery New Horizons was recipient of the 2009 Excellence in Acceleration Award. Winners were unveiled at the annual Cisco Partner Conference in San Francisco. "I have the honor and privilege of recognizing New Horizons Computer Learning Centers as a Cisco Partner Summit regional award winner," said Wendy Bahr, senior vice president, U.S. and Canada channels at Cisco. “The Excellence in Acceleration Award recognizes New Horizons performance and accomplishments as a Cisco channel partner in US and Canada in 2009.” “Cisco is a very important partner for New Horizons around the world. Throughout the year, our primary goal has been to deliver the highest quality Cisco training to our students. We look forward to growing and expanding our partnership with Cisco and it is an honor to be recognized with this esteemed award on behalf of all New Horizons Centers”, commented Mark A. Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons Worldwide. About New Horizons Computer Learning Centers With over 300 centers in 70 countries, U.S.-based New Horizons Worldwide Inc. (Pink Sheets: NWRZ.PK) is the world’s largest IT training company. Through an integrated learning approach that ensures that new knowledge can be applied to real-life situations, New Horizons delivers a full range of technology and business skills training from basic application and desktop productivity tools to complex and integrated business systems. New Horizons continues to expand its offerings, locations, and solutions to meet the growing demands placed on organizations and their employees. For more information, visit our global website at www.newhorizons.com. Cisco, the Cisco logo, and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems Inc. in the United States and certain other countries.

One of the top reasons companies are adopting more Cloud technologies was for the cost savings they provide. In a recent white paper produced through InfoWorld and Diversity Limited, the top economical benefits of these technologies were considered. We thought they were worthy of sharing with you.

Specifically cited in this report, several cost savings benefits of the Cloud were discussed:

Lowering the opportunity cost of running technology, and adding value with renewed focus on core activities

Switching to a Cloud-based environment provides an opportunity cost. The paper offers that IT departments spend up to 80% of staff time maintaining specific processes that keep the business running, but don’t add significant value. That leaves only 20% of the staff time to be put to more innovative opportunities that provide much more significant value to the company. The paper provides the argument that a shift to the Cloud would flip the rate of productivity to 20% of the department’s time managing the needed, but less valuable tasks, and increase the opportunity for growth and initiatives to 80%.

As an example, Netflix was the first online movie rental business to switch fully to a Cloud-based environment. The Netflix decision was intentional to, “(allow) our engineers to focus as much of their time as possible on product innovation for the Netflix customer experience; that is what differentiates us from our customers.”

Allowing for a shift from capital expenditure to operating expenditure

One of the core financial benefits of Cloud Computing is the recurring expenditure model; that is moving from the current capital expense process being used when buying servers and/or software. A study conducted by O’Reilly Media demonstrated the cost effectiveness of the Cloud model, reflecting up to a 29% cost reduction in overall IT-related expenses.

Lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO) of technology

With Cloud Computing, most costs are up front and readily calculated. Cloud pricing is also transparent and based on different usage metrics – RAM, storage, bandwidth, etc. in addition, pricing is frequently fixed for a set period of time. Customers gain certainty over pricing and are able to more accurately calculate costs based on usage estimates.

In contrast to on-site technology, in-house costs often fail to take into account several items, according to a recent article from CIO.com, written by Bernard Golden. Specifically, Golden points out that direct costs that accompany running a server: power, floor space, storage and IT operations needed to manage those resources, as well as the indirect costs of network and storage infrastructure and overhead costs of owning a server, from procurement to accounting personnel.

Training employees can easily become a drain on company time and resources. Yet training employees can provide benefits well beyond the cost of the time and resources. Thus you should consider the ways that training (both technology as well as business skills) can positively affect your employees and your bottom line.

1. Training increases productivity. Most importantly, training allows employees to gain important skills and knowledge they need to apply more advanced techniques that are more efficient. For example, sending your new sales staff to a session on Effective Presentations will not only improve their confidence presenting information to perspective clients, it will help them organize presentations in an effective way that increases the opportunity for closing a sale.
2. Training improves employee satisfaction. Investing energy and money in employees’ skills makes them feel supported. Higher job satisfaction ultimately results in reduced turnover and higher productivity. It allows employees to grow their strengths, improve their weaknesses, and inevitably, work smarter (rather than harder).
3. Training improves retention. Employees who don't receive the training and information they need to settle into their positions have a significantly higher risk of looking elsewhere for a better position. Employees are less likely to leave if they have the opportunity to learn new they need to thrive in their position.
4.  Training rewards your best employees. You'll be more willing to promote your best employees who take on new challenges and use their training to build upon existing knowledge and become more productive.
5. Training helps recruiting efforts. If you're committed to training, you'll have more flexibility hiring a candidate with the personality that best fits your company, but may not yet have every skill necessary. Training also helps prospective employees know there is a support system to help them when they consider accepting your offer. Additionally, training current staff (as stated above) improves employee retention, thus eliminating the need for hiring new employees.
6. Training reduces the time spent on employee supervision. Not only does skill-based training teach employees to better understand their positions, but it also reduces the need for questions and assistance from the supervisor.

New Horizons Computer Learning Centers of Allentown, Reading, & Wiles Barre/Scranton Ranks Rop 20 in the World for Microsoft Certified Partner Learning Solutions Training Quality and Effectiveness for Content Delivery.

Microsoft is pleased to announce New Horizons Computer Learning Center as one of the Top 20 Microsoft Partner Learning Solutions for delivery of Microsoft products in the world. This award is part of Microsoft’s partner network that not only includes New Horizons but other companies that are part of the Partner Learning Solutions program. This program recognizes the extraordinary contributions of partners serving small, mid-market and enterprise commercial customers.

Each year we must comply with certain requirements to continue to hold our Gold Partner Status; a set number of Microsoft Certified Trainers, participate in Metrics that Matter; an evaluation program to ensure satisfaction, two Microsoft sales experts along with additional business components.

Ranking as one of the top twenty Certified Partners for Learning Solutions (CPLS) in the world for content deliverability makes us proud,” said Shawn Mera, General Manager, “and we thank all of our staff and of course, our clients for helping us achieve this important milestone.”

New Horizons donates training to 7 local charities, developers code for Charity at Jan. 14-16 National GiveCamp.

New Horizons Computer Learning Center of Pittston donated Microsoft Office 2010 training and software to GiveCamp Charities.

“New Horizons is very excited to have been a part of this national event. Being able to provide training to this important group and ensure effective use of its capabilities, for such a tremendous and important cause, is truly rewarding,” said Shawn Mera, General Manager.

The NEPA GiveCamp event helped the following seven charities – Dress for Success Lackawanna, Junior Achievement of NEPA, Back Mountain Food Pantry, Back Mountain Men’s Ecumenical Group, Peace and Justice Center, Young’s Funny Farm and the Help Line of the Family Service Association of Wyoming Valley.

Fueled by coffee, soda and pizza, more than 1,000 volunteers at 14 locations around the United States spent the weekend of Jan. 14-16, 2011, contributing their computer coding expertise to benefit charities that need custom software or new websites. During the weekend-long National GiveCamp, teams of designers, developers and database administrators donated their time to complete an IT project on a charity’s wish list.

“Microsoft is thrilled to help out with the first ever National GiveCamp,” says Mary Perisic, National GiveCamp Lead and a Microsoft employee. “The volunteers tell us this event is one of the most rewarding and fun challenges they take on all year. The charities are excited to have their IT projects completed.”

About New Horizons

New Horizons has over 300 locations in over 65 countries. New Horizons Computer Learning Centers have been a local presence for 10 years. We are locally owned and operated with training facility located in Pittston, Allentown and Reading, Pennsylvania. We offer training at our locations, as well as provided training onsite for businesses within the area. New Horizons is the world’s largest independent IT training company. New Horizons of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Allentown, and Reading delivers a full range of technology, business skills and healthcare training from basic application, desktop productivity tools, complex IT systems, medical billing and coding and medical administration.