Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most widely used application for presentations of all sorts at numerous levels, be it in school or office. With it’s growing popularity, the application too has grown in features over time. The newest features of PowerPoint 2010 being the ability to use your mouse as a laser pointer, while presenting and to be able to add videos on to your slides from the web in just a few clicks. Let us show you how!

1. Having made a presentation put it on slideshow mode by clicking on ‘Slideshow From Beginning’ or ‘Slideshow’.
2. When in that mode, hold down the ‘Control’ key (Ctrl) and the left mouse click.
3. This will immediately cause a laser pointer to appear on the slide, and as the slideshow carries on you can conveniently move you mouse across the screen to point out certain facts etc. while presenting. 
4. You can also customise your laser point, by clicking on ‘Set up Slideshow’ under the ‘Setup’ tab. Following which you can change the colour and size of the laser pointer from the pop up window.

This is a unique feature, simplifying your presentations and inducing clarity to the maximum. To explore further possible actions with this feature, visit

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/turn-your-mouse-into-a-laser-pointer-HA101794344.aspx

To enhance your presentations aesthetically, it is now also possible to easily find and add videos from the web, removing restrictions in creative ways to present.

1. Open a PowerPoint presentation and go to the slide on which you want to add a video.
2. Click on the ‘Insert’ tab, followed by ‘Video’ and then ‘Video from Website’.
3. This will open up a window in which you have to include the link of the video you wish to add. 
4. Simultaneously you must open the video on the internet that you want to embed and find the embedded code, make sure you do not just copy the link, doing so will show errors.
5. Copy the embedded code and paste it on the pop up window on PowerPoint . 
6. After confirming the code, a toolbox will appear, with which you can edit the video, crop it, adjust it, place it, change the volume and brightness etc on the slide.
7. Finally preview it before you play it back on your slideshow.

This feature is unique and gives you flexibility to be creative in your slideshow, however, you must remember that while showing the presentation, for the video to play you must be connected to the internet, or else it won’t play.

Aakshey Talwar

Technical Writer

learning|Microsoft PowerPoint, Office 2010, YouTube| 05 20th, 2013|No Comments »

SharePoint 2010 is an endeavor of Microsoft to make sharing of information and other useful data among teams and groups of people in an organization / business office easier. Basically a platform for web based applications; MS SharePoint 2010 has shown more effectiveness in the field of document and content management. However, ever since its launch, SharePoint 2010 has undergone massive changes and has embraced superior technology and many other functions that make it more desirable to people at large. There are so many functions that SharePoint 2010 is meant to perform well and some of them can be named as intranet portals, extra-nets, websites and file management. Aiding collaboration spaces, social networking tools, business intelligence tooling etc can also be linked with it. There is though, a widespread degree of ambiguity regarding the utility of SharePoint 2010 that many don’t seem to grasp. More info on MS SharePoint 2010 can be found here:

Reasons To Share With MS SharePoint 2010:

There are many benefits of using SharePoint 2010. Improving team productivity is one among them. A team may require to access resources for a common goal, from almost anywhere in the world. Connecting users with what they need is what SharePoint 2010 does best. Sales teams can be mentioned as an example of the kind of groups that benefit from Microsoft SharePoint 2010 the most. Not only this, but the users can also create team work-space, coordinate calendars, receive important notifications, organize files and documents using the SharePoint 2010 server of the company. Integrity of the documents are however, not compromised in the process.


Now that we know that SharePoint 2010 does all this for people working for an organization, it is also necessary to remember that it tends to speed up the entire process. This has been facilitated further by provision of enhanced views and menus through which navigation gets simplified. MS SharePoint 2010 can be customized and this feature / characteristic is the one that makes sharing with SharePoint 2010 a wise decision to make. It can be tailored to suit the requirements of any business in particular. Administrative time and effort can be saved by including SharePoint 2010 within the system. Overall, it can be said that SharePoint 2010 tends to reduce any kind of complexity that can otherwise arise of the contemporary systems.

Reasons Not To Share with Share Point 2010:

The question here is . . . where do I start! There are many benefits to SharePoint 2010 ‘in print’. But actually experiencing the listed benefits can be far too difficult. So many complains and criticisms ever since it was introduced, has challenged the very existence of SharePoint 2010. Follow the link on SharePoint to read a Google book , and you will get a good idea of how to manage SharePoint 2010, no matter how good it claims to be it is! And why not! When in use, a person may encounter almost all sorts of problems, be it about anything from provisioning to testability (the very existence of which has often been questioned).

Additional Reading on SharePoint 2010:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/what-is-sharepoint-2010-vision-and-reality-007513.php

http://blogs.technet.com/b/jessmeats/archive/2010/04/01/what-is-sharepoint-2010.aspx?Redirected=true

learning|Content Management, SharePoint, Third Party| 04 19th, 2013|Comments Off

Revamping and redevelopment of small businesses can prove a little too costly but keeping their website design updated and fresh is not only easy but can also serve as a pioneer tool for marketing. With rapidly changing world and the technology monster at its forefront, modifying your website design and development becomes a necessity and you should look for an elegant and accessible design for web users and even for people who are viewing them via smart phones.

Firstly, you should keep the usage of Flash to a bare minimum for website design because it is not accessible on most of the cell phones that are in use today. It becomes very frustrating for a customer visiting your site when he is unable to access important areas of the site. This actually results in the loss of potential and valuable customers. Try providing a non – Flash version of the web site content for mobile browsers. You can look to engage in a rich and varied (which should still go together and not look tacky) typography.

Typography is a significant part of any web style layout and with different fonts available out there at cheap prices and even free at times; you can utilize them to your advantage. The wire frame of the site should be general and the layout must fit in the screen size. Thus, look to create a mobile optimized web site design which will allow your website to load much faster on mobiles and will be more easily viewable and will attract customers who are viewing it on their phones. With the world turning its focus towards mobile browsing which is simpler, easier and can be done on the go in a fast paced world; you should make sure that these website designs cater to mobile phones needs.

Try using HTML5 which is the latest version of HTML for building new website design as well as CSS3 which is the most recently developed version of cascaded style sheets. HTML5 and CSS3 have features that can replace Flash along with other plug-ins. A layout that is very popular amongst developers and supports browsers is the magazine layout of the website which proves to be more appealing. Thus, your web pages should be easy to navigate, have larger images, brief and short messages with sub-headings and appealing content. Try and put your message forward in fewer words.

Social media icons such as that of Facebook and Twitter always help and thus, make your website popular amongst peers. Last but not the least, colours and contrasts proves to be an important factor and therefore, look to use professional colours for business website design and more, vibrating colours can be brought in with the use of images and graphics.

Related reading on website design

For more information on this, kindly visit:

-http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/01/top-web-design-trends-for-small-business-in-2010.html
-http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/03/design-a-mobile-website.html

learning|Small Business, Website Design| 03 16th, 2013|Comments Off

Blogging has become an integral part of life for many people. People find it an easy and convenient way to share their experience and thoughts with others. It is an easy way to interact with others and to know what others think about different things. You can get opinions over a product or can debate on any political moves on these Blogs. It is indeed a platform or a virtual community that gathers those, who are interested in similar activities.

Many of us might be active members of some Blogs and might be posting on Blogs on daily basis. We all understand how irritating it becomes when one has completed the Blog post and just before posting it, the browser crashes or desktop gets restarted. This can be avoided if you start creating blog posts on MS Word 2010. I know you will be a bit surprised here, but its true and one can easily create a Blog post with the help of MS Word 2010. I am going to show you how you can create a Blog Post in just four simple steps.

Microsoft Office 2010 Suite because of its compactness always gives you an edge. You cannot only create a Blog post but can also post it to your Blog through Word 2010 and all this can be done with the help of a pre-designed template available in Word 2010. Here is a step by step guide to create your blog post.

1. First of all, open MS Word 2010, click on Microsoft Office Button and then click on New. In the New Document window, you will find many pre-designed templates available. There, you will find a template “New Blog Post”. That’s the template we are going to work with, so click on it.
2. As soon as you click on the New Blog Post template, a small window for New Blog Account will appear on the screen. Link up your Blog account on which you would like to post this Blog Post, or simply skip this step.
3. Now when the template is loaded, then you are free to enter text as you do it in blogs while creating a Blog Post. You can enter Title separately, can change the typeface, color and size of the text, can create hyperlinks and can add categories as well.
4. Just use the Insert Tab to add anything that a Blog usually contains. Once you are done with the writing process, give it a final touch and your Blog is ready for post.

Now, you can post it through MS Word 2010 or can copy paste it on the Blog but with auto-save option in MS Word 2010, I think it’s more convenient to write on Blog Posts of Word rather than writing it online.

Related Reading:

To get more information, check out this web link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joe_friend/archive/2006/05/12/595963.aspx

learning|Blogging, Office 2010| 02 14th, 2013|Comments Off

A combination of perfect tools and techniques can make your software act like a magician. Magical things can be performed with the help of small software tweaks. The recently launched Microsoft Office Suite 2013 is indeed an advance software pack with lots of concealed qualities which aren’t yet uncovered. Today, I am going to reveal one of those qualities of Microsoft Office Power Point that will help you in making powerful and efficacious presentations.

We cannot deny the fact that visuals have a long lasting impact on human’s mind and this is the reason why we use pictures, videos and animations in our presentations. A creative mind can create different moods with the help of visuals but even an artistic mind gets stuck when it comes about cropping the picture properly before embedding them into a presentation. Usually, we are not cool with editing software like Photoshop or NeatImage and that’s the reason why it becomes difficult to handle pictures.

So, now we are going to concentrate on how we can remove background of pictures in MS Power Point.

Of course, we all know what a background removal tool does. Many of you might have used this tool in Photoshop or any other editing software but you will be surprised to know that this tool is available in MS PowerPoint 2013, too. Now, to use this tool you simply have to click on the Remove Background button under Picture Tools Format tab. Once you click on it, it will show you the contextual tab of the Background Removal.

Now when your screen is displaying the context tab, then you are just few steps away from removing the background of your picture. Now, MS PowerPoint is intelligent enough to make a guess that what should be removed as the background. If this is the case with your picture, simply click on keep changes and move on, but if this is not and your pictures is somewhat difficult to crop, then here are some quick steps that will help you to remove background.

1. First of all, if the objects are not selected properly by PowerPoint 2013, you need to tighten up selection on the picture by your own. Press Ctrl+A, and when cropping points are visible, you can tighten it by pointer. This should make the Picture Tools visible on the Ribbon. Go ahead and select Remove Background which is the first option on the left.
2. After tightening up the selection, it is not necessary that a square or rectangular box will always cover your picture properly. Therefore, to handle this situation, you have to draw lines over the unwanted area and click on the Mark Areas to Remove option in the contextual tab.
3. Keep drawing the lines over the unwanted area till all the unwanted area becomes transparent. Now as a final step you have to select Delete Mark, so that you can remove the transparent background and the bounding box gets fixed tightly to the object.
4. Select Keep Changes remove the selected background of your picture.

You can see how easy it is to remove the background of a picture through MS Power Point. You can also try out other amazing options like Artistic Effect, Blur Effect and many more, as this powerful tool of Microsoft introduces you to a whole new world of creativity. So be inquisitive and explore it as much as you can.

Addition reading on removing image background in PowerPoint 2013

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-powerpoint/archive/2010/04/29/powerpoint-2010-remove-background.aspx

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/35381/powerpoint-2013-quickly-remove-an-images-background/

learning|Graphics, Microsoft PowerPoint, Office 2013| 01 29th, 2013|Comments Off

Applications such as Google docs have been widely approved due to it’s ability of allow numerous persons to work on a single document at the same time, which is known as ‘co-authoring’ a document. Office 2013 has now released an improved feature, which allows co-authoring on Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and OneNote in real time. This not only saves time in each person having to edit, save and send the document and for every person to do the same, it is highly productive and enables a group to work efficiently, being able to see each change as it takes place and work simultaneously.

There are certain pre-conditions and steps to enable this feature on your Office 2013, as outlined below:

1. Firstly, you must have a free Windows Live account to have the capability of co-authoring any document.
2. It is possible to share documents using Microsoft’s online storage, which is called SkyDrive.
3. If you can successfully upload documents on to SkyDrive, it is very easy to email weblinks to people for access to the document. Alternatively you can put it up for ‘sharing’ with selected people, who can get the document from their respective SkyDrive accounts.
4. When every desired person has access to the document, they can simply edit the document and add information from the browser using Office Web Apps or contrarily open it on their regular Office 2013 apps and then work on it.
5. When working on documents that have been shared on or downloaded from SkyDrive, each person is notified if another person is actively working on the document. This shows up on a status bar present on the bottom, which displays the list of active members, their name, e-mail ids, IM’s etc. in case of need of immediate contact.
6. While editing the document it is important that you save whatever changes you make as you make them, only then will it show up for the others working on the same document. (Not only do the changes successively show up on individual copies of the document, they also synchronise with the copy on the server online).

It is important to remember that, though every co-author is authorized and able to make changes to the document, it gets permanently saved on every copy only when the primary author reviews and accepts or rejects the said changes.

Related Info on Office 2013:

More information regarding how it works, the full feature set and how to manage controlled sharing is now available on:

-http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431685.aspx

-http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2009/09/09/co-authoring-in-word-2010.aspx

Aakshey Talwar
Technical Writer

learning|Cloud Computing, Content Management, File Sharing, Office 2013| 01 16th, 2013|Comments Off

As its name suggests, Microsoft Project is Microsoft’s project management application. The 2010 suite comes with a number of changes and improvements from the previous versions; hence if you wish to know how you can utilise this application to stay on top of your projects, the following section should be of great use!

GETTING STARTED!

Of course the first step is to install the Project 2010 application on your computer. This application does not come included in the standard Office 2010 suite, which means that you will need to purchase it separately. However to test whether Project 2010 is of use to you, you have the option of trying out the free 60-day trial offered by Microsoft. Here is the link for download:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee404758.aspx

MANAGING YOUR MS PROJECTS

Once the application is installed, you are pretty much good to go. You can immediately start entering the tasks, and task related information such as start and finish times, duration etc. Once these details have been entered, you will be able to view them in the form of Gantt charts to the right of your screen. Amending the task times can be easily done via the Gantt chart. Even turning a particular task into a sub task, or vice versa, is fairly easy to do.

Another feature that can be quite useful is the ability to manage personnel resources. It is extremely easy to add new people to the projects, as all you need to do is enter their names in the Resource Field. From the ‘details pane’ on the top ribbon you can also add and edit other relevant details pertaining to each member. The application allows you to add details such as their hourly wage, working times etc. You not only can mange your personnel resources effectively with the help of Microsoft Project, but also other resources such as materials etc.

This application also comes with a very handy Task Inspector, which immediately makes you aware of any conflicts or issues with the resource data you have entered. For instance, it may indicate that more personnel is needed, there is over scheduling etc. So with proper insights given by the Task Inspector, you should be able to find appropriate solutions.

You also have the option of generating a number of reports about your projects. And you might be glad to know that these reports can then be converted to PDF format, allowing you to share with your team members, regardless of whether they have Microsoft Project 2010 installed or not!

RELATED INFO ON MS PROJECT 2010

To find out other useful additions in Microsoft Project 2010, the following sourceswill be quite useful:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/what-s-new-in-microsoft-project-2010-HA010354195.aspx?CTT=1

http://www.brighthubpm.com/software-reviews-tips/99407-getting-started-with-microsoft-project-2010/

Aakshey Talwar
Technical Writer

learning|Third Party| 12 27th, 2012|Comments Off

When it comes to eLearning, Adobe Flash Professional is one of the widely used tools. ActionScript developers can very successfully use the programming language, built-in the program, to code interactions, program animations and communicate with various servers. ActionScript 3.0 is the latest release and proves to be a better version then previous 2.0 and 2.0 versions.

Using latest 3.0 version of ActionScript over previous releases carries various advantages including new, improved and much easier debugging and troubleshooting functionality. This essentially means stricter and vigilant error checks that have been introduced in the 3.0 version, pays off, as you can browse freely and use the program safely. Features such as breakpoints are added which are built over the Eclipse platform and make use of Flash/ Flex builder to provide users with advance debugging features.

There is also an improved better structure which is more subject oriented (organized code) and includes various specialties like packages, event model and runtime typing. AS 3.0 also have many new APIs and frameworks that can take advantage of all the new capabilities introduced in the Flash Player by Adobe Incorporation.

For example, the sound APIs of AS 3.0 will be able to inform you of the volume level of all the audio playing in the Flash Player. This API will be also able to generate and produce sound dynamically. There is also 3D support available using which the developers can transform 2D Flash objects into 3D space and play with different angles and maths. Thus, creating cool and interactive animations is now possible!

There is also better XML rendering available; text layout framework has been introduced and this means that bidirectional and vertical texts are also supported. Furthermore, there is Squiggly which acts as a spell check engine, Open Source Media Framework which is a video media player, backward compatibility (meaning files created on previous versions are easily compatible with AS 3.0), access to byte level data (giving developers access to binary data which they can be effectively used to render any file in the Flash Player) and desktop publishing. AS 3.0 is a much better performer than its previous versions (around ten times faster).

However, there may be issues as some common eLearning tools are not yet supported by AS 3.0. Let us see when Adobe takes an initiative to embed customized eLearning tools to the repertoire of ActionScript and make it more useful than ever.

Related Info on ActionScript 3.0

To get more information about ActionScript 3.0 please visit:

-Overview of ActionScript 3.0

-Actionscript technology center

-Learning Action Script 3.o

learning|Adobe, Graphics, Programming, Website Design| 12 16th, 2012|Comments Off

The new feature of ‘Macro’ introduced in the 2007 Office Suite by Microsoft can help users save enormous amounts of time wasted in trivial activities by following a simple procedure. Each time the user is about to perform a task that may need to be performed again; it can simply turn on the “Macro Recorder” before proceeding on with the implementation of the task. The task can now be performed as routine, meanwhile Microsoft Excel will create a series of commands and functions that correspond to all the movements, clicks and commands carried out during the particular task and store them in as workbook. Running the macro, later on will then automatically allow the functions and commands to be processed and carried out in the order that they were carried out before as they were in the recording run.

Next time when the user needs to perform the similar task, they can just refer back to the macro created and run it. The task is now automated fully and will be performed by Microsoft Excel, and thus will be executed at the processor speed, without any delays, disturbances or interruptions. Usually, the macro will take less than a second to perform a task that an individual may take more than 10 seconds to carry out. Macro also helps ease user’s workload by not requiring them to remember details regarding the formatting and other miscellaneous activities every time user need to carry it out. Every time the macro is run, it will provide with the same functions and results, as the manual task did. Macros can be created for carrying out the slightest of formatting to a whole range of other step by step tasks that may be required to perform on every document created or every workbook/ Excel sheet that is worked on.

Creating a new Macro in Microsoft Office 2007

To make use of this feature, following steps need to be taken by the user:

1) User should click on View and then on Macros button.
2) Then, he should click edit.
3) This will lead to the screen where the user may type in the code for the Macro he needs. The code for Excel Macros is in Visual Basic.
4) After typing the code, the user must debug it to check its error free, the user should click debug.
5) If there are no errors, the user should then test run the project by clicking Run.
6) He should then save the macro and assign a shortcut key, if required to the macro.
7) The user can now use the macro by simply pressing the shortcut key.

Running macros does not harm computer system in any way; however, one should be careful in selecting the macros that they want to run and not selecting all because that would also allow the harmful ones to run which they do not want. To get some information about macros and its uses please visit:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/record-or-run-a-macro-HA010099769.aspx

 

 

learning|Microsoft Excel, Office 2007| 11 24th, 2012|Comments Off

Ecommerce Website is not a buzz word or a technical jargon anymore. In simplest terms, a website through which online business transactions are made is known as an Ecommerce Website. If you are intending to make a new Ecommerce Website, then you have arrived at the right place. I am going to show you, how you can make a nice Ecommerce Website with all necessary ingredients.

The first and foremost thing required to make a good Ecommerce website is a simple and user friendly design. It is a fact that buyers don’t really have much time to spend on your website; hence, your design should be simple and not cluttered. Keep the content short and precise, so that it provides necessary and basic information to potential buyers. Moreover, a simple design loads quicker than a heavy design and loading time matters is of essence for an Ecommerce website.

The next thing on the list is the Call-To-Action button. It is an integral part of an Ecommerce website and mostly designers neglect it or design it in a way that it gets neglected easily. Therefore, take special care of the Call-to-Action button. Try putting strong tag line on the button, so that it persuades buyers to go for the product.

Not only the Call-To-Action button requires your attention but there are many other things that need addressing. An easy to use menu is the soul of an Ecommerce website. People generally are not computer geeks so don’t expect them to handle hard menu systems. It is highly recommended to use simplest menu designs so it helps the buyers to save their time. Even the slightest error on your part can result in the loss of a client and potential sale.

An Ecommerce Website with a nice and easy-to-use design is worthless if it is not accessible for everyone. Accessibility issue is one of the major problems faced by Ecommerce Website owners. Therefore, you need to confirm it beforehand that whether your websites are compatible with every browser and on every operating system. Moreover, pay attention towards the loading time of your website. If it is taking longer than average loading time, you should get it fixed immediately or it will affect your net sales for sure and also you’re Google Ranking.

With these key elements, you can create a nice Ecommerce website but remember there is always room for improvement. Considering this fact, you should offer functionality to your visitors to provide their feedback about the site. It will not only help you interacting with the customers but will also help you update the site.

Additional reading on Ecommerce websites

To get more details about Ecommerce websites, visit the following sites:

- http://www.dotcommerce.co.uk/articles/what_is_an_ecommerce_website.aspx
- http://webylife.com/design/10-essential-tips-for-designing-ecommerce-sites/
- http://www.register.com/newsletters/articles/webbusiness/ecommerce_tips.rcmx

 

 

learning|Blogging, Website Design| 11 12th, 2012|Comments Off