Wednesday, May 09, 2018

List Box Filter

Multiple selections



Filter a Report based on List Box
Fabalou.com:
"How to open a report based on a multiple selection in a list box. For example, you may have a list of makes of car and a report that shows various details for each make of car. You want to allow the users to select a range of cars and pull up the report according to that selection."


Microsoft KB:
How to Use a Multi-Select List Box to Filter a Form




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Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Click to Trigger

Make it so



A trigger is an object on your PowerPoint slide - a picture, a shape, a button, or even a paragraph or text box. When you click on it an action is initiated. The action might be a sound, a movie, an animation, or text becoming visible on the slide.

Microsoft Office Online has a tutorial:
Use triggers to create an interactive slide show in PowerPoint

"Here's a Power User column for teachers. Want to involve your students more in a presentation? Set up "triggers" for them to click as they go through the show. Triggers (related to animations) lets you add surprise to your slides while inviting your viewer to take part and have fun."

Indezine.com:
Trigger Animations




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Monday, May 07, 2018

Canada/US Postal Codes

Automatic Input masks



If you have a mix of Canadian and US postal codes, you might play with the following code inserted as a Country control "After Update" Event property.

Private Sub Country_AfterUpdate()
Dim strCountry As String
strCountry = Me.Country

Select Case strCountry
Case "Canada"
Me.[PostalCode].InputMask = ">L0L\ 0L0;;_"
Case "USA"
Me.[PostalCode].InputMask = "00000-9999;;_"
Case Else
'If the country is not Canada or USA no input mask will be used
Me.[PostalCode].InputMask = ""
End Select
End Sub



As a rule, if you won't be performing numeric calculations on the data, entries should be stored as text. Social Security numbers, Phone numbers and postal codes should be stored as text.


You can use alphabetic characters in an input mask. For example, one of the sample input masks is >L0L\ 0L0 used to represent a Canadian postal code.

The ">" character in the input mask converts all the characters that follow to uppercase.

The "L" character requires an alpha entry; the "0" (zero) requires a numeric entry.

A "\"character causes the following character to be displayed as a literal character rather than a mask character.

A space appears between the three character pairs.
For example, V5P 2G1 is one valid postal code that the user could enter. The mask would prevent the user from entering two sequential alphabetic characters or numbers.
See:

You can manipulate postal codes in Access by changing the data type, input mask, or format of a postal code field.

Microsoft KB 207829:
ZIP Codes in Microsoft Access.

Also see:
Postal Codes



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Sunday, May 06, 2018

Alphabetize Your Keyboard

Eat your heart out Dvorak


The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator


Ever wanted to quickly and easily define your own keyboard layout for a language Microsoft doesn't support? Or define your own keyboard layout so you can quickly and easily enter your favorite symbols with a simple keystroke? Well, want no more: the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator is here!

The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) extends the international functionality of Windows 2000+, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista (MSKLC will not run on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows NT4) by allowing users to:
  • Create new keyboard layouts from scratch
  • Base a new layout on an existing one
  • Modify an existing keyboard layout and build a new layout from it
  • Multilingual input locales within edit control fields.
  • Package the resulting keyboard layouts for subsequent delivery and installation.
Global Development and Computing Portal:
Windows Keyboard Layouts
(many different language keyboards)


Belarusian keyboard

Also see: Dvorak anyone?



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Saturday, May 05, 2018

Share Outlook

Share it nicely


"Many home users and small businesses don't use Exchange. Fortunately, there are a variety of ways to share your e-mail, appointments, contacts, tasks, and notes with other Outlook users."

Here is one of the clearest expositions of multiple users' cooperative use of Outlook, even in a very small environment.

Sharing your Outlook information
By Crabby Office Lady


For up to date information on Outlook, SharePoint, and very little about waffles, see
Eric Legault My Eggo - Making Office Rock blog.

Also see:

Slipstick.com:
Sharing Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Contacts

Sharing Microsoft Outlook on One PC



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Friday, May 04, 2018

Usable Ultimate Utensils

Great Gear


Kevin Kelly:
Cool Tools
"Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. I am chiefly interested in stuff that is extraordinary, better than similar products, little-known, and reliably useful for an individual or small group. There are plenty of places to read about stuff that should be cool, or that looks new and cool, and that might be useful. The recommendations here, on the other hand, are based on people who have used this item and have come to see its superiority. I post things I like and I ignore the rest."


Here are a few of the tools mentioned:
Disposable Suture Set
Micro tools
"The next time you or a friend are in the ER getting stitched up, ask your provider if you can have the suture set when he or she is done. Most places will hand them over if they are the disposable type. Hospitals use disposable suture sets since they are fairly inexpensive and decontamination of the reusable ones can be costly. The curved hemostat, the toothless needle driver, small surgical scissors and the pickups (tweezers) come in handy around the house." -- Fritz Araya
Ikea Tote Bag
Cheap huge tote bag
"Ikea sells these near the cash register. They are large -- about 4 feet by 2 by 2, with two clever lengthened (short & long) handles, made of some nearly indestructible nylon-plasticy mesh fabric in Ikea blue. For a buck, they're amazing. We put a mess at home, in the car, garden, garage. Great for dragging stuff from Sam's Club, or dirt in the garden, hauling firewood or just whenever you've a lot of loose stuff to move." -- Vince Crisci
NoTubes
Puncture-proof bike tires
"Stan's NoTubes system. In the NoTubes system you remove your inner tube from your tire. No tubes! You add a rim strip that seals your spoke holes. Since there is no tube you need a filling stem to put air into the tire.....this is built into the NoTubes rim strip. Then you add some white liquid inside the tire that seals it airtight. It's one of those things that seems like it would never work, but it works amazingly well. I will never go back to tubes." -- Alexander Rose




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Monday, April 30, 2018

Guide to Outlook

Tutorials and hints

Avidain Guide to Outlook 
 Things you might not have known before:

"To minimize the Ribbon and use it while minimized, follow these steps: Click “Ribbon Display Options” in the top right corner. Select “Show Tabs” from the dropdown. This removes most of the icons from the Ribbon view, leaving only the tabs above it. To perform a function with the Ribbon minimized, click the tab that houses the function, and then select the appropriate command. You’ll only see the parts of the Ribbon relevant to the command. Tip: To minimize the Ribbon for a short period, just double-click the active tab. It’ll disappear. You can double-click any tab to restore the Ribbon. Minimizing the Ribbon is a great way to remove clutter and provide a bigger work area for emails and calendars etc."



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Sunday, April 29, 2018

Date and Time Entry

Month Day, Day Month



QDE An Excel Date Entry Add-In
Ron de Bruin

"QDE is a fully-functional Excel Add-in that provides quick input of dates, in all international formats. It handles quick data entry interpretation and reflects the three interacting issues of Date System, Day, Month Year ordering, and number of digits used in the quick date entry. With QDE you enter just as many digits as needed to clearly identify the date, QDE will do the rest."

Also see:

Chip Pearson:
Date and Time Entry

MathTools.net:
Time and Date

And:
Date Arithmetic



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Saturday, April 28, 2018

Cheerios Stops Itching

And other stuff


Joey Green has written a book about other uses for everyday products like:

  • "Relieve itching from chicken pox, poison ivy, poison oak, or pain from sunburn. Pour two cups Cheerios in a blender and blend into a fine powder on medium-high speed. Put the powdered Cheerios into a warm bath and soak in the oats for thirty minutes. It's a soothing oatmeal bath.


  • Make "Cheerios Chicken." Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a jelly-roll pan (15.5 inches by 10.5 inches by 1 inch) with aluminum foil. Mix two cups finely crushed Cheerios (from the yellow box), one-quarter teaspoon pepper, one teaspoon parsley flakes, one-quarter teaspoon garlic powder, one-quarter teaspoon dried oregano leaves, and one-half teaspoon salt. Dip four chicken-breast halves (skinned and boned) into one-quarter cup milk, then roll in cereal mix until well coated. Place chicken in pan and drizzle with two tablespoons melted margarine. Bake until done, about twenty to twenty-five minutes. (Above 3,500 feet elevation, bake about thirty minutes.) Makes four servings."
Wacky Uses



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Friday, April 27, 2018

Add a Table

Drag drop trick



While working with a query in Design view, you may find that you need to add a table or query. The "book" way to do it is to click the Show Table toolbar button, drag the appropriate objects from the list, and then close the dialog box.
There is another way to do this.

Drag the table or query object's icon from the Database window/Navigation pane directly to the top half of the query design grid.

You can also use this technique in Access's Relationships window



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Thursday, April 26, 2018

'Tis the Template

Free Holiday templates


This can be considered a jumping off point for many holiday themed templates.
Here are some sources for holiday backgrounds and clipart for PowerPoint. These sites also have material for the rest of the year.


Template Ready:
Christmas FREE PowerPoint Template

Powered Templates

Brainy Betty:
Christmas and Holiday Themed Templates

Sonia Coleman:
Free PowerPoint Templates



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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Organizing Your Favorites

Order in chaos



Basic stuff that bares repeating.
(IE7 is not that much different)

Microsoft:
Use Favorites to Get Around the Web


History and Favorites
  • Add a Web Page to Your Favorites
  • Go to a Web Page on Your Favorites List
  • Alphabetize Your Favorites
  • Remove a Web Page from the Favorites List
  • Organize Your Favorite Web Pages in a New Folder
  • Remove a Web Page from a Folder in the Favorites List




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Tuesday, April 24, 2018

List Your Addresses

When I find the time


Here's a simple suggestion that sounds silly to begin with, but may come in handy in the future.
Write down your email addresses!
How many do you have?
  • Created by an ISP when setting up an Internet connection.
  • Work email accounts
  • Club or hobby related
  • From any domain you’ve purchased
  • Email aliases created on your behalf.
  • Web based email addresses with Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or many others.
Remember your old AOL/CompuServe addresses?



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Sunday, April 22, 2018

Minton Sparks

Could the air be any fresher . . .





"Sparks talks like Lucinda Williams sings; low, bed-headed and husky with sin, either remembered or imagined. In the syncopated monologues on her new spoken-word album, THIS DRESS, your gas-pumping mama, your fellow Baptists and your unmentionable relatives occupy every slot on the Waffle House jukebox, and when musical guests like Keb'Mos' and Maura O'Connell chime in, you can even dance to 'em.

---Jim Ridley Nashville Scene

With a voice born for gospel and a word artistry that makes you laugh and weep by turns, Sparks offers poems sorrowful and hilarious about the land of the double-wides.

---SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT-June 2005



Minton Sparks.com

RARWriter.com



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How Google Works

Fact and not



The magic that makes Google tick
  • Over four billion Web pages, each an average of 10KB, all fully indexed
  • Up to 2,000 PCs in a cluster
  • Over 30 clusters
  • 104 interface languages including Klingon and Tagalog
  • One petabyte of data in a cluster - so much that hard disk error rates of 10-15 begin to be a real issue
  • Sustained transfer rates of 2Gbps in a cluster
  • An expectation that two machines will fail every day in each of the larger clusters
  • No complete system failure since February 2000
Stanford University: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine  

Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page Google.com:
How Google Works
 
How Stuff/Google Works

The Economist: Case History
 
Or
 

It's all done with pigeons



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Saturday, April 21, 2018

100% is Not Enough

Slow machine


Here are a couple of areas to look at if your machine slows down for no obvious reason.

Do the three finger Vulcan salute (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) to bring up the Windows Task manager.

If you see a level 100% on the performance tab try these possible solutions.

If you see near 100% CPU activity on the Processes tab by an "Image name" of Cisvc.exe, you might want to turn that service off.

Description: Microsoft Index Service Helper, a service that monitors the memory usage of Microsoft Indexing Service (cidaemon.exe) and automatically re-starts cidaemon.exe if it uses more than 40 MB of memory.

It's needed if you've set up any of your drives or directories to be indexed. Without it running, you could potentially invite a memory "hole", as the indexing service would not clear its RAM usage, as it goes.

If you are not indexing anything, there's no need for it to run

1. Go to Control Panel Administrative Tools > Services
2. Click on the "Standard" tab at the bottom of the box
3. Click on the Name label to sort by Name. Locate "Indexing Service". Double click.
4. Change the "Startup type" to 'Disabled'
5. Click on "Apply"
6. click on "Stop"

Another suggestion:

100 Percent CPU Usage Occurs When You Print on an LPT Printer Port


SYMPTOMS

When you print on an LPT printer port, 100 percent CPU usage occurs until the print job is completed. This slows down other programs until the print job is completed. In some case, other programs may slow down enough that they seem completely unresponsive. This behavior affects all power users who have many programs running at one time.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because Windows 2000/XP does not have interrupt support for LPT printers.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, print to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) printer port. If the printer does not have this capability, use a parallel-USB cable.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.


Also see What Slows Windows Down



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Friday, April 20, 2018

Week numbers

Who's counting?


For most purposes, weeks are numbered with Sunday considered the first day of the week. This works most of the time, but it can be a little confusing certain years.

2004 had 53 weeks. January 1 is the only day in the first week of 2005. Week 2 starts on Sunday 1/2/2005.

Chip Pearson is the Date and Time guy:
Week Numbers In Excel

"Under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 8601, a week always begins on a Monday, and ends on a Sunday. The first week of a year is that week which contains the first Thursday of the year, or, equivalently, contains Jan-4.

While this provides some standardization, it can lead to unexpected results - namely that the first few days of a year may not be in week 1 at all. Instead, they will be in week 52 of the preceding year! For example, the year 2000 began on Saturday. Under the ISO standard, weeks always begin on a Monday. In 2000, the first Thursday was Jan-6, so week 1 begins the preceding Monday, or Jan-3. Therefore, the first two days of 2000, Jan-1 and Jan-2, fall into week 52 of 1999.

An ISO week number may be between 1 and 53. Under the ISO standard, week 1 will always have at least 4 days. If 1-Jan falls on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, the first few days of the year are defined as being in the last (52nd or 53rd) week of the previous year.

Unlike absolute week numbers, not every year will have a week 53. For example, the year 2000 does not have a week 53. Week 52 begins on Monday, 25-Dec, and ends on Sunday, 31-Dec. But the year 2004 does have a week 53, from Monday, 27-Dec , through Friday, 31-Dec."

The first week of 2005 should start on January 3. The first and second would be part of week 53 of 2004.

Wikipedia:
Week Dates

If your week starts on a different day, you can use the Analysis ToolPac function:
=WEEKNUM(A1, 2) for a week that starts on Monday, =WEEKNUM(A1) if it starts on Sunday.

Also this from ExcelTip.com:
Weeknumbers using VBA in Microsoft Excel

"The function WEEKNUM() in the Analysis Toolpack addin calculates the correct week number for a given date, if you are in the U.S. The user defined function shown here will calculate the correct week number depending on the national language settings on your computer."

In Access:
DatePart Function

If your work week is always Saturday through Friday then
datepart("ww",[DateField],7,1)

will return 1 for 1/1/2005 through 1/7/2005, 2 for January 8-14/2005, etc.
Otherwise use 1 for Sunday through 7 for Saturday.

The last number sets these parameters:

1, Start with week in which January 1 occurs (default).
2, Start with the first week that has at least four days in the new year.
3, Start with first full week of the year.



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Thursday, April 19, 2018

Useless but not Worthless Info

A little is dangerous, a lot is too much


A site with information deemed off of center.



Aspirin
The inventor of this modern miracle drug saw no use for it. Luckily, aspirin's formula was rediscovered nearly fifty years later and the rest is history. But, did you know that aspirin was included as part of the Treaty of Versailles?

Band-Aids
I'm stuck on Band-Aid 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me. Millions of these little adhesive strip have been sold over the years. Yet, their existence may never have been if it weren't for Listerine.

The Brassiere
Mary Phelps Jacob is widely credited with inventing this article of clothing way back in 1913. Did she really invent this garment? Better yet, did you know that it could possibly kill you? Check out the real answers.



Useless Information



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Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Entry Checks

A second chance


Unlike Word or Excel, Access does not warn you when data is changed.
Unless you make a structural or code change, Access thinks you know what you want to do and allows you to enter or change data and the close the application without a squeak.

There is a way around this:

"In Microsoft Office Access 2007+, by default, users are not prompted to confirm changes after modifying and saving records on a form. But often you might want to prompt users to confirm their changes before the record is saved.

You can use a BeforeUpdate event procedure to display a confirmation prompt and handle a user's response to either cancel or continue with the save.

This visual how-to topic illustrates how to display a custom dialog box to prompt users to cancel or continue with saving changes to a record."

User Prompts
(with a video)



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Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Do You Like Type

Or do you love it?


Fonts have traits, character, even spirit. Wichita University ran a psychological study on how people "feel" about typefaces.


" This study sought to determine if certain personalities and uses are associated with various fonts. Using an online survey, participants rated the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjective pairs. In addition, participants viewed the same 20 fonts and selected which uses were most appropriate.

Results suggested that personality traits are indeed attributed to fonts based on their design family (Serif, Sans-Serif, Modern, Monospace, Script/Funny) and are associated with appropriate uses.

Implications of these results to the design of online materials and websites are discussed."


Personality of Fonts




For instance when it came to business documents, 78.2% chose Times New Roman, 75.6 thought Cambria was appropriate, while only 5.3% wanted their attorney to use Gigi.



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Monday, April 16, 2018

Educational Slide Shows

Suggestions


Purdue University has a collection of PowerPoint shows on a number of topics.

  • Writing Skills
  • Research and Documentation St yles
  • Grammar and Mechanics
  • Business/ Professional Writing
  • Agricultural Economics/Cooperative Extension
If you have ever had to prepare a paper with MLA/APA standards these shows may come in handy:

Cross-referencing: Using MLA Format
This presentation teaches your students the purposes of MLA documentation, as well as methods for using parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page. This presentation is an important addition for the beginning of a research unit in a humanities course or any assignment that requires MLA documentation. (Writer and Designer: Jennifer Liethen Kunka)

Documenting Sources: Using APA Format
This presentation reviews the purposes of APA documentation, as well as methods for effectively using parenthetical citations and a reference page. This presentation is ideal for the begin ning of a research unit in a science course or any assignment that requires APA documentation. (Writer and Designer: Jennifer Liethen Kunka).
Purdue University



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Sunday, April 15, 2018

Reminder-task Outlook

Sent from Access


"If you have a table that contains a date field, and you want to make sure that something happens on that date, one way is to create an Outlook task with a reminder that will pop up on the specified date; you can even use the Outlook reminder to create an email message that will be sent on the specified date.

This article will show how to create an Outlook task from Access VBA code, and send an email message when the task's reminder fires."

The file is located on Helen Feddema's site.
Access Archon
Scroll down to #126

The zip file contains the WAW article, in Word format, plus the supporting file.

Helen Feddema has been working with Word since v. 1.1, Access since the beta of v. 1.0, and Outlook since the beta of v. 8.0 (that's where Outlook started its version numbering).




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Saturday, April 14, 2018

Default Save

Choose your own location



When you choose to save most Office files, the Save dialog box defaults to the Documents or My Documents folder.

(The following directions work in 2007+, but you need to click on the Office button in the upper left corner of the Window)

Word
you can change the default location by going to Tools>Options. On the "File Locations" tab you can modify the storage location.
Excel
Tools>Options. On the "General" tab change the default location.
PowerPoint
uses Tools>Options and the "Save" tab.
Access
Tools>Options and the "General" tab for Databases and Projects
Publisher
Tools>Options "General".
Outlook
will make you take an underground tour into the Registry to change the location to save e-mail attachments.
FrontPage/Expression Web
appears to require the same sort of spelunking.


Change the folder where e-mail messages and attachments are saved


If you don't want to change the default, but would like to be able to quickly go to an alternate site, open the Save or Save Attachment dialog box. On the left side of the box is the Places Navigation bar. If you click the Desktop icon, that location will be used to save the file.

You can add spots to the bar. Browse to the specific folder. Highlight the folder and click the down arrow beside the Tools option. Select "Add to My Places."

The file or e-mail attachment can then be saved where you want.



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Friday, April 13, 2018

Free HTML Tools

Collection of helpful utilities




AXCEL216's MAX Speeed WinDOwS Tricks + Secrets:

HTML Authoring
Webmaster Resources

GIF + JPEG Shrinkers
Do you have large GIFs/JPEGs cluttering your internet/server space? Are your web pages loading too slow?
HTML Validators
These HTML/CSS/DHTML/XHTML validators check the accuracy of your code, reporting all aspects of design and eventual errors, flaws, invalid links etc
HTML Editors
Offline HTML + text editors
[D]HTML, XML, CSS + Java[Script] Resources
Java No Java... JavaScript dedicated web sites
FTP Transfer Tools
FTP transfer clients + FTP server tools




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Thursday, April 12, 2018

Beyond Bullets

By Cliff Atkinson



About the Author
Cliff Atkinson is a leading authority on how to improve communications across organizations using Microsoft PowerPoint. He is a popular keynote speaker, a writer, and an independent management consultant whose clients include companies ranking in the top five of the Fortune 500. He is president of Sociable Media in Los Angeles.

Cliff teaches at UCLA Extension, is a senior contributor for the MarketingProfs newsletter, and writes the Beyond Bullets weblog, at BeyondBullets.com

Also see:
BeyondBulletPoints.com

Book Description
PowerPoint owns the presentation world. We've been cocooned by a blue gradient screen with six or more bullet points feeding information.
Or so we've been lulled to believe.
(see Edward Tufte's dissection of the Columbia PowerPoint disaster)

Cliff Atkinson takes a well researched, but almost heretical stand that a presentation is a story and that too much data plastered on the screen, dulls the audience's soul and actually reduces comprehension and retention.

Beyond Bullets walks the reader through the story process and provides tools to structure presentations to have the maximum impact.

The "PowerPoint" part of the process is easy to follow, even for a novice. The story telling sections will help improve the most experienced speaker's show.

Quote

"But what might not be evident in the simplicity of this slide is what happens when the audience experiences it along with your verbal explanation. Because the slide design is simple, the audience can quickly scan the headline and visual and understand the idea. Then their attention turns to the place you want it. — to you, the words you're saying, and the way the information relates to them. Instead of making everything explicit and obvious on the slides, you can leave the slides open to interpretation so the audience is dependent on you, and you on them.

What (the experts are) saying, basically, is that slides filled with bullet points create obstacles between presenters and audiences. You might want to be natural and relaxed when you present, but people say that bullet points make the atmosphere formal and stiff. You might aim to be clear and concise, but people often walk away from these presentations feeling confused and unclear. And you might intend to display the best of your critical thinking on a screen, but people say that bullet points "dumb down" the important discourse that needs to happen for our society to function well.

Somewhere in our collective presentation experience, we're not connecting the dots between presenters and audiences by using the conventional bullet points approach. This issue is of rising concern not only to individuals and audiences - even the major players of large organizations are taking notice of the problem. It seems that in every location where people meet, from small meeting rooms to board rooms to conference halls, people want a change."




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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Form and Data

Good combo


In Access, tables can be a bother to use for data entry.

Constructing a Form can make it easier.

Here is an MS demo about combining the two:


"While working with forms, a split form can be a very useful view because you simultaneously get two views of the form that are connected to the same data source.
This demo shows you how to create a split form view where you can use the datasheet part of the form to quickly locate a record and the form portion to view or modify the record.

You will also learn how to enhance and customize a split form view to suit your needs."


Demo

Form and data





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Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Postal Codes

International

Don't assume that the ZIP code (or postal code, as it is referred to in many countries outside the United States) has any particular format or length, or that it comprises only digits. For instance, Canadian postal codes consist of two groups of three characters, such as "M5R 3H5"; a French postal code is a five-digit number, as in 92300. In some places, people might add a country or region code in front of the postal code (for example, F-92300)


Universal Postal Union:
Postcodes


Graham Rhind:
Links to Postal Code pages
Graham Rhind has specialized for over 14 years in international address and postal code methodologies.


Columbia University
Frank's Compulsive Guide to Postal Addresses

Word will not create a bar code for a Canadian postal code. Under the Canadian postal system, the post office applies bar coding to mail.

More Postal/Zip Stuff:

Melissa data

Campaign Contributions
Individuals that have contributed $200 or more to federal campaigns by ZIP Code.
Canadian Addresses
Lookup any Canadian address and get the Postal Code, time zone and area code.
Income Tax Statistics
Income tax information by ZIP Code. Includes average AGI, number of returns, average refund, filing status, age and more.
Nearest Post Office
Locate the 10 closest post offices to a ZIP Code that accept bulk mail.
Occupants by ZIP
Generate a count of occupant delivery addresses by ZIP Code. Order your Occupant list online.
U.S. Addresses
Lookup any U.S. address and get the ZIP+4 code, area code, time zone, county, address type, street detail and more.
ZIP Codes by County
Obtain a list of the ZIP Codes in any county in the United States.
ZIP Distance
Displays the distance between any two 5-digit ZIP Codes in the United States.
ZIP-City-Phone
Lookup ZIP Codes, city names, the location of phone numbers or the cities covered by an area code.
ZIPs in a Radius
Displays a listing of the ZIP Codes that fall within a radius.


Here are some great links:

Barcode Yourself

Barcode clock



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Monday, April 09, 2018

Plain Language

Twaddle free




THE WHITE HOUSE
June 1, 1998

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Plain Language in Government Writing
"The Federal Government's writing must be in plain language. By using plain language, we send a clear message about what the Government is doing, what it requires, and what services it offers. Plain language saves the Government and the private sector time, effort, and money."

The Plain English Network
Plain language can be understood by YOUR reader at first reading. It doesn't mean writing for a certain grade level - it means organizing and writing for your reader. Writing in plain language saves time and money for writers and readers.

Introducing Plain Language

Plain language matches the needs of the reader with your needs as a writer, resulting in effective and efficient communication. It is effective because the reader can understand the message. It is efficient because the reader can read and understand the message the first time.

Also:
LegalWriting.net
Plain language produces clear, concise, and readable documents


And then for no reason ,other than most writing is twaddle, here's a review of:

How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World:
A Short History of Modern Delusions
by Francis Wheen.




It's entitled: "Twaddle unswaddled".
Appropriate or not, it is fun to say.



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Sunday, April 08, 2018

Accustom Yourself to Excel

Shake hands with a worksheet


How to get used to the new user interface in Excel 20013.

  • Add a Get Started tab to the Ribbon

  • Take advantage of the Quick Access Toolbar

  • Minimize the Ribbon, maximize your workspace

  • Choose your own default font

  • Restore missing worksheet tabs

  • Freeze panes here, there, and everywhere
Surviving the switch to Excel 20013



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Saturday, April 07, 2018

Crime on the Web

What does it look like?


PC World has an article on e-mail cyber crime, with examples of the notes.

Cyber Crime

FBI and Cyber Crime

Wells Fargo Example



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Friday, April 06, 2018

DNS FAQ

Domain Name System


Here's a concise collection of answers about the inner workings of the internet.

For instance:

What is DNS (Domain Name System)?
Websites have both a "friendly" address, called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and an IP address. People use URLs to find websites, but computers use IP addresses to find websites. DNS translates URLs into IP addresses (and vice versa). For example, if you type http://www.microsoft.com into the address bar in your web browser, your computer sends a request to a DNS server. The DNS server translates the URL into an IP address so that your computer can find the Microsoft web server.


DNS FAQ



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Thursday, April 05, 2018

Folding Tips

Bending cloth


Just to break up a boring dinner setting, learn how to fold napkins.

(things to do while waiting for the news)



Napkin Folding Guide



Napkin Folds

Napkin Folding Tips



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Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Camera Tool

Smile!


(This is the pre-2007 routine. For 2007+ see the end. )

To create a linked picture of part of a spreadsheet for use elsewhere:
  1. Edit>Copy the Cell or Range
  2. Choose the target cell
  3. Hold down the Shift key and choose Edit>Paste Picture Link
If you're going to do this frequently, go to Tools>Customize. Choose the Commands tab and locate Camera in the Tools category. Drag to place the Camera button on your toolbar.



If the Camera tool is on your toolbar:
  1. Select the Cell/Range
  2. Click the Camera tool
  3. Move the cursor to the target position and click to insert the linked picture
To create a static picture from cells, or a chart to use in another part of your workbook, or another program:
  1. Clear cell gridlines if you do not want them displayed in your picture.
    (Click Options on the Tools menu, click the View tab, and then clear the Gridlines check box")

  2. On the worksheet or chart sheet, select the cells or click the chart you want to copy as a picture
  3. Hold down SHIFT and click Copy Picture on the Edit menu
    (For the best picture quality, make sure As shown on screen and Picture are selected)
  4. Click OK
  5. Select the worksheet or other document where you want to paste the picture
  6. Edit>Paste.
You can use the Picture toolbar to change the image. (to display the toolbar, right-click any toolbar and choose Picture) To paste information you've copied from another program as a picture in Microsoft Excel, hold down SHIFT and click Paste Picture or Paste Picture Link on the Edit menu. You can, also, create a dynamic linked text box by using the tool on the Drawing toolbar to place the object on the worksheet.
Now click to the Formula box. Type = and the click on the cell you wish to link.

Also see:
Copy - Paste Methodology
by Jon Peltier
 
The process is a little different in 2007+. Either add the Camera tool to the Quick access toolbar, or just select the range and drop down the Paste options. Choose copy as Picture. Next pick a location and  choose Paste as picture.



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Tuesday, April 03, 2018

Site Maps

Point the way

"As a Web designer and HTML builder, one of the first places I visit on a Web site is the site map. The site map shows an entire overview of the structure of the site, and more importantly, indicates how much effort was put into usability testing during the site's construction."

Learn how to chart a better site map
By Jim Kukral -Builder.com

According to Jakob Nielsen's
Alertbox Usability Study on Site Maps

"27 percent of users turn to site maps when asked to learn about a site's structure. If your site map is poorly designed, you may lose 27 percent of your Web visitors. That could translate into millions of dollars of missed sales for an e-commerce site, or a massive amount of missed leads for a service company."


(A Site Map is a guide to a web site used by visitors. A Sitemap is a file used by search engines to index entries on a site. )



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Monday, April 02, 2018

Labels by Merging

Demos


As part of their series of demos, Microsoft has information on creating mailing labels from a database, or mailing list.

Create labels with mail merge

Here is another entry concerning some of the fine points.

More label info

Also, if you place a graphic in the first cell, it will be duplicated in each box.



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Sunday, April 01, 2018

Beep Codes

An IT low point


You know you're in computer doo-doo when you start looking for beep codes.

These are the sounds your machine starts to make when it cries for help.

Such as
1-2-2-3
BIOS ROM
checksum Repair or replace BIOS

Oh yea! Replace the BIOS. That'll start your week out on a high note.

Casey Tech has put together a list of beep codes for the three largest BIOS manufacturers, AMI, Award, and Phoenix that can be folded and set up as a tent card for your desk or used as a pocket guide

Beep Card

Also:
POST & Beep CodesWhat are those noises when a PC starts up?

And:
Bios Central, PC Guide.com, and PC Hell.com



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Saturday, March 31, 2018

Move That Thing

Noise and motion


Microsoft has another of its easy to understand tutorials that deals with making objects move on the screen and also make sounds.

  • Animate text or objects

  • Add sound effects to an animation or hyperlink

  • Use sample animations in your presentation
There is also a link to a tutorial about adding sound effects to a presentation.

Animation



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Friday, March 30, 2018

Live.Com Addresses

Choose your own


Tired of Hotmail, MSN, AOL, Gmail.com domain names for email addresses?

You can pick up a new address; such as MyName@Live.com.

First come etc.


Live.com email



Outlook Settings for Live.com



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Thursday, March 29, 2018

Index Concordance

Order!


Creating a Table of Contents can be easy if you use Styles. Word will automatically insert a TOC when you place the insertion point and then use Insert>Reference Index and Tables and choose Table of Contents.
(2007+  Reference Tab>Table of Contents group)

An Index or Concordance can be more difficult.

In a larger document, you may want the reader to be able to locate key words. You could go through the whole document and mark each word you want included, but there is an easier way.
  1. Make a list of the important words.
  2. Create a two-column table in a new document.
  3. In the first column, enter the word or phrase.
  4. In the second column, enter the index entry
    (If you need a sub-category, type the main entry followed by a colon (:) and then the sub category.)
  5. Save the file.
When it comes time to create the Index, place the insertion point, go to Insert>Reference Index and Tables. Choose Index and then AutoMark. (2007 – Reference Tab>Index group) Browse to the location of your Index file. Word will now automatically use your list to mark the main document and insert an Index.

Also: Word for Word:
An Index or a Concordance for Your Book?
Microsoft KB:
How to create a table of contents and index with field codes in Word



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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

OLAP Cubes

More dimensions than Star trek


When a company accumulates a great deal of information, it becomes un-wieldy to work with just basic Excel or Access databases.

There is a database concept called on OLAP cube (On-Line Analytical Processing).

This multidimensional collection of data can be thought of as a 3-D pivot table viewed from flat land.

MSDN:
Just What Are Cubes Anyway?
(A Painless Introduction to OLAP Technology)



Wikipedia:
OLAP



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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Search for File Nits

Refine the questions


You can use Windows search to locate metadata information. Such as the date on the file:
date:>2/7/05<2/10/05>

Searches for a date in the Date property between the values 2/7/05 and 2/10/05, excluding the end dates.


Or all of the photos on your machine taken with a Canon:

Camera make

cameramake (cameramake:canon)







Advanced Query Syntax

HowToGeek - Date Search



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Monday, March 26, 2018

Publisher Merges

Not just Word


You know that you can send e-mail merges using Word. Try it with Publisher.

Design a newsletter and let it rip.




Merge Publisher



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Sunday, March 25, 2018

Srt Fields Defaults

Speed up table creation with default field settings



When you add fields to a table, Access assumes you want to use a 50/255-character Text field by default. However, you may typically use a smaller field size or you may personally use Number fields more often than Text ones.

You can avoid having to change the size and data types for new fields by setting defaults that are appropriate to your own design habits. To do so:

  1. Choose Tools> Options from the menu bar and switch to the Tables/Queries sheet.

  2. Select the data type you use most from the Default Field Type dropdown list.

  3. Set the Text and Number sizes you usually want to use in the Default Field Sizes panel and

  4. Click OK.
In Access 2007+ go to Access Options>Object Designers:





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Saturday, March 24, 2018

New Windows in Outlook

How to open Multiple Windows



If you want more than one window open in Outlook (for example the InBox and Calendar), Right-click on an item on the Outlook bar and select "Open in New Window" from the context menu.

Choose Tasks and Calendar or any other combination.

You can now easily cut and paste between Outlook applications
Right click an empty area on the taskbar and select how the windows should be arranged.



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Friday, March 23, 2018

Troubleshoot Word

Problem solvers



If you have trouble opening a Word document, or it is not working well, try these suggestions:

FIRST
Delete all of Word's temp files.
  1. Go to Edit>Replace
  2. Make sure to include all of your local drives in the search and that "include subfolders" is checked.
  3. Search for:
    *.tmp
  4. Then delete all these temp files.
Word leaves shards of temp files wherever the document file was stored. Word's temp files start with a tilde (~), so in most cases you can delete: ~*.* SECOND
  1. Use Edit>Find to locate Normal.DOT.
  2. Rename it (Normal.OLD) or delete it. Word will create a new copy when it restarts.
The only caveat here is be careful that you don't have important macros stored in Normal.DOT. If you rename, you can recover them. THIRD
If that does not correct the problem, try this next step:
  1. Go to Start>Run and type:
    winword.exe /a
    (Note that there is a space before the /a)
  2. Then press ENTER. This starts Word without any add-ins, global templates, or Normal.DOT.
    Look in Tools>Templates and Add-ins to see if there are any files that can be un-checked.
If you need even more help, go to: 
Knowledge base:

 How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start Word or when you work in Word



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Thursday, March 22, 2018

VBA Named Arguments

An easier read


Use named arguments for cleaner VBA code.

Most likely, you use positional arguments when working with VBA functions. For instance, to create a message box, you probably use a statement that adheres to the following syntax:

MsgBox(prompt[, buttons] [, title] [, helpfile, context])


When you work the MsgBox function this way, the order of the arguments can't be changed.

Therefore, if you want to skip an optional argument that's between two arguments you're defining, you need to include a blank argument, such as:
MsgBox "Hello World!", , "My Message Box"


Named arguments allow you to create more descriptive code and define arguments in any order you wish. To use named arguments, simply type the argument name, followed by :=, and then the argument value.

For instance, the previous statement can be rewritten as:

MsgBox Title:="My Message Box", _
Prompt:="Hello World!"


(To find out a function's named arguments, select the function in your code and press [F1].)



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Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Where's dat site?

Server locations


YouGetSignal.com provides some tools that let you find out more about a web site. Who else uses that server, for instance, and where to server is located.

Sites on Web server

A reverse IP domain check takes a domain name or IP address pointing to a web server and searches for other sites known to be hosted on that same web server.

Network location

The network location tool is a utility that approximates and displays the geophysical location of your network address on a Google Map.




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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Zero 0

Zero is nothing


If a zero isn't worth anything, why show it?

Here is a Microsoft tutorial about how to deal with zilch:

  • Display or hide all zero values on a worksheet

  • Use a number format to hide zero values in selected cells

  • Use a conditional format to hide zero values returned by a formula

  • Use a formula to display zeros as a blanks or dashes

  • Hide zero values in a PivotTable report
Hide Zeros



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Monday, March 19, 2018

Calculators on the Web

Figure the vigorish



It's sometimes easier to use a preset calculator than it is to write your own in Excel.
Here's a collection of sites:

  • Auto Calculators

  • Bond Calculators

  • Budget Calculators

  • College Calculators

  • Credit Card Calculators

  • Home Calculators

  • Insurance - Disability Calculators

  • Insurance - Health Calculators

  • Insurance - Life Calculators

  • Life Expectancy Calculators

  • Choose-to-Save - Life Expectancy

  • Mutual Fund Calculators

  • Paycheck Planning Calculators

  • Retiree Health

  • Retirement Calculators

  • Roth IRA Calculators

  • Savings Calculators

  • Social Security Calculators

  • Social Security Administration - Estimate Your Potential Benefit

  • Stock Calculators

  • Tax Calculators
Calculators



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Sunday, March 18, 2018

Address Map

Display a map to an Outlook contact's address


If a contact item has an address in the United States, you can use your Internet connection and Outlook to create a map to the address. You must be connected to the Internet for this feature to work.
Open the contact item.
Next to the Address text box, click on the down arrow and select the address you want to map (Business, Home, or Other).
Then choose Actions/Display Map Of Address from the menu bar or click the Display Map Of Address button.
Your default browser opens and the map is created using Microsoft Expedia Maps.

Outlook Maps

In Outlook 2007, the Map button is on the Contact tab on the right side of the Communicate group.

2007 uses Maps.Live.com.

Outlook tips:
Slipstick.com
Customize Outlook's Map link
You can edit the registry to enable another web-based mapping service.



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Saturday, March 17, 2018

Word Math

An Add-in, of course


Microsoft has a downloadable add-in for Word called Microsoft Math.

"To use the add-in, open Word 2007+, type Alt-= to create a RichEdit math object, type an equation or expression, and right-click on the equation to see options for solving and graphing within Word."

Math Add-in



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Friday, March 16, 2018

What's New in Excel 2013

Different can be good


Microsoft has a information that explains the highlights of the new features of Excel:

  • Improved ribbon

  • Access workbooks in new ways

  • Make fast, effective comparisons from lists of data

  • Sparklines

  • Create workbooks with more visual impact

  • Collaborate on workbooks in new ways
There are also other links.

What's New in Excel 2013



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Thursday, March 15, 2018

PPT Font Size

How big should you go?


In the old days of slide shows, presenters would hold their slides out at arm's length. If they could still see the text, then it would be OK when projected.

Dave Paradi has researched the question and offers a PDF document that compares screen size, fonts, and seating distance.

For instance:
"For example, if you're using a 60 inch screen and have 32 point text on your slides, the furthest someone should be is 57 feet from the screen."
Font Size

Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tips



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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Merge to More Than One Document

Custom content



In the Data Source, include a field for the type of letter the recipient requires.

In the Main merge document, enter IF fields, such as:

{IF {MERGEFIELD "LetterType"=1} {INCLUDETEXT "C:\\Project\\Letter1" \* MERGEFORMAT} ""}
{IF {MERGEFIELD "LetterType"=2} {INCLUDETEXT "C:\\Project\\Letter2" \* MERGEFORMAT} ""}


  • The curly brackets { } cannot be entered from the key board. Either use Insert>Field, or Ctrl+F9.
  • Word uses spaces in the If..Then..Else statement.
  • The last two quote marks "" are "empty" , so nothing will be entered.
  • Notice the \\ in the path statement. A path is not needed if the Main document is in the same folder as the letters.
  • To see the field codes, use Alt+F9 to toggle the view on and off.
Letters 1 and 2 can have completely different texts, formats and layouts. One can be an invitation to a sale, the other can be a dunning letter. (To carry over different formatting, leave out the \* MERGEFORMAT switch)

After setting up the main document for mail merging, insert all of the fields you want to merge.

Copy the individual fields and paste them in the correct locations in Letter 1 and 2.

Go back to the main document and erase all of the text and fields EXCEPT for the IF statements.

Letters 1 and 2 do not have to be set up a merge docs, or connected to a data source. Their text will be inserted in the Main document depending on the field type.



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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Display the Current Record Number

Without navigation


You may want to remove the navigation buttons from an Access form but still display the current record number. Not the ID or serial number, but the record number that would appear in the navigation box.

To provide this feature, you can use VBA to place the form's CurrentRecord value in an unbound text box, and then update the value during the Current event.

To utilize this property, add an unbound text box to your form in Design view. Then, on the Event tab of the form's Property list, click the ellipsis or Build button. Choose Code Builder.

Add the following code in the Visual Basic Editor:

Private Sub Form_Current()
MyTextBox = Me.CurrentRecord
End Sub

(where MyTextBox is the name of the control that displays the record number.)

Now, when you navigate from record to record, the MyTextBox control will update automatically to reflect the current number.



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Monday, March 12, 2018

Calendar Blanc

Empty days


Outlook allows you to print out your calendars.
If you just want to print a blank calendar over a specified period, here are the directions:

Blank calendar



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Sunday, March 11, 2018

Gun Laws

How trigger happy is your state?


"Most U.S. states have failing scores when it comes to stopping criminals and other dangerous people from obtaining guns.

Two-thirds of all states score less than 20 points out of 100. Almost half of all states score 10 points or less out of 100.

The state with the strongest gun laws is California with 79 points, followed by New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maryland."


Brady Campaign





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Saturday, March 10, 2018

Quick Subforms and Subreports

Drag 'em on over


When you need to create a subform or subreport, you probably use the Subform/Subreport tool from the Toolbox to draw where you want to add the control.

You can also create subform and subreports using drag and drop.

Simply open the main form or report in Design view, then drag the appropriate form or report from the Database window to where you want the control created.

Note that you'll still need to set Link Child Fields and Link Master Fields properties on the new control.



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Friday, March 09, 2018

Curly Quotes be gone

Stop them up front


Word, by default, uses curly (“ ”) rather than straight quotes(" ").

Here's an article that shows how to go into Word options and turn this Auto feature off.

Next we need to turn off Moe and Larry




Curly quotes



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Thursday, March 08, 2018

Tweak Windows

Tune-up suggestions


There are third party apps that you can use to improve Windows' performance. If you want to do it on your own, here are some Redmond suggestions:

  • Delete programs you never use

  • Limit how many programs load at startup

  • Defragment your hard drive

  • Clean up your hard disk

  • Run fewer programs at the same time

  • Turn off visual effects

  • Restart regularly

  • Add more memory

  • Check for viruses and spyware

  • Check your computer’s speed

  • Disable services you don’t need

  • Don’t settle for slow
Optimize Windows

Also:  

TweakHound 



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Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Bartleby Quotations

Wha'd I say


Churchill, Winston S.

..."man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on."
Here are a few of one hundred + reference sources available free:

Bartleby.com

  • American Heritage Collegiate Dictionary
  • Brewer's Phrase & Fable
  • Bulfinch's Mythology
  • Cambridge History
  • Columbia Encyclopedia
  • Columbia Gazetteer
  • Dickinson, E.
  • Einstein's Relativity
  • Eliot, T.S.
  • Farmer's Cookbook
  • Fowler's King's English
  • Gray's Anatomy
  • Lawrence, D.H.
  • Mencken's Language
  • Oxford Shakespeare
  • Presidential Inaugurals
  • Roget's Thesaurus
  • Strunk's Style
  • The King James Bible
Also see: Project Gutenberg 



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Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Filter Multiple Fields

Table sorts



In a table's Datasheet view, you can filter multiple selections in a few simple ways.

In the first method, you select one of the fields you want to filter by and click the Filter By Selection button on the toolbar. Access filters the records by that selection. Next, select the second field you want to filter by and click the button again. Access filters the records even further by this second selection. Continue to follow these steps until you have filtered by the desired number of selections.

You can also use Filter by Form. Click the icon on the toolbar. In the displayed form, enter the criteria. You can use And/Or statements, such as "Boston" Or "San Francisco".
(Access will enter the quote marks for you.)

For the third option, you use the Advanced Filter>Sort feature. To do so, select Records>Filter>Advanced Filter>Sort from the menu bar. Access displays a grid similar to the Query By Example grid. Now, drag down all the fields you want to filter by from the field list. Then, in the Criteria cells enter the values you want to filter for. When you have finished, click the Apply Filter button to see the results.

Fourth, you could use Filter by input. Right click any entry in a field you want filtered. Enter the value in the Filter For box and hit Enter. You could then choose another field and sort again by another criteria.
Creating a Query would let you save your filter, but these methods can be used to quickly display the desired information in a table.
(In 2007+ these options are on the Home tab in the Sort & Filter group)

eHow.com:
How to Filter Records in a Microsoft Access Table

Microsoft Kb:
How to filter records in an Access database



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Monday, March 05, 2018

Google Hear em See em

Accessible searching


Google appears to have a tool or mini app for almost anything.
Here are some of their answers to making information available to the greatest number of people.

(look at 1-800-GOOG-411)


  • Web Search:

    Result pages include headers to delineate logical sections.

  • Accessible Search:
    Promotes results that are accessible.

  • Book Search:

    Full-text access to public-domain works.

  • Gmail:

    A simple yet functional HTML mode that works well with screen readers
    .
  • Gmail Mobile:
    A lightweight user interface that is also speech-friendly.

  • Google Maps:
    Easy-to-use textual directions.

  • Calendar:
    A functional, yet speech-friendly user interface.

  • Audio Captchas:

    All services that use Google Accounts provide an audio alternative for the visual challenge-response tests that are used to distinguish humans from machines.

  • Mobile Transcoder:

    A mobile lens for viewing the web that produces accessible views.

  • Google Video:

    Allows uploaded videos to contain captions/subtitles in multiple languages for viewers who are hearing-impaired or unfamiliar with the original language.

  • Google Talk:

    IM clients inside a web browser can pose accessibility challenges, but the use of the open Jabber API means that Google users can choose from a variety of Jabber clients, many of which work well with adaptive technologies.

  • 1-800-GOOG-411:

    Here's an exception to the rule that we deliver most things through a web browser. Our experimental Voice Local Search service lets anyone who can speak into a phone search for a local business by name or category; get connected to the business free of charge; get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone. (Just say "text message".)

Accessibility Services



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Sunday, March 04, 2018

Capable Egg

By Lullaby Baxter Trio


ASIN B000046S0B
Atlantic 2000


About the Artist

Lullaby Baxter (Angelina Iapaulo) is neither fish nor fowl.


"Lullaby Baxter's story couldn't be better: A onetime topless DJ at a Toronto club, Baxter (Canadian-born Angelina Teresa Iapaulo) was discovered when she impulsively sang at an open-mic night.

Her backing band couldn't be better, either: The Oranj Symphonette .Baxter brings to her music torch-song gentility.

"Rooster In Love" is a barnyard-romance yarn that may not be metaphor, while "Mama (Should I Bake A Cherry Pie And Hide You Inside?)" is told from the perspective of a fretting child trying to save mom from some dire, rapidly approaching fate.

"Morty Mort-Morton Showstopper Calhoun," "Knucklehead," and "Ding-A-Ling" are teasing schoolyard chants, while "Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox," "Horsey Don't Snore," and "The Chatterbox Chronicles" are full of surreal twists worthy of Lewis Carroll.

Capable Egg presents a strange world populated by even stranger people, but Lullaby Baxter Trio's grip on its eccentric material is remarkably restrained and mysteriously magnetic."



Recording Description
Good sound quirky lyrics.

Contents

1. Hopscotch
2. Anyway Song
3. Knucklehead
4. Rooster in Love
5. Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox
6. Chatterbox Chronicles
7. Mama (Should I Bake a Cherry Pie and Hide You Inside?)
8. Ding-A-Ling
9. Morty-Mort-Morton Showstopper Calhoun
10. Spacegirl
11. Horsey Don't Snore
12. Lullaby
13. Ding-A-Ling (Reprise)




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Saturday, March 03, 2018

Email Access Form

Question and collection


Access 2007-10 has a wizard that will walk you through the process of sending an information gathering form through Outlook. The wizard is on the External Data tab in the Collect Data group.



"You begin with the Collect Data Through E-mail Messages Wizard, which guides you through the steps of creating a form.

The form is sent through Microsoft Office Outlook 2007-10 to your recipients, with your request for new or updated information.

When the recipients reply to your message, Access automatically enters their data into your database.


Collect data by using e-mail



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Friday, March 02, 2018

Split the Costs

Split the sheets (?)


Joe Chirilov presents a spreadsheet solution to a friendship breaker.

Recently a large group of friends and I went on a multi-city tour of Europe that lasted a couple weeks. There was a lot of planning that went into this trip and responsibilities for booking different legs of the trip were spread out across the group. How do you efficiently handle paying back multiple people while getting reimbursed for your costs at the same time?

Split Costs

You can download a spreadsheet or watch a video here:
Split_Costs.zip



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Thursday, March 01, 2018

Hi, Ho, the Vizio

Free Demos and templates


Have you ever played with Visio?
This site provides demos. Templates and trials.

These templates are available:
  • Sarbanes-Oxley Pivot Diagrams

  • Help Desk Flow


    "Here you will see the six data collection points for this example help desk. Call volumes, wait times, and resolution rates are tracked at each point in the process. The diagram flows from left to right and top to bottom. Not every caller will experience each of the steps, if a problem is resolved by a Level One technician, then the caller does not progress to the Level Two technician.






  • Fault Tree Analysis

  • PC Assembly Process Flow

  • Supply Chain Analysis

  • Value Stream Mapping

  • Factory Floor Assembly Plan

  • Loan Consolidation Process

  • Investment Analysis Report

  • HVAC Controls

  • Military Organization Chart

  • Network Equipment Rack

  • Insurance Claims by State

  • Audit Process

  • Office Space Planning
Visio Toolbox



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Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Web Accessibility Report

Make it easy



"Accessibility, the design of HTML documents for accessibility by people with disabilities, is such an important aspect of the Internet today that the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) has adopted a set of guidelines for designing accessible Web sites. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) closely follow Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act.

For some Web sites, adherence to the WCAG is not optional; it is a necessity. Expression Web/FrontPage 2003 has tools for evaluating the accessibility of an entire Web site, identifying elements that violate the guidelines, and finding ways to correct the violations. The accessibility checker provides all of this functionality in a single dialog box.

To access the accessibility checker on the Tools menu click Accessibility (Accessibility Reports).

You can use the accessibility checker to check a single page or an entire Web site. The accessibility checker checks for varying levels of accessibility and specifically for adherence to Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act. You can check for errors or warnings, and you can add a manual checklist."

Expression Web Accessibility

MSDN:
Adding Rules to the Accessibility checker


Making Your Web Site Accessible to the Blind
Test your site:
Cynthia Says



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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

You are What You Eat — With

Old Food Tools


Even before we had Ron Popeil to provide our cutlery, there were knives, spoons, and later forks.

California Academy of Sciences:
The History of Eating Utensils

A History of Eating Utensils in the West:
A Brief Timeline
"Henry Petroski, in The Evolution of Useful Things, makes the argument that it is not so much that necessity is the "mother of invention" as that invention takes place in response to dissatisfaction at the shortcomings of an already existing way of doing things.

The eating utensils we use and the ways we use them are the result of centuries of experimentation."

Medieval and Renaissance Eating Utensils and "Feast Gear"


Ron Popeil (aka Ron "But Wait!" Popeil)

"Born in 1935, he was for all practical purposes orphaned three years later when his parents divorced and he and his brother were shunted to a boarding school in upstate New York.

The one memory of this period is of a Christmas when parents were taking their children home for the holidays. Ron peered through a window at the long, straight road leading to the school, hoping to see his father's car approach. It never did."




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Monday, February 26, 2018

Task Manager

When your machine has the snivels


There's a lot of stuff going on in the background that you might want to know about.

That's where the Task Manager comes in.
"There are a couple of ways to show the Windows Task Manager: hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and press the Delete key - Task Manager will then open some versions of Windows, in others you will be presented with a small dialog box that has a button you can click to open the Task Manager; alternatively you can right-click on empty space on the Taskbar and select Task Manager from the menu."

Here's the Vista/Windows 7 version:




From the BloodyComputer:

Task Manager 1

Task Manager 2



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Sunday, February 25, 2018

Slideshow Accesability

Hearing and vision enhanced


Dave Paradi has an article about how to design PowerPoint shows for those with limited hearing or vision.

With PowerPoint presentations becoming more of a standard way to communicate information of all types, we need to keep in mind that our first responsibility is to our audience. We need to use the ideas above to make sure that we make our presentation accessible for everyone.

Making Accessible Slides



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Saturday, February 24, 2018

Mail Your Calendar

Save a calendar as an iCalendar file


  1. In Calendar, select a calendar to make it the active calendar in the view.

  2. On the File menu, click Save As.

  3. Type a name for the iCalendar file in the File name text box.

  4. A summary of the calendar name, date range, and detail level appears next to More Options.

  5. From the Date Range list, choose the amount of calendar data to include in the iCalendar file, or click Specify dates to enter a custom date range.




  6. From the Detail list, choose the amount of detail to show the recipients.
    Optionally, click Show to see Advanced options.

  7. Click OK, and then click Save.
E-Mail Calendar 

Share a calendar  

Share Outlook



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