Archive for July, 2010

Congratulations Graduates!

Everyone in this class has practiced so hard and long for their completion. They were able to bring in family and other volunteers to practice their clinicals with, and we greatly appreciate their volunteers for assisting them in accomplishing this.

Many in this class are looking at volunteering at the Blood Center of Central Texas. We anticipate great this from the individuals from this class due to the efforts they put forth.

The graduates are as follows: Heather Cours, lake Denison, Ishita Ghosh, Barbara Guerrero Courtney Kemper, Michelle Lugo, Lauren Martin, Jorge Martinez, Nikole Newman,  Anh Phan, Jannie Sigler,  Marinda Speakman,  Tracy Tucek.

We are very proud of the accomplishments that Katrina Calvert & Bryan Wise has accomplished with their ECG Tech. Certification Program. Both have earned fantastic high grades throughout their program. They even were able to take a field trip to St. Davids to see some of their work in action.

Congratulations on your accomplishments Bryan & Katrina!

Katrina & Bryan with their instructor John Maya

Proud Katrina with her Instructor John

Proud Bryan with his instructor John

Review some of the titles and descriptions of classes we are currently putting together to soon offer:

Administering and Maintaining Windows 7 (M50292)

In this exclusive Windows 7 training course, you will gain the knowledge and skills you need to successfully administer, maintain, and troubleshoot Windows 7 computers. Through practical labs, you’ll get invaluable experience with installation and upgrades, remote access, Windows 7 security, and the new desktop environment. You will learn how Windows 7 allows for vast improvements to security, overall system performance, and application compatibility-a robust combination unparalleled in the market.

In this five-day Windows 7 training course, you’ll focus on successful configuration of the IT Pro tools and applications that ship with Windows 7. You will learn to identify technical problems that can occur on your organization’s client computers, and you’ll discover the Windows 7 tools used to monitor and maintain those computers. By the end of this course, you will have installed and configured a Windows 7 desktop that is secure and on the network, while focusing on five main troubleshooting areas: operating system, hardware, networking, security, and applications.

Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client (M6292)

* MS Office® Suite 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 offers flexible and powerful new ways to deliver your best work—at the office, at home, or at school.

Create standout reports and presentations with tools that help you capture your ideas more creatively. Stay connected to your projects, even when you’re away from your computer, with access to Office files via Web browser or Windows phone.¹ Work efficiently with others by sharing, editing, and reviewing files at the same time—even across geographies and time zones.

With Office 2010, you’re in control, getting things done and producing amazing results however and wherever you work best.

Express your ideas and create visual impact

With improved picture and media editing features, it’s easy to add creativity to your work and make your ideas stand out. Whether you’re delivering a presentation to your colleagues or classmates, creating a company brochure or a personal invitation, Office 2010 empowers you to be your own graphic designer.

• Edit your pictures right within select Office 2010 programs. Try an array of eye-catching artistic effects and new background removal tool to add polish to your images.
• Add flair to your text with new OpenType typography in Word 2010 and Publisher 2010. Use ligatures, stylistic sets, and other typography features available in many OpenType fonts.
• Easily edit your embedded videos right in PowerPoint 2010, with no additional software needed. Trim, add fades and effects, or even include bookmarks in your video to trigger animations.

Boost your productivity with easy-to-use tools

Enhancements in Office 2010 help you accomplish your work more intuitively, so you can focus on the task at hand and produce better results.

• Office 2010 simplifies how you find and use features. The new Microsoft Office Backstage™ view replaces the traditional File menu to give you centralized and easy access to operations such as save, share, print, and publish. With the improved Ribbon, you can access more commands quickly and customize it to fit your work style.
• Use the new Paste with Live Preview feature, available in many Office 2010 applications, to preview your Paste Options before you paste.
• Store, organize, and track information in one place to stay connected to all of your thoughts and ideas with OneNote 2010. Enhanced navigation, search tools, new page versions, and wiki linking help you find and track your resources quickly. You can even take notes while working in Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, or Internet Explorer, and link those notes automatically back to the source content.

Find what you need faster with the improved Navigation Pane in Word 2010. Quickly browse by headings or use the integrated Find tools to instantly search your document with all of your results highlighted.

Bring new insights to your information and make better decisions

From business financials to household budgets, Office 2010 makes it easier to manage and analyze your data and present it in meaningful ways.

• Turn complexity into clarity with new visualization tools in Excel 2010. Add a visual summary of your analysis alongside your values with tiny charts called Sparklines. Use a Slicer to dynamically filter data in a PivotTable or PivotChart and display only the relevant details.
• Design your own database faster than before in Access 2010, even if you’re not a database expert. With new features such as Application Parts, you can add prebuilt components to your database in just a few clicks. Use Access 2010 to design Navigation Forms for your frequently used forms and reports using drag-and-drop functionality.

Break down location and communication barriers

Office 2010 offers innovative and flexible ways to bring people together. New technologies and improved features help you easily share your files and keep up with your communications.

• With new co-authoring capabilities in Office 2010, you can edit your files simultaneously with people in different locations. Co-authoring is available in Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Excel Web App, and OneNote Web App.²
• The new Broadcast Slide Show feature in PowerPoint 2010 lets you instantly broadcast your live presentation over the Web. Your remote audience can view your presentation in high fidelity, even if they don’t have PowerPoint installed.
• Reduce information overload and manage your e-mail more efficiently in Outlook 2010. The improved Conversation View and new conversation management tools enable you to clean up redundant messages or ignore an e-mail discussion. The Ignore feature moves current and all future messages to your Deleted Items folder. With the new Quick Steps, you can perform multi-step tasks, such as reply and delete, all within a single click.
• With Office Communicator integrated throughout several Office 2010 programs, you can determine the availability of your colleagues, such as when co-authoring a document in Word or viewing your e-mails in Outlook. Initiate conversations directly from your application including instant messaging and even voice calls. ³

Get the information you need when, where, and how you want

Office 2010 makes it easy for you to stay productive on the go by providing access to your Office documents and notes from anywhere through the Web browser, computer, or smartphone.

• Office Web Apps are online companions to your Microsoft Office 2010 applications. Post your files to a SharePoint site or your Windows Live SkyDrive folder, then access and edit them from virtually any computer with an Internet connection. ⁴
• Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 brings powerful and familiar Microsoft Office 2010 tools you rely on to your Windows phone.⁵ Experience a rich interface specifically suited to your mobile device’s screen and easily take action when you’re on the go.
• SharePoint Workspace 2010, formerly known as Microsoft Office Groove, expands the boundaries of your SharePoint 2010 content. Easily update on your documents and lists offline. When you’re back online your revisions will synchronize to the server automatically.

Whether you’re working on your personal or business projects, or collaborating with friends or teams, Office 2010 makes it easier to get what you need done more quickly, with more flexibility, and with better results.

¹ Web and smartphone access requires an appropriate device and some functionality requires an Internet connection. Web functionality uses Office Web Apps, which require a supported Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari browser and either SharePoint Foundation 2010 or a Windows Live ID. Some mobile functionality requires Office Mobile 2010 which is not included in Office 2010 applications, suites, or Office Web Apps. There are some differences between the features of the Office Web Apps, Office Mobile 2010 and the Office 2010 applications.

² Co-authoring capabilities require either Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or a free Windows Live account.

³ Instant messaging and presence requires one of the following: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2; Windows Live Messenger, or another instant messaging application that supports IMessenger. Voice calls require Office Communications Server 2007 R2 with Office Communicator 2007 R2 or an instant messaging application that supports IMessengerAdvanced.

⁴ Office Web Apps include Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App, and OneNote Web App, and require either SharePoint Foundation 2010 (for business) or a free Windows Live account (for personal use).

⁵ An appropriate device is required. Office Mobile 2010 includes Word Mobile 2010, Excel Mobile 2010, PowerPoint Mobile 2010, OneNote Mobile 2010, and SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010. Outlook Mobile 2010 comes pre-installed on Windows phones (Windows Mobile 6.5 or later) and will be the default e-mail client at the general availability of Microsoft Office 2010.

* MS Project 2007

You need to gather information about the various tasks involved, resources required to accomplish the tasks, and the overall cost in order to plan a project. Microsoft® Office Project Professional 2007 acts as a tool that assists you in managing your projects. In this course, you will create and modify a project plan.

Course Objective: You will create a project plan containing tasks, organize these tasks in a work breakdown structure containing task relationships, create and assign resources, and finalize the project to implement the project plan.

Target Student: This course is designed for a person who has an understanding of project management concepts, who is responsible for creating and modifying project plans, and who needs a tool to manage these project plans..

* Adobe® CS5 Suite

A quantum leap in productivity.

Conquer today’s deadlines and tomorrow’s challenges with Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Production Premium software, the ultimate video production toolkit. Craft video productions, motion graphics, visual effects, and interactive experiences with high-performance, industry-leading creative tools. Boost your productivity with tightly integrated components that deliver breakthrough performance and smooth production workflows, giving you the power to produce engaging media for virtually any screen..

* Crystal Reports®

View, design, and deliver consolidated reports from virtually any data source. Lay out reports with flexible Web viewing and pre-built graphs. And, embed reports into Microsoft and other applications to share information quickly..

* Novell GroupWise®

gives you a wide range of collaborative tools to create a truly “plugged in” work environment. You can easily customize different Home Views or “personal productivity dashboards”, bringing together the tools and Web applications you interact with most for any given aspect of your job. From e-mails from your boss, to your daily appointments, to your RSS feeds, to team workspaces, you can grab what matters most and put it front and center..

* Microsoft SharePoint

* Intro to Six Sigma

Six Sigma is delivering business excellence, higher customer satisfaction, and superior profits by dramatically improving every process in an enterprise from financial to operational to production. Six Sigma has become a darling of a wide spectrum of industries, from health care to insurance to telecommunications to software..

* PMI Risk Management Pro.

Course Objective: You will apply the generally recognized practices of project risk management acknowledged by the Project Management Institute (PMI) to manage project risks successfully.

Target Student: This course is intended for team leads, directors, managers, or program and project team members with interest in developing additional skills in managing project risks. This course is also designed for individuals interested in pursuing the PMI-RMP® credential.

Prerequisites: Familiarity with project management concepts and some working experience with project management are required. Working knowledge of office productivity tools is desirable but not essential. Experience with a specific project management software tool is not required.

Certification: The PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)® Certification course is designed to help you prepare for the PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)® certification. Taking this course and using this student guide will help you prepare for certification..

* Quark XPress 8

Inspired by the designer’s passion for perfection, QuarkXPress® 8 complements the way creative professionals work. Strive to do better and constantly improve — employ page-layout and design software developed to help get you there..

* Google Adwords for Business

Course Objective: You will create an AdWords account, run an ad campaign, and track the performance of ads.

Target Student: This course is for small business owners, members of marketing departments, those seeking a career change wishing to become Google AdWords professionals, and web designers seeking to offer AdWords as an additional service to clients.

If you’re working on a long document such as an academic paper, you may want to refer readers to another part of your document. This is particularly true when it comes to charts and figures.

You can insert the cross references manually. However, this will quickly get unruly as your document grows. You’d need to go back and correct the cross references when your document is complete.

Or, you can use Word’s Cross-reference feature. It will update the cross references automatically. You can also click on a Cross-reference in a document to be taken to a reference’s target.

Simply follow these steps to use Word 2007’s Cross-reference feature:

1. Position the cursor where you would like to insert the cross reference

2. Open the Insert tab

3. In the Links section, click Cross-reference

4. Select the type of item you would like to reference. For example, you can select headings, footnotes or numbered items. To reference figures or tables, you must use Word’s Caption feature

5. Other options in the dialog box will change automatically. The options will let you select from available items to reference. For example, you will see a list of headings or numbered items from which to choose

6. After you have made your selection, click Insert

7. Close the dialog box

If you want to delete a cross reference, simply highlight cross reference and press the delete key.

You have a presentation to create. It’s important. But, formatting diagrams can take forever and the text on your slides seems to have a mind of its own. Then, there’s the sad fact that everybody’s Microsoft PowerPoint presentations look the same.

Sound about right? If so, I’ve got good news for you! Creating professional, unique presentations can be much easier than you think.

This article will help you find the right tools to get exactly the presentation you want. We’ll look at three components of creating effective presentations, and provide time-saving tips to help send your presentation off in style:

• Grab the viewer’s attention
• Clearly communicate your information
• Stay in control of your presentations

Grab the viewer’s attention

Creating slides that get the viewer’s attention is not about how much you can fit on the screen. It’s about using the space on your slides effectively. Don’t crowd your slides, and only include elements that contribute to the points you want to make. When you use graphics on a slide, choose images that serve a purpose (such as a chart or diagram that displays a direct benefit of your idea). Compare the two slides below, for example.

Two versions of the same content: The slide on the right uses a simple graphic to replace some of the slide text and makes a much stronger point.

Check out these four ways to help grab and keep your viewer’s attention.

1. Select or create your own theme.

Themes are the evolution of design templates in PowerPoint, but they’re also much more than that. The themes features was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 to help you easily create the right look for your presentations and to coordinate all of your Microsoft Office documents almost instantly.

A theme is a coordinated set of fonts, colors, and graphic effects that you can apply to your entire document with just a click. The same themes are available for your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel workbooks, and even your Microsoft Outlook email messages (and in Office 2010, your Microsoft Access database forms and reports), so it’s easy to create your own personal or business branding throughout all of your documents.

In PowerPoint, the theme also includes the slide master and slide layouts, which you will learn more about later in this article, and slide background options.

Five versions of the same slide: It took just one click to apply a theme that changed the fonts, colors, graphic effects, and slide design for each option shown here. Shown clockwise from top are the Office (default), Adjacency, Couture, Newsprint, and Slipstream themes.

When you apply a theme in your presentation, you automatically get slide layouts, color, fonts, and graphic effects that go together, and you can format content with just a few clicks, as you’ll see later in this article.

• Find many built-in themes in the Themes gallery on the Design tab, in the Themes group. Just point to options to preview that theme in your documents. In Office 2010, you also see a selection of themes in this gallery that are automatically updated periodically from Office.com.
• You can also mix and match a slide design with different theme colors, fonts, and effects to quickly create your own look. Select separate theme color, theme font, and theme effect sets from their respective galleries on the Design tab:

You can even easily create a completely custom theme with your own colors, fonts and slide designs.

Tip: If you change the theme in your presentation and the formatting doesn’t change, you may not have used theme-ready formatting when you created your presentation. When you start with a new PowerPoint 2010 or PowerPoint 2007 presentation, theme-ready formatting is automatic for fonts and colors on slide layouts and for Microsoft Office graphics, such as SmartArt graphics, charts, and shapes.

2. Use video and audio to convey your message more effectively.

Dynamic content, such as a brief video that illustrates an important point, is a great way to engage your audience. Using audio that helps convey your message can also help you keep your slides clean and approachable, such as by adding recorded narration to slides when sending your presentation to others to view on their own.

In PowerPoint 2010, video you insert from your files is now embedded by default, so you don’t have to include multiple files when sharing your presentation electronically. You can also customize your embedded videos with easy-to-use tools such as video trim, fades, and effects. And with PowerPoint 2010, you can insert a video that you’ve uploaded to a web site to play directly in your presentation.

• Learn about working with video:In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007
• Learn about recording narrations and slide timings:In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007
• Learn more about working with audio:In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007

3. Use graphics to emphasize key points

A well-chosen chart or diagram can often convey much more to your audience than boring bulleted text. Fortunately, creating charts and graphics has never been easier. In Office 2010 and Office 2007, Office graphics coordinate automatically with the active theme in your presentation.

If Excel is installed on your computer, you automatically get the power of Excel charts when you create a chart in PowerPoint. Just click the chart icon on any content placeholder in the PowerPoint presentation to create a chart.

When your chart is created, an Excel worksheet opens where you can add and edit your data. And when you select the chart in your document, you see the Chart Tools Design, Layout, and Format tabs that make it easy to format and edit your chart. Find chart styles on the Design tab that automatically coordinate with your active document theme. Learn more about working with charts:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

SmartArt graphics, introduced in Office 2007, enable you to create a professional-quality diagram literally as easily as typing a bulleted list. You just type in the SmartArt text pane and the diagram is automatically built for you. SmartArt layouts are available for many types of diagrams, ranging from simple lists to process diagrams, organization charts, timelines, and much more.

Click the SmartArt icon on any content placeholder to add a SmartArt graphic.

When you type in the text pane, SmartArt adds your text to the graphic. Press enter to add a new shape or content at the same level, and then press Tab to create a sub-shape or sub-content, such as shown here.

When you select a SmartArt diagram, the SmartArt tools tabs become available on the Ribbon. On the SmartArt Tools Design tab, you can use galleries to select a SmartArt style that coordinates with the effects of your theme and choose from several color options that also coordinate with your theme. You can even select a different SmartArt layout to apply to your active diagram. The layout is updated, but your content and formatting remain. And you can just point to options in any of those galleries to see a preview of your selection on your active graphic before you apply it.

Tips:

• Convert a bulleted list to a SmartArt graphic with just a few clicks. To do this, right-click in the list, point to Convert to SmartArt, and then point to a layout to see a preview of the diagram on your active slide, or click to apply the layout of your choice.
• In Office 2010, dozens of additional SmartArt graphics are available, including more organization chart and picture layouts, as well as improved tools for working with picture diagrams.

4. Use animations and transitions wisely.

Having text and graphics appear on-screen just when you need them can be a nice touch. However, using too much animation can distract from your presentation’s content.

• For effects that emphasize your points without overwhelming your audience, limit animation to key points, and use consistent animation choices throughout the presentation.Customize, preview, and apply animations directly from the Animations tab in PowerPoint 2010. In PowerPoint 2007, find the Custom Animation pane on the Animations tab.

  Tip: Animation effects in PowerPoint 2010 are improved to provide more realistic movement. You can also trigger the animation of an object to begin when you reach a specific point in the playback of audio or video content on your slide.

• Consistent or complementary choices in slide transitions can also provide a professional touch without being distracting.Customize, preview, and apply transitions from the Transitions tab in PowerPoint 2010 or the Animations tab in PowerPoint 2007.

PowerPoint 2010 adds several new 3-D slide transitions with stunning visual effects, such as the gallery transition shown here.

Learn about working with animations and transitions:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Clearly communicate your information

Want slides that clearly communicate your most important points? You might be surprised at how little work it takes to go from basic to brilliant. PowerPoint provides a host of tools for keeping your slides consistent, precise, and professional.

Take a look at two versions of a basic bulleted text slide below. The text in both slides is identical. Which would you prefer to present?

Two versions of the same content: The version on the right uses the slide master and layout formatting in the presentation theme for a more organized, readable slide.

5. Start by outlining your presentation.

Take time to outline your presentation before you begin to create your slides. Doing so can save time and help you give a more clear and effective presentation.

You can create your outline by typing a slide title and bullets points for your main topics on each slide. But you can also use the Outline pane to type your entire presentation outline in one window and add slides to your presentation as you go. To do this:

1. In the Slides pane that appears on the left of your PowerPoint screen in Normal view, click the Outline tab. (If you don’t see the Slides pane, on the View tab, click Normal.)
2. Notice that a slide number and icon appears for your first slide. Type a title for the slide and then press ENTER to create your next slide.
3. Press TAB to demote the text level and add points to the current slide in your outline. Or press SHIFT+TAB to promote the text level and add an additional slide.

The Outline pane is available in both PowerPoint 2010 (shown here) and PowerPoint 2007.

Tip: PowerPoint 2010 adds a new feature called slide sections that enables you to divide your presentations into logical sections for easier organization, such as to assign a set of slides to one author or to easily print just one section of slides.

6. Use masters and layouts to save time and get better results.

The slide master is one of the most important tools in PowerPoint for creating easy-to-use, great-looking presentations. The master gives you a central place to add content and formatting that you want to appear on all (or most) of your slides. Formatting and layout that you do on the slide master automatically updates throughout the slide layouts in your presentation, saving you a tremendous amount of time and effort, and helping to keep your slides consistent. For example, place your logo on the slide master, and it will appear on all slides in the presentation.

A slide master includes a set of slide layouts for different types of content. Nine slide layouts are available by default in the Layout gallery on the Home tab, and they are formatted based on the slide master. You can customize any of these layouts individually and create your own custom slide layouts as well.

The Layout gallery displays the name of the active theme at the top and provides thumbnails of each available slide layout. When you add custom layouts to your presentation, those appear in this gallery as well.

• If you just need a single slide that doesn’t fit an existing slide layout and won’t need to be reused, you can use the Title Only or Blank slide layout and do your own thing right on the slide. But if you will reuse a layout for multiple slides in the same (or another) presentation, create or customize a slide layout to avoid doing the same work multiple times and to keep your slides looking professional and consistent.

To access the slide master, on the View tab, click Slide Master.

Learn to create or customize the slide master:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Tips:

• To hide graphics that you place on the master for just one slide, on the Design tab, in the Background group, click Hide Background Graphics.
• Masters are also available for formatting notes pages and handouts. Find these options on the View tab.

7. Consider differences between print and on-screen presentations.

Presentations designed to be viewed on screen don’t always work well when you print them. Dark backgrounds that look good on slides, for example, rarely print well. Similarly, footer content that you need in print is likely to be distracting on-screen. Fortunately, PowerPoint makes it easy to switch between print and screen presentation options. Here are two features that can help:

• When you format your presentation using a theme, slide master, and layouts, as described earlier in this article, you can change from a light background to a dark background in just a click, and text on your slides automatically changes color to be visible on the new background. Find the slide background gallery on the Design tab, in the Background group.
• To quickly show or hide footer, page number, and date content on all slides at once, on the Insert tab, click Header & Footer. In the Header and Footer dialog box, you can select the options to display them on screen or clear selections to hide content, and then click Apply to All. (Note that if you remove the footer, page number, or date placeholder on any slide, the slide will not display this content even if you turn it on in this dialog box.)

8. Use notes pages and handouts to help deliver the story.

Use the Notes pane that appears below the slide in Normal view to write notes to yourself for your presentation or to create notes that you can print for your viewers instead of crowding your slides with too much text. You can also format and print handouts that contain up to nine slides per page.

Create and print notes pages:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Create and print handouts:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Stay in control of your presentations

Custom colors, layouts, and graphics can do a lot for your presentation. But a misaligned flowchart, or a presentation that crashes on your client’s computer, isn’t likely to make the impression you want. For example, take a look at the two timeline graphic images below.

Two versions of the same content: Nudging and fussing to create the graphic on the left took about an hour, and it's far from perfect. Using available PowerPoint tools, it took just a few minutes to create the flawless diagram on the right.

9. Keep file size manageable.

A common cause of stress when you work in PowerPoint is that the file becomes too large to edit or for the presentation to run smoothly. Fortunately, this problem is easy to avoid by compressing the media in your files and using native PowerPoint features whenever possible (such as tables, charts, SmartArt graphics, and shapes) instead of importing and embedding objects from other programs.

Learn about compressing pictures in your presentations:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

10. Use the tools available to get it right the first time.

You’ve already seen in this article that you can use features like slide layouts to quickly create consistent slides. Or use tools such as SmartArt graphics to create a professional-quality graphic in no-time. But when you need to do your own thing—and that thing doesn’t belong on a slide layout or fit an available graphic style—PowerPoint still provides tools to save you time and improve your results.

• PowerPoint 2010 makes layout and alignment even easier with new Smart Guides.

11. Turn off (or manage) AutoCorrect layout options.

PowerPoint provides several automatic formatting options to help your slides conform to the provided layouts. They can be big time-savers, but they can also be frustrating if you’re not using them intentionally and they cause formatting (such as the font size in slide titles) to become inconsistent from one slide to the next. If you don’t want your text to shrink automatically to fit content, you can easily disable those features in the AutoCorrect Options dialog box.

1. In PowerPoint 2010, click the File tab to open Backstage view, and then click Options. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Microsoft Office button and then click PowerPoint Options.
2. On the Proofing tab, click AutoCorrect Options.
3. On the AutoFormat As You Type tab, clear the AutoFit title text to placeholders and AutoFit body text to placeholders check boxes.

12. Know exactly what your viewers will see.

When you want to be sure that what you send is what viewers see, you can save the presentation in the PowerPoint slide show format, so that the show starts for the recipients as soon as they open the file. But, some variables, such as whether media will play correctly on the recipient’s computer, may still affect what viewers see.

PowerPoint 2010 introduces a new feature that makes it easy to share your presentation perfectly with almost anyone, anywhere. You can now create a high-quality video of your presentation, complete with your saved narration and timings, in just a few clicks. PowerPoint creates the video in the background while you keep working.

presentations

You have a presentation to create. It’s important. But, formatting diagrams can take forever and the text on your slides seems to have a mind of its own. Then, there’s the sad fact that everybody’s Microsoft PowerPoint presentations look the same.

Sound about right? If so, I’ve got good news for you! Creating professional, unique presentations can be much easier than you think.

This article will help you find the right tools to get exactly the presentation you want. We’ll look at three components of creating effective presentations, and provide time-saving tips to help send your presentation off in style:

• Grab the viewer’s attention
• Clearly communicate your information
• Stay in control of your presentations

Looking for tips for an earlier version of PowerPoint? Get tips for creating better presentations with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003.

Grab the viewer’s attention

Creating slides that get the viewer’s attention is not about how much you can fit on the screen. It’s about using the space on your slides effectively. Don’t crowd your slides, and only include elements that contribute to the points you want to make. When you use graphics on a slide, choose images that serve a purpose (such as a chart or diagram that displays a direct benefit of your idea). Compare the two slides below, for example.

Two versions of the same content: The slide on the right uses a simple graphic to replace some of the slide text and makes a much stronger point.

Check out these four ways to help grab and keep your viewer’s attention.

1. Select or create your own theme.

Themes are the evolution of design templates in PowerPoint, but they’re also much more than that. The themes features was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 to help you easily create the right look for your presentations and to coordinate all of your Microsoft Office documents almost instantly.

A theme is a coordinated set of fonts, colors, and graphic effects that you can apply to your entire document with just a click. The same themes are available for your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel workbooks, and even your Microsoft Outlook email messages (and in Office 2010, your Microsoft Access database forms and reports), so it’s easy to create your own personal or business branding throughout all of your documents.

In PowerPoint, the theme also includes the slide master and slide layouts, which you will learn more about later in this article, and slide background options.

Five versions of the same slide: It took just one click to apply a theme that changed the fonts, colors, graphic effects, and slide design for each option shown here. Shown clockwise from top are the Office (default), Adjacency, Couture, Newsprint, and Slipstream themes.

When you apply a theme in your presentation, you automatically get slide layouts, color, fonts, and graphic effects that go together, and you can format content with just a few clicks, as you’ll see later in this article.

• Find many built-in themes in the Themes gallery on the Design tab, in the Themes group. Just point to options to preview that theme in your documents. In Office 2010, you also see a selection of themes in this gallery that are automatically updated periodically from Office.com.
• You can also mix and match a slide design with different theme colors, fonts, and effects to quickly create your own look. Select separate theme color, theme font, and theme effect sets from their respective galleries on the Design tab:You can even easily create a completely custom theme with your own colors, fonts and slide designs.

Tip: If you change the theme in your presentation and the formatting doesn’t change, you may not have used theme-ready formatting when you created your presentation. When you start with a new PowerPoint 2010 or PowerPoint 2007 presentation, theme-ready formatting is automatic for fonts and colors on slide layouts and for Microsoft Office graphics, such as SmartArt graphics, charts, and shapes.

Every day you have so much to do: heading up a committee for a charity, buying snacks for your kid’s next soccer game, or collaborating on a project with friends. By organizing these tasks effectively, you can plan ahead for tomorrow and improve your productivity at the same time.

At the most basic level, the Tasks features of Microsoft Outlook help you create lists of task-related items. But dig a little deeper, and you will find they do much more for you than simply holding your to-do list. Following these six tips for using Microsoft Outlook Tasks features will help you stay better organized and keep you steps ahead of your deadlines.

1. Customize your view

In Outlook Tasks, you can find your tasks and view their status at a glance. Choosing the appropriate view saves time. For example, you can prioritize the items that are most critical on your list without scrolling through all the other tasks that are still marked as incomplete. Or if you prefer to tackle the task that needs to be completed first or sort your tasks by project or collaborator’s name, the options in Tasks can help you organize your tasks the way that works best for you and the project at hand.

To find the task view that works best for you, in Outlook 2010, in the Navigation pane, on the left side of the window, click Tasks. On the Ribbon, click the View tab, and then, in the Current View group, click Change View.

For a basic view of your tasks and main details, click Simple List. In this view, you see columns for Task Subject, Due Date, Categories, In Folder, and Sort by: Flag Status.

Simple List view Outlook 2010 gives you a list of basic tasks and details.

For a view of your tasks that shows more details, click the View tab, click Change View, and then click Detailed. Additional columns appear, including Status, Due Date, % Complete, and more.

In addition to changing the view, you can easily sort your task list in various ways. Here’s how:

On the View tab, in the Arrangement group, click the sorting method you want to use: Start Date, Due Date, Categories, Type, Importance, Assignment Folder, and Modified Date. When you click the method you want to use, your list of task items is automatically reorganized. Try different options until you find one that works best for your tasks.

You can further customize any of the views to suit your needs exactly. For example, open your task list in Detailed view, as described earlier in this article. In the Current View group, click View Settings. The Advanced View Settings: Detailed dialog box appears.

The Advanced View Settings dialog box gives you more choices for modifying the Tasks view

The Advanced View Settings dialog box is available for each view. You can use it to add or remove categories, set filtering parameters, and even adjust type size and font.

To reset a Tasks view that you’ve customized back to its original settings, click the View tab, click Reset View, and then, when the dialog box asks you if you’re sure you want to reset the view, click Yes.

Experiment with different options. If you don’t like the way your tasks appear, you can always reset the view to the default settings or choose a new one. The trick is to decide which view helps you streamline your tasks so that you aren’t digging for information. Create unique views that provide the information you need. This is your chance to personalize Outlook to meet your goals.

Outlook 2007 users: The processes for changing or customizing your tasks views vary slightly.

Each Microsoft Outlook folder, such as Inbox and Calendar, displays its items in a layer called a view. There are several standard views available for a folder that you can choose from or you can create custom views. A view is composed of a view type, colors, fonts, and many other settings, and gives you different ways to look at items in a folder.

For example, by viewing the Contacts folder in Business Cards view, you can display names and addresses in blocks that look similar to paper business cards. This view is a convenient way to look up the mailing address of a contact. In Phone List view, you can view contacts in a table format with details such as job title and department name. This view is helpful to quickly find a contact’s telephone number or job title.

2. Work with the To-Do Bar

Another handy Outlook feature is the To-Do Bar. You can set it up to display your calendar, appointment reminders, and list of tasks—even when you’re not using the Tasks features in Outlook. Here’s how:

1. While in Mail, Calendar, Contacts or Tasks click the View tab on the Ribbon, and then in the Layout group, click To-Do Bar to open a dropdown menu.
2. If Normal is not already selected, click Normal to display the To-Do Bar on the right side of the window.
3. To further customize what appears in the To-Do Bar, click To-Do Bar again to open the dropdown menu. Select one or more of the following options:
   • Click Date Navigator to see a calendar page in the To-Do Bar.
   • Click Appointments to see upcoming appointment in the To-Do Bar.
   • Click Task List to see your list of tasks in the To-Do Bar.

   

You can customize the To-Do Bar in Outlook 2010 to suit your needs.

3. Detail your time, billing, or mileage

It’s not easy to remember the date you drove to an appointment or how much time you spent completing a task. Some people try to remember to write down the time or mileage later. Often, that means holding a jumble of details in your head, or trying to decipher multiple sticky notes or scraps of paper.

However, you can eliminate that hassle by storing all that information in a task. Then, when you need that information, you can easily retrieve the details from your task.

Add details to a task

Do one of the following:

Outlook 2010

Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003

By Rick Maze – Staff writer for AirForce Times

A Vermont lawmaker trying to get Congress to approve a new job training program for unemployed and under-employed veterans says he is worried about what happens when troops return from combat deployments to find their jobs have disappeared.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said he has been warned that up to 20 percent of Vermont National Guard troops now deployed to Afghanistan could be unemployed when they return. That’s one reason why he is pushing for help in teaching them new and marketable skills.

A 20 percent unemployment rate for returning veterans would stick out in a state that otherwise has a 7 percent unemployment rate, far below the 9.5 percent national average.

A Welch-sponsored bill, HR 929, approved Thursday by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s economic opportunity panel, would create a new job-training program aimed at veterans who have been jobless for 180 days or longer and those who have been under-employed, earning wages that are 150 percent or less of the national minimum wage.

Those who qualify would get on-the-job training or take part in apprenticeships where they would learn a marketable skill.

In Vermont, that could be something like using computers to make precision machinery, Welch said.

“A lot of employers in a tough economy cannot afford the time to teach skills, but my experience is that employers really want to hire veterans,” Welch said.

The job training program, to be called the Military Transition Program, would be established as a 5-year pilot with $10 million in funding, enough to pay for about 500 people to receive training in new skill.

Similar legislation passed the House last year as part of a larger veterans’ benefits package but was never taken up by the Senate.

Under the current version, veterans would be paid while working for a company that has an apprenticeship or on-the-job training, with the federal government subsidizing the salary. The government would provide up to half of the wages, with the government’s share capped at $20,000 over two years.

link: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/07/military_veterans_job_training_071510w/