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September 15, 2005 at 12:50 pm #3059686
Policy to allow IT pros access to sensitive data
by jodygilbert · about 19 years ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
One of the best things that happens in the discussion
threads is that people discover that someone has invented the particular wheel
they need. Best case, the wheel gets shared among those who need it, and maybe it gets
customized or enhanced–but no reinventing is needed.For example: When a
member asked if anyone had a data access policy, Chris Snell stepped up and
offered to share the one he created. The thread, which wound its way through assorted
suggestions and some skepticism that a policy could ever be effective at
protecting sensitive data, soon became peppered with “Could I get a copy
please” and “I want a copy too.” Taking the hint, we worked with
Chris to publish the policy, and over the last three weeks, more
than 5,000 IT pros have downloaded it.If that sounds like a wheel you could use, check it out.
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November 1, 2005 at 1:21 pm #3116800
Office 12 prerelease sneaks out ahead of the beta
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 10 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Yikes, November. Good time for an end-of-the-year resolution: more
diligent blogging. Yessiree, I popped the clutch on this blog and I
think I’ve got it rolling again.
I’m having one of those spells where you know the universe hates
you, or at least, its machinery does: I have a failing main circuit
breaker, so my power keeps cutting off on this chilly morning. My phone
lines are out, thanks to some careless excavation up the road. (And
yes, I use a dial-up modem because that’s the price of living out in
the wilderness.) So I’m battery-driven and offline as I write this,
although if you’re reading it, the situation must have improved. I even
have a leaking water supply valve, but so far that doesn’t seem to be
affecting my ability to use a computer or connect to the Internet. Give
it time though.And speaking of leaks (great, great segue): Microsoft’s Office team
has apparently sprung a leak of its own. A prerelease version of Office
12 has surfaced, although it’s reportedly so shaky that it’s probably a
good idea to observe it from a distance rather than compromise your
system by attempting to run it. The latest issue of Office Watch
reports that the version is available on ‘various ‘underground’ but
commonly used Internet services like warez sites and peer-to-peer
sharing services.’ That issue offers an excellent overview of what’s
discernable so far from this early release. Check the OW archives for a helpful series of articles previewing Office 12 features, too.Other resources of note:
- This photo gallery offers a look at Office 12 features.
- The article Office 12 makeover takes on ‘feature creep’
discusses what to expect from Office 12 (is it just me, or does the
idea of fighting feature creep with more feature creep sound a little
like homeopathy?) - See what other TechRepublic members are saying about the aforementioned article.
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December 19, 2005 at 1:47 pm #3197585
Pigs aloft
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
TechRepublic contributor Shannon Kalvar recently pointed me
to RFC 1925, which many of you no doubt already know about. Nestled between RFC 1924
(A Compact Representation of IPv6 Addresses) and RFC 1926 (An Experimental
Encapsulation of IP Datagrams on Top of ATM) lies this list of “The 12
Networking Truths,” which seem to be right on the
money. It’s hard to pick a favorite, since so many resonate so strongly (ohmigod, I said “resonate”), but
consider, for instance, number 3:- “With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However,
this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going
to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly
overhead.”
Or number 6:
- “It is easier to move a problem around (for example, by
moving the problem to a different part of the overall network architecture)
than it is to solve it.
But I guess if I had to embroider one of these precepts and
hang it in my cube, it would be number 11:- “Every old idea will be proposed again with a different
name and a different presentation, regardless of whether it works.”
Yeah, buddy.
Shannon also provided his 10
New Year’s resolutions for IT managers, which has some
excellent reminders about what we should be focusing on as we head into 2006. - “With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However,
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December 21, 2005 at 11:38 am #3198791
Single-use shovels
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
We had our first Winter Storm WARNING (!!!) of the season a
couple of weeks ago and as predictions escalated (1 to 3 inches, no wait: 4 to
6 inches…), the stores were overrun with frantic folks stocking up on pork
rinds and snow shovels. The local TV stations could run the same archival
B-roll year after year (and for all I know, they do): jammed-up parking lots,
store-length lines, triumphant consumers bearing away the last shovel on the
shelf. But here’s the puzzling thing: What did all these people do with last
year’s shovel? Please, if you have a theory, clue me in.Anyway, here comes the awesome segue. I don’t know where I
come up with them, I really don’t. But let’s talk for a minute about Word’s AutoText
feature. (Bear with me.) AutoText is like the shovel you can REUSE the next
time it snows, and the time after that, and maybe even for something other than
snow. AutoText lets you create and store text and graphics so that you can
insert it in a document with a few keystrokes. But as practical as this feature
is, many users have never learned to take advantage of it. So I created a short picture
tutorial that steps through the process of creating and using AutoText entries.
It’s worth sharing with your Word users, especially the chronic shovel buyers.-
December 23, 2005 at 6:32 am #3196445
Single-use shovels
by cutehobbes · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Single-use shovels
..haha ..that was funny …talk about the environmental implications of
not re using the shovel ..so much loss of resources 😀
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December 22, 2005 at 8:30 am #3197926
Best downloads of 2005
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Well, nobody’s asked. And nobody’s going to. But I decided
to put together a list anyway. According to my by-no-means statistically accurate
reckoning, I published around 225 downloads since joining the Content Team at
the end of February. There were a few article compilations, some revamped
resources, problem/solution guides, templates and checklists, sample chapters, presentations,
workbooks, a smattering of tools. And lists of 10 things.
Lots of them.The All
Downloads link has come in handy for my retrospective meandering, offering
a chronological list of everything in the downloads library (going all the way
back to a Word 97
newsletter template I created in 1999 for the “Training Republic”
component of the brand new TechRepublic.com site. Pretty slick, too.)But back to this year. I traipsed along through the list of
all the stuff I’ve published and found myself going, “Great download?
sleeper, sleeper, dog, semi-dog, great, great, great, decent? great!” It’s
a little scary that I could conjure an instant assessment of all these pieces
of content, impressions that were in some cases validated by the response of
TechRepublic members. Other downloads, though, were embraced or shunned
according to some algorithm I have yet to puzzle out.Taken as a whole, the year’s collection of downloads was
strong. I’m pleased with about 95 percent of them, and even the ones I wish had
turned out better were pretty well received. My favorites, though, seemed to be
member favorites too. These items won my vote based on cleverness,
practicality, and/or presentation. I’m listing just a few of them here. Ten, in
fact, since this is the Year of the Decimal. And before I forget? MANY thanks
to the contributors who came through for me over and over again during the
year.- 101
uses for canned air (and its lively, if somewhat tasteless, discussion
and this follow-up) - Support and
Configuration Checklists for Small/Midsize Networks - Nineteen
words that don’t belong in your resume - 34
timesaving mouse tricks for Word users - Intrusion
detection checklist: Six stages of handling attacks - Seven
warning signs that you should turn down a job offer - Build
a foundation for project success with this definition template - Three
tricks to make Word templates easier to find and use - 10
things you should know about PowerPoint abuse - 46
things to check when you’re having server problems
Happy New Year, everyone!
- 101
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December 23, 2005 at 5:22 am #3196477
Calendar people
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Like to-do lists, calendars help provide the illusion of
organization and control over tasks and commitments. But not just any calendar
will do. At least it’s my theory that if you don’t care about the style and
layout of the calendaring software or calendar format you use to track events,
you probably don’t need a calendar at all. Maybe it’s a matter of taste or
aesthetics, maybe it’s a touch of OCD. But if you’re a calendar sort of person,
you have some decent options heading into the new year.Word has always been deficient in offering useful built-in calendar
templates–heavy on ugly design elements and light on functionality. So I built
this little bare-bones
template that automatically inserts the dates for you depending on the
number of days you specify. There’s room for entering your appointments and
activities. And not much else. It’s plain but practical. (You can stick a
little clipart in there, if you feel the urge. Snowflake for January, whatever.)Then you have the slicker choices, courtesy of Microsoft
Office Online. These are prefab
calendars for various applications and purposes. Sixty-four of them,
altogether. There are a bunch of academic calendars in Visio, Excel, Publisher,
and Word format. Calendars by the month, year, and multiyear. Portrait,
landscape, five days, seven. A variety of incredibly ugly PowerPoint calendars,
including some misguided stripes and a sort of Madras plaid. Lunar calendars
for different time zones (who knew the moon operated that way), photo
calendars, postcard calendars. And even a basic 12-month
calendar in Word without a single scrap of art deco design nonsense on it.
If your taste runs that way.Happy calendaring!
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January 5, 2006 at 8:02 am #3094913
Calendar people
by nees · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Calendar people
Thanks. I enjoyed reading this entertaining and informative article.
More like this.
Enjoy your day.
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December 24, 2005 at 2:44 pm #3081324
Worst cliches of ’05
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
In his New Year’s
resolutions for net admins, contributor Rick Vanover cites three phrases
that he’d like to see go away in 2006:- What can we do to
move forward? -
We don?t have the
bandwidth for? -
There needs to be
some accountability…
His dislike of these phrases seems to stem largely from the
situations in which they’re typically used (accountability, for instance, being
demanded at the beginning of a project but mysteriously waning in importance when
things go awry and it’s really needed).I have a list of buzzwords and cliches that I’d like to see
disappear, too–but for the sole reason that they’re INANE. Well, that and
they’re so damn threadbare from overuse. Maybe if we all put our minds to it,
we can stamp out some of these gems in the next year or so. If you have your
own choice phrases to add to the list, by all means share them.- Spin some cycles on
- Pick the
low-hanging fruit - Lean into
- Get some traction
- Put some resources
against - Synergize
- Gain buy-in
- Drill down on
-
December 27, 2005 at 12:51 pm #3082921
Worst cliches of ’05
by jmgarvin · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Worst cliches of ’05
I hate:
- We need to get the baseline
- Tweek the settings
- Network/server consolodation methodologies/schema
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December 28, 2005 at 9:49 am #3083332
Worst cliches of ’05
by dc guy · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Worst cliches of ’05
At times like this I realize how fortunate I am. I never hear anyone use these terms, with the exception of the occasional salesperson.
“Synergize” particularly galls me, since it’s not even a word. It’s not automatically evil to invent words of course, because that’s how language evolves and adapts. But the very concept of synergy implies the application of a good deal of thought and planning in order to optimize the interplay of resources in any individual situation. A speaker who casually tosses out the make-believe word “synergize” assumes this can be achieved merely by turning the crank on a standardized process.
Many of these words and phrases merely elicit a groan from me, “Oh well, not everyone is as eloquent as Winston Churchill.” But I would run away from a manager who believes in “synergizing”!
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December 28, 2005 at 4:14 pm #3083720
Worst cliches of ’05
by smorty71 · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to Worst cliches of ’05
Gee, Jody. Why do all of those sound so familiar?
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January 5, 2006 at 8:08 am #3094910
Worst cliches of ’05
by nees · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Worst cliches of ’05
Hahaha–and add my personal favorite, “Putting out fires.”
Thanks for an irritating while amusing article.
Irritating for obvious reasons of wanting never to hear or read the phrases.
Amusing because it’s all so true.
I can identify with that.
Enjoy your day.
- What can we do to
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December 26, 2005 at 11:16 am #3082348
Project-to-PowerPoint add-in: Not too shabby
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
I was just sifting through some of Microsoft’s
business-focused add-ins available in its Downloads
Center. Not a bad place to poke around from time to time. What caught my
eye today is this little Project-to-PowerPoint add-in (official unwieldy name: The
Project
Report Presentation Add-in for Microsoft Office Project 2003).Once you install the add-in, you can open a project and
click Create Report Presentation on the Project Report Presentation toolbar.
Specify the tasks and fields you want to include and the tool will build a new
presentation with a tasks summary table that shows the status of project tasks
(e.g., Start, Finish, % Complete). You can get about eight tasks on a slide, but
if you need to include more, the tool will create an additional slide and
summary table to accommodate them. Along with the task summary, the
presentation consists of slides for the title, introduction, agenda, overview,
outstanding risks and issues, budget, schedule and scope, acceptance review,
and next steps.If you spend a lot of time reporting on project issues,
conducting meetings to communicate project objectives or changes with
stakeholders, and/or debriefing management and staff on project status and
what’s needed for successful completion, you should definitely check out this unassuming
little tool. As far as I can tell, it does exactly what it’s designed to do, offering
the potential for saving you tons of legwork.The presentation design could be improved — there’s
a sort of anemic putty-colored background, along with those dopey, ghosted-out
clip art effects and stylized geometric distractions. But that’s a small
concern. If you don’t like the looks of the presentation, just go to Format |
Slide Design and choose something you like better. -
December 29, 2005 at 10:43 am #3082735
Top Ten Frenzy
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 9 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Part of the year-end retrospective reflex seems to involve
ranking everything conceivable that occurred or existed in 2005. We’ve done it
at TR: You can see all our top ten lists, which
include such things as the hottest downloads and discussions of the year.I came across another interesting collection of top ten
items, a couple of which are IT-related, thereby giving me a pretext for including
the collection here.Alternet’s Tai Moses put together The Ten Best Top-Ten Lists. There
are things like the top ten baby names (Emma, Aidan), worst jobs in science
(manure inspector, volcanologist), and most-wanted fugitives (their resumes are
pretty good: “Donald Eugene Webb, who is considered a career criminal and
master of assumed identities, specializes in the burglary of jewelry stores. He
is reportedly allergic to penicillin, a lover of dogs, a flashy dresser and a
big tipper.”). The list also includes Merriam-Webster Online’s 10 most
looked-up words, interesting because it appears to be disaster-driven. It
includes refugee, tsunami, pandemic,
and levee. And oh yeah, inept.Also included are Top 10 Most Commonly Encountered
Hoaxes and Chain Letters (Elf Bowling? still??) and the Top 10 List of Strangest and
Funniest Data Disasters. The latter is based on reports shared by Ontrack Data
Recovery, and of course the message is that recovery is possible if you use its
services. Nevertheless, I found it slightly mollifying to compare my humdrum
catastrophic hard drive crash (see my list of top ten personal disasters? nah,
I’m not going there) with things like dogs eating memory sticks and a laptop computer
full of dead cockroaches.-
January 5, 2006 at 7:59 am #3095269
Top Ten Frenzy
by nees · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Top Ten Frenzy
I loved this article and enjoyed reading the various Top-Ten Lists.
Thanks. Keep me coming back with more like this.
Enjoy your day.
-
January 5, 2006 at 7:59 am #3095268
Top Ten Frenzy
by nees · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Top Ten Frenzy
I loved this article and enjoyed reading the various Top-Ten Lists.
Thanks. Keep me coming back with more like this.
Enjoy your day.
-
-
January 17, 2006 at 9:24 am #3097411
Workstation pretzel
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
No, no — this isn’t a snack entry. And if it were, believe
me, pretzels would be near the bottom of my list, between Funyuns and rice cakes, maybe. It’s about ergonomics and the
lack thereof. I just realized I’m sitting in this crappy old chair all twisted
and contorted to work around my overloaded desk and breaking every rule of how
to arrange a work environment and how to sit properly and align yourself correctly. (This
is my home workstation, btw — my sumptuous TechRepublic cube is well appointed
with all the best posture-promoting accoutrements.) But here at home, my laptop
has been nudged to the brink of my desk by my creaky old Gateway, a cheap photo
printer, books, notebooks, dishes, a dog toy I had to confiscate (from the
cat). A good candidate for our messy workspace
photo gallery, as it happens.This is how I’ve been operating for several years now, and I
think it’s possibly starting to take its toll. So I decided to revisit Becky
Roberts’ download “Eight
cost-free steps to improve workstation ergonomics,”
which talks about
simple changes she’s made to help her users work more comfortably. And
then I
popped over to OSHA and discovered some great resources there, too.
Among other
things, I read about the hazards of poorly designed workstations. As I
suspected, I’m embracing every one of them, and I feel a little worse
for reading
about it because of course I have ALL the symptoms: numbness in the
hands; reduced grip strength; reduced range of motion in the shoulder,
neck, or back; dry, itchy, or
sore eyes; loss of color in affected regions; weakness (presumably they
mean physical
weakness; I guess I can’t blame my character flaws on this chair.
hmmmm…).Anyway, OSHA offers some useful info and a
couple of pretty slick checklists, which I’d recommend to anyone who’s trying
to change their pretzel ways and head off the resulting debilitating effects.
The evaluation
checklist runs through items for identifying workstation problems; the purchasing
guide checklist offers criteria for selecting the healthiest components
(not just monitors and keyboards, but telephones, lighting, pointing devices,
and document holders).-
January 26, 2006 at 7:18 am #3109827
Workstation pretzel
by nickrusso · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to Workstation pretzel
Also check this link to MSDN article “Neck or shoulder pain? Try these 10 healthy computing tips” with my comments: http://blogs.msdn.com/tiptalk/archive/2006/01/10/510256.aspx?
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January 25, 2006 at 3:05 pm #3107388
Catharsis and snarkosis: A support tech’s best friend?
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 8 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Every so often I think it’s a good idea, in fact an
excellent idea, to publish a piece of content that gives IT folks a chance to
go (more or less) YEAH!! And another thing?! That’s why
you’ll find the occasional pet-peevish item on the site, such as:- “The
top 10 peeves of a support tech” - “The
top 10 pet peeves of an IT manager” - “Users
share 11 complaints about IT support” - “IT
managers share 15 complaints about CIOs”
The latest entry in this field, “Top 10 signs
you’re getting burned out on your support tech job,” has already
elicited some choice commentary in the
associated discussion, and I have every hope that more will be forthcoming.In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say I’ve never
worked as a support tech (although I’ve done a fine job on the flip side, dancing
close to, if not beyond, the user idiocy encountered by the beleaguered techs
posting to the discussion). But let’s face it: Any profession where you’re
providing a service is bound to entail an aggravation overhead — often a really
big one. Ten-plus years of tending bar and waiting tables during my misspent
youth, and I STILL have bad dreams featuring the obtuse, the deliberately
moronic, and the despicably narcissistic and self-involved. In general, I have to say (to myself, at least) that’s the real
world, get over it? BUT: Enjoy the solidarity that comes from sharing those
soul-cleansing comments with your peers. Bring on the snark. - “The
-
February 24, 2006 at 8:53 am #3272466
Gimme my e-mail? and I don’t mean in a MINUTE
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 7 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
I came across a productivity tip the other day, which–on
the face of it–sounds entirely reasonable. The suggestion is that instead of
getting sidetracked all day long by the arrival of one e-mail message after
another, you configure your mail client so that it delivers mail on a
restricted schedule. Like every hour or two.I can certainly see where that would cut down on interruptions
and the temptation to slide into work avoidance mode. But after giving the idea
some serious consideration, for maybe a full three seconds, I rejected it. And
here’s why: I would go INSANE thinking about all those potentially critical or at
least critically amusing e-mails washing up in some cyber holding tank waiting
for Outlook to open the sluiceway and allow them to pour into my mailbox. Not
that I ever get that kind of e-mail. That’s not the point. I wouldn’t know WHAT
was waiting for me, is the point. I have to check e-mail when I’m on vacation,
that’s how et up with curiosity I am. So no delayed or consolidated e-mail
delivery for me. I’d be stabbing at the [F9] key for a manual send/receive all
day long like a psychotic, pellet-craving lab rat.Assuming you’re in the same boat I am, and I know at least
some of you are (because you answer my e-mail when YOU’RE on vacation), what can
we do to keep from becoming derailed by our e-mail? I think maybe the only real
choice is to embrace derailment as a working style and learn to function
productively even as we go jouncing and skidding across the multitasking
landscape.To further choke the life out of the train metaphor (although our
journey began on a boat), it’s like hopping from track to track to track: working on Project A while answering a couple
of smart-ass e-mails, responding to a serious managerial imperative, gathering
data and writing a report while working on Project B, investigating a customer
problem, reading a series of e-mails from the person sitting four feet behind
you. Hop hop hop.Not that it hurts to fine-tune your e-mail handling skills.
(Here it is, finally: my raison d’blog.) As long as you’re
going to be wallowing in e-mail day in and day out, you might as well shoot for
some degree of efficiency and organization. I found just the system, too. It
calls for you to:- Set Up a Simple and Effective E-mail Reference System
- Schedule Uninterrupted Time to Process and Organize E-Mail
-
Process One Item At a Time, Starting at the Top
- Use the “Four D’s for Decision Making” Model
(That last one is my favorite part. The four Ds are Delete
it; Do it; Delegate it; Defer it. There are some excellent options there!)This system is described in “4 Ways
to Take Control of Your E-mail Inbox.” It’s one of those productivity
articles describing practices that sound great and would probably work if it
weren’t for the fact that you have to actually adopt them. The advice is
practical and specific, though, and I might give it a try.If you have some other suggestions, please pass them along.
Or send me an e-mail. Odds are, I’ll have it read before it comes to a complete
stop in my inbox. -
March 2, 2006 at 9:48 am #3087542
Office 007: From Redmond with Love
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
For awhile there, Microsoft’s highly covert operations
surrounding Office “12” seemed to suggest something a little revolutionary
was afoot. You couldn’t turn around without smacking into an NDA, and a leaked
(albeit flakey) early beta added a hint of espionage.But now, we’re being fed details, the rumble of hype is
growing louder, and the mystique is fading. Microsoft has divulged the
bundling/pricing structure, the official name, and details of the 2,709
individual applications that will make up the 482 packages of the new Office
system. This blog
post by Jason Hiner offers a great breakdown of the Office 2007 components
(okay, not quite 2,709 of them), packaging, and pricing. And I don’t mention
this because Jason’s my boss. No really.So just now, I went ahead and registered for beta 2, after
having been denied entrance to the ultra secret society of beta 1 testers. I
feel a little silly doing it, as though I’m flipping a light switch that’s not
wired to anything. But what the hell. I’ve got that Microsoft Passport, might
as well use it.I also feel a tiny bubble of dread surfacing somewhere.
Maybe because I’m an Office luddite, resisting and despising many of the
features that arrived with the XP and 2003. (For example, the implementation of
Word’s document reviewing features–something many writers and editors live and
die by–took such a thrashing in XP, you have to wonder whether the design
changes were driven by some kind of high stakes Rube Goldberg side bet.)And I’m not reassured by the carefully dispensed,
meticulously spun scraps of information about Office 2007’s new features, enhancements,
and radically rejiggered UI. If the goal is to surface all that functionality
that most users don’t know about, I’m really not going to like it. Because I DO
know about the functionality, and I’ve built and customized and tinkered my way
around Office so it’s like a comfortable, nicely broken-in chair. The last
thing I want is for Microsoft to give me an entirely NEW chair–one that, by
early accounts–will be nearly impossible to break in.But I’m going to reserve judgment, or try to. Maybe I really
will find myself working more efficiently, staying organized, and more easily
collaborating and sharing information using the security-enhanced 2007
Microsoft Office system.Meanwhile, I’ve been checking out Office 2007 product team blogs
here and there to try to find more facts and less hyperbole. Or at least a more
honest, in-the-trenches grade of hyperbole. I just started in on a collection
of 2007
Office dev team interview videos. Also I’ve found some fairly interesting
blogs on this MSDN
Office 12 blogger list.And you know, I’m sure I’ll have my hands on beta 2 before
too long. Then we’ll see. -
March 6, 2006 at 6:49 am #3084811
How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
What began as a forum
for exchanging outrageous tales of user goofiness wound up as “10
classic clueless-user stories” (in both article and download format),
showcasing a few of the more bizarre accounts.Now I’d like to force-morph the discussion into a look at
the other side of the coin: IT pro foibles and blunders.In the clueless-user
discussion thread, member peterl@… said, “Wonder
if there ever was a collection of dumb acts *by* IT people when they deal with end
users. Like asking incredibly dumb business questions or making assumptions
that make absolutely no business sense.” And info@… pointed out,
“There are just as many clueless acts by technical
people that cost companies millions. Like the tech who decided to make
“one small change.” A change that sent three thousand people home for
the day. Or in a regional bank where the IT dept didn’t understand or believe
the business priority of a problem which resulted in over ten thousand term
deposits being voided.”Maybe our mistakes aren’t quite that
colossal–or if we’re lucky, they just wind up as near-misses. Like the time I
installed an Outlook 2003 beta on a production machine to do some testing and
almost caused a catastrophic enterprise-wide Exchange meltdown. KaBOOOM.Just as users can bumble along in a
way that dumbfounds the IT staff, so can the IT staff stray into their own Clueless
Territory–and we can all learn a little from hearing about those mistakes. They
might even make us feel a little better about ourselves.Got a good tale to tell on yourself?
Share it here or join
the discussion. Let’s hear your worst.-
March 9, 2006 at 6:39 am #3084445
How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
by zclayton2 · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
We had been running with a mix of WinDoze 2000 and (then) new XP installs. My 2000 system hung on a virus scan update and the tech came over and said, “Well we’ve been going to migrate everyone over to XP anyway, why don’t I do yours now?” (Everyone is now nodding their heads and groaning, right?) She hand me the install disks and tells me to go ahead. I asked if I needed to back up and she said, “No, it will just put in a new system on C:”. I was still using Me and 98 at home so I had no idea what was about to happen. I had a partitioned drive, C: and D: and all my data was on D:. At the point when I realized it was going to reformat I stopped everything and yelled for help. No help. She said go ahead it would only format C: and D: would be fine. Not. XP wiped my partition and all my data. My backup from 3 months ago helped, but I had just finished a major update on our field sampling SOP’s and lost those and all recent correspondance on the revision rational. Turns out I wasn’t the first she had done this to – I was just the first to squawk loudly enough to get attention. She was transfered to a remote site about a month later and although those people were warned, she still managed to hork several systems out there also.
She wan’t fired. Why? Because I work for a state government and about the only way you can get fired is to falsify your time card or “go postal”. Unfortunately, some stereotypes are true.
Hmm – that reminds me, It’s probably time for a backup.
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March 9, 2006 at 7:14 am #3084385
How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
by james.fraser · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
Server rack filled with servers in the server room of a certain large financial institution, one server needs a reboot. Power buttons are the kind like the top of a ball point pen. Click in once to turn on and hold in, click again to press in, and the switch will pop out to turn off. (I think this was an IBM design, maybe their lower end boxes that were glorified desktop pc’s.) Some tech realized he had pressed the button on the wrong server (immediately above the one he was going for, I think) while pressing the button. The server was still on, but as soon as he let go, it was going to turn off.
It ended with with the server shutting down and a brief interruption in the ticker information to some traders.
Moral of the story, Don’t ever get into a conversation while doing maintenance in a live server rack. Not that I was there for this…
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March 9, 2006 at 7:45 am #3084358
How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
by dryflies · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
At a large manufacturing facility in Oregon, one of the manufacturing machines ran off two NT4.0 PCs. to communicate, there was a private lan between them and each also had a connection to the company manufacturing network. The whole thing was 10baseT. Fast ethernet came out and the technicians realised that they could get an increase in output (more widgets) if they put fast ethernet nics in the machines and used a switch, getting rid of the private LAN. So far so good.
The manufacturing technician made the change, and then the IT tech came to hook the whole thing up to the LAN. When the IT tech hooked the machines up to the switch, there were a couple of extra LAN cables coming out of the wiring cabinet so he hooked them to the switch as well. It was one of the switches with autosensing ports and the two extra cable ends were of the same cable that was too mired in the spaghetti of wires to remove. The LAN went down for 6 hours while they tried to figure out what happened.
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March 10, 2006 at 8:21 am #3266869
How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
by rclark2 · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
This happened several years ago but is a classic, so here goes. I am a systems analyst so get called at all hours for all types of support issues, both hardware and software. Because we pride ourselves in supporting our after hours techs, we never know who will call and what the call will be.
One night I got a call from our IBM service rep who will remain nameless. He had been called by our after hours support tech because one of the terminals was dead. He had talked to the tech, ran diagnostics, replaced the power supply, back plane, and distribution bus on the terminal. After about two hours work, he called me and said he would have to replace the box because he couldn’t find anything wrong but it was still dead.
Although he was a very smart cookie, and had been a field representative for 20+ years, my first question to him was “Is it plugged in?” Dead silence on the phone. Then “Thanks. The universal power cord was loose in the socket. Goodnight.”
No, I don’t have ESP or anything like that. Just customers and I didn’t think about who was on the other end of the line when I asked the question. Turns out even we “Techs” have blind spots.
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March 11, 2006 at 3:43 am #3267475
How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
by nrdickens · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to How about a few classic clueless-TECH stories?
During a network segregation project I managed to create a new local DNS zone that was the same as the zone provided by the company we were segregating from. However, it only contained a third of the entries we actually needed and that included none of the production links. All I can say is there is nothing like ‘effective change control’, and this change contained nothing like effective change control
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March 14, 2006 at 6:29 am #3267249
Fish gotta swim, crumbs gotta fly
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 6 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
If you’ve read my confessional “10
improvement goals for the less-than-perfect user,” you know that I
could never lose my laptop. It would be too easy to track it down by following
the trail of crumbs leading back to it. What else is there to do when you’re
sitting at a computer, knocking out a riveting blog entry, but snack, after
all?I’m not talking about spilling benzene-laden soft drinks on
the keyboard. I’m careful. Fastidious, even, for a desktop snacker. Still, the
average workday is likely to release a few parts-per-billion of snack debris
into the atmosphere, and prevailing winds sometimes carry them toward my
keyboard. It’s a natural phenomenon. I accept that.But that doesn’t mean I’m hell-bent on dropping, say, a
pudding cup on my function keys. (Talk about living on the edge.) And because I
recognize the importance of snacking responsibly, I was especially pleased to
come across Becky Roberts’ guidelines on “The worst
foods to eat over a keyboard (and the best ways to clean up the mess).”
I might be reaching here, but judging by the items on her list of problematic
snacks (her Jell-O trumps my Spaghetti-Os, I’m pretty sure), she appears to be an
inveterate keyboard snacker herself. Unlike me, however, she also seems to be a
proactive one. Her article includes some helpful hints on keyboard cleanup,
along with links to some how-to resources.So the next time your imaginary maitre d’ (like you don’t have
one; c’mon…) offers you a cozy seat with a view of your ThinkPad, just
remember to choose your snacks wisely. If it’s on Becky’s list, you could be
asking for trouble. -
April 14, 2006 at 12:54 pm #3287673
Internet closed for spring cleaning: Web-crawling robots roll up their sleeves
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 5 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Finally, finally, spring has arrived. For me that means it’s
time to tune up the tractor, degunk the garden tools, and vacuum dead bugs out
of the window sills to make room for new ones. Seems like a lot of work, but I realized
how trifling these tasks are after reading about this REAL spring cleaning
effort:—————————————-
From:
Department of Homeland Security
Date: March
29, 2006 8:48:17 AM MST
To: All US
Medical Facilities
Subject: World
Wide Web cleanupIt
is
necessary to inform all internet dependent facilities that the internet
will be
shut down for cleaning for twenty-four hours from midnight on March 31
through the early hours of April 2. This cleaning is necessary to
clear out the “electronic flotsam and jetsam” that has accumulated in
the network. Dead email and inactive ftp, www, and gopher sites will be
purged.
The cleaning will be done by five very powerful Japanese-built
multi-lingual
Internet-crawling robots (Toshiba ML-2274) situated around the
world. During this period, users are warned to disconnect all devices
from the internet. If electronic files will be needed during that
period of time, it is
advised that back-up systems be used, without attempting to access
them through the Internet. Although the general public has not been
informed of
this shutdown to avoid a general panic, it has been deemed necessary to
inform
public medical and emergency facilities that may have become internet
dependent. This message may be passed on to any facility or person that
you
believe may be affected by this short shutdown.Thank you for
your cooperation in this matter.U.S. Assistant
Secretary for Homeland Security Randy Beardsworth—————————————-
I don’t know about you, but I can really tell the difference
— my Internet connection has never been so swift and nimble, unencumbered as
it is now by defunct gopher site debris.You can read about the history of this memo, whose origins
actually predate the Internet, at http://www.snopes.com/holidays/aprilfools/cleaning.asp.
I went poking around Snopes on a quest for amusing hoaxes after checking out
Deb Shinder’s recent article and download “10
Internet threats your users can ignore,” which detail a variety of popular
scams and phony warnings.Whenever I read about such pranks, I think, “Who but
the most incredibly mindless or profoundly nontechnical user would fall for
this???” Well, all sorts of folks, apparently — including the mindful and
tech-savvy. One member posted to the article
discussion thread to observe: “It’s funny just how many people fall
for this stuff. I have friends — seemingly intelligent people — that will
send me forwards about how Bill Gates will send me $2 for every person this
gets forwarded to. I ask them if they really think they’re going to get a check
and they say ‘probably not but who knows?'”Just goes to show. There’s a cybersucker born every minute?
and two to phish him. -
April 19, 2006 at 9:26 am #3286719
Staying away from windows (not Windows)
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 5 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Had one of those nights where storms swoop in around 3 AM, head-butt
the house for a couple of hours, and leave you wondering what kind of shape
you’ll find things in when it gets light. Minor damage as it turns out, but
it’s easy to get spooked with an already off-the-charts tornado season
underway.So while the wind and hail were indiscriminately chewing up roof
shingles and fragile new leaves, I tried to stop thinking about unseen funnel
clouds and replaced that worry with another one: How likely is it that an
individual–say, one who does a lot of work at home–might lose all their equipment
and their data, both ongoing and archived, to a blown-off roof, a fire, a
flood?We talk about disaster preparedness on the enterprise level,
although evidence suggests that not everyone has much of a system in place. But
how do you build your own personal DR plan? What offsite facility to you use to
store backups? How do you equip yourself to cope with an emergency evacuation
— and how much stuff will you be able to rescue? It’s tempting to think that
home is that safe place where you can work if something (heaven forbid) ever
happens to your main office building. But of course that’s a happy delusion: Risk
is risk.I’m casting a wider net to try to pull in some suggestions
on strategies for developing a “home continuity plan.” You can check this
discussion thread to see what members have offered. Meanwhile, if all of
this has stirred up that old worry about the insufficient DR plan that’s never
really been tested in your organization (or the one that remains to be drafted,
much less implemented and tested), here are some good resources to get you
moving in the right direction:Disaster
Recovery Plan: Manager’s checklists -
May 8, 2006 at 11:09 am #3162397
Shortcut shortcuts
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 4 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
I’m feeling number-oriented today; maybe it’s just a lingering
trace of Kentucky Derby fever. Anyway, I found myself suddenly curious about the
number of times our various shortcut lists have been downloaded. By my reckoning,
these collections–published on TechRepublic over the past year– have been
downloaded roughly 451,050 times. All told, these documents comprise a hefty ~1,000
shortcuts (discounting the universal ones like [Ctrl]C, which appear on more
than one list).Who doesn’t love a cheat sheet? Key information the very
instant you need it, no thinking or remembering required.Microsoft
Word 2003 keyboard shortcuts34
timesaving mouse tricks for Word users85
keyboard shortcuts for moving faster in Microsoft Excel70+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Microsoft Access50+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Microsoft PowerPoint80+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Microsoft Outlook50+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Microsoft Outlook Express50+
keyboard shortcuts for moving faster in Windows XP100+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in TextPad90+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0 for Windows70+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Mozilla Firefox30+
Keyboard shortcuts to move faster in Microsoft Internet Explorer-
May 9, 2006 at 1:39 pm #3152297
Shortcut shortcuts
by leee · about 18 years, 4 months ago
In reply to Shortcut shortcuts
An instant classic – this should go in an official TR library. Thanks.
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May 11, 2006 at 5:12 am #3153525
What does it take to excel in IT?
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 4 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
A recurring theme on TR surrounds the issue of professional
capabilities. At the most basic level, the question that IT pros and hiring
managers are asking is this: “What
makes a good support tech?” (Or net admin or project manager, etc.) We’ve
taken a few stabs at nailing down the skills and attributes that seem to spell
success for a variety of tech job functions:Twelve
qualities of successful support techsEleven
qualities of successful IT managers10
things you should know about being a great IT manager10
things you should know about developing soft skills to advance your IT careerMaster
these 10 processes to sharpen your project management skillsTen
skills that can help you land an IT manager job10
New Year’s resolutions for IT managersNow, CIO Jeff Relkin has put together a broad view of
fundamental competencies that distinguish the effective, well-rounded IT
pro–the one who isn’t just putting in time on the job but who is actively building
a career, growing in the profession, expanding his or her skill set, and adding
value to the organization.If you’ve been feeling a little complacent or have lost your
professional momentum–or you just need some insight into what skills to focus
on as you head down the IT career path–there are some great recommendations on
Jeff’s list. -
May 18, 2006 at 7:27 am #3160503
Dumb is in the eye of the beholder
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 4 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
I just published Deb Shinder’s list of “10 dumb things
users do that can mess up their computers,” and not surprisingly, it
has sparked a fairly edgy discussion
that touches on users’ intractability or inability to learn basic practices
and develop a little tech self-reliance. Also included in this mix is the
failure of many organizations to allocate even the scantest of funds toward end
user training, with the implicit suggestion that employees should already know
what they need to know; after all, that’s why they were hired.These are serious issues and clearly dominate the thinking
of a lot of IT pros out there. But the message I was hoping members would take
away from Deb’s list is that it doesn’t really matter why users do dumb things. Maybe they’re just completely
nontechnical. Maybe they’re butt-headed nitwits who delight in making support
techs dance to whatever misguided tune they choose to call. Maybe they’re
earnestly trying to pick up knowledge but nobody ever explained to them that
their trusted friends’ e-mail addresses might get spoofed.The fact is, mistakes are going to happen, and when they do,
IT is going to have to clean up the mess. So it only makes sense that we should
take every preemptive measure we can to avert those messes in the first place. It’s
self-preservation. And user education has to be the easiest first step toward preventing
problems, even if we just provide info like the simple steps in this list. I
know, I know; users may not get it. Hell, most of them probably won’t even
bother to read it. But some of them will. At least we can say we made the
effort.Not trying to help users understand the consequences of
their actions… now that’s a dumb thing.-
July 4, 2006 at 5:30 pm #3169184
Dumb is in the eye of the beholder
by imalguy · about 18 years, 2 months ago
In reply to Dumb is in the eye of the beholder
I work for an Oil company and we have a folder called Helpdesk Tips and Tricks on each PC we deploy.We have the general topics like “How to change your password”, “Creatng PST files”etc. It maybe helps 15 % of the people we assist. The remainer do not even know there is such a folder or if we mention it they will not read the documents in the folder. Most want their hand held or do it for them.
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July 22, 2006 at 9:53 am #3279399
Dumb is in the eye of the beholder
by retired77777 · about 18 years, 2 months ago
In reply to Dumb is in the eye of the beholder
Insert comment text here A little more user friendly installing instructions would help especially for older people. older me
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May 26, 2006 at 9:26 am #3155197
Talk me down: It’s only a misplaced apostrophe!
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 4 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
One bonehead grammatical error too many (I think it was
“you’re” for “your”) sent me over the edge, and I was compelled
to publish “10
grammar mistakes that make you look stupid.”And now I’ve become addicted to its discussion
thread, which has taken off in about 50 directions.There’s something for everyone there. A forum for expressing
your own peeves or ranting against someone else’s. Lessons in linguistics and
cultural history. A little badinage between proponents of the Queen’s (or
King’s) English and that lazy Americanized version. The overzealous, the
anti-zealous, the l33t busters, the “let’s break all the rules” camp,
the “language is going to hell” doomsayers.A couple of times, I’ve been forced to drag down a dusty
copy of Chicago Style Manual or Words into Type to check on something I
sort of remembered as a rule that various publishers insisted I adhere to. To
which they insisted I adhere. Mostly, I’ve been vindicated. Although, as one
member pointed out to me, “grammar” is a noun not an adjective, so
the title of my article is incorrect (and yeah, makes me look stupid!).Anyway, I stand by the list of 10 things as mainstream
mistakes that are commonly regarded as red flags signaling careless or ignorant
usage. But of course, it doesn’t stop there.I also understand that our language is evolving, there are a
million regional/cultural differences, there are plenty of good reasons to
break the rules, and many editorial conventions are based merely on someone’s
preference or whim somewhere up the line.I’m a big advocate of what I think of as “business
casual” writing. Solid writing, but relaxed enough to let the
writer’s voice come through. I don’t run my contributors’ articles through some
grammatical grinder so that it’s neatly packaged according to stringent rules
but homogenized and devoid of flavor. (No really? I don’t!)It comes down to two things for me, whether I’m writing or
editing: Is the information expressed clearly, concisely, and logically? And is
it free of glaring mistakes that could confuse or distract the reader?Anything beyond that is a bonus: a clever lead; a subtle,
ingenious subtext; a compelling story; humor (done well); the
refreshing absence of worn-out pop culture references, cliches, and statements
of the obvious.I think good writing is better than correct writing. But the editor
in me wants both. -
June 14, 2006 at 8:31 am #3271028
Reuben the Podcast Dog
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 3 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
Last week, I called into our TechRepublic recording studio
to participate in a roundtable discussion on first
impressions of Office 2007 Beta 2. I’ve just barely dipped a toe in this
beta, but I can tell it’s going to be fun to splash around. I don’t know about
actually USING it, however; I’m already feeling a little cantankerous at the
prospect of the software trying to spoon-feed me prefab document elements and deciding
what options I need while limiting my power to push things around.For those who haven’t sampled the beta for themselves, we’ve
put together a ton of photo gallery images that show, among other things,
Office 2007’s option-packed “ribbon,” which is supposed to rescue users
from the confounding dilemma of deciding which menu to haul open in search of a
way to achieve a task. I continue to be struck by the irony that Microsoft has
decided to combat the problem of feature overkill by ADDING MORE FEATURES. Of course,
the design changes are supposed to turn feature-bloat into feature-rich. Anyone
buying that?Beta 2 photo galleries:
Along with the gallery images, you might want to check out
the podcast to hear a few opinions on what the drastic UI changes may mean for
users, what the pricing/licensing structure may mean for organizations, and how
the new version is likely to be received.If you listen carefully, you’ll also hear my dog Reuben
offering his thoughts (squirrel, truck, kibble). -
July 5, 2006 at 6:54 am #3168039
Should you try to rehabilitate your boss?
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 2 months ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
I’ve had a ton of managers over the past 20 years in the
tech publishing biz. Like, lemme see: 22
of ’em, give or take. It’s just that kind of industry, restless and volatile
and lousy with reorgs. I was even a manager myself for a brief, soul-sucking,
wholly unrewarding year or so. Definitely not the color of my parachute. Color
of my noose, maybe.Given those kind of numbers, it’s not surprising that I’ve
also had one or two fabulous and inspiring managers and one or two astoundingly
deficient ones (who have mercifully drifted away to ply their ineffectiveness
elsewhere). So I was keen on publishing Becky Roberts’ “10 ways to train
your boss to give you the support you need,” a kind of proactive
antidote to the career-crippling fallout generated by bad managers.Even if you have the best boss in the world, there’s some
work to be done–on both sides of the equation–to make sure your manager can
help you do your job. And when managers are just not that sharp? or savvy? or
committed (or okay, if they’re incompetent, driven mad by insecurity, disingenuous,
spiteful, officious, and? STOP me), it becomes tremendously important to take
steps to steer them in the right direction. Even if the only thing you can do
is try to stay on their radar.In bad situations, I’ve maintained a tradition of suffering
in silence (except for copious bitching to peers), always assuming I was stuck
with whatever supervisory hand I’d been dealt. And that’s a pretty reasonable approach
for, say, a five-year-old. But for anyone aspiring to be a mature, responsible,
professional employee–a cog, maybe, but a damn fine cog–certain challenges
need to be squarely met. And I’d say looking for ways to help your boss be a
better boss falls into that category.-
July 5, 2006 at 8:30 pm #3168361
Should you try to rehabilitate your boss?
by vaspersthegrate · about 18 years, 2 months ago
In reply to Should you try to rehabilitate your boss?
For an even more comprehensive view of bosses and how to deal with them, refer to the funny, smart, well-written book How To Work For a Jerk: Your Success is the Best Revenge by Robert M. Hochheiser (Vintage, 1987).
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July 28, 2006 at 8:16 am #3207205
Word user since nineteen hundred and twenty-seven
by jodygilbert · about 18 years, 1 month ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
I had a good time putting together “10 obscure Word
tricks that can expedite common chores” (and its PDF
cousin), mostly because I was anticipating some ego-boosting feedback. (Yeah,
I’m all about the external validation. It’s pretty sad, really.)There’s nothing exotic or wildly innovative about the
tricks–just plain old underused or poorly documented features. But it’s the
kind of thing that gets people to say, “I’ve been using Word for 79 years
and thought I knew it inside and out? but I never realized you could make a
vertical text selection!”It’s also the kind of thing where you get people to say,
“Good tips, but you went overboard with that last one. Just create a
desktop shortcut for the template.” As member Antonio Rodulfo pointed out:Trick #10 is a little trickier than needed. For Word to
create a new document based on a template already existing either in your
system or on a local area network server repository, you only need Windows
Explorer to navigate to that template folder, wherever it may be, press [Alt] and
click-and-drag the template file to your desktop. Windows will show the little
arrow marking a direct access icon both along the process and upon leaving the
file icon in your desktop… and you’re there!It’s an old story: I couldn’t see the shortcut for the startup
switches.Thanks, Antonio. I’ve been using Word for 79 years, but I
forgot about that straightforward and highly practical solution.If you have a favorite Word trick of your own, please share
it in the
discussion thread. -
September 14, 2006 at 12:15 pm #3227846
How do you do? How do I???
by jodygilbert · about 18 years ago
In reply to ISO Nexus
One of the tenets of online content production suggests that
the way you present information is as important as the
quality of the information itself. This applies to how it looks (legible fonts,
nice use of white space, nothing overshadowed by ads or graphics) as well as
how it’s packaged–its form factor, as we like to say (over and over) these
days.So naturally, the TechRepublic editors are always looking
for the best ways to present particular types of information: glossaries, cheat
sheets, tutorials, “10 things you should know about?” lists. And
we’ve recently started publishing a new type of content, which, in a fit of
unparalleled creative brilliance, we dubbed “How do I??”You may have seen a few of these already:
- How
do I… Add Macs To A Windows Workgroup? - How do
I… Configure multiple hardware profiles for a laptop? - How
do I… Manage Microsoft’s Windows Small Business Server 2003 e-mail accounts? - How
do I… Set the default folder for saving Outlook 2003 messages and
attachments? - How do
I… Add storage to a PC or workgroup network?
(You can view the entire growing collection by clicking
this tag search link.)The formula is pretty simple: Take a problem or a procedure
and work through it step by step until you reach a solution or produce the
desired results. The tricky thing here is scope.Just how granular should the focus be in order to be truly
useful? I’m thinking, for example, that something like “How do I? Create a
Web page?” or “How do I? Use Microsoft Visio?” or “How do I?
Make lots of money and have fun working in IT?” might be a little
sweeping. On the other hand, I’m wary of getting too particularized. So, for
instance, I’d steer clear of:- How do I? Adjust the brightness on my monitor when I’m using
two Philips 100-watt Longlife incandescent light bulbs in a room with a
south-facing Andersen Tilt-Wash Double-Hung window and partially closed
Venetian blinds (color: Mocha Frost) on a day that’s 83 percent overcast with nimbostratus
clouds whose bases lie at 7,100 feet? - How do I? Extricate Gerber Tender Harvest Non-Bioengineered Pureed
Corn ‘n Peas from my MATSHITA UJDA755yDVD/CDRW DVD/CD-ROM drive, from my
Microsoft Natural PS/2 keyboard, and from the internal components that got a
little soggy, including the Texas Instruments PCI-4520 Cardbus Controller and
the Intel(R) 82801DMB Ultra ATA Storage Controller -24CA? - How do I? teach Microsoft Word to know what text I want to
enter when I type the beginning of the AutoText entry “thisthatthesethosethem,”
which sometimes should autocomplete the word “this” and sometimes
“that” and sometimes “these” and sometimes
“those” and sometimes “them”?
Nope, you probably won’t be seeing that stuff in the content
lineup anytime soon.Achieving the right balance between macro and micro is
sometimes tough, but I’m confident that we can do it. We could use a little
help, though. What “How do I??” topics would you like to see us
cover? How narrowly focused do you think they should be?-
September 22, 2006 at 1:12 am #3204099
How do you do? How do I???
by kiltie · about 18 years ago
In reply to How do you do? How do I???
A suggestion:
One very useful “How Do I…..” article would be about how to use TR.
How do I find all the TR sections (17+?) atm there seem to be only several links listed. It may be there, but obscured by TMI, if so, should it be made more prominent?
How do I submit suggestions for a future article?
How do I submit an article myself? Is there a protocol, set of standards, template, is it subject to permissions, editorial review, peer review etc? I once found a link, but got a PNF error, now I can’t find any links at all.
How do I get a response from TR? (for example, I submitted a query re profile, got an automated reply saying I should get a response in 24 hours, 10 days later, still nothing)
Where is the section for suggestions for improving TR? I have seen references to one, but (again) cannot find the link easily.
Hope this helps
- How
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