Excel tips and tutorials
Non-Excel topics
If you frequently type the same responses to email questions, you can use an email response template to make things easier.
Next time you need one of the standard responses, open the Standard Paragraphs draft message, copy a paragraph from there, and paste it into your current email.
To compare phone plans in your area of the USA, you can use the free online tool at the Bill Shrink site (no longer available)
Enter your minutes per month, current monthly fee and zip code, and a ranked list of plans is provided.
Some great advice is found in Getting Real, by 37signals. For example, they advise against holding meetings, whenever possible, but…
“For those times when you absolutely must have a meeting (this should be a rare event), stick to these simple rules:
While typing a document in Microsoft Word, you usually have your hands on the keyboard. To add a line border, you can reach for the mouse, click on the border tool drop-down, then click on a border.
A quicker way to add the line is to type three hyphens (—), then press Enter.
To add a thick border, use three underscores (___) and to add a double border tpe three equal signs (===).
If this technique doesn’t work, choose Tools â–º AutoCorrect Options. On the AutoFormat As You Type tab, add a check mark to Border Lines, in the Apply As You Type section.
The Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) web site offers a wide variety of consumer and business publications that you can order for a nominal fee, or view many of the publications online.
You can find tips on everything from computers to tree pruning to international travel. The web site also lists scams and recalls, and has links to other consumer and business resources.
It’s a good place to start if you’re researching a new topic. For example, here’s the page on small business publications.
When you have to contact customer service at a large company, you might end up in an endless voice mail loop.
To contact a human, you can check the database at the GetHuman web site, and follow the instructions listed there.
For example, I typed AT&T as the company name, and a list of phone numbers and contact instructions appeared.
From June 2-8, the full version of NTI Shadow 3 backup software is available free. Regularly $29.99, this software makes backups as you work, so you can save important documents onto a removable drive, such as a thumb drive, for safekeeping.
The program has received fairly good reviews, with some complaints of slow copying, and it may need to be started manually if you restart your computer.
However, at this price you can afford to test it for yourself, and see if it meets your needs.
The free utility AM-Deadlink can find dead links and duplicates in your list of browser bookmarks.
I run it on my machine every couple of months, to clean things up and save me from wasting time in following dead links. You can download the utility here: AM-Deadlink
It’s easy to install and use, and takes only a couple of minutes to check my 1600 bookmarks. Then I sort the list by error number, and delete any 404 pages.
Although the book is out of print, the advice from the 3M Meeting Management Team, in How to Run Better Business Meetings, is still pertinent.
Don’t waste time comparing shipping rates at individual carrier sites. Enter your starting point and destination, and let ShipGooder calculate the rates for you.
This free service compares major courier and postal services, and local carriers.
You can also find US or Canadian postal codes, by address or city.
For example, if I want to ship one of my books to a client in Chicago, here are some of the rates available.
