Microsoft Word - The Fast and Smart way to Small Business

Mar 26, 2008

One of the issues that most small business owners overlook when starting out in business is the use of technology. Whilst computer technology may require a significant investment when starting out; Overtime, if your systems are built correctly they will in fact save you very large sums of money, in particular in the area of staff wages.

When I first started my business, One-on-One Personal Computer Training, I started out with a $3,000 Credit Card, which when you talk to any business adviser or business-coach is absolutely the worst thing you could do. One of the issues I have been most conscious of is the cost of having a large number of staff. The way I achieved a high level of efficiency in such a competitive market was to automate as many of the day-to-day tasks as I could. The best tasks for business automation are those that are repetitive.

As soon as I mention the word Business Automation, most technophobes will put up a barrier and go into a minor or major fit. Business automation can be as simple as creating just a few Microsoft Word templates. Business automation does not necessarily mean hiring a huge plethora of software developers and toiling day and night to build some monsterous and complex system. It can and should be simple so that you as a business owner can in fact do it yourself. Let me explain!

Microsoft for all its good and bad issues, has provided business one of the most awesome tools - Microsoft Word allows you to build templates that you can reuse as many times as you wish.
What Is A Microsoft Word Template?

Essentially, a Microsoft Word Template is like any traditional word document, the difference is that it is designed to be reused as many times as you require. Why not create a normal word document then. Well, the difference is that when you use a Microsoft Word Template, you can store the template under the New dialogue box, so that each time you want to use the document you go to that one point and it will be available.

Did you know that you can even create your own folders in the New dialog box? If you didn't know this, all you have to do is to simply create a new folder where all your templates are stored. On each of our company's computers we have a special folder called one-on-one where we store each of our templates for use by our staff.

What Sort Of Templates Might You Need?

This is one of the key questions I get asked the most. The most common templates I see small businesses require are items like Sick Leave Forms, Leave Applications, Order Forms, Sales Letters, Purchase Order Forms and so forth.

One of the reasons why I chose to build Microsoft Word Templates in my business was to ensure a level of continuity of contact with our customers. By building a series of Templates such as:

- A Company Letter Head
- A Company Fax Sheet
- A Company Leave Application
- A Company Thank You Letter
- A Company Weekly Timesheet
- A Company Sales Letter
- A Company Visitor Sign-in Sheet
- A Company Purchase Order Form
- A Company Order Form

By having these forms in a central place I have ensured that my staff does not need to be recreating these styles of documents each time they have to send a letter or fax. Further to this, I know that certain sales letters used by my staff will achieve the sales outcomes that I am looking for. By using a Microsoft Word Template, they know that when they get and enquiry that they can simply fill-in the customer details and the letter is done.

In our sales letter templates we use Microsoft Word Fill-in field to prompt our staff for key information like the Customers Name, Address and Company Name ensuring that the information does get put into the letter. Once they have completed that they simply press the Print button and its ready to go to the customer. As a business owner, knowing that all my staff have to do to achieve the sales makes me feel far more comfortable than them having to write their own customised letters each time a customer enquires about our training.

Microsoft Word templates are an incredibly useful tool in automating common documents that your staff maybe creating and I believe that this is the first process that all business owners should be using in automating their business.

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Powerfull Powerpoint Background Slides

Mar 17, 2008

There are various tools available in the computers, for your web designing and writing. One of them is the tool, Microsoft Powerpoint. This powerful tool is used to create professional looking presentations and slide shows from scratch or by using its easy wizard. By using the PowerPoint software, you can make any form of background you may need for your program. Using different values in the program, you can get animated backgrounds, music backgrounds and even Christmas and religious backgrounds.


The world of internet has made advertising so easy, that you can shop, buy and download perfect PowerPoint templates and PowerPoint background videos in a matter of minutes. Not only this, there are terrific, ready-made PowerPoint background slides be available where you can change your dull PowerPoint presentation into an aggressive, attention grabbing and energetic presentation in not time at all.


With the free PowerPoint templates available in the internet, you can try out your skills at the PowerPoint presentation background, without actually first buying it. You can download these Microsoft PowerPoint templates for free for your education and use. Remember, all the PowerPoint background slides have been pre-set by expert graphic designers. The design background, typeface and colors have all been expertly designed; all you have to do is insert the text, and you have it!


You can experiment in making animated backgrounds in the PowerPoint by setting different values in the program. The background animates when an absolute value has been specified for either the horizontal or the vertical directions. If at all both the directions are specified, the background is animated diagonally. By making changes in the PowerPoint values, you can form blue blocks, closed circuit, award night and many more other PowerPoint background presentations. These changes bring about moving characters on the computer screen.


If you need graphics for specific web pages, they too are available in abundance in the internet. You just have to download these special backgrounds, like Christmas, New Year and other festivities?backgrounds from the internet for free. You then use these graphics in your web page as you desire. There is another free software available for download in the internet, the Movie Wizard, where you can spice up your slideshows with the addition of graphics and background music and animating photos with the help of their tutorials.

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Computer Support – Simplest Way to troubleshoot Microsoft Windows

Mar 13, 2008

Microsoft Help has become a general term used by online computer repair vendors nowadays. The term includes everything related to troubleshoot any of the operating system and office suites offered by Microsoft.

Whether you are bothered by the irksome errors in your Windows 2000, Windows Millennium, or need Online Vista Support, you can contact these onsite computer repair providers for help. They are 24x7 available and much cheaper than expensive computer repair showrooms and calling technicians at premises.

Some companies have specified their services by using the terms such as Microsoft Help, Online Computer Support, Windows Help, etc. These terms deal only with the services as signified by their titles. Although Microsoft help is a newly added service in the array of computer repair services, it is gaining wide popularity among tech savvy consumers. Other known services are Network Setup and Troubleshooting, PC Optimization (increasing the speed of a computer), Virus and Spyware Removal, Data Backup Services.

Computer repair services help you improve overall system performance and get rid infected programs that tend to spoil your PC’s efficiency. Whether you are a professional or a starter, have home or small business, computer repair available online is all you require to solve all your PC woes.

Using remote support technology, the technicians access your system with your permission, diagnose it, and fix the problems right away while you watch. You can also ask them to offer you the support over phone. Either way, we will be there for you until the problem is completely solved.
These Online Computer Repair services are known for excellent customer response time, tech proficiency, and affordable services. A few computer users avoid calling online tech support for their computer problems thinking that these technicians may not hold the required expertise. Well! This is completely a myth. Companies dealing in on-site computer support have highly trained technicians (most Microsoft Certified Experts or Computer Engineers) who get to the root of the consumer’s technical issues and resolve them fast. What are you waiting for then. Contact any good online computer repair shop and get your problems solved within no time.

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How to Insert Flash Into PowerPoint 2007

Mar 10, 2008

Ensure the Flash Player is installed on your computer, and then please follow the steps below:

1. Click Microsoft Office Button on the top left corner > click "PowerPoint Options" at the bottom of the panel > go to the "PowerPoint Options" window > click "Popular" on the left column > select "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon" on the right column > click "OK" at the bottom.

2. On the "Developer" tab > go to "Controls" group > Click the icon of hammer and nail for "More Controls"> go to the "More Controls" window.

3. On the "More Controls" window > select "Shockwave Flash Object" in the list > click "OK" at the bottom > use your pointer to drag on the slide to draw and resize the control.

4. Right click the control you draw > click "Properties" in the right-click menu > go to the "Properties" window.

5. On the alphabetic tab > click the "Movie" property > type the full drive path in the value column (the blank cell next to Movie), including the file name (e.g. C:a.swf)

6. To make the Flash paly automatically when the slide is displayed, set the "Playing" property to "True"; To embed the Flash into PowerPoint, set "EmbedMovie" property to "True"

7. Finally close the "Properties" window and save your presentation.

On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, you can click Slide Show or press F5 to preview your presentation.

An alternative solution to insert Flash into PowerPoint 2007

Actually it's sort of troublesome to someone who needs to insert Flash into multiple sildes within PowerPoint 2007 directly. You may want to know: is there a shortcut to insert Flash like inserting other media files in PowerPoint? Probably no.

An alternative solution is using some third-party tools to achieve this, such as Wondershare PPT2Flash, which has a feature of "Insert Flash" to add Flash files instantly. Through PPT2Flash, you can directly select Flash files and manage to insert them into any slides in PowerPoint 2007 and any earlier versions.

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Top 5 Used Features in Microsoft Excel

Mar 5, 2008

We all have been impressed at some point by some magnificent graph created and presented by a colleague during a meeting. Those great charts were probably created in Microsoft Excel in fact, this program is a must in any office environment. We all use Excel to do all kinds of things like handling sales figures, number calculation, data tracking and even to create those cool looking graphs. To give you a high overview of the capabilities of Microsoft Excel, here are its top five used features:

Data logging and tracking ? - You can't do this in Word because when you have a lot of information to track you'll find that using Excel can really save you time - and your sanity. You can enter number figures, names, addresses, months, dates, and any information and track it in a workbook.

Number calculation ? - You can add, multiply, and sales information. You can combine totals from different locations and create new totals. You can select from a large range of mathematical calculations options.

Create lists and group information ? - You can easily and quickly list series of number or words. You can group lists of information by filtering out pieces that you don't need.

Accounts Payable ? Many Small Businesses use Microsoft Excel to track their expenses and gains instead of using fancy accounts payable programs. Even internal departments within major corporations use excel spreadsheets and workbooks to track their expenses.

Graphs and charts ? - You can create fantastic looking graphs using all this information that you track, log, group and list. You can see the relationships between different sets of data by portraying the data in a graph or chart.

source: enzine articles

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A Small Definition of Microsoft Word

Mar 3, 2008

Microsoft Word is Microsoft's flagship word processing software. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), the Apple Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows (1989). It is a component of the Microsoft Office system; however, it is also sold as a standalone product and included in Microsoft Works Suite. Beginning with the 2003 version, the branding was revised to emphasize Word's identity as a component within the Office suite: Microsoft began calling it Microsoft Office Word instead of merely Microsoft Word. The latest release is Word 2007.

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Microsoft Office - Unleashed

Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. Along with core office applications, it includes associated servers and web-based services. Recent versions of Office are referred as "Office system".

Office was introduced in 1989 on the Mac, with a version for Windows in 1990. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Additionally, a "Pro" version of Office included Microsoft Access and Schedule Plus. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with sharied features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write Component Object Model add-ins, which are supplemental programs that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software.

The current versions are Office 2007 for Windows, launched on January 30, 2007, and Office 2004 for Mac, released May 19, 2004. Office 2007, announced on February 15, 2006, was released on November 30, 2006 for businesses via volume License and MSDN channels. It features a distinct user interface and a new XML-based primary file format. The new Mac version, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, is expected to be released in January 2008.

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