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Elevate Newsletter - July 2008

Putting your training into practice

• Microsoft Office Productivity: 
  Pinpoint the text you need with help from line numbering
  When you’re reviewing a long document with a colleague, you don’t want to tell him to check the “tenth page, third paragraph, second line.” We’ll show you how Word’s line numbering can give you easy-to-follow line references.
• Information Systems Protection: 
  Get a grip on Vista changes to this essential IT pro tool
  As an IT pro, you spend significant amounts of time using the System Properties dialog box—to quickly determine the OS, Service Pack, and basic system specs, or to configure domain membership, Automatic Updates, and much more. Previously, you could open System Properties by right-clicking on My Computer, but in Windows Vista, your right-click trick opens Vista’s new System window. We’ll show you what Vista’s System window offers as well as everything you need to know about the System Properties dialog box—and how to get to it fast.
• Business Skills :
  Tackle unfamiliar projects with confidence and ease
  Have you ever felt a little lost at the start of a project, pushed outside your comfort zone by a new subject, tool, technology, or process? Maybe you juggle multiple projects. Perhaps you’ve started a different position that requires quick adaptation to the new environment. Diversifying your skills can improve your job security and enrich your professional offerings.

Click here to access the July 2008 issue of Elevate.

Eradicate unwanted imported hyperlink boxes (InDesign CS/CS2/CS3)

An annoying occurrence that often confuses new InDesign users is imported text displaying with a box around it. Intuitively, you should be able to select and delete the box—but you can’t.

There is, however, an easy way to remove it. Here’s how:

Choose > Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks to display the Hyperlinks panel. You’ll see a hyperlink listed in the panel for each boxed text segment in your InDesign document. Click on a hyperlink and drag it to the Trash icon at the base of the Hyperlinks panel to remove it. Click Yes in the resulting warning box asking if you’re sure you want to remove it. Repeat this step for each hyperlink present.

You may also notice a new hyperlink style in the Character Style panel. To delete that, simply click on the character style and drag it to the Trash icon located at the base of the Character Style panel.

Elevate Newsletter - June 2008

In the June issue of the Elevate newsletter, you and your customers will learn how to:

• Microsoft Office Productivity: 
  Buy yourself some time: Switch rows of data into columns without retyping
  When you import data into Excel, it doesn’t always go as planned. You often need to flip-flop, or transpose, your data so that the columns become rows and the rows become columns. We’ll show you how to do it without spending hours of valuable time.
• Information Systems Protection: 
  Fine-tune security on your workstations with Vista's advanced firewall features
  You probably use firewalls to protect your company’s network, but what about individual workstations? We’ll step through setting up firewalls to protect your Vista workstations from attackers.
• Design, Media & Graphics: 
  Speed up your design time and place multiple files quickly with InDesign
  Placing new images or text in your InDesign document can test anyone’s patience. Get the job done faster by placing several objects at once in InDesign CS3.

Click here to access the June 2008 issue of Elevate.

From project manager to team member: Managing a graceful transition (Business Skills)

Flexibility and the ability to be self-directed are key skills in today’s environment. Organizations are reorganizing and downsizing, requiring individuals to multi-task, contribute to multiple projects, and assume many responsibilities, often in very different roles. Depending on the organizational structure, individuals may need vastly different skills for their various tasks.

The roles of the project manager and project team members differ. Yet the same person may, at times, be the project manager of one team and a member of a different team. Or, a proj­ect manager may suddenly find her project has been cancelled, positions are being eliminated, and job retention means taking a job as a member of another team. That requires changing hats very quickly, and the results can be detrimental if you wear the wrong hat to the wrong meeting.

Two hats required
In this article, we’ll provide guidelines for doing a graceful balancing act between the roles of project manager and team member, using Michelle as our example. We’ll see how she balances between her roles as project manager and team member. First, we’ll look at the responsibilities of each position. Next, we’ll see how Michelle handles her project manager role and interacts with the team members during a team meeting. Then, we’ll watch her behavior at a product meeting in which she’s a team member. We’ll identify where she had problems changing her hat and the problems that ensue. Finally, we’ll discuss how Michelle could behave differently to promote a far more positive outcome.

Understand Michelle’s responsibilities
Michelle is a mid-level manager at a mid-sized company that develops software products for the optics industry. She acts as project manager for all training or documentation projects required to support the software her company develops. Additionally, she must participate as a member on the product team for each new software product.

As project manager for her teams, Michelle is responsible for commu­nicating new projects and assigning resources. She’s in charge of approving the media used for the projects, moni­toring those projects, removing any barriers to success, and reviewing the quality of the projects. Additionally, she’s responsible for maintaining a program of skill development for her teams and guiding her members toward professional growth.

Michelle’s role on the product teams is very closely tied to her teams’ functions. However, she isn’t the man­ager of these teams, but simply a team member representing a functional area. She’s responsible for understand­ing the new product, its development timeframe, and the requirements for her functional area. Working with other cross-functional team members, she develops an overall training and docu­mentation plan for the product. She’s responsible for working with the engi­neering representative to identify the subject matter experts who will work with her team. She provides engineer­ing with an estimate of when and how long subject matter experts are needed. She coordinates schedules with the development team to secure access to products for her trainers and writers.

Participate differently in meetings
Due to different personality styles, project managers may vary in how they approach their roles during team meetings. Yet, regardless of the stylistic differences, team members expect their project managers to lead and demonstrate their control. They expect other team members to defer to this control.

Do’s for project managers
Here are some do’s for the project manager during meetings:

• Do manage the agenda. The agenda may include introducing the new product the team will be working on and describing the team’s involvement with the new product. The agenda will include administration items, such as scheduled shutdowns, changes in office procedures, and more.
• Do convey information from management and from the teams on which you’re a member. 
• Do assign resources to your projects. Consider the competencies, interests, and availability of team members when assigning resources to the project.
• Do keep the meeting focused on business. It’s up to the project manager to rein in those who stray from the topic at hand and to get input from those who may be reluctant to participate.

Michelle, the project manager in our example, conducts weekly meetings with her teams. When one team member comes in late and asks Michelle what was already covered, she tells him to see her after the meeting so she can bring him up to speed.

Dont's for project team members
Just as team members expect certain behaviors from the project manager conducting a meeting, they have expectations for other team members. These include the following:

• Don’t take charge of the meeting.
• Don’t usurp the role of the project manager. Some team members may like to be in control and may be capable leaders, yet respectful team members allow the designated leader to lead. But team members can take a participatory role.
• Don’t treat team members as subordinates.

Let’s look in on Michelle at a product team meeting. Here, she announces she’d like to discuss some items from the last meeting. The project manager asks her what those items are so he can cover them at the end of the meeting. Rather than simply stating the items as asked, Michelle digresses and questions the development representative about system availability. The project manager finally directs the team back to the agenda by scheduling a follow-up meeting with Michelle and the development representative.

When the engineering represen­tative walks in late and asks what he missed, Michelle tells him to meet with the project manager after the meet­ing. Later in the meeting, the project manager requests that representatives adjust their plans to accommodate new product features. Michelle suggests including the other team members when sending the revised plans, so everyone can review them before the next meeting. As the project manager reaches the end of the agenda, Michelle reminds everyone to review the revised plans before the next meeting.

Select the right hat
Clearly, Michelle had a difficult time transitioning from her project manager role to her team member role. As a project manager, she was in charge, running her meeting and setting the rules and agenda. Switching to her team member role, Michelle continued to take charge. She clearly wore the wrong hat to that meeting.

First, she begins the meeting, which isn’t her meeting, by saying what she wants to discuss. Then, she pulls the development representative into a specific discussion that’s outside the scope of the agenda. This would probably make the project manager either angry or frustrated and cause him to lose focus, get defensive, or otherwise abandon control of the situ­ation. It could also make other team members uncomfortable.

When the engineering representa­tive arrives late, it’s Michelle who tells him to catch up later with the project manager. When the project manager isn’t leading the meeting, other team members can become annoyed, less focused, or uncomfortable. Michelle steps into the project manager’s role one more time when she reminds team members to send their plans to the proj­ect manager before the next meeting.

Get used to the team member role
Michelle appears to have a good grasp of her role as project manager. She acknowledges her team members’ needs, asks for their input, takes control of her meetings, and follows her agenda. She’s polite, yet in control.

How could she have better han­dled her role as a team member? She could have waited for the meeting to begin and asked to add her items to the agenda. This would have allowed the project manager to establish his position as team leader and keep con­trol of the agenda.

It wasn’t Michelle’s place to decide how to handle the engineer’s late arrival. She could have let the proj­ect manager handle it. If the project manager chose to delay the rest of the team by reviewing the earlier part of the meeting for the engineer, Michelle could have chatted with the project manager after the meeting or sent him an email suggesting how she’s handled those sorts of things successfully. Much of her behavior went beyond the scope of her team member role and clearly detracted from the project manager’s authority. Michelle has a hard time taking off her project manager hat. Here are some tips that might help a project manager make the transition to team member:

• When you’re put in the position of filling both roles, write up a role definition, much as you would when you’re starting a project and identifying the necessary roles and responsibilities. This will help reinforce the differences in the roles.
• Recognize which role is more natural for you and be aware of your tendency to take on that role. You may ask team members to keep an eye on you and let you know if you overstep your role. The fact that you’ve recognized the possibility and asked for help will gain you respect, even if you do slip now and then.
• Listen and watch the people around you. If team members bristle, roll their eyes each time you speak, interrupt you, or ignore you, evaluate your behavior.

Successful balancing benefits everyone
The transition from project manager to team member can be a tricky one for some people. Don’t feel you need to completely bury your experience in one role or the other. A team member with project manager experience can help tremendously. Giving the project manager an occasional second opinion or a bit of advice on how to handle a problematic situation is often welcome support. Conveying to the team the challenges the project manager faces can help the entire team work more cohesively.

Related Courses
•  Project 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2007
•  4009 Setting Up Projects for Success Using Microsoft Office Project 2003
•  Project Management for Professionals
•  Project Management Fundamentals

Insert a browser to connect your slide show to the web

If you’re like most professionals using PowerPoint, then you’ve probably used the web for research — and you’ll want to use hyperlinks in your slideshow. However, that can get tricky when clicking on a hyperlink could open a new window and block your presentation. This tutorial will help you insert a web browser right into your slideshow to ensure that you maintain your presentation’s look and feel while also letting your audience view a variety of information sources.

Add the browser control to your slide
To insert a browser into your slide, you first need to add a WebBrowser control on the desired slide. Once you navigate to the chosen slide (in Normal or Slide view), choose View | Toolbars | Control Toolbox. Next, click the More Controls button to display a dropdown list of additional controls you can add to your slide. It may take a few seconds for the list to display since there are many options to choose from. Scroll down the list and select Microsoft Web Browser.

When you do so, your insertion point changes to crosshairs. Click and drag the crosshairs to form a frame in the approximate area in which the browser window should appear on your slide. When you release the mouse button, a pixilated Windows logo appears, notifying you that the control is in place. Finally, reposition and resize the WebBrowser control if necessary (the control’s frame serves as the boundaries of your window to cyberspace).

Launch your web page
Once the WebBrowser control is in place, you need the ability to connect to the web during your presentation. Note that until you launch a web page, the space designated by the WebBrowser control appears as a white window, so you’ll want to fill it with useful information quickly and easily. To do so, insert a command button and textbox control, in addition to one line of VBA code.

Let’s begin by drawing the textbox where you’ll enter the web address (URL) of the page to which you want to navigate. To create this textbox, click the Text Box button on the Control Toolbox and use the crosshairs to draw an empty box close to the WebBrowser area. To actually connect to the web, your textbox needs a companion command button (we’ll call it a launch button) to initiate the action. To create this type of control, click Command Button on the Control Toolbox. This changes your insertion point to crosshairs so you can click and drag to create a small rectangular button near the textbox.

Tip: You can size the launch button and textbox exactly the way you want by holding down the [Alt] key while you drag the bounding handles to the appropriate length and width.

• Add VBA to the command button
  To make the WebBrowser and its command components work together, we need to add a small amount of code to the command button. To do so, first double-click on the command button to launch a new module in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). Then, below the Private Sub CommandButton1_Click() and above the End Sub lines of code, type: 
  Me.WebBrowser1.Navigate TextBox1.Value
  Next, choose File | Close And Return To Microsoft PowerPoint, or simply press [Alt]Q. That’s it!

Note: By default, every command button begins a designated operation with a mouse click, as indicated by Click in the VBE Procedure dropdown list (on the right side of the module window). If you want to designate a different procedure for your command button, such as a double-click, simply select it from the Procedure dropdown list.

• Format the command button
  To view the command button’s Property window (if it isn’t already visible), right-click on the button and choose Properties from the resulting shortcut menu. Then, in the Properties window, change the Caption field to whatever you want to name your button; we’re calling ours Launch. To change the caption’s font type, style, and/or size, click in the Font field and then click the Build button that appears at the right side of the field to launch the Font dialog box. Once you’ve made the appropriate formatting changes, close the Properties dialog box. Now, we’re ready to test. Save your presentation prior to testing a newly inserted web browser.
• Navigate the web during your slide show
  To test your inserted browser, you need to be in Slide Show view — the browser you just created won’t operate in Normal view. When you reach the slide containing the inserted controls in Slide Show view, type in any URL and click the Launch button to view the live online content within your slide. Keep in mind that your modem speed determines how long it takes for the browser to appear. Once the web is up and running on your slide, the WebBrowser window functions exactly like any other browser, so you can use its horizontal and vertical scrollbars, in addition to any buttons and links appearing on the web page, as you would normally. You may notice, however, that your usual browser toolbars are missing. To compensate, there are a few important keyboard shortcuts to remember. To return to the previously viewed page, press [Alt][Left Arrow]. To move forward again, press [Alt][Right Arrow]. To refresh the data on the web page, press [F5].

Troubleshoot common problems
The technique we provided should be largely error-free, but there are always exceptions and glitches. We wanted to share some common problems and solutions with you in case you run into any snags while linking your browser.

• The miniature or gray browser
  This problem occurs when you first run your show in PowerPoint. Your browser may look miniaturized or may appear as an empty gray square when you click the Launch button. If this occurs, re-enter the URL in the text box and click Launch again. If this doesn’t work, exit Slide Show view, save your file, and close PowerPoint. When you reopen your presentation in PowerPoint, the glitch should correct itself.
• “No object” error message
  If you receive an error saying There is no object in this control when you preview your presentation, there may be a bug in the controls. Return to your slide containing the WebBrowser control, and in Normal view, select the WebBrowser control, press [Ctrl]X to cut the browser, and then press [Ctrl]V to reinsert it.
• Corrupt browser file
  Sometimes your web browser may develop a corrupted or missing file that goes unnoticed until you attempt to link it in this way. Try downloading a new copy of your browser and repeat the process outlined above. Of course, Internet Explorer is the preferred browser for this function, and you can find it at www.microsoft.com/downloads.

Related Courses

• PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2007 : New Features
• 4007 Creating Effective Presentations Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003

Elevate Newsletter - May 2008

In the May issue of the Elevate newsletter, you and your customers will learn how to:

• Microsoft Office Productivity: 
  Insert a browser to connect your slide show to the web
• Information Systems Protection: 
  Easily manage security on mobile computers with Vista’s network location profiles
• Business Skills: 
  From project manager to team member: Managing a graceful transition

Click here to access the May 2008 issue of Elevate.

Take control of security and offer user-friendly interfaces with Vista

There are lots of reasons to stay on top of developing technology. For example, so your boss knows you’re proactive, so you can jump into a testing project with ease, or maybe so you can convince reluctant higher-ups to make upgrades. To help you get used to Vista’s new feature, we offer a brief look at Vista’s new security feature called User Account Control (UAC).

How UAC works
User Account Control is Vista’s equivalent to Microsoft’s previous operating systems’ user accounts. Vista allows for administrator accounts and for standard user accounts. Both account types run applications as standard users to limit the abilities of viruses to spread through application use. Administrators have access to system features that standard users can’t access, such as the ability to install software and drivers, change the system state and firewall, and configure Local Security Policy.

Tokens are the keys
When a user logs on to Vista, Windows grants him an access token. Access tokens contain a user’s group mem¬bership and authorization and access control data. Windows uses that token to control what resources and tasks the user can access. Administrators receive two tokens — a standard token for application use and an admin token for system access.

The UAC advantage
UAC’s top benefit is that it offers you enhanced security because the token limits malware’s access to application files even when you log in with an account that has local admin rights.

As a bonus, with UAC you can access many system functions as an administrator without logging off and on with an admin account. Although available for some system functions in previous OSs, the feature is enhanced and brought front and center in Vista. Specifically, when a standard user attempts to perform a task for which his access token doesn’t grant him permission, he’s prompted to provide admin credentials instead of simply being denied access.

Elevate Newsletter - March 2008

In the March issue of the newsletter, you and your customers will learn how to:

• Pave a concrete pathway to your financial goal with help from Goal Seek (Excel)
• Take control of security and offer user-friendly interfaces with Vista
• Plan and conduct a successful project presentation

Click here to access the March 2008 issue of Elevate.

Elevate Newsletter - February 2008

In the February 2008 Issue of Elevate:

• Add a new dimension to your slides in PowerPoint with easy-to-create 3-D shapes
• Liven up text-laden InDesign pages with eye-catching vertical side heads
• Take charge of PC security with custom cookie-management and privacy policies

Simply click here to access the February issue of Elevate.

Elevate Newsletter - January 2008

In the January 2008 Issue of Elevate:

• Learn 5 steps to create the perfect customized form and save big bucks in the process:
  Electronic forms are practically a “must” in today’s business world, but sometimes it’s difficult to get them working the way you want. We’ll give you a few tips on creating stellar Microsoft Word forms.
• Learn non-destructive image filtering is now possible with CS3’s Smart Filters:
  Also, there’s nothing worse than experimenting with a Photoshop image, only to realize that you can’t get back to your original image. Fortunately, Photoshop CS3 offers Smart Filters that can alter an image while still preserving your original.
• Learn how to master Vista’s new search tools for guaranteed results:
  Finally, Windows Vista offers tools that make hunting for files and folders a little more intuitive. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your Vista operating system with our helpful search hints.

Simply click here to access the January issue of Elevate.