Posted by Pierre Khawand on Mon, Jun 07, 2010 @ 12:45 AM
There are many ways to share Microsoft Project data with users who don't have access to Microsoft Project. I would like to point out two approaches, one that consists of exporting Microsoft Project data to Excel, and another that consists of taking snapshots of Microsoft Projects views and making them available as pictures.
Approach #1: Exporting to Excel
First: From the File menu, select Save As, and then provide a file name, and select the file type "Microsoft Excel Workbook", and click Save.
Second: The Export Wizard opens up, which will guide you through defining a "map" for the export, in which you specific what data you would like to include.
Third: Once you define the mapping and click Finish, the resulting Excel workbook is generated.
This process of defining a map involves specifying the fields that you want to export from Microsoft Project and the corresponding column headings in Excel. This can be a tedious process the first time you do it. However, the good news is that you can save the map, and then reuse it when you perform this process again in the future.
Approach #2: Saving reports as pictures
Microsoft Project 2007 makes this easy by offering the "Copy Picture" option in the Reports menu. The following settings are available:
For instance, here is a snapshot of a Gantt Chart that was generated using the "Copy Picture" approach, and using the "To GIF image file" option (split into 2 for better readability):
Additional Resources
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Tue, Jun 01, 2010 @ 09:34 AM
While it is easy to mark a task as complete or to indicate a percentage of completion in Microsoft Project, it may not be as obvious how do we mark a percentage of completion for a task and at the same time indicate that this task is going to take longer than expected--so that Microsoft Project recalculates the remaining tasks start dates and adjust the project schedule accordingly. This is one of the questions that comes up at our
Microsoft Project Techniques workshops and which has an easy answer.
Indicating a percentage of completion and updating task during in Microsoft Project
First: Select the desired task
Second: From the Tools menu, select Tracking, and then Update Tasks:
Third: Instead of entering a percentage of completion, enter the actual duration that has been spent on this task already (let us say 3 days in this case) and the remaining duration to complete the task (let us say 4 days in this case):
In other words, this task, which was estimated to be a 5 day task, has already taken up 3 days, and it is expected to take 4 more days to complete--for a total of 7 days.
Once you press Ok to confirm your updates, Microsoft Project adjusts the schedule accordingly.
That easy!
Additional Resources
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Mon, May 24, 2010 @ 10:39 AM
When you are working with a PivotTable report, you can easily sort the report manually or alphabetically in ascending or descending order, but you can also sort it by ascending and desending order of the grand total as shown in the report below:
But how about if you want to sort the report by the PowerPoint instead of the grand total?
There is a way:
First: Right-mouse click on any of the location field (or any of the location items such as San Francisco for instance) and then from the popup menu, select the "Sort" menu item, and then the "More Sort Options…" sub-menu item. The Sort (Location) window opens up.
Second: Click the "Descending" option and select "Sum of Fee" from the dropdown box:
Third: Click the "More Options" button. The More Sort Options (Location) window opens up. Click the "Values in selected column" option and then enter the desired range (in this case if we want to sort by the values in the Excel column, this would be $D$5:$D$10):
Voila! Here is the resulting report
Additional Resources
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Thu, May 06, 2010 @ 06:54 PM
SmartArt graphics can be very effective and yet they can be overused or misused and therefore backfire instead of enhance your presentation.
Examples of good uses of SmartArt Graphics
This SmartArt Graphic (Continuous Block Process) clearly illustrates the sequential nature of these funding rounds:
The following SmartArt Graphic (Upward Arrow), which we use in our
collaboration technologies workshops, shows the spectrum of purposes that one can have for one's blog. The upward arrow depicts the increased value that blog authors can get from their blog as they start to move beyond publishing information into engaging and motivation their audiences:
Example of not so good uses of SmartArt Graphics
This SmartArt Graphic here is ambiguous. It is not clear what the relationship is between People, Technology, and Process. The pyramid can be interpreted differently by different people. This will cause the viewer to have to think and make assumptions. As Steve Krug puts it in his book
Don't Make Me Think, this will distract and confuse the user.
What do you think of this SmartArt Graphic?
Do you have examples of SmartArt Graphics (or charts/visuals) that are well done and some that are not? E-mail them to training@people-onthego.com. We will collect them and publish the results in a future article.
Additional Resource
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Sun, May 02, 2010 @ 07:55 PM
If you would like to password protect an Excel workbook, the process is easy and it is the same process by which you can also protect other Microsoft Office documents such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. The steps below demonstrate how to assign a password for opening and for modifying an Excel workbook.
Please note while the steps below illustrate the process in Microsoft Excel 2007, the steps are pretty much the same in Microsoft Excel 2003 and even Microsoft Excel 2010.
First: After you save your document, use the Save As option from the Office Button menu to open the Save As window.
Second: In the Save As window, click on the drop down arrow next to the Tools button that is near the Save and Cancel buttons as illustrated below.
Third: Then from the list of options, select the General Option to get the General Options window:
You can provide two different passwords, one for opening the document, and one for modifying the document. This allows you to provide certain people the ability to view the document but not edit it, while allowing only designated people to edit the document.
You will then be prompted to confirm the passwords you have entered, and then once you confirm, and save the document, you will also be prompted to confirm that you want to replace the existing document, in which case you want to click Yes to confirm.
One word of caution though: "keep the password in a safe place."
Additional Resources
The Microsoft Excel Techniques workshop (see upcoming Webinar on May 11, 2010)
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 @ 11:01 AM
This question comes up from time to time in our Microsoft Excel workshops. VLOOKUP is one of the very helpful functions in Microsoft Excel. It allows us to lookup values from various lists and use the results as necessary.
For insatnce, I might have the following list:
And if I would like to find the Class Title that corresponds to Registration Number 10024, I can use VLOOKUP as follows:
=VLOOKUP(10024,A7:D16,4,FALSE)
In this case, VLOOKUP tries to find an exact match for 10024 and if it finds it, it returns the Class Title. In this case, it would return Word.
But what if VLOOKUP doesn't find the desired results. For instance if I am try to look for Registration 12020 (which doesn't exist in the list), then VLOOKUP would return: #N/A
While this may not be a big deal in some situations, it can be quite distracting if I am using VLOOKUP to populate a column in a report from another table (which is what VLOOKUP is best at). Suddenly my report may have several of these #N/A's which ideally would be replaced by something more user friends or be suppressed all together.
How can you manage or suppress the #N/A?
To manage or suppress the #N/A's, you need to make use of 2 functions:
- ISNA() which determines if the result of the VLOOKUP is #N/A
- IF() which allows you to replace the #N/A result or suppress it
This is the syntax of the "smarter" VLOOKUP statement:
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(12020,A7:D16,4,FALSE)),"Not Found",VLOOKUP(12020,A7:D16,4,FALSE))
Or if you want to suppress it all together:
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(12020,A7:D16,4,FALSE)),"",VLOOKUP(12020,A7:D16,4,FALSE))
Additional Excel Resources
Microsoft Excel Techniques workshop
Advanced Excel PivotTables
Microsoft Excel Macros
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 03:50 PM
We get this question often which makes perfect sense. After all, if you are using Microsoft Outlook, and have the benefits of the Outlook Calendar, doesn't make sense to want to view your SharePoint Calendar events in the same Calendar and not have to go to SharePoint to manage these events?
The answer is yes you can view your Microsoft SharePoint Calendar events in your Outlook Calendar and it is simple to set that up. Below are the steps that are involved in connecting your SharePoint Calendar to your Outlook Calendar, however, keep in mind that if you are using Outlook 2003, this would be a one way connection. You will be able to view the events but not edit them or add new events. However if you are using the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of applications, you will be able to make updates in Outlook 2007 and these updates will show up in SharePoint.
Here is the process of connecting your Microsoft SharePoint Calendar to your Outlook Calendar
From your SharePoint Calendar, select Action, and then select Connect to Outlook
As soon as you do so, you will be prompted for your user name and password and a new calendar will be created in Outlook:
And now you can view this Calendar in Outlook and if you are using Microsoft Office 2007, you will be able to update it from Outlook.
More Resources
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Tue, Feb 02, 2010 @ 11:01 AM
When it comes to formatting Microsoft Word documents, we still see so many inefficiencies and inconsistencies, not to mention documents that are not user friendly and not easy to navigate. But there is a way to change this.
Using Styles in Microsoft Word can remedy the situation (or at least a step in the right direction), not only making formatting easy and efficient, but also enabling easy creation and maintenance of table of contents. If you use Styles, you can create a compelling table of contents (with all the bells and whistles) instantly and as your document continues to evolve, update it at once.
Are you ready?
First: Instead of directly formatting your headings (the headings of the main sections of your document), use the Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 Styles to do so. These are paragraph styles. This means you don't need to select the whole text of your heading in order to format it. All you have to do is click anywhere in the text, and click on the desired heading on the ribbon, and the formatting gets applied.
In Microsoft Word 2007, this is what the ribbon looks like with the Styles easily available:
Second: When you are ready to produce your table of content, select the References tab, and then click on Table of Contents:
Third: Select one of the formats from the popup menu that gets displayed when you click on Table of Contents, and magically, the table of contents appears. Not only it appears, by default it displays the page numbers, hyperlinks to each section, and looks pretty! Of course you can change all these options as desired.
Stay tuned for more Microsoft Word 2007 tips this week in the complimentary lunch and learn webinar Microsoft Word 2007 Tips by Kim Silverman.
More resources to check out
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 @ 01:48 AM
This question comes up often during our workshops. Participants see that both platforms can help with document collaboration and information sharing, and they start to wonder which platform is more appropriate for their needs.
While this can be a long discussion, I am only going to provide a few key insights here, and please add your comments below so others can benefit from your experience.
What is SharePoint best at?
- More appropriate for managing "documents."
- More appropriate for managing calendars and tasks that are structured.
- More suitable when you want to setup several levels of user permissions.
- More suitable when you are using Windows and so is your team/company and therefore integration with Windows, with Microsoft Office Applications, and Exchange/Outlook is desired or mandatory.
What are wikis best at?
- When you want to co-create content at a more granular level (quickly and easily update sentences and paragraphs, expand and branch into new pages).
- When you are at the early stage of an idea or a project and flexibility and innovation is more important than structure.
- When everyone is on equal footing and involvement/engagement are key as opposed to having a hierarchal structure and a structured review process.
- When users are using a variety of platforms (Windows, Macs, others).
Having said the above, it is common to see teams use both tools. Some projects and initiative require the flexibility and ease of use of a wiki while others require the more structured approach that SharePoint offers. Sometimes it is easier to start a project using a wiki and then when the project develops further and formal documents start to take shape, SharePoint can then be introduced.
More resources to check out
Posted by Pierre Khawand on Mon, Jan 25, 2010 @ 09:24 AM
One thing we see often when we work with business professionals on their PowerPoint presentations is that the typical slide tries to tell too much. Their intentions are good but these intentions tend to backfire. They want to be complete, detailed, and accurate. They want to tell the whole story and not leave gaps. However this overwhelms the audience and causes them to "check out"! You probably heard about the death by PowerPoint.
When the audience are subjected to this slide, are they going to see the completeness, the details, and the accuracy. Unfortunately not! This is what the audience is more likely to see:
You lost them right away! And now you have to fight to win them back.
Here is one of approaches that we teach to help eliminate the PowerPoint clutter, avoid losing the audience, and get them curious and engaged instead. This approach is called "breaking down the content." Here are the related steps and a couple of illustrations below:
- Reduce the slide to the core messages; ideally 3 to 5 of them, expressed in 3 to 5 words each. Let us call this the "3x5" rule. This leaves the audience curious. It opens up the room for reflection and then conversation.
- If some of these core messages require additional details, create a separate slide for this core message, following the same rule (3x5 rule). However use these detailed slides if and when necessary; right when the situation calls for it.
- Balance between text and visuals, and select your visuals carefully. Visuals need to be relevant, simple, and clear. They should easily convey the point instead of making the audience think or wonder.
The reduced slide might look like this:
The slide that expands on feature 1 might look like this:
Stay tuned for more PowerPoint and presentation tips this week, including the complimentary lunch & learn webinar about Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Techniques this Thursday January 28, 2010.