Digital Streets

If you have text in two or more columns that you wish to join (concatenate) in another column, this can be easily done by creating a formula that utilizes the ampersand (&). I have found this to work in Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice’s Calc, and iWork’s Numbers.

For our example, we will use a scenario where a list of users’ first and last names are given to you and your boss wants them to be in a single column instead of two.

You could take the time to copy and paste the names together in a column, but there is a much easier way. We can go to C2 and input the formula: =A2&” “&B2 we would then get the concatenated string of Bob Smith in the new cell.

We could use =B2&”, “&A2 and produce Smith, Bob in the new cell.

Copy the formula to the rest of the cells in the column to concatenate the desired cells.

If you’ve been following my last couple of posts on making your own Outlook Today page (Part 1 and Part 2), then you know that you can add a wide range of useful tools to the page. This increases Outlook’s efficiency and keeps you updated and informed.

Today’s installment involves intigrating Microsoft’s NetMeeting into the page. NetMeeting is still a highly used utility, especially on corporate networks. It is a voice and videoconferencing client that also allows for filesharing and desktop viewing. By adding it to your customized Outlook Today page, you are ready to host or join NetMeeting conferences.

Copy and paste the following HTML code into the source of your page:

If you are making your own Outlook Today page, then these additional snippets of code are sure to be of use to you. You can add the following folders: Sent Items, RSS Feeds, and Search Folders. You can even add some Google Gadgets to spice things up.

Sent Items

RSS Feeds (change Digital Streets to the name of the desired feed)

Search Folders (change Tech-Recipes to the name of the Search Folder)

Search Folders in a Personal Folder (PST)

Another addition you can make to spice up your Outlook Today page is adding Google Gadgets. Simply find the Gadget you want, click the associated Add to your webpage button, adjust the settings to meet your needs and finally copy and paste the generated code into your Outlook Today page. This is an easy way to add clocks, weather, news feeds, etc.

One other thing to keep in mind, you don’t have to use Outlook to access the page, you can open it up in Internet Explorer. This makes for some cool ways to integrate Outlook elements on your intranet. The user has to have Outlook installed and configured on their system to view their email, calendar, etc. in the webpage.

The Outlook Today page is meant to be a summary of your email, appointments, and tasks. While you could make any web page your Outlook Today page (which would defeat the purpose) or customize the existing pages that came with Outlook (which can be rather painful), I recommend creating your own summary page. A simple page will require some basic HTML to create the layout, while an advanced page will require additional coding experience. Here’s some good starting info to create a basic page.

To begin with, you need to decide which parts of Outlook you wish to include on your new summary page. Do you want your Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, and/or Notes all on the same page? Along with this, you need a rough idea of how much available room you have to display the page. This will be decided by what resolution you are running, whether you run the application maximized or not, whether you use the Navigation Bar and To-Do Bar (Outlook 2007) and if you want to utilize scrolling or have everything easily viewable.

To include Outlook elements, you will need to use the following code:

Inbox

Calendar

Tasks

Contacts

Notes

Create an empty HTML document. Copy and paste one of the above chunks of code in the BODY of the new document. Placing any of the above code in the BODY of your web page will display the desired Outlook element. Save the page. Now go to Outlook and do the following:

1. Right-click on your main Mailbox in the Navigation Bar.
2. Select Properties.
3. Select the Home Page tab in the resulting window.
4. Make sure the Show home page by default for this folder checkbox is checked.
5. Click the Browse button and browse to the location of the newly created HTML document.
6. Click OK.
7. Go back to the Navigation Bar and click on the main Mailbox so that it displays Outlook Today.

Note: Each element will be displayed the way it does in Outlook, for example, the Reading Pane will show if it is normally on when viewing the Inbox, the Calendar element will display in Day, Week, or Month mode depending on what the normal selection is, etc.

You can use simple tables or CSS positioning to place the elements in their desired location. Modify the width and height in each OBJECT tag to change the size of the elements. You can add additional items from the web, such as the weather or news, to your Outlook Today page by utilizing iframes to display the content. You can also add links to other web pages, however, I recommend that you have these links open up in your web browser (target=”_blank”) instead of using Oulook’s browser. It will take some experimenting to get the positioning the way you want it, but with a little effort, you will have an ideal starting page for your email client. If you want to go back to the original Outlook Today, just click the Restore Defaults button on the Home Page tab of the Outlook Today properties.

For more code snippets to customize your Outlook Today page, check out Part 2 of this article.

If you use Microsoft Excel, then you’ve run into the situation where the information in a worksheet is needed in another workbook.  You could go through and copy and paste the cells from one worksheet to another, but if you are working with a large spreadsheet, this is way too painful.  Excel makes it easy to copy (and even easier to move) worksheets from one workbook to another.

Copying a worksheet to another workbook:

1. Open both the workbook that has the desired worksheet and the one that you want the worksheet copied to.  (in my example, we will use Book3 and Book4).
2. Go to the workbook with the desired worksheet.  Right-click on the tab of the target worksheet (in this case, test sheet).

   

3. Select Move or Copy from the context menu.

   

4. When the Move or Copy window appears, use the To book dropdown to select the workbook that you want to copy the worksheet to.  Then select the existing sheet that you want the copy to be placed in front of.  Finally, check the Create a copy checkbox.

   

5. Click OK.  You will now have the same worksheet in both workbooks.

Moving a worksheet to another workbook:

You can use the above steps and simply exclude checking the Create a copy checkbox, but there is a simpler and quicker way to do this:

1. Have both workbooks open.  Do not maximize either one, you want to be able to see both of them.

   

2. Left click and drag the tab of the target worksheet to the desired workbook.

   

3. When you release the mouse button, the worksheet will be in the targeted workbook and no longer in the original spreadsheet.

If you are an Outlook user and often find yourself needing to text message a friend or business associate, you should check out the Outlook plug-in from Joopz.  Joopz users can send SMS messages from the web to any mobile number, allowing them to utilize an actual keyboard instead of poking away at their phone keys.  The plug-in allows you the same freedom, but allows you to use Outlook.

You need to got to Joopz and set up an account.  Once you have finished that and entered the activation code that was emailed to you, it is time to grab the plug-in.  Go to the bottom of the Joopz page.  Click the plug-ins link.

Beneath the description for the plug-in, click the Download Now! link.  The download process should begin.  Once downloaded, install the plug-in by double-clicking the msi file.  The installation is quick and painless.

Now open Outlook.  Go to the toolbar at the top of the application and find and click the Joopz.com button.  Select Log On to Joopz.com.

Input your login information (your mobile number that you used to register the account and the password).  Click the Log On button.

Now you can SMS any mobile number from Outlook.  To do so simply follow these steps:

1. Go back to the Outlook toolbar and click the New SMS button (next to the Joopz.com button).

    

2. In the new window you can either input a phone number and click the Start button or select from your Outlook contacts (any contact with a mobile number will be listed).

   

3. Go to the bottom portion of the Message window and type out your message.  When you are finished, click the Send button.

   

4. Your message will be sent.  It will also move into the upper portion of the message window.  If the recipient responds, their message will appear in the upper portion as well.

    

I often run into situations that I need to use the Windows Calculator while working in Excel.  This is mainly due to needing to run some figures while not wanting to modify the existing spreadsheet.  It is very handy to add the Calculator to the Excel 2007 Quick Access Toolbar so that it is a simple click away instead of using the normal method of opening the program.

To add Calculator to the Quick Access Toolbar, simply follow these steps:

1. Open Excel 2007 and go to the Quick Access Toolbar at the top of the window.

   

2. Click the downward point arrow to the right of the toolbar and select More Commands.

    

3. From the dropdown menu, select Commands Not in the Ribbon.

   

4. Select Calculator from the list and click the Add button.  You will see it appear in the list on the right side.

   

5. Click OK.
6. The Calculator icon will now appear in your Quick Access Toolbar.  Now you can easily get to it when you need it.

   

If you are using Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007 as your email client, you are but a download and an install away from making it your Twitter client as well.  TechHit.com, a maker of utilites and add-ons for Outlook, has produced OutTwit to perform your Twitter needs. 

First, download the OutTwit Setup executable from TechHit.com.  Install the add-on.

Now, open up Outlook and you will find a Twitter addition to your menu bar.  To configure the settings, click the OutTwit button and select Options.

Input your Twitter user name and password in the designated textboxes.   Then set how often you want to check for new Twitter messages.  Next, select the folder that you want the Tweets delivered to (I recommend that you create a new folder that is to be strictly used for your incoming tweets).  You can also assign an Outlook category to the tweets.  Click OK when you have finished.

Once your Twitter messages start arriving, they will show up in the same fashion as incoming email messages:

Opening the messages will display something like this:

As I am sure you know, daylight savings time has been lengthened and will run from March 11th to November 4th. Because of this change, if you are running XP or previous versions of Windows, you will need to patch your operating system. Additionally, if you run Microsoft Outlook, you will need to patch it as well (corporate domains can patch Exchange instead of having to patch each individual client).  Here’s some necessary reading and links to get your system ready for the new DST.

1. February 2007 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems. 
2. How to address the daylight saving time changes in 2007 by using the Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook
3. Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time (PocketPC)
4. Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time (Desktop Tool)

Today I had the misfortune of sitting through a 90 minute presentation. I say misfortune, not because the material was dry and boring, but because the presenter had not learned how to avoid the biggest PowerPoint pitfall - his part of the presentation boiled down to reading off of the PowerPoint slides. He offered no discussion on these slides, no greater detail, only the words on the screen. Word by painful word. You could feel the clock grinding to a stop, as seconds seemed like hours. The 5o pages of the presentation had been sent out last week for review so that people could have a chance to see if there were any areas that they saw as problematic. If we reviewed the 50 pages and all he was going to do was read the 50 pages, then why bother with the presentation?

A PowerPoint presentation should never be used as the speaker’s script. The speaker should discuss the points on the presentation. Go into greater detail, paint a larger picture of the statements and info on the slides. You never want to make your audience spend more time looking at their watches than paying attention to your message. Being a PowerPoint parrot is the quickest way to completely ruin even the greatest of presentations.