I have awesome staff. Everyone took thei
I have awesome staff. Everyone took their tests for Sage ACT re-certification & passed with flying colors. Good job gang.
During holiday seasons remember your customers.
During holiday seasons remember your customers – send out holiday greetings to tell them thanks for the business. Good will goes a long way.
Creating Styles in Word 2010 – a search and destroy mission
Microsoft “moved my cheese” when they came out with 2007, and then, darn, they moved it again in 2010. I’ve used Microsoft products since they began and am so used to things the way they used to be that sometimes I spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out where things got moved. It is really bad to have to admit I actually like the ribbons at the top now that I realize they keep the majority of things you use right in front of your face. However, they do a amazingly good job at hiding some things.
Because I work with HTML quite a bit, sometimes I want to bring in HTML code into a document. Then when I go to spell check it the dictionary goes all wonky and spastic trying to show me all the “supposed” misspellings. So, I said, self, why don’t you create an HTML style and tell it to not spell check. I found out how to not spell check during another seek and destroy mission.
Since this was a royal pain, I thought I’d put it into a blog article to save some other poor sole the effort of figuring this out. This will show you how to even begin to build a style – which is the first thing really hidden, and the second part will show you how to exclude spell checking on a style.
Ok, first things first. Where the heck did they hide creating a new style? Open Word and make sure you are on the Home Ribbon. Next click on the little corner widget on the Styles Group. I have learned that these little corner widgets hide a myriad of secrets, and usually have what I am looking for in the first place.
After clicking on the corner arrow, you will see the following drop-down. The icon you are searching for, and which is totally non-obvious is shown here on this graphic. The green arrow is pointing at your destination.
Hooray, we can now build a new style. As I said I built one for HTML Code. The next mission was to set the style to do no spelling checking. Let me explain where you can use this. Say you are writing a blog article about HTML coding – or even more probable, a user manual. You can use a normal default style and when you are entering the HTML code, go to the Style Group and select your new HTML Code style. Then, when you run your spell checker it will bypass spelling checking that section. In my case, it is HTML code. It could be technical terminology for engineers, or Visual Basic or C# code for programmers, or very broad medical descriptions for doctors. I think you get the idea.
So now that I have you interested, let me show you how to set the style to not spell check. In Word, again make sure you are on the Home ribbon and click on the Styles corner arrow. Locate your style and right click on the name to bring up the dialog box. You are going to choose Modify as shown here in this graphic.
After clicking Modify you want to click the Format button.
On the format dialog box choose the Language selection.
Finally, you can now check the Do Not Check Spelling or Grammar box.
Whew, see, I told you it was non-intuitive. I know it didn’t used to be this hard. The good news is all the clicking and searching causes me to find some things that are indeed really new. But I don’t know about you, I really don’t have the time to have to go through this every time I need to do something out of the ordinary. Yes, I know, I can go look it up on Help, but the Microsoft Help, as my husband likes to say, “makes up for lack of function by being slow.” That combined with my total lack of patience spells disaster or a search and destroy mission – ergo, the title of my blog article.
That’s it for today. Several of my readers have sent me emails asking for more regular updates. They like the ones I do on Microsoft products, so look for more in the near future. Who knows – maybe it will become a series of articles.
Black holes and Boomerangs Revisited
Back in 2009 I wrote a piece on Black Holes and Boomerangs. It had nothing to do with science or curved wooden implements. I almost kept a small boomerang when I came back from Australia in April because of my prior post. I have written that as a blog article, a magazine post, and turned it into a speech. Now I wish I had that real Aussie boomerang to hang on my wall. Because they’re BACK. Like THE MOVIE. You know which movie.
I have to work on a pretty intensive project that is going to keep me busy possibly forever – no kidding aside. So, I have embarked on pushing projects out to people on my staff. I have to. The projects won’t get done unless I do this and trust them. Well, there you go. It’s the trust them part that is failing. Because I did. And it failed. And they are back in my court. Boomerangs. There are two to four black holes out there that I probably need to follow up on because they will never become boomerangs. They will just hang and languish with the hopes that nobody notices they are missing in action.
Ring a bell with you? It should. It happens all the time. All over the world. It just can’t happen in my world because too many external things are going on right now and I need people bellying up to the bar so to speak. And not drinking. And not turning the project back to me – which is the boomerang part – or letting the project drift off into never never land never to be heard from again – which is the black hole part.
And I am at a loss as to what to do. I just confronted said guilty parties and got the classic “duh, dear in head lights, surely you can’t mean me, I am innocent, obviously you are a crazed women” look. Gosh I hate that look. I want to take paint varnish and smear it off their faces. It’s like they think I am stupid or something. My goodness, can you tell I am upset.
We are at a crossroads here. I need people standing up and taking charge. Instead, I am surrounded by ostriches. My task for the day will be to figure out a way to inspire these people to get the heck out of ostrich-dom and take responsibility. Ah, but this is not an easy thing to do – especially when they are family. Ah, family in the business. Gee, that’s another blog article.
I have empowered them. I have stepped away and not hovered over them. I’ve done all the things I should do to make them responsible. But it is not happening. Next mission is to figure out how to motivate non-motivatable people. Is that a word? Should be. Ah, that will be my next blog article.
So, on a less than spectacular day, I bid you adieu while I go off to Googleland to look up how to deal with deadbeats.
For those interested, here’s the link to the original blog post. By the way – the same people are involved. Sigh. Some things never change.
http://pregen.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/black-holes-and-boomerangs/
The Changing World of Sales and Marketing
Last week, I had a great lunch with a friend here in town who owns a marketing firm that has a particular emphasis on social media. One of the things we discussed is the changing face of marketing. What is also changing is the role of sales and salespeople. My company is really starting to focus on changing how we sell and market based on what I am seeing in the industry. The whole topic gave me the idea for today’s post.
I’m going to start it off with this chicken and egg question – which came first – marketing or sales. Talk to a Salesperson and they will tell you it was them knocking on doors and making calls that brought the people to the door. Talk to the marketing department and they say “ well, heck no, if the customer had never heard of our product, the sales person wouldn’t have gotten to first base.” That’s why I call it a chicken and egg question. Which aspect indeed is first?
Often, I run into organizations who think they are one and the same – to which I say, absolutely, unequivocally, NOT. And if that organization thinks this, they are probably in trouble or going to be soon. There are different rules and techniques required for each process. And that’s what is changing. And it’s changing for both sales AND marketing.
Social Media and Social CRM are rapidly changing how we interact with our customers. It’s no longer a push situation – it’s a two way communication model. The customer indeed wants to hear about the product or service and wants to talk pricing. But after they have gotten the product, they want the dialog to continue. They want the ability to complain or compliment or suggest or comment on an ongoing basis.
Recently I read an article that “claimed” the sales person was going to become obsolete. Websites, online marketing, “here kitty kitty” advertising, Facebook, all of the above would drive customers to buy. Sales people would become an unnecessary burden and expense. Humph. I don’t agree. But I do agree how people sell will need to change to accommodate the new emerging online model.
It used to be that the role of salespeople was to advise customers of products and solutions. The savvy customer can now find that on their own. So, why would you need a salesperson? The fact that the customer can find it out on their own is why you need a salesperson. The customer is probably overwhelmed with too much information and needs someone to help them figure out what’s right and wrong for their requirements. The salesperson role is changing to that of a trusted adviser who knows what’s up and can help guide you, hopefully honestly, thru the morass of information to a workable solution.
My advice for salespeople is to become very literate with the internet tools. Know what it means to be on Twitter. Sign up for Linkedin, the world’s largest old boy network. Join groups on Linkedin that are pertinent to your product and services. Become a voice, and not just a lurker. If you don’t, the new young guy following behind you will. This is the world of the future, trust me, and it behooves salespeople to embrace it and become proficient social media pundits. Or wait by the wayside while the other guy does.
