Learn Office 2007 with Ribbon Hero
One of the biggest problems with Office 2007 is that the interface of the programs is very different from previous versions of Office. Tasks you can usually do with your eyes closed have become absurdly hard in 2007 simply because we have to relearn the interface. Once you figure out the interface, you’ll find that [...]
How to Organize the Boss’s E-mail
Often as an administrative assistant (and very frequently as an executive assistant), you’ll have the job of monitoring and organizing your boss’s e-mail. This essentially entails reading through his new mail and either replying on his behalf, delegating the e-mail to one of her direct reports, or organizing e-mail that needs a response directly [...]
Have You Got Google Wave?
Google Wave is the newest application of the ever popular Google company. They’ve taken a variety of IM and networking tools and made a truly unique collaboration interface.
You can, of course, communicate with others in Wave as if you were in an IM, but you can do so much more than that. You can work [...]
“You’re over your limit”
No, no, not your credit card. You’re e-mail account!
We’ve all gotten the dreaded “You’re Over Your Limit” messages in our e-mail. There’s no better way to ruin a good day than to realize you must suddenly drastically reduce the size of your e-mail (or worse yet, your boss’s). You really only have two choices: delete [...]
10 Tips for Setting Up a Mailing List
In my last post, I talked about the Pitfalls of Addressing Mail. Today I’d like to talk about actually creating your mailing list. I have created and maintained many mailing lists over the years, and have learned from my many mistakes how to avoid some of the problems you run across when you create a [...]
Excel Is NOT a Database!
We all know what Microsoft Excel is. It’s a spreadsheet software. It’s not a database. It’s never been a database. It never will be a database. Do I sound strident there? GOOD!
Seriously, it’s not a database, folks, so please quit using it as one. I can’t tell you how many places I’ve worked keep critical [...]
Ask the Admin: Scheduling Tasks for Others
And we have another question about Microsoft Outlook, this time about scheduling e-mails. Json asked in his e-mail:
Hi I read your article about setting up recurring tasks and wonder if there is any way to do automatic email reminders to my staff. My staff members have tasks with different due dates. For [...]
Ask the Admin: Set up Recurring Tasks at 8 Month Intervals
I had a question stemming from my post on setting up recurring tasks in Microsoft Outlook. Pierre wants to know how to set up a task to recur at 8 month intervals.
This is actually quite easy. If you look at the Task Recurrence Window:
If you choose Monthly as the recurrence period, you’ll see that you [...]
Where Are My Outlook Calendar Items?
I know you’ve all probably experienced this before. One day an appointment is on the calendar, and then it’s just gone. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accused my boss of messing up his calendar, but I’ve found out it wasn’t actually his fault (sorry about that, Val!).
The Problem with Delegates
It turns out [...]
Ask the Admin: Watermarks in MS Word Part II
NOTE: Don’t forget to enter my contest to win a Starbuck’s Gift Card.
In my last post, I showed you how to make a graphic into a watermark in Microsoft Word. Today, I’ll show you how to do the same thing with text using WordArt. The reason we use WordArt is because a text box does [...]
