Category Archives: Resolve to Learn IT

Word Tips

Posted by on November 8th, 2012
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I know basic features of Word but would like learn more advanced features without having to sit through a lot of training. What do you recommend?

UNMC ITS recommends their short mini-sessions which are often available, as well as videos, demos and tutorials that Microsoft offers free of charge. Click here to see a variety of excellent short videos on:  opening Word really fast, using office.com templates, convert a list into a table, make bulleted list more interesting, cropping pictures to shapes, zooming with your mouse, and more! All videos are three minutes or less.

The next ITS Word mini-session is Tuesday 11/13 from 10-11:30 and will feature Word Graphics features, including working with photos, text boxes, diagrams and more. Feel free to bring your own documents to “dress up.” Learn about Mail Merge on December 5 from 10-11:30 a.m. to create letters, labels or envelopes from your mailing lists in Excel or Access. We will also have “drop in help” sessions following those sessions from 11:30-12:30 to for individual help with projects (Word or other applications). These sessions will be held in 8011 Wittson and require registration at http://www.unmc.edu/its/training.htm (you don’t need to register for drop in sessions). If you have requests for additional Word training, contact klaursen@unmc.edu

 

Question of the week of 1/2/2012 – Resolve to get organized in 2012!

Posted by on January 4th, 2012
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Question: Can someone help me determine how to best save email and files for easy searching?

Answer: Unfortunately, only you and your colleagues best understand your work flow and requirements. The new year is a great time to resolve to get better organized. This means brainstorming and possibly changing your business practices so that email is NOT used as your records retention/file storage location. Since only a limited amount of Lotus Notes mail (if any) will be migrated to Outlook, and because the new email system has size limitations and no automatic archiving, we must find ways to work more efficiently. PCMAG has a series of excellent articles addressing this topic which will give you some suggestions.

In addition, concentrate on which Lotus Notes mail you want to keep and less on deleting. Save those messages in a folder called “Keep” or rename folders with “keep” before the folder name to easily identify them later. You will be able to convert those to PDF or forward emails to Outlook for several weeks after the conversion to Outlook.

Excel add-ins and online tools for charting

Posted by on August 29th, 2011
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I wanted to share some excellent tools that I’ve recently learned about. One is a free statistical analysis add-in program for Excel. Greg McFadden from Internal Medicine shared his knowledge with us in a mini-session a couple of weeks ago. To use this add-in:

  1. Select Excel Options (available from the Office button in Excel 2007 or File menu in Excel 2010).
  2. Click Add-ins and select Go (toward bottom of add-ins window)
  3. Place a check on the Analysis ToolPak and click OK. You may get a prompt asking to install it, and you may need the installation disk (although I didn’t with Excel 2010).
  4. After it has been installed, the analysis features are available on the far right of the Data tab. Some of the analysis tools available are: anova, correlation, covariance, descriptive stats (wonderful), F-test, histogram, fourier analysis, regression and more.

This site recently came to my attention from Teri Hartman, from McGoogan Library. Here you will find described a number of on-line programs that can be used to create charts and graphs of all types, including drawing tools, mind mapping, flow charts, organizational charts, iPhone chart application and more! I haven’t tried any of them yet, but I can’t wait to try out the mind mapping tools!

Thanks Greg and Teri for sharing your great finds!

Question of the week of 7/4/11 – Mac training

Posted by on July 5th, 2011
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Question: I just changed departments and will be working on a Mac.  It’s brand new and is supposed to be set up this Tuesday.  I haven’t used one regularly for a very long time.  Do you have any training available for the basics and/or advanced Mac info?

Answer: We don’t offer hands-on training on Macs since we don’t have Macs in our training room, however there are several self-study resources available:

Question of the week of 4/25/11 – Quick tips to improve my PC skills

Posted by on April 21st, 2011
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Question: I don’t have time during the semester to attend 3 hr classes. Do you ever offer short sessions at the end of the semester?

Answer: We certainly do! In fact this May we are offering a marathon of 30-minute mini-sessions on a variety of topics. They will be 30 minute sessions followed with Questions and Answers. You can bring in questions unrelated to the topic too, if time allows. We are offering these sessions so that faculty and students, in particular, can enhance their basic PC skills. See the schedule and register online at this link. In addition, we’ll show how to access additional resources for those who want more in depth training and assistance.

Many of these sessions are scheduled throughout the year, but we’re trying this min-marathon this semester and depending on how it goes, will offer at the end of the fall semester.