We do not work just to get paid, just to finish the 9-5 routine.
We want to make a difference, a contribution, a celebration of life, of living. Therefore, work matters!
But are you doing your best today?
Are you excelling at work?
If not, why not. WHY?
W H Y ?
What are you waiting for?
Today, we are not fighting war with the communists. We may not be working on THE project of a lifetime – The Taj Mahal, The Rocket to Moon, The Scaling of South Pole, or The Everest. So therefore, should we do just a mediocre job… just a job to get by?
Or should we make any job, any crummy job as THE PROJECT of my Life… and really excel at it.
Why Not? Do you need anyone’s permission to do an excellent job? And will you do an excellent job, an Wow job only when someone’s life or job is at stake?
Decide today to do Your Best. Excel at anything. Make it the Project of your lifetime. Do such a wonderful job that people will talk about this work ten years from now. Man… those were the days… We worked on THE project of my life. It was such fun, such camaraderie, such great teamwork, such coordination, so much precision, and we pulled it against all odds. Those were the days!!!
Do not think of any job as just a job. Make it a WOW project. THE project of your life. Even if it is a small, simple job. Do with with dedication, do it with perfection. You will enjoy it more. You will be happy. You are not doing it to show off to anyone.But you are doing it to Show it your YOURSELF. You will feel job satisfaction. You will feel that
you are making a difference.
And you will be surprised. Others will see it. Notice it. They have no choice. A good quality work gets noticed pretty quickly. Because it is a rarity today. People are so used to seeing the mediocre job, the average job, that when you do an Excellent job, everyone notices… Automatically. You do not have to announce it.
And even if no one notices, or no one shows that they have noticed…. it is bound to happen. With it come its own rewards. More recognition, more power, more money, more satisfaction, and more success. You will know it first.
I take pride in my work. I find ways to add more value… provide more value. Find ways to give you new tips, tricks, new ways to add value to your work. When I coach, I try to give practical tips, not just theory, so that you can benefit from it immediately. Learn new skills – hard technical skills like Advanced Excel Techniques, or Soft Skills like Communication Skills… Train yourself, and your staff. There are several benefits of training. Invest in your knowledge, and spread the word.
Make it a point from today onwards. Find ways to transform your work… every day work, into a project that matters. Because Work Matters. Your Life Matters. What You Do matters, and You Matter Too!
– By Vinai Prakash, Founder & Principal Trainer at Intellisoft Singapore
P.S. – Write your comments. Tell me what you think. Does it ring a bell somewhere? Or you simply do not agree with this philosophy. What ever you feel, post a comment, and I’ll be happy to see what you feel, and where you come from. Thanks.
Practical hands-on advanced excel training at Intellisoft
Most people hardly use the huge number of features available in Microsoft Excel. Many are just using Excel as a calculator. This is a gross under use of Excel’s vast potential and feature rich functionality.
Do a quick check, and see if you use these advanced features of Microsoft Excel in your day to day work.
Some of the common things that can be done easily with Excel are:
Finding the Top 10 Customers or Finding the Bottom 10 Performers in the organization
Highlight values that are above or below a certain threshold – like all sales above $25,000 to be highlighted
Sort the values in Ascending, Descending or any customized order – like sorting in order of Manufacturing, Accounts, Sales departments.
Give Names to Range of Cells, and then use them in formulas for easy referencing and decoding
Exploit Pivot Tables to Summarize the data and slice & dice it in any way – finding sales by product groups, or calculating productivity by department
Write Macros to automate routine things that save you a huge amount of time – example creating pivots, charts, tables, and doing complex calculations automatically.
Use advanced filtering conditions, and be able to filter data using multiple different criteria
Create fantastic charts that portray the given business situation perfectly. There are over 50 different types of charts to choose from, and each has its edge, advantages and a reason.
Create management dashboard that are dynamic, and provide a complete snapshot of the key business KPIs in the company – change the chart values at the click of a checkbox or change in a drop-down value
Use Excel’s advanced What-If analysis to do projections for future, forecasting, trend analysis etc. with ease
Use Lookup tables to find any value or corresponding value from a table using advanced functions and formulas
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft Excel is really extremely powerful. Each version of Microsoft Excel – be it Excel 2007, or Excel 2010 or Excel 2013 adds more and more features to the already powerful dynamite of a package.
So what are you waiting for? If you would like to learn any one or more of such useful features of Microsoft Excel, come for a short Excel Training at Intellisoft.
Go ahead, equip your team with the right skills. Get everyone on board to learn the basic and advanced features of Microsoft Excel, and Be Awesome in Excel!
Email to training@intellisoft.com.sg or call +65-6250-3575 for the next available schedule of Microsoft Excel Training in Singapore.
When it comes to PowerPoint, it remains the professional tool of choice for business and corporate presentations. Features that were already in PowerPoint 2010 just became easier to discover and use with the new 2013 release. As with all other Microsoft Office 2013 applications, PowerPoint 2013 has been given a brand-new look. You’ll see fewer but more relevant choices, and you’ll find tools that were previously hidden, such as Shape Merge.
PowerPoint Interface
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 is cleaner and primed for use on tablets and phones, so you can swipe and tap your way through presentations. Powerpoint 2013 makes it easy to design and deliver beautiful presentation with ease and confidence. Instead of opening without light precipitation you now have several options to star your next presentation using a template, theme, recent presentation, web link presentation.
Start it up, and you’ll be given a range of templates to choose from to create your new presentation. What is new with PowerPoint 2013 templates is that they’re now available with 16:9 aspect ratios, which is the default ratio. More and more monitors and videos are going to wide screen to you and so as power point. You can also change the default wide screen size 16:9 to standard 4:3 using new tab options. We teach that and you can join us in this teaching learning process by contacting us.
And when you’re working with others, you can add comments to ask questions and get feedback. So it includes presenter view, improved commenting system and a whole new set of Templates. You can learn all of these at Intellisoft. We have several PowerPoint Training Classes in Singapore.
Themes in PowerPoint
You’ll find new themes, a design to take advantage of a wide screen. Now themes come with new variants of color palettes and there’s a color bar of the color palette available. You can also click on more images to get a sample of what your presentation might look like with different elements. To learn how to do this come and join our Microsoft PowerPoint training class.
You can also set the guidelines in Master view. As you go through your slides the created guidelines will always be there. When you create the most path animation. PowerPoint will show you where it will end up. Your original object stays put and a ghost image moves along a path to show you where it will end up.
New Features in Microsoft PowerPoint
You will enjoy the features like
Presenter View: Stay organized with new behind-the-scenes tools, so you can keep your presentation focused and your audience tuned in.
Slide Zoom: Direct your audience’s attention right to your point. Zoom in on a diagram, chart, or graphic with a couple of clicks, and zoom out just as smoothly.
Slide Navigator: Quickly switch slides—in or out of sequence—from a visual grid viewable at a glance. While in Presenter View, your audience sees only the slide you’ve selected.
Auto-extend: When you project your presentation to a second screen, your slides and Presenter View automatically appear on the correct screens. No fumbling with equipment.
Here are the top features you should explore in Power Point.
WordPress has come a long way for a Web Design platform. It started as a Blogging platform, but now more and more websites are using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS).
In fact, WordPress is ideal to be used as a CMS, and it is extremely easy to install, configure and setup WordPress driven website. WordPress web design training can help you get started faster.
After being the world’s most popular CMS & Web Design software, it is still a mystery to many. Here are some common questions answered about WordPress.
Is WordPress Free?
Absolutely. The WordPress foundation has provided you with the software absolutely free for your business or personal use. You can download the latest software from WordPress.org website. It is updated regularly, and you will be prompted to update it every time another version is released. It is always best to keep the latest version installed on your website.
WordPress also offers a free, hosted website option. It is of no cost to you too. But the site will be hosted at WordPress, and will be using their domain name. So you will get a sub domain at WordPress to build your blog or site on.
This option is good if you are running a small or experimental website, and don’t want to spend anything. However, the self-hosted option is much better. Of course, you will have to invest in a domain name and hosting, but then you have full flexibility about the design, and content of your own website.
What are the Benefits of using WordPress?
There are several benefits of using WordPress.
Benefits of Using WordPress For Web Design
WordPress is open source. You are free to download, examine and extend it.
Thousands of themes and plugins are available, allowing you immense extensibility and flexibility in your web design
It is quite easy to build your own website, once you understand the structure and layout, and the various terminology.
Easy to find website developers and designers, if you do not want to do it yourself.
Being a CMS, you can easily add people to the design or content editing teams, and provide access by roles. This way they can only modify what they are supposed to, keeping the site secure.
Easy to maintain. WYSIWYG interface also gives you a visual of what you are going to get at the end of the design.
What are the Disadvantages of Using WordPress?
Not all is rosy with WordPress. There are a number of disadvantages, and some grudges or inconveniences that can hamper a smooth sailing with WordPress.
Prone to hacking, malware attacks. Need to keep the site always updated.
can be difficult for beginners to understand the various terms – Themes, Plugins, Widgets, Templates, Posts, Pages, Permalinks, Categories, Tags & numerous Settings for Header, Footer, Slider, etc.
Too many choices in Themes and Plugins can also make it difficult to choose the right one
Too much reliance on External Plugins can cause incompatibility, can break the site, and cause a lot of heartache.
Difficult to debug. A small issue with any code or plugin can disrupt your site. There is no easy way to debug such issues.
Is WordPress Suitable for Business websites?
Most businesses need simple websites to get started. For static website, it is pretty easy to get started and have a basic site ready over a weekend. For mid sized businesses, it takes a bit of time to configure the structure.
Once done, a dynamic website can be created pretty easily. Best of all, it is a breeze to manage and maintain a large website if setup correctly.
Manufacturers, Retailers, B2B, B2C, E-Commerce companies are all creating Online Stores with freely available plugins like Woo Commerce.
You can pretty easily add and setup the following with WordPress:
Setup shopping carts,
PayPal buttons,
Product catalog,
Search product,
Add Featured products,
Manage Ratings for products,
Setup Billing and shipping terms,
Add Privacy, Terms & Conditions etc.
Build a system to track customers, orders, shipments, members, subscriptions etc. easily
All this functionality, without investing in a full E-Commerce system that used to cost thousands.
It can all be done DIY, easily.
Big business like New York Times Newspaper, Ron Kaufman, Singtel, all use WordPress for their websites.
How Hard is it to Learn WordPress?
Like any other software, free does not mean easy. There is a bit of terminology to understand before you jump into website design. But once you figure out the difference between Themes & Plugins, Pages vs Posts, Widgets vs Headers vs Footers, etc. you are on your way to success with WordPress Web Designs.
Having a mentor, guide or friend who has built a few sites and has experience with WordPress can be a real boon.
It can be intimidating at first, but keep at it. There are WordPress training programs easily available. Join one and learn WordPress in a short crash course. It is a much better option.
How to Use WordPress?
The best way to use WordPress is to get started in your quest for a website.
How To Use WordPress
Register a domain name.
Install WordPress.
Choose from the thousands of free themes. If you really fancy, you can pick a premium theme here.
Install a few important plugins like Akismet, Yoast SEO, Classic Editor
Do a concept design of your website on paper first. Don’t jump straight into WordPress. You can look at competitors, other websites in other industries for inspiration. Check out some award winning sites.
Then come up with your own original design that works for you and your company. If possible, get it vetted by a manager, boss, colleague or two. This will give you a sanity check and you will be on you way to a successful website.
Once your menu, structure, layout is finalized, you can build the nomenclature – setup categories, pages, and a high level menu.
With the structure in place, start creating pages for your products, services, about us, contact us, sitemap, Home page etc.
Edit the widgets to bring in categories, tags, meta into sidebars. Setup Headers, Footers, and Logo in the right places.
Integrate your physical store with Google Maps.
Your basic website should be ready
Add social share icons
Congratulations! Launch your website.
Announce to the whole world. Tell all your friends, colleagues, mom to visit it. Print it on your stationary, email signatures etc.
Intellisoft has created a short, practical, hands-on training workshop for creating a WordPress driven website from scratch. This will help you if you are looking for ways to build and manage your own website.
You can learn all about Web Design in our practical hands-on WordPress training
Installing WordPress,
Choosing the Right Theme,
Step For WordPress Web Design
What are Widgets,
What are Plug-Ins,
Choosing and Configuring the best Plug-ins
Configuring the Widgets
Setting up a Contact Us Form
Adding Your Company Logo,
Tweaking the Header and Footer of Your Website
In short, you will have a READY, FULLY FUNCTIONAL WEBSITE, IN JUST 3 DAYS.
Join the 3 day practical hands-on workshop, and begin to create a fully functional Website, using WordPress. Build Your Own WordPress Site/Blog/Shop
Many project managers think Microsoft Project software (Microsoft Project 2016, MS Project 2013 et. el.) to be just useful for creating a list of things to do… like a laundry list.
Some think that MS Project is more of a scheduling software, and it is useful only upto coming up with a Gantt Chart or a Network Diagram for their project. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Microsoft Project 2016 is a sophisticated piece of software, which is capable of doing much more than mere scheduling.
According to Microsoft – “Microsoft Office Project Standard 2016 gives you robust project management tools with the right blend of usability, power, and flexibility, so you can manage projects more efficiently and effectively.” In fact, I would go on to say that using the proper software, tools and techniques is crucial to project success – because of the amount of time and money it saves… Here’s how:
1. A simple, familiar look and feel of all Office products:
The simple ribbon is power packed with options that make it easier to work with project tasks, schedules, and track progress.
2. Tighter control and delivery:
Now you can quickly compare budget versus actual versus forecasted values, and measure the progress of a task, or a summary task, with the flexibility of setting multiple baselines. You can also create high-level, time-phased budgets, which can have multiple user-defined categories for costs and labor. This level of granularity was only available in much more expensive software previously.
3. It is much easier to validate budgets against bottom-up estimates:
Built by using labor, material, and cost resources. This enables a project manager to control project costs by comparing budgets to completed tasks and forecasted totals. The earlier any deviations are discovered, the better it becomes to take some corrective action, and make improvements to the project.
4. Built in EVM (earned value measurements) enable you to do predictive analysis:
and integrated performance management. This can make it much easier to measure where the project stands – how much has been spent, what much more is required, at what rate are we spending, and at what rate is the work getting completed… all crucial factors to measure the progress of the project, and deliver it successfully, better, faster, and cheaper.
5. Build Scenarios and Play What-If:
There is a constant need to evaluate multiple scenarios and consider options when planning new projects or monitoring ongoing work. Using inactive tasks, new in Project Professional 2016, you can easily experiment with your project plan and perform what-if analysis – this new feature is a boon to project managers.
A simple toggle option can remove or insert one or more tasks, along with their effect on the project schedule. Project 2016 also offers more built-in tools to help support what-if analysis and scenario comparison, including multiple-level undo and change highlighting. With these details, it becomes much easier to get an idea of the best options available, with their impact the project, and the triple constraints.
As you can see, there is much more to MS Project than meets the eye initially. You need to learn the MS Project 2016 software by attending formal training… even a short, 2 day dedicated training on learning the basics, and more advanced features of MS Project can do wonders for you.
At Intellisoft, we run 2 day hands on, practical workshops on Microsoft Project 2016 and Microsoft Project 2013 training. Attended by new and experienced team members and project managers, this step-by-step ms project training can help you maximize the use of this software for your projects, and help you be more successful in managing project.
Make a nice report in Excel. Then print it. You’ll be disappointed. Because the gridlines that are visible in Excel, that make the rows and columns visible, don’t get printed by default when you print any Microsoft Excel file.
It is much easier to type in Excel when you can see the grid lines to demark rows & columns. However if you print your beautiful Excel file, it may not seem so easy to read, because the lines that separate the rows and columns are not printed by default.
You may miss the row/column alignment and misread the wrong data with the wrong row… specially when there’s a lot of data on a page, and the fonts are a bit small.
That’s when printed gridlines in Excel reports come in handy.
Gridlines in Page setupPage setup
Now there has always been a way to get the grid lines to print, since Excel 2000, and it is still available in Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019 or Office 365, in the same place. In Excel , you have many ways to get to the Print Grid lines option.
Go to Print > Print Preview & Click on Page Setup. The option to print gridlines in Excel is hidden here.
You will see a popup box come up. Click on the 4th tab and select Sheet. You should see something like this screen shot below.
Gridlines in Print Preview
As you can see, there is a checkbox which says – Gridlines in the Print section. Select the Checkbox, and then click OK.
You will see tiny gridlines appear on the screen. Now when you print the sheet, you will see gridlines being printed, and it is much easier to view the figures on the printed sheet with gridlines printed.
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