Multiple Employees Working on a Single Excel File

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Question

What is the best way to allow multiple employees to access and alter a single Excel workbook? We have tried Dropbox in the past, but have had problems.

Answer

I would use Google Docs. You can work on shared Word documents and Excel documents online and it’s free!

You start by uploading or creating a new document. Then you can share with one or multiple people. You have the option of working directly on the file or downloading a copy of it to your desktop. Just keep in mind if you download a copy of it, it does not sync with what is online. If anyone makes a change online you will have two versions. The one online and the one you downloaded and made changes.

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Where can I find an online design course?

by Lena Shore · 1 comment

Question

I have a quick question that I hope you can answer, or at least provide me some direction.  I would like to take an online course that could teach me some design basics.  Not necessarily software, but just tips like how to balance elements on a page, what size fonts to use in relation to each other on a page, how to use white space effectively, etc.  Do you know of any such online courses?

Answer

My first thought – which I don’t know if they have any specific design basic courses, is Lynda.com. I LOVE Lynda.com. You can learn any software from there and it’s only $25 a month. You can go to their website and search through the courses to see if  they have anything that interests you. But, I have used them and their video tutorials are excellent. A great resource to have even if it isn’t a good fit for design basics.
  • Here is a design basics course from About.com
  • Check your local colleges for online courses
  • Youtube: Lots of people make videos on everything. I bet there are some great ones out there.
  • Check your local library: I was stunned at how many fantastic books were at our main library about software and design. I believe a lot of libraries are also distributing ebooks now.
If I just search for “basic design principles” in Google, I find some good results. Here are a few that popped out at me:
 I think if you explore some of these options you will be able to find what you want or at least get a better direction of where to go and what fits you the best.
Good luck!
My personal advice would be to glance at a few things online (About, Lynda, links I found, youtube) and that will give you a bit more focus on what you are looking for if that doesn’t do it for you. Above may be all you feel like you want/need.
Let me know if I can be any more help.
Thanks,
Lena
(:

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Paper Lesson

by Lena Shore · 1 comment

Over the weekend I was cleaning out my office and found this great little cheat sheet I created years ago for understanding paper types as explained by one of my printing mentors, Jon Anderson.

Paper weight

The weight of a paper is determined by how much a ream (500 sheets) weighs in the basis size. The basis size is the size it is produced at the mill.

Paper types

Bond

  • Typical weight: 20lb
  • Basis size: 17″ x 22″
  • Qualities: Good for writing and erasing

Offset

  • Typical weight: 50lb
  • Basis size: 25″ x 38″
  • Qualities: Made for stability with water; Comes in coated or uncoated. Created about 80 years ago

Cover

  • Typical weights: 65lb, 80lb
  • Basis size: 26″ x 40″
  • Qualities: Fluffier or bulkier

Index

  • Typical weight: 90lb, 110lb, 140lb
  • Basis size: 22.5″ x 28.5″
  • Qualities: Calendar (or mashed), easy to erase

Ledger

  • Typical weight: 22lb and 28lb
  • Qualities: High calendar, easy to erase

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Excel: How to easily join text columns with a formula!

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Say someone sends you an Excel document and you while they gave you lots of columns of information, you really need some of those columns joined. Let’s say you also don’t want to merge them permanently. You can do it with an easy formula!

This is also called “concatenation” and can be found in the Excel help — but who is going to remember THAT?

In the example below, we are going to join the first name and the last name together in the last column called “full name”

Start with the basic formula: =A2&B2. When you hit return, it will join the two columns and display “Marilyn Monroe:

This isn’t bad. However, we’d really like to create a space between the two names. We can do this by adding a space between a bit of extra code — =A2&” “&B2

To copy this formula to the rest of the column is easy. You have a couple of options:

Just copy the block where we added the formula. Now highlight the empty blocks where you want the code to be applied and paste.

Or you can double click the block until the little handle bar (dot) shows up in the bottom right of the block. Now grab that handlebar and drag it to encompass the rest of your column.

EXTRA TIP: If your Excel document is using all uppercase, you could add a proper case argument to have it display correctly.

  • Proper Case: Using =PROPER(A2&” “&B2) would change MARILYN MONROE to Marilyn Monroe

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Mac Mail: How to add addresses from Mail to your Address Book in Bulk

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Question

I have “mail” and “contacts” on my mac. I know there are email addresses that my Mail program recognizes and will auto populate when I begin typing them that are not in my contacts. I desire to get those addresses in my contacts file or download them in some way so I can add them to my email blast list.

Answer

You can launch your Mail app and then navigate to Window –> Previous Recipients and get a list and add them to your address book. The ones that are in your address book have a little address book icon next to them.

Using the command key you can select the ones you want (and skip addresses) or use Shift to grab a bunch in a row. Also, important to note is that you can sort them by clicking on “Name”, “Email”, etc. But MORE important in your case is that you can sort by clicking the blank area before Name. This will group all of the emails in your address book and group all the emails NOT in your address book. Now you can easily select all the ones that are not in your address book and add them to your address book.

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What is this anonymous Twitter database on my iPad?

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Question

On my iPad, under Safari/settings/databases, there was an entry from mobile.twitter.com with the name anonymous.

I don’t Twitter, never have, and don’t understand how that entry could have gotten there given the descriptions and my understanding of how the databases are supposed to work. In short, how does a person that doesn’t use Twitter or even have a Twitter account come to have an anonymous Safari database entry for Twitter on their iPad?

Answer

Great question!

The last big update (iOS5) for our mobile devices included adding Twitter into the core files. Apple figured that so many people used Twitter they would just build it in. If you did use Twitter, you could go to the settings area and just enter you login/pass and you’d be up and running without having to download additional software (it’s included).

I would say that it’s named “anonymous” because that is the default name for anyone who hasn’t set it up yet. It’s just an empty database. I use Twitter myself, so I’m not willing to see if I can delete that file or not (*wink*) – but why don’t you try deleting it if it bothers you? You might have to delete Twitter first. That being said, it might not let you since it’s part of the core files. And, I imagine when you do your next update it will put it back there again. So, now that I’ve spelled that out for you, I’m not sure I’d bother. But, if you try it, let me know what happens.

In any case, it’s not anything to be worried about. Apple just added somethings to make it easier for those of us that tweet. (:

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Is Streaming Netflix with Your Apple TV 2 Leaving You Hanging?

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

We love Netflix. We love being able to stream it over our iPad, iPhone, and Apple T.V. 2. However, as of late we keep running into programs and movies just hanging every few minutes on the Apple TV. This is not the joyful experience I am accustomed to.

After doing some digging, we found some possible solutions. They worked for us. Your mileage may vary. Rumor has it, that this same type of procedure will also work on your PS3.

Update your Apple TV software

Apple TV comes out with frequent updates to fix little things that aren’t working right. Make sure you have the latest version.

Use Googles’ Public DNS Server

This is the trick that did it for us. Unknown to many Google has a public DNS server you can utilize through your Apple T.V. 2. This gives your Apple TV 2 a static IP address with a dynamic range. Don’t do this on a business network. But, it is fine for a home network — unless, you have something smarter set up at home. In that case, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.

It’s easy to do whether you understand it or not. Here is how:

  1. Start your Apple TV 2
  2. Go to Settings –> General –> Network. Select “Configure TCP/IP.
  3. Select “Manually” next to “Configure IP”. Click done.
  4. Repeat this step for the Subnet Mask and the Router Address screens
  5. Configure the DNS Address screen with this IP address: 008.008.008.008. Select “Done”.
  6. Try it out!

Good luck!

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Editing a Field in Excel: Mac vs Windows

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Question

I am working in Excel on my MacBook and editing my Christmas card list. On a PC, I could hit the F2 button to immediately be able to edit the field I was in. Is there a shortcut on a Mac for that?

Answer

CONTROL+U is the new F2 when you’re using Excel with a Mac.

Or.. you can try this to switch it like a PC by using something like Key Remap. It’s a system preference app that will allow you to change the key functions in Excel.

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Paypal, Square, and 1099s

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Question

Do you have any idea how Paypal and Square up deal with 1099 reporting for the IRS?

Answer

Paypal

Starting in 2011, all US payment providers including PayPal will be required by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report sales information to the IRS about certain customers who receive payments for the sale of goods or services through PayPal.

•  Applies to sellers receiving over $20,000 in gross payment volume AND over 200 payments
•  Applies only for sales on or after January 1, 2011

If you have questions you can login to your account or call Paypal at 1-888-221-1161.

Square

Square does not currently report to the IRS on behalf of their sellers.

Tax law requires that they provide users who process over $20,000 and 200 payments with a 1099K before January 31st, 2012. They are also required to file a corresponding tax form with the IRS.

In accordance with thier User Agreement, Section 24, they will annually report your name, address, Tax ID (or SSN), EIN (if you have one), total amount per month and per year that you transacted with Square.

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The difference between absolute and relative paths

by Lena Shore · 0 comments

Question

We are working on a small website page that uses iframes. Part of our instructions are saying we need to use absolute paths instead of relative paths. What is the difference?

Answer

When using image in web pages your images don’t live inside the source code, they live as a file (jpg, gif, png, etc.) on a server. Many times in an images folder. When you are writing code and would like one of those images to show up you place a little of code that says “stick this image here”. When the webpage is rendered or displayed in your browser, it reads the code, grabs the image, and pulls it into the page so the viewer can see it.

<img src="bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

In the example code above the “src” is “bluebowl.jpg”. This means that the source of this image tag is image.jpg. When this code is viewed it will display the image you named picture.jpg. The file, bluebowl.jpg, is the source (path) to that image.

If bluebowl.jpg was in a folder named “kitchen” the code would look like this:

<img src="kitchen/bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

The path to the file says “go to the images folder and then look for bluebowl.jpg”. You’ve created a relative path.

Relative Path

What makes a path “relative” is the relationship between the page you created and where the image(s) live that you want to display. If you were standing in my kitchen and I said go to the third cabinet and get the blue bowl you would go to the third cabinet, look inside and find the blue bowl and bring it back to me.

<img src="kitchen/bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

But, what if you were at the mall and I called you on your cell phone and said “go look in the third cabinet and bring me the blue bowl? Despite your probable desire to hang up on me, this is an example of a relative path. The instructions I gave you are dependent on you standing in my kitchen before you try to follow the directions. 

<img src="drive_home/kitchen/bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

If you were at the mall and I wanted you to get me the blue bowl, I would have to tell you to drive to my house first, walk into the kitchen, open the third cabinet, and bring me the blue bowl. The more directions I need to give, the longer the path is.

<img src="mall/drive_to_lenas_house/open_front_door/kitchen/bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

Absolute Path

An absolute path comes down to directions anyone, anywhere could follow. Instructions to my kitchen would start off with something like “Go to the United States, then go to Florida…”

When writing HTML code it is no different except your “world” is the World Wide Web and you always start with a web address.

Relative Path… (This code assumes I am already on my website)

<img src="kitchen/bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

Absolute Path… (This code assumes I started somewhere else)

<img src="http://www.lenashore.com/kitchen/bluebowl.jpg" alt="" name="" />

No matter where my file is on the internet a properly written absolute path will find your image.

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