In this newsletter:•   Valerie’s tip: Mind mapping your projects - and your life!
•   Paul’s shortcuts: easy hyperlinking in Word and wrapping text in Excel
•   Life hack: Online groceries - who cares about stairs when someone else is carrying the kitty litter?
•   How to make the most out of Word
•   Exclusive only for subscribers of this newsletter
•   Cool connections: Skype Unlimited World

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Productivity Plus, your weekly newsletter on how to get things done in less time.

I discovered mind-mapping years ago. And I pretty much mind map everything from the projects I have to undertake at work to planning a dinner party for eight people. Mind mapping is most useful in my work life, particularly if I have a lot of projects running concurrently.

You may already be familiar with the concept but if you’re not ... mind-mapping goes something like this.

1. Start with a blank sheet of paper and write down a central idea. For example, "Work To Do list" or "Renovating the bathroom".
   
   
2. Think of ideas/issues/actions related to that idea and create a "branch" that radiates out from the center.
   
   
3. That "branch" may then break into a series of "sub-branches" which could be all the action steps you need to take in order for that idea to become reality.
   
   
4. You could have many "branches" and "sub-branches" radiating from the centre, depending on how many things you’ve got going on.
   

When you want to hyperlink a word or phrase in your document to a URL, all you have to do is select the word/phrase and then press:

You might already be familiar with Word, but most people only use a fraction of the features Word has to offer.

If you become proficient at Word, you’ll be able to complete your documents - and make them look great - in much less time.

By the end of our one-day course in Advanced Word, you’ll learn time-saving techniques such as how to automate
documents, using fields, forms and macros.

Here’s just a sample of the skills you’ll gain:
    * define and modify lists
    * create and work effectively with themes
    * create and use templates in your documents
    * work with various page techniques
    * create and edit recipient lists
    * perform more complex merge operations
    * create and use section breaks within a document
    * insert and work with text boxes
    * create and work with SmartArt
    * create and use building blocks
    * create, use and modify interactive fields
    * create and work with electronic forms in Word
    * create and work with macros
    * insert content from other sources
    * and much more
 
Here’s what other people say about Paul’s courses:
"I have personally found that training with Paul has been extremely effective for me."
- Norma Read

"As a student of Paul, I am someone who has had no specific training or background in IT. So I have found Paul's contribution invaluable. He has so much patience and is a great teacher. I strongly recommend Paul."
- Margaret Madden

Course: Word 2007 Advanced with Paul Neale
Date: Monday 24 November 2008
Time: 9.30am - 4.30pm
Fee: $325

For more information or to enrol online, click here.

Valerie says:
I’ll admit that it’s the kitty litter that finally made me turn to online grocery shopping. After I got cats two years ago, I hated having to carry the kitty litter up three flights of stairs. It’s heavy stuff!

Then I discovered Woolworths (Safeways) online shopping - www.homeshop.com.au - and haven’t looked back. I still go to the store to handpick all my fresh groceries myself. But for anything heavy - that means bottles of drinks, cans, cat food, jars, washing powder, alcohol and much more - I just order online every fortnight or so. Someone delivers it straight to your kitchen and you can pick from a two-hour delivery period.

I’ve tried the online stores for both Woolworth’s and Coles and have found Woolworth’s slightly better in terms of range or products, availability and delivery service. You typically also get a nice little surprise in each delivery - such as samples of new products or food. And so far, apart from one delivery in the busy Christmas period last year, they have always been on time.

Perhaps you or a member of your staff could benefit from learning the basics about spreadsheets. When you learn from an expert like Paul, you learn "good" habits so that you are entering data the right way and formatting your spreadsheet so no one needs to “fix” it later.

This one-day course is ideal if you want to learn how to create solid and accurate workbooks. You’ll also learn how to format the data into attractive reports, how to print the
data and the reports, and how to chart the data for visual presentations.

By the end of the course you will be able to:

    * work within the basic Excel environment
    * use the fill operations available to fill a data series
    * understand, create and work with formulas and functions used to perform calculations
    * understand and use formula cell referencing to create more complex formulas
    * format rows and columns in a worksheet
    * understand and use the number formatting features in Excel
    * use font formatting techniques to greatly enhance the look of a worksheet
    * work with various elements of a worksheet
    * print your workbook data
    * apply a variety of page setup techniques
    * sort data in a list in a worksheet
    * create effective charts in Microsoft Excel

Course: Excel 2007 Basic to Intermediate with Paul Neale
Date: Friday 5 December 2008
Time: 9.30am - 4.30pm
Fee: $325

For more information or to enrol online, click here.

Since you are a subscriber to Productivity Plus, you receive special offers that others don’t.

An EXCLUSIVE offer only to subscribers of this newsletter
Only available from now until November 2008
If you enrol in a course before 30 November 2008, you will receive 10 per cent off your enrolment fee if you:

I tend to make a lot of overseas phone calls. Now, this can really add up if you don’t have a smart phone plan. I love Skype Unlimited World. I pay US$12.95 per month and I can call landlines (and some mobiles) to 36 countries as many times as I want, for as long as I want. All calls to landlines in Australia are included as well.

If you only want to call landlines in Australia, you can pay US$5.95 per month for Skype Unlimited Country. This means
you can call any landline in Australia, as many times as you want for as long as you want.

And this works no matter where you are in the world - as long as you have Skype on your computer. So when I go to Los Angeles at the end of this week for an online marketing conference, I’ll be able to keep in touch with the office without having to pay the exhorbitant call fees charged by hotels.

You can find out more here.