In this newsletter:•   5 Things Word Can Do (which you probably never
    thought of!)
•Life hack: get a professional organiser for home
•Paul’s tip: Avoid the scroll nightmare
•One-day workshop: Excel - Basic to Intermediate
•Business and Careers Institute in the media
•Goofy gadget: USB vacuum cleaner for your keyboard

Hi everyone,

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

You may be familiar with Microsoft Word, but you may not know it’s much more than a word processor. Most of us know the basic functions of Word, but we don’t use most of the features it has to offer. It only takes a few minutes to learn some simple functions that can help get more done in less time - and create professional looking documents.

1. Watermark your company logo - an effective branding strategy
Would you like to subtly brand your document with your logo or another image? You can do this by creating your own watermark.

2. Create a blog with Microsoft Word
Blogging has never been easier. You can type your blog post like you would any other document and publish it to your favourite Blog provider - such as TypePad or WordPress.

3. Add a cover page for impact
Did you know Word 2007 has a Cover Page tool? You can choose from some predefined, very professional cover pages that will enhance your product brochures, reports or thesis. 

4. "Overline" a heading with style
When you want to underline, we actually don’t recommend using the underline tool. Instead use the border tool to place a line from margin to margin under, or even over your heading. 

5. Compare document revisions
When you want to combine or compare revisions from multiple authors, the Compare and Combine tool can present help you see the differences in the documents at a glance.

For more comprehensive information on how to use these tools, check out Paul’s article on our blog.

* We tailor our workshops to ensure that your specific queries are answered? If there is a particular feature you want to know about the software you use, just let us know in the workshop and we'll make sure you leave with a clear understanding of how to use it.

* Our workshops are ideal regardless of which software version you use. For example, even though we work on Word 2007, our workshops are also designed to suit users
of Word 2003 or earlier.

This week, I’ve had two sessions with a professional organiser in my home. What started out as an effort to sort out my home office has turned into a complete overhaul for my home. And the difference is amazing. In coming weeks I’ll show you some before and after pictures. (We’re still a work in progress!).

I’ve had a professional organiser for my office before, but if you also want a streamlined system at home, then take the concept into your domestic life. My professional organiser Susanne has created a system for everything from my clothes, my filing and even all my pets!

You can find out more about her here: www.lessmess.com.au

When you upskill your team you can grow your business and double its productivity.

This one-day course is ideal if you want to earn 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.

Even though your workshop is based on Excel 2007, it's also designed for users of Excel 2003 and earlier. You'll learn many time-saving tools and functions that will help you get more done in less time, regardless of which version of Excel you use.

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

• understand, create and work with formulas and functions used to perform calculations
• 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
• apply a variety of page setup techniques
• sort data in a list in a worksheet
• create effective charts in Microsoft Excel

We’re suckers for goofy gadgets. Check this one out. It’s a teeny tiny vacuum cleaner that you plug into your USB so you can vacuum the keyboard!

Do you need one? No! But it’s kind of cool.

Ever tried to select a large chunk of text that goes over several pages. It can be a nightmare when you are scrolling up and down trying to get to the right spot.

Here’s an easier way:

1. Single-click to position the cursor at the beginning of your selection.
2. Scroll to the page containing the end of you selection.
3. Hold Shift and Single-click after the last character in your selection.
All text in between will be highlighted.

Simple! Give it a go. You can avoid the "scroll nightmare" forever!

Did you see the article on us in The Mosman Daily. Here’s a peek. You can check it out on our blog.