In this newsletter: •  VALERIE'S TIP: Right now - what are you doing?
•  One-day workshop 23 April 2009: Outlook - the ultimate task and time management tool
•  BOOK RECOMMENDATION: The Magic of Thinking Big
•  PAUL’S QUICK CLICK: Shift + F5
•  PAUL’S KEYBOARD TIP: Text to Columns
•  AWESOME ACCESSORIES: Ctrl + Alt + Delete cushions

Hi everyone,

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

Imagine sitting in front of your computer at work. You check your emails, then you look up the news on the internet, then something in the magazine next to you catches your eye so you take a peek at that. You get up to make yourself a coffee and, while you’re there, you have a chat to a colleague in the kitchen. Then you come back to your desk to check your emails again - just in case any arrived since you last pressed “Send/Receive”.

Before you know it, 30 minutes have passed and you’ve actually achieved ... nothing! It can be easy to get distracted - and sometimes you need that kind of break to your day. But if you have a lot to get through at work, it’s vital to stay focused.

Would you like to power up your presentations? Powerpoint can be utterly dull or it can be a dynamic and stylish way to present information. We do get queries about running seminars on how to use Powerpoint effectively. So we'd like to hear from you. Would you find a three-hour workshop on Powerpoint useful? And if so, is there anything specific that you'd like us to cover in it?

Let us know by return email - we'd love to hear from you!

This book by David J Schwarz is a classic and definitely worth reading. I took this book away with me on a weekend getaway and read it from cover to cover. By the end of the weekend I had tons of ideas and a plan for a whole new business.

Before you dismiss it as a “rah-rah” self-help book, it has practical ideas on how to create a positive attitude in your business and life. Most importantly, Schwarz gives
you tips on how to turn these into habits so that they
become second nature to you.

One-day workshop Thursday 23 April 2009: Outlook
Your ultimate task and time management solution
Would you like to be a power user of Outlook? This course will help you unlock the full potential of what Outlook can do. You’ll learn the more advanced features of Outlook 2007 including:

• coordinating multiple calendars for other members of staff
• managing meetings and even work in various time zones.
• how to use advanced search functions so that you are not constantly scrolling through calendars or task lists to find what you’re looking for.
• archive old messages simply and be able to easily access them if you need to.
• easily categorise with coloured appointments.
• write your To Do List without typing a word.
• equipping you with effective time management skills that will supercharge the way you work.
  

If you have a variety of text in one column and you need to separate the text into multiple columns, you can use the "Text to Columns" tool in Excel.
For example:

• If you have "Paul Neale 10/04/2009" in cell A2, select the cell (or the whole column)
• Then select the "Data" tab sheet in Excel 2007.
• Now click the "Text to Columns" tool. In this example,
  our text is "Delimited" by a "space" between each word.
• Click Next
• Place a tick in the box next to "Space" and remove all other ticks.
• Click Finish.
  

PAUL’S Bonus Tip: Convert US English text to Australian English text.I'll bet you've experienced this annoying problem before:
The spell checker alerts you to misspelled words and you know that you have spelled them correctly. You know that you have used Australian spelling but the spell checker is reporting errors because it's analysing your text using US English Language.
 
I can hear you nodding and affirming your frustration.
 
No worries mate - I'll show you how to convert the entire
document to Australian English in “two shakes of a lambs tail”.
 
First, hold Ctrl and press A (Ctrl + A) to select all of the text.
Now in Word 2003, double-click the Language tool on the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen.  It probably says "English (US)" at the moment. In Word 2007 it's just one click.
 
Next, In the Language dialogue box, select English (Australia) and click OK.
 
That's it. The entire document will now be formatted as English Australia Language and the red colored (oops, coloured) underlines will disappear.