28 December 2015

Presentations (slideshows) from Evernote

Although the presentation function has been available for a while in Evernote for Windows, it never seemed possible to move from one slide to the next.  This is now possible using Shift + Ctrl + right/left, turning this into a powerful tool that will be much quicker than Powerpoint for 'on the fly' slideshows.

Apart from the above omission, these notes by Evernote are really useful.

27 December 2015

AML/CTF Course

Spending 2 hours' of a Christmas holiday each year taking CIMA's Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) course may not seem fun, but is a relatively painless way of keeping up to date.

24 December 2015

Excel chart tips: display hidden worksheet data and empty cells in a chart

The link below explains how to enable your chart to show blanks or zeros instead of missing data or continue lines from the previous point to the one after the missing point.

Display hidden worksheet data and empty cells in a chart:

Excel keyboard shortcut for strikethrough

Control + 5 is a quick shortcut for strikethrough.  It works both for whole cells and part cells.  Pressing the same again removes the strikethrough.

Web meetings

The ability to share your screen over the internet, with sound via computer, phone or a combination of computer and phone is not new.  Some providers now have better offerings than others and below are the results of my recent testing:

Key considerations

  1. Ease of setting up meeting
    With WebEx, there seems to be no Outlook integration.  To book a meeting, start in Outlook, find a free slot in everyone's diaries, then book the Webex meeting, then paste the details in to the email and send.  It is easier with GotoMeeting or JoinMe which can work from inside Outlook, adding details for you.
  2. Ease of use by people joining you
    WebEx requires your invitees to install a piece of software.  This can be a problem in many organisations with rigorously rules about downloading.  Goto Meeting requires no downloads from the receivers (but a quick download is required if you then make them presenters).
  3. Localisation
    If everyone is using computer based sound, this may not be an issue.  If you expect that some of your delegates may dial in, consider the phone number they may need to use.  I am in the UK so am most interested in UK numbers: Webex and GotoMeeting both have UK numbers and default to these for me.  JoinMe has UK numbers but there was no way of hiding a long list of US numbers, which for me made it unusable.
  4. Reliability
    I have used WebEx of a number of years and found it reliable until about Nov 2015, when suddenly there were many one way sound issues.  After 2 weeks' use I have found Goto Meeting to be more reliable.
Conclusion
My preference is for Goto Meeting which seems to be easier to use with Outlook and have better sound quality.