Shortcuts and shortcuts to shortcuts

Lessons learned from thinking about shortcuts this week:

1. Breevy is an app for PCs that allows creation of shortcuts.  The more you think about it the more exciting this gets: names, email addresses, jumping to directories, whole paragraphs can all be created.
   
   I started off with a shortcut system that started with semicolons and ending with a space but have now moved to one starting with real letters and ending with double dots.  This gives me slightly longer to remember I have a shortcut for the word and gives me the option of adding an S a the end for a plural.
2. Breevy can be made to sync with Dropbox (banned at some work places) and is limited to PCs.  Text Expander is another option, works for Ipad and Macs (not tested by me) and has a beta for PCs.  This looks good for synchronisation but costs US$40 a year.
3. Ipads have settings/general/text replacement which is basic but does the trick.

Thought about backing up Windows favourites:

1. Right click favorites (in Windows Explorer)
2. Open in a new window
3. Select all with the mouse
4. Copy
5. Create a new directory in backup destination
6. Paste

BPMN Business Process Modeling Notation

A useful summary/introduction to BPMN useful for anyone creating process maps: Lucid charts

The link is provided by Lucid Charts who provide cloud based diagram software.  It's really good for process maps and mind maps.

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.

Using Rally to track progress in Agile Scrum projects

Received training from Ernst and Young and I spent my first few days using Rally. Rally is a productivity tool specifically designed for teams delivering projects using the agile methodology. It seems excellent for taking a user story and allowing team members to add tasks to it.  The tasks each have an expected time to complete, which can be easily updated and directly feeds burn down charts both for the whole project and for the individual.

This looks as if it will be a very useful tool for capacity planning, understanding current progress and helping team members to continue to motivate themselves.

Excel data verification to ensure that the value in a cell starts with a C

Click this link to see instructions and screenshots.

Excel - avoiding cross casting errors (or SAP rejection due to decimals)

This is a good solution to those times when your data has say 3 decimal points but you are showing your numbers to 2 decimal points and so your totals do not seem to add up.  Excel will round the numbers to the decimal points you have shown.

Warning: remember to check that the total comes back to the number that you had in mind (if there is any cumulative rounding you may need to adjust one of your numbers somewhere along the way).

This is also really useful for SAP journal uploads where any numbers with too many decimals may be rejected.

How to Sync Google and Outlook Calendars: alternatives to the defunct Google sync utility - PC Advisor

How to Sync Google and Outlook Calendars: alternatives to the defunct Google sync utility - PC Advisor:

This is a really useful article if you or your family have some users using Outlook and others using Google calendar. The top part of the article covers how to avoid the problem (mainly by sticking to one or the other). At the bottom of the article is a suggestion of some free software that sorts the problem out.

Do note though the limitation: this works well for synchronising one Google calendar with Outlook. It does not seem to work so well where you may have a situation with multiple Google calendars that you may wish to synchronise into Outlook.

'via Blog this'

Business case for having dual screens

I have been a great believer in using multiple screens for many years.  If you need to be able to justify this for your team, this business case may help.

Linking mindmaps in Mindmeister with notes in Evernote and vice versa

Mindmaps in Mindmeister are great for structured thinking and planning and Evernote is great for storing anything that you might once have printed.  Here's how to connect the two.

Excel tool to easily copy location of spreadsheets

If you use a network drive (or Evernote or Dropbox) adding the location tool to your tool bar will save you having to email spreadsheets.  Sending the link is much quicker and gives access to the latest version of a changing document.  The tool allows you to copy the location of the file with a right click and control C.

Adding the (file) location tool to Excel or Word

(Note that the destination of this link is in Evernote - if your employer blocks you from Evernote, you may have to view it at home but it is worth your time.)

Useful article for introducing people to Evernote

It is certainly true that the more you use it, the more useful it becomes:

I've Been Using Evernote All Wrong. Here's Why It's Actually Amazing:

'via Blog this'

Creating a table of contents for notes in Evernote

This short video shows how to create a table of contents (or list of short cuts) to items in Evernote.  It is different to sharing URLs in that it works in a desk top version of Evernote rather than a browser.

This will be useful for me for building up a Financial Manual - linking various policy and task notes together.

Google Alerts and how to filter them

I've used Google Alerts to track what the web is saying about all Michael Veales.  Now I will be able to filter out those of less interest!

How to Use Google Alerts - 5 Quick Ways to Get News About You & Your Blog - Food Blog Alliance:

'via Blog this'

Arkadin Web Conferencing

I have started using Arkadin Web conferencing and this looks as if it will be very useful.

Web conferencing allows remote conferencing with multiple users but as well as sharing a telephone conversation, a screen can be shared too.  This is especially useful for business partnering discussions, where I as the accountant am talking operational managers through numbers.  In the past I have sent large spreadsheets, waited ages for my client to open them and had discussion where I might have to keep referring to row numbers and column names.  Now I can share my screen so that the client sees what I see.  They see me point my mouse, I can highlight information and they can see it in real time.

This will also be useful for training where I can show a client what to do, or they can show me what they are doing and I can explain the problem.

More info at www.arkadin.com

Desktop searches

A replacement for Google Desktop? - Telegraph

An update to copying and pasting

Click.to wants to make copy and paste obsolete | VentureBeat
This is a really quick way to allow cutting and pasting text or parts of spreadsheets to Evernote, pdfs or many other places.  A useful tool.

Google+ update

They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
This is a useful article updating on the latest changes to Google+ and Google searches.