The Top 20 Technology Driven Trends for 2012 (CIO Update)

Over at CIO Update, writer Daniel Burrus offers his list of the top 20 tech trends for the coming year and why CIOs should pay attention. Among them: the growth of big data; cloud computing; on-demand services, such as software as a service (SaaS) and hardware as a service (HaaS); virtualization; consumerization of IT (naturally); and “gamification.”

Read it and take notes.

In the case of companies that use gamification for employees, writes Gruman, it’s often to distract them from “the drudgery of their actual work.”

Gamification: The buzzword that can ruin your apps and business (InfoWorld) 

Speaking of “gamification,” my favorite blogger of the moment Galen Gruman takes a closer look at the trend and picks it apart in his usual manner.

The concept isn’t new, he asserts. It’s an old sales and marketing technique that simply has been repackaged. Entice (or “bribe,” as he describes it) customers with prizes and accolades to get them in the door when nothing else will. In the case of companies that use gamification for employees, he writes, it’s often to distract them from “the drudgery of their actual work.”

Gruman concedes that gamification has its merits – he cites one well-known company as an example. “Microsoft uses gamification to encourage non-QA staff to do bug testing and to get employees to contribute better language translations in its software localization efforts. People are rewarded for doing this extra work through ego-oriented motivations from managers (attaboy emails, temporary use of more convenient parking spaces, and in-house certificates) and by publicizing top contributors to create a sense of competition for status among peers.”

His advice is for companies to be wary of its fleeting effectiveness. “There’s nothing wrong with gamification per se, as long as you realize that most people lured by the promise of prizes and fame stop coming as soon as the games end.”

CSC’s IT-Business Predictions for 2012 (CIO Update)

CIO Update exercises its precognitive abilities by predicting that IT will begin to operate like a business within a business. Historically, writes guest-blogger Lem Lasher, IT has operated as a service center to the rest of the company. This will change, he says.

“Rather than responding to business needs, IT will begin to set its own agenda and business goals that align with the rest of the business units within the corporation.”

IT as a business within a business makes sense. Lasher offers another prediction that is a little less welcome, however: the emergence of advertising inside cloud enterprises.

You know all those ads on Facebook and Gmail, two sites that are otherwise part of the “consumer cloud”? Lasher predicts that more companies will look to deploy that kind of consumer model inside the enterprise in an effort to cut costs.

In a feature in yesterday’s Computerworld (titled “The New Help Desk: Agile, Educational, Efficient”), writer John Brandon highlighted three IT departments and what they are doing to bring the help desk from where it’s stuck – the 1960s – to the present. One of the organizations featured, the University of Georgia, has put an emphasis on using calls to the help desk to educate users. We like that idea.

Click to see a video on creating charts in Excel.

The old way of working is myopic. If you keep fixing an issue that, with a little instruction, can be avoided, where is the long-term value? And, if you cannot – or do not — track where problem spots are, how can you plan for the future?

At PC Helps, we fix stuff too; we’re a help desk, after all. But we also teach customers how to resolve issues on their own, and how to avoid having them crop up again in the future.

In that spirit, today’s post offers tips for creating Excel charts, a topic we receive many calls about. Happy charting.

Creating Charts

By PC Helps Staff

Data (n.) – raw, unorganized facts.
Information (n.) – organized and processed data that can be useful in some way.

When working with a large amount of data, it often can become an overwhelming task to extract information from the data. Excel provides a great tool to facilitate converting data to visual information through the use of charts.

Follow these steps to create a chart:

Excel 2003 and older:

• Select any cell within the data you want to chart.
• Click on the Insert menu, then select Chart to bring up the Chart Wizard.
• Choose the desired chart type, then click Next.
• Excel will show you a preview of the chart using what it has detected as plot data.
• Verify that the data is correctly organized by viewing the Series tab.
• Click Next to further modify your chart options. You can add titles to the chart or axes, move your legend, add data labels, etc.
• Click Next to set the location of your chart.
• Click Finish.

Excel 2007 and 2010:

• Select any cell within the data you want to chart.
• Click on the Insert Tab, then click on the desired chart type in the Charts group. Excel will generate the chart as soon as you click on the desired chart type, using what it has detected as plot data.

NOTE: Different chart types sometimes need different types of data. For instance, a pie chart is best for displaying a single series of data, but a column chart is capable of plotting several series.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2003.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2007.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2010.

Reordering Data Series in a Chart

By PC Helps Staff

You may find at times that you need to rearrange the order of your data series in a chart without changing your source data. This can be accomplished easily using the Format Data Series dialog.

Excel 2003 and older: 
Click on a series in the chart to select it. Right-click the series and choose “Format Data Series.” On the Series Order tab, use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to re-order the selected series.

Excel 2007 and 2010:
 Click on a series in the chart to select it. Right-click the series and choose Select Data. Use the arrow buttons to re-order the selected series.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2003.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2007.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2010.

Creating a Dynamic Chart in Excel

By David McQueary

If you regularly update the data ranges for your charts, a dynamic chart will help you because it automatically shows data added to the end of a column.

First thing we need to do is create a dynamic named range.

Excel 2003 or older:

• Click on the Insert menu, select Name, and choose Define.
• Name the range, we will want two named ranges: one for our labels and one for our data. We will define the names as Label and Data, respectively.
• From here we will enter formulas to create the dynamic named range. The formula to do this, if you are starting in cell A1, is: =OFFSET($A$1,0,0,COUNTA($A:$A),1) 
Adjusting the column letter and number in the first part of the formula will allow us to change where the named range starts. For example =OFFSET($B$2,0,0,COUNTA($B:$B),1) would start the range in cell B2.
• Click OK.
• Repeat steps 2 – 4 to create the second range.
• Click Close.

Excel 2007 and 2010:

• Click on the Formulas tab, click Name Manager, and select New.
• Name the range, we will want two named ranges: one for our labels and one for our data. We will define the names as Label and Data, respectively.
• From here we will enter formulas to create the dynamic named range. The formula to do this, if you are starting in cell A1, is: =OFFSET($A$1,0,0,COUNTA($A:$A),1)
Adjusting the column letter and number in the first part of the formula will allow us to change where the named range starts. For example =OFFSET($B$2,0,0,COUNTA($B:$B),1) would start the range in cell B2.
• Click OK.
• Repeat steps 2 – 4 to create the second range.
• Click Close.

Now we create our chart.

Excel 2003 or older:

• Highlight our data and go to Insert menu and choose to insert a chart. Make all the settings that you want to the chart, and place it on the worksheet.
• Now we apply the dynamic settings to the chart. Click on one of the series in the chart and look at the formula bar.
• In the formula bar there should be something that looks like =SERIES(Sheet1!$A$1:$A$16,Sheet1!$B$1:$B$16,1). In the spot where it shows Sheet1!$A$1:$A$16 we are going to change that to Sheet1!Label.
• In the spot where it shows Sheet1!$B$1:$B$16 we are going to change that to Sheet1!Data.
• You now have a dynamic chart. If you add more data to the bottom of the column, it will automatically add that data to the chart.

Excel 2007 and 2010:

• Highlight our data and go to Insert tab and choose a chart. Make all the settings that you want to the chart, and place it on the worksheet.
• Now we apply the dynamic settings to the chart. Click on one of the series in the chart and look at the formula bar.
• In the formula bar there should be something that looks like =SERIES(Sheet1!$A$1:$A$16,Sheet1!$B$1:$B$16,1). In the spot where it shows Sheet1!$A$1:$A$16 we are going to change that to Sheet1!Label.
• In the spot where it shows Sheet1!$B$1:$B$16 we are going to change that to Sheet1!Data.
• You now have a dynamic chart. If you add more data to the bottom of the column, it will automatically add that data to the chart.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2003.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2007.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2010.

If you take into account research from IDC that says that more than half of mobile devices used in the workplace are employee-owned, not only do you have the potential for an awesomely productive workforce, you also have an enormous security nightmare for IT.

There’s hope, and it’s called Data Privacy Day, which is this Saturday, Jan. 28. (Yes, it’s an official holiday. On Jan. 26, 2009, the United States House of Representatives passed House Resolution HR 31 by a vote of 402-0, declaring Jan. 28 National Data Privacy Day.)

If you’ve thought about security but never knew where to start to implement safer practices, or if you are drafting a plan for your company in response to the glut of mobile devices, Data Privacy Day is geared to you.

In addition to raising awareness about data privacy and security, the organizers have collected a wealth of articles and white papers to get you started on your own plan — whether it’s for a corporation, a nonprofit, or just for you personally. Resources are available on the official website, www.staysafeonline.org/dpd. Among the topics covered are document destruction; privacy risks associated with digital copiers; privacy in the cloud; how to build a scalable BYOD program; and more. And that’s just in the business and corporation section.

It sounds like a network TV sitcom plot, but it’s not. It’s Gen Y, and, according to a recent Cisco survey, it’s a reality.

The future of work, according to Cisco.

For its annual Connected World Technology Report, Cisco surveyed 1,441 college students aged 18-24, and 1,412 employees aged 21-29 in 14 countries. The purpose of the study was to gain insight into the behavior and expectations of the next generation of workers, and how their demands for information access are changing the future of work. The study was conducted between May and June 2011.

Among the more notable findings:

• Internet as Basic Human Necessity: One of every three college students and employees surveyed globally (33%) believes the Internet is a fundamental resource for the human race – as important as air, water, food and shelter. About half (49% of college students and 47% of employees) believe it is “pretty close” to that level of importance. Combined, four of every five college students and young employees believe the Internet is vitally important as part of their daily life’s sustenance.
• Security? What Security? Seven of 10 employees admitted to knowingly breaking IT policies on a regular basis, and three of five believe they are not responsible for protecting corporate information and devices.
• Importance of Mobile Devices: Two-thirds of students (66%) and more than half of employees (58%) cite a mobile device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) as “the most important technology in their lives.”
• Mobility is on the Rise: Smartphones are poised to surpass desktops as the most prevalent tool from a global perspective, as 19% of college students consider smartphones as their “most important” device used on a daily basis, compared to 20% for desktops – an indication of the growing trend of smartphone prominence and expected rise in usage by the next generation of college graduates upon entering the workforce. According to Cisco, this finding fuels the debate over telecommuting vs. working in an office.

Although the results are hardly a surprise, it does sound a warning bell for IT and HR. Preparation is essential.

Writes Dave Evans, chief futurist for Cisco: “The lifestyles of ‘prosumers’ — the blending of professionals and consumers in the workplace — their technology expectations, and their behavior toward information access is changing the nature of communications on a global basis.”

In a recent article, Dino Londis of InformationWeek offers a solution:

“So what to do? Part of IT’s responsibility to steward consumerization of IT is to educate the user and HR on the greater risks that come with consumerization. If IT departments are just now coming to grips with consumerization trends, then HR departments are completely in the dark about it.”

Resolutions that promise increased productivity and all-around happiness. Happy New Year.

In that spirit, we’re publishing our list of what you should focus on in 2012. We’ve separated it into two sections: one for IT leaders and one for employees. It’s not just a smattering of unattainable goals; these are resolutions you can keep. Get crackin’.

For IT Leaders

1. Formulate a social media policy. Yammer‘s Maria Ogneva wrote a comprehensive guide for Mashable, and in it she offers practical tips and sensible advice: “The best way to ensure buy-in to your social media policy is not through threat of disciplinary action. Rather, it’s by providing education and resources, and building the right processes.” We like how she thinks. Read it here.
2. Change is good. Embrace the mobility megatrend. See TechTarget’s big picture article here, and its how-to for CIOs here.
3. Help your folks help themselves – offer software support and training (read an old PC Helps Blog post, “Designing Graceful, Not Godawful, Solutions” – its message is still applicable).

For Employees

1. Use Excel formulas more, manually vet less. (See our repository of Excel tips here.)
2. Change your password when prompted, without the added griping.
3. Hoard mail less, archive more. Your email program will run faster, and you’ll find old mail easier. (Find email tips here.)
4. Save constantly (on a PC, Ctrl+S; Mac, Command+S), and, while you are at it, learn more keyboard shortcuts. (Get Windows keyboard shortcuts here; Mac shortcuts here.)

Happy 2012!

OneNote for iPad: Goodbye 2x, hello tabbed interface & expanded language support.

The market is flooded with note-taking applications, but OneNote consistently ranks at the top (see Lifehacker’s recent list). That’s because the PC version is free with MS Office, which most corporate employees use anyway, and syncing is a cinch with a SkyDrive account, which is also free. Other plusses include automatic save (for those of us who forget to hit CTRL+S regularly), sharing capabilities, and the ability to view and take notes on mobile phones.

Keep in mind that with the free iPad version, you will only be able to create a total of 500 notes. If you want to create more, you will need to pay $14.99 (compared to $4.99 for the iPhone version). Features new to the iPad version include a tabbed interface and expanded language support.

Here’s how to use it:

• Open the OneNote for iPad app.
• Sign in with your Windows Live ID (Hotmail, MSN, Xbox Live, Zune pass, Windows Live Messenger, etc.).

To create a note:

• On the navigation bar at the top right of the screen, click the icon that looks like a document with a plus sign.
• A new note appears, into which you can add text, images, checkboxes and bulleted lists.

OneNote for iPad will automatically sync your notes to your Windows Live SkyDrive account, but you can also manually sync notes. Here is how:

• On the home screen of OneNote for iPad, tap Settings (in the upper left area of screen).
• Tap Sync Now.
 When the sync is completed, you will see a time stamp with last updated date and time.
• You can also email a note from your iPad. Just click the envelope icon in the upper right corner of an open note.

To view your synced notes on your PC:

• Open a web browser and go to http://skydrive.live.com.
• Sign in with your Windows Live account.
• Click on My Files on the left side.
• Click to open a folder, and double-click to open a OneNote file.
• With a Note open, click on the Home tab, and choose “Open in OneNote.”
• Any changes you make will automatically be synchronized.
• If you want to save a copy to your PC, go to File, select Save As, and choose a file type and location.

Note: Any notebooks you create on your mobile device will be automatically synced to your SkyDrive, but not files you create on your PC. To share a PC-created notebook, open it, go to File and choose Share, then select the notebook you want to share, where you want to share it, sign in and click Share Notebook to complete the process. It will sync automatically once this step is completed. Also, if you save your notebooks on a network drive rather than locally, you may encounter syncing problems.

Note to Apple OS users: Microsoft has not created OneNote for Mac.

This week we offer another take on the tablet: The most common support questions from corporate iPad users.

Click to view a video of an iPad support call.

iPad usage in the enterprise continues to grow at a rapid pace, but quality support options for business users are limited. Companies deploying iPads have had to build support capabilities in-house, or direct their users to AppleCare standard support — the same support Apple consumers receive.

AppleCare support stops when a non-Apple-specific application, like Microsoft Outlook or PowerPoint, is introduced. When this situation occurs, to what resource or resources should the end-user be directed? And what types of questions can be anticipated?

Here are a few we have encountered from our customers:

Working with Microsoft Office Documents on the iPad

• Modifying a Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on the iPad
• Converting Microsoft Office documents to PDF files and annotating them (using downloaded Apps)
• Editing or working with Excel files on iPad using downloaded apps such as Numbers or Documents to Go
• Correcting formatting problems when converting Word or PowerPoint documents into Apps like Pages or Keynote
• Fixing formulas, formatting, and broken links in Excel spreadsheets on the iPad
• Viewing track changes markup or comments in Word documents using Documents to Go or Microsoft Office Web App
• Working with PowerPoint documents on iPad using Keynote app, and switching between PowerPoint and Keynote from laptop to iPad and back.

iPad Interface/Hardware

• Mastering Cut, Copy, Paste, and Replace features to avoid backspacing or retyping text
• Toggling and making effective use of spell checking, auto-correction and other keyboard features
• Configuring iPad for mobile device management solutions like MobileIron, and Good Technology
• Quitting Apps that are frozen or behaving erratically; restarting malfunctioning iPad
• Adjusting settings to conserve battery life when charger not readily available
• Recovering paid app that was accidently deleted
• Sharing files to a PC with Wi-Fi or USB connections
• Troubleshooting Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, and VPN connection problems

Read a more comprehensive list here (PDF), and view a video of an iPad business call here.

In the spirit of helping you get things done, we’re posting one of our favorite tips: How to create labels with mail merge. Whatever you use it for – holiday cards, end-of-year reports – it’s a time-saver and a headache-reducer. Plus, it’s the number one question our customers ask.

Mail merges make even the most nimble users shudder. That’s because they fail so often. 

Happy holidays.

Creating Labels with Mail Merge from a Data Source

Mail merges make even the most nimble users shudder. That’s because they fail so often. The most common type of merge involves taking data stored in Excel and bringing it into Word. 

If you are thinking of going beyond labels and writing full-on letters, this tip will still help you; the procedure for performing a mail merge to labels is similar to that of creating letters.

Word 2003:

1. Click the Tools menu, move your mouse cursor over Letters and Mailings, and select Mail Merge.
2. In the Mail Merge pane on the right, select Labels and then click Next: Starting document.
3. Click Label options and choose the label template you would like to use. Click OK. This should display the label gridlines on your document. If you do not see the gridlines, click the Table menu and select Show Gridlines.
4. Click Next: Select recipients.
5. Select Use an existing list, then click the Browse button.
6. Browse to and select your Excel workbook or Access database, then click Open.
7. A Select Table window will open. If you are using an Excel workbook as your data source, select the appropriate worksheet and click OK. If using an Access database as your data source, select the appropriate table or query and click OK.
8. The Mail Merge Recipients window will open. From here, you can clear the checkbox for any recipients you wish to exclude. You can also filter the list using the arrows at the top of each field, or click Advanced for more advanced sorting and filtering. Click OK when you are finished editing the recipient list, then click Next: Arrange your labels.
9. If you want standard address fields to appear on the labels, click Address block and under Insert recipient’s name in this format, select the name formatting you prefer. A preview will display how the selected option will appear on your labels. Once your labels look correct in this window, click OK.
10. Alternately, if you want to insert the fields in a specific order, click More items. An Insert Merge Field window will open; insert the fields by selecting them one by one and clicking Insert, then click Close.
11. Format the top left label any way you desire. Do not forget to add the appropriate spaces and punctuation.
12. Click the Update all labels button to update the changes to the rest of the labels. You should see <<Next Record>> on all but the first label, followed by the fields you inserted.
13. Click Next: preview your labels to view merged data. You can use the record selector arrows to switch between different records. Click Next: Complete the merge.
14. If you select Edit individual labels, the labels will be merged into a new document where you can edit the labels individually. You will not, however, be able to add more fields once this is done. The Print option will allow you to send the labels to the printer.

Word 2007 and 2010:

1. Click the Mailings tab.
2. Click the Start Mail Merge drop-down arrow and choose Labels.
3. Select the Label vendor and the product number for the label you are using and click OK.
4. Click the Select Recipients drop-down arrow and choose Use Existing List.
5. Browse to and select your Excel workbook or Access database, then click Open.
6. A Select Table window will open. If you are using an Excel workbook as your data source, select the appropriate worksheet and click OK. If using an Access database as your data source, select the appropriate table or query and click OK.
7. Click on Edit Recipient List if you would like to exclude any recipients.
8. If you want standard address fields to appear on the labels, click Address block and under Insert recipient’s name in this format, select the name formatting you prefer. A preview will display how the selected option will appear on your labels. Once your labels look correct in this window, click OK.
9. Alternately, if you want to insert the fields in a specific order, click Insert Merge Fields, and choose the fields you want.
10. Format the top-left label any way you desire. Do not forget to add the appropriate spaces and punctuation.
11. Click the Update Labels button to update the changes to the rest of the labels. You should see <<Next Record>> on all but the first label, followed by the fields you inserted.
12. Click the Preview Results button to view merged data.
13. Click the Finish & Merge drop-down arrow, choose Edit Individual Documents, select All, and click OK. Your labels will appear in a separate window; this document is editable, but you can not add additional fields to it.

For more merging tips, visit our eTips Library. 

If your company is on board, you can hold off on opening that 13th Reply All till Monday.

To remind you (or show you for the first time if you are of a certain age) how productive life was without email, an ad-hoc holiday was created – No Email Day, which is today, Friday, November 11. It’s hardly a holiday; you still have to go to work, and chances are you still can use your email. But if your company is on board, you can hold off on opening that 13th Reply All till Monday.

If you run out of things to do today, read the No Email Day manifesto, or visit the No Email Day Facebook page. Even better, figure out a way to organize your Outlook or Lotus Notes mail with our tech tips.