There’s no need to wait in line at the local Blockbuster; you can watch Netflix on demand. You can order your groceries online and have them delivered, print a boarding pass at the airport kiosk (no humans necessary!), and have your dry-cleaning delivered with just a click. Even GPS systems, which were once a luxury in cars, are becoming a standard. Have we lost our sense of direction? No, we like having a faster, more convenient way of getting there.

The workplace is no different. Chances are your office cafeteria has swipe cards, self-service, and grab-and-go options. If you’re in sales or marketing, your company may have invested in a pricey CRM solution to boost your productivity. If you’re in accounting, or any department really, it’s the same: get more done in less time.

“Whichever solution he chooses, he’s right where he started – lost in a sea of #REF!s.”

Time is money, indeed. It’s an old saying, but in the current financial climate, stakeholders, company owners and managers really mean it. So, why then, when it comes to delivering convenient, efficient support for desktop and mobile device applications is it not a priority for IT leaders?

Consider the following example: Employee X just switched positions within a company, and he is now responsible for his division’s quarterly sales reports. When he tries to update the existing spreadsheet with current figures, his formulas return errors. He’s stuck, and he has no idea how to begin to troubleshoot.

He can ask a colleague to help, which will waste the time of two employees. He can scan Excel’s often-useless help menu. Or he can call a help desk tech who spends all day resetting passwords and rebooting servers.

Whichever solution he chooses, he’s right where he started – lost in a sea of #REF!s, and far from a solution that is efficient and convenient. And not only is he stymied, his company is losing money on his diminished productivity.

If he had access to on-demand, expert support for his desktop applications, the same applications he and the rest of his colleagues rely on every day to stay productive, this dilemma would be a minor interruption, with minimal impact on his productivity. (Stephanie Maurer)

FIND MORE INFO IN: Small Business | BlackBerry + Mobile Devices | Office 2007 Migration | PC Helps eTraining | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Who knew a gadget could have such power? Here are seven tips to make you even happier and more productive with your iPhone.

1. Easy punctuation. Period.
Inserting a period from the symbols box can become tedious. You want to send messages with proper punctuation, but deadlines get in the way. Here’s a quicker way: Double-tap the spacebar. Problem solved. Reputation saved.

2. Spring clean your screen.
Like corner offices, iPhone screens sometimes need rearranging. To do so, tap and hold one of the app icons, and when they begin to shake, drag them to rearrange. So quick, so easy.

Like corner offices, iPhone screens sometimes need rearranging.

3. Copy Web images in a snap.
Do you often come across images in your Web travels that you’d like to save for later use? Try this shortcut: Press and hold your finger on the photo and you’ll be prompted to “Save Image.” Now it’s in your Camera Roll.

4. Speed dial, Apple-style.
Nothing wastes time like wading through scads of contacts to find your intended text message recipient. Create favorites, already. Open up your contacts, select the contact you wish to tag, and tap the “Add Favorites” button at the bottom. Fewer steps, increased productivity.

5. Stay productive, even while flying.
Although every airline requires you to turn off your phone while in flight, there’s no restriction on using your iPhone to watch videos and listen to books and music – provided your phone is set to Airplane Mode. To do so, go to Settings and toggle on Airplane Mode. This will disable all incoming wireless calls and data connectivity. Make sure you turn off the device completely, however, during takeoff and landing.

6. Traveling across time zones + calendar appointments ≠ scheduling mayhem.
Sometimes technology’s intuitive functionality can get the better of you, especially when traveling across time zones. Case in point: the Time Zone Support feature, which shows event dates and times in the zone you selected for your calendar. For example, if you scheduled a 10 a.m. conference call while at the home office in Philadelphia, and you are currently visiting Los Angeles, your meeting will still show up as scheduled for 10 a.m. Turning off the Time Zone Support feature can make your schedule a little clearer by automatically adjusting your calendar to the time zone you are in. To do so, go to Settings | Mail | Contacts | Calendar and toggle off Time Zone Support.

7. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
Mobile devices are practical, yes, but not when it comes to screen size. Scrolling, in particular, can become tiresome on an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter. Whichever screen you are on – your contacts, a Web site – you can quickly return to the top by tapping the status bar (at the very top of every iPhone screen). Efficiency is grand.

Got any can’t-live-without iPhone tricks or tips? Send them my way.

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Myth No. 1: You can make Office 2007 look and act like Office 2003.

“Two words: no menus. Two more: no toolbars.”

Scads of third-party applications have cropped up that promise to make Office 2007 look and act like 2003. Some are effective; most miss the point. Holding on to the old interface will only serve to diminish your Office 2007 migration return on investment.

Myth No. 2: Migration support needs disappear completely after a few weeks.

No, no, no. Microsoft designed the new interface to make it easier for users to find features that were available in older versions, but were buried in an elaborate menu structure. It’s working, too. Months into a rollout, your employees will be finding tools they never knew existed – and they will need help learning how to use them. To expect IT generalists to know how to use long-hidden features is downright unreasonable.

Myth No. 3: Migrating to Office 2007 is like every other migration.

Two words: no menus. Two more: no toolbars.

Many users will not even be able to open files without training and help. Office 2007 is a complete overhaul of the user interface. In previous upgrades, knowledge of how to get to features in the previous version got users where they wanted to go 95 percent of the time. With 2007, it’s zero percent.

Myth No. 4: Handling a migration without outside help will give my staff a chance to shine.

Don’t turn your IT staff into scapegoats. The scale of end-user need when Office 2007 hits a desktop guarantees your IT department will be overwhelmed.

Myth No. 5: I have smart employees. They’ll have no problem figuring out how to use Office 2007 on their own.

An employee does not call the general help desk when he can get the answer from a colleague who sits near him. If none of his colleagues know how to use Office 2007, and he calls a generalist at the help desk, how much expertise will he find there?

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study | PC Helps eTraining |Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Lesson 1: Icebergs and Undergrounds

In the common view of desktop application support, calls typically account for less than 5 percent of help desk volume. Very often, the percentage is even less than 1 percent. The visible portion of the “iceberg” is quite small.

But, like an iceberg, what you see on the surface (that is, what most CIOs see when reviewing help desk metrics) is merely a fraction of what truly exists. The reality is that the demand is there; it’s just being absorbed by the organization in other forms:

• Peer support (Joe asks Mary for help)
• Abandoned support (Joe gets stuck and walks away from the task altogether)
• Rework (Joe can’t figure out how to make the software do what he needs so he re-tools his work to get around the problem)
• Self-help (Joe wastes time consulting the software help feature, scouring the Internet for help, reviewing manuals, etc.)

The productivity impact of these “underground” support channels averages three hours per solution at a cost of $48 to $196 per solution (depending on salary). And this doesn’t even account for the additional cost of the peer’s time (e.g., Mary in the example above). In comparison, the average solution with a best-of-breeds software application support provider is less than $25.
The true level of demand typically ranges from 5 percent to 15 percent of all help desk call volume, assuming all troubled end-users are reaching out to the help desk instead of consulting their underground channels. When a company is migrating to a new software suite or version, or rolling out additional mobile devices, the surge in demand for support can reach 40 percent or more of help desk volume.

Lesson 2: Contrasting Models

There is a significant contrast between supporting desktop applications under the standard help desk model versus employing a best-of-breeds approach for “how-to” support.
The standard help desk model employs a tiered support structure where only a relatively small percentage of issues (around 20 percent) are resolved on the first call, another roughly 35 percent require a few days to turn around, and the remaining 45 percent either take longer than a few days, or sometimes never find resolution.
This model staffs agents for things like break/fix, network connectivity issues, and hardware and software installs. They are, by design, generalists that have little knowledge on desktop applications and mobile devices (“jack of all trades, master of none,” to borrow a phrase). Additionally, the typical help desk is built on the premise of “lean staffing,” meaning nominal off-hours coverage, fewer bodies than required to meet peak calling periods, and frequent “leave a message” instances for troubled end-users.

In sharp contrast, a best-of-breeds sourcing partner does not employ a tiered support structure, leading to 90 percent or more of issues being resolved on the first call, and virtually no issue outstanding beyond 24 hours (excluding certain time-intensive development projects). Unlike the typical help desk model, a best-of-breeds sourcing partner employs certified software specialists on the front lines that focus exclusive attention, day in and day out, on desktop application and mobile device support. In this model, response time is critical, listening to music in queue is offensive, and leaving a voicemail is completely unacceptable.

Additional contrast stems from that exclusive focus. A best-of-breeds sourcing partner solves the real problem, not merely the symptoms described by the end-user, in addition to identifying related topics, delivering multiple solutions on the same call, and recommending future courses of action for training. The specialist, by virtue of experience and expertise, can solve today’s issue and reduce tomorrow’s need for similar support. That translates into dramatically enhanced ROI for an organization’s investment in software and mobile devices.

Lesson 3: Apples & Oranges, and How Much They Really Cost

The typical perception of specialized desktop application support is that it is expensive compared to average help desk metrics. The reasoning follows a general pattern: Our average call lasts X minutes and costs Y dollars. The average call to a niche, “how-to” support provider is expensive when compared to our internal cost per call for help desk assistance.
But that’s comparing apples to oranges.

For starters, comparing “costs per call” completely misses the key distinction between a “call” and a “solution.” While a typical help desk call may focus on an isolated, solitary issue and the associated solution such as “connecting to the web,” desktop application support generally requires the delivery of multiple solutions on a single call.

A customer calling in about Excel, for example, may need help fixing a formula, formatting cells, and modifying a pivot table before the support session can be successfully ended. The end result is a much lower cost-per-solution delivered – and one that no doubt required a much higher level of experience and expertise to address.

So, while typical calls to a help desk may cost an average $80 per solution, a specialized partner can deliver solutions for a fraction of this cost.

Aside from getting the terms right, it is also inaccurate to compare the average help desk call with the average “how-to” solution. A help desk handles a disproportionately high number of quick-fix issues (such as password resets, which can average 30 percent or more of all help desk service requests).

Such quick-fix calls skew the average length and cost of a help desk call. If that same help desk examined average minutes spent on just one subset of its data – namely, desktop application and mobile device issues – the numbers tell a very different story.

Lesson 4: A Breakfast Analogy

Training and support are not the same. Training complements support, like milk complements Cheerios, but training is not a viable substitute for support. Still, many IT managers will reason that, since all employees go through training when they are hired and perhaps even periodically thereafter, there is no need for desktop application support. This is flawed for two primary reasons.

First, while training is effective at addressing common and repeated needs, it is highly ineffective – and inefficient – at meeting specialized needs at unpredictable times, which is the very nature of a desktop application support issue. For example, if my company is switching from Lotus Notes to Outlook, it is smart to offer upfront training to teach employees how to attach files, use distribution lists, make calendar entries, etc. – tasks everyone needs to know how to do from the start. But if I cannot figure out why my net present value calculation in Excel is yielding a negative number for the interest rate, training is of no help to me, even if I was the star pupil at every class the company offered.

Beyond that, even a well-trained knowledge worker is highly likely to forget what he/she learned when the time comes to use a key feature or apply a technique within the application or device. Think about the student who studies, aces the exam, and, two months later, cannot remember a lick of what he learned.

Lesson 5: Full-Circle

The presence or absence of quality desktop application and mobile device support feeds a recurring cycle of events.

When support is poor, end-user satisfaction is low. This leads to a low number of calls to the help desk on “how-to” questions and an increase in the need for support, as evidenced by end-users seeking help from peers or other time-consuming sources. This gap in support costs companies an average of three hours of lost productivity per “how-to” issue (see Lesson 1: The Iceberg). But an organization will never see this gap by merely looking at its help desk stats. It is hidden from plain view.

On the contrary, when the gap is bridged with top-notch support, end-user satisfaction increases, as does the number of calls for desktop application and mobile device support. It seems paradoxical, but consider this: When the availability of quality, prompt support becomes known and is then reinforced by experience, the demand shifts from peer support to the newly enhanced help desk. Bridging this gap brings an immediate productivity gain (i.e., winning back the three hours per solution) and a future productivity gain.

An IT manager may ask: Why would I go looking for additional calls? After all, I’m trying to decrease help desk call volume. The real question should be: Why would I allow my company to continue wasting $48 to $196 per “how-to” solution when an alternative model could yield the same solutions for $25?

Have you asked yourself that question? (Jen Darr, Stephanie Maurer)

FIND MORE INFO IN: Download the Full White Paper | Related Case Study | PC Helps eTraining |Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

In an e-mail response, a reader pointed out an even greater obstacle, something he called the infuriation factor.

“The reason I don’t call our help desk is because it is outsourced to desks outside the U.S.,” he wrote. “The ‘Help’ can’t speak English adequately enough to understand or communicate effectively. A problem which should only take five or 10 minutes to resolve sometimes takes as long as an hour and a half.”

He has a point, and it’s a biggie, for sure.

“Desktop application support is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal.”

Most of us have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where we were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny ’80s Lite rock, only to be “helped” – eventually – by someone whose English was so-so, and who was proficient only in gatekeeping.

I’m not by any means xenophobic, and I’m not offended if an ATM asks if I’d like to bank in Spanish, Hindi or English, but the point of desktop application support – or any support – is to clear up conundrums. That’s hard to accomplish if the people involved cannot communicate with each other. It’s even more difficult if the help desk employs a tiered structure and bounces callers around until they get a technician who can actually help.

The language issue is a symptom of a larger outsourcing problem. That is, that because the need for desktop application support isn’t easily quantifiable, and because it’s difficult to prove return on investment with such services, it’s is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal. This not only sullies the help desk’s image, it also tarnishes the IT department’s reputation overall.

Recent industry publications have suggested that multimillion dollar outsourcing deals are the stuff of history, and that companies have begun opting for nimbler, best-of-breed help desk outsourcers. Still, the challenges remain: how to change the help desk’s reputation, how to prove its value, and how to keep an eye on the budget. (Jen Darr)

Is your IT department all-in-one or best-of-breed? Tell us in comments or send us an e-mail.

MORE INFO IN: 5 Lessons to Learn Before Outsourcing | Hidden Demand | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Fear of asking “stupid” questions is the culprit for many misunderstandings in life, and it clearly plays a standout role in this case. Inserting footers and page breaks shouldn’t be so hard to figure out, right? For a fresh-faced techie, who has immersed himself in software all of his adult life, yes, asking how to fix footers qualifies as stupid.

But for those who started out in business using a typewriter, electric or manual, inserting a footer meant simply typing it at the bottom. Adding a page break was as easy as pulling the paper out of the machine. They did not concern themselves with section breaks, be they even, odd or next page; nor did they care about field codes to insert current date and time, file name or page numbering style. Heck, they may even have brought in a mariachi band for presentation sound effects. (OK, that’s a stretch.)

Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer has catching up to do, plus a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.

So, for many, “How do you make the same footer appear on all but the first two pages?” is not an inane question, especially when considering how much has changed in the past 20-odd years. The Internet and computers have had a profound impact on the 21st century, more so than any other technological advance. Each new development requires new skills and understanding. Computer literacy is no longer a special talent; it’s a necessity.

There’s no argument that all corporate workers need technological skills to do their jobs — not developer-level or expert knowledge, mind you, but practical training and ongoing support. Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer clearly has catching up to do, not to mention a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.*

The question for CIOs and other IT leaders is: How will you give your employees those skills?

Will you force them “underground” for software support, to huddle and hatch costly, time-consuming workarounds, or will you encourage them to solve their problems productively with the proper training and support? (Jen Darr)

*Source: Ezziane, Zoheir: Information Technology Literacy: Learning and Teaching.

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After more than an hour of trial and error, she couldn’t find the feature she used in previous versions, so she devised a workaround with the space bar to nudge and align.

She asked two of her fellow teachers for help. They couldn’t figure it out either, and they too were using the spacebar fix.

Her opinion of Office 2007 after this experience?

“It sucks. I hate it.”

Teacher A spent more than an hour coming up with her Band-aid workaround. But her solution isn’t a solution at all: She now spends more time on each presentation nudging and aligning.

If she would have called her school district help desk, a consultant would have solved her problem in less than half the time. She could have passed along the information to her colleagues, saving them each an hour. She may have even learned how to use tools that are new to the version.

When asked why she didn’t call the help desk, she said she didn’t think the question was important enough. Besides, she added, she didn’t have time to waste on the phone.

Her opinion of Office 2007 after this experience? “It sucks. I hate it.”

This is typical in workplaces. Even at companies where quality desktop application support is offered, employees hesitate to utilize the service.

One reason is to avoid embarrassment. Many workers have learned their computer skills informally on the job, so they are reluctant to call the help desk for what they perceive is a “stupid” question.

Another reason, and chief among them, is an assumed time investment. Most people have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where they were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny, instrumental versions of Cat Stevens hits, only to be “helped” — eventually — by someone who is familiar with everything but proficient in nothing.

So instead, they tap the office software “expert” for help, pulling her away from her job and wasting twice the company effort. Or they fruitlessly scan Microsoft Help files and search the web.

The result is a whopping waste of investment in software. The point of an upgrade is to give users new, usually improved and expanded capabilities. If employees do not have access to training and support, they will naturally come to the conclusion that Office 2007 sucks. That sucks for your bottom line. (Jen Darr)

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We have gathered some tips that will help you root out the potential problems in formulas. If you can identify the issue quickly, then we’ve done our job. As for helping you fix it, that’s for another post.

A circular reference sends Excel into an endless loop where it will never stop calculating the cell. Excel goes around and around, never stopping to give us a final number…

1. Formula Evaluation Tool (Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

by David McQueary

If you’ve ever created a formula, you no doubt have come across a dreaded #N/A, #DIV/0 or other type of error. This can be frustrating, especially if the formula you entered is long and complex. Sometimes it is not easy to see what is causing the malfunction, and trying to read through the formula to spot the offender is not always a fruitful effort. Excel offers a Formula Evaluation tool, which assesses a formula step by step, showing each calculation and enabling you to view exactly where the error occurs. Here’s how:

Excel 2000, 2002, 2003:

1. Click Tools and move your mouse over Formula Auditing.

2. Select “Evaluate Formula.”

3. Click the Evaluate button in the bottom left corner to evaluate the formula step by step.

Excel 2007:

1. Click Formulas and select “Evaluate Formula” from the “Formula Auditing” group.

2. Click the Evaluate button in the bottom left corner to evaluate the formula step by step.

***

2. The F9 Key (Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

By Ronnie Merritt

Do you have a formula that is not working as expected? If you want to see where it is failing, you can use the F9 key to convert any portion of a formula to its actual value.

To demonstrate this, type any numbers into cells A1 and A2 in an Excel worksheet. In cell A3, type the following formula:

=A1*A2

Press Enter to enter the formula. The result should be the product of the values you typed into cells A1 and A2. Now select cell A3 and click into the Formula Bar, which is located above the column letters. This is the area that shows you what a cell actually contains, so it should be displaying the formula. Using your mouse, select A1 in the Formula Bar, then press the F9 key on your keyboard. The Formula Bar will show the value that was entered into cell A1.

This method can be particularly useful for troubleshooting large and complicated formulas, because it simplifies the task of viewing the result of each portion of the formula. Just remember to use the Esc key after using F9 in the Formula Bar. Otherwise, those converted values will be saved.

***

3. Trace Precedents and Dependents (Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

by Stephanie Hausman & Jeff Bowman

Formula auditing helps you locate the cells that make up the formula and any other cells that may be affected by the formula. Two useful features in formula auditing are the Trace Precedents and Trace Dependents arrows.

You can use these features by following the steps below for your version of Excel.

Excel 2000, 2002, 2003:

1. Click View and move your mouse over Toolbars.

2. Make sure the Formula Auditing toolbar is enabled.

3. Select the cell you would like to analyze.

4. Select “Trace Precedents” or “Trace Dependents” to to view which cells a formula is based on, or which other cells are based on the selected cell.

5. When finished, select the “Remove Arrows” option to remove all traces.

Excel 2007:

1. Click the Formulas tab of the Ribbon.

2. Select the cell that you would like to analyze.

3. From the “Formula Auditing” group in the Ribbon, select “Trace Precedents” or “Trace Dependents” to view which cells a formula is based on, or which other cells are based on the selected cell.

4. When finished, select the “Remove Arrows” option to remove all traces.

***

4. Circular References (Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

by Matt Mahoney

In Excel, if we are not careful, we can cause what is known as a circular reference. This means that Excel is calculating a formula in a cell that refers to itself. For example, say you have the values 1, 2, 3, and 4 in cells A1, A2, A3, and A4. In cell A5, we want to sum those values, and here is the formula we use: =SUM(A1:A5).

The formula includes a reference to the cell that it is in, so when Excel tries to calculate that value, it adds the values in the first four cells, 1+2+3+4, which is 10, and then it tries to add that value to the current value of A5, which it thinks is 10. Here is what Excel is thinking: “OK, my value in A5 is 10, because I am adding up those four numbers, but I also need to add A5 itself. So that means my value in A5 is 20, but I cannot forget to add those four numbers, which makes the value in A5 actually equal to 30…” This can get quite confusing.

A circular reference sends Excel into an endless loop where it will never stop calculating the cell. Excel goes around and around, never stopping to give us a final number, because it is constantly increasing the number (in our example, at least).

But, Excel is smart enough to predict a circular reference, and it gives us a warning on the Status Bar at the bottom of the window. If you ever see the word “Circular” on the Status Bar, Excel is telling you to fix the error.

Here is how to locate and fix any circular references. Follow the instructions for your version of Excel:

Excel 2000, 2002, 2003:

1. Click on View in the menu, and select Toolbars.

2. From the list of Toolbars, select Circular Reference.

3. Using the drop-down menu on the Circular Reference toolbar, you can view and select any cells that have a circular reference. The drop-down list displays the location of the cell, in this case $A$5 to indicate cell A5.

4. View the formula in that cell by examining the Formula Bar.

5. To remove a circular reference, make sure that the formula in that cell does not refer to the cell itself. If we have a formula in cell A5, we cannot have the formula refer to cell A5, or we will still have a circular reference. For our example above, we could change the formula to read: =SUM(A1:A4). If we remove the reference to cell A5 from the formula, the circular reference disappears.

Excel 2007:

1. Click the Formulas tab in the Ribbon, and select “Error Checking” from the Formula Auditing group.

2. Select Circular References, and a list of all the cells in the worksheet with circular references is shown. The drop-down list displays the location of the cell, in this case $A$5 to indicate cell A5.

3. View the formula in that cell by examining the Formula Bar.

4. To remove a circular reference, make sure that the formula in that cell does not refer to the cell itself. If we have a formula in cell A5, we cannot have the formula refer to cell A5, or we will still have a circular reference. For our example above, we could change the formula to read: =SUM(A1:A4). If we remove the reference to cell A5 from the formula, the circular reference disappears. Now that you have removed your circular references, Excel will calculate the formulas in the worksheet normally.

Have a favorite Excel tip or trick you’d like to share? Send it my way or post it in comments.

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In this series, we separate the facts from the myths, and teach you how to get the most return on your investment.

Myth No. 1: You can make Office 2007 look and act like Office 2003.

One of the biggest gripes about Office 2007 is the interface. Features your employees have used for years are suddenly, um, somewhere else. The changes are substantial enough that even the savviest users will be lost.

“With MS Office 2007, the steering wheel is in the trunk, the brake pedal is in the glove compartment and the light switch is on the roof.”

The natural reaction is to find a way to make it look like the previous version, as evidenced by the scads of third-party add-ins that have cropped up. Message board comments like the following are especially enlightening:

“When I buy a new car, I expect the steering wheel, pedals and all other important controls to be where they used to be. In [the] case of MS Office 2007, the steering wheel is in the trunk, the brake pedal is in the glove compartment and the light switch is on the roof.”

The commenter’s frustration is almost palpable, but change is never easy. And while some add-ins are effective, they miss the point. You’ve invested in a new version, so why not get the most out of it? The new interface was designed to be intuitive, and to bring attention to features that were buried in previous versions. Holding on to the old interface will only serve to diminish your Office 2007 migration return on investment.

Takeaway Tips

• The all-important Options feature, which used to reside in the Tools menu, is now under the Office button, at the bottom right of the dropdown menu (Excel Options, Word Options, etc.).
• Can’t find the macros menu? You need to enable the Developer tab in order to see it. Go to Office Button | [application] Options. In the “Popular” section, place a check in the box next to “Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.”
• Absolute basics: “Save” and its cohorts are now located under the Office button; basic formatting is now located in the Home tab; and spelling and grammar checks are in the Review tab.

Next post: Debunking the myth that support needs will disappear shortly after migration.

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In a recent post on TechRepublic, Calvin Sun offers 10 tips on the subject. Here are three that warrant elaboration:

Less Imaginary Widgets, More Genuine Examples

If one of your employees is fumbling with the Access sample database “Northwind,” it’s no wonder. How invested is he, really, in Raclette Courdevault and Geitost*? Give him something that is familiar, like an actual database from your company, with products or figures that have relevance.

If you took a three-day course on jet propeller engine repair, would you submit your resume for a job as an American Airlines mechanic?

“If you can relate to the material you’re studying to something in your own life, your retention will be greater,” writes TechRepublic’s Sun.

Long Distance vs. Sprinting

Sun explains how people are more likely to retain information that is learned in small chunks over time than what is studied during marathon cramming sessions. We know this. We’ve been told at least once in our lives not to cram.

Yet, in the case of Office 2007 migrations for example, employees are given mini courses or just PDF cheat sheets to learn a software suite that is radically different from previous versions. Do you think your employees are going to remember that the chart options have changed in Excel 2007 if they learned it upfront but create only one chart a month?

Use It or Lose It

If you took a three-day course on jet propeller engine repair, would you submit your resume for a job as an American Airlines mechanic? Apply that same logic to standard corporate training courses. While you have given your employees initial training on applications, you cannot expect them to walk out of the classroom as experts.

Still, some companies leave employees to fend for themselves after initial training. On a recent call to PC Helps, the customer wanted to know how to search two Excel worksheets for duplicates. Worksheet One contained 30,000 rows of data; Worksheet Two had 16,000. A consultant showed her how to use a nested formula. The employee was elated, and confessed that she was about to manually vet the data – all 45,000 rows. That’s hardly efficient. It’s an avoidable tragedy. (Jen Darr)

How do you promote efficiency in your office? Tell us in comments or send me an e-mail.

*Raclette Courdevault and Geitost are two products sold by the fictitious Northwind company. The former is cheese that is melted and served over boiled potatoes with lots of ground black pepper – big in Switzerland; the latter is Norwegian dessert cheese that must be sliced paper-thin. But I had to look that up.

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