Sue Darby, MOS

I got to thinking about how to “save” good snippets of language used in the e-mails I send and vaguely remembered a new feature that Word 2007 (earlier versions do NOT have this feature and I am not sure how it works in 2010 as I don’t work in it) has and went hunting for it in Outlook too. It’s called Quick Parts. How it works:

1.   Write something really cool that you know you’ll use over and over again

2.   Highlight it

3.   Go to the Insert tab and look for the Quick Parts drop down

4.   Add the item to the Gallery with a name of your choosing

5.   Next time you need to tell someone the same thing such as “you are missing blah blah blah”  you can simply insert the pre-written language that explains it in detail

No more wasting time typing it over and over again for common things! Thought this might help us work smarter not harder! Pass it on if you know of someone else it can help!

Sue Darby, BS Business, MOS
Certificate in Fashion Design
Microsoft Office Master Certified
Alpha Beta Kappa Honors Society
Business Owner & Webmistress

At one point in my life I had come to a crossroads. One portion of my life was ending and another just starting. Overwhelmed by the number of tasks on my “Never ending to do list” I broke it out into a 10 page Battle Plan.

I had just started at Nine Star Education & Employment as a Career Development Mentor & Computer Instructor. My first morning I was updating my plan and my new boss walked past and became intrigued by what he saw on screen and asked me to do the morning workshop. That morning, not having any other pre-prepared materials 6 copies of my personal plan went to clients.

I spoke from the heart in my first speaking gig professionally. I outlined what I needed to accomplish and wanted to accomplish and what I had already done.

Over the coming months I would re-write it into what you see in the flash below for public consumption. Each month I updated what I had done and expand my presentation and after 2 years of Americorps I was able to cross off many items on it and “toot my horn” on how it worked. This inspired several clients who also wrote their own versions and came back to tell me that it did work.

While I no longer work for Nine Star I know for a fact that my Battle Plan is a regular workshop given by my former bosses and passed on to clients and others.

I have since moved on to creating even more specific Battle Plans for projects in my life. I have one for my websites & businesses, one for my children, one for buying a house (completed in 2010) and my personal one.

If you find that this idea is of use to you, wonderful. Please let me know as I love knowing that my ideas inspired others.

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Sue Darby, BS Business, MOS
Certificate in Fashion Design
Microsoft Office Master Certified
Alpha Beta Kappa Honors Society
Business Owner & Webmistress

Was it worth it to study for my Microsoft Office 2003 Certifications. In short, YES! Although almost as soon as I got the 6th one the State upgraded to Office 2007 which had some big changes. At first I resisted but as the Borg say “resistance is futile” and besides once you get used to the new layout there are some really great things that 2007 can do.

Office 2003 had it’s quirks and made a great tool to learn the advanced topics such as mail merges and charts but 2007 is easier to use. I studied for months to learn all the ins and outs of Pivot Tables and Mail Merging and the time was well spent even though I no longer use the older program. I now use both Mail Merge and Pivot Tables liberally at work. In fact it has changed how my unit does things dramatically saving time and energy for the unit.

One letter at a time for addresses and labels is just too tedious for a grouping of 30+ letters that have to go out once a month… a half day’s work for one person… what a waste that was! We now mail merge large mail outs that have to go snail mail and just today got the go ahead to mail merge to email! What a time & money saver that will be!

Hand counting specific forms and then reporting on it without graphics to aid in understanding… a thing of the past! Our databases can generate the reports and Excel tweaks the results into something visual that can be understood easily by laymen!

Will I seek the 2007 or the 2010 certifications? I’m unsure right now but I know having a deeper understanding of the more advanced features is well worth the effort of learning!

Sue Darby, BS Business, MOS
Certificate in Fashion Design
Microsoft Office Master Certified
Alpha Beta Kappa Honors Society
Business Owner & Webmistress