Newsletter - November 2015

Editorial

It has taken time to find a replacement for our outdated and un-upgradeable PBX.  A lot of searching around for a solution that would take us away from technology that is no longer relevant.  However, we finally found a Cloud-based solution and are now enjoying trying it.  Good sound quality on both landline and cellphone calls makes it easy to use.  We can handle up to 10 incoming calls through the one number as well.  We are currently setting up the finer features and will be connecting our cellphones to it as well.  Thus, if you ring 011 802 2685 in the future, you can access us wherever we are!

New direct numbers are: Judith 011 045 2401, Rick 011 045 2403.

Costs are far less than with the old outdated solutions plus we have also installed Wi-Fi for updating our cellphones as part of the solution.

Some valuable feedback from a reader on how to protect data

I recently had my hard drive fail, and lost my emails. Luckily I had my QuickBooks backed up on my external drive, My Documents backed up with file history, and my photos backed up on Google.

I have now found it to be a simple matter to have the QuickBooks data file stored in My Documents (and thus automatically backed up with file history)

And it is a simple matter to have my Outlook files also held in My Documents and synchronised with a backup on another drive with file history.

Stephen

When our businesses can be destroyed by data loss, please realise that an external drive can save you.  Backup onto the web is also vital

Microsoft Word Tip: Editing Text

• You can double-click a word to highlight it (you don't have to drag the mouse across it).
• You can triple-click a word to select the entire paragraph.
• When you see highlighted text --in your word processor, for example, or in a Web browser address bar-- you don't have to delete it first. Just start typing.

Sick of how Word automatically creates clickable links, boldface words, indented bulleted or numbered lists and other formatting as you type? You can turn those off:

• In Word 2010, open the File menu; click Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options then. on the tab AutoFormat As You Type, untick the options you want to remove.
• On the Mac (Word 2011), open the Tools menu; click AutoCorrect, then AutoFormat As You Type, and untick the options you want to remove.

From Andy Lanning's Computer Super Secrets.

QuickBooks - 2016

It's launched and we are now testing.  some significant changes have been made by QuickBooks with this new launch.  QuickBooks 2015 options are no longer available as a new product.  You can still purchase additional keys for both 2014 and 2015 products.

Both 2015 and 2016 now have optional monthly support contracts available

Microsoft Office 365

Saves you time because you don't need to convert Google App Files!  There are 1 billion people using Office 365!

Why add that chore to your already busy work days? With Microsoft Office 365, you’ll save time not only getting work done, but also collaborating with your customers, partners, and suppliers. After all, many use Office. Did we mention one billion people?

Office 365 gives you the world’s leading productivity solution, with tools to help you look as professional as you are.

Get Office 365, the professional toolset without the hassle!

• Access to familiar Office 2013 applications -Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Access to files and applications from virtually anywhere.
• 24x7 backup, security, and phone support.

Try it free for 30 days: Ask Judith for the link to download.

Green Tip

The drought has now been acknowledged as a reality not just by Rand Water, but now by Joburg Water.  Sadly, we can report that drought is affecting most of South Africa and many of our SADC neighbours.  This is combined with extreme heat in most areas as well.  The advice to use boreholes is both good and bad.  If you own a borehole, please also be water wise.  Observe the requirement to water your garden between 6pm and 6am, as the watering will be of benefit.  Watering during the day results in high losses to evaporation.

Increase mulching of your garden with wood chips, leaves, lawn cuttings and other materials that can conserve the moisture.

Autodesk updates

It is still possible to buy permanent licences of new Autodesk products.  This is a benefit worth making use of, as, recently Judith noticed that a quarterly subscription for AutoCAD LT is the same as the annual maintenance subscription for two LTs!  The same would be true for the other Autodesk products!  So if you are on maintenance subscription - be sure to renew regularly and on time!  If you are buying new, and have the budget, take the opportunity to purchase your permanent licences with maintenance subscription before 20th January 2016.

From the 1st February 2016, the only way to buy Autodesk products will be either annual or quarterly desktops subscriptions.  These come in two flavours - with basic support or with advanced support.  The latter gives you access to storage in the Cloud through A360.

Please note that from 1st February 2016, all maintenance subscriptions must be renewed promptly!

Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams

The 2015 release of Creative Cloud for teams - including the brand new Adobe Stock service introduced today for the very first time - is here! This is an amazing new release, chock full of innovation, that ushers in a new era of creativity and collaboration. With the 2015 release of Creative Cloud, businesses and creative teams will be able to:

• Effortlessly work across desktop and mobile devices
• Access creative assets from anywhere, and share them seamlessly with colleagues
• Access Adobe Stock, a marketplace of 40 million photos, illustrations and graphics (BREAKING NEWS!)
• Increase productivity and speed time to market with all-new innovation in the CC desktop apps
• Lever new, flexible buying program features to make moving to Creative Cloud a no-brainer

So we are already geared up and waiting to tell you far more about this exciting upgrade and the solutions.  Remember that, once you have had your subscription registered, you can update all your software to the very latest at once!  All your software licence details are located in the Cloud, so no more losing the so-easily-lost and -stolen packages!

Please go to the brand new Creative Cloud for teams pages on Adobe.com, which provide a rich set of content to help inform, impress and quickly convert you to this new way of working.  For pricing and more information please contact Judith for quotes

Excel Tip #138 - The Developer tab (V), Code Group

For several issues now, we have been looking at the Developer tab, which can be set to appear just to the right of the View tab. It looks like this:

As there was little interest in code, we continue with the Controls Group on the Developer tab:

• The Insert button Opens a small window that allows you to insert two types of controls, Form controls and Active-X controls. Form controls are the old type of control, and all linked to any macro in the workbook. Active-X controls are the new type of controls, and run a macro in the sheet on which the button is placed, named with the button name followed by "_Click".  Command Buttons are the type of control you would use most often, to run some code when you click the button.
• The remaining buttons in the group are for Active-X controls only:
• The Design Mode button is only available when there are controls to design. It allows the spreadsheet to go into a state where you can modify Active-X controls. Clicking the button again, takes you out of that mode. On the other hand, to edit Form controls, you do not use Design Mode, but just right-click on the control and select the desired action from the pop-up menu.
• The Properties button is used once you have selected the control you want to edit, although you can click on different controls (even the Worksheet itself) to get their properties.  This button displays a floating window containing a list of the properties that you can edit (for that control) and the values of those properties. Typically, you will want to change the "(Name)" property to something meaningful, e.g. Reformat.  That would cause the button to run a macro named "Reformat_Click".  Do this before creating the code! You will want to change the text on the button (the Caption) to something meaningful to the user.  You might want to change the Font, the size (Width and Height properties), and position (Left and Top).
• The View Code button opens the Visual Basic Editor and displays the code for the sheet you are on.  A more useful way to go there is to right-click on the Command Button (or other Active-X control) and choose "View Code" since this will not only take you to the code window, but also create a correctly-named procedure ("Sub Reformat_Click" in our example).
• Finally, the Run Dialog button lets you run custom dialog (user-created form) that you have previously created in the Visual Basic Editor.  At least, that is how one would expect it to work, but it does nothing even if there is a User Form (Microsoft's Help on this topic is, as is increasingly the case these days, utterly useless).

That concludes our review of the Excel 2010 Ribbon.   A brand new topic next time!

Computius Say:

Elon Musk suspects that humanity may just be the organic bootloader for Artificial Intelligence.  Can we prove him wrong?

Remember:  We can make your business run better by:

• Automating your in-house processes with a custom program or database..
• Speeding up your processes by linking your database or spreadsheet to QuickBooks.
• Solving your QuickBooks, Access, Excel, Word, Visual Basic, and PowerPoint problems.
• Training your company on Maximizer, Excel, Word, Access and Windows (all levels from beginners to Programming).
• Supplying software: We re-sell and support various accounting, timesheet, scheduling, and productivity programs.
• Providing world-class programs for the Engineer and Civil Engineering Geologist: AutoCAD, Caddie, dotPLOT, etc.
• Making your Civil Engineering Laboratory run smoother and more profitably with Labbie, our Data Retriever.
• Promoting your corporate image with a set of templates on Word or Excel, linked to your address list.

All the Best from the team!
Judith and Rick

Members, Communication in Action cc trading as Software Africa
"Empowering African Business with standard and custom PC programs, databases, and templates using Microsoft technologies"
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Tel: 011 802-2685 / 011 802-6440/1 ~ Fax: 011 802-4576 and 086-635-7902/3 ~ Cell: 082 389-3481/2 ~ e-mail: info@softwareafrica.co.za