Newsletter - October 2015

Editorial

October comes with an increase in heat and little rain.  The drought across South Africa is threatening major water problems, which are made worse by little or no infrastructure maintenance. Of course, domestic users are accused of wasting water and being the cause of "water-shedding".

During load shedding, we can still be contacted via our cell phones - 082 389 3481 and 082 389 3482.  In fact, if our landlines go unanswered, please phone us on our cellphones as we are having intermittent problems with our switchboard.

Computer Tip: "MS Outlook Hidden Trick"

If you use Microsoft Outlook as an email, calendar, and contact manager, then you are familiar with switching screens back and forth to check your calendar or email. This trick works well if you have two monitors (It still works with one monitor, but your best results are with two: You can then place your email on one screen and your calendar on the other).  Here's how:

1. In Outlook, click the Mail button on bottom left panel
2. Now Right-Click the Calendar button
3. Choose "Open in new window"
4. Click and drag the Calendar window to the other screen (or beside your email screen).
5. Resize as necessary and Happy Scheduling!

From Andy Lanning's Computer Super Secrets.

QuickBooks - Buy new and receive a free upgrade to 2016

Contact us to take advantage!  The special is still running so contact us right away!  2016 is due out very soon and it will be much more expensive than 2015 - so jump in and buy!

Green Tip

The other side of your wall is not a rubbish disposal area, particularly when you live beside a park or river trail.  Please use recycling areas at your local refuse disposal place or at garages.

Autodesk Price Rise

Well it happened sadly.  However, the Rand has since strengthened.  May it continue and give us a break for year end!

Special offers for Q3 from Autodesk

The specials on offer right now are a 15% discount is you buy permanent licences with three years maintenance subscription or if you buy three years of an Annual Desktop subscription.

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
• Leverage 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 you 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:

Both the Code group and the Controls group are concerned with programming, so we will look at them consecutively, starting with the Code group:

• The Visual Basic button opens the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) Editor.  This appears as a separate program, but is closely tied to Excel (closing when Excel closes). It lets you edit the code behind any spreadsheets you have open. Confusingly, a recent update has introduced a bug whereby the VBA Editor also shows (but can't run or edit) code from spreadsheets that have been opened in this session of Excel, but are now closed.
• The Macros button opens the Macros dialog box. Macros are subprograms in VBA code.  This dialog box lets you locate any public Macro in this or another open workbook, then Run it, Step into it (run it one line at a time), Edit in in the VBA Editor, or delete it. One can also (in Options) set a shortcut key and add a description.
• The Record Macro button will do just that, namely turn your following interactions with Excel into VBA code as a macro, until you Stop Recording.  There is also a Record Macro button on the left of the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen: It becomes a  Stop Recording button while you are recording.
• Use Relative References is an important choice to make as soon as you have started recording, as the code can look very different and behave very differently.  If Use Relative References is not selected ("Absolute references"), then the macro will always use the same cells as those you use when recording.  If Use Relative References is selected then, if the macro is later run starting with a different cell, it will use different cells when running.
• The Macro Security button opens the "Trust Center" dialog box on its "Macro Settings" tab.

What would you like us to do next time? Email Rick if you would like us to look at some VBA code.  If there is not enough interest in code, we will continue with the Controls Group on the Developer tab.

Computius Say:

If wines worked like computer software, the Autodesk Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 would now be available for download, and earlier vintages could no longer be sold.

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"
Reg. 2009/007863/23 ~ VAT No 4500104387 ~ 126 Kelvin Drive, Morningside Manor, Sandton, 2191 South Africa.
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