Software Africa Newsletter - September 2019

Autodesk Tip ~ Online Business Tip ~ Excel Tip

Editorial

There is a Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". After the events of the past weeks, we seem to being living in very interesting times, whilst being faced with complete inaction at government level. Perhaps business needs to make more noise on how this is affecting employment and sales.

On-Line Business Tip #30: Google Hacks 8 - Ask a Question:

Google is the most popular search engine in the solar system. So it helps to know a bit more about using it than the average earthling.

Apart from opening www.google.co.za and typing something you are searching for, you can also ask Google a question. Try it now!

For example:

AutoCAD News

90-day Subscription Renewal Reminder Added

Customers are reminded 90 days in advance to renew their subscription by Autodesk:

"In an effort to increase our subscription renewal rates, we recently began sending 90-day renewal reminder emails to customers in addition to our standard 45-, 30-, and 4-day reminders.

"Our goal is to give customers more advance notice that their maintenance plan will be expiring soon and to remind them of their renewal options. The renewal reminders are stopped once a subscription has been renewed.

"As previously announced, we have also added that customers can save 10% when they switch to a subscription with 3-year terms at renewal time*."

* Savings of 3-year subscriptions is compared to the applicable Autodesk suggested retail price for 3 consecutive, annual subscriptions. Autodesk partners are independent and free to set their own prices.

Announcing Autodesk Q2-Q3 Global Field Promotion (GFP)

Autodesk is pleased to provide a special offer encouraging eligible customers with 2014-2019 perpetual licenses not on maintenance to upgrade to subscription.

From May 7 through October 25, 2019, you may receive up to 20% off the Suggested Retail Price of a new 1- or 3-year subscription when you terminate your associated perpetual license.

In addition to more value and flexibility than perpetual licenses, you can save up to 20% when trading in qualifying perpetual licenses that are not on maintenance plans, for a subscription to the latest Autodesk industry collections or to most individual products—like AutoCAD® including specialized toolsets, AutoCAD LT® , Civil 3D® , Revit® , Inventor® , 3ds Max® and more.

Compelling Events

Event

Applies to

Date:

Introduction of

Multi-year Moving to Subscription

Maintenance plans moving to a 3-year subscription

Or

As part of this offer, now if you have a 1-year or 2-year subscription Move to Subscription can choose to switch to a 3-year Move to Subscription at the time of renewal

March 27, 2019

You can act on this 90 days before expiry.

Autodesk Developments

New Product Usage Reporting for Admins with Single-User Access

Product usage reporting, in Autodesk Account, provides admins with single-user access transparency into what:

We can now spend more time strategically advising you on the best way to adopt new and existing tools to achieve your business outcomes.

Upgrade to an Autodesk Subscription

By sending us your old perpetual licence, we can upgrade you to the latest subscription version of your product at a 20% discount. Microsoft has announced the end of extended support for Windows 7 in January 2020, this is an opportunity to upgrade to a Windows 10 supported subscription.

Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN)

AKN is the community content site providing tech support, training materials, product knowledge, and interactive discussion forums for you as customers. Please make use of it.

Incidentally, M2S subscriptions activate on the day of renewal. Other helpful links are:

The differences on how these different layouts work are illustrated here.

Previous Versions of Autodesk Software

Global Travel Rights

Using Subscriptions Software at Home

Autodesk Cloud Credits

Support & Learning

QuickBooks' Cloud Solutions

QBO is proving a multi-faceted platform.  Please contact Judith for more.

 

Excel Tip #179 – The Excel Visual Basic Editor's Menu

Earlier, we looked inside the macro you recorded.  Then, last time we introduced the program we use to edit the macro. Let us now examine its main menu.

In Excel, press Alt+F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor.  You should see the following at the top of the window:

The first five sub-menus, with their main features of interest, are:

  1. File: Save the Personal Macro Workbook or current Workbook) Import and Export File, Remove the current Module, Print, and Quit the Editor (Alt+Q)
  2. Edit: The usual Undo (Ctrl+Z), Redo, Cut (Ctrl+X), Copy (Ctrl+C), Paste (Ctrl+V), Clear (Del), Select All (Ctrl+A), Find (Ctrl+F), Find Next (F3), and Replace (Ctrl+H).
    Also Indent text (Tab), Outdent (Shift+Tab), List Properties/Methods and Constants, Quick Info, Parameter Info, Complete Word (Ctrl+Space), and Bookmarks.
  3. View menu to view various components of the Editor: Code (F7),  Object (Shift+F7), Definition (Shift+F2),  Last Position (Ctrl+Shift+F2), Object Browser (F2), Immediate Window (Ctrl+G), Locals Window, Watch Window, Call Stack, Project Explorer (Ctrl+R), Properties Window (F4), Toolbox and Tab Order (for User Form design), Toolbars, and swap to Microsoft Excel (Alt+F11).
  4. Insert: This menu is used to insert new objects that will appear in the Project Explorer on the left.  You can insert a Procedure, User Form, Module, Class Module, or File.
  5. Format: This menu is used to format items on a User Form: You can Align, Make Same Size, Size to Fit, Size to Grid, set Horizontal Spacing, Vertical Spacing, Centre in Form, Arrange Buttons, Group, Ungroup, or change the Tab Order.

Because that is a lot to take in, we'll leave the remaining sub-menus for next time.

Are you finding short monthly instalments too slow a way to learn how to build macros? Would you like an on-line course with video examples?  Please let us know!

Computius Say:

Adding manpower to late software project make it later.

Remember:  We can make your business run better by:

All the Best from the team!
Judith and Rick

Members, Communication in Action cc trading as Software Africa
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