 |
The Burning Issue |
 |
|
Dear Reader,
What July already! If you can tear
yourself away from planning your Summer Holiday,
or dreaming about it if you've just returned, take
a look at this month's Burning Issue.
Access to the office systems,
email, voicemail and messaging can be a wonderful
thing, but it can also lengthen the business day
to the point where we are always at work. So is
your remote access Heaven or
Hell ? We look at some experiences.
OpenOffice
keeps moving on and improving, I've had a chance
to take a closer look at the new version.
Remember there is an
Archive of past
Burning Issues on our web-site. So if you've only
just subscribed you can catch up on old issues
there. Of course if you like this little
newsletter, tell your friends, send them to the
website or get them to
subscribe here.
If you don't like it, tell me. You can unsubscribe with
[UNSUBSCRIBE], or send me
an
email and I'll make sure you don't receive
another copy.
Holiday fever is hitting
Burningsuit Towers, and we won't be publishing an
"Issue" in August, so we'll see you in September.
Stuart Box -
Email me your feedback
|
Remote Access,
Heaven or Hell?
|
Today's technology enables
remote access to the office all day every day
including week-ends, but is it a good thing?
If you can access work at any time are you
tempted, or expected to work all the time ?
It has got to the stage where
Microsoft has even issued guidance to its UK
employees on when they should disconnect from the
Internet at home or turn off their mobile phones.
"The
provision of a smart phone in no way requires
users to either view or respond to business
related emails or calls out of office hours,"
said Steve Harvey, Director of People and Culture
at Microsoft.
"Individuals are
not skilled in setting the boundaries between work
and home (and) colleagues fail to respect other's
rights to free time."
The guidelines were issued after
a six-month trial, when 443 Microsoft employees
were given smart phones, tablet PCs and broadband
Internet access in their homes. Although work
productivity went up, there were calls from staff
for "clarity of expectations" and an "agreed
etiquette" from management as to when work ended
and when home life began.
"There is
a problem with (work) encroaching on home life, if
the individual does not manage it and set the
boundaries," said Harvey.
Microsoft now runs programs for
its staff aimed specifically at ensuring that
people take control of their own work-life
balance.
But while some employees are
already using the latest technology to achieve a
better work-life balance, many are not. A recent
UK survey of 600 businesses by mobile operator O2
found that although many employees had signed up
for flexible working practices, including working
from home, it had yet to become a reality.
So who's in charge, you or the
technology ? Can you access your office from where
and when you want? and how does
that affect your home/life balance. Do you want to
telecommute, or hold "virtual" meetings from home
over broadband internet.
Talk to us at the Burningsuit Consultancy, we can
help.
top of page |
Tips to avoid SPAM.
|
SPAM, or Unsolicited
Commercial Email Is
one of the big problems of having an email address.
Increasingly SPAM emails clog up our inboxes, slow
down our downloads, and waste our precious time
clearing and deleting them.
To help avoid getting SPAM in the
first place Microsoft have published some tips.
Be careful about disclosing your e-mail address.
Some spammers get address lists from Web sites
where you may have signed up for free offers,
ordered something online, or entered a contest.
They can also get your address from Internet white
pages listings, newsgroups, CV postings, and
chat rooms.
Follow these tips whenever you can:
- Set up an e-mail address dedicated solely to
Web transactions. Consider using a free mail
service to set up an e-mail account for your online
transactions. This will help you keep your real
e-mail address private.
- Only share your primary e-mail address with
people you know. Avoid listing your e-mail address
in large Internet directories. Don't even post it
on your own Web site.
- Disguise (or "munge") your e-mail address. Use
a munged address whenever you post it to a
newsgroup, chat room, or bulletin board. For
example, you could give your e-mail address as
"s0me0ne@example.c0m" using "0" (zero) instead of
"o." A person can interpret your address, but the
automated programs that spammers use cannot.
- Watch out for checked boxes. When you buy
things online, companies sometimes add a checkbox
(pre-checked!) to indicate that it's fine to sell
or give your e-mail address to responsible parties.
Click the check box to clear it.
- Review the privacy policies of Web
sites. When you sign up for Web-based services such
as online banking, shopping, or newsletters, review
the privacy policy closely before you reveal your
e-mail address. The privacy policy will outline the
terms and circumstances regarding if—or how—the
site will share your information. (If you don't
read a statement, you could potentially "agree" to
share your personal information without knowing
it.)
- If the Web site doesn't explain how it will use
your personal information, think twice about
sharing it. Also be aware that many companies—even
legitimate ones—may share your information in ways
that you may not like.
top of page |
Alison's tip of the month,
Ditch the Mouse
|
If you're a touch typist (or even
if you're not! - stuart), you can drive much of
Word and other Microsoft applications by using
shortcut keys. Rather than having to grab for the
mouse, learn some of these shortcut keys which
should make things easier.
| Decrease Font One Point |
CTRL+[ |
|
Print Preview |
CTRL+F2 |
| Double Line Spacing |
CTRL+2 |
|
Remove Hanging Indent |
CTRL+SHIFT+T |
| Double Underline |
CTRL+SHIFT+D |
|
Remove Indent |
CTRL+SHIFT+M |
| End/Start of Document |
CTRL+END / HOME |
|
Repeat Last Action |
F4 |
| Find |
CTRL+F |
|
Reset Character Formatting |
CTRL+SPACE |
| Format Font |
CTRL+D |
|
Reset Paragraph Formatting |
CTRL+Q |
| Go To |
CTRL+G or F5 |
|
Reveal Formatting |
SHIFT+F1+Click Text |
| Go To Next Document |
CTRL+F6 |
|
Right Justify |
CTRL+R |
| Go To Next/Previous Field |
F11 / SHIFT+F11 |
|
Save As |
F12 |
| Hanging Indent |
CTRL+T |
|
Save Document |
CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12 |
| Office Assistant |
F1 |
|
Select Document |
CTRL+A |
| Increase Font One Point |
CTRL+] |
|
Select Table |
ALT+5 (Num Pad) |
| Indent |
CTRL+M |
|
Select Table Column |
ALT+Click Column |
| Insert Field Characters |
CTRL+F9 |
|
Single Line Spacing |
CTRL+1 |
| Italic |
CTRL+I |
|
Small Caps |
CTRL+SHIFT+K |
| Line Break |
SHIFT+RETURN |
|
Underline |
CTRL+U |
| New Document |
CTRL+N |
|
Undo |
CTRL+Z |
If you'd like Alison to help unlock the
secrets of Word, Excel, or any other of the
products we train on, for you or your company,
feel free to
contact her, or look at the course
details on our
website.
top of page |
OpenOffice
1.1.2 New Release.
|
Following last month's look at Open
Source products in general and OpenOffice in
particular, I can tell you a bit more about the
new release of OpenOffice, available from
their web site
www.openoffice.org
This is mainly a bug-fix release
which fixes several small annoyances and problems.
However it also has some optimisations which makes
OpenOffice start up faster and operate quicker. If
you are already an OpenOffice user it's worth
getting this release. I've installed it on the
systems at Burningsuit here, and it works very
well.
If you haven't yet tried
OpenOffice maybe this is a good time to take a
look. OpenOffice
includes a word-processor, spreadsheet,
presentation program, a drawing application, and a
number of other programs. It is released under an
OpenSource licence, and is free to download and
use.
top of page
|
The
Burning Issue takes a Holiday
|
In common with an increasing
amount of the commercial world "The Burning Issue"
will be taking a holiday in August, so our next
issue will be in September, refreshed and ready for
the fray.
Those of you with a prurient
interest with the doings of others can find out how
I am spending my holiday
here. Well, it's about a far removed from
computing as you can get!
Best Wishes to all, and if you're
taking a holiday I hope you enjoy it. |
| |
|
|
Training:
|
|
|
Cool Links:
Useful, fun or just downright
weird, send me your favourites.
Channel 4 Cricket
How are the Windies doing ? Plus a desktop
Richie! |
www.flexibility.co.uk
New ways of working, worth a look if you're
interested in remote access and teleworking |
The Chap
A magazine for us debonair chaps-about-town. |
Olympics
Brilliant Olympic themed animation |
Athens2004
The official Olympics website |
Mailwasher
A good way to fight SPAM |
SPAMALOT
A musical of Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Can it
be true!! |
|
|
01403 786740
Prices
About Us
FAQ