Home > Sean's Technology and Writing Blog

Speed up your PC and shrink your slideshows

02 February 2012

I've written two short tutorials for Microsoft Office, picking up on a couple of specific problems that I've come across recently.

One of them is about how to make PowerPoint files smaller, so they can be emailed. A colleague asked me about this recently, so (after helping her!) I thought I'd write an article outlining how to use the Compress Pictures feature in PowerPoint, and why it's different to just zipping up the final presentation (which often doesn't have much effect). I wrote this piece before Christmas but I haven't mentioned it on the blog before, so I thought I'd give it a plug here.

I've also just published a piece about Windows ReadyBoost. This is a fantastic feature that enables you to use a USB key as extra memory on your computer. It's greatly speeded up Word and Excel for me, and it's made Windows much quicker too, especially at rendering thumbnails of photos in a folder. Given how cheaply you can get a USB key for now (16GB for about a tenner) this is a really cost-effective way to speed up a computer that's become sluggish. Find out how to speed up Microsoft Office and Windows using ReadyBoost.

Labels: Microsoft Office

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

News on three book projects

14 April 2011

It's been a while since I updated the blog, so I've got three bits of news about books I've written to share with you.

Firstly, Web Design in Easy Steps has now been published. It's a full colour 240-page book in the popular In Easy Steps series. It starts by looking at the web design challenge, and then discusses what makes an effective website (with chapters dedicated to content, navigation and layout), before going into more depth on how websites are built. There are chapters dedicated to HTML, CSS and Javascript, and there are tips on using tools such as Flash, Dreamweaver and Wordpress. There is also advice on plugging in to social networking sites and adding a shopping cart. The book concludes with a look at how you can promote your website and measure what your visitors do on the site.

I have written extensively about website design in the past, for magazines including Internet Magazine, Business 2.0 and Internet Works, as well writing and editing a monthly newsletter about usability for a couple of years. I've also managed a few commercial website design projects in the past and am now working on updating my own website to reflect more of the good ideas in the book. Find out more about Web Design in Easy Steps, including how to order your copy, here.

The second bit of news is that Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser is now available for the Amazon Kindle. You can get a free sample sent to your Kindle device from that link. For more information on the book, see the website for Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser. I was really pleased with the structure and content of this book. It takes readers from no knowledge of the Office suite up to being quite sophisticated users through a series of projects. The book covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. There's also a bonus chapter on email using Windows Live.

The third piece of book news is that iPad for the Older and Wiser is now available for pre-order. I've written over half of it now and it will include coverage of both the original iPad and the features that are exclusive to the new iPad 2. The book will be published in September 2011. Wish me luck with drafting the last chunk of it and let me know if you have any favourite apps to recommend for the book!

Labels: books, iPad, iPad 2, Microsoft Office, webdesign

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Out now: my book Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser

15 October 2010

Book cover: Microsoft Office for the older and wiser

My book Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser has just been published, and it's looking great. Writing a book is a satisfying process, and it's rewarding to see the ideas take shape. But it's always a good day when the box of author copies arrives and you see, touch and even smell all the words and pictures you created in the form of a book for the first time.

The publishing firm John Wiley has done a great job on the design and layout of this series, and it's printed in full colour on glossy paper. I worked hard on creating screenshots that would look good in the book, and I'm pleased with how they've come out.

The projects in the book show you how to make the most of the Microsoft Office Suite, both Office 2007 and Office 2010. There are three chapters dedicated to Word, two to Excel, one to mail merge using both applications together, and then one chapter each for PowerPoint and OneNote. There's also a bonus chapter on using email to share your Office documents. The book concludes with an appendix on using keyboard shortcuts, a glossary and an index. Each part is illustrated with a brilliant cartoon by Stephen Long.

One of the things that was important to me was that I didn't just teach people how to carry out the projects in the book. I wanted readers to understand what they're doing and why, so that they can carry out projects of their own. Each chapter concludes with some suggestions of other projects that can be undertaken using the skills in the chapter, which I hope will help to inspire readers to experiment with their own creations.

I have some bonus content I'll be adding to this site in due course: a few bits that there wasn't room for, and a few tips articles I'd like to write for this website. For now, you can visit the microsite for the book Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser to take an illustrated tour through the projects and find the supporting resources promised in the book.

I've also created a video on Youtube, which shows all the screenshots from the book. For best results, watch in full screen and HD. Click the four arrows icon in the bottom right to go full screen, and click the 360p to change it to 720p. When you've finished, click the four arrows in the bottom right to go back to the normal screen again.

If you'd like to order the book (thank you!), you can do so through any bookshop by quoting ISBN 978-0470711965. You can also order Microsoft Office for the Older and Wiser at Amazon.co.uk.

Labels: books, Microsoft Office

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Using templates to make book writing easier

31 March 2010

I've just started work on a new book (more news on that later), and one technique I've used which saves a lot of time is to create a basic template that I can use for each chapter.

In this book, as in many practical non-fiction books, there are highly formatted sections (introduction, summary etc) that are the same in each chapter. Each of these sections needs to be formatted using the right styles in the publisher's Word template.

So I've created an empty chapter. It has placeholder copy for the chapter title and all the headings and styles that occur in the same place in every chapter. It doesn't cover the body of the chapter and all its subheadings - it just covers the regular features that are always there in the same place.

This has two advantages: firstly, it saves time. I don't have to worry about formatting the chapter title ten times because I've already done it. Although that in itself doesn't take long, the template I've created uses nine different styles and has fifteeen different content elements that require formatting, so the time does add up. All these bits are guaranteed to be in every chapter, so it's work I have to do anyway. I've just chosen to do it once, rather than doing it 10 times.

The second advantage is that it means I can get up and running with a new chapter straight away. I don't have to mess around with styles because that's already done - I can just start writing. Given that one of the challenges is to create momentum on a new chapter, having these templates makes the whole project run much more smoothly.

Labels: books, Microsoft Office, writing

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Microsoft Office 2010: what's in it for writers?

02 February 2010

I've been playing with the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010. I'm a big fan of Office 2007 - it made a few enemies by ditching a user interface with over ten years of history behind it. But it does make most activities much quicker to carry out, once you've worked out where they are hiding on the new toolbar.

Office 2010 has a lot of crossover with Office 2007. Lots of people were infuriated by the removal of the File menu in Office 2007 and even more so by the help which told you "IMPORTANT: you can't get it back" (paraphrasing only slightly). Well, Office 2010 has introduced a File tab, which takes you to the backstage area. This is basically about the file settings, and the other stuff that goes on in the background and doesn't affect your document's content or appearance. All the features that used to be behind the Office button in Office 2007 are now found here, and the office button itself has gone. This provides quicker access to a lot of features and saves time hunting between different sub menus to find them.

There are a few new features which might save some time. There's a cool feature for inserting a screengrab into your document. You just select which of the currently running programs you'd like to grab (it must not be minimised), and the image is inserted in your document. For those writing software tutorials, this could save quite a lot of time, although this workflow won't help out with book production much because publishers typically need the images to be separated out.

Word 2010 has a new navigation panel down the left, which adds search to the thumbnails and document map, and makes it easier to switch between them. There are some new text effects too, and a web-based translator built in to the Review tab.

The main new addition to Office 2010 is integration with Skydrive, which enables documents to be stored online so that they can be accessed and edited online and from other machines. This is a response to the rise of Google Documents and other online editing services.

I expect additional new features will come to light as I use Office 2010 more, but for now it seems to be more of an evolution than a revolution. Perhaps just having a File tab where the File menu used to be will be enough to encourage people to give it a go. They'll be pleased they did: the old version of Office hadn't changed very much since 1995, and was designed for much smaller screens than we typically have today. Office 2007 and 2010 more fully exploit the available screenspace to enable you to write more intuitively and quickly.

Labels: Microsoft Office, software, writing

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Dip into the blog archive

Credits

Visit www.sean.co.uk for free chapters from Sean's coding books (including Mission Python, Scratch Programming in Easy Steps and Coder Academy) and more!

Discover my latest books

100 Top Tips: Microsoft Excel

Power up your Microsoft Excel skills with this powerful pocket-sized book of tips that will save you time and help you learn more from your spreadsheets.

Scratch Programming IES

This book, now fully updated for Scratch 3, will take you from the basics of the Scratch language into the depths of its more advanced features. A great way to start programming.

Mission Python

Code a space adventure game in this Python programming book published by No Starch Press.

Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps

Discover how to make 3D games, create mazes, build a drum machine, make a game with cartoon animals and more!

Raspberry Pi For Dummies

Set up your Raspberry Pi, then learn how to use the Linux command line, Scratch, Python, Sonic Pi, Minecraft and electronics projects with it.

Earworm

In this entertaining techno-thriller, Sean McManus takes a slice through the music industry: from the boardroom to the stage; from the studio to the record fair.