Free Webinar: Getting the Most out of Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Time: 10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT / 5:00pm GMT

Presenter: Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation

Discover the synergy of working with Microsoft PowerPoint to present and deliver information to your audience. You will learn about new features and timesavers to help in your day-to-day work. This session is good for beginner, intermediate, or advanced users – everyone will learn something!

https://www147.livemeeting.com/lrs/1100002433/Registration.aspx?pageName=2j4335q6zkz15n8t

Register for these webinars to get free tips and tricks for working in this platform.

MAY

Getting the Most out of Microsoft Excel 2010
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Time: 10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT /5:00pm GMT
Presenter: Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Explore how Excel 2010 takes advantage of a new, results-oriented user interface that provides easy access to powerful productivity tools, offers a larger workspace, and delivers faster performance. This presentation will demonstrate useful tips and tricks about new features and timesavers to help in your day-to-day work with Microsoft Excel.

Getting the Most out of Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Time: 10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT /5:00pm GMT
Presenter: Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Discover the synergy of working with Microsoft PowerPoint to present and deliver information to your audience. You will learn about new features and timesavers to help in your day-to-day work. This session is good for beginner, intermediate, or advanced users – everyone will learn something!

JUNE

Microsoft Office 2010 Cloud Access
Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Time: 10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT /5:00pm GMT
Presenter: Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Discover how Microsoft Clouds services and products will provide you endless ways to work and collaborate – from anywhere, at any time, and on any device. This will include storage strategies, Microsoft Office System for productivity and insight into what cloud services mean to the typical user of PCs. This will be demonstrated using Microsoft Word, Microsoft SkyDrive (Microsoft Live), Office365 and other Cloud implementations.

JULY

Microsoft Office 2010 Application Content Sharing
Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Time: 10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT /5:00pm GMT
Presenter: Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Learn the ways and approaches for sharing content, from simple cut, copy & paste to shared drives, and information from your PC to the internet and back. Learn the tools, formats and reasoning behind how Microsoft Office system shares and accesses content for productivity. This will be demonstrated using Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Microsoft Office 2010, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, offers flexible and powerful new ways to deliver your best work. Register for these webinars to get free tips and tricks for working in this new platform.

Office 365 Doesn’t Mean You’re Fired: A primer for Admins
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Time: 10:00 am Pacific
Many times, the justification for cloud solutions is to reduce cost by removing IT overhead. The reality is, Office 365 can mean freeing IT from maintenance tasks and allow them to do things that impact the bottom line. This comphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflementary 75 minute session provides a tour of the admin tools and tasks you’ll still perform in an Office 365 environment.
Getting the Most out of Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint 2010
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Time: 10:00 am Pacific
Explore how Excel 2010 takes advantage of a new, results-oriented user interface that provides easy access to powerful productivity tools, offers a larger workspace, and delivers faster performance. Plus, discover the synergy of working with Microsoft PowerPoint to present and deliver information to your audience.
Myths of the Cloud
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Time: 10:00 am Pacific
Cloud computing represents the next major shift in the way that IT will be delivered to companies large and small. Cloud computing is a career-defining opportunity to add real business value through strategic and tactical understanding of the cloud's relationship with organizational goals. There are many misconceptions surrounding the cloud and what it has to offer. This complementary 75 minute session will address these myths and give you a better understanding of the next steps to take to enable your organization to reap the benefits of cloud computing. It can provide much more than savings, creating a foundation for new competitive advantages.
Presenter: Joey Snow, Senior Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
Joey Snow is a Senior Technical Evangelist for the worldwide Developer and Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft focusing the IT Professional audience for Windows Server, IIS and Windows Azure. Based in Redmond, WA, Joey works closely with relevant MS Product Teams to evangelize new technology and products to the IT Pro community at large.

Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Time: 10:00 am Pacific; 12:00 pm Central; 1:00 pm Eastern; 5:00 pm GMT
Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Hosted by: New Horizons Computer Learning Center

Click here to enroll today!

Get informative tips for Microsoft Word 2010 documents. It is now easier than ever before to save time and simplify your work while working together and doings so from more locations. Witness how Microsoft Word 2010 facilitates the collaborative process, handles large documents, and provides easier building blocks for more clearly defined content. This session is for individuals who spend significant time writing and creating documents and have some familiarity with Microsoft Word.

On November 18, 2010, jump-start, re-start, or catalyze your IT career at the Microsoft Certified Career Conference. The Microsoft Certified Career Conference is a 24-hour virtual event where you can:

• meet potential employers
• hone your technical skills
• acquire job-seeking skills
• network with fellow professionals
• glean career advice from real-life experts in the field

Register at www.msregistration.com/msl.

Use the New Horizons discount code: NewHorizons10 to get a 10% discount on your registration.

Spoofing is a term used to describe methods of faking various parts of the browser user interface. This may include the address or location bar, the status bar, the padlock, or other user interface elements. Phishing attacks often utilize some form of spoofing to help convince the user to provide personal information. If a user's browser is vulnerable to spoofing, they are more likely to fall victim to a phishing attack. You can search the US-CERT and CERT/CC web sites for malicious scripting and content vulnerabilities at the following URL: http://search.us-cert.gov (use the search term browser+spoof). The US-CERT document "Technical Trends in Phishing Attacks" (available at http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/phishing_trends0511.pdf) has more information about spoofing and phishing techniques.

New Horizons Remote Classroom offers you the flexibility of taking courses from any remote location, with LIVE Dual Screen Video and LIVE audio participation integrated with our Classrooms and Instructors. So stay home and log-in - you'll remain an interactive student with your own designated seat and computer in our on-site classroom. View more >>>

Go to http://www.myremoteclassroom.com/
to receive 25% off your online class purchase! Ends April 30!

Here's a summary of just a few unique features of New Horizons Remote Classroom that other training centers fail to deliver:

• Live VIDEO with Dual Screen Views
  Rotate your view during your class between instructor view and classroom view! From your classroom view, you can see the on-site students taking the class with you in real-time.


• Live AUDIO with Headset: Included
  We will ship your own headset to you before class begins. This headset ensures you will be able to hear your instructor clearly! Free Shipping!


• Labs On Demand, Kits: Included
  Unlike other IT training centers, we do not charge a separate fee for Labs on Demand or your course kits. A one-time class price includes everything you'll need for your class, without additional hidden fees!

Quicklink Resources for Remote Classroom

• View Our Remote Classroom Demos on YouTube
• Go to the MyRemoteClassroom.com web portal to receive 25% off your course purchase! (use REMOTE25 promo code)
• View the Remote Classroom Online Schedule in PDF Format
• Contact us today for a personal demo

• Excel’s EDATE function doesn’t always give you the flexibility you need when you’re coming up with expiration dates. We’ll show you an alternative that might work better.
• When you need to connect between two locations, such as a main office and a second branch, a virtual private network (VPN) can do the job. We’ll discuss how to use hardware at each end of your VPN tunnel.
• Adding a drop-shadow to your website’s image can slow down your site’s load time and cause problems when you need to edit the image. We’ll show you how to use CSS styles for drop-shadows that work without these drawbacks.
  

Click here for details and instructions for each of these topics.

You’ll want your website visitors to stick around and read the great information on your web page. But if the text isn’t legible, they won’t have the patience to stay. Use our typography tips to increase your site’s appeal.

Note: All images referenced in this article can be viewed @ http://bit.ly/tyqqt

Because it’s so easy to set fonts, background colors, and other formatting with CSS, some developers forget to choose this formatting carefully for legibility. Of course, it doesn’t matter how pretty the text looks if the reader can’t read it and leaves your site in disgust.

To make judging legibility even trickier, many developers don’t see the full text that will appear on the site, since the server-side code may generate it automatically. While a few test words on the site may look okay, bad formatting can cause readers to struggle while attempting to read whole paragraphs. To avoid these kinds of mistakes, it pays to know a few readability principles.


Key rules for readability

Readability refers to the ability to read all the text added to a web page. It’s much harder to read text onscreen than in print, so special considerations are required. For starters, consider the following guidelines:

• Don’t size text too small or too large.
• When possible, avoid specifying absolute font sizes, since they may prevent readers from making the text larger through their browser options. For example, fontsize: 1.5em is better than fontsize: 15px.
• Avoid overuse of type styles (e.g., bold, italic, all caps). A long paragraph in italics, for example, can be difficult to read.
• Don’t contradict common web practice in your use of type styles. For instance, avoid using colored, underlined text for anything that’s not a hyperlink.
• Be careful about placing text on a colored background.
• Choose common fonts that are easy to read on the web.

Choose appropriate fonts

Let’s take a closer look at font choice. Two key rules apply here:

• Some fonts that are good when you print a document aren’t so great online. Often, the difference comes from subtle character spacing issues. So once you find a font you like, try out several similar ones on the screen. You can use the CSS font-family property to specify your first, second, and third (etc.) choices.
• Sans serif fonts are usually easier to read than serif fonts, and they tend to look bigger. This is one good reason to specify some fonts in your style code, since browsers often default to serif fonts.

Tip: Avoid mixing serif and sans serif fonts; the transition between reading such different types of fonts can slow down a reader.

Not all sans serif fonts are created equal

Just because a font is sans serif doesn’t guarantee legibility. And while the fancier fonts may look great in titles, they can be hard to read in paragraphs. Let’s see what happens when we take even a great piece of text and put it onto a website with a poor font choice. We’ll make a CSS declaration specifying the Impact font (or any sans-serif font if the client machine doesn’t have Impact):

See page 6: http://bit.ly/iCFJt

Even great words lose impact with the wrong font

We’ll now apply this style to an excerpt from a famous speech Lincoln gave in October, 1854:

See page 6: http://bit.ly/iCFJt

Apologizing to the great Lincoln in advance, we see that the results, as shown in Figure A, demonstrate that even the most cogent text in the world is virtually unreadable in the wrong font. Even if you find it not bad reading once you get into it, the mere appearance of such a font can intimidate readers from reading it at all.

More legible alternatives

Perhaps a better choice is to stick with a system font, such as Geneva (Mac) or Arial (Windows). These fonts aren’t only easier to read onscreen, but are also more likely to be installed on the user’s computer, thus reducing the risk of font substitution.


Be careful with colored backgrounds

Another area that’s important to watch out for is the colored background. As with most things on the web, less is more. Simply put, it’s hard to beat black text on a white background (or some shade of white) for legibility.

Certainly, depending on your site’s theme and purpose, you can still get satisfying results with other color combinations, as long as the contrast is adequate. And, in some cases, a client may demand a particular color scheme.

The trick to text on color: Make it bigger

One of the problems with any colored background is that it tends to make the text look smaller — especially if the text color is lighter than the background. For instance, suppose we apply the following style definitions to a page:

div {padding:1em;}
.withcolor {background-color:#880088; color:#00FF00;}
.bigger {background-color:#880088; color:#00FF00; font-size:1.3em;}

While the result in Figure B is okay in print, the second block of text is hard to read onscreen and looks surprisingly small — as if the text is dissolving into the color around it. The final block of text uses a larger font size to help overcome the readability problems caused by the background color.


Break up the text

Choosing the right font and size with which to format text is just the beginning. Also consider the way in which you place text on a web page. As a rule, it’s easier to read text that’s in narrow columns, rather than long rows that span the entire width of the page.

Create a column effect without multiple columns

Of course, this rule creates a little of a dilemma: You certainly don’t want readers to have to scroll up and down the website to read the sort of multiple column layout you’d see in the newspapers. That’s probably why such layouts aren’t as popular as they were a few years ago. However, you can still keep text from going all the way across. The one danger here is that this sort of formatting may not come out on a printer, which is why The New York Times offers a button to see a printer-friendly page.

Keep paragraph size small

A related issue is the size of the paragraphs. If you’re involved in writing any of the actual text for the web page (e.g., instructions for a web application), favor short paragraphs over long ones that seemingly never end. Otherwise, readers may lose patience and not even read what you wrote.

Don’t let your code get rid of all the white space either

Similarly, if your web application reports on data that users have entered, don’t get rid of all the white space. Some applications trim every bit of white space out of a string of text, assuming that every line break or indent is wasteful. In some instances, developers fail to encode text entered as a line break as an HTML break <> . The result is large blocks of impenetrable text.


Design for legibility

Even using techniques to increase text readability doesn’t guarantee the content will be entirely legible. Legibility has to do with the overall design of text on the page. The goal is to format and position the text so it’s easy for viewers to recognize the hierarchy of the content.


A matter of purpose

You’ll probably notice that some sites deliberately seek to be disorderly, jarring, or even annoying. Glitzy, flamboyant sites, may work as part of marketing strategy, or to appeal to specific audiences. But if your goal is to impart information, your best bet is usually to create an orderly page.

JULY

Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Office 2007, PowerPoint and Excel
Explore how Excel 2007 takes advantage of a new, results-oriented user interface that provides easy access to powerful productivity tools, offers a larger workspace, and delivers faster performance. See how to quickly create pivot Tables and Charts to better analyze you information, while still creating easy to read & use spreadsheets. Additionally, discover the synergy of working with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 to present and deliver your information to your audience with presentation tools that allow you to paint a picture of what you need to convey.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Register: http://bit.ly/Ur1Z

Creating Complex Documents with Microsoft Word 2007
Creating Complex document with Microsoft Word 2007 Get informative tips to help you create better Microsoft Word 2007 documents more easily than ever before, and learn why the less work you do, the better your Microsoft Office Word documents will be. Witness how Microsoft SharePoint Services enhances the collaborative process. See the options available to streamline the creation of your documents and learn how to share this with other Word users, 2007 & previous.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Register: http://bit.ly/Ur1Z

AUGUST

Collaborating with Microsoft Office 2007 using Microsoft SharePoint Services
See how enhancements in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office 2007 make it easier than ever to share documents, track tasks, use e-mail efficiently and effectively, and share ideas and information. Discover the tools to create Team Sites, Document libraries, and meeting sites with Microsoft SharePoint Services.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Register: http://bit.ly/Ur1Z

ENROLL in all New Horizons Webinars at: http://bit.ly/Ur1Z

We've added more courses to our Remote Classroom Schedule! To learn more about our courses and how New Horizons Remote Classroom works, just visit the portal @ http://www.LearnAtNewHorizons.com/RemoteClassroom.

We are happy to answer any questions you have, and as always, if you do not see a course listed on the schedule, just let us know! You can contact us directly or just fill out the form here. We look forward to hearing from you.

Our Excel article shows you which functions to use when you want to count data that you’ve already filtered. To view the graphics to the table references in this article, please view the pdf document located here.

If you’ve ever tried to count the number of rows in your data table, you might have felt frustrated when you filter the data and realize your row count remains the same. Even when you filter the data, your count might still include the entire data table — especially if you use the COUNT function. Instead, we’ll show you how the SUBTOTAL function can give you the accurate total you need. Your SUBTOTAL formula will update with your filtered data — whether you’re working with text or numeric data.

Cast out the COUNT function

The COUNT function comes in handy when you’re dealing with numeric data, but it doesn’t play well with filtered data. First, the COUNT function only recognizes numeric data. If you include text data in the COUNT function’s range, the formula won’t recognize the text data. If your data range only includes numeric data, the COUNT function includes every row — even rows hidden when you filter the data.

Even the COUNTA function, which recognizes both text and numeric data, still includes hidden filtered rows in its final tally.

To illustrate these functions’ failings, take a look at our comparison table in Figure A. Our data includes 12 months of expense and revenue data. We’ve filtered the data to show the five months with the highest expenses. So, logically, our row count should equal five. But even when we include different ranges — the entire data table, a column of text data only, and a column of numeric data only — none of the COUNT or COUNTA functions give us the correct result.

Adapt for Excel 2007

The SUBTOTAL function works the same way in Excel 2007 as it does in earlier versions. The only difference is that Excel 2007 allows up to 254 ref arguments (ranges to include in the SUBTOTAL formula) whereas earlier versions allow only 29 arguments.

Important:
Note that when you include the entire data table in your COUNT or COUNTA function’s range, the formula counts every cell. If you want to count the number of rows in your filtered data table, you should only include one column of the data range in your formula.

Get the right results with the SUBTOTAL function

Don’t despair! The SUBTOTAL function can give you the accurate row count you need for a filtered data table. The SUBTOTAL function follows this syntax: =SUBTOTAL(function_num, ref1, ref2, . . .) The ref1 and ref2 arguments represent any ranges or references you want to include in the subtotal. You can add up to 29 ref arguments, and they should include columns — not rows. The SUBTOTAL function is designed for columns, according to Microsoft.

The function_num argument represents the function you want Excel to use when it subtotals the data in your ref ranges. We’ve listed all of the available functions and their function_num equivalents in Table A.

Learn how hidden data factors into the equation

Table A includes function_num values that both include and exclude hidden values. You might assume that filtered data includes hidden data — after all, the AutoFilter does its job by hiding rows that don’t fit your chosen criteria. But Excel doesn’t consider filtered data “hidden” in this case. When it comes to the SUBTOTAL function, hidden data refers only to rows that you hide by choosing Format Row Hide from the menu bar (or right-clicking on a row number and choosing Hide from the shortcut menu).

So in most cases, it won’t matter which set of function_num values you use for filtered data. But if your data table does include rows you’ve hidden manually, pay attention to whether you want to include those hidden rows in your SUBTOTAL results.

Choose the right function_num value

For our purposes, we’ll need to use either the COUNT or the COUNTA function to count the number of rows in our filtered data. We’ve updated our comparison table to include SUBTOTAL formulas that use COUNT and SUBTOTAL formulas that use COUNTA.

When you use a range that includes column B, which contains numeric data, you can use COUNT with SUBTOTAL for an accurate row count. You can also use COUNTA in this case because COUNTA recognizes both numeric and text data. But when you use a range that includes column A, which contains text data, the COUNTA function_num argument gives you an accurate count. For text data, you can’t use the COUNT function.

For this reason, if you’re counting data that doesn’t contain consistent formatting (such as dates), the COUNTA function_num is your safest bet.

Watch your data flex

When you change the filter on your data range, watch your SUBTOTAL formula’s results update to match the new row count. While using the COUNT or COUNTA functions alone give you the wrong results, the SUBTOTAL function works.

To view the graphics to the table references in this article, please view the pdf document located here.

Business skills for the new world of work

In business today, productivity is key to your success. Whether that means setting up projects for success, forecasting and analyzing trends, or managing critical business information, it is vital that you have the skills to work at peak performance. You already know how to use Microsoft® Office System applications. New Horizons offers Microsoft Business Skills Series Courses to teach you how to use those applications to more efficiently manage, work with, and prioritize information to make better decisions.

Go to www.NewHorizons.com/ for information on courses that cover topics such as:

• 4002 Forecasting and Trend Analysis Using Microsoft Office Excel 2003
• 4004 Managing Critical Business Information Using Microsoft Office Access 2003
• 4008 Building Better Microsoft Office Word 2003 Documents In Less Time
  

Related Course

• Excel 2007 - Level 3

Conshohocken, PA U.S.A. – June 8, 2009 – New Horizons Computer Learning Centers announced today that it is the recipient of a Cisco Partner Summit theatre award for Learning Partner of the Year. Cisco unveiled the winner on June 2nd at its annual partner conference in Boston.

“I have the honor and privilege of recognizing New Horizons Computer Learning Centers as a Cisco Partner Summit regional award winner," said Wendy Bahr, senior vice president, U.S. and Canada channels at Cisco. “The Learning Partner of the Year recognizes New Horizons’ performance and accomplishments as a Cisco channel partner in US and Canada in 2008.”

“We believe Cisco to be a very important partner for New Horizons around the world. Throughout the year, our primary goal has been to deliver the highest quality Cisco training to our students. We look forward to growing and expanding our partnership with Cisco and it is an honor to be recognized for this esteemed award on behalf of all New Horizons Centers,” commented Mark A. Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons Worldwide.

Cisco Partner Summit awards are presented at three levels: regional, theater and global. Cisco Partner Summit U.S. and Canada theater awards reflect a partner’s performance across the United States and Canada.

About New Horizons Computer Learning Centers
With over 300 centers in 60 countries, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based New Horizons Worldwide, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: NEWH) is the world’s largest IT training company. Through an integrated learning approach that ensures that new knowledge can be applied to real life situations, New Horizons delivers a full range of technology and business skills training from basic application and desktop productivity tools to complex and integrated business systems. New Horizons continues to expand its offerings, locations, and solutions to meet the growing demands placed on organizations and their employees. For more information, or to find a local New Horizons Computer Learning Center, visit www.newhorizons.com.

Cisco, the Cisco logo, and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems Inc. in the United States and certain other countries.

Smart companies will take advantage of this training and software offer!

Expert IT training and certification are more important than ever in a tough economy, because they can help companies boost productivity and get the most from their technology investments.

A recent IDC Performance Impact Study* found that teams that met most or all of their objectives typically had twice the amount of training as teams that achieved only partial success.

Take advantage of this great offer to get up to speed and certified on Microsoft SQL Server technology, plus get a free copy of the software so you can gain hands-on experience.

Click here to download the SQL Server 2008 certification path flyer and Promotion Details >>>

How to get this offer: Enroll in and attend any one of the following eight Microsoft SQL Server 2008 courses before SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 (while supplies last), and you get a fully licensed copy of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition with one client access license (CAL).

Get best-in-class training and build outstanding skills when you train with Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions.

Act now! This free software offer is available for a limited time, and only while supplies last, so enroll today in New Horizons SQL Server 2008 Training near you!

More from Microsoft >>>

Visit http://www.LearnAtNewHorizons.com/RemoteClassroom to view the newly updated New Horizons Remote Classroom Schedule, Orientation Video, Online Training Resources and more!

Eliminate your commuting challenges with New Horizons Remote Classroom! Stay home and log-in - you'll remain an interactive student with your own designated seat and computer in our on-site classroom.

Remote Classroom offers students the flexibility of taking courses from a remote location, with LIVE video and audio participation integrated with our Classrooms & Instructors. This makes it even easier for you to get the course you want, when and where you need it.

New Horizons can enroll one student or an entire group of students in our online Remote Classroom courses, and virtually any course we provide through our Instructor-Led Classroom curriculum can be delivered to you through our Remote Classroom.

Want to learn more? Just submit your information via the short form located on the Remote Classroom Portal Page @ http://www.LearnAtNewHorizons.com/RemoteClassroom/index.html#contact and we'll get you the information you need to see if Remote Classroom fits your training needs.

When you’re working with a team, you value everyone’s input. But trying to consolidate two versions of the same document often means overlooked changes or a final document riddled with mistakes. The Compare And Merge Documents feature from Word 2003 and earlier lets you combine two versions of the same document into one file, marking each user’s changes just as if they’d used the Track Changes feature. But you can’t view the original documents simultaneously, and with so many changes you might leave some edits unresolved. Let’s look at how Word 2007 improves on the previous Compare And Merge Documents feature.

Refresh your memory

The Compare And Merge Documents feature from the pre-2007 era did prove helpful for getting two versions of a document into one final, polished document. You just had to select Compare And Merge Documents from the Tools menu, select the documents you wanted to merge, and Word created a combined document with its differences marked up like tracked changes (even if the two documents didn’t use the Tracked Changes feature).

The feature’s major limitation was its inability to let you review either of the two original documents. If you wanted to double- check one of them, you had to open the document separately or try to arrange it in one window using the Compare Side By Side feature. And if you wanted to view both original documents and the merged document — forget it. Plus, with so many changes in one document — some of them conflicting changes — you can easily overlook some changes and mar your final version. Word 2007 gives you more control over what you view onscreen and adds a Reviewing pane, which lists all of a document’s revisions in a panel you can view simultaneously. As a result, you can even view your combined document, its two original source documents, and the Reviewing pane, all at once.

Compare vs. combine
You must decide whether you need to compare documents or combine them. Compare documents when you don’t want to make changes or consider input from multiple users; you just want to see how two versions of one document differ. Combine documents when you want to consolidate two documents edited by more than one user and reconcile the changes.

Compare two versions of the same document

In Word 2003 and earlier, you can choose to compare documents without merging them, called a legal blackline. Word 2007 also offers you this option in the case where you don’t want to compare changes from several users — you just want to compare two versions of a document to see what differences lie between them.

To compare two documents without combining them:

1. Launch Word 2007 and select the Review tab.
2. Click the Compare button in the Compare group and choose Compare from the resulting dropdown list.
3. In the Compare Documents dialog box, select Browse from the Original Document dropdown list and navigate to the first version of your document in the Open dialog box.
4. Select the document and click Open to add it to the Original Document dropdown list.
5. Follow steps 3 and 4 to add your second version of the document to the Revised Document dropdown list.
6. Click the More button to further specify your comparison settings.

Note: Any documents open in Word when you use the Compare feature, along with documents from your Recent Documents list, will display automatically in the Original Document and Revised Document dropdown lists. You might not need to browse for your document, so check the dropdown list’s choices first.

Handle existing tracked changes

Ideally, if you’re comparing documents (as opposed to combining them) neither document should include tracked changes. If one or both of your documents includes tracked changes, Word displays a dialog box warning you that, for the purposes of comparison, Word will consider the changes as accepted. Click Yes if you want to continue or No to cancel the comparison.
Keep in mind that letting Word accept the changes for the comparison doesn’t affect the original document. The comparison opens as a new, unsaved document (unless you’ve changed this preference in the Compare Documents dialog box’s Show Changes section).

View more comparison information

By default, once you compare your original document with the revised document, Word displays one new document. Word marks only the changes that signify how the revised document differs from the original document.

If you want to view one or both source documents, click the Show Source Documents button in the Compare group of the Review tab. Select either Show Original, Show Revised, or Show Both from the resulting dropdown menu. If you view one additional document, it displays in a vertical panel to the right of your comparison document. If you view both documents, the right panel splits into two panels. You can dismiss any of the documents at any time by clicking the Close button in the upper-right corner.

Combine two edited documents

While earlier versions of Word included comparing and merging in one, overarching feature, Word 2007 separates them, giving you more flexibility. If you have two documents that different users have edited using the Track Changes feature, you’ll want to consolidate those changes into one document for easier review. Instead of comparing those documents, you’ll want to combine them.

To combine two documents with tracked changes:

1. Go to the Review tab and, in the Compare group, click the Compare button.
2. Choose Combine from the dropdown list.
3. In the Combine Documents dialog box (which looks identical to the Compare Documents dialog box), select Browse from the Original Document dropdown list and navigate to the first version of your document in the Open dialog box.
4. Select the document and click Open to add it to the Original Document dropdown list.
5. Follow steps 3 and 4 to add your second version of the document to the dropdown list.
6. Click the More button to further specify your comparison settings.

Tip: You can change the name attributed to each document’s unmarked changes.
Enter new text in the Label Unmarked Changes With text box.

By default, Word displays the username of the document’s existing tracked changes. Unlike the Compare feature, when you click OK to combine two documents, Word splits your window to show the combined document, the two original source documents, and the Reviewing pane.
You can dismiss any of these areas if you don’t need them in view. Or, you can modify what changes the documents show using the options in the Tracking group of the Review tab. For example, to view the document without marked changes, just choose Final from the Display For Review dropdown list.

More than two documents?
Word 2007 can only combine two documents at a time. So what if you have four reviewers who have all given you their edits for the same document? Combine two of the documents and save the result. Then, combine the resulting document with the third document, and so on.

Never miss an unresolved change

The Reviewing pane in particular boosts Word’s editing capabilities. A summary at the top of the reviewing pane tells you the number of unresolved changes in the document, along with breaking down that number into the type of change: insertions, deletions, moves, formatting, and comments.

As you’re reviewing changes and accepting or rejecting them, The Reviewing pane updates this information automatically. But if you want to force an update, you can click the Update Revision Count button at the top of the Reviewing pane.

You can also display the Reviewing pane horizontally instead of its default vertical display. Just click the Reviewing Pane button’s dropdown list in the Tracking group. Select Reviewing Pane Horizontal from the dropdown list. Now your Reviewing pane spans horizontally along the bottom of your screen.

Now you can save your combined document as a new document, keeping your two original documents intact.

We often hear that network security is a multi-layered or multi-level concept, but exactly what are the specific layers? Moving from the most abstract to the most specific, we define the major levels of network security as:

• Policy level.
  This is all about planning, strategy, and decision-making. At this level, you define the organization’s security needs and make rules designed to meet those needs.
  
• Physical level.
  This pertains to the physical security of your network’s components. It includes the obvious—physically controlling access to workstations, servers, and network devices such as firewalls, routers, and switches. It also includes preventing unauthorized persons from obtaining physical possession of or access to the network cable (or, in the case of wireless networking, airwaves). Finally, it involves protecting network information that’s in hard copy form, such as written password lists and network diagrams, as well as smart cards, tokens, keys to removable hard disks, backup tapes, CDs, and anything else that pertains to your network.
  
• Perimeter level.
  This involves stopping unauthorized persons or data from entering your local network from across the internet, through the phone lines, or other outside locations. The most obvious manifestation of perimeter security is the firewall, but it also includes network access controls in the form of logon authentication, intrusion detection systems, network-based anti-virus systems, network-based spam filtering, remote access quarantine controls and similar methods of keeping undesirable packets out of the network.
  
• Host level.
  This includes security mechanisms designed to protect individual systems, such as host-based firewalls like the Windows firewall, host-based IDS and anti-virus programs, client-side spam filtering programs, operating system hardening and security patches, and securing individual applications.
  
• Data level.
  This pertains to security of the data stored on your computer or sent across the network, and includes encryption technologies such as NTFS file level encryption, third-party disk/partition encryption, and IPsec encryption to protect data in transit. It also includes folder and file level access controls such as Windows share and file permissions.

By implementing security at multiple levels (preferably at all of the levels listed), you avoid the dangers of a single point of failure when it comes to protecting your network.

APRIL

Introduction to Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Office 2007 (Level 100)

Get the most out of the Microsoft Office 2007 System. As someone beginning to use Microsoft Office 2007, you will learn about new features and timesavers to help you in your day-to-day work. This session is good for beginner, intermediate, or advanced users – everyone will learn something! The Microsoft Office System has evolved from a suite of personal productivity products to a more comprehensive and integrated system. This presentation will demonstrate useful tips and tricks for Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

Tips and Tricks for Maximizing Outlook 2007

Attend this webinar and witness how Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 delivers the functionality to provide better information sharing including publishing and sharing calendars, and exporting Outlook data. Also, see how Outlook 2007 can be configured using settings, trust, add-ins, and customized appearance and content. In this session, we also provide a better under standing of some of the terms used for communications and the capabilities; see Really Simple Syndication (RSS) versus XML, phishing, signatures, and other useful features of Outlook 2007

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

MAY

Intermediate Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Office 2007 (Level 200)

Get even more out of the Microsoft Office 2007 System. As someone who has worked with the Microsoft Office system for some time, you will discover efficient ways to configure, customize and utilize Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook to get the most out of Microsoft Office. The presentation will demonstrate useful tips and tricks for Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel. In addition, you will see useful ways to interact between these Microsoft applications.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

Introducing Microsoft Windows Vista® for Microsoft Office 2007 Users (100)

This webinar introduces to those familiar with Microsoft Office the features of Microsoft Vista that best suits them. You will see the advantages of using Windows Vista and Office together including better file origination, starting programs, search, communication, and Internet navigation. Get tips & tricks to better share and find your files, discover the consistency of search capabilities throughout Windows Vista, and navigate the new features of Internet Explorer. From this session, you’ll get a number of tips to help you immediately benefit from installing Windows Vista into your Microsoft Office 2007 environment.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

Join us from the comfort of your own office… on the Web! Webinar events are quick and convenient.

New Horizons Webinars are a great opportunity for business decision-makers, training professionals, developers, engineers and project managers to see the real value these new technologies can bring to your organization. With new topics every month, there's something for everyone.

ENROLL in all Webinars at: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

Join us from the comfort of your own office… on the Web! Webinar events are quick and convenient.

New Horizons Webinars are a great opportunity for business decision-makers, training professionals, developers, engineers and project managers to see the real value these new technologies can bring to your organization. With new topics every month, there's something for everyone. Go to www.newhorizons.com/webinars to enroll in all events.

APRIL

Introduction to Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Office 2007 (Level 100)

Get the most out of the Microsoft Office 2007 System. As someone beginning to use Microsoft Office 2007, you will learn about new features and timesavers to help in your day-to-day work. This session is good for beginner, intermediate, or advanced users – everyone will learn something! The Microsoft Office System has evolved from a suite of personal productivity products to a more comprehensive and integrated system. This presentation will demonstrate useful tips and tricks for Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars
  

Tips and Tricks for Maximizing Outlook 2007

Attend this webinar and witness how Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 delivers the functionality to provide better information sharing including publishing and sharing calendars, and exporting Outlook data. Also, see how Outlook 2007 can be configured using settings, trust, add-ins, and customized appearance and content. In this session, we also provide a better understanding of some of the terms used for communications and the capabilities; see Really Simple Syndication (RSS) versus XML, phishing, signatures, and other useful features of Outlook 2007.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

MAY

Intermediate Tips & Tricks for Microsoft Office 2007 (Level 200)

Get even more out of the Microsoft Office 2007 System. As someone who has worked with the Microsoft Office system for some time, you will discover efficient ways to configure, customize and utilize Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook to get the most out of Microsoft Office. The presentation will demonstrate useful tips and tricks for Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel. In addition, you will see useful ways to interact between these Microsoft applications.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

Introducing Microsoft Windows Vista® for Microsoft Office 2007 Users (100)

This webinar introduces to those familiar with Microsoft Office the features of Microsoft Vista that best suits them. You will see the advantages of using Windows Vista and Office together including better file origination, starting programs, search, communication, and Internet navigation. Get tips & tricks to better share and find your files, discover the consistency of search capabilities throughout Windows Vista, and navigate the new features of Internet Explorer. From this session, you’ll get a number of tips to help you immediately benefit from installing Windows Vista into your Microsoft Office 2007 environment.

• Presenter: Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
• Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
• Time: 10 am Pacific; 12 pm Central; 1 pm Eastern
• Click here to register: www.newhorizons.com/webinars

In the March 2009 issue of The Elevate Newsletter from New Horizons:

Microsoft Office Productivity
Three ways to protect your Excel data with confidence
Sometimes you need to keep your Excel data away from prying eyes. But you can protect your data in so many ways that the whole process gets confusing. We’ll break it down for you so your data never stays vulnerable. more >

Information Systems Protection
Twelve ways to harden your domain controllers and prevent security breaches
Domain controllers (DCs) hold a lot of valuable information about your Windows server, which means that you must secure them. We’ve compiled a few ways for you to keep intruders out of your network by strengthening your domain controllers. more >

Web Design & Development
Employ interactive elements to keep users on your site
Finally, nothing drives away online visitors like a boring website. We’ll introduce you to a few ideas for adding interactive elements to your site so visitors want to stay. more >

_____________________________________

New Horizons' goal is for our students to become more productive and successful in their daily activities. With this in mind, we have created Elevate, a newsletter specifically created for New Horizons students. In this free monthly publication you will read articles on how to put what you learned at New Horizons into action.

Simply click on the following link to access the March issue of Elevate.
http://www.newhorizons.com/uploadedFiles/ElevateNewsletter/Elevate_March2009.pdf

Good luck on your path of lifelong learning.