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Entries Tagged as 'Recommended'

Sticking to a Schedule; Time Management Tips

November 16th, 2006 · Comments · How To, Recommended, Tips, Troubleshooting, Writing

Here are some tips for managing your schedule, especially if run your own business:
Create a Schedule – if you run a small business, chances are that you have an endless to-do list. It can be very stressful, and unproductive, to manage these unless you have a plan.
Here’s a suggestion. Don’t try to keep everything [...]

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Evaluating Proposals

November 16th, 2006 · Comments · How To, Recommended, Templates, Tips, Troubleshooting, Writing

I was asked recently how to evaluate a proposal that had been sent to over 200 bidders. The Proposal Writer was thinking of developing a checklist and using this to score the bids. While this does make some sense, in reality such as checklist should have been prepared long before the RFP was published. Writing proposals [...]

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Making Money from Case Studies

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · How To, Misc, Recommended, Tips, Writing

The first question is why bother to write case studies at all?
After all, white papers seem to be more hip and trendier. Entire websites are dedicated to white paper marketing. Even Penny Marshall now offers courses on using white papers for strategic advantage. Editors seem to think they have more gravity than the plain ol’ [...]

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How To Write The Case Study in Five Days

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · How To, News, Recommended, Style, Templates, Tips, Writing

An in-depth tutorial is beyond the scope of this newsletter, but the main points are:

Show the client examples of high-quality case studies. They don’t even have to be yours. But you need to paint a picture so they understand what you’ll need from them to make this work.

Ask them what they like, dislike, things that [...]

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How to Write a Report in 30 Minutes

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · How To, News, Recommended, Style, Templates, Tips, Writing

The ability to write a compelling report is highly-valued in the business world. For those involved in project management or decision-making process, understanding how to produce a report is essential if they want to advance.
However, for most people, the idea of simply having to write another report brings on indigestion. What is it that makes [...]

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Scoping the Size Of A Project

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · How To, News, Recommended, Style, Templates, Tips, Troubleshooting, Writing

One of the classic mistakes novice writers make is to start writing without looking at the overall picture. Planning the scope of your project is key to its overall successful. 
So, before you start writing, identify everything involved in the development of the project. By the way, this applies to any type of project, whether it’s [...]

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Writing User Guides

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · How To, News, Recommended, Templates, Tips, Writing

Some points to consider when choosing software for writing user guides and technical documentation: 

Requirements – make a list of what you want the software to do. You won’t need all the features that come with FrameMaker, Interleaf or other specialist writing packages. So, instead of investing in these products upfront, define your publication requirements and [...]

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Creating a New Style

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · Formatting, How To, News, Recommended, Style, Templates, Tips, Troubleshooting, Writing

To create a new style, follow these steps: 

From the Format menu, choose Style and Formatting, and then click New Style. 

In the Name box, enter a name for the style, for example, Paragraph Text. 

In the Style type box, choose Paragraph.

In the Style Based on box, select No Style. If you base it on another style, then, [...]

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Styles

November 12th, 2006 · Comments · Formatting, How To, Recommended, Style, Templates, Tips, Tricks, Writing

Styles are one of the most powerful features in Word. A style is like a mini-template within a document. It groups together characteristics, such as font, paragraph and color, which you can apply to a piece of text.

This means that instead of having to change each piece of text by hand, you can select different [...]

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Use Draft Fonts

November 8th, 2006 · Comments · Formatting, How To, Misc, Recommended, Tips, Tricks, Writing

Turn on the Draft font option to load documents faster. This also improves the screen display of documents which have complex formatting and graphics. This option is available only in Normal view. 
To turn on the Draft font option, follow these steps: 

On the View menu, click Normal. 

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the [...]

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Use Picture Placeholder Settings

November 8th, 2006 · Comments · Formatting, How To, Recommended, Tips, Tricks, Troubleshooting, Writing

Use the Picture placeholders option if your document has lots of graphics. When you turn on this option it displays an empty white box in place of the graphic. This loads the document faster and let your scroll quicker. 
To use the Picture placeholders option, follow these steps: 

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then the [...]

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Store Documents on Your Computer

November 8th, 2006 · Comments · Recommended, Tips, Writing

Avoid saving files to a network or server. This is slower than working from your local hard disk and creates the possibility of losing data if the network goes down while working on the document. 
 

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Use Fewer Fonts

November 8th, 2006 · Comments · Formatting, Misc, Recommended, Style, Templates, Tips, Writing

Use no more than two or three fonts per document.
 
If you use more than this, it will reduce performance, especially when you print or print preview documents. The Font and Symbol dialog box will also take longer to appear when you use additional fonts. Also, most professionally designed documents limit themselves to two or three [...]

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Become an Office Power User

October 17th, 2006 · Comments · Recommended, Tips, Word 2003, Word 2007

“Are you past the basics of using Office and ready to learn more sophisticated skills? Work with macros, learn little-known shortcuts, and more in the Power User Corner.”
More terrific tips, tricks, templates and tutorials from the Office people over in Redmond.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/FX010779791033.aspx
 

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Word on the Office Developer Center

October 17th, 2006 · Comments · Recommended, Tips, Word 2003, Word 2007

MSDN offer in-depth content, code walkthroughs, downloads, product information, and more at this one-stop resource for Word developers
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odc_2003_ta/html/odc_ancword.asp
In addition to technical articles, developer documentation and other resources, you can find excellent information for:

Word Developer Portal
Word on Office Online
Word Product Information
Word Solution Providers
Office 2003 Resource Kit
Office Talk Column
Newsgroups

The resources help you “enhance your custom automation solutions [...]

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