http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-things-deploying-microsoft-office-can-teach-you/3438?tag=nl.e103&s_cid=e103

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/project-management/twitter-demonstrates-troubleshooting-capacity-in-tech-crisis/4966?tag=main;carousel

By Erik Eckel – TechRepublic.com

Mobile technology plays a role in enhancing travel safety and security, however checking on potential risks before booking travel is important.

Most managed travel programs have as part of their travel policy, a provider or a third-party via their travel management company that provides them with real-time alerts and information for travellers on who to contact and when. -Tanya Racz, President of the Global Business travel Association Canada (GBTA)

Once on location, there are apps that allow travellers to let their organizations know electronically where in the world they are and whether they need help, but it doesn’t need to be an app.   Instead the GPS location provided by cellular companies on their phones can be used. 

Furthermore, some apps can be risky as they can automatically connect to an employee’s Facebook or LinkedIn account and broadcast the fact that the employee is not at work or home.  This can also present corporate security issues.

Re working on a laptop at an airport, using a privacy filter, which can darken screen images from side views, can ward off unwanted eyes.    Also ensure that laptops are hardware encrypted to prevent information access if the device is lost or stolen.   Some people travel with blank laptops.

While technology offers myriad benefits in terms of traveller convenience and boosting productivity, Racz says that corporate travellers become unable to disconnct from work due to the spread of technology designed to make their work life easier.  The question remained whether the proliferation of technology would make life better for corporate road warriors or lead to more burn out.

It’s really a double-edged sword.  You just really have no down time.  It’s great to be able to be on a plane and have WiFi and continue to work away, but it really does impact your overall quality of life and what you’re able to then do after the road trip is finished.  – Tanya Racz

Sherry Saunders, senior VP and GM, CWT Canada, says that corporate travellers must exercise personal discipline in order to use technology properly without being tied to it. And used properly, technology can relieve – rather than contribute to – stress while the road. Ex. doing mundane tasks such as expenses would be a way to use technology to relieve stress and manage productivity.

Using choice fields, preferably choices laid out in a seperate table, rather than a list of values in the field,  enable better reporting because of easier joins in the queries.

http://allenbrowne.com/casu-23.html

To  set the default format, you have two choices.  One is to preformat the range of cells, or select and preformat the entire worksheet.  And the second, more preferable method,  is to change the Normal style, as the default format uses the Normal style.

To change the Normal style, click the Normal icon in the Home-> Syles group, click Modify, select the Format button, then select the Number Format to use.

To change the link source, use the Edit Links dialog box.  File-> Info -> Related Documents -> Edit Links to Files.  Select the source workbook to change and click the Change Source button.  Excel then displays the Change Source dialog box from which you can select the new source file.  Once the file is selected, all external reference formulas that referred to the old file are updated.

You can:

• Automate manual procedures
• Automate repetitive tasks.
• Insert boilerplate text
• Create number sequences as required
• Create custom commands
• Develop whole new functions in addition to those that exist
• Automate applications so that they run procedures from beginning to end
• Data scrubbing

There is a whole lot you can do to make your life easier using VBA.   The best part is that it can be used to create applications that integrate Excel, Access, Word, Outlook etc., so you do not have to open each app individually and perform whatever function.  VBA can do all this for you.

In the bottom row of the table, you now have a summary formula for a table column..