Techie Tuesdays-Creating a static IP

Posted on 18/05/2011 by Travis Booth
Computer, Users, Windows

Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of Techie Tuesdays! We know we promised you a real nail-biter in the form of excel PivotTables, but we felt that given the requests we've had for a post on connectivity, this would be a great deal more useful. Today, we're going to be looking at how to assign a static IP address to your computer. Basically, if you have a home network with multiple machines you have two options: you can run DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which will request a new address every time you boot up. This usually works well, but can be a bit of a pain when you need to troubleshoot. By assigning a static IP to each machine, you'll be able to prevent conflicts and manage each machine more easily within your network. Therefore, without any further ado, we present:

Creating a Static IP in Windows 7

 

1) Click your windows icon on the bottom left corner. Type "network and sharing" into into the search box.

2) When the Network and Sharing centre pops up, click on the "Change Adapter Settings" link on the left hand side.

 

3) Right click on your adapter and select "Properties".

 

4) In the "Local Area Connection Properties" window highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click the "Properties" button.

 

5) Now click on "Use the following IP address" and enter in the correct IP and other info that matches your network setup. Then enter your preferred and alternate DNS server addresses. 

 

6) Tick the "Validate Settings" upon exit so any problems will be spotted early. When you're done click OK.

 

7) Close your "Local Area Connection Properties" window.

This is a bit of a technical operation, but rest assured, well worth the effort. Stay tuned for next week when our enormous great post on Excel PivotTables will rock your world!

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Techie Tuesdays-Working With Excel Pivot Tables

Posted on 26/04/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, Microsoft Office, Tech Support

 

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Techie Tuesdays! As promised, we'll be trying to get to grips with the knotty complexity of an Excel Pivot Table. Pivot Tables allow you to organise large amounts of data more effectively, as well as highlighting specific elements of a chart that you feel deserve extra attention. Using this tool, you'll be able to save time and organise your data far more effectively. So, without any further ado:

Creating an Excel Pivot Table

1) Open the spreadsheet with the data you'd like to work with. Then select any cell within the worksheet. Click on "insert" and then the "PivotTable" button.

3) The PivotTable Field List should open up, this will allow you to organise what fields you'd like to use, as well as positioning them.

4) Select the fields you'd like to use by dragging them into the different boxes on the worksheet. 

5) Arrange the view of the PivotTable field so it suits you.

 

6) While building the PivotTable it’s fully functional so you can go through and test it out. In this example where we’re filtering the months.

 

Hopefully this all makes sense and will allow you to create visually appealing, data-driven PivotTables. Stay tuned for next week, when we'll be looking at additional ways of working with these stalwarts of the Excel world. 
Have a good week!

 

Techie Tuesdays- Exporting your Gmail Contacts to Outlook

Posted on 12/04/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, E-mail, Microsoft Outlook

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Techie Tuesdays! We know we promised you Pivot tables last week, and that you've been anxiously waiting by your monitors and refreshing your screen every 15 seconds; but due to the overwhelming popularity of our series on Outlook, we thought we'd give it one last hurrah and deal with one of the most common problems people have when dealing with their Email:

Exporting Gmail Contacts into Outlook

This is an exceptionally simple little procedure that will save you much time and anguish when starting a new Outlook account, so let's get started:

 

1) Log into your Gmail account. Select contacts and then specify as to whether you want individuals or all of them.

2) Click "Export" whilst selecting a location for the CSV file. CSV is the best one to pick as it will export to Excel.

3) That concludes the Gmail side of things. Your next task is to open Outlook, click "file", followed by "import/export"

4) This action should open the Import and Export Wizard. Select " Import from another program or file", then "next".

5) Select "Comma Separated Values (DOS)" and then "next".

6) The wizard should then allow you to browse for the CSV file. Once you've selected it, we'd recommend not importing duplicate items, but this is entirely up to you.

7) Next, you'll need to select a folder or location in your Outlook where you want to keep this info. Hit "next" (obviously)

8) By rights, you should have a confirmation screen telling you what you've selected and where it'll be going. Congratulations, you've successfully imported your Gmail contacts.

Next week, we promise to publish our post on Pivot Tables. It's already written, and it is a doozy. See you next week.

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Techie Tuesdays-Working With Excel (Part 1)

Posted on 29/03/2011 by Travis Booth
Computer, IT Support, Windows

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Techie Tuesdays! This week we'll be dipping a toe into the confusing green swamp that is Excel, with a how-to on creating attractive charts.Graphs are a brilliant way of crystallising complex data. They can save you time, energy and effort by encapsulating and presenting whatever it is you're trying to say in a short, palatable fashion.He who masters the graph, masters the boardroom and many a contract has been won or lost on the quality of their visualisations.Therefore, without any further ado, we present:

Creating Charts in Excel.

1) Select and highlight the data you'd like to create your chart with.

2) Now that you've got your data, click "insert" and then "chart". The nice thing at this point is that you can pick and swap graphics to decide on the best one for your chart.

3) For the sake of the demonstration, we've selected the "exploding pie". After you've selected your graphic you'll be able to preview it.

4) You can customise it further by going to the "design" tab in the toolbar and clicking "quick layout". Play around until you find one that works for you. You can add further customisation by right-clicking the chart and editing text.

5) Sit back and gloat at how good this data makes you look in your next presentation.

Stay tuned for next week when we'll be continuing with advanced Excel, in the shape of Pivot Tables!

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Techie Tuesdays-Automating Outlook (Part Three)

Posted on 22/03/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, E-mail, Microsoft Outlook

Hello, and welcome to Techie Tuesdays! This week, we'll be dealing with rule-setting in Outlook. More specifically, setting up the "defer" rule. This handy little feature will allow you to effectively pause all message delivery for a few minutes, giving you the opportunity to reread and possibly edit mails that you may not have meant to send as is. Therefore, without any further gilding the lilly, we present: 

Deferring mails using Outlook rules.

1) Select "Rules and Alerts" from the tools menu. Then select the "new rule" button.

2) Select "start from a blank rule", choose "Check messages after sending". Click "next".

3) The next screen to appear should say "Which conditions do you wish to check". Click "next" again. You should receive a prompt telling you that the rule will apply to all messages. We'd recommend clicking "yes". One rule at a time.

 

4) The next screen will allow you to change the number of minutes you'd like to defer delivery by. Change it to suit your preference.We'd recommend anywhere between 3 and 5 minutes.

 

5) Click the "next" button , and give the rule a name. Ideally something you'll remember.

 

Now when you send messages, you’ll notice that they linger in the Outbox for a few minutes. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your new stress-free email experience. Stay tuned for next week when we'll be delving into the morass of complications that is Microsoft Excel.

Techie Tuesdays-Automating Outlook (Part Two)

Posted on 15/03/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, E-mail, Microsoft Outlook

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Techie Tuesdays. In part two of our "Managing Outlook" series, we'll be looking at how you can better co-ordinate your inbox using colour-coding. This handy little feature will allow you to quickly and easily find mails from specified individuals, saving you time and effort. It also means that you will be able to customise your inbox to include all the colours of the rainbow and let's face it, who doesn't want that

So, without any further ado allow us to present:

Colour-coding your inbox.

1) Click on the tools tab, followed by Organize

2) Above your inbox, a pane stating "Ways to organize your inbox" should appear.

3) On the left of the pane, select "using colours".

4) Go to your inbox, select messages from the person whose messages you'd like to colour-code.

5) After selecting, you'll need to go back to the Organize pane. Select "Colour messages" and select your sender from the dropdown. Pick your colour and click apply.

6) Repeat the procedure until you're happy, or your eyes start to hurt. Whichever comes first.

Join us next week when we'll be moving onto part three of our "Managing Outlook" Series!

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Techie Tuesdays-Automating Outlook (Part One)

Posted on 8/03/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, E-mail, Microsoft Outlook

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Techie Tuesdays. As promised last week (and we always keep our promises), we will be working with Microsoft Outlook. Our how-to for this week is on how to automatically move daily emails into specific folders within your mailbox. By removing some of the clutter that we all receive on a day-to-day basis, you'll be able to retrieve important mails far easier, as well as keeping track of mails you get on a daily basis through your folder system.This will increase your productivity,save you time and reduce the endless scrolling through your inbox.

 Automatically Move Daily Emails to Specific Folders in Outlook

1) Right click on the mail message you'd like to move to a folder and select "create rule".

2) This should open up the "create rule" screen. From here you will be able to assign actions to any piece of incoming mail you want to. I'd recommend setting the rule by sender.

3) After you have selected your conditions, you check the box titled" Move the item to folder"

4) In order for this operation to be completed, you need to create a folder as a location for the mail to go. Once this is done, simply click OK and bob's yer uncle.

This is an incredibly simple exercise and one that will end up saving you an incredible amount of time. Stay tuned for next week, when we will be moving onto Part Two of our scintillating Outlook series.

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Techie Tuesdays-Creating Office Macros

Posted on 28/02/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, Microsoft Office, Tech Support

 

Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of Techie Tuesdays! As promised, we're finally going to be focusing on Macros, and how you can use them to perform onerous, mind-numbing tasks with just a few keys. Unless, of course, you enjoy mind-numbing tasks;in which case we have a great deal of paperwork that we'd love for you to help us with. 

Macros are essentially a way of recording boring tasks so that when next you need to perform them, you can do it by clicking your mouse a few times.

So, without any further ado we welcome you to:

Recording Macros in office documents.

In most office programs you can create a Macro either by recording a series of actions or by writing the macro yourself.Recording a macro can be as simple as pressing on and off on a recorder. As an example, we're going to create a Macro that reformats several tables in a long Word document.To record this macro, start with the insertion point in the first table you'd like to record. 

1) Click tools, followed by Macro. Click on Record New Macro.

2) In the Record Macro box, you'll be able to assign it a name and toolbar. Click OK to begin recording. You'll be able rename your macro at a later stage.

3) After you've clicked OK, you should get a toolbar that looks like this:

4) The next bit will be painful. But take solace in the fact that this may well be the last time you have to do this. You will need to apply any sort of styling that you may need to the table; be meticulous and ensure you get the exact result you want.

5) Once you're done, hit the Stop Recording button. Save the macro in the dialog box.

6) After this is done, you should be able to click on any table you want, start the macro and it will repeat the same action,like magic.

Hopefully this little how-to will enable you to free up a bit more of your time, making you more productive, or in my case, vastly more proficient at Solitaire. Stay tuned for next week when we will again be tackling the shadowy world of Microsoft Outlook.

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Techie Tuesdays-Merging mail accounts in Outlook

Posted on 21/02/2011 by Travis Booth
Computers, E-mail, Microsoft Outlook

I know, I know. We promised you a segment on macros this week, but our support engineers have noticed quite a few mail-related enquiries coming through and as a result we felt it behoved us to offer some advice regarding Microsoft Outlook and merging mail accounts.

Therefore, without any further gilding the lily, we humbly present this weeks offering:

Adding a gmail account to Microsoft Outlook 2010.

1) The first thing you need to do is go to the settings in your gmail account. Click on the forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Make sure that IMAP is enabled and save the changes.

2) Your next move is to open Outlook, click on File, then account settings. Click on Add and remove accounts.

3) In the account Settings window, click on the "New" button.

4) Enter, your name and email address. Verify the password and click "Next".

5) Outlook should configure the mail settings. This might take a while.

6) Now, provided everything has been installed correctly the configuration should be successful and you should be able to use the account.

Congratulations! You now have dual mailboxes running off your Outlook account. Stay tuned for next week, when we promise to actually get around to those pesky Macros.

 

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Everything you know about the cloud is wrong.

Posted on 17/02/2011 by Travis Booth
Business IT, Cloud Computing, Shared Hosting

We won't lie, we're huge fans of the cloud. And while it's not without it's glitches, you'd be hard-pressed to find any sort of computing infrastructure that didn't ocassionally hiccup and panic the engineers a tad. The purpose of this article is to put paid to the rumourmongers and naysayers in a nice, succinct fashion while showing you why we're backing this exciting methodology to the hilt. Let's start with fear number one...

We're all business people, and you know as well as us that any sort of security breach in the cloud would be tantamount to a death sentence to an industry that is still establishing itself. Reputable cloud providers know that a breach, no matter how small could mean the difference between making it, and heading for the poorhouse. Of course this doesn't mean that you should just sign with anyone;but by closely following your contract negotiations and ensuring your SLA's are watertight, you should be as safe as any locally hosted data centre. Make sure that all your sensitive data is encrypted both in transit, and at rest and you should be problem-free.The sad fact of the matter is that most security breaches are caused by employee error, by putting your data in the cloud, they don't have as much access as they used to, keeping costly mistakes to a minumum.

We all like paying less for things. This is a fundamental truth in any industry, but it shouldn't rule your decision-making. One of the main myths about cloud computing is that the pricing is it's only real benefit, and nothing could be farther from the truth.Whilst low cost is a definite advantage of cloud computing, most organizations are making the shift for a number of other reasons, such as agility, scalability and speed. We've found most companies are attracted to the cloud because it allows you to scale your computing power to meet your needs, whilst still maintaining a level of operational quality they may not have been able to afford any other way.

Now we're not going to say that the odd unscrupulous wretch hasn't taken advantage of the cloud for their own ends. But we will say that if you pay attention to who you're dealing with, there's no reason you shouldn't be fine. Data ownership is generally only a grey area when it comes to social networking sites such as Facebook,not with infrastructure companies. That said, there's no harm in making sure ownership clauses are a part of your contract. We'd also recommend including the right to choose your data storage location if possible.

Whatever is said about the cloud, the fact that it will continue to develop and improve, ensuring better security, closer compliance, and lower costs is beyond doubt. By ensuring you keep abreast of developments, and ensuring resources have a solid understanding of the principles involved, there's no reason your business, and ultimately you, can't take full advantage of everything it has to offer.