Category: Uncategorized

by AJ George 

Here's a potentially scary situation: an application has crashed and is frozen on your screen. It looks like you are going to have to end the process. Most Windows users know that one way to end a process is to press [Ctrl] [Alt] [Del] on the keyboard to open the Windows Task Manager. On the Processes tab, select the crashed application and click the End Process button.

 

When an application recently crashed on my computer, I followed these very steps. However, to my horror, my Task Manager was missing its usual tabs and looked similar to the image below (the crashed application isn't shown of course, to protect the innocent):

Depending on your version of Windows, there could be a half-dozen tabs including Applications, Processes, Services, and Performance. I had no idea why my tabs were missing, but I tried to right-click the crashed application and end the task, but that wasn't working. If I could have accessed the Processes tab, I could have used it to quickly end the process.

While stressful, the fix was easy. All that I had to do was double-click the space to the left of the End Taskbutton and my tabs appeared. I also found that double-clicking the space again returned me to a tab-less view.  

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AJ teaches a live, 3-hour class that offers tips/tricks for improving the look and feel of your PowerPoint presentations: Slide Sprucing: Remodeling Lackluster PowerPoint Slides for eLearning and Presentations.

by AJ George 

Last week Microsoft announced its latest version of Microsoft Office and opened it
for customer preview. If, however, you're still running Windows XP or Vista, you're out of luck, as Office 2013 is only being offered for users running Windows 7 or newer. While it does not improve many application features, Office 2013 does clarify what Microsoft plans to do in the cloud to compete with Google's cloud services. 

Office 2013 is still being offered as traditional desktop software with a perpetual license, like its previous versions. The new sparkle, however, is that it is also available as Office 365, in which the traditional software is being bundled with a subscription plan, allowing you to access your Office products from any Windows 7 or 8 PC, notebook, or tablet with an internet connection. When purchased as part of an Office 365 subscription, the latest versions of Office 2013 programs and associated services are always available.

An Office 365 subscription means users can sign in from someone else's PC to work on a document or project and be able to access a cloud-based version of their own Office software, complete with settings and documents. When the document or project is closed, it will be removed from that PC. Google Docs may be free, but Microsoft is more feature-rich, so allowing this cloud functionality to stay competitive will likely prove to be a smart move.

And what about Mac? According to The Verge, Microsoft has confirmed that it will not be updating MS Office for the Mac with a new 2013 edition, but will be releasing a Mac update allowing users to access SkyDrive or Office 365. Now what's the difference between SkyDrive and Office 365? (Don't worry, I'm confused too!) Office 365 will allow users to access their fully functioning Office product from another computer, while SkyDrive provides cloud storage of documents as well as MS web apps. So with SkyDrive you'll be able to access your documents from other computers, but you'll be using a less robust web app version of Office. Office 365 will be a paid subscription, while SkyDrive is free.  

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AJ teaches a live, 3-hour class that offers tips/tricks for improving the look and feel of your PowerPoint presentations: Slide Sprucing: Remodeling Lackluster PowerPoint Slides for eLearning and Presentations. 

by AJ George 

Snapbird

The site I used was Snapbird because it is super fast and super easy. Just fill in three fields: what kind of twitter item you are looking for (a timeline post, a direct message, etc.), who posted it, and keywords. Done.

Topsy Advanced Search

Topsy Advanced Search is also fast and easy, but with more specific search options. This could save you a lot of time if your search query returns a lot of results.  My search was very simple, so Snapbird was all I needed. However, what if I wanted to do a search for my tweets about iPads, but I didn't want any of my video tweets to show up? I generally preface my video tweets with the word "video," so, using Topsy, I can elect to omit any results containing "video." This could also be useful for general Google searches, as you can use Topsy to search Google as well. 

Google

Of course, the Grand Poobah of search engines, Google, can accomplish this task for you as well. However, if you have particularly lazy fingers, this way might seem a little bit like work.  Additionally, I'm not sure why, but this method flat out did not work for me. I did the same search for "iPad" that I did on the other sites, but nothing showed up on Google. I tried other keywords that worked fine, but all searches using the keyword iPad came up blank. But since this method of site-specific search works not only for Twitter, but for all sites, I suppose it's worth a mention.

Enter your query in this format: 

site:twitter.com inurl:"username" keyword

So, for example, if I want to search my own Twitter for posts mentioning iPads, my query would look like this:

site:twitter.com inurl:"andrayajgeorge" iPad

Using Boolean operators (OR, AND, and NOT), Google site searches can become even more specific. As with Topsy, you can use Google search to omit results. All you need to do is add a minus sign (-) in front of the word you'd like to omit. Using the example above, if I wanted to search my Twitter feed for posts on iPads that didn't mention video, my search query would look like this:

site:twitter.com inurl:"andrayajgeorge" iPad-video

Are you using another Twitter search site with great success? We'd love to hear what you're using. 

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AJ teaches a live, 3-hour class that offers tips/tricks for improving the look and feel of your PowerPoint presentations: Slide Sprucing: Remodeling Lackluster PowerPoint Slides for eLearning and Presentations. 

by AJ George

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The Art of Facilitating Online Training Classes

Published reports say "the average student in online learning conditions perform better than those receiving face-to-face instruction." That's encouraging news for trainers and training companies looking to offer classes online.

Before jumping into the online training world with both feet, consider this: the world is littered with online courses that fail. Why? Typically, online classes that do not succeed are dull and far from interactive. The simple fact is this: if you don't quickly and constantly engage your students, you've lost them.

During this live, 3-hour online training event you will learn how to facilitate online (synchronous) training classes. You will be introduced to the best practices for leading an online training class and the hardware, software and venture capital you will need to get started.

Instructor: Kevin Siegel

Note: Last minute registrations are always welcome! Click here to learn more or to sign up.