Here are some of my favourite short keys in MS-Word …

1. New Document .. [Ctrl + N]
2. Open a Document .. [Ctrl + O]
3. Switch Open Documents .. [Ctrl + F6]
4. Remove all styles from paragraph .. [Ctrl + Shift + N]
5. Need to prevent two words splitting over two lines .. [Ctrl + Shift + spacebar]

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Here are a couple of short cuts that you may not have used in Excel before

1. Go to ..  [F5]
2. Save as ..  [F12]
3. Apply currency formatting to selected values ..  [Ctrl + Shift + $]
4. Apply percentage formatting to selected values ..  [Ctrl + Shift + %]
5. Hide a column ..  [Ctrl + 0]
6. Hide a row .. [Ctrl + 9]

1. Consider your audience – what they know, what they want, what they need, how they’ll use it.
2. Anticipate your readers reactions
3. Plan the message with the MADE format in mind (see formula below)
4. Draft quickly your message
5. Then edit for content, layout, grammar, clarity, conciseness and style (see extra notes below)

Where the MADE formula = Message, Action, Detail (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, How much?), Evidence (Optional enclosure or attachment)

Extra Notes for Point 5:

• Selecting the right medium to communicate
• • Know when to send an email
  • Know when to pick up a phone
  • Understand the dangers of email – misunderstandings and major faux pas
• Follow the rules of email etiquette to create the proper image
• • Check multiple email accounts promptly
  • Avoid using all uppercase or all lowercase
  • Never double-space your entire message
  • Highlight responses in colour to aid reading
  • Cut and paste rather than hit “Reply” on long continuing emails
  • Be wary of humour or sarcasm
  • Allow cool-off time before sending a flame or any emotional message
  • Use receipts sparingly
  • Don’t Forward sensitive messages or copyrighted articles without permission
  • If you don’t have something to say, don’t say it – not all emails deserve a response
  • Use a signature block or line
  • Limit your signature block
  • Limit emoticons or smileys

    : )     – smile

     : (     – sad, anger, disappointment

     ; )     – winking, just joking

Have you ever opened a document in MS-Word to find that it is not formatted the way you want?

Well the secret keyboard combination to ‘stripping’ the formatting is Ctrl + Shift + N.

Now be careful not to press Ctrl + N as this will open a new document and you will get a fright as you may think that Word has deleted your document!!!

Ctrl + Shift + N works on the paragraph your cursor is in, so if you want to do the whole document at once, try pressing Ctrl + A (to select the whole document) and then try Ctrl + Shift + N.

NB: The originator may have done so much formatting that you may need to do this keyboard combination several times in a paragraph to remove all the formatting!!!

Quick disclaimer: depending upon how the style of “normal” is constructed you may still not like the formatting that happens but at least you will have non-formatted document to work with.

Needing a calculator (type in) 2*8+45

Needing a conversion rate (type in) aud in euro

Needing conversion for cooking (type in) 5lb to kg

Needing to know the time in another city (type in) time in new zealand

Looking for how many (type in) seconds in week

Looking for an airline flight status (type in) qf623 flight status

Looking for education information (type in) business model site:edu

Looking for a definition (type in) define:ethics

Multi-tasking is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. It’s important to understand what it is, and why it doesn’t work.

Multi-tasking is when we juggle multiple things (thoughts and actions) at the same time. It may surprise you to hear, people who multi-task are less productive than those who just concentrate on one project a time.

Stanford University research confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.

This was supported by a Harvard Business Review, which indicated multi-tasking leads to as much as a 40% drop in productivity, a 10% drop in IQ, and increased stress levels (Bergman, 2010).

Perhaps there is no better example that illustrates why multitasking doesn’t work than a distracted driver.

My favourite piece of software is Notepad.

It is a free Microsoft application and you will find it by clicking on Start and type Notepad

Why is it so good? How many times have you found something on the Internet such as the correct spelling of ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger’? You copy and paste it into your Word document only to find that it has font changes, hyperlinks etc attached to it. However, if you paste it into Notepad and then do a [Ctrl + A] and a [Ctrl + X] from there, you will find where ever you paste into, the text will be clean and matching the format of your document!

Here are some of my favourite Window shortcuts. While you might say but I can click with the mouse you will find if you master some of the more common commands can make you work faster and without interruption.

Try them out:

F1 – Windows Help

F10 – Shows menu options

CTRL + ESC – Opens Start Menu

CTRL + SHIFT + ESC – Opens the Task Manager Dialog box

ALT + F4 – Closes the application or current window you are in

Windows + M – Minimises all windows to desktop

ALT + F6 – Move between multiple windows in the same program

ALT + TAB – Move between open programs