At Work With a New Look

To get 2008 off to a flying start, you’ll see we’ve changed the format of At Work to give your newsletter a sparkling new look (so please bear with us while we iron out the glitches). As always, we aim to make your working life easier with lots of tips, ideas and new things to try.

From this month we’ve got a new section that gives you the low-down on a Microsoft product, plus the opportunity to try a demo and download a trial. Our book of the month is now a regular feature and has its own space so you can see instantly what’s on offer.

Our lead article discusses blogs – what they are, and how you can get the best out of them. You’ll also see that At Work has its own blog, so why not leave us a comment? We’d love to know what you think.

Congratulations to Ian Jones who won our January template competition. Ian’s winning template is a weight-loss tracking spreadsheet (which will be available next week), so bound to come in very handy at this time of year!

Finally, we’re running a survey around the cost and value of Microsoft Office software. Let us know what you think and we’ll donate £1 to the NSPCC for every survey completed (to a maximum of £2000).

Best wishes,
Chris

Keep worksheets in check by preventing invalid data
You’ve set up your Microsoft Excel worksheet and now you’re ready to get colleagues to add their data to it. But how do you prevent invalid data being input, and mucking up your handiwork? By using validation embedded within the worksheet. This can be anything from setting text of a specific length, to making sure entries don’t exceed a certain numerical value, to keeping dates within the right timeframe.

Increase your note-taking capabilities with OneNote outlines
If you’re familiar with structuring notes or project information using outlines, did you know that Microsoft OneNote provides two convenient outline formats? Using either a vertical hierarchy or horizontal columns, you can quickly organise your notes while they’re fresh in your mind. And you can export the outline to Word when you’ve finished, to create a professional-looking document.

Unleash your inner Van Gogh
Everyone wants graphics to make their publications look better so you’ve probably used clip art many times. And you’re probably bored stiff with the same old images. Microsoft Publisher can turn clip art into original work and give a sparkling new look to your brochure or flyer. Learn how to choose the right image, re-colour it, regroup it and resize it with these easy tips.

Create additional calendars in Microsoft Outlook 2007
Juggling a busy life with home and work commitments? Let Microsoft Outlook help you organise and co-ordinate your personal and professional appointments.

Fed up with the backs of envelopes? Try OneNote instead

OneNote is a really easy way to take notes, manage and share them. You can input your own notes, grab pages from the Internet, import and annotate documents from other Office programs and organise the information to suit the way you work. You can even include audio and video notes.

Everything is stored in searchable electronic notebooks. Set up sections within a notebook, or multiple notebooks for different projects. Using hyperlinks between sections or notebooks means you can quickly access and deal with complex information. And it’s all on one screen.

Watch the demo
If you’d like to find out more about OneNote’s features, check out the demo. You may never buy another notebook again…