Clock It with ClockingIT
Do you need to keep track of your time?
Do you need project management software?
Do you like it when it’s free?
Okay, silly question. We don’t like to pay for stuff when we don’t have to.
Well, I have a program for you that you might like. I’ve been using this one myself for over a year and couldn’t be more pleased. It’s called Clocking IT and is designed with the IT professional in mind. That said, I use it for an awful lot of writing and document design project where I’m being paid by time spent rather than by project.
It works like most project management software. You can have multiple clients and projects, a discussion group for any project that you choose to make collaborative, and you can have multiple users for each company account. There is a Gantt chart option to ensure appropriate allocation of time and resources, and the reporting methods are both powerful and flexible.
The program is web-based, but you can enter time spent offline into the database quite easily.[1]
I find it useful not only to track how much time I’m spending on clients, but also to make sure that I’m dedicating enough of my time to marketing and development projects. Since I do also collaborate with other people, I sometimes give them user accounts with my company to ensure that we’re on track with whatever project we’re working on.
All in all, for the small business, this is a very cool program and the price can’t be beat!
[1] Which I actually did for about ten hours on a train trip up the East Coast last year!
Optimize for Mobile Devices: A Heartfelt Plea
I joined the 21st century recently and got a data plan and an Android-based phone. Oh my word, is living in the future wonderful!
But, I have a bone to pick with you web developers, business owners, and bloggers out there. Many of you don’t have mobile-friendly sites. Why is this?
Even back when I was living in the dark ages and was not using a mobile device myself, I understood that there were plenty of people around who were. My sites all have a mobile version. Granted, I’m running WordPress-powered blogs for the most part, so getting the plug-in wasn’t exactly hard or anything. I did it because I know that when you’re bored, reading short pieces appropriate to a blog is a common way for the wired to entertain themselves.
Don’t think it’s just for blogging, though. More and more, people will be using mobile devices to search for information as they’re going about their day.
Categories for which a mobile-friendly website is crucial:
- Restaurants
Every one of us has looked around, at our friends and voiced that time-honored phrase, “Where do you want to go for dinner?” We don’t always ask this question in front of a computer or phone book. Make sure that you have a mobile-friendly page that shows your location, hours open, menu and a general idea of prices. It’ll make it more likely for your customers to pick you.
- Bloggers
Yes, that theme you designed is very pretty. Guess what? I can’t see it on a screen smaller than the palm of my hand, and I’m not visiting your site because it’s pretty. If I read a blog regularly, it’s because I find what you have to say entertaining, informative, or more likely both! Have a mobile version. And if you’re worried about ad revenue, don’t. On your mobile version, you can set it so that the ads show interspersed with the text or at the bottom of the screen.
- Anyone that sells things over the Internet
Amazon has a mobile-friendly site. Big department stores do, too. If you sell products online, you really want your potential customers to be able to make an impulse purchase from their mobile phones. You don’t have to spend a fortune on a site that’ll be friendly to your mobile customers, and you want to be able to make it easy for them to make that impulse purchse.
Let’s assume you’re convinced. So, what makes a website mobile-friendly?
- Vertical Design
Mobile devices generally have a screen that is narrower than it is wide. The user will be scrolling down a great deal to get to content. Make sure the most useful content is right at the top – rather like going for page rank on Google.
- Minimized clicks
Make sure that your user doesn’t have to click on too many internal links for the site to be useful. However, resist the temptation to put all of the content on one page.
- Minimized textual input
Typing on a mobile is a pain. Make sure you’re not forcing your user to fill out too many forms.
- Minimized Image Use
Think icons here. Don’t integrate the image into the usefulness of the site!
- Good Content organization
Make sure you sit down and draw out not only a generalized design, but make some flow charts about how your user is likely to navigate the site. Test this with people who are not web developers until you can get a usage flow that makes sense and is fairly intuitive.
Remember that your main site, the one that people will be browsing on larger screens, can be considerably more elaborate. What you want here is a version of the site built specifically for your mobile user. If you’re considering a new website, make sure that you get a designer that understands these principles.
Microsoft Office v. OpenOffice v. Google Docs
I recently had technical issues with my netbook, had to reimage it and did not have time to hunt up an optical drive to reinstall Office 2007, my usual productivity suite.
So, for a couple of weeks, I used OpenOffice and Google Docs instead. Now, I was familiar with both programs. By the nature of my work, it’s useful to be familiar with as many computer applications as possible.
Open Office’s interface is more or less like Office 2003 or lower. You have a menu bar, and a customizable toolbar with buttons. Unless you memorize the steps you need to do something rather than read menus and popups, you’re simply not going to have any trouble. For minor differences, the help files are clear. I’ve already accessed them about three times writing this and always found my answer pretty quickly.
Writer works well and plays okay with documents created in Word. Calc can handle the most complex spreadsheets I work with in Excel, and the Impress presentation application could handle the presentation I created in PowerPoint for an SEO talk I give, though would require some minor cosmetic tweaking were I to use it to give the presentation. I have no idea how Base and Access play with each other. I have little occasion to use database software other than when I am teaching.
Microsoft Office or Open Office: What Do I Use When I Have the Choice?
I prefer Office 2007. Here’s why. I’m used to it[1]. Once I got used to it, I did find that I liked the intuitiveness of the ribbon interface. It’s as simple as that. There’s nothing I do in an Office program that OpenOffice can’t. (Well, other than study to teach Office 2007, mind!) If you’re looking into a productivity suite and are short on cash, I can’t urge you enough to check out OpenOffice. The features are great and the price can’t be beat.
What about Google Docs?
I’ve used Google Docs professionally. No, seriously. I’ve had clients who wanted me to write the documents in Google Docs and share them. I also use it when I’m collaborating with other authors. It’s not as robust a word processor as either Open Office Writer or Microsoft Word, but it gets the job done for basic tasks.
Its spreadsheet capabilities are pretty limited, though. If you’re doing charting, use named ranges or perform complex 3-D calculations, you really want to use either Calc or Excel.
As far as its presentation capabilities? Eh… Animations don’t seem to work on it[2], but other than that, it’ll play static slides okay. Some might consider this a feature rather than a bug, and I don’t blame them. There are people who overdo the animations!
Still, the takeaway for all of this is that you’re not limited to buying a very expensive productivity suite for most of your computing needs. Sure, I like and use Office 2007, but you really don’t have to.
If you’d like to try Open Office, click here for the download:
[1] And I teach most of its applications, so it’s a suite I know very well, indeed!
[2] At least, how to add animation is not immediately obvious and is not susceptible of a right click!
NIFTY TIP #5: Adding or Subtracting Amounts from Different Ranges
Problem: You need to add or subtract amounts from different ranges (SUMIF function).
Solution: Insert two SUMIF formulas and combine them into a single formula:
- Insert the SUMIF formula to total the amounts based on the criterion 701 into cell E2.
- Insert the SUMIF formula to total the amounts based on the criterion 300 into cell E3.
- Select cell E2 and copy the formula from the Formula Bar, select the formula and press <ctrl>+C and click the Enter or Cancel symbol in the Formula Bar to exit Edit mode.
- Select cell E5 and press <ctrl>+V.
- Select cell E3 and copy the formula from the Formula Bar without the equals (=) sign by selecting the formula and pressing <ctrl>+C.
- Select cell E5 and enter a minus(-) sign after the formula in the cell, and then press <ctrl>+V.
The combined formula is now:
=SUMIF(A:A,D2,B:B)-SUMIF(A:A,D3,B:B)
Nifty Tip #4: Organizing the Data Table for Proper Use of the VLOOKUP Formula
The VLOOKUP formula searches for the lookup criteria in the leftmost column of the data table. It is recommended that the whole sheet be used as the data table, so that the VLOOKUP will automatically look at column A as the leftmost column. Defining a Name for the sheet (to use it as the Table_array, the second argument in the VLOOKUP formula) will eliminate the need of updating the range reference in any VLOOKUP formula.
To define a Name for the sheet:
- Select a cell and click Select All (the button a the top left corner of the intersection between rows and columns).
OR
Press <ctrl>+A (In Excel 2003, press <ctrl>+A+A when selecting a cell in a region).
- Press <ctrl>+F3, and in the Names workbook box, type the name for the data table.
- Click OK.