How to Add to your Writing

Recently I attended a course on Building Professional Presence at work. The course was excellent and I learned a lot. Ironically, one of the biggest lessons that I learned was the value of editing.

We did an exercise where we had to prepare a 30 second executive brief on a project. The goal was to succinctly update an executive on the Situation, Action being taken, Results, and Support required. (Yeah, I know “SARS”.)

Here was my first pass:

It took 28 seconds and my group thought it was “fine” if not a little “wordy” and my request at the end was weak. Before they even finished providing feedback I made the following edits:

This time it was 15 seconds and the feedback was much better. The instructor actually used mine as an example for the rest of the class.

Moral of the store: Edit, Edit, Edit! Every bit of fat that you trim away just leaves a more attractive piece of meat on the plate.

I made a video covering the process. Take a look.

Dont’ Take My Word For It

Just because I know that you need to edit your writing doesn’t mean that I’m any good at it. But these guys are really good, so see what they say about editing:

Editing for Tighter Copy: How to Write with a Knife | Copyblogger

Five Easy Steps to Editing Your Own Work | Copyblogger

Copyediting Tips, Copyediting Process, Proofreading Online

“How To” Copy Editing Tips – Listen To An Expert !

How to Revise, Edit and Proofread Your Writing

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Overview: See how to boost your productivity by setting up a two monitor desktop on your Windows computer.

If you have a laptop, or a desktop with a dual-port video card, you can stretch your desktop across two monitors. This is an extremely easy way to boost your productivity when working with multiple documents and applications.

Frequently, you need to constantly jump back and forth between multiple windows on your computer. This becomes confusing, because one of the windows is always hidden behind the other. When you need to make comparisons or analysis, it is easy to miss small details.

Why not have two monitors and view both windows side-by-side at the same time, like you would do if you were comparing two printed documents.

This is a very quick and easy process.

What you will need:

• One external monitor
• One laptop or desktop computer
• Two minutes

Optional: If you have a desktop, you can still do this. You will need to get two external monitors and make sure that you have a dual-port video card. The diagram below shows what a dual-port video card will look like on your computer.

Setting up the Hardware

Start by plugging the external monitor into your laptop’s monitor port.

Turn on your computer and log in.

Configuring Your Settings

Minimize any software that you have open until you see your desktop.

Right click on your desktop to open an options menu.

Select Properties from the options menu.

The Display Properties menu will open.

There are five tabs on this menu. Click the Settings tab.

The settings tab will allow you to control how the monitor(s) on your system work.

If you have the external monitors hooked up, you will see two boxes in the top portion of the menu. (Numbers 1 and 2 represent your two monitors.)

By default, they will both have the same exact information. This is so that if you ever hook up a projector, you and the audience will see the same thing.

Spilt the Two Monitors

Now, you want to make the second (external) monitor act independently of the laptop’s monitor.

Click on the “2” icon to view and edit the second monitor’s settings.

The last checkbox at the bottom of the screen will allow you to split the monitors in two. Check the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor checkbox.

Do not close the Display Properties menu yet.

Arrangingthe Montitors to Match their Physical Locations

Depending on how you have your laptop and monitor positioned on your desk, you may need to adjust the arrangement on screen.

By default, the laptop’s monitor (1) will be to the left of the external monitor (2). If you don’t have your desk set up this way, you will need to click and drag them to match your setup.

Identifying your Physical Montiors

You can always see which monitor is which by clicking the Identify button at the bottom of the Display Properties menu.

A giant number 1 and 2 will appear on each monitor for identification purposes.

Moving Applications Between Monitors

Now that you have both of your monitors set up and working properly, you can separate windows into whichever one is most convenient.

You cannot move a window if it is maximized on one monitor. You will need to “un-maximize” the window before it can be moved.

Click the   button to un-maximize the window.

Click on the Title Bar at the top of the window and drag it from one monitor to the other.

Click and drag the bottom corner of the window to resize it, or just click the maximize button to re-maximize the window.

Final Step:

Sit back and bask in the glory of your super-terrific multi-monitor wonderland.

See How it’s Done in this Video Tutorial

The following video tutorial shows you how to set up a two monitor desktop on a windows computer.

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OVERVIEW: You will learn how to share folders and file on your Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers on your home netork.

This is the first article in a three part series on Sharing Files Between Any Devices in your Home.

• Part 1 - Share Files Between All of your Computers
• Part 2 - Stream Computer Media to the TV using Video Game Consoles
• Part 3 - Sharing Between your Smartphone and Computer

You Can Get there from Here

Your home has any number of “connected” devices (Computers, Video Game Consoles, Phones, Portable Media Players, Televisionss, DVRs, etc.). Are they all really connected? Here are some simple (and not so simple) steps to get all of your devices singing in harmony.

Sharing Files on your Computers

If you’re like me, the bulk of your media and files sit on one or more computers. You may even have more than one Operating System to further complicate the business of sharing information. Here is how you can share your files between computers runing Windows, Mac, and Linux.

NOTE: This article only addresses sharing files between devices INSIDE of your home network. While connecting to devices on your home network from the outside world (internet) is possible, it will not be covered here.

Sharing the Files on your Computers

IMPORTANT: The following set of instructions shows how to share ALL of the files on your computer. This is not the most secure approach to sharing. You should determine which folders you want to share (for example My Documents or My Music) and perform the following steps at that level.

Sharing Files on a Windows Computer

Windows allows you to share an entire hard drive or select specific folder to share. You can choose the drive or folder to share from Windows Explorer.

Open Windows Explorer (Windows Key + E)

You will see all of your computer’s drives (C, D, etc.)

Browse to the entire drive or specific folder that you would like to share.

Right click on the folder that you want to share and select Properties from the options menu.

The Properties menu will open.

Go to the Sharing tab

Check the Share button.

Optional: You can also apply finer controls to the sharing priviledges from the Advanced Sharing menu.

Click the OK button to close the Properties menu.

Now, users on your network will be able to access the files on this compter.

Sharing Files on a Mac Computer

You can also share folders with other computers on your Mac computer. You need to go to the System Preferences menu to configure sharing (Applications> System Preferences).

The preferences are grouped by topic on this menu. Click the Sharing icon under the Internet & Wireless heading.

This will open the Sharing panel.

You can share several of your Mac’s resources from here.

Check the resources that you want to share and close this menu.

Now, other computers on your network will be able to this compter.

Sharing Files on a Linux Computer

One of the best and easiest ways to share folders between Linux computers and machines running Windows is using Samba. Samba is a suite of applications for Linux that provides connectivity between Linux and Windows machines. This will allow a Windows machine to interact with it just like another PC.

NOTE: This example uses Ubuntu Linux. If you use a different distro, just Google for the specific instructions.

Start out by installing Samba on your Linux machine. Go to the terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

Samba is installed now, but you need to configure it so that it is accessible. Run the following command to open Samba’s configuration file (smb.conf):

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

Scroll down to this section in the file:

Uncomment the security line (delete the number sign), and add the following line below it, so that it look like this:

security = user

username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

Now, Samba will use the smbusers file to look up the user list.

You need to creat a user that can access the Samba server.

There are two steps to creating a user.

Run the smbpasswd utility to create a samba password for the user. Type the following command (substitute a real user name for “username”):

sudo smbpasswd -a <username>

Next, open up the smbusers file and add that username. Type the followng command:

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smbusers

When the smb users file opens, add the following line, (substitute a real user name for “username”).

<username> = “<username>”

The format is <ubuntuusername> = “<samba username>”.

Telling Samba to Share a Linux Directory

Now you can create Samba shares and give access to the user(s) that you create here.

Reopen Samba’s configuration file (smb.conf) by typing the following command:

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

Scroll down to the Share Definitions section of the file, and make it match the following:

#======================= Share Definitions =======

# Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)

# to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each

# user’s home directory as \server\username

[homes]

comment = Home Directories

browseable = yes

# By default, \server\username shares can be connected to by anyone

# with access to the samba server. Un-comment the following parameter

# to make sure that only “username” can connect to \server\username

valid users = %S

# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change next

# parameter to ‘yes’ if you want to be able to write to them.

writable = yes

Now Windows machines/users will be able to map a drive on windows using the following share format:

\ubuntumachinename\username

For example, if the Ubuntu machine is named linuxshare, and the username is chris, your share path would be \linuxshare\chris

Connnecting to a Shared Computer

Now that you have the files on all of your machines shared, you need to connect to them from another machine. You can even “map” these shared drives permanently so that they are always available, just like your computer’s Hard Drive or CD/DVD Drive.

Connecting to a Shared Computer from a Windows Computer

You can locate shared computers on your network from the My Network Places section of Windows Explorer.

Open Windows Explorer (Windows Key + E)

Click the “+” icon to the left of My Network Places in the folders panel. (View> Explorer Bar> Folders)

Click the “+” icon to the left of Entire Network

Click the “+” icon to the left of Microsoft Windows Network

Look for the name of the shared computer/drive Drill down on that compter as if it were a folder on your computer.

Permanently Mapping to a Shared Drive in Windows

If you want to Window Explorer to remember this shared folder and give it a drive letter (like your C or D drives) you need to “Map” it.

Select Tools> Map Network Drive

Select a letter for this share from the Drive dropdown list

Click the Browse button to the right of the Folder dropdown list

Use the steps above to locate the shared drive/folder that you want to map

Check the Reconnect at Logon box (this will remember the letter/drive mapping)

Click the Finish button

Now, the next time you start the computer the shared folder will appear just like your local hard drive or CD drive with the letter you assigned.

Connecting to a Shared Computer from a Mac Computer

You can locate shared folders on other computers on your network using the Finder application on your Mac. (Applications> Finder)

Click on your Mac, so that you can see the local drives and the Network icon.

You will see any computers that have shared drives/folders on your network.

Click on the shared machine to access its files.

Permanently Mapping to a Shared Drive in Mac

If you want Finder to remember this shared folder just like the ones on your local machine you need to “Add it to the Sidebar”.

Browse to the shared folder and click File> Add To Sidebar.

Now it will show up under the Places heading on Finder’s sidebar.

Connecting to a Shared Computer from a Linux Computer

You can locate shared folders on other computers on your network using one of the many file manager applications available in Linux.

NOTE: This example uses Dolphin to navigate Linux’s file system.

Open Dolphin and click the Network icon in the Places panel.

You will see a list of ways to access your Network and the shared folders located on its machines.

Click Network to locate Linux and Mac machines. Click Samba Shares to locate Windows machines.

Permanently Mapping to a Shared Drive in Linux

If you want Linux to remember this shared folder just like the ones on your local machine you need to “Add it to the Sidebar”.

Browse to the shared folder and click File> Add To Sidebar.

Video Tutorial – See it in Action

See how to perform each of the steps listed above in this video tutorial

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OVERVIEW: Learn how to use Microsoft Excel 2007′s advanced conditional formatting features to take your boring data and make it tell a more interesting story.

Boring Data Be Gone!

Have you ever created a spreadsheet that tracks a lot of important data? This data may have a lot to say, if you help it. Excel 2007 has some advanced Conditional Formatting features that allow you to use the values in cells to create visually informative displays that add more useful context to your information.

Take a look at the spreadsheet below. It lists the amount of fruits sold on each day of the week. There are a lot of numbers there and it might be kind of hard to spot any useful trends.

Let’s take a look at how we can use conditional formatting to identify things like: the biggest selling items on any day, the top, middle, and bottom sellers, use color shadings to indicate where each product ranks.

Accessing the Conditional Formatting Menu

Click the Conditional Formatting icon on the Home tab of the Excel Ribbon.

You will see a menu with a list of Conditional Formatting options.

Let’s take a look at what these options can do.

Highlighting Cells with Specific Values

Click Conditional Formatting> Highlight Cell Rules> Greater Than.

A pop-up menu will open allowing you to enter the Greater Than amount and the formatting style.

In the example above, all cells whose value is greater than 500 were turned light red with dark red text. You can modify either of these settings. The other Highlight Cell Rules options work similarly.

Dynamically Highlighting Cells Using Top and Bottom Rules

You can highlight cells with values in the top or bottom “X” percent or “X” values in a range.

Click Conditional Formatting> Top/Bottom Rules> Top 10%.

A pop-up menu will open allowing you to enter the Percentage and the formatting style.

In the example below, the cells whose value is in the top 10% of the range were turned light red with dark red text. You can modify either of these settings. The other Top/Bottom Rules options work similarly.

Using Data Bars to Graphically Display Values

You can fill the cells in a range with data bars that are sized according their values.

Click Conditional Formatting> Data Bars and select a bar color.

Excel will find the highest and lowest values in the range and fill each cell accordingly with a colored bar.

Formatting the Cells in a Range Using Color Scales

You can use scales of color to highlight all of the cells in a range. You have a choice of shades of two or three colors.

Click Conditional Formatting> Color Scales and select your color set.

In the example below, the range of cell values were identified by the top, middle, and bottom thirds. The thirds were colored Red, Yellow, and Blue. Then, the values in each third were made darker or lighter depending on how close to the floor or ceiling of their ranges.

Identifying Cell Values Using Icons

The previous formatting option is often referred to as “stoplight” formatting (red, yellow, green). If you want to take it even more literally, you can place icons next to cell values.

Click Conditional Formatting> Icon Sets and select an icon type.

In the example below, the range of cell values were identified by the top, middle, and bottom thirds. The values in each third were identified by a red, yellow, or green icon.

There are several useful icons that you can use to identify your data set.

The other cool option that you can do is filter values based on their icon (meaning which section of the data range the values belong).

1. Go to theData tab
2. Click the Filter icon
3. Click the Filter Arrow at the top of the column that you want to filter
4. Select Filter by Color
5. Choose the icon that identifies the slice of the range that you want to filter on

You will see all of the values that have icon that you selected.

This is a pretty handy way to see the top sellers or worst performers in a range.

Video Tutorial Showing How to Use Conditional Formatting in Excel

Play the video below to see all of the options in action.

How to Use Conditional Formatting in Excel from Christopher Masiello on Vimeo.

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OVERVIEW: You will learn how to use the free service PixelPipe.com to upload files to multiple social media sites from one location.

Reclaiming Some of your Precious Time

I create a lot of images and videos for the articles on VitaminCM.com. I also am active on a number of Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc. When I publish a new article it can take a very long time to upload videos to YouTube, 5min.com, Vimeo, and the rest. It also takes a while to update my status on Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, and FriendFeed. Thankfully, I discovered a way to save a ton of time that I used to spend doing all of these separate tasks.

PixelPipe.com is a free service that allows you to publish photos, videos, audio, files, and status updates to over 100 places at once in just a few seconds. What type of places you ask? How about Flickr, Picasa, Snapfish, Photobucket, and TwitPic for images? You have videos? Try YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, Blip.tv, and 12sec. Want to update your status on one of these: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, FriendFeed, or FourSquare. Do you have a document or note to upload? Try Google Docs, Acrobat.com, Box.net, Drop.io, Evernote, or SlideShare. Did you want to publish a blog post to multiple places? Try Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, and Drupal. These are only a few of the numerous choices in each category. If you’re using a service, it’s there. Trust me.

How PixelPipe Works

Start by signing up for a free account at PixelPipe.com.

Then, set up your “Pipes“. Pipes are social sites that you want to update from PixelPipe. Here is a full list of services that PixelPipe can update.

Uploading Files via PixelPipe

Once you set up your pipes, you are ready to start uploading files. Follow the steps below to upload a file to multiple sites from PixelPipe.

1. Select Quick Post
2. Choose the file to Upload
3. Enter information for File
4. Select Services to Upload to
5. Click the Upload Button

Updating your Status on Multiple Microblogs

If you want to update your status on sites like Facebook and Twitter in one shot, you can use the Status/Microblog tag of the Quick Post screen.

1. Select Quick Post
2. Click the Microblog tab
3. Type your update in the Status field
4. Click the Update Status Button

Posting an Article to Multiple Blogs at Once

If you want to post an article to multiple blogs, use the Blog tab of the Quick Post menu.

1. Select Quick Post
2. Click the Blog tab
3. Type the title for your post in the Title field
4. Type the contents of your update in the Body field
5. Click the Make Blog Post Button

See the Video Tutorial for Uploading Files with PixelPipe

Other Resources

You can get handy applications for your computer or mobile phone right from PixelPipe’s large collection of Free Software.

They also publish news and cool tips on their blog.