Recently, I was working with someone who was sight impaired. I was actually supposed to be the one helping out, but ended up being the beneficiary of some new information. I love learning about new features and love seeing them aid someone so powerfully!
While I was teaching this friend about keyboard shortcuts in Excel, she mentioned the she heard of an Excel element called “Speak Cells”. Since I had not tried out that feature before, I immediately told her that we should test it out. In her Excel 2010 version, we found the built-in “Speak Cells” audio feature in Excel. It can help you proofread numbers and other data by actually sounding out the numbers for you. You can choose to have the information repeated by column or by row.
In order to enable the feature, you can add the “Speak Cells” icons to your Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access Toolbar is at the top left of your Excel window. If you click the down arrow to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar, you can then select More Commands. When the dialog box opens, look for the Choose Commands area and click the drop down arrow next to Popular Commands. Choose All Commands. Make sure and take a look at all of the great items in the All Commands list. You might find a few more things to add to your Quick Access Toolbar.
Next, scroll down the list on the left side until you see the commands for Speak Cells. You will want to add several icons within the Speak Cells group including: Speak Cells, Speak Cells - Stop Speaking Cells, Speak Cells by Column, Speak Cells by Row, and Speak Cells on Enter. Adding all of these icons will increase your flexibility in using the Speak Cells feature. To select the desired icon(s), double-click each of the icons to move them over to the right list that shows the items on your Quick Access Toolbar. When you have added them all, click OK.
I really like using the Speak Cells on Enter, especially to proofread. To use that feature, just click on the Speak Cells on Enter icon in the Quick Access Toolbar. When you click on a cell and hit the enter key, it will speak the contents of that cell to you. Just make sure you have your speakers turned on or your headphones on! Enjoy using your new “Speak Cells” feature!
I know, downsizing and training aren’t usually put together. Most corporations do not invest the extra money in training workers they are letting go. That is why I was surprised to be talking to my clients during a recent morning training session and find out that their whole department will not exist in a couple of months. 
Have you ever thought about becoming Microsoft certified in Word, Excel, Access, Outlook or PowerPoint? I’m surprised at how many of the clients I train have not thought about adding a Microsoft Office Specialist certificate to their list of accomplishments.
Recently one of my family members, after many years of contemplation, decided to open her own business. She gave me a call and asked me to help her create some of the forms she’ll need. I was impressed that she had already assembled some paper forms that she liked to use for ideas when we created the ones for her soon-to-be formed new company.
In last week’s blog, I looked at Microsoft Office 2010 beta version. My focus was mainly on the overall changes across the whole suite of applications. I wanted to look at the new updates to the individual applications, too.
I’ve been researching Office 2010 lately. Based on my first impression, I’m pretty excited about adopting it when it is released in the first half of 2010. As a trainer for Versitas, I can see so many fun ways to integrate the new elements into a great “new features” class.
This past week, I did a customized 1-on-1 deskside training class on specific topics in Microsoft Excel, Visio, and Project. It had been a while since I’d done training on Visio and Project. As we went over the individual’s questions, I was reminded of what great tools Project and Visio are. (Note: Versitas doesn’t sell any of these products, so these are just my personal thoughts on the software.)
After talking with a couple of people last week about one-to-one training, I realized that some people do not know how useful this type of training is. After almost every one-to-one (sometimes called deskside) training session I’ve done for the first time with someone, they tell me how much they wish they had known about that type of training long ago! I guess that since I’ve been doing this type of training for years, I figured that everyone was aware of customized one-on-one deskside training. That’s what I get for assuming…
In my reading, I ran across a great quote that really got me to thinking about training and its costs/benefits. The article was by a workshop facilitator who said something that I had heard before but was glad to be reminded of again. Her statement was, “What if you train them and they leave? What if you don’t and they stay?” 
