Archive for the ‘computers’ Category.
27th May 2008, 06:00 pm
Disclaimer
First a disclaimer, I am not a fan of spreadsheets. There I’ve said it and I know it’s sacrilege to some.
Don’t get me wrong I use them as much as the next person but I’m always very careful in creating a spreadsheet based solution. As a veteran IT professional I’ve seen too many spreadsheets that should come with a warning slapped on them.
In the best cases they are often over complicated in construction and built without a thought as to what they may need to become in the future. However, in the worst cases they just plain don’t add up. Incorrect references and formula and the most eye straining designs you’ll ever have the misfortune to witness coupled with an obvious misunderstanding of the concept of a spreadsheet all mean too many spreadsheets are just not fit for purpose.
Be it a lack of training or a laissez faire attitude on the part of those who should know better in an organization in my experience it is a pervasive problem in organizations today.
Anyway, climbing down from my soapbox …
Continue reading ‘Excel … It Doesn’t Add Up!’ »
31st December 2007, 06:00 pm
The impetus for this quick tutorial was a post on the MacBites shownotes site from Gazmaz. We’d mentioned our requirements for sharing calendars and Gazmaz wanted to know if there was a way to share calendars on the same Mac but in different user accounts.
After some pondering I gave the following a try and it works perfectly … hope you find it useful.
Continue reading ‘Sharing calendars in multiple accounts on a Single Mac’ »
31st October 2007, 12:55 pm
In my role as Co-Chair of the North West Institute of IT Trainers I recently gave an online presentation demonstrating just how many free resources there are available on the Internet and beyond. Originally my intent was to limit myself to free training resources but ultimately I included software and other tools as well.
It proved to be one of our most well attended online events and demand was high for a list of the resources shown. In light of the demand I thought it would be good to share these resources to a wider audience hence this four part series covering free online resources for the IT trainer and in fact the majority of the resources are just as useful if you aren’t an IT trainer.
If you missed part 1 you can find it here and without further ado here’s part 2!
Continue reading ‘FREE Training Resources – Part 2’ »
22nd October 2007, 06:00 pm
A couple of weeks ago, on the inaugural episode of MacBites, I mentioned the very useful shortcut feature in Saft and how I’d globalized my shortcuts so they work across all the browsers I have installed. I’ve had so much feedback asking how I implemented this system that I decided to detail the process here.
Continue reading ‘Creating Global Shortcuts with Typinator’ »
20th October 2007, 06:00 pm
In my role as Co-Chair of the North West Institute of IT Trainers I recent gave an online presentation demonstrating just how many free resources there are available on the Internet and beyond. Originally my intent was to limit myself to free training resources but ultimately I included software and other tools as well.
It proved to be one of our most well attended online events and demand was high for a list of the resources shown. In light of the demand I thought it would be good to share these resources to a wider audience hence this four part series covering free online resources for the IT trainer and in fact the majority of the resources are just as useful if you aren’t an IT trainer.
So with that let’s get to part one!
Continue reading ‘FREE Training Resources – Part 1’ »
15th October 2007, 06:00 pm
Welcome to my blog!
I’m Elaine Giles and I’m an IT consultant based in Manchester, UK.
In my professional life I run training courses in applications for end users, develop web sites, work as a system administrator and generally undertake a myriad of other computer related tasks.
I’m also Co-Chair of the North West Institute of IT Trainers and User Group Manager of the North West Adobe Users Group we run regular meetings so if you’re in the vacinity feel free to say Hi.
I switched to a Mac in April 2006 after what proved to be a life changing visit to an Adobe event previewing Lightroom. I can assure you working with computers has never been so rewarding nor so much fun.
So that’s me and I look forward to hearing from you with your comments.
