I thought I beyond being surprised by the depths to which Microsoft will stoop to gain a user. Sadly this week has proved that I am not and I viewed the latest attempts from Redmond to woo users to the newly minted Internet Explorer 8.

The strategy this time is to offer the chance to win $10,000 to those prepared to use Internet Explorer 8 to pinpoint clues which reveal the location of the cash.

Nothing wrong with that so far if you’re prepared to be bought but where the promotional campaign took a distasteful turn was in the phraseology used to those visitors using a browser other than Internet Explorer 8.

How is telling potential users to “… get rid of it, or get lost.” likely to charm them into using IE8?

Visiting with Safari resulted in:

Firefox visitors don’t fair much better:

Visiting via Opera? They don’t even bother to refer to your browser by name!

No concessions for older versions of IE either but at least those users don’t get told to “get lost”.

However, if there are any remaining users of IE for the Mac they don’t get treated so well and are indeed told to get lost.

Not satisfied with leaving it there Microsoft then produced a broswer comparision chart. They limited themselves to comparing IE8 with only Firefox and Chrome but this didn’t stop Wired Magazine from filling out on the “facts” Microsoft provided in said chart, very amusingly. Soon others where taking the initiative and making their own amendments to said comparison chart including Kilian Valkhof.

This sort of negative approach is so old hat that Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves. Competition between browser creators is good for the users but only when the competition results in the creation of better browsers and a better browsing experience.

Negative promotions like this do not move us forward. If Microsoft want to entice more users here’s a radical idea … make a better product.

So after a fantastic night chatting with MacBiters in the MacBites chat room during WWDC I eagerly downloaded the release version of Safari and installed it.

While I’m installing I ponder the slightly surprising decision to revert the top mounted tabs to their original location but I’m sure I’ll get used it again.

Trouble is after downloading it and installing it I didn’t get as far as seeing the tabs. Instead I was greeted with this:

I immediately recognize the TastyAppsAVPlugin referred to as being the plug-in aspect of Web Snapper from Tasty Apps.

A simple matter of uninstalling Web Snapper, confirmed by the Web Snapper FAQ. Just to be sure though I use AppZapper which removes a couple of plist files in addition to the Web Snapper application in the Applications folder.

I tried again but no joy, Safari 4 still couldn’t get past the error message.

A little more digging around the file system and I found the solution.

There were two copies of a file called TastyAppsAVPlugin.bundle in the following locations:

Macintosh HD > Users > UserName > Library > Application Support > SIMBL > Plugins

and

Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > SIMBL > Plugins

Deleting both these files solved the problem and I’m happily running the release version of Safari 4.

I do hope Tasty Apps manage to get Web Snapper working correctly with Safari 4 though as I use it almost every day. It allows you to save a copy of an entire web page (i.e. beyond the fold) in PDF format bypassing the print.css and without requesting the URL again which makes it perfect for making copies of receipts during online purchases.

I hate it when new toys break old favourites

UPDATE

A quick mail to TastyApps support and I’m informed that the offending file actually belongs to another of their applications, VideoBox. They already had a revised version available.

So I removed the version of VideoBox I had installed and download the latest versions of both Web Snapper and VideoBox. I installed both and yes everything now works perfectly, in fact I think VideoBox is working better than it did before!

So disaster truly diverted and peace is restored to my Safari world

BIG thanks to the support team and developers at TastyApps who got the fix out in record time.

In the midst of the iMac fiasco I made the decision to buy a Mac Mini. I’d toyed with purchasing one before deciding to wait for the inevitable upgrades – trouble was Apple took far longer than I anticipated to upgrade the Mini.

Well the upgrades finally arrived and I bought a base model priced at £499.

I had a specific job in mind for the machine, as well as it being a spare system available in the case of a failure elsewhere. That job was for it to act as a host for several external hard drives and the two office printers. By hosting the external drives on the Mini I would be able to run backups and archive data to discs without impacting the performance of my main workstation.

Now there would be no point in opting for the Mini for compactness and then having to find space for a monitor. For this reason I had planned to use the Mini in headless mode, i.e. without a keyboard, mouse and monitor, via Screen Sharing.

I’m not naive enough to think there wouldn’t be a few gotchas along the way but the show-stopper came as a surprise!

For initial setup I had no alternative but to use a keyboard, mouse and monitor. Everything went smoothly and once the operating system was configured sufficiently I disconnected all the extraneous equipment.

First problem: when OS X boots without a keyboard and/or mouse the system, by default, searches for a bluetooth version of each and while this search is ongoing a dialog box is displayed on the screen and with no way to close it you’re stuck. This one wasn’t too tricky to solve.

In the System Preferences > Bluetooth section click the Advanced button to display extra options.

Bluetooth Dialog Box in OS X

Uncheck the “Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup when no input device is present” and you’ll never be troubled with complaints about a keyboard or mouse again.

Second problem: much worse and one I certainly hadn’t foreseen … the curious case of Toast!

I have a love/hate relationship with Toast. I love the way it’s integrated into many applications, such as Elgato EyeTV, allowing a disc burn process to be instigated from within that software.

I hate the way Roxio impose an annual upgrade tax. Every year (usually in January at Macworld) they announce a new version which does pretty much the same as the last version with the possible addition of a few bells and whistles I’m unlikely to use. Now, knowing me I’d probably upgrade anyway if the upgrade price was realistic. Sadly, Roxio’s upgrade pricing is ridiculous, often meaning an “upgrade” is 80% to 90% of the price of the full product.

If it burns a disc I’m happy so I made the decision not to upgrade from version 8, which was the first version I bought. It was also the first universal binary version. I wasn’t sold on the interface “improvements” either so it was no hardship not to upgrade.

So I install Toast 8 on the Mini, check for all updates and run the application. The application icon bounces in the dock twice and then vanishes. Figuring it was a blip I run it again with the same result. I reboot and try again, same result. OK so clearly there’s something wrong: I uninstall and reinstall, same result.

Then I begin running through the mental checklist of why something would run perfectly on one system but not another. It didn’t take long for me to make the connection that one system had a monitor and the Mini didn’t. But wait, since when is a monitor a prerequisite for burning a disc?

Pedantically I check the system requirements for Toast 8 and it doesn’t mention NEEDING a monitor. I appreciate most systems will have one for obvious reasons but there must be system administrators running servers or other machines headless.

I start to Google the issue and guess what? I’m not alone, my supposition was correct, other users have found the same issue and not just with Toast 8 but also Toast 7 and Toast 9. No updates or patches are available so it just isn’t going to work. I briefly consider upgrading to Toast 10 but there is no information available as to whether this show stopping bug is fixed in this version either. Strangely there is no trial version of Toast available either, so try before you buy is not an option either.

I was sure I had some other disc burning software in one of the earliest software bundles I bought so I dig it out and yes it might be basic but it should do the simple job of allowing me to burn a DVD data disc. The software in question, Disco, wouldn’t run at all.

To burn a disc, such a simple requirement, yet here I was struggling to find a piece of software willing to do it. (I know the Operating System can do it but there are niceties in burning software that Leopard doesn’t provide.)

A trip to MacUpdate.com leads to the discovery of a free disc burning application called simply Burn. It installed, it ran and yes it burned a disc!

It now has pride of place on my Mini as the disc burning application of choice.

As for Toast well I doubt they intend to fix the problem affecting so many users of versions 7, 8 and 9 because version 10 runs perfectly in headless mode. Finally, a real reason to update but I have no intention of doing so because I feel let down by a company who have a crippled product and the only way for me to be able to use it is to give them more money.

Roxio get your house in order.

At a recent Mac club meeting one of the talking points was the differences in how Windows and OS X handle application switching. So I thought I’d consolidate some of the ensuing discussion in a blog post.

Dock

I prefer not to use the dock at all so I have it on the right of my primary monitor and hidden. I have a secondary monitor on my 24 inch iMac which is also 24 inches and sits on the left of the iMac screen so placing the dock on the right of the iMac screen means it’s out of the way and there if I should need it. Having the dock hidden at the bottom of the screen means attempting to resize an application can inadvertently activate it.

The inevitable question is then – how do I run my applications?

QuickSilver

QuickSilver is my launcher of choice but I also tried LaunchBar which is very good – and I know QuickSilver can do a lot more than I actually use it for. I must find some time to have a look at triggers and the more advanced features.

QuickSilver is open source and available from Google Code with many tutorials also available from the original developer.

LaunchBar

LaunchBar also provides all the application launching features a Mac user could need. Available from Objective Development with licenses starting at $19.95.

Switching Between Applications

Of course running the applications is only half the story and not the main focus of our MUG discussion.

In OS X, command and tab allows switching between open applications but not in the same way as Windows.

If an application is minimized in OS X, command and tab activates the application but doesn’t maximize the open windows or allow you to select a specific open window.

This was one of the few things that drove me crazy as a new Mac user.

I had to learn to adapt to the Mac way of working and one tip I found useful was to hide an application (using command and H) rather than minimize it – when I then used command and tab to go back to the application it was in the same state as when I hid it and thus the windows weren’t minimized making me hunt through the dock to locate the required one.

But I found a perfect long term solution with a couple of small apps.

LiteSwitch

LiteSwitch replaces the default application switcher and the replacement has the ability to mark apps for closing, you can hide apps, unhide them and obviously switch between them. Small enhancements really make the difference such as having the application name displayed at the bottom of the app switching display.

I leave LiteSwitch set to just do the same as the default command and tab switcher but love the extra functionality.

LiteSwitch will also remap the command and tab key to it’s own use which 10.5 doesn’t seem to do easily.

LiteSwitch is available from Proteron.com where you can download a free 30 day trial. A license is $14.95 (approx. £8.00)

Witch

Witch is the second half of my solution and although it can do much more I use it to switch between the different windows of the app I’m currently using.

I map option and tilde (between shift and z) to this function and life is good again!

Witch can actually completely replace the command and tab functionality giving you a switcher which displays not only a list of apps but a list of apps and their associated windows.

If I could map cmd & tab to Witch without using a system hack I’d probably use Witch alone most of the time.

Witch is available from ManyTricks.com and priced at €9.95 (approx. £7.90).

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 …

History

To add to this dismal situation Excel has a long history of calculation malfunctions!

Just to clarify I don’t mean when a formula is incorrectly formulated by a user. These calculation malfunctions manifest themselves in various situations even when the details entered are completely correct.

What’s Wrong with Excel Now?

Well, the latest issue manifests itself when a collection of positive numbers should add up to a given negative number.

That is easier to show rather than describe so per the following screenshot of Excel, in each of the 3 examples the sum of positive values should add up to the negative value (on Row 1) therefore the result of the SUM in row 10 should be 0 – which as you can see it is not.

For example in column B:

100.03 + 0.04 = 100.07

-100.07 + 100.07 should = 0

But according to Excel it is 7.95891E-15 . If you change the format of the cell to Number and increase the decimal places (see row 12) you can see the REAL values.

So as demonstrated Excel, prior to any forthcoming patches, has a problem with addition and/or subtraction especially evident when calculations involve a mix of negative and positive numbers as the result approaches zero.

Does it matter?

OK so does this really matter? My answer is a resounding “Yes” and in more circumstances than you may imagine.

1. Data Comparison Operations

Any time two numbers are compared you need to be aware that the number displayed on the screen isn’t the complete number Excel uses to make any required comparisons and that complete number might adversely affect the result of the comparison being made.

The most obvious comparison function is the IF statement. For example, an IF function that uses 0 in the first argument, as in =IF(B12=0, “True”,”False”)

However, comparisons in Excel are by no means limited to the IF statement alone. Indeed all the following functions use comparisons:

• IF
• LOOKUP
• HLOOKUP
• VLOOKUP
• SUMIF
• SUMIFS
• COUNTIF
• COUNTIFS
• AND
• OR
• NOT

2. Scaling Errors with Large Multipliers

Another situation where the miscalculation can manifest problems is where extremely large numbers are used. This is because while the errors are many decimal places to the right of a number, multiplications using large numbers will serve to magnify the error.

Why does it happen?

These errors are a result of a floating-point rounding error and if that hasn’t already reduced you to a catatonic state you can read more about the details in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article 214118.

Could it be avoided?

In a word – Yes and it should be. Programmers often have to write code to take into account failings elsewhere.

A personal allegory will serve as a demonstration.

Many years ago when Excel 2000 was state of the art and Excel 97 was the version of choice for a client of mine I undertook a project to develop an Excel based solution. Part of the solution required a form to be displayed to the user from which they selected a date from an OLE data control.

This worked perfectly on my Excel 2000 system but when deployed at the client’s site the date was constantly 1 day out. The user would select a date using the control but the date displayed was incorrect. After much testing it became clear that Excel 2000 and Excel 97 did not handle dates in the same way when using VBA code to manipulate the data.

Obviously I had to create a solution to work around the VBA anomaly introduced with Excel 2000. I created a simple code block to check the version of Excel in use and adjust the date accordingly.

Wringing my hands and complaining about known anomalies wouldn’t help the client and in this regard Microsoft should take the same approach. While floating-point issues may be the root cause of the problem they can be handled in such a way that the end user is not adversely affected.

A fact that has not escaped other software providers.

Is it only Excel?

Excel is not alone in is it’s miscalculations. Apple’s Numbers calculates incorrectly in exactly the same way.

However, the good news is there are many programs that handle the issue elegantly and calculate correctly, including:

• OpenOffice
• NeoOffice
• Google Spreadsheets
• ZoHo Sheets

In the meantime … what can you do?

There are several techniques available that may eliminate the issue from your spreadsheet.

However, bear in mind that these are only a temporary fix which shouldn’t be needed and may not work in every situation and the burning question how do you know when you’ll need it before the final figures are in?

Sorting

Reordering the listing of values can on occasion solve the problem. Obviously, this just serves to emphasize how ridiculous the problem is! The order in which figures are added should have no impact on the result and there are occasions where reordering items is not possible. For example, a list of sales figures sorted by month can’t be reordered to accommodate Excel’s idiosyncrasies.

Using Precision as Displayed

Another potential solution is the Microsoft recommended use of the ‘Precision as displayed’ option.

‘Precision as displayed’ is an option in the Excel Options the function of which is to force Excel to calculate using only the level of precision displayed in the cell rather than the full data stored within the cell.

This is an approach which should work well with accountancy and financial data where precision to two decimal places is required.

In other situations ‘Precision as displayed’ can actually cause problems of it’s own and certainly the data will be less accurate than with the option disabled.

In Excel 2000/2003 the Precision as displayed option is in the Calculation section of the Excel Options.

In Excel 2007 the Set precision as displayed option is in the Advanced section of the Excel Options.

Using the ROUND Function

The Round() function rounds a value to a specified level of precision. The values contained within the cells are not altered but the value used for comparative purposes is determined by the level of precision specified by the arguments in the ROUND function, as follows:

=IF(ROUND(B12,2)=0, “True”,”False”)

The use of the Round function means that the value contained within cell B12 is rounded down to 2 decimal places prior to it being compared to, in this case, zero thus removing the potential impact of any floating point errors to the far right of the decimal point.

The Round function adjusts a value up or down depending the threshold. If the significant digit is 1,2,3 or 4 it rounds down whereas if the significant digit is 5,6,7,8 or 9 it rounds up.

Conclusion

So there it is – an insight into the latest in a long line of Excel issues to affect the unsuspecting user.

It becomes clear that it is folly to rely on Excel to correctly compute even the most basic calculation. Best advice is check everything … at least twice!

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.

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!

Adobe

Connect Events

Adobe run many events every week and most are recorded for on demand playback at a time and place to suit you, there is an index of available events on the Adobe web site.

Video Demonstrations

In addition to the Connect events Adobe provide demonstration videos of specific technologies.

An example is a recent demonstration of AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime).

Podcasts

Podcasts are audio and/or video files available online from many sources the majority of these are free, especially those listed in the iTunes Store.

iTunes

Let me say this

• iTunes is FREE to download
• iTunes is cross platform
• You do NOT need an account at the iTunes Store to use it
• You do NOT need an account at the iTunes Store to download podcasts
• Podcasts are free in the iTunes Store

Right now I’ve clarified that I’ll tell you why I felt the need to emphasize those points. I have heard so many people explain that they don’t use iTunes because they think they have to pay for it or it won’t work on a PC or they think they do need an account or they are afraid they will be charged – you get the idea!!

Last point with iTunes – where do you get it? Simply download it from Apple.

Now we’ve got past those essential issues it’s time to get on to the good stuff and have a look at what’s available

PhotoshopUserTV

Photoshop User TV is created by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and is presented by 3 photoshop luminaries in Scott Kelby, Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski.

Photoshop User TV is a weekly 30 to 45 minute video podcast of all things Photoshop related with demonstrations, tutorials and news.

All episodes are free for the first two weeks they are available, after that time they are free for NAPP members and purchasable for $2 an episode. So well worth downloading in the two weeks after they are released whilst they are free.

Photoshop User TV web site

Photoshop User TV iTunes link

ScreenCastsOnline

ScreenCastsOnline is the brainchild of Don McAllister and is a weekly tutorial based video cast. The topics covered are all related to the Mac platform and cover a wide range of applications and technologies.

ScreenCastsOnline web site

ScreenCastsOnline iTunes link

LayersTV

Another podcast from those nice people at NAPP this time presented by Corey Barker and Rafael ’RC’ Concepcion.

LayersTV web site

LayersTV iTunes link

Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast

Presented by Adobe’s very own Terry White the Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast covers all the applications in the Creative Suite. Copious tips and tricks as well as longer demonstrations of the feature set of each application.

Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast web site

Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast iTunes link

Creative Sweet

Creative Sweet TV is presented by Australian Adobe expert Mike McHugh and covers all things Creative Suite related.

Creative Sweet TV web site

Creative Sweet TV iTunes link

InDesign Secrets

InDesign Secrets is an audio podcast presented by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion and covers Adobe InDesign.

InDesign Secrets web site

InDesign Secrets iTunes link

theindesigner

Also covering InDesign is theindesigner a video podcast presented by Michael Murphy, a long time InDesign user and Adobe Certified Expert in InDesign.

theindesigner web site

theindesigner iTunes link

IT Idiots

Belying the name there’s plenty of useful information to be found in this wide ranging podcast produced by 2 IT professionals and a pharmacist (don’t ask!)

ITidiots web site

ITidiots iTunes link

MrExcel

Learn Excel with MrExcel is the video podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel from MrExcel, presented by Bill Jalen. Learn Excel with MrExcel is a two minute video posted every workday to learn one of the 277 tips from the book.

MrExcel web site

MrExcel podcast page

MrExcel iTunes link

MacBites

How could I not mention it? OK I’ll declare an interest here – I’m one of the presenters of this weekly look at all things Mac related.

In MacBites we discuss the Apple related news items of the week before discussing our experiences of switching from Windows based PCs to the Mac. My section is the Software Review a demonstration/discussion of a piece of Mac software or the demonstration of a technique such as creating global shortcuts for your browsers.

That’s it for part 2 but there’s plenty more free resources coming in part 3 – more video resources, manuals, newsletters and much more.

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.

The shortcut feature was incredibly useful to me when I switched from Opera on Windows to Safari on a Mac as the same feature is built in to Opera and I’d made massive use of it during my time using Opera. The only downside to it was that my shortcuts were marooned in either Opera or Safari and I have a total of 7 browsers installed – Safari, Camino, Opera, Firefox, Netscape, Shiira and Flock (why I have 7 browsers installed is a whole different post!).

So enter Typinator, a utility, from Ergonis Software.

This snippet expanding utility automatically replaces typed text ‘codes’ with longer user-specified ‘snippets of information’. In Typinator a collection of these ‘codes’ is termed a ‘set’

Out of the box Typinator includes an 800 word AutoCorrect dictionary, a real boon for those who constantly make the same typos. However, in addition to this the free TidBITS AutoCorrect Dictionary adds another 2,300 auto-corrections for common mistakes and is available from the Typinator web site.

While both of these ‘sets’ are fantastically useful they, and the Typinator auto-correct features, are not the main subject of this post.

For my global shortcuts we are going to need to create a new blank set of shortcuts, as follows:

Click the add button under the Abbreviation Set list, per Figure 1

Figure 1: Click the add button under the Abbreviation Set list

Specify a name for the new set, URLs in Figure 2

Figure 2: Specify a name for the new set

Now it’s a matter of adding individual abbreviations to expand to full URLs.

To create a new Abbreviation:

Click the add button under the Abbreviation list, per Figure 3

Figure 3: Click the add button under the Abbreviation list

Specify the text you want to type to activate the abbreviation, per Figure 4

Enter the full text in the Expansion area, per Figure 4

Figure 4: Specify the abbreviation and the full text required

There are a few options which add to the configurability of the system, as follows:

Whole Word

There is a check box for specifying whether the abbreviation will expand every time it is typed or only when typed as a whole word.

For example, I might choose to create an abbreviation ‘cook’ which I would like to expand to the word ‘cookery’ if I do not specify whole word this abbreviation will not function correctly. Attempting to type ‘cooking’ ‘cook’ would result in ‘cookerying’ appearing in the text.

Ticking the ‘Whole word’ option corrects this behaviour. Now the word ‘cook’ will only be expanded to ‘cookery’ when it is followed by a space or other punctuation character.

Case Options

There are 3 case options applicable when the abbreviation consists of letters:

1. Case must match – Here for the abbreviation to activate it needs to be typed exactly as it is defined.
2. Case does not matter – Here the abbreviation will activate irrespective of the case used.
3. Case affects expansion – Mixed case in the abbreviation is carried through to the expanded text.

Now the key thing to making my global shortcut system function correctly system wide is that I use a special key as the first character of each abbreviation to ensure that it is extremely unlikely to ever be used in any other application and expand URLs in an inappropriate place. The character I use is the section key (§) just under the escape key on a standard keyboard. So my abbreviation for the BBC news web site becomes §news which in turn expands to the full BBC news URL of http://news.bbc.co.uk.

Another tip is to enable the whole word option for all the abbreviations for your shortcuts. The effect of this is that pressing enter after typing the abbreviation immediately loads in the required web site. The benefits are:

1. Your URL loads in fractionally faster than waiting for the abbreviation to expand and then pressing enter.
2. The number of abbreviations allowed is increased. This is because leaving the whole word option unchecked means that the abbreviation automatically expands and as such each abbreviation must be completely unique with no overlap on the root.

For example, with the whole word option not checked §news would clash with §news2 but with the whole word option enabled on these two abbreviations both would be valid.

All you then need to do is create as many abbreviations as you need for your favourite web sites and you’re good to go!

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!

Local Groups

There are often many groups meeting in your area with a specific focus on either a technology or a profession. Don”t dismiss these as a valuable source of information and demonstrations. To give a few pertinent examples to those of us based in the North West of England:

NWIITT

NWIITT is the North West Regional Group of the Institute of IT Trainers and we meet regularly at The Pelican Public House on the Sale/Timperly border on the last Monday of each month (except Bank Holidays). We also run online events for members – all the benefits of the regional meetings but without the travel.

Software demonstrations and soft skill presentations are plentiful and with opportunity to ask questions these meetings are a valuable resource!

NWAG

Official Adobe User Group for the North West of England.

We hold live meetings and coming soon online meetings using the Acrobat Connect service for which all you need is a browser and the Flash player.

Topics covered are every product in the Creative Suite, which is a lot, and a few that aren’t:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• InDesign
• Bridge
• Flash
• Fireworks
• Dreamweaver
• After Effects
• Premiere Pro
• Soundbooth
• Lightroom

So for all things Adobe you can’t beat the benefits of mingling with the experts!

Mac User Groups

Depending on your platform of choice there are even local groups dedicated to the operating system … OK I mean if you’re a Mac user there are many Mac User Groups across the region and the country.

Here in the North West there is the North West Mac User Group based in Grappenhall and there’s the Blackburn branch too. If you’re based to the East of the region there’s the huge Yorkshire MUG with 500 members.

Again product demonstrations and experts on hand to answer your questions.

Good way to get yourself known and maybe even find work if you’re freelance.

Microsoft

Microsoft have a myriad of free resources avilable from their various online portal pages – the trick is trying to locate something specific among the range of materials available.

I’ve separated the materials available into several separate categories, as follows:

Templates
Sample Documents
Learning Portal
Events
Training Presentations
Microsoft eLearning
Application File Viewers
Convertion Kits
Books
Quick Reference Guides

Templates

To assist in your search there is an index on the blog of Dumb Little Man (great name!) to 250 free items.

Microsoft also have their own index to the templates available at their template portal.

Sample Documents

There are many downloadable sample documents available from Microsoft’s site, a few examples are:

20 Sample Visio Diagrams

Sample PowerPoint design template

Christmas labels in Word format

Learning Portal

Microsoft maintain a Learning Portal at their web site.

There are both short single page tips and longer training courses available from this portal, for example:

Short tips

Making a Common Change to Multiple Contacts in Outlook

Get Results You Want by Adjusting a Value Using Goal Seek

Help protect a Microsoft Access project (ADP)

Adding Bookmarks to Word Documents

Longer Training Courses

Excel 2007

PowerPoint 2007

Events

Microsoft provide a huge range of seminars delivered online both live and replayable after the initial recording is made.

There is a sample selection of web delivered seminars viewable on demand.

While a full list is also maintained with recordings listed on the "On-Demand Webcasts" tab and the live events listed on the "Live Webcasts" tab.

Some presentations are segmented into a presentation element and a separate hands-on lab section.

Delivery is via a technology called Live Meeting 2005 Replay and this requires the following:

• Internet Explorer 6 with SP1 or above
• Windows Media Player version 9 or later

Training Presentations

Microsoft provide full training presentations for download from their Office Online Portal, for example:

Word 2003—Create footnotes and endnotes

Excel 2003 – Great Excel features

Microsoft Office – Get up to speed with the 2007 system

Word 2007 – Get up to speed

Excel 2007 – Get up to speed

PowerPoint 2007 – Get up to speed

Access 2007 – Get up to speed

Word 2007 – Save time with templates

Excel 2007 – Create your first workbook

Excel 2003 – Create your first workbook

Excel 2007 – Enter formulas

Excel 2003 – Enter formulas

Visio 2003/2007 – Crime scenes with shapes

Microsoft eLearning

Microsoft eLearning is a more course-like structured learning system than individual online events provide.

Microsoft have categorized users into home/professional/developer etc and then provide a range of eLearning materials tailored to each group. Not all of these materials are free but some are it’s a matter of finding them. I have created a downloadable list of those that I discovered that are free of charge.

Application File Viewers

Microsoft viewers are free applications which allow users without the application used to create the files to view them.

Visio viewer

PowerPoint 2007 viewer

PowerPoint 2003 viewer

Word viewer

Convertion Kits

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats allows users of older versions of the Office suite to work with the new file formats in Office 2007. This is a free download.

Books

Microsoft often offer books in pdf format for free download prior to the official release date of a new product. It’s really an inducement to people to try the new software. A recent example was the launch of Office 2007 when Microsoft gave away First Look at Microsoft Office 2007 by Katherine Murray a 208 page introduction to the Office 2007 System.

So it’s always worth while keeping an eye on the Microsoft web site prior to product releases for items such as these.

Quick Reference Guides

There are many Quick Reference Guides available from various places on the Microsoft web site, many of them are linked to from the online courses as a parting gift on completion of the course.

One example is the Project Management Quick Reference Guide.

Another example is the Word 2007 Quick Reference Guide.

So as you can see I managed to find a huge range of materials available for free download and this is only a part of the list – coming in part 2 are materials from Adobe, free video training and much much more.