Like most people you probably have more than one email account. You can’t get away without having a personal email address and you likely have to manage one for work as well. All this and you also have to manage each of these accounts across your desktop, laptop and probably a handful of mobile devices.
Confusing right? Luckily, there are things you can do to remove some of the noise such as linking your accounts. For the purpose of this video, we are going to assume that you have a personal Gmail account and an Office 365 account using Outlook for your work email. Just to add one more layer of confusion, let’s say you want to link all of these accounts in the mail application on your Windows 10 desktop computer.
In this video, we will show you how to add accounts to the Window 10 mail app, as well as linking the Gmail and Outlook so that you can access them from the same application.
Do you manage groups of people but have a hard time keeping track of everything? Well, Microsoft has the tool for you! Microsoft Planner is a great application that is part of the Office 365 offering. It is a work in progress from Microsoft but none the less, Planner is a vast improvement from a simple to do list that you may use in Outlook. If you are managing internal projects across several employees with a lot of moving pieces but don’t have a need for a fully fledged project management software, then Planner will be great for you!
Make the most of your Office 365 investment by trying Planner to see if it is a good fit for your organization. You can create projects, assign tasks and checklists under that project to members of your team. Planner lets you attach and share files that are relevant to the project and you can get a birds-eye view of the progress across all of your employees from the Planner dashboard. Microsoft Planner can be accessed on a web page, local desktop application or mobile app and the best part is that it stays synced across all of your devices to keep you on track while you’re on the move.
In this video, we will show you where you can find Microsoft Planner in the Office 365 portal. From there, we will show you how to set up your account, create projects and assign tasks to the team members in your organization. Keep your team on track and get your project completed on time with Microsoft Planner.
If you are having a problem with your desktop or laptop computer such as a reboot loop, corrupt Windows files, corrupt registry keys, corrupt registry driver or other Windows boot related issues you can resolve most of these by using the Windows Automatic Repair tool.
Windows Automatic Repair or Startup Repair can fix a lot of issues in Windows 10. This solution may not fix all of your PC Boot up problems but it is a good place to start. Running Startup Repair on your computer can fix problems that keep Windows from loading on your computer.
In this video, we will walk you through the advanced settings for using the Windows Automatic Repair tool. If your computer is having a boot issue you should follow this process before taking your computer to your IT partner. Doing this will likely save you a lot of money and time. Remember, before using any of these tools, it is very important that you back up your data as some of these tools have the ability to erase your hard work.
If you find that you are still having Windows boot issues after having run this tool, consider calling the techs at eTop Technology for support on all of your business technology needs.
If you have tried to explain a complex computer problem to your technical support group and found it difficult to bridge the gap between English and all the technical jargon, you may find it easier to make a screen recording of the problem rather than sending a lengthy email. CamStudio is a great, free program that will help you with just that.
In this video, we will walk you through downloading CamStudio and getting it set up to start screen recording. CamStudio is a very simple and straightforward program but none the less it is very powerful when you are trying to explain a problem. Once you know how to use the program you can export a .mp4 file that you can then email to your technical support group.
You may have heard of, or even used, a virtual private network (VPN), but do you know what it is? A VPN is an encrypted tunnel through a wide area network (WAN), also known as the Internet. This means that the network does not have to be located in one physical location, unlike a local area network (LAN). By using encryption and other security measures, a VPN can scramble all the data sent through the WAN, so the network is “virtually” private. In other words, a VPN allows you to access the files on your local network over the internet from an airport, coffee shop or another country, and you will be as secure as if you were sitting in your office.
Businesses commonly use VPNs to communicate across multiple locations. A large company that has offices in several cities may need to send data between their locations via the Internet. To keep the information secure, the company will set up a VPN with an encrypted connection, effectively giving the company a secure intranet over the Internet.
In this video, we will show how you can download one of the many VPN services on your computer. Once downloaded, we will show you how to set up and use this tool. Although there are many VPN options to choose from, most of them work the same way. If you are going to be traveling for work, or need to work from home or a coffee shop, it is important to send and receive sensitive data over a VPN. Otherwise, you are opening a direct access to all of your company’s sensitive information, and risk a security breach. For more information, or if you would like to set up a VPN for your company, contact eTop today.
Are you aware of all the applications that come with your Microsoft Office 365 subscription? Most people think of Office 365 as a hosted email service but don’t realize that it is much more than that. Depending on the subscription that you have, almost every Office application that Microsoft offers will be included and is accessible in the Office 365 portal.
This week we have created a video that will walk you through one of the included applications, OneNote. Like the name would suggest, OneNote is an application that keeps all of your note taking in one place. No matter if you are in a meeting, a trade show or conference, or even if you’re still in school, OneNote is a great application for all of your note-taking needs.
To help get you started, we will show you how to access and download OneNote from your Office 365 portal. Once installed, we will show you how to set up the program so that it is customized to your liking. Although the program is pretty straightforward, there are a few features that you should know about and we go over them in this video.
Once you watch this quick overview you will be able to take notes and insert pictures, videos, and sound recordings like a pro. Need a table, graph or chart? We’ll show you how to use those as well. When you’re all done taking notes, you can share them with colleagues and friends making OneNote a great tool to help your team collaborate. If you are used to using other Office products like Word or Excel then you will pick up OneNote quickly since many of the features and functionality are set up the same way.
If you haven’t already, we would encourage you to take a closer look at your Office 365 portal to see what applications are available to you. From the beginning, Microsoft has packed a lot of value into the 365 offering and since then they have done an excellent job of adding in more applications and features. To help you get the most out of your subscriptions, we will be making a series of how to videos that will debut what Microsoft has to offer and how to use each application.
Business today gets done through the technology that connects us. The problem is that no matter what, there will never be one master program that does everything we specifically need. We’re forced into optimizing our work lives through no less than a dozen applications that we ourselves string together. While this is still faster than reverting back to pen and paper, you may still find yourself having to do a task in one program only to do it again in another. For example, right now I have my newsletter program, email platform, YouTube, CRM, LinkedIn, several other social media programs, my internal chat app and our company website all running at the same time in order to get work done.
Let’s say I meet someone who I want to do business with: I have to find them on LinkedIn, send them a follow-up email, add them to my contacts list, and add them to my mailing list.
This takes time, and if you are going through a large list of new potential clients after a trade show, you could find yourself losing a day just doing data entry. Happily, there is a solution to this problem, and it’s called automation.
Most major programs today have open API’s that other third party apps can create integrations for. Instead of having to repeat yourself for every application, you can use programs like Automate.io or Microsoft Flow to bridge the gap between programs.
In this typical sales situation, you can now add your new contact to your CRM. Your automated processes will take that information and send that contact a LinkedIn invite, add them to your newsletter mailing list, and also send them an email thanking them for their time. Now you have taken three steps and turned them into one.
There are countless ways that these automation programs can be used, and more applications are jumping on board with this system every day. If you are finding yourself doing repetitive tasks in multiple application then take the time to find an integration that will ensure that you are only doing your most important work.
Email was once considered the hub of communication for business, and for external correspondence, it generally still is. However, if you just need to have a quick conversation with someone on the other side of the office, email is clunky and slow. Fortunately, there is a new trend for internal business communication: chat services.
There are a few major players in the messaging space for business, namely Slack and Microsoft Teams. Both platforms allow for a seamless collaboration between team members that is far more efficient than relying on emails or in person meetings. This is especially effective for businesses that have remote employees who need to be able to chat and send files.
There are two main ways to communicate with these chat tools, aside from direct messaging between team members. You have the option to add as many team members to a conversation as you would like, which is great for collaboration between groups within a company. You can also create general chat topics that go out to the whole company, which is great for HR updates and general company-wide notifications.
No tool is complete without its ability to offer third party integrations. Slack offers a slew of apps and API integrations for just about every application you use. For example, maybe your sales team uses SalesForce, but you want your team to be able to communicate quickly to drive more sales. Slack offers apps and integrations for SalesForce so that all correspondence flow seamlessly from one platform to another.
The world of communication is swiftly changing. Although chat services have been around for many years with services like Skype, they have made a comeback within the business world. Instant messaging makes it faster to ask a quick question then it would be to spin around in your chair and talk to someone directly. If you are looking for a simple way to help your team communicate quickly and collaborate effectively, then you should talk to your IT partner about setting up a chat service within your company.
Microsoft is making improvements slowly but surely to help protect you from ransomware. In the second major update released for Windows 10, Microsoft has started plugging a lot of holes that leave you vulnerable to an attack. Microsoft claimed that no Windows 10 users were affected by the recent WannaCry strain of ransomware and remarked further that there are no known strains of ransomware that could affect the Windows 10 operating system.
This may sound like a good time to breathe a sigh of relief. However, it didn’t take long for hackers to rise to Microsoft’s challenge. It only took three hours for a white cap hacker to find his way past Microsoft’s security. That being said, Windows 10 is a vast improvement over previous versions of the Windows operating systems. What is apparent is that Microsoft realizes the pains that its users are feeling with the onslaught of ransomware attacks and they are working hard to come up with a secure solution.
The list of improvements that Microsoft has made to Windows 10 is too long to list. For a company that is looking to be preventative in the approach to the ransomware threat, one of the most important investments you can make is in updating your computer operating systems to Windows 10 company wide. The vast majority of ransomware infections start at the end user level through some form of social engineering scam. Microsoft is dumping all of their time and attention into Windows 10 to overcome this challenge. If your network is comprised of mostly Windows 8 operating systems or older, understand that this will become an increasing threat to your business as more threats are created for the unprotected operating systems. If you would like more information about how you can protect your company from ransomware, contact eTop today!
When working with a Microsoft Excel 2016 data table you may find that it is useful to define a constant outside of the data table rather than repeating it in every cell. Suppose you are trying to apply three different tax rates to a data table and you need to be able to adjust those tax rates without having to change them in every cell. Learning how to use cell references will allow you to do this by changing the reference rather than changing every row or column.
First, you will need to know the difference between defining a reference as relative or absolute. If for example, you are trying to add two columns together and you are using the SUM tool, you will take the first two number sets from each column and add the two together in a third column. This will automatically create an equation that you can extend to the rest of the numbers in the remaining column simply by placing your cursor over the sum of the first two numbers and dragging down the third column. This will extend the SUM equation to the rest of the numbers in the first two columns providing you the sum for the remaining number sets. This equation is using a relative constant because it changes with every set of numbers.
For the purpose of this video, we are going to focus on how to use an absolute constant. This is the equivalent of giving an equation an address to reference and whatever information you enter into that address will be reflected in the equation. In this case, the address is the X and Y access of the cell that you choose to use as your absolute cell reference. In our previous example, you would need to set up three cell references to correlate with the three tax rates. By labeling each tax rate A, B and C you can reference the tax rate in the data table allowing Excel to know which absolute constant to use in each equation.
