The Tribe of Adminsa home for wayward admins

Still loading your documents onto a flash drive and trotting your aching Prada knockoffs down 42 flights, across the lobby to a different elevator bank, up 15 flights and across the floor to your colleague because the company email and collab site has a size limit…a mini, skinny, obnoxiously small limit?

You need an unlimited online data storage service. The one I use is Mozy. Another reputable site is Elephant Drive. Mozy has more bells and whistles and is well reviewed everywhere, but if you have a make and want to do automated backups, go with Elephant Drive. You can upload your document to a secure site, give your colleague a password, and he can download the entire document – no fuss.

When I’ve used this:

• Working from home: I needed to get a document to my manager who was in another country.
• The email security software stripped the images out of my document.
• My colleague was across the country and I’d left a big pile of hair on the floor trying to find a way to share a huge document.
• Sending a document to a small business owner with a small limit on the size of her emails.
• Sending a document to a colleague on vacation whose email was filling up fast – I just sent her a note on where to find it.
• Sharing with several colleagues. This keeps multiple copies of large documents off the often over-stressed company mail servers.
• Working out of the office with no access to my drive – but there it is on Mozy, accessible from anywhere (yea!).

What Can You Absolutely Not Afford to Lose?

I assume you already back up…but what if the house burns down?  Seriously. Houses do. No, really…they do. Or what if, like me, your computer dies and then you discover that the backup drive was only pretending to work?

For less than a couple of lattes each month, you can have unlimited off site storage in a safe, secure data vault. My recommendation is to either upload only that which is truly important to you, or schedule it to backup while you sleep. Big uploads to the web are slow, but a couple of gigabytes here and there are a breeze. Some of the things I’ve stashed offsite:

• Financial records
• Household inventory (see above…in case the house burns down)
• Photos
• Music

What would you save?

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You set up your PowerPoint show to run automatically…but how will your speaker know how long s/he can rattle on before the show leaves town without him? There are a couple of ways you can help:

1) When you choose “rehearse timing,” PowerPoint will ask you if you want to view timings in Slide Sorter view. Say yes. This is what you’ll see:

If I create your show, you’d better talk fast!

You can do a screen print or use your Snag-it to provide an overview of the timing for the show.

2) As you set the timings, or using the above print out as your cheat sheet, enter the timings into the Notes View for each slide. Each slide will appear on a page, looking something like this:

In newer version of PowerPoint, you can split the presentation so that the speaker sees the notes version and the audience sees the notes version.

Really, though, I think clicking for each change is safer. Imbedded movies are the only time you should need to do this.

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Silly Excel trick:

I want to know how many days there are between 10/1/09 and 8/1/2010

I enter the following formula:

=(DAYS360(B1,C1,TRUE))

B1 is the name of a cell. You can put either date there- Excel has no sense of time and doesn’t care.

In cell C1, put the other date.

If you happen to enter your dates in some other cell, like Y2 and Z3, change the formula to match: =(DAYS360(Y2,Z3,TRUE))

That’s it! Hit enter and you’ll see your answer.

Here’s how it looks with the original formula:

Formulas are so terrifying! Now as to why you might want to count days…

Related Posts:

• Excel Window is Too Big
• Randomizing a List of Words or Names
• LauraJ’s Weblog : Excel tip: Split first name and last name into separate cells
• New Excel Wiki and Counting Check Marks
• Counting Multiple Variables in Excel
• Picture Doesn’t Show in Word
• Can I Create a PDF without Adobe Acrobat?
• Lots of New Stuff
• Who Loves Office 2007?
• Changing the Format of a Picture

Sometimes you open Excel to find that it’s bigger than your screen and you can’t move your document to correct the problem. Your scroll bars are missing, your menu is floating somewhere in the the stratosphere. Now what? Here are some solutions:

1)If you can see the expand/collapse buttons – on a Mac they are red, yellow and green dots in the upper left, and and in Windows, on the right: .

Click the middle button in Windows or the green one on Mac. This will – counterintuitively – shrink the window to fit inside a frame.

2) If that doesn’t work, try changing the screen resolution. You can do that by choose Start, Control Panel, then Display. (Mac: System Preferences under the apple, then Display). The higher the resolution, the smaller the Excel window. Close and reopen Excel.

3) If none of those work and you’re in Windows, try this tip from Seeing Excel’s Program Window (Microsoft Excel):

Reset the window size with command keys:

Press Alt+Spacebar. This displays the Control menu (even if you cannot see it).

Press the letter R; the Excel window is restored to its “in between” size.

Press Alt+Spacebar to again display the Control menu.

Press the letter X; the Excel window is maximized.

If you would rather use the mouse than the keyboard, you can follow these steps:

Right-click on Excel in the task bar

Choose Restore from the menu that pops up. The Excel window returns its “in between” size.

Again right-click on Excel in the task bar.

Choose Maximize from the menu that pops up

I’m afraid I have no idea how to do this on a Mac. If you know, write in here or enter a comment:

Related Posts:

• New Excel Wiki and Counting Check Marks
• Randomizing a List of Words or Names
• LauraJ’s Weblog : Excel tip: Split first name and last name into separate cells
• How to Count the Number of Days between Two Dates
• Lots of New Stuff
• Counting Multiple Variables in Excel
• A New Webhost and Winning an iPad
• Accepting a Previously Declined Invitation
• Picture Doesn’t Show in Word
• Can I Create a PDF without Adobe Acrobat?

There’s been such a positive response to the eggcorn and malaprop post that I thought you’d like to know that the theme of Merl Reagle’s July 4 crossword puzzle in the LA Times is “Gathering Eggcorns.”

http://games.latimes.com/index_crossword.html?uc_feature_code=lacal

SPOILER ALERT: If you intend to do the puzzle, don’t read any further!

The crossword puns on “Wet one’s appetite,” which you might do to your lawn or your pants, but not your appetite. You might whet it, just as you would the kitchen knife, so now you’ll remember.

On the other hand, you wouldn’t “hone in on” the last pea. You might home in on it, but save the honing for that knife and your wits. If you don’t, we might have a “parting of the waves”—or not, unless you’re Moses. I can see how you might get there, though…we’re waving, our waves part… Or maybe you’re a hairdresser. However, if we’re having a tiff, you’ll have to settle for a parting of the ways.

Completely exposed = butt naked. We love saying this, don’t we? My mother was mortally opposed to “butt.” Only bad girls said butt. Since achieving adulthood, I’ve buttheadedly used it at every opportunity, but in this case even I have to insist that it’s buck naked. Nice try, though.

“Sacreligious” is not a word, and is really more a misspelling than an eggcorn. The word is sacrilegious and isn’t etymologically related to the word “religion.” Third cousins by marriage, twice removed at best.

“Zeroscaping” for a yard that requires no watering, however, an eggcorn at its best – perhaps a better word than the correct xeriscaping.

“Indicator of the winds of change?” is “bellweather.” In spite of how it may sound, it’s not a bell that rings in a gale but comes from the bell on a ram that leads a flock—bellwether.

My favorite is “laxadaisical.” It a perfect word, isn’t it? Says just what it means. I grew up hearing it and use it regularly. Truth is, though, only the lackadaisical say “laxadaisical.” Tell yourself that what you really lack is a daisical and you’ll remember. You’re welcome.

“Here, here.”  Glad you’re enthusiastic about being here, but if you’re trying to agree with my brilliant assessment of the situation, stick to hear, hear.

If we go much further we may venture into “unchartered waters.” If fact, you don’t have to hire a boat to get lost; you can meander into uncharted waters for free.

I had so much fun doing that puzzle that I went out and found a few more, these from the eggcorn data base, credited to Larry Horn. I don’t know who Larry Horn is, but based on the examples below, he will soon be known as larriwhorne and will be cited as a type of error based on poor translation from another language:

Bonified – Your head may just be bonified, but your credentials must be bona fide.

Mano a mano – If you use this, you’d better mean “one on one” or “hand to hand,” not “man on man,” because I don’t want to hear “womano a womano” ever again. “A mano” means by hand, not a man. Think manual.

Power Mower – You better be doing the lawn with this, not kissing it. Save the smooching for your paramour.

Pre-Madonna – might describe the early 80’s, but it if you want to discuss her public persona, you need to go with prima donna.

Social Morays – Really? I always thought they spent their days under rocks. I must misunderstand their social mores.

Enough already. I could waist daze in the eggcorn database.

Related Posts:

• Eggcorns and Malaprops
• Me, Myself and I

You want to have a drawing, or you’ve created a word list for a party and want to mix them up and don’t want to have to go through the process of pulling them out of someone’s greasy fedora. Here’s how to do it in about 15 seconds:

in Column A, list your names.
in Column B, enter the following: =RAND()*300
What that will do is enter a random number between 1-300 into Column B. If you choose 1000, it will enter a number between 1-1000. Go wild.

Drag to copy the formula down the whole column. You’ll see something like this:

See the random number in column B? Now sort by Column B. Be sure to choose “no header.” The results are confusing to look at, because Column B has an imperative to randomize and will do so again immediately, but now look at Column A:

Voila! Random!
You can throw away Column B – you don’t need it anymore.

Related Posts:

• Excel Window is Too Big
• LauraJ’s Weblog : Excel tip: Split first name and last name into separate cells
• New Excel Wiki and Counting Check Marks
• How to Count the Number of Days between Two Dates
• Counting Multiple Variables in Excel
• A New Webhost and Winning an iPad
• Accepting a Previously Declined Invitation
• Picture Doesn’t Show in Word
• Can I Create a PDF without Adobe Acrobat?
• Not Seeing Your Outlook Question? Try This!

Myself did not go lie awake agonizing over the rancid grammar of others last night, so myself is not exhausted. I, on the other hand, did and am. If I hear one more “Joe and myself will take care of it,” I will commit cubicle-kari. Seriously, people. You’re embarrassing yourselves. (No, since you asked. The etymology of embarrass is not what you think it is, but I hope you feel that way when I hear you using ‘myself’ as a first person pronoun. It’s called a “reflexive pronoun,” so reflect before you use it.)

Here’s the skinny. You would not say, “Myself will take care of it”; therefore you do not say, “Joe and myself will take care of it.” You say  ”I will take care of it,” and you must say, “Joe and I will take care of it.” Myself my em-barr-ass! Cut it out.

And here’s another version: “Please fax it over to Brad and myself.” Now, would you say “Fax it over to myself”? Well, you might, but please don’t. “Fax it over to (Brad and) me.” Period.

OK, I know you’re all worried now because your Aunt Tilly told you it should be “Brad and I.” No, it shouldn’t. Aunt Tilly was just in a tizzy because she grew up hearing how she should stop saying, “Matilda and me are gonna go hunt dinosaurs.” And indeed she should have stopped, because it’s “I” when you’re the subject, and also because there really weren’t any dinosaurs and she was telling whoppers. She should have said, “Matilda and I are going to get dirty and annoy the neighbors.”

The point Aunt Tilly was missing is that “me” is a legitimate and under-used word. If you’re the object of the action, you should say “me,” even if there’s someone else involved. You wouldn’t say, “The feds cuffed I.” You would say, “The feds cuffed me.” So when they cuff your boss, too – and we know it was all his fault anyway – you’ll say, “The feds cuffed my no-good, rotten boss and me.”

And please be advised that “I” and “myself” are feuding. You may never begin a sentence with “I, myself…” Or at least wait until I’m out of the room.

So what the heck is “myself” for? “I gave myself a Valentine’s Day gift because no one else was speaking to me after my attack of grammatical priggery” would be a legitimate use of the word. You can even say, “I can’t stand her, myself.”

Now I’m taking myself to dinner to celebrate your grammatical rehabilitation.

Related Posts:

• Eggcorn Crossword!
• Eggcorns and Malaprops

You pay a tax professional? Shocking!

How can I say this politely? OK, I can’t. Admins aren’t the best paid people on the planet. Nor do most of us have complicated tax situations. So why are you squandering your hard-won pennies to retrieve the taxes that you overpaid because you weren’t paying attention in the first place? Who are you that you need a CPA, Donalda Trump, E.A.? Seriously!

If you can juggle travel, expenses, meetings, presentations, onboarding, offboarding and the hundred other urgent issues and crazed people you deal with on a daily basis, you can manage to follow step-by-step instructions to tell a piece of software to fill in your tax forms. I’ve gotten better refunds doing it myself than I ever have from a tax pro, and not because I’m good at it. Doing taxes myself makes me think about and dig up more deductions that hauling a shoebox to I & S Clock ever did. Take the leap. You can use the money you save to invite me to lunch. I accept chocolates, too.

Search for Tax Software

Buying your software through the links above helps support this site and doesn’t affect your price.

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Sometimes someone else says it so well, there’s no point in repeating it. I stumbled across this tip in LauraJ’s Weblog the other day. It’s yet another tool to use in our unending quest to split up first and last names (or any text) in an Excel column. Here’s the link:  LauraJ’s Weblog

I’d quote her, but she uses pictures – bless her – and those wouldn’t carry over. Take a little side trip over to her site and then come on back for more about Excel. Thanks, LauraJ!

Related Posts:

• Excel Window is Too Big
• Randomizing a List of Words or Names
• New Excel Wiki and Counting Check Marks
• How to Count the Number of Days between Two Dates
• Counting Multiple Variables in Excel
• A New Webhost and Winning an iPad
• Accepting a Previously Declined Invitation
• Picture Doesn’t Show in Word
• Can I Create a PDF without Adobe Acrobat?
• Not Seeing Your Outlook Question? Try This!

I’ve stumbled across a new (to me) web host (where you place that new website you’re going to make) with a promo an admin’s gotta love: a campaign to end the use of the word “fail” as a noun. It will ‘fail,’ of course, but it’s a noble cause. The host is DreamHost. Their new-century contest for an old-century idea is this: Tweet the name “DreamHost” and be entered in a contest to win an iPad. The catch is that you mustn’t misuse the word “fail” in your tweet….but you wouldn’t anyway, would you?

It isn’t really a new host. According to friends who use it, they’ve been around for a the better part of a decade. They seem to be doing everything right. They’re employee-owned, they’re green, they’re both Mac and Windows friendly, they talk to you and they show their faces. The prices are excellent and they have all the right “stuff” available. They even offer you a “green verifier” button to demonstrate to your visitors that your site is carbon neutral. If I were starting up now, this is the host I’d choose.

What they don’t offer is ready-made site templates. If that’s what you’re after, try one of the other hosts discussed in earlier posts, like MacHighway (not just for Macs and all wind powered!), BlueHost (this link leads to a $6.95/mo promo), GoDaddy ($6.99/ mo) or HostGator (starts at $4.95 and is a green host).

Current promotions for all four are listed here. As always, purchases made by clicking on any links from this site help support the site without raising your cost.

Related Posts:

• Step 2: Create Your Website
• And What *Else* Do You Do?
• Excel Window is Too Big
• Randomizing a List of Words or Names
• LauraJ’s Weblog : Excel tip: Split first name and last name into separate cells
• Accepting a Previously Declined Invitation
• Picture Doesn’t Show in Word
• Can I Create a PDF without Adobe Acrobat?
• Not Seeing Your Outlook Question? Try This!
• New Excel Wiki and Counting Check Marks