Resources

If you're like me - at the beginning of the year, I usually take some time to take inventory of things. Some of it is in preparation for taxes. I try to figure out all my monthly subscriptions, determine if I use them all or not and what all I might have access to? I'd like to help you do the same thing in regards to Learning with Kari.

This is a bit of a different tip than usual. I'm starting the year out RE-introducing myself and my services both paid and free.

About Me (Kari)

I can't introduce myself without at least mentioning my family. If you know me, you know that's first in my life.  I've been married for 21 years to awesome Tim, I've got 4 boys ranging in age from 20 - 14, 2 in college, 2 still at home. So blessed to get to do what I do! My passion is truly helping YOU. I LOVE teaching, sharing tips and helping clients create software solutions for their unique needs and businesses. I've been providing training and consulting services to individuals, small and la...

Tuesday's Tip #94: Slow Down and Enjoy the Holidays

This is going to be super simple and not "techy" at all. My tip for this week and actually for the rest of the 2021 since this is my last tip of 2021 is to spend time with your loved ones.  REALLY pay attention. Slow down. Enjoy your people. Look them in the eye. Take time off. Play games. Drink hot cocoa. Listen. Tell the people you care about that they matter.

Above, if you want to have a laugh and a window into my family. I'm sharing a video I put together of our annual family Christmas Tree excursion. Every year we get an ENORMOUS Christmas Tree and I've had fun documenting it.

No more tips until January of 2021. I'm taking time off to do what I've mentioned above - to soak in the moments. I've learned more than any other year, life is fleeting and unpredictable, the moments go fast so I'm trying to soak them all in.

See you in 2022!! 

Free Excel Training

In the spirit of deals and cyber Monday, I've got some FREE training options for you.

The first - is my Excel mini training - showing you my 3 favorite tricks. You may have seen this when you first signed up for me list - but if it's been a while - these are great tips you might need to refresh.  There's also a PDF you can download and print.

Kari's Mini Training

Kari's PDF

The second - is to show you were you can find Microsoft's training videos.

Microsoft Excel Training Videos

Need More?

Most people need a little more than these generic training resources and tips to truly master Excel but these are a great way to get started and also to help you learn about what you don't know. If you'd like more - connect with me and we can put a custom plan together unique to your company, job, experience, and goals. Contact me [email protected]

SUPER SIMPLE Time Saving Excel Tricks!

So excited to have my 2 college boys home from college. Even MORE excited when they ask me for help with something I know - EXCEL!  I was helping my son with a spreadsheet, and was happy to be able to teach him so TRICKS he didn't know.

These are the kind of Excel tips that are hard to learn - because you don't know you need them.  But here they are :)

Trick #1 - Keyboard Shortcuts

Rule of thumb. Let me preface this by saying - use keyboard shortcuts to navigate a set of data anytime you can't see the destination in the same screen. For example if you are in row 1 - you can probably see 30 rows, if you want to navigate to row 40 or higher - a keyboard shortcut will save time. If you can see where you want to go - just click with your mouse.

CTRL + DOWN ARROW - 

CTRL + UP ARROW - 

CTRL + SHIFT + UP ARROW

CTRL + SHIFT + DOWN ARROW

Trick #2 - Preserve your original sort 

When you get an Excel file, often times you sort it to see what you're...

Using the New Whiteboard in Teams

Here's a great 1 minute video that shows you all the cool things you can do with the NEW Whiteboard. 

I case you have a problem playing it - you can also use this link.

There's a brand new interface for the Whiteboard in Teams. In my video you can see how to easily add a tab within your channel for the Whiteboard.

The whiteboard is also available in chats.

Add a Whiteboard to your Channel

1. Click in the channel, click the + across the top.
   
   
2. In the App window, select Whiteboard.
   
   
3. Name the Whiteboard with a unique name or use the default name of Whiteboard.
   
   
4. Add contents like notes, images or use one of the cool new templates to structure your content.

Microsoft has a great post about some of the other highlights.

Check it out here

Some of the things I love in the New Whiteboard

• 40+ New Templates
• Sticky Notes
• Insert Images
• New Drawing T

Using Teams to Take Meeting Notes

One of the awesome things about Teams is that it automatically saves you time by having everything all in one place.  Meeting Notes is another one these features that makes taking meeting notes, updating them, distributing and finding them later SO much easier.

How to Use Team's Meeting Notes 

1. Select a meeting in your Team's calendar and click on Chat with Participants.
   
   
   
2. In the Chat window, click Meeting Notes.
   
   

TEAMS NEW FEATURE: Reply to a Specific Text in a Chat

One thing that can be challenging about new subscription based software like Office 365 is that new features get rolled out and you don't even know it.  There are places you can look but most of us don't check it out. Sometimes these are backend things that don't make a big difference to users  - but this is kind of a cool one!

Let me set the scene.

When you're part of a chat with lots of activity, especially lots of chats all happening at the same time, sometimes it can be hard to know what people are replying to. This feature allows us to specifically reply to a message in a text.

You can click the ... after a message and choose Reply.

When you reply, it copies the message and displays it with your reply.

Do You Use Version History in Teams?

If you share files in teams - you need to know about version history. Version history allows you to roll back to a previous version of a document that's shared in a channel. It's turned on automatically - you just have to know it's there. And the secret? MOST users have no idea it even exists. So here's what you need to know.

What is Version History?

Version history is the automatic saved versions of the files stored within each channel.

Why is it AWESOME??

The biggest reason it's awesome is it's SO EASY and it's most likely AUTOMATIC.  By default this is already turned on and you just don't know about it. (Shameless plug for why training is important ;-) )It allows you to roll back to any prior version of a document so you can easily access and now lose work that may have been changed or deleted. This is probably one of the most asked question in my classes when we talk about collaborating. What if someone deletes or changes something and I wa...

One of the things that is unique to Teams is Channels.  Part of the Teams app is being a part of Teams. I'm learning as I work with many organizations, that so many people are not sure how many Teams to create and what channels to use.  The tricky part - there is no RIGHT answer but let me give you a couple of tips.

Let's start by looking at the definition of a channel. 

Teams are made up of channels.  Channels are built around topics. Channels are where you hold meetings, have conversations, and collaborate around files together. For example, if your team represents a department, then a channel could be a project within that department or it could be an initiative for that department.  You don't want too many channels but you also don't want too few channels.  Keep in mind you can hide channels and create private channels. 

1. Pin Channels.
   If your are members of a lot of Teams and those teams have a lot of channels, pinning is a really great and easy way to keep your eyes on active
...

Teams is SO EASY - Why Do I STILL Need Training?

So this week continues the conversation around Microsoft Teams adoption and what I'm seeing with so many of clients . Most of the clients that hire me to do a discovery phase + Training have been using Teams for more than a year. They all use Teams and feel pretty good about their skill sets, but say " I bet there are some things I don't know". If this sounds like you....read on.  When I ask a few key questions that help me assess their level of adoption - they say - "ahhh, I guess maybe we DO need some training."

Here are a few of the key questions? If you answer yes or are curious about these - maybe we should talk.

1. Have you seen a significant decrease in internal emails? Like more than 50%?
   
   
2. Are you utilizing the co-authoring features for the O365 apps like Word Excel and PowerPoint?
   
   
3. Have you mapped your Teams channels to your Windows Explorer so you can easily find your files?
   
   
4. Have you migrated files from you on-prem server to
...