How to Create an Access Query with an And Condition

Creating a query with an And condition allows you to search for information in your database with multiple criteria. Here's how:

1. Click on the Create ribbon at the top of the Access window.

2. Click on Query Design.

3. Choose the table or query you would like to search (see the picture below).

4. Close the Show Table once you've selected your table or query.

5. Choose what you want to place in the query grid at the bottom of the screen. You can select, drag, and drop individual categories from the table you've selected, or you can double click on the table name (in the picture below, EmployeeInfo) to highlight all the fields in the table and drag them down to the query grid. Simply drag the highlighted information to the first grid column.

6. Fill in your criteria. By filling in criteria along the same criteria line, you are asking an And condition. In the example below, the query will pull results for a person who is both in the Sales Department and a Clerk.

It's as easy as that! You can also create queries with Or conditions to bring in information that is different from one another at the same time (for example, people who are in the Sales Department or a Clerk). For demonstrations on how to use Access, check out our courses on Access 2010 Introduction, Advanced, and New Features, and be sure to take advantage of the first 3 FREE previews of each.

Read More

New Courses Posted: Access 2010

To go along with the rest of the new Microsoft Suite, we are pleased to announce that our new set of courses on Access 2010 is posted. In step-by-step demonstrations, Instructor Irasema Perrot guides beginning to advanced users through the features of Access 2010. Access is such a useful program: it allows you to organize your data into neat, easy-to-use databases. You can find specific information in your database by creating and running searches called queries. If you've already started using the program and want more information, here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding Access 2010. Also, make sure to take advantage of our free previews on how to get started using Access.

Tip: If you're using Access to store people's information, such as addresses, running a query can be a great way to pull up information for people you want to send holiday cards to. It's easy to make labels from your query results—say goodbye to hours of sorting through your client/contacts/family info and handwriting or typing up labels. With Access, you've already got the information set up and ready to use whenever you may need it.

Read More

Create Your Own Festive Greeting Cards

Halloween is coming soon! Rather than spending a fortune on holiday greeting cards (which can cost up to $5 a card!), why not design your own?

Programs like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Publisher, Word, and even PowerPoint allow you to create your own high-quality cards that are customizable with personal images and messages. You can even create customized labels for your card envelopes. Click here for our blog post on design and layout tips.

Tip: Remember, paper makes all the difference in the look of your card, so be sure to pick out a good quality or paper stock. Try printing out your card first on plain paper, to make sure everything looks okay and will fold the way you want it to. If you're using a card template, make sure to note the size of paper the template is using (these typically use the 8.5x11in. paper size). Envelopes can be purchased at a department or crafts store. A 6x9 envelope is a good size to use for a half fold card using 8.5x11in. paper.

People will appreciate the personal touch of a handmade card just as much, if not more, than a store bought card. Plus, family photos are a great touch when sending cards to relatives and friends.

Need help navigating the Microsoft and Adobe programs? No problem! We offer video training tutorials in both suites, complete with in-depth examples to really help you understand how to work with the available tools. Check out the first 3 FREE lessons of each course to get a feel for the programs!

Read More

The 7X7 Rule for Presenting Information (and other handy tips)

When creating slides in Microsoft PowerPoint, a good tip for presenting information is to have no more than 7 points on a slide, with no more than 7 words per point.

This slide utilizes the 7X7 rule.

Why do this? The 7X7 format ensures that you aren't presenting too much information at once, which could overwhelm your audience. It also ensures that your information is readable, especially if you are presenting to a large audience, where members may be some distance away from the presentation screen.

Presenting, especially live presentations, can be scary. Here are a few tips to help you out with presenting and speaking publicly:

• Include visuals in your presentation, as well as handouts to supplement the material being shown. PowerPoint 2010 allows you to print out handouts of your slide show, with room for your audience to take notes.
• Use the introduction to capture interest and set the tone of the presentation. Strong introductions may use statistics, quotes, or narrative history, ask a question, or refer to a common event.
• Focus on the back of the room to project your voice.
• Speak a little too fast rather than too slow (aim for about 145-180 words per minute). Adjust your speed depending on your material and audience.

For more tips on presenting, stay tuned for our course on Public Speaking, coming soon. Also make sure to explore our new course on Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 for additional insights into creating dynamic presentations. Remember, the first 3 tutorials are FREE!

Read More

Ways to Use Excel

1. Create a budget to track your personal finance. This is a great way to see where your money is going in order to cut back on unnecessary spending. The benefit of a spreadsheet includes the ability to make formulas and work out complex sums easily, making financial planning that much easier. 

Medieval palace in Segovia, Spain
Start preparing your trip to Spain by
learning the basics of the Spanish language.

2. If you are planning on travelling, you can create a spreadsheet outlining your vacation, including where you will stay, how you will get to each place, and how many days you will be at each location (this will greatly reduce stress if you are travelling to multiple places during one vacation, especially if it's your first visit).

3. Create a spreadsheet to track household chores, where you can include categories like daily, weekly, bi-monthly, and monthly chores. Be sure to leave a checkbox next to each entry!

4. Use spreadsheets for To Do lists—these can cover the week and be broken down into days. Include both weekly and daily tasks. Checkboxes on each task are helpful here too, and can give you a sense of accomplishment when you get to check off a completed task.

5. Create a spreadsheet to evaluate items you are considering purchasing, such as a new car.

6. Create a spreadsheet to track inventory if you have a business, or even if you just want to keep track of all your personal possessions.

These are just a few examples of how you could use Excel—the possibilities are endless. So now we're curious, what do you use Excel for?

Remember to check out the first 3 FREE tutorials for some great insight on how to use Excel 2010, the newest version of Excel. We also have both introductory and advanced courses available in earlier versions of Excel.

Read More

Welcome, Word 2010!

After a three year wait, the newest version of Microsoft Word is finally here! Discover the new layout of Word 2010, with the return of the File tab (which you may remember from Word 2003) in place of the 2007 Office button.

With this newest version of Word, you can create professional, high quality documents, perfect for personal and business use. Word 2010 has all sorts of new and improved tools to enhance your documents, including:

• The ability to add formatting effects like gradient fills and reflections directly to your document text (the same effects you may have previously used for pictures, charts, and SmartArt graphics)

• New picture editing tools, including advanced color and cropping tools to perfect your document pictures

• Customizable Office themes to ensure the look of your document is consistent—you can even add your personal or business brand to your theme, giving your documents that much more of a professional edge

• A wide selection of SmartArt graphics, including additional layouts for charts and picture diagrams, to add an extra visual effect to your message

Word’s improved layout makes it even easier to navigate the program. You can recover draft versions of files that you closed without saving—that’s right, no more panic over losing a document!—and you can work with others on documents and projects with new co-authoring capabilities.

Get familiar with these new features and more at KnowledgeCity.com—we have training tutorials for beginning and advanced users, so you can learn all about how to use Word 2010. Coming soon are more of the new Office Suite, including PowerPoint 2010 and Access 2010.

Read More

Best Computer Software Training Tutorials

http://www.knowledgecity.com/ is getting better and better by the day. With a large number of computer software training tutorials, Knowledge City is helping both businesses and individuals advance their careers by understanding the short cuts of programs such as Excel, Photoshop, PowerPoint, QuickBooks, Dreamweaver, Word, and much more.

If you would like to try http://www.knowledgecity.com/ absolutely free for one month, sign up for a single user using the coupon code: knowledge. You will gain full access to the entire website library of Business Skills and Computer Software training tutorials.

Read More

Microsoft PowerPoint: Enemy of the State?

Ever since its introduction to the business industry in 1984, Microsoft PowerPoint has been a staple present in the boardrooms of the business, academic, and military world. A slideware computer program that easily generates charts, graphs, and bullet points, presenting research and data in an easy format revolutionized the time spent on data-driven presentations. But while some praise the invention of the software, there are those who disagree as well. In fact, prominent U.S. generals and professors think PowerPoint is an evil entity.

According to Edward R. Tufte, a political science professor at Yale University who wrote an article on Wired.com, “PowerPoint is Evil,” says the Microsoft presentation software induces stupidity, turns everyone into bores, waste time, and degrades the quality and credibility of communication. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the Joint Force in the Marine Corps who was interviewed for a New York Times article, “We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint” says the slideware makes us stupid.

The argument presented in these two articles is that PowerPoint creates the illusion of understanding and control when there really isn’t. By oversimplifying interconnected data, statistics and conclusion in simple bullet points, the complexity or the significance of the issue being presented is not getting through as important, vital, priority number one.

Commanders in the New York Times article believe that not only are vital sources being left out to simplify the presentation report, but by using PowerPoint as information training tutorials is stifling critical thinking and decision making. Instead of producing an environment that encourages thought provoking group discussions, PowerPoint presentation brings a numbing sensation.

“In a business setting, a PowerPoint slide typically shows 40 words, which is about eight seconds’ worth of silent reading material. With so little information per slide, many, many slides are needed. Audiences consequently endure a relentless sequence, one damn slide after another,” Tufte says.

But can a software program be the blame? Is a comprehensive report with all the critical data and statistics gathered any more effective than a PowerPoint presentation? Is relentless sequence of reports any more cognitively stimulating than a relentless sequence of PowerPoint slides?

Read More

The Importance of Microsoft Outlook & Administrative Assistant

Different branches and departments for any company or corporation must work together as one in order for a business to perform and operate smoothly and effectively. No department is less important than the other for every part has a function. But even so, there is one particular department in any given business that is the backbone, or even its lifeblood that keeps the company alive and that is the administrative department.

The administrative department to any large institution is the organizational unit that performs management activities benefiting the entire organization. To rank the importance of an administration branch in a business environment, is CEO and executives’ favored department. And as administrative personnel are favored friends to upper management, so are Microsoft Outlook and administrative assistant online video training tutorials for an administration team.

Microsoft Outlook, a comprehensive time and information manager, is the preferred software for administrative personnel to provide assistance with daily updates/up keeps important documents, contact lists, while safely and effectively sharing the information to any inner personnel and to clients. This tool helps administers:

• Easily manage daily priorities
• Connect globally
• Share the information with anyone, anywhere
• Control the data in a safe system
• Prevent losing work, data
• Provide instant relevant information to anyone

This crucial software application offers more features each year with new editions from Microsoft to simplify the daily lives of administrators. Online training tutorials are available to view the different features offered in Outlook.

Online administrative assistant video training tutorials is another vital tool that provides information, data, and organizational skills necessary for successful administrators. Through various online video tutorials, administrative assistants will be able to:

• Manage time more effectively
• Handle interruptions and be more flexible
• Plan proficiently
• Organize paperwork conclusively
• Communicate with colleagues/upper management in the right manner
• Understand office politics/diplomacy
• Handle stressful situations
• Refine writing capability

Read More

Key Training Tutorials Needed for Market Research Analysts

Career professionals vying for Data/Market Research Analyst positions should have data entry, spreadsheet creation, and database maintenance skills before going in for a job interview because most businesses feeling the financial strain due to the effects of a tumultuous economy, probably will not hire a new hire with limited skills set. They need new hires to be able to contribute immediately to the company, especially during economic hardship.

Entry level and junior data/market research professionals should refresh their knowledge or learn these three essential software programs for their field either through courses or online training tutorials before applying.

Microsoft Access: Designed specifically to simplify and control complex data tasks, research analysts can create and update database information through Access. Access help users effectively track, report, and share information in a manageable environment. With a pre-built library tracking application of database solutions with Microsoft Office Fluent user interface, researchers does not need deep database or programming skills.

Microsoft Excel: Another useful application is the Excel software, a powerful tool that helps create spreadsheets and formulas, practice data entry, format data, communicate and manage information etc. Excel simplifies creating professional-looking reports and charts.

Business Word Processing: Research, information gathering, light administrative task is also a big part of a data analyst’s job description. That means researchers should also know how to email, merge emails, design newsletters, edit/proofread professional documents, and reports. To learn or brush up on these skills, there are online video tutorials on Business Word Processing that touches on all of the tasks listed above.

Read More

Microsoft Excel Macro Online Training Tutorial

Microsoft Excel, software that analyzes information that provides businesses with easy means of data exchange and helps make informed decisions, is one of the most asked KnowledgeCity software training tutorials by users. And out of the many online training tutorials asked on features in this program is the “Macro” function.

This built-in feature enables users to record repetitive actions for easy usage on different cells and worksheets. It’s fairly easy to utilize and useful for business professionals to save time filling out the same information on new spreadsheets.

To create a macro, here are few simple steps:

1. First, establish the workbook (file) for the spreadsheet that is going to be recorded under by clicking on the Tools tab on top of the toolbar. Find Macro then select Record New Macro.

2. When the dialogue box appears, fill in: the name of the file, letter to the shortcut key (optional) (pressing the Ctrl + the key letter will run the macro automatically on different spreadsheets), and where you want to store your workbook in (usually the workbook is the one in progress or can be saved under a personal macro workbook).

3. Write in the description for the macro made.

When finished, click the Ok button and a small macro recording box will appear to show recording is in session. After the box shows, everything that is done on the workbook is being recorded. Manually go through functions that macro needs to recreate (i.e. adding/deleting columns). To stop recording when finished, click on the blue button of the recording box and the workbook is ready to use.

Read More