Riverbank It management

Don’t get stuck in the 10% trap, where you use just 10% of the power of your software. Work better, faster and more effectively by continuing to learn more about the software you use. Use that extra time you liberate to drive growth in your business.

Here are ten tips to help you accelerate your work with Excel.

1.    Entering text
If you want to enter multiple lines of text, or create paragraphs within a cell, use Alt Enter to move to a new line.

Pasting text from another application? If you paste it directly into the cell it will retain its current formatting (font, bold, italic etc). If you just want the text and not its current format, paste it into the formula bar (see below) and press the Enter key to send it into the cell.  

If you want your text to span multiple cells use Merge and Center. Remember you can go vertically as well as horizontally.

The January snow meant that many people were working from home. Some fared better than others, and the calls to our help desk revealed where employers and employees were struggling. Here are Riverbank’s top tips for keeping your business running when the unexpected happens.

1.    Top of the list by far is preparation. Have a plan and rehearse it. Then you know how you will do it. Waiting until you are cut off by a foot of snow is not a good way to discover the flaw in your plan.
2.    In at number 2 is to make sure you have good instructions. If working from home is something you won’t be doing very often you will need written instructions. Don’t wait until you can’t log on to ask for instructions.
3.    Third on the list is that you need an understanding of the technology. Working from home means that you will probably have a relatively slow link to the office network and one that could get disconnected. You need to work accordingly; keeping a file open for hours while you work on it without saving your changes is a recipe for disaster.
4.    Coming in at numbers four and five is capacity. If you usually have two or three people working remotely how will your broadband line perform when 20 or 30 people are trying to work remotely?

One lesson from the recent snow was the importance of being able to work away from the office. A really useful tool for working anywhere is a mobile data link - a small USB device that connects your laptop to the Internet via the mobile network.

The Riverbank partner for mobile communications is O2. They are running a January incentive of 3 months' free subscription for voice calls if you change to O2 for your mobile voice and data communications. If you would like more information please contact Chris Jones at Riverbank, chris@riverbank.co.uk (01844 278036).