Outlook, SharePoint, and Business Technology

Add some pizzazz to your email by using SmartArt

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:06:38 +0000

Email. Boring.
Boring ol’ email. We are all guilty of delivering the same ol, same ol’ text emails. Outlook 2007 has a great new feature called SmartArt. Actually, it’s in the other Office 2007 products as well, not just in Outlook. It provides a way to display information in a graphical format. Very easy to use, lots of options to customize. A way cool tool for those that deliver information via email. Sound like you?

Check out the video below.

Andrea Kalli
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC
Affordable on-demand training videos for Outlook, SharePoint, and much more.
www.virtualassist.net/elearning

Click To Play

Social Bookmarking

How To Use Twitter For Business

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:59:19 +0000

Twitter is such a hot topic these days in the world of social marketing.

I recently held a free course for my fellow virtual assistants, called “Using Twitter for Business”, and recorded it through GoToMeeting.

I’ve also just created a new HubPage called “How To Use Twitter For Business“, which includes a lot of details and links to the great Twitter tools I use and others I recommend.

Andrea
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

Check out the video below to see Twitter and some Twitter tools in action! It’s nearly an hour, so it may take awhile to download.

Click To Play

New and Improved Flagging feature in Outlook 2007 - in honor of Flag Day

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:19:24 +0000

In honor of Flag Day, this Outlook video tip is about the new and improved flagging features of Outlook 2007. It takes your productivity to a whole new level, what with tight integration with the new To-Do Bar of Outlook, keeping up on what you need to keep up on has never been easier. List Makers Unite!

Thanks to my friend and colleague, Andrea Cannavina of www.legaltypist.com, for suggesting the idea for this video tip.

Check out the video.

Andrea
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC
Affordable, on-demand training videos for Outlook, SharePoint, Social Marketing, and so much more!
www.virtualassist.net/elearning

Click To Play

Strapped for time? Social Marketing Success in Under 30 Minutes a Day

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:27:08 +0000

Facebook! LinkedIn! Social Bookmarking! Blogs! Podcasting! AAARRRGGG!

Are you feeling the pressure of not being able to fit social marketing into your schedule? We’ve built a program just for you!

We developed a course that has been specifically designed for those that are already stretched on time, but still want to use social marketing sites and strategies to build and market their business. Sound like anyone you
know??

With this email-delivered program, you can create a complete social marketing strategy with limited amounts of time to devote to its growth. Juggling everything may seem daunting, but with a regular
schedule, you’ll be able to maximize your efforts with less time than you think.

Who this program is perfect for:
• -those that believe they are too busy to fit social marketing into their schedule.
• -those that are overwhelmed by all they read that they SHOULD be doing.
• -those that can commit to spending 15 to 30 minutes a day to tend to their social marketing structure.

Why this program is different from other social marketing courses:
• -It won’t cover absolutely everything available in the social marketing arena, which is likely to overwhelm you.
• -It will focus on the most effective strategies.
• -It provides a companion website for course material and ongoing news, tips, and ideas in the social marketing world – this is located in the E-Learning Center.
• -We’ll be helping you to participate in your social marketing strategy in manageable chunks.

-Program plan:
• -Setup – Your first 6 emails will be once a week and are focused on laying the groundwork for your success. These are spaced so you’ll have plenty of time in between each one to get everything done.
• -The Grunt Work — After the groundwork is done, you’ll receive daily emails for the next 21 days walking you through how to effectively market your business using the social networking sites and other strategies.
• -Follow-up — After the daily emails, we’ll follow up with reminders, tips & tricks once a week for 4 weeks, then twice a month for 2 months
• -Companion Website to keep you current. Fresh and new content is added regularly! All the material that is received via email is also posted here. Perfect for those that want to speed up or slow down the course. I’ve already posted an additional 14 bonus content items, with more to come.

The cost is only $85 for both the email-delivered program PLUS 6 months access to the companion website and all the bonus content. To sign up, go to: www.virtualassist.net/amember and log in. If you’re not already registered, you’ll be asked to register first.

Here’s to your social marketing success!

Andrea

Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC

www.virtualassist.net

Click To Play

File Collaboration using SharePoint - Part Two

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:23:31 +0000

since this is Part Two, I’ll just repeat what I wrote in Part One…

I just love this feature! This is one of the best integration features between Office 2003/Office
2007 and SharePoint.

The task pane is named something different in Office 2003 than it is in Office 2007, but the
functionality is still the same.

These task panes allow you to access and modify content in a SharePoint site from within Office
without having to navigate to the site using your browser. The feature is available in the following
Office 2003 and Office 2007 applications: Word, Excel, Microsoft Project, OneNote, PowerPoint, and
Visio.

The Shared Workspace or Document Management task pane provides a link that will open the site in a
browser window and an Update button to refresh the site contents and displays the following tabs of
information:

1) Status
2) Members
3) Tasks
4) Documents
5) Links
6) Document Information

All of these tabs include a Get Updates button that retrieves the latest information from SharePoint
and refreshes the task pane.

Check out the Part Two video below.

For 10+ hours of full end-user SharePoint Services training, check out our E-Learning Center. Only $24.95!

Andrea Kalli
www.virtualassist.net

File Collaboration using SharePoint - Part One

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:22:37 +0000

I just love this feature! This is one of the best integration features between Office 2003/Office
2007 and SharePoint.

The task pane is named something different in Office 2003 than it is in Office 2007, but the
functionality is still the same.

1) Status
2) Members
3) Tasks
4) Documents
5) Links
6) Document Information

All of these tabs include a Get Updates button that retrieves the latest information from SharePoint
and refreshes the task pane.

Check out the Part One video below. Part Two is coming in a few weeks.

For 10+ hours of full end-user SharePoint Services training, check out our E-Learning Center. Only $24.95!

Andrea Kalli
www.virtualassist.net

Sharing your Outlook Distribution Lists

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:25:08 +0000

I know, I know…it’s only been a few days since my last podcast. But I just had to try out my new Aweber Blog Broadcast feature that I’ve connected to this blog site. If all goes well, it will replace the emails you normally get if you’ve subscribed to this via the email option. I have noticed it seems to get confused by the video player I put in my posts, so we’ll see if I like it enough to keep it, or if I’m sticking with what I have. I’m still testing, but will keep you posted, especially because you’ll get another opt-in email.

Anyhoo…on to the new video tip.

Let’s talk about how to share your Outlook Distribution Lists with others. This is so simple it’s not even funny. If you have distribution lists and you want to send them to others, simply include them as attachments in your email to them. Once the recipient gets your email they’ll drag and drop the attachment to their contact folder in Outlook. Didn’t I tell you it was easy?!??!

Oh and absolutely, sharing a distribution list is not to be confused with sending your contact items.

The send method for contacts will depend on just how many contacts we’re talking about. Less than 30, I’d use the Send As vCard feature (select the multiple contacts>Actions menu>Send as vCard. The terminology is a little different in Ol2007, but it’s in the Actions menu area. If it’s a lot of contacts then they should export out as csv file, send to you, and you import them from the csv file.

Watch the video below to see this process in action.

Andrea Kalli

Workin’ the Outlook Address Book Your Way

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:46:59 +0000

I based this video tip on a question that was emailed to me by someone who read a presentation I did a while back on utilizing Outlook for Contact Management

Here’s her question:

I enjoyed your tutorial on Outlook Contact Productivity. I have a question. How does one arrange to see company infomation when in an e-mail and pulling up one’s personal contact list to find a specific company name first and secondly, the user name options associated with that company? I have been searching for this information and it has been eluding me for months. Thanks so much for your insight!

This is one of those questions I’ve been asked many times over the years, which automatically makes it a perfect topic for a video tip.

I hope you find it helpful.

Andrea
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC
www.virtualassist.net

Check out our E-Learning Center for affordable, on-demand video tutorials for Outlook and SharePoint.

Watch the video below:

Outlook and Business Contact Manager on OVERDRIVE! Pinpoint Marketing Tool Demo

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:08:18 +0000

As promised in an earlier podcast, here is the video demo of the Pinpoint Marketing Tool from www.pinpointtools.com. This great product will take your Outlook or Business Contact Manager to the next level in two very important areas:

Marketing campaigns - Schedule your “drip” marketing by combining emails, postcards, and letters into campaigns to stay top of mind.
Action Plans and Automation - Create Action Plans to be more efficient - enter a pre-defined set of tasks with just one click.

You really MUST see this in action! Watch the videos below - there’s a part 1 and a part 2 to keep the video size small. The video player has a Fullscreen Toggle button to see it better.

Andrea
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC
www.virtualassist.net

Check out our E-Learning Center for affordable, on-demand video tutorials on Outlook and SharePoint

PART 1:

PART 2:

2 Way Sync between Google and Outlook Calendars

akalli@virtualassist.net (Andrea Kalli) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:06:17 +0000

RECENTLY RELEASED!

Google has released a sync tool which provides an AUTOMATIC 2 way sync between your Google and your Outlook 2003 or 2007 calendar. It was easy to install and set up, plus it works! Just log into your Google calendar and you’ll see it at the top.

If you don’t want 2-way sync, that’s cool too. You’ll be presented with sync options.

Check out Google’s article on it.

First, download the application and go through the installation process. Once installed, there are 3 options you can choose from:

2-way sync, applies changes to both your Google Calendar and Outlook calendars with each other
1 way sync where Google Calendar events will be presented on your Outlook calendar
1-way sync where your Outlook calendar events are presented on your Google Calendar.
Andrea Kalli
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC
www.virtualassist.net

Outlook and SharePoint Training and Support
Podcast/Audio Production and Support

Check out the video below.