OVERVIEW: You will see how to set up a small notebook as a portable tool for gathering information and keeping yourself organized.

What We are Doing

I am in and out of project meetings all day at work. It is difficult to capture all of the information that is exchanged and keep track of all of my tasks and to-do’s.

When I’m going to meetings I take a regular sized notebook to capture all of my notes. I also keep a mini Moleskine Notebook with me at all times. Why a mini notebook? Well, it fits in my pocket, so I always have it with me. This allows me to do a few things:

• Jot down notes, thoughts, ideas, etc. any time and anywhere
• Keep a master to-do list that spans across all of my projects
• Keep key pieces of “reference” information at hand

I use an elaborate note taking system for my regular sized notebook. Since my mini notebook is, well, mini; I set it up for maximum productivity and efficiency.

Necessary Supplies

You will need the following supplies:

• Small Moleskine Notebook
• Small Pos-it Notes
• Post-it Small Flags
• Highlighter Pen

Optional: Fine Tip Pen and Duct tape.

Laying Out Your Notebook

I separate my mini notebook into three distinct sections:

• To-Do – the most important thing is what do I have to do NEXT
• Projects – major projects I’m on
• Reference – small pieces of information that I may need to recall

To Do

This is the first section in my book. I just keep a running list of tasks and their due date. Cross them off when their finished. Since I’m only writing the task names in a list, I usually only dedicate 5ish pages to this section.

Reference

This is the last, least frequently used section of my notebook. I keep things like names, phone numbers, website addresses, user names, etc. back there. I only need about 5ish pages for this section too.

Projects

I keep notes, ideas, or hi-level plans about the projects I’m working on in this section. This is the meat in my notebook sandwich. (Even if I am a vegetarian) I use all of the pages that the To-Do and Reference don’t take up. (80 – 90% of the pages) I place different color post-it tabs on each section (like an address book) to clearly separate each one. This helps me navigate very quickly.

The Finishing Touches

You never know when your setup may need to expand to accommodate a productive brainstorm. I add a few extra tricks to the front and back inside covers for those unexpected needs. I get a few teeny, tiny post-it notes and place them in the inside covers. This allows my to write down more information than a page can handle, yet keep it on that page. I also stick a few multi-color post-it tabs in there to use as place holders or flags on particular pages. Typically I use them if there is some outstanding item on a page. I peel them off and recycle them when that item is resolved. Since my notebook is so small, I need a fine tipped pen to write small and legibly. If you want to keep it with your notebook at all times, you can use tape (duct, masking, painter’s, etc.) to rig a pen holder to the cover or spine of your companion. Some may call it ghetto, but I like to call it a “custom modification”. Lastly, I love the little pocket that is in the rear, inside cover of Moleskine notebooks. It is the perfect size to hold a few business cards (yours and theirs), receipts, or other precious scraps.

See How to Set Up your Mini Notebook

The following video shows how I set up my mini notebook for maximum performance and flexibility.

Win the Notebook in this Video

Too cheap or lazy to build your own super-terrific mini notebook? No problem. Leave a comment below for a chance to win the one used in the video demonstration. I will keep the contest open until midnight (EST) Friday, August 6th 2010. Then, I will select a comment at random. I will ship the notebook to the lucky commenter, so that they can be awesome too!

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

Where You At?

I have been reading and hearing tons of arguments about which location based service is “winning” the war for your phone. Well, I decided to test a few of them for a month to see who i think is the best. I loaded a bunch of apps on my phone and tried to check in on all of them in a variety of locations. As you may suspect, I also got a variety of results. Some good and some bad.

Let’s take a look.

Here are the three location based application/services that I tested:

• Foursquare – The biggest name in this space.
• Gowalla – Up and coming challenger to the King.
• Yelp – Business ratings monster throws its hat in the ring.

Here is the list of apps that I rejected:

• Google Buzz
• Loopt
• Layar
• Twitter
• Facebook

Basically, I skipped them all because they are not really location based social networking games. Rather, they’re social networking apps with some aspect of location included.

How they Fared

I rated each service on Location, Interface, GPS Accuracy, and Extra Features.

Foursquare

Foursquare is the king of the hill in this game for a good reason. It’s got a huge community, it works well, and it’s just plain fun. Spoiler Alert – it’s my favorite.

Locations: 4 stars

Interface: 4 – pretty good

GPS Accuracy: 2 – horrible!

Extra Features: This is easily the best, most fun interface and community of the three.

Room for Improvement: It would be nice if you could post business / party photos like Gowalla and Yelp.

Gowalla

Gowalla is one of those nice stories that makes you want to root for them. The thing is, it just doesn’t feel as good to use. It just feels a little half-assed in my opinion.

Locations: 3 (worst in the roundup)

Interface: 4 (pretty good)

GPS Accuracy: 1 – the worst

Extra Features: It’s pretty easy to add photos

Room for Improvement: More locations and a larger user base.

Yelp

While Yelp technically functions as well as Foursquare, it just doesn’t feel as fun. However, it does double as an incredible portable yellow pages / business review tool. It ain’t Foursquare, but you still need it on your device.

Locations: 4.5 out of 5 (best in the roundup)

Interface: 4 stars

GPS Accuracy: 2.5 (the best is still real bad)

Extra Features: Massive collection of review data on businesses.

Room for Improvement: Make it easier to add missing places

Comparison of Locations

Over the course of a month, I attempted to check in using all three apps everywhere I went. (Yeah, my wife wanted to choke me.)

Here are the results.

Foursqure was the best, Gowalla was the worst, and Yelp was right in the middle. All of them had NO accuracy on the GPS location. Pretty bad for location based apps, wouldn’t you say?

And the Winner Is…

Foursqure by a decent margin. By the way, my ID is as you may have guessed, VitaminCM on all three apps. Add me as a friend if you’re looking to share recommendations and badges.

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

OVERVIEW: Learn how to create a dropdown list that populates cells in Microsoft Excel.

You know how e-commerce websites have dropdown lists to let you select data that they want to be valid? This is a pretty handy way of making sure that they get the correct data. Well, you can do this in Microsoft Excel too. The best part is that it takes a few seconds and it’s really simple.

Let’s go!

Creating Your Destination Cell

The first thing you need is a cell where the dropdown list will be placed. Here is a spreadsheet that I created where you can log products that were ordered.

Pretty basic stuff, but I want to be able to populate the Product cells from a dropdown list of valid products.

That’s the other half of the equation – the list.

Creating the List of Values to Populate the Dropdown

Now, go to some blank cells or preferably a blank tab in your workbook.

Type in your list of values going down a column.

These are the only selections that I want to appear in the Product cells.

Now, let’s create the dropdown list.

Creating the Dropdown List

You need to go to the cell that you want to populate from the list (B2). Then, click the Data tab on the ribbon.

Select the Data Validation dropdown list, then the Data Validation option on the list.

This will open the Data Validation menu.

You need to determine what values that you will allow in cell B2 using the Allow list.

Select “List” from the Allow list.

This will produce the Source field. Click in this field, then select the range of cells where you typed your list.

Press the Enter key on your keyboard to finalize the dropdown list creation.

Using the Dropdown List

If you click in the cell with the list (B2), you will see the dropdown arrow to the right of the cell.  When you click on it, the list of valid values that you created will appear.

Select your choice and it will populate the cell.

That’s it! Pretty simple, right?

Applying the Finishing Touches

You just added the dropdown list to one cell (B2). Copy that cell and paste it into the rest of the cells in the Product column and the list will work for every row.

The other thing that I would recommend is hiding the cells with your values. You can either Hide the cells or just place them on another worksheet.

See the Video Tutorial for Creating a Dropdown List in Excel

The following video shows the entire process.

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

That’s a lot of eyeballs

I use a service called TubeMogul.com to upload and track my videos on multiple video sharing services. Two of my favorite stats are which services get the most views and of course, how many Total Views all of my videos on all sites get. Well Sunday morning I woke up to check my stats and saw that I finally passed the ONE MILLION TOTAL VIEWS mark. Wow! It’s hard to imagine that my silly little video tutorials have been watched over a million times.

Let’s take a look at how those numbers break down:

My Most Viewed Video

How to Control Multiple Computers with Single Mouse Using Synergy had a hair under 150 thousand views. Here are my most viewed videos in order:

Video Site Serving the Most Views

5Min.com is my biggest video sharing service by a mile. That makes sense, since they are a site that specializes in instructional videos. Here are my video sharing services in order:

Most Commented Video

The video that received the most comments was

How to Configure Your XAMPP Server with a total of 38 comments.

My Favorite Video

My favorite video by far is How to Create a Web Operating System Today . Sadly, it only received about 5,000 views. Well, here is its big change at redemption. See why it’s my favorite video.

If you want to see the full Create the Web Operating System Today article, take a look, I think it’s some of my best writing.

Where to find my Vidoes

In addition to subscribing to my RSS feed below, you can follow me on:

5Min.com

or

YouTube.com

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

I was recently asked by a reader, “How I stay motivated and come up with article ideas?”. Actually, that is my biggest challenge. I have to push myself pretty hard. I have a career and a family, so I don’t have a lot of time. Then, when I do get time, I don’t always feel like making the magic happen. If I do get on a roll with something, I try to push myself for as long as possible. I work a lot when everyone is sleeping. You kinda have to make your own time.

Here are couple of tips for staying motivated and generating content that work for me:

Generate More Ideas than you Need

More ideas = more articles. You need to generate as many ideas as possible, then pick the best stuff from that collection. I am constantly looking for ideas, inspiration, questions, challenges, arguments, and anything else that makes me want to write.

Capture Your Ideas (All of them)

I capture all of my ideas using a combination of a Moleskine notebook and Evernote software. Evernote is on my iPhone, Mac, PC, and a Plugin in my browsers. As soon as I get an idea I capture it somewhere. There are not too many situations where I don’t have my phone and/or notebook. If you want some tips on using Evernote check out this Evernote video tutorial.

I take action on some of my captured ideas right away and others I just save for a rainy day. Whenever I have writer’s block or I’m just tapped out, I comb through my notes and look for ideas. This has gotten me “unstuck” plenty of times.

Consume as much Information as Possible

I also read A LOT. My Google Reader has over 200 RSS feeds. I group them together by topic (Productivity, Gadgets, Sports, Finance, etc.). This way I can quickly bang through 30 or so fresh articles on a given topic. For most articles I just scan the headlines and images, for others I read, star, and share them. The real good ones, I send to Evernote to use later. This is the quickest way to digest a ton of information, plus get a quick temperature check on your field. See how to use Google Reader like an information ninja.

Be a Man of the People – Get out there and mingle!

The other thing that I have done lately is GET OFF THE COMPUTER. Seriously, I look for events in my area on MeetUp.com. I get out and meet real people who might read my blog and also some people who work at the companies that interest me. You get a surprising number of ideas that way. One of the places that I go to find interesting Meetups in my area is Meetup.com. If two or more people want to gather and discuss a topic, it’s there, no matter how weird.

Look for Ideas in the Situations and Challenges Around You

Wanna hear something funny? As I was emailing Herbert back, I was thinking that “this” general idea would make a good, quick how-to article. Throw in a few good pics or a youtube video, some ads, and I have an article. So I guess, people who ask me questions are also a great source of motivation.

By the way, if you’re interested in doing a guest post here or having me do one for your site, I’m always looking for new people to work with. Let me know if you have any ideas for me or you. CM@VitaminCM.com

The reader that contacted me was Herbert Lui. Stop by his blog, Cutedge.org and check out some of his interesting articles. Leave him a comment too, he’ll really appreciate it.

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

OVERVIEW: Learn how to use the ASAP Utilities add-in to dramatically boost the power and ease of using Excel.

What is ASAP Utilites?

I work in an Accounting/Finance area dealing with lots of reporting, so I have Microsoft Excel open all day long. One of the best things that I ever installed on my work machine is ASAP Utilities. This powerful Excel add-in allows you to do complex, advanced tasks quickly and efficiently. It also allows you to do some very handy things that Excel doesn’t even do out of the box.

How Much Does it Cost?

There are two versions: the FREE one which is really for personal use and the $50 version which is for professional use (at work). Aside from the personal/professional rules, they are almost identical.

How Does ASAP Work?

ASAP Utilities installs itself as an Add-In which creates an ASAP Utilities tab on Excel’s ribbon.

All of the operations that ASAP performs are grouped into categories represented by dropdown lists on its ribbon tab.

Some of the features that I used most are under the Sheets, Range, Numbers, Text, and Import categories.

Greatest Hits

Among the numerous features that I use, my favorites are:

Advanced Character Find and Replace – great for removing carriage returns in text.

Copy (formula generated) Data as Values – paste the actual numbers anywhere.

Find and Clear Duplicate Values – great for getting one of each value in a big table.

Color Every Nth Column/Row – get striped rows without making a table.

Delete Leading or Trailing Characters – Strip area codes or middle initials off a list in seconds.

There is even a Favorites option where you can save your most frequently used commands.

These are very useful, but two that I use A LOT are under the Import and Sheets categories. I regularly have to produce a report that pulls data out of 10 – 20 separate Excel files. The data is the same, just for different business groups. I need to get all of this data into one file, then onto one worksheet.

Here’s how I do it:

Us the Merge and/or Import Multiple Files command under the Import category to grab the data from all of my files and pull it into a new workbook. Each file creates a tab named after the original file name.

Opening 15 files, copying their data, and pasting it into a new workbook would take a LOOONG time and be very prone to screw-ups.

Now that I have all of the data in separate tabs in the same workbook, I need to get all of the data onto the same worksheet. I select all of the worksheets (tabs) and run the Put together rows/columns from separate sheets command under the Sheets category. This places a copy of all of the data on my 15 tabs into a brand new tab. Voila! Now I can sort, subtotal, and analyze everything at once. This takes me about three minutes depending on the number and size of the files. Try doing that as a copy and paste job in less than 20!

See it in Action

The following video shows how to combine data from 15 separate Excel files into one worksheet in a new file.

Some Other Weird but Cool Options

There are more commands/features than I care to count. Most people will probably stick to a few core features, but here are a few obscure ones that I like:

Bulk Create Folders – type a bunch of folder names in cells and it will create them on your hard drive.

Text Case – Convert hundreds of rows of text to UPPERCASE, lowercase, or Title Case.

List All Fonts in a New Workbook – List every font on your machine and display every character in that font. Pretty handy for typesetting.

Find and Remove All Links – Strips html links from data that you pasted from the internet.

What are you Waiting For, Go Get It

Head on over to http://asap-utilities to get yourself a FREE copy of ASAP Utilities. You will be the new Excel Guru in your office.

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

Cool Old School Gagets with an Awesome Story to Tell

I recently spent a week on vacation in The Hamptons, which is a region that occupies the South Fork on the tip of Long Island, New York. We had our friends out for a few fun days that we spent on the beach.

We wanted to hear some music at the beach, so my friend Mike brought along an old set of portable speakers with him. These Koss SA/30 M portable speakers were old, beat up, and sounded great. But that’s not the interesting part of the story.

My friend Mike served in the U.S. Army during the first War in Iraq (you know the one in the early 90s). He was a Communications Specialist who worked with radios in the field. For a while, he was driving around some high ranking officers in a Jeep with no radio. Ever the resourceful guy, he rigged up these speakers and a Walkman so that he (and the officers) could have some music while they were driving around Hell’s Half Acre. He said that he used them for over a year in the Iraqi Desert, and then Alaska, and finally back home for the next close to 20 years.

That’s not a bad run for a relatively inexpensive piece of gadgetry. Let’s see if my fancy new iPod will last that long under far more tame conditions. If a gadget makes that kind of a journey, seeing that type of action, then it’s worthy of my respect.

By the way, it was still mobile in our “old-meets-new” Little Tikes red wagon + iPod portable DJ booth. Good time and better friends.

Here is a picture of myself and my friend Mike sitting at a sidewalk cafe looking unimpressed at the group of young kids skateboarding around town. (When did I get so old?)

Me on the left and Mike on the right.

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

If you want to work faster and more efficiently on your PC you really need to leverage the shortcut keys that

If you want to make Windows a super-efficient productivity machine, you really need to make use of it’s built in shortcuts. Learning just a few simple keystrokes can help you get everything done quicker and easier than you may imagine. Here is a list compilation of over 50 shortcuts, tips, commands, and more that will dramatically improve your computing experience.

The Control Key

The Control key is your most powerful ally. Ctrl + some keys will allow you to quickly perform the most important, useful operations on your computer.

CTRL + A = Select All

CTRL + B = Bold selected content

CTRL + C = Copy selected content

CTRL + V = Paste copied content

CTRL + X = Cut selected content

CTRL + P = Print

CTRL + N = Create a New File

CTRL + S = Save

CTRL + Z = Edit> Undo

CTRL + I = Italicize selected content

CTRL + E = Center selected content (only some apps)

CTRL + Q = Quit active program

CTRL + U = Underline selected content

CTRL + O = Open a file in the active application

CTRL + R = Refresh browser

CTRL + G = Group selected items into one

CTRL + T = Open a new Browser tab

CTRL + HOME = Top of a document or page

CTRL + END = Bottom of a document or page

CTRL + SHIFT + ESCAPE = Open Task Manager

CTRL + SHIFT + S = Save As

The Windows Key

The Windows or Start key does some very useful tricks.

+ E = Opens Windows Exporer

+ D = Minimize or Restore all open application windows

+ L = Locks your computer (Same as Ctrl + Alt + Del, then Lock button)

+ R = Open Run command

+ F = Search Files on computer

+ U = Open Utility Manager

+ F1 = Help Menu

The Alt key is infrequently used, but it has a few gems up its sleeve.

ALT + TAB = Toggle between running applications

ALT + “any letter” = Show quick tasks in menus and toolbars (ALT + F opens the File Menu)

The Function Keys

F1 = Help Menu

F2 = Rename File / Folder

F4 = Repeat last formatting option in Office

F5 = Refresh Browser

F11 = Hide/Restore Browser toolbars

F12 = Print

Windows Explorer Tips

Make shortcuts to your frequently used folders and files

Place shortcuts to your frequently used folders in the Favorites folder (C> Windows>Favorites)

Quickly jump to your favorite

Drag files from Explorer to a document, email, etc.

Drag file attachments from an email or browser to a folder in Explorer

Keep two Explorer Windows open and drag and drop files between folders

Microsoft Office

F4 = Apply the last formatting command

CTRL + Z = Undo last action

CTRL + Y = Redo the action that was Undone

Right click on text to show formatting options. (Office 2007 & 2010)

Internet and Browser Shortcuts

These shortcuts will work in any browser on Windows.

Backspace = Go to the previous page

ALT + = Go to the previous page

ALT + = Go Forward a page

F5 Key = Refresh Browser

CTRL + R = Refresh Browser

CTRL + T = Open a new Browser tab

CTRL + Click a link = Open link in a new tab

SHIFT + Click a link = Open link in new Browser window

F11 = Hide/Restore Browser toolbars/menus

Right Click to copy or save an image

Scroll Wheel Click on a link to open it in another tab

Scroll Wheel Click on a tab to close the tab

Drag a tab out of the window to open that tab in its own window

Drag a tab from one browser to another to open the page in a different Browser

Right Click Options

Right Click

If you are in ANY application and are looking for a quick way to get something done, try the Right Click trick. Right clicking usually opens up a menu with several convenient options in most software. This is a lifesaver lots of times.

When in doubt, Right Click!

More Resources

Here are a few great places to find even more handy tips.

How to navigate Windows using a keyboard

Save time with quick computer shortcuts

Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re using a Mac, there is a similar collection of incredibly useful shortcuts to help you out. Try some of these.

Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts

More Mac Keyboard shortcuts

Reference for EVERY Character Key on a Mac

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

I just upgraded to WordPress 3.0 and everything seems to be working fine.

If you would like to learn all about the awesome features that make WordPress 3.o the best platform for your blog, watch this video.

To see how to set up your own WordPress blog view my tutorial.

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.

The new iPhone 4 was just announced today with most of the features that we all had been expecting for some time now.

• Front facing camera for video conferencing (pretty cool addition)
• A Flash on the 5 megapixel rear camera (thank god)
• A higher resolution screen (nice)
• Apple’s new A4 processor (whatevs)
• Blah, blah, blah

These features are all pretty nice additions that will force me to upgrade. The one thing that I think let’s Apple steal a lot of ground in a niche where it previously had not ventured is the Hi-Definition video camera (720p) that was added. They also announced an iMovie app ($5) to allow you to edit and share movies right from your phone. This probably will not help them gain any new customers, but it is BAD news for Flip Video cameras and their brethren.

Flip Video Cameras have occupied the top of the video camera sales lists on Amazon.com since they came out. They are the perfect niche device, because there was no other way to get decent quality video from something that small and convenient. They were tiny, simple, fun, and provided acceptable quality video footage. You could quickly plug it into your computer, edit it and share it.

Hard Times Lie Ahead

Well, the iPhone’s video camera takes up no space. You’re already carrying a phone. Flip cameras don’t have an always on connection to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter which is where all of that raw video will go. Consumers don’t want to juggle between a camera and PC, when they can just shoot, edit, and post on the spot.

If the specs/quality are anywhere close, Flip is done.

By the way, I’m sure Google, Palm, Microsoft, and Nokia are already firing up their copy machines as I’m writing this, so even if you’re not an Apple guy, you’re not going to be Flip guy for long.

UPDATE: I just found out from a friend that the HTC EVO on Sprint already does 720p video on a phone. See it already started! (June 8th)

They’re getting it from all sides:

• Phones are more ubiquitous, feature packed, connected and convenient
• Point and shoot cameras have FAR better quality and features (for not much more money)
• If it’s in an iPhone and an iPod nano, how long until it’s in the iPod Touch?

Is there any Hope?

Flip better innovate something gamechanging ASAP or they’re cooked. I’m not sure what they can do, but they better do it FAST.

Either that or just pray really hard for cargo pants to come back into style. Then maybe people won’t mind carrying 5 devices around.

What do You Think?

What impact will an HD Video iPhone (and a few other competitors) have on the Flip Video market?

Did you Like this Article?

Why not get free updates from VitaminCM.com?

Subscribe via RSS Reader

Subscribe via YouTube

Or just Follow me on Twitter, where I am constantly sharing great articles written by people WAY smarter than me. Or, see some of the other places where you can connect with me out there in the wilds of the internets.