Friday 26 February 2016

Company News

Updates to our City training office

Time has flown by since we opened our first venue at Worship Street in the City. Our first goal was to update the previous tenant's offices not just with a new coat of paint but with all new furniture and equipment, new computers and ceiling mounted projectors.

Facilities at Worship St.
One of our most popular customer requests has been for faster internet. Like many offices in the City our service was restricted due to poor infrastructure and we were mighty unhappy with a very slow and unreliable internet connection. Not very 21st century!

We are now happy to announce that we can offer high speed internet in all our training suites. In the past week we have had great feedback from attendees on our Sharepoint courses.

Course Materials

Last year we released the new customer dedicated area on our website for all new IT manuals. Our manuals are updated on a regular basis and in the coming weeks we will be releasing manuals for the new Microsoft Office 2016 titles.

Let us know if you have forgotten your password, mike.barrett@catraining.london

Hot Courses

Last year saw the release of the new Microsoft Office 2016 versions for Window and Mac. We expected the new version to be popular with the Office 365 subscribers but it is surprising how many people have migrated to the newer versions. Looking back on our activity for January we can see that Office 2010 is still the most popular, followed by 2016 then 2013 users. We delivered more Project 2016 courses than any other previous Project version combined.

Our course rates for 1-2-1 and groups are frozen for the second year. Our Public courses were very popular last year and we shall be offering even more this year. We also have a series of dedicated courses for those studying for the Microsoft Office accreditation.

Microsoft Accreditation

Last December we became a Certiport accredited testing centre. We have had a lot of interest from existing customers wanting to find out about the benefits of accreditation, which exams are available and prices. See our website for further details on Microsoft Accreditation

Why bother with Accreditation?

The MOS Badge
Some people ask why should they bother being accredited. The view of one HR Manager view was that it was to test his colleague’s performance readiness. How many of us have used Excel or Word for years but still do not take advantage of their new functionality?

The Microsoft tests are challenging, they test you on some old topics as well as the new functionality. There are a range of tests to suit all, pass four and you become a recognised Microsoft Office specialist.

There’s no written test, the exam is a series of interactive computer tasks which you have to perform. The whole process takes less than one hour to complete.

Sunday 7 February 2016

Windows 10- Quick Access to easily find files

If you are having difficulty in navigating your folders and drives and are forever searching for files then you should definitely consider taking advantage of Quick Access to create shortcuts to all your important folders. Your Quick Access list is available when you open the Windows File Explorer. Earlier versions of Windows have a similar arrangement called Favorites.

Manipulating files and folders in Quick Access does not change or alter the original files or folders in any way. Quick Access is only a pointer to the original files on your computer. Removing a file or folder from Quick Access does not remove or delete the original.

Quick Access in File Explorer

Removing Folders from Quick Access

The Microsoft File explorer always includes some Quick Access locations for you that you may not want. The default locations are usually Desktop, Downloads and Documents etc.

Remove from Quick access

To delete the locations you don't need, simply right-click on the location and choose Remove from Quick access from the shortcut menu.

Adding Folders to Quick Access

Adding your favourite folders is easy. Click the folder that you want to add, right-click and choose Pin to Quick access from the shortcut menu. You can also drag and drop a folder over onto Quick access to create a link for it.

Pin to Quick access

In the illustration above I have been meaning to file all my proposals in my "Proposals" folder but the folder is buried in my directory structure and I can never remember where it is, so I've just been saving my work on the desktop and neglecting my filing. A recipe for disaster. 

Quick Access shortcuts

Now, it's so easy to see your files, you don't have to worry which drive or folder they're stored in and you'll see the Quick Access listing whenever you open or save a file. Can you see how I've caught up with the filing?

Show only pinned folders

Windows automatically adds frequently used files and folders to your Quick Access list which can be a great boon or a major irritation depending on your point of view. To turn off recent files or frequent folders, click the View tab, then click Options. In the Privacy section, clear the checkboxes and select Apply. Now your Quick Access list will only show your pinned folders.

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