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How to Start with Microsoft Teams — A Few Basics

2020-04-02T15:19:03-04:00

Microsoft Teams, the messaging/meeting/hub program, allows us to centralize a few things we had to do “à la carte” before. By gathering stuff in one place, we can save time and effort. After we install it, one of the main things is to set up the teams themselves. Groups that work together with content, tools, and projects are teams. We go to the Teams section by clicking on the icon at left, then the gear at the bottom left. While we’re looking at the management area, we can click the “Create a team” button at top right, and decide whether from [...]

How to Start with Microsoft Teams — A Few Basics2020-04-02T15:19:03-04:00

Free Tutorial: Getting Started with Microsoft Teams

2020-04-06T13:48:25-04:00

In this Microsoft Teams Tutorial, you'll learn the basics of getting started with Microsoft Teams including how to create a new team or join an existing one, how to use channels to communicate with your team and how to use chat and video calls to connect with team members. To learn more about Microsoft Teams, check out our full, one-day course: Microsoft Teams with Office 365 Training.

Free Tutorial: Getting Started with Microsoft Teams2020-04-06T13:48:25-04:00

Redirect a Webpage using JavaScript

2019-10-21T21:35:44-04:00

Sometimes you might move a webpage to some other location but you still have people going to the old one.  We are able to redirect the users to the new page using JavaScript.  To do this, we would start with your basic HTML page, we'll pretend this is the old page people are still going to: <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Old Page</title> </head> <body> Old Page </body> </html> Now we want to add a piece of JavaScript that will redirect the user to the new page.  To do that we need to add script tags either in the [...]

Redirect a Webpage using JavaScript2019-10-21T21:35:44-04:00

How to create a class in HTML and CSS

2019-10-21T21:24:17-04:00

In CSS you need to be able to select something on the HTML page to be able to style it.  Let's take this HTML page for example: <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang=""> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title></title> </head> <body> <div>Style Me</div> </body> </html> On that page, we have a <div> that we want to style.  We want to turn the text red.  To do that we need to place a class on the div tag like so: <div class="colorMe">Style Me</div> We added the class of "colorMe" to this div so now we can select it and style it.  There are many ways to [...]

How to create a class in HTML and CSS2019-10-21T21:24:17-04:00

How to create an animated hover link using CSS

2019-10-14T00:43:53-04:00

CSS has come a long way since it's early days.  Adobe Flash used to be the only platform that would allow you to get motion or anything animated on a web page.  Those days are long gone. In this tutorial, we will go over how to take a <a> tag, or link, created in HTML and animate it when we hover over it.  To start off let's create our HTML page like so: <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>CSS Animated Link</title> </head> <body> <a href="">Hover Me</a> </body> </html> All this does is creates a new HTML document with a [...]

How to create an animated hover link using CSS2019-10-14T00:43:53-04:00

How to Create a Resource Calendar in MS Project

2019-09-30T11:58:15-04:00

The resource calendar in Project lets us take the resources' non-work  time into account. There are religious, working-two-jobs, and a few other reasons why this might come into play. So once the project calendar is established, we can create a variation of it as a resource calendar. We start by double-clicking the resource name in the Resource Sheet. We go to the Resource Information, and make sure we’re on the General tab of the dialog box. If the resource has a range, or ranges, of dates during which s/he will be available, we set them in the Resource Availability space at [...]

How to Create a Resource Calendar in MS Project2019-09-30T11:58:15-04:00

How to use relative position in CSS

2019-09-23T16:05:54-04:00

Sometimes on a webpage, you need to tweak the position of something by a little bit.  Say you have an image that needs to move over a couple of pixels or a video that needs to be shifted over.  For that, we use a CSS position property called relative. Relative positioning moves something from where it used to be originally.  If I have something in my footer down at the bottom of the page, and I relative position it, it will move from where it used to be down at the bottom in the footer.  To show this, let's create two [...]

How to use relative position in CSS2019-09-23T16:05:54-04:00

How to Use Select Case in Access VBA …and Why

2019-09-30T13:34:01-04:00

The Select Case statement in Visual Basic for Applications sometimes "competes" with the If...Then...Else statement, because the two can both be used for testing information. When we want to find out about more than one thing, condition, or what have you, we sometimes need to ask the equivalent of several questions. Which way we go, which type of code, is often our choice. All this emerges from the fact that computers ALWAYS need to do one thing at a time—they can’t make intuitive leaps, as humans can. The If...Then...Else asks "If" something is true, much as in the IF function in [...]

How to Use Select Case in Access VBA …and Why2019-09-30T13:34:01-04:00

How to use position fixed in CSS

2019-09-23T15:50:29-04:00

Sometimes on a webpage, you'll want a part of it to never leave the screen.  No matter how much you scroll up or down, you'll want that piece of the page to always be in the same spot.  For that, we use a CSS position property called fixed.  To have this work we will need to create the HTML first like so: <div class="fixedPosition">I am not going to move</div> <div style="height:1200px;">I make the page scroll</div> Here we have a div tag with some text inside of it.  It also has the class called "fixedPosition" which we will use later in the [...]

How to use position fixed in CSS2019-09-23T15:50:29-04:00

How to Clean Up Reports in Microsoft Access

2019-09-30T11:49:47-04:00

There are a few important and helpful things to watch out for in Access reports. They spring from the fact that, unlike most other database components, reports often have to stand on their own. So their formatting and layout have to be more complete and user-friendly up front. One thing to keep an eye on is the layout of field labels. If the report includes relatively few fields, the labels can often go in the page header, one per column. But if the report has more than six or eight fields, labels might go better right above or next to each [...]

How to Clean Up Reports in Microsoft Access2019-09-30T11:49:47-04:00

How to run an Angular Application on a local development server

2019-09-05T14:26:42-04:00

After we've created an Angular App and have it open in our text editor we will want to see what the app looks like so we can test it.  To do that, we need to run the Angular app on our machine and we can't do that without a server.  Luckily, when we created the app, it came with a local development server already built-in. Once we are ready to view the app all we need to do is make sure, in our command prompt, that we are currently located inside of the app's folder like so:       And [...]

How to run an Angular Application on a local development server2019-09-05T14:26:42-04:00

How to open an Angular Application inside of Visual Studio Code

2019-09-05T14:27:54-04:00

After you've created a new Angular app (click the link to the left to learn how), you will need to open it up in a text editor to be able to change and add things to it.  For this, I recommend Visual Studio Code.  It's a text editor created by Microsoft in partnership with Google.  You have two huge companies working together to make sure the editor works with the framework in the most efficient way possible so it does a great job with Angular. If you decide to use it, just head over to their website, download the editor and [...]

How to open an Angular Application inside of Visual Studio Code2019-09-05T14:27:54-04:00

Introduction to Excel PowerPivot Webinar

2019-09-13T15:13:59-04:00

In this free Excel PowerPivot webinar, Excel Instructor Seth Bonder explains how to add PowerPivot functionality into Excel, how to create a data model and much more. To learn more about PowerPivot, or to enroll in one of our PowerPivot classes, please visit our Excel PowerPivot Course page. https://youtu.be/KhOYyMWkDv8

Introduction to Excel PowerPivot Webinar2019-09-13T15:13:59-04:00

How to create a new Angular Application

2019-09-05T14:29:13-04:00

This post will talk about how to create a new Angular Application using the Angular CLI (command-line interface).  If you don't have the Angular CLI or Node installed yet, be sure to check out how to do that here. Once we have Node and the Angular CLI installed we can create an Angular app from the command prompt.  The first thing we'll want to do is create a folder somewhere on your computer that we will put the app in.  I'll create a folder on my desktop called "angularApps":                 Now that I have [...]

How to create a new Angular Application2019-09-05T14:29:13-04:00

How to Build an Error Handler in Access VBA

2019-09-30T13:37:34-04:00

Dealing with errors in VBA code, especially in Access, is a vital part of setting up procedures. If nothing else, an error-handler can give the user a better idea of what’s glitching, if something does. And having a message box come up to give the user even moderately clear information can be a huge help. It also helps the database admin person, and the VBA coder. There are normally three main steps to setting up an error handling routine. First, right up at the top of the procedure, we need a line to tell it what to do for errors. Some [...]

How to Build an Error Handler in Access VBA2019-09-30T13:37:34-04:00

How to download and install the Angular Command Line Interface (CLI)

2019-09-05T14:30:18-04:00

Angular is becoming a very popular JavaScript framework that allows you to create single-page applications (SPAs).  It's backed/created by Google and it's not too hard to get an app up and running.  This post will discuss what you need to install and what you need to do to get the Angular command-line interface (CLI) working so you can begin developing Angular apps. The first thing you'll need to do is go to nodejs.org Once you're there, download and install the "current version".  During the installation, keep all the default settings, you don't need to change anything.           [...]

How to download and install the Angular Command Line Interface (CLI)2019-09-05T14:30:18-04:00

Free Webinar: Introduction to Angular

2019-09-01T10:49:34-04:00

https://youtu.be/dwHe1aDR6Nc   Angular is a TypeScript-based, open-source web application framework led by the Angular Team at Google and by a community of individuals and corporations. It allows you to quickly build reactive, single-page web applications and is one of the most popular frameworks used today in application development. According to a recent StackOverflow survey, 36.9% of developers now use Angular in their work. In this free Introduction to Angular webinar, you'll learn the basics of Angular, including: What is Angular and why would you use it? Features of the Angular Framework How to Get Started with Angular How to Build a [...]

Free Webinar: Introduction to Angular2019-09-01T10:49:34-04:00

How to Add a Calculated Field to an MS Access Query

2019-09-30T11:44:46-04:00

Calculated fields are a really big help in Access; they let us derive data from existing information. And they’re flexible, too. If one of the source items changes, the calculation updates immediately, just like an Excel formula. But some people aren’t aware you can add them to a query. And this is an especially cool thing, because every time we run a query, we get the latest info. One example where we might use this capability would be calculating a restock—how many items we need to add. We can open the database, check the table we draw data from, and design [...]

How to Add a Calculated Field to an MS Access Query2019-09-30T11:44:46-04:00

How to create a tooltip using only HTML

2019-09-05T14:40:59-04:00

Sometimes websites aren't very specific.  You see something on the page but have no idea what to do with it or what it's for.  Enter tooltips!  They are helpful little windows that pop up to explain what something is on a webpage.  They usually show up when the user hovers their cursor over the item.  There are many ways to implement tooltips using CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, etc.  But there's one simple way to do it using only HTML.  Let's say we have an image on a webpage that we want to use as a button.  It looks like this:     [...]

How to create a tooltip using only HTML2019-09-05T14:40:59-04:00

How to Create a Watermark in Photoshop

2019-09-30T13:42:48-04:00

Creating a watermark, whether for use in company stationery, or websites, or wherever, has become fairly important recently. It’s part of what is known as product branding. I won’t go into the discussion of designing logos, as it’s a very involved process. But many companies want their official colors, fonts, and logos to be visible in any facet of their business, especially those the public sees. The watermark is very helpful in the subtle-advertising mode. They’re visible, but unobtrusive. For this example, I’ll use our own company logo (which I happen to like). We first open it in Photoshop, and make [...]

How to Create a Watermark in Photoshop2019-09-30T13:42:48-04:00

How to use the console to debug in JavaScript

2019-09-05T14:36:10-04:00

JavaScript is a great language.  It allows you to add all kinds of interactivity into your webpages.  However, sooner or later, we will make mistakes in our code.  The good thing is Chrome and FireFox both have JavaScript debuggers built into them so finding the general area where the code has issues isn't too hard.  Let's take this code for example: var x = "Hi"; alert(x); This code works fine, it sets up a variable called x that has the string "Hi" as a value and then alerts it to the window as a pop-up window of sorts.  However, if I [...]

How to use the console to debug in JavaScript2019-09-05T14:36:10-04:00

How to (Better) Convert to Grayscale in Photoshop

2019-09-30T13:44:00-04:00

When we convert a color image to grayscale in Photoshop, we  obviously toss out color. But sometimes this makes the image look a little flat. Color can make an image look vivid, and not just because color is there. It also allows subtle contrasts, enhancements, and other things which are harder in a grayscale image. But grayscale images can be enhanced, and there are one or two tricks we can pull before the actual conversion. One is based on the color or colors which form the majority of the image. We can use a Color Balance adjustment layer to make colors [...]

How to (Better) Convert to Grayscale in Photoshop2019-09-30T13:44:00-04:00

How to create a full screen background

2019-09-05T14:41:47-04:00

In this post, we'll talk about how to create a full-screen background using CSS and HTML.  We are going to bypass all the CSS properties that exist for backgrounds to do this, so consider this a type of CSS hack (:  What we are going to do is insert an image to the page and then style it to act as a background.  So that is the first part, find the image you want to use and put it on the page like so: <img src="yourimage.jpg" class="bg" alt="Background Image"> You can use a .jpg, .png, .gif, or whatever image you want.  [...]

How to create a full screen background2019-09-05T14:41:47-04:00

How to Use the Organizer in Microsoft Project

2019-09-30T13:46:52-04:00

The Organizer is one of the lesser-known features in Project. And it’s a shame that this one is overlooked. It can be a major help in both building templates and making already-built elements easily available. One common example is calendars. If you build a company calendar, and want it in other projects, you can copy it anywhere with the Organizer. Since calendars can take some work to create, they are among the most frequently-copied items in the program. First, we open the source and destination projects. Any two can be used. We then go to the View tab, and either Task [...]

How to Use the Organizer in Microsoft Project2019-09-30T13:46:52-04:00

How to redirect a HTML page

2019-09-05T14:45:00-04:00

Sometimes in the web design world, you'll need to redirect a page.  Maybe it's because the page no longer exists, the page has been updated and moved, or it could be a page that you don't want the user to be on for very long.  There are plenty of ways to do this.  You could use a bunch of different languages like PHP or JavaScript but there's a way, in HTML, to accomplish this with the meta tag and here it is: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;url=http://example.com/" /> Let's break this down.  It looks just like a normal meta tag but it has [...]

How to redirect a HTML page2019-09-05T14:45:00-04:00

Using the ISNULL Function in Crystal Reports

2019-09-30T13:48:36-04:00

The IsNull function in Crystal allows us to deal efficiently with nulls, or empty fields, in a data source. I talked about this in an earlier post. We don’t want to skip partly empty records, in most cases. But if we bring in nulls, we have to be able to work around them or compensate for them. The first example shows what happens if there is nothing in the Region field, and no IsNull to help. We get a comma between city and state/region, but there is sometimes no state/region to display. And some people find this distracting, or even irritating. [...]

Using the ISNULL Function in Crystal Reports2019-09-30T13:48:36-04:00

For of vs For in JavaScript Loops

2019-09-05T14:46:28-04:00

In JavaScript there are two kinds of for loops: for of and for in.  The difference can be seen when looping through arrays.  Let's take this array for example: var greetings = ["Hi","Hey","Hello"] It's just a normal array with three strings (words) in it called greetings.  If I were to apply the for in loop to it like this: for(x in greetings){ document.write(x + "<br>"); } This would print out the index positions of each value in the array.  So we'd get 0, 1, and 2 printed out to the page on their own lines.  If we wanted to pull the [...]

For of vs For in JavaScript Loops2019-09-05T14:46:28-04:00

How to Work with Nulls in Crystal Reports

2019-09-30T13:49:56-04:00

Crystal Reports handles nulls, or completely unfilled fields, in a particular way. And it’s very important that anyone using the program understands the details clearly. A null, in Crystal’s view, is a database field which never had anything in it, and doesn’t now. A real-life example of this is in some people-related databases; folks sometimes don’t have an official home phone anymore. They do 99.9% of their stuff via smartphone, and don’t need a hard line. So they’ll have a number in the Cell Phone field, and nothing in the Home Phone field. But this means a technically incomplete record, and [...]

How to Work with Nulls in Crystal Reports2019-09-30T13:49:56-04:00

How To Loop Through An Object In JavaScript

2019-09-05T14:48:27-04:00

In JavaScript there's a way to access all the items in an object called the for in loop.  It allows you to iterate (or loop) through all the key value pairs in an object.  For example, if we had this object: var jsobj = { company: "SkillForge", course: "JavaScript", isFun: "Yes" } We would be able to get the keys and the values out of it using the for in loop.  To pull the keys out we could do this: for(x in jsobj){ document.write(x + "<br>"); } In this loop, x is a variable that will be holding all of the [...]

How To Loop Through An Object In JavaScript2019-09-05T14:48:27-04:00

Using Bitmap Mode in Photoshop with Text

2019-09-30T13:53:11-04:00

Someone had a question about working with text in Photoshop using Bitmap mode. “Between 50% threshold, pattern dither, diffusion dither and halftone screen, which one is more suitable for text use?” This is the image mode which converts to strictly black-and-white pixels. We want to be aware that even Grayscale mode, often thought of as “black-and-white”, isn’t really. Bitmap is the only mode which natively uses just those two colors. But even Bitmap mode has a few variations, as mentioned above. So if one is scanning text in from somewhere, which should we use? The answer depends partially on whether there’s [...]

Using Bitmap Mode in Photoshop with Text2019-09-30T13:53:11-04:00