Office Professionals, Administrative Professionals, Administrative Assistants, Virtual Assistants and Executive Assistants supported by Deskdemon with tools and information to help empower them in their careers.

Short URLs
Want to make sure that long URLs don’t get truncated?

These two websites allow you to enter a really long web address, and they’ll give you a shorter one back that links to the same site. It means that you don’t have to send long web addresses to people by e-mail.

http://www.tinyurl.com will give you something like http://tinyurl.com/xyz

http://notlong.com allows you to make part of the shortened URL something meaningful eg. http://news.notlong.com

Gee4 (from The Hub)

Fonts
What is an embedded font?

Fonts are covered under copyright law. You have a licence for each font you have on your computer (unless that font is freeware, which many are). All the standard windows fonts are on license from Microsoft.

If you want a document to print or display text in a font such as BrushScript then the computer needs to have a copy of that font on it. Years ago this wasn't such a problem because before the Internet took off everything was printed. Now it's all electronic and on the Internet we needed to find a way to share our documents that use BrushScript in them, but without having to give everyone who reads it a copy of the font. That's where embedding fonts comes in.

The font is a little file on your computer. A program like Word or Acrobat will ask you if you want to include (or embed) a copy of the font inside the Word document or PDF file you are making. This means that if you have lots of text in BrushScript, people don't actually have to have their own licensed copy to see the display as you intended.

Most computers are clever enough to substitute the closest font available, so you can safely send out documents that use Arial knowing that if the reader doesn't have that font, the text will show in Helvetica or Verdana instead.

Bethalize
Peer Moderator (from The Hub)

Entering the time in Excel
Don’t want to type the colon for every ‘time’ you enter?

Edit a customised format so that it will read any numbers you enter as ‘time’. I used #0":"00, so that the colon is automatically added into the number before the last 2 digits, whether it is a 4 digit number or only a 3 digit number. Of course, I enter time using the 24hr clock, so I don't need am and pm.

If you just need the times, and not the am or pm, then it will work for a 12hr clock time too. And I'm sure that there would be a way to formulate this so that if you enter it as military (24hr clock) time, then it would convert it to regular 12hr clock time and add the appropriate am or pm. It just depends on how complicated you need this to get.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator (from The Hub)

Outlook Calendar
How do you extend the viewable free/busy section?

The default for viewing the free/busy section of the calendar is set for two months by Microsoft (current month plus one month). To make the free/busy section viewable for longer:

1. Log into Outlook; you can be on the email inbox to make this change.
2. Click Tools
3. Click Options
4. Click Calendar Options
5. Click Free/Busy Options, and make your change. 12 months is usually a good number.

Note: You can’t do this for your manager from your computer; this can only be changed on the computer that the owner of the calendar uses.

Gee4 (from The Hub)

Headers and footers
How do you set them to appear just on the first page of a word doc?

Go into page set up, and tick the ‘first page only’ box in the layout section.

Mina (From The Hub)

Interviews
What to say when asked for your weaknesses

When you are asked what your weaknesses are in a job interview, they are looking to see how well you evaluate yourself and your work. Keep your weakness work-related, and give a positive spin (don't say it's getting up in the morning, even if it is true!)

Mine is that I want to do everything myself because otherwise it tends to get done wrong! But let them know that you are working to correct your weakness - if it's one that should be corrected - i.e. "One of my weaknesses is delegating work to others. To help with this, I've written detailed notes on the specific job that I'm giving to another person, so that I know it will get done correctly."

Kjorg (from The Hub)

CVs
Need help with the wording on your CV?

This site has examples of ‘action words’ to use on application forms, résumés or when talking to employers.

www.alis.gov.ab.ca/tips/archive.asp?EK=119

caroleanne (from The Hub)

Appraisal forms
Need a template of an appraisal form?

Have a look at: http://www.businessballs.com/performanceappraisalform.pdf