AM-Win Newsletter.

December 2011

In this edition

• Christmas closure information.
• AM-Win latest version information - N0 update since last newsletter
• AM-Win Support Solutions
• Control system Invoice print, Estimate and Membership options.
• Business Tips
• Kids at work
• Bushfire season precautions
• Windows Tips
• The Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Clipboard
• Word Tips
• Embedding special fonts in Word 2007 and Word 2010
• Excel Tips
• Excel Macros
• Whoops
• Jokes

Printing our newsletter articles in PDF format. 

 

Click on the PDF image below each article to view and print article in PDF format.  Please note that we will always open a PDF file in a new window.

Latest Version Information

No update since last month

Minor update V9.033 is on the web and available for download. Click here to select V9.033 update. This Version 9 download will upgrade any existing Version 9 of AM-WIN without an Install code or license files.

Don't forget to backup your data before upgrading.

If you have any AM-Win version prior to version 9.0 please click here before updating.

Christmas Closure Information

Christmas and New Year are traditionally the quietest times of the year for our Consultants and many of them schedule their breaks around this time.

Following are the closure times and availability of support should it be required. We ask that you only use the emergency numbers if your system is down and affecting the operation of your business.

AM-Win programming centre Sydney

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January

ASIMS Sydney

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January. For urgent support please send a detailed email of your support issue to support@asims.com.au and we will respond as soon as we possibly can.

National Support

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January. For urgent support Maryanne will be fielding emergency support calls over the break on 0412 128883 and Ted will also be available on 0417 844 144.

AM-Win Head Office Queensland

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January

ICS Queensland

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January. For urgent support Maryanne will be fielding emergency support calls over the break on 0412 128883 and Ted will also be available on 0417 844 144.

AM Systems Victoria

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January

Southern Cross Business Technology NSW

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January. For urgent support on 0418 426 054 or 0416 263 804. Please leave a message and we will be in touch as soon as possible.

Calibre One South Australia

Closing lunchtime Thursday 22nd December and reopening Monday 9th January.

Willodene Tasmania and Victoria

Closing from 6pm Tuesday 20th December and reopen Monday 9th January.  Phone numbers to call if your system is down or non operational are 03 6267 2555 or 0408 122 374.

Suspected Baby Boom hits AM-Win Queensland

 

Last month we reported that Maryanne had become a grandparent - Not to be outdone Ted has arranged a fast follow-up.  Ted Steward programmer and technician at AM-Win Queensland has become a Grandpa again with the birth of Toby.  Ted reports that Mum and Toby are both doing well.  

AM-Win Support Solutions

In our last two newsletters we have looked at the Control system in AM-Win.

This month we are looking at the Business tab in the control system explaining the Job / Invoice Tab window Invoice print options, Estimate options and Membership options.

Control File Business Options

Open Others>Control System>Business Options>Business Options and the following screen will appear:-

INVOICE PRINT OPTIONS

Automatically open stock search window for F3 stock – With more clients using barcode scanners to enter Stock Codes, this has become a method for us to have the system setup to accept Barcoding when entering Stock Items onto a Job. It means that the Stock Search screen does not automatically appear, and you are required to ‘Enter’ to enable the Stock Search. By ticking this option, when adding Stock to a Job and you are not using a barcode scanner, the Stock Search will be the first screen to appear when you select the F3 button in Customer Invoicing.

Display Invoice and Quote prices Inc GST - If this box is ticked it means that line amounts in Invoices/Quotes etc. will show the price including GST, as well as showing total GST at the bottom of the document. If this box is not ticked, it means the individual line totals will show without GST, and the GST will only be displayed at the bottom of the invoice as the total GST for the Invoice. It is important to note that in order to see the line totals on an Invoice, you must de-select the “Don’t Print Line Amount” option on the Print Job window or permanently tick the box in the Control System.

Display Msg if no labour Charged on an Invoice - If this box is ticked, you will receive a warning message when finalising a Job if no Labour has been charged on the Invoice. If you are in a service industry and all of your Jobs entail some Labour, this will avoid missing charging Labour on Customer Invoices.

Display Warning when finalizing a progressive invoice - When doing Progressive Invoicing, if you finalise the Invoice while there are no more un-ticked lines on the Job, the Job is then removed from the Invoicing screen. Sometimes a Progressive Job ends up being removed from the Invoicing screen by mistake. If this box is ticked, when you finalise a Progressive Invoice and there are no more ticked lines on the Job, you will be prompted with a message that the Job will be closed, and removed from the Invoicing screen. You then have the option to return to the Invoice if it is required to be left open.

Don’t Auto save Jobs – With the new Customer Invoicing screen, when in Revise mode you can have the system automatically ‘Save’ entries as they are happening.  While this is a very handy function, you may find that if you have perhaps deleted a few lines, and a few too many, then those lines will be lost and cannot be retrieved.  If this box is ticked then the ‘Revise’ screen in Jobs is NOT autosaving and you must click on the ‘Save’ button to save information when completed.  So if you have deleted a few lines too many, which we all do from time to time, you can just close the screen without saving and open the Job back up again and you won’t have lost those lines which were deleted by mistake.

Don’t allow sale into negative stock - If this box is ticked, this means you cannot sell a more stock than you have on hand.  When finalising an Invoice, a message box will pop up with a window saying that the system has adjusted the Stock Qty, and the Stock Quantities will automatically be adjusted to only the quantity of available stock.  This alleviates the problem of selling more than you have in Stock and eliminates Negative Stock.

Do not change Actual Labour hours when Qty is changed – When invoicing Quantities for Labour and Stock, the system will automatically make the actual Quantity to be the same as the invoiced Quantity. If you do not wish to have the system change the actual Quantity when the invoiced Quantity is changed, this box should be ticked. Then the invoiced Quantity and actual Quantity will be independent of each other.

Enable Parts Link Button - When Customer Job Invoices are finalised, the system automatically collates the parts used for the particular Job Item, provided the Make and Model for the Job Item have been chosen from the Make and Model file in AM-Win. These parts are being stored in the Parts Link button in Job Invoicing. This function allows you to choose Multiple Stock Items from the one screen to be added to the Job and enables the P/Link button in Job Invoicing.

Enable Progressive Job Posting - This option allows you to finalise an Invoice in stages, e.g. part of the Invoice may be finalised to an insurance company, with the rest of the Invoice being finalised to the Customer, but with the same Job Number being maintained. This is known as Progressive Invoicing.  If you wish Progressive Invoicing to be available in your program, then left click into the box and a tick will appear. When you do a Job Invoice the Progressive Invoicing box will be automatically ticked in the top left hand corner of the screen.

Enable re-price whole Job button - When Stock is sold on a Customer’s Invoice, the system holds the Average Cost as the Cost Price of the Stock Item at the time of the Stock Item going on to the Job. If your business works in a manner where the Jobs are open for quite some time, you might require to have the costs updated as times goes by. If this option is ticked, the Cost and/or Selling Prices of the individual lines on the Job will be updated each time the Re-price is selected. This will enable more accurate profit being presented on the Invoice statistics.

Enable Reprice Stk master file from Job Invoice PLR Window - If this box is ticked it will enable the Reprice button to appear on the Insert Part Record screen in Job Invoicing.
This will enable you to permanently change a Selling Price for a Stock Item from within Job Invoicing, by clicking on the Reprice button after changing the Selling Price. The Stock Master file will automatically be updated.

Force salesperson code on Invoice - If this button is ticked, the system will force you to enter a Salesperson Code onto the Invoice when you finalise the Invoice. This can be used to allocate Jobs to mechanics etc., or you could even set up the Salesperson Codes such as SV for service work or GN for general work. This will flow on to reporting for Invoices by the Salesperson, or if set up differently, reporting for Invoices that were for Service work or General work etc. The Salesperson set up is under Others, then Maintenance, then Salesperson File, and will be covered later. Various examples have been shown below:-

From Wkshp Diary use NEW Job Invoicing - When you are in the Workshop Diary and you click on the Invoice button, you have the choice whether to open the new Job Invoicing or old Job Invoicing screen. If this box is ticked, the NEW Job Invoicing screen will open instead of the old Job Invoicing screen. Both screens will update the system accordingly. The old Job Invoicing screen will be removed from the AM-Win software in a future version.

Must enter meter reading in Job Invoice - If this box is ticked, you will be forced to enter a meter reading when finalising an Invoice. This may be kilometres if relating to a motor vehicle, or hours if relating to a boat etc. If you do not wish to have this field forced to have a value entered into it, leave it un-ticked.

Prompt to Enter cost price when selling a Ledger item – When selling a Revenue (Ledger) line on a Job, the system will use a margin which is preset in the Control File to calculate the cost of the Revenue line for the purpose of Invoice statistics. If you wish to ensure you always have an accurate Cost, you can have a message appear every time you use a Revenue line on a Job to remind you regarding entering the Cost, if it needs to be manually entered.

Require Estimated No of Hours in Job Invoicing – In Job Invoicing there is a field in which you can enter the estimated number of hours for the Job. This information is used in conjunction with the Employee File to calculate available number of hours in day from the Workshop Diary, or the field can be used as a reference only.

Show Credit Warning Note in Jobs/Order – If your Customer’s account is overdue past their trading terms and this box is ticked, you will receive a warning message when creating a job or Customer Order.

Show Available Stock in PLR Window - When you press F3 in Customer Invoicing and you select a Stock Item, if this option is ticked, more information will appear on the screen to show Stock on Hand, what is allocated and how much Stock is available, then also what is on order. This is a very handy check to see immediately if Stock is actually available at the point of invoicing.

Use Unallocated balance in Payment amount in Proforma – If your business receives a lot of deposits for Jobs, and the Customer requires to receive a Proforma Invoice as the Job progresses, this tick box will show the value which is in the Unallocated field in the Payment screen as a Payment on the Proforma Invoice.

Suppress Message ‘Apply Unallocated balance to payments’ – Sometimes it occurs that a Customer may have an Unallocated value on their account due to a deposit paid, or simply have a Credit which they have not taken up yet. If this is the case, when the Payment screen appears during the finalisation process of the Invoice, you will automatically be prompted to allocate this Unallocated value against the Invoice. You now have the ability to stop the system from showing this message and allocating the value if this option is ticked.

Show Alternate Code in Estimates & Invoices - If you are using Alternate Stock Codes and you wish the Alternate Code to appear on Estimates/Invoices instead of the Master Stock Code, then this box should be ticked, providing you also have the option ticked to print Stock Codes on invoicing.

Skip Invoice Payment Window - Part of the finalising process of a Job is that a Payment screen appears, giving you the option to enter a Customer Payment for the Job, if applicable. If you do not wish the Payment screen to appear at all, this box should be ticked. If this box is ticked, you must enter all Payments from your Customers through the Open Item Customer Payment screen.

Allow insert multiple serial numbers on job - This is a new feature of AM-Win. If you are selling a Multiple Quantities of a Serialised Stock Item, you are now able to select Multiple Serial Numbers from the one entry, providing this option is ticked.

Use Kit Description when importing items into a Job – When creating a Job Kit, sometimes you need to override the Stock description to suit the requirements of the Job Kit. Generally the system will override the description with the description of the Stock Item which is held in the Stock Master file. If you require the changed Stock description to be held when importing a Job Kit into a Job, then this option should be ticked.

Print payment Terms on Invoice Format 2 - For those users used to the Automate format for Customer Invoicing, we now have the option to print the Customers Trading Terms on the finalised Invoice. If you wish the Trading Terms to print, then this box should be ticked.

Don’t Auto prompt on Auto Insert F4 Labour – When you enter Labour on to your Customer Invoice, if you would generally only use one Labour Code, ticking this box will stop the ‘Insert Labour Record’ screen from reappearing for further selection, after you have made your initial Labour Code selection.

Job Invoicing – No of days from Booked Date to Due Date – When creating a Job you can have the system automatically prompt to input the Due Date on the Job to be a set number of days after the Booked Date. Simply input the required number of days you would like the system to use as a calculation from the Booked Date.

Round Invoices & Stock Prices to nearest 5c/10c/$1 - If you click on the down arrow you may choose either ‘Yes’ to round Invoice total to the nearest 5 cent/10 cent or $ 1, or No for no Invoice rounding (this method is generally not recommended in the instance where you have Customers paying by cash). If you choose to have Invoices round to the nearest dollar, a total Invoice value ending in 50 cents will round up to the next dollar.

Close Job Screen after nn Minutes (value in mins) - Only 1 person can hold a Job open at any point in time. If you have a situation where several people need to access a particular Job during the day, but someone is holding it open for long periods of time (perhaps unnecessarily), you can nominate a minute count, where the system will determine if no updating is done on a Job for a certain number of minutes, the system will automatically ‘Save’ the Job and close it.

Number of decimal places for unit price - You can set the number of decimal points to be printed for pricing on Invoices and Purchase Orders. This is defaulted to 2 decimal places but you may wish to change this if you are selling petrol or other items that calculate to more than 2 decimal places.

Proforma Default Text Footer Number - When printing a Proforma Invoice, the system will use the Default Invoicing String which is set in the Printer Settings area. If you wish to have a different Text String print on your Proforma Invoices, then nominate the Text String number in this field.

Report Percentage Cost on Revenue - Allows the user to default a percentage figure used to calculate the Cost Price of a Revenue (Ledger) item from the pricing window in Job Invoices and Quotes. If a Revenue item is charged at $100 and the Report Percentage Cost is 80% then the cost of the $100 part will be shown as $80.00. This is an estimate only and is not used to calculate your Profit/Loss or GST figures. If a COST has been entered into the GL Code for the Revenue item then this will be used in preference to the Report Percentage Cost and used in calculating statistics on Invoicing.

Report Percentage Cost on Labour - Allows the user to default a percentage figure used to calculate the Cost Price of a Labour item from the pricing window in Job Invoices and Quotes. If a Labour item is charged at $100 and the Report Percentage Cost is 80% then the Cost of the $100 part will be shown as $80.00. This is an estimate only and is not used to calculate your Profit/Loss or GST figures. If a COST has been entered into the GL code for the Labour item then this will be used in preference to the Report Percentage Cost.

Estimate Options

Estimate Default Text Footer Number - When printing an Estimate, the system will use the Default Invoicing String which is set in the Printer Settings area. If you wish to have a different Text String print on your Estimates, then nominate the Text String number in this field.

Default no. of days on Estimate - You can set a number of days that an Estimate is valid for in the Control System, so that when you print out the Estimate, it prints the ‘Valid For XX days’ in the top section of the Estimate.

Membership Options

Job Payments – Make Points Amnt zero if Terms overdue – If you are using Membership points in AM-Win and this box is ticked, your Customer will not be able to redeem any points whilst there is an amount overdue past their trading terms.

Print Accrual points on Invoice – If you are using Membership points in AM-Win, you have the ability for the Customer to see the value of their accrued points print at the bottom of their Invoice. Tick this box to have the accrued points print at the bottom of your Customer Invoice.

User definable in Invoices & Workshop of Job Description - The Job Description in Customer Invoicing automatically defaults to General Work. If you wish to change the Default Job Description, you may do so in this field.

 

 

Business Tips

Kids at work

Our business tips this month have been suggested by Carl Harrison, technician at ICS,  AM-Win Distributor in Queensland.  Carl reports that he always sees an increase in malware, viruses and Trojans on our customer's computers during and after Christmas and school holidays. 

It's easy to see why.  Business owners are busy people and can't always mind the kids when they can't go to school so they bring them to work and sit them down in front of a computer to keep them busy.

If you're one of these "lucky" people who need to bring your kids to work and keep them occupied on a computer here's a few tips to keep your business safe.

Try to find them a computer that's not on the company network. That way any problems will not be transferred to your other computers across the network.

Ensure that all of your computers have up to date virus and malware protection installed.

If you do allow the kids on a computer on the network back up your data regularly during the day.

Do not let them use the server or the computer where your business data resides - remember that if your data is damaged your business activities will be affected.

Bushfire Season Precautions

Bushfire season is hard on your data.  While there may be a risk from the fire itself the main risk is from power or lack of it. Bear in mind that the fire doesn't have to be close to you to affect you either, as a fire in any area that is served by the same power supply as your business can affect you.

Make sure that you have adequate protection by purchasing a backup power supply that is rated for your computers. Avoid the cheap backup systems sold in computer retailers and ask your consultant for advice. It might cost you a bit more but this is definitely a case of quality and performance is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

Backup your data regularly during the day if there is a threat. Every 2-3 hours is recommended if you are processing many transactions. By doing this you are not going to lose a day's work if something goes wrong.

 

Windows Tips

The Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Clipboard

This may seem to be a large document to cover a simple application like a clipboard but the Office clipboard is far more powerful than the Windows clipboard and deservers the amount of space that we have given it. The following document also covers clipboard in Excel, Word and Outlook.

The Microsoft Office Clipboard [unlike the Windows system clipboard] allows you to copy up to 24 multiple text and graphical items from Office documents or other programs and paste them into another Office document. For example, you can copy text from an e-mail message, data from a workbook or datasheet, and a graphic from a presentation and then paste them all into a document.  By using the Office Clipboard, you can arrange the copied items the way that you want in the document.

How the Office Clipboard works

The Office Clipboard works with the standard Copy and Paste commands. Just copy an item to the Office Clipboard to add it to your collection, and then paste it from the Office Clipboard into any Office document at any time. Up to 24 collected items stay on the Office Clipboard until you exit all Office programs or you delete the items from the Clipboard task pane.

After you exit all Office programs, only the last item that you copied stays on the Office Clipboard. When you exit all Office programs and restart your computer, the Office Clipboard is cleared of all items.

The Office Clipboard and the system Clipboard

The Office Clipboard is related to the system Clipboard in Microsoft Windows in the following ways:

• When you copy multiple items to the Office Clipboard, the last item that you copy is always copied to the system Clipboard.
• When you clear the Office Clipboard, the system Clipboard is also cleared.
• When you use the Paste command, the Paste button, or the keyboard shortcut CTRL+V, you paste the contents of the system Clipboard, not the Office Clipboard.

Turn on the Office Clipboard

Excel

• On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Clipboard Dialog Box Launcher.

Outlook

• In an open message, on the Message tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Clipboard Dialog Box Launcher.

Word

• On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Clipboard Dialog Box Launcher.

Control how the Office Clipboard is displayed

You can use the following options to control how the Office Clipboard is displayed.

1. In the Clipboard task pane, click Options.

1. Click the options that you want.

Turn off the Office Clipboard

Do any of the following:

• In the Clipboard task pane, click the Close button.

• In the Clipboard task pane, click the arrow, and then on the menu, click Close.

• Press F6 to give the clipboard task pane the focus. Press CTRL+SPACEBAR, and then, using the DOWN ARROW key, scroll to Close and press ENTER.

Copy multiple items to the Office Clipboard

Excel

1. Open the file that you want to copy items from.
2. Select the first item that you want to copy.
3. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.

Keyboard shortcut; To copy an item, press CTRL+C.

1. Continue copying items from the same or other files until you have collected all of the items that you want. The Office Clipboard can hold up to 24 items. If you copy a twenty-fifth item, the first item on the Office Clipboard is deleted.

If you open the clipboard task pane in one Office program, the Clipboard task pane does not automatically appear when you switch to another Office program. However, you can continue to copy items from other programs. If the Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying option is selected (to verify, click Options in the Clipboard task pane), a message is displayed above the status area to indicate that an item has been added to the Office Clipboard.

As items are added to the Office Clipboard, an entry is displayed in the Clipboard task pane. The newest entry is always added to the top. Each entry includes an icon representing the source Office program and a portion of copied text or a thumbnail of a copied graphic.

Notes

• The Office Clipboard is not available in views where the Copy, Cut, and Paste commands are not available.
• Collected items remain on the Office Clipboard until you exit all Office programs that are running on your computer or click Clear All in the clipboard task pane.
• In some cases, such as Unicode text, the image displayed in the task pane looks slightly altered. This is because text is always displayed in the task pane by using the Tahoma font. However, the correct formatting and font information is restored when the item is pasted from the task pane.

Outlook

1. Open the file that you want to copy items from.
2. Select the first item that you want to copy.
3. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.

Keyboard shortcut; To copy an item, press CTRL+C.

1. Continue copying items from the same or other files until you have collected all of the items that you want. The Office Clipboard can hold up to 24 items. If you copy a twenty-fifth item, the first item on the Office Clipboard is deleted.

If you open the clipboard task pane in one Office program, the Clipboard task pane does not automatically appear when you switch to another Office program. However, you can continue to copy items from other programs. If the Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying option is selected (to verify, click Options in the Clipboard task pane), a message is displayed above the status area to indicate that an item has been added to the Office Clipboard.

As items are added to the Office Clipboard, an entry is displayed in the Clipboard task pane. The newest entry is always added to the top. Each entry includes an icon representing the source Office program and a portion of copied text or a thumbnail of a copied graphic.

Notes

• The Office Clipboard is not available in views where the Copy, Cut, and Paste commands are not available.
• Collected items remain on the Office Clipboard until you exit all Office programs that are running on your computer or click Clear All in the clipboard task pane.
• In some cases, such as Unicode text, the image displayed in the task pane looks slightly altered. This is because text is always displayed in the task pane by using the Tahoma font. However, the correct formatting and font information is restored when the item is pasted from the task pane.

Word

1. Open the file that you want to copy items from.
2. Select the first item that you want to copy.
3. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.

Keyboard shortcut; To copy an item, press CTRL+C.

1. Continue copying items from the same or other files until you have collected all of the items that you want. The Office Clipboard can hold up to 24 items. If you copy a twenty-fifth item, the first item on the Office Clipboard is deleted.

If you open the clipboard task pane in one Office program, the clipboard task pane does not automatically appear when you switch to another Office program. However, you can continue to copy items from other programs. If the Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying option is selected (to verify, click Options in the Clipboard task pane), a message is displayed above the status area to indicate that an item has been added to the Office Clipboard.

As items are added to the Office Clipboard, an entry is displayed in the clipboard task pane. The newest entry is always added to the top. Each entry includes an icon representing the source Office program and a portion of copied text or a thumbnail of a copied graphic.

Notes

• The Office Clipboard is not available in views where the Copy, Cut, and Paste commands are not available.
• Collected items remain on the Office Clipboard until you exit all Office programs that are running on your computer or click Clear All in the Clipboard task pane.
• In some cases, such as Unicode text, the image displayed in the task pane looks slightly altered. This is because text is always displayed in the task pane by using the Tahoma font. However, the correct formatting and font information is restored when the item is pasted from the task pane.

Paste items

You can paste items from the Office Clipboard individually or all at the same time.

1. Click where you want the items to be pasted. You can paste collected items into any Office program.
2. Do one of the following:
   • To paste items one at a time, in the Clipboard task pane, double-click each item that you want to paste.
   • To paste all the items that you copied, in the Clipboard task pane, click Paste All.

Note; The Paste Special command is available from the Clipboard group but is not integrated into the Office Clipboard task pane functionality.

Delete items from the Office Clipboard

You can delete items from the Office Clipboard individually or all at the same time.

In the clipboard task pane, do one of the following:

• To clear one item, click the arrow next to the item that you want to delete, and then click Delete.

• To clear all items, click Clear All.

 

Embedding special fonts in your Word document

If a Word document is created with a non system font and the end user does not have that font installed on their computer, the resulting document will display a substitute font instead of the intended font.

This issue can usually be solved by embedding the TrueType Fonts into the document.  Microsoft Word allows you to embed a TrueType font in a Word document so that you can view and edit the font, if licensing rights allow. You can do this even if you open the document on a computer on which the font is not installed.

To embed a TrueType font in a saved document in Microsoft Office Word 2007, follow these steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button.
2. Click Word Options.



3. On the Save tab, click to select the Embed fonts in the file check box.

To embed a TrueType font in a saved document in Microsoft Word 2002 or in Microsoft Office Word 2003, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Save tab.



3. Select the Embed TrueType fonts check box.

Note that later versions of office may contain system fonts that are not installed in earlier versions. If so you may need to purchase a licensed copy of the font from the web.

Not all fonts are licensed so that they can be embedded. If a font can be embedded, it will increase the file size of your document by approximately the size of the TrueType font (.ttf) file.

NOTE: Some fonts treat normal, bold, italic, and bold-italic as separate font .ttf files. In this case, the file size of your document is larger when you use bold and italic formatting than it is if you do not.

If a font does not have a bold, italic, or bold-italic version, Windows generates bold or italic from the core font. In this case, the file size increases when you use bold or italic formatting.

Licensing rights for font embedding determine how the font may be embedded in the document.

Font Licensed as	Result
Protected	The font may not be embedded, copied, or modified. If you use a protected font in a document, and this document is opened on a computer that does not have the font installed on it, a font substitution occurs. Word substitutes the closest font available on the computer for the missing protected font.
Print/Preview	The font is embedded and temporarily loaded on the target computer. Documents that contain print/preview fonts must be opened read-only, and no edits are stored in the document. Embedding a font of this nature has the least impact on file size increase.
Editable	The font behaves just like the print/preview fonts, except that you can also apply the font to other text in the same document.
Installable	The font is installed on the target computer permanently when you open the document. This allows you to use the new font as if you installed the font directly into Windows yourself. This type of embedded font has the greatest impact on file size, because the entire font is included with the document. The size of the font file can vary greatly. To estimate the font file size, follow the steps in the "To Estimate the Font File Size" procedure later in this article.

How to estimate the font file size

NOTE: The following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, please consult your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Fonts.
3. Right-click the font that you want, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.
4. The size of the font on disk is listed for Size.

 

 

Excel Macros

Microsoft Excel is the one of the most popular spreadsheet programs used worldwide. It has a variety of features such as data storage, creating reports and charts, using mathematical functions, performing statistical analysis, ability to connect to databases, making use of pivot tables, V-lookups etc. One such very useful feature within Microsoft Excel is the ability to make use of “macros”.

What is a Macro?

A macro is a recording of the commands and actions which are used in order to perform a task. Whenever you find that there is a particular task or series of tasks which you perform often, it may make sense to save the sequence of tasks as a macro for reuse later. Thus the applications of Macros to perform frequently occurring repetitive tasks can help free up your time to be spent more productively on doing something else instead.

How to Create Macros

There are two ways of creating macros within Microsoft Excel

1. The first is the Macro Recorder. Excel provides the ability to create macros by creating a recording of the tasks performed by the user. The Macro recorder is usually made use of for simple macros.

2. The second is using the macro editor which is used when complicated macros are required.

The Macro section can be accessed from within the View tab or the Developer tab in the Ribbon in Microsoft Excel.

Recording a Macro

The sequence of steps below details how to record a macro in Microsoft Excel

1. Open Microsoft Excel by clicking on Start>Programs>Microsoft Office>Microsoft Excel. Alternatively, go to Start>Run and type excel and hit the Enter key.

2. Navigate to the Macros section by clicking on the View tab in the Ribbon. Then select the Macros button.

3. A drop down menu appears in which View Macro and Record Macro options are available.

4. Click on the Record Macro button. A dialog box appears

a. Provide a suitable name for the macro.

b. Set a shortcut key for the macro (if required).

c. Choose where to store the macro, within ‘this workbook’, in a ‘new workbook’ or in a ‘personal macro workbook’. By default, it will be ‘this workbook’.

d. Give a detailed description (if required).

5. Perform the series of actions which you want saved within the macro. This step is very important and must be performed without any error because even the errors will get recorded as part of the macro.

6. Once you are done performing the steps required, click on the Macro button and choose Stop Recording from the drop down menu.

7. In order to run a saved macro, choose the Macro button and click on View Macros. A dialog box appears from which the required macro can be selected and run by clicking the Run button. Alternatively, if you know the keyboard shortcut assigned to that macro while creation, you can make use of the shortcut. Click on the Edit button to open Visual Basic Editor to edit the macro’s code. Click on Step Into to run the macro in Debug mode. Use the Delete key to delete unwanted macros.

Microsoft Excel File Type for Macros

Prior to Office 2003, macros could be used as part of just about any excel file. The normal excel format, .XLS could also store a macro. There was an option to enable or disable macros which needed to be set as required.

However post office 2003, with the introduction of the .XLSX format, Microsoft introduced a separate excel for Macro-enabled excel files known as .XLSM. Therefore, if you wanted to create and use macros within an Excel file, it had to necessarily be stored as .XLSM file. This can be seen while saving the file. Choose the Save as file type Excel Macro-enabled Workbook.

Whenever you open an .XLSM file, by default macros are disabled. This is to protect users from unknown content. Click on the Options button and select Enable this content in order to enable the use of macros in your spreadsheet.

 

Note:

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Whoops

Jokes

Make me a new Ark

One day God calls down to Noah and says, "Noah I want you to make me a new Ark".  

Noah replies, "OK God,  anything you want.

But!, God says,  there's a catch.  This time Noah, I want more than just a couple of decks, . .  I want 20 decks one on top of the other".    

20 DECKS!", "Well, OK God whatever you say.  Should I fill it up with all the animals just like last time?"  

"Yep, that's right, well . .. sort of right . .  this time I want you to fill it up with fish",  God  answers.

"Fish?", queries Noah.

"Yep, fish . . well, to make it more specific Noah, I  want carp - wall to wall, floor to ceiling Carp!

Noah looks to the skies. "OK God, let me  get this right, you want a New Ark?

"Check".  

"With 20 decks, one on top of the other?".

"Check".

"And you want it full of Carp?".

"Check"

"Why?" asks the perplexed Noah, who was slowly but surely getting to the end of his tether............

"Dunno", says God, "I just fancied a Multi-Storey Carp Ark".

Will I meet her at a party

A frog goes to a fortune teller who says, "You are going to meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you."

The frog says, "This is great! Will I meet her at a party, or what?"

"No," says the psychic. "Next term in her biology class."

Huv ye no' got anythin' cheaper

A Scotsman asks the dentist the cost for a tooth extraction.

"$85 for an extraction sir," was the dentist's reply.

"$85!!! Huv ye no' got anythin' cheaper?"

"That's the normal charge," said the dentist.

"Whit aboot if ye didnae use any anesthetic?"

"That's unusual, sir, but I could do it and knock $15 off."

"Whit aboot if ye used one of your dentist trainees and still without an anesthetic?"

"I can't guarantee their professionalism and it'll be painful. But the price could drop to $40."

"How aboot if ye make it a trainin' session, ave yer student do the extraction with the other students watchin' and learnin?"

"It'll be good for the students," mulled the dentist. "I'll charge you $5. But it will be traumatic."

"Och now yer talkin' laddie! It's a deal," said the Scotsman.

"Can ye confirm an appointment for the wife next Tuesday then?"

Work with Me on this

A blonde finds herself in serious trouble. Her business has gone bust and She’s in dire financial straits. She's so desperate that she decides to ask God for help. She begins to pray ... "God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get some money, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lotto."

Lotto night comes, and somebody else wins it.

She again prays ... God!, please let me win the lotto! I've lost my business, my house, and I'm going to lose my car as well."

Lotto night comes and she still has no luck.

Once again, she prays... "My God, why have You forsaken me? I've lost my business, my house, and my car. My children are starving. I don't often ask You for help, and I have always been a good servant to You. PLEASE let me win the lotto just this one time so I can get my life back in order."

Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open. The blonde is overwhelmed by the Voice of God Himself .....

"Sweetheart, work with Me on this ...... Buy a ticket."

 I'm sure there's a word of inspiration there

Ol' Fred had been a religious man who was in the hospital, near death.

The family called their preacher to stand with them. As the preacher stood next to the bed, Ol' Fred's condition appeared to deteriorate and he motioned frantically for something to write on.

The pastor lovingly handed him a pen and a piece of paper, and Ol' Fred, who in the meantime had turned blue, used his last bit of energy to scribble a note, then he died.

The preacher thought it best not to look at the note at that time, so he placed it in his jacket pocket.  At the funeral, as he was finishing the message, he realised that he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing when Ol' Fred died.

He said, "You know, Ol' Fred handed me a note just before he died. I haven't looked at it, but knowing Fred, I'm sure there's a word of inspiration there for us all." He opened the note, and read out loud, "Move you idiot, you're standing on my oxygen tube!"

The AM-Win Team around Australia wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe, stress free and profitable New Year

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