Business Productivity Blog - Increase your productivity

5 Ways to train employees on Microsoft Office

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Employees in most organizations are expected to know how to analyze data in Excel, create a presentation in PowerPoint and write a report in Word. Even though Microsoft Office is used by business professionals for numerous hours a day, very few employees have actually been trained on how to use Microsoft Office. Here lies an […] Read More

How to present using Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad

How to present using PowerPoint for iPad?

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Last week, March 27th, Microsoft announced Microsoft Office for iPad. Now anyone who has an iPad can download Excel, PowerPoint and Word from the App Store free of charge. Anyone can use the apps to view Office documents, but to edit and create new documents you need a certain type of Office 365 subscription. In […] Read More

What is Codename Oslo and what are the benefits?

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Update: Microsoft announced Delve as the official name for codename Oslo. One of the highlights at the SharePoint Conference 2014 that was held in Las Vegas in March was Codename Oslo (hereafter called Oslo). Oslo, which is a “search and discover” application, will enable employees to navigate through the enormous amounts of data circulating within […] Read More

Eye-catching presentations using PowerPoint 2013

Eye-catching presentations using PowerPoint 2013

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Today I’m very pleased to announce the launch of our new course called, “Eye-catching presentations using PowerPoint 2013”. The course is now available on Udemy and will soon be available on other course platforms such as OpenSesame and Bizsnack. The course is targeted for all business professionals that want to learn how to get the […] Read More

Benefits of the Office Apps and the Office Store

The benefits of the Office Apps and the Office Store

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Are you using Office 2013 or SharePoint 2013? Did you know that you can extend the functionality further by downloading Office Apps through the Office Store? Office Apps are light-weight web applications that you can add and make accessible through the Microsoft Office/SharePoint interface. In this week’s blog, I’ll give you an overview of how […] Read More

How to effectively create a presentation as a group?

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Imagine that you and three of your colleagues need to create a joint presentation for an important customer meeting tomorrow morning. You all need to contribute with different parts. How do you do this effectively to meet the deadline? A common scenario is for each and every one to create their own slides, email them […] Read More

Benefits of OneDrive

What is OneDrive and how can you benefit from using it?

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OneDrive is the new name for Microsoft’s online storage offering that up until now has been known as SkyDrive. According to Microsoft, the new name “OneDrive” better aligns with the vision of having everything in one place. The new name is being rolled out globally, however, you will still see the old name “SkyDrive” here […] Read More

Connect with the outside world using Lync 2013

Communicate with the outside world using Lync 2013

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Update 1 (2015): Microsoft announced that Skype for Business will replace Lync. Update 2 (2017): Microsoft announced that Microsoft Teams would replace Skype for Business eventually. For many years organizations have been using Microsoft Lync (formerly known as Microsoft Office Communications Server) to enable employees to send instant messages, talk and have video conferences with […] Read More

SharePoint Site mailbox

How to effectively use a Site Mailbox in SharePoint 2013?

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Imagine that you are planning an event with a number of colleagues. You need to keep track of proposals from vendors, create and send out invitations, prepare agendas, create presentations and so on and so forth. For a number of years, teams have been able to easily share information related to projects and initiatives using […] Read More

introducing GetSharpVideos

Introducing GetSharpVideos and GetSharpCourses

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Rapid developments in productivity software have had a significant impact on the way employees communicate and collaborate with one another and productivity tools are vastly different from just a few years ago. This leaves organizations with the ever-growing need to train employees and the challenge of constantly keeping them up to speed on how to […] Read More

How to effectively share notes in OneNote 2013

How to effectively use shared meeting notes in OneNote 2013?

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One of the many valuable benefits of OneNote 2013 is that you can more easily share meeting notes with each other. Microsoft has integrated the OneNote “Meeting Notes” functionality into Outlook and Lync so that you can easily share notes with meeting attendees just with a click of a button. However, in order to use […] Read More

10 steps for a successful enterprise social network roll out

10 steps for a successful Enterprise Social Network

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The enterprise social network market has grown substantially over the past few years.  Deloitte predicted that more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies would partially or fully have implemented an enterprise social network by the end of 2013. But rolling out a social network in the enterprise comes with a number of challenges. According […] Read More

What is PPI and what are the benefits

What is Perceptive Pixel (PPI) and what are the benefits?

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In July 2012 Microsoft acquired Perceptive Pixel, a company specializing in large, multi-touch interfaces. Microsoft has announced two products based on this technology. One 82-inch and one 55-inch multi-touch device running Windows 8. Currently, Microsoft is running a pilot program with selected partners trialing these devices, before bringing them to the international market. When you […] Read More

Summing up 2013 and going on 2014

Summing up 2013 and taking on 2014

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It’s hard to believe that another year has passed and that it’s time for me to sum up 2013 and share the plans for 2014. It’s been another exciting year with a lot of new content created, new partnerships signed and new team members coming on board. Summing up 2013 During 2013 we completed our […] Read More

Vision Board

Visualize your dreams with a vision board

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It’s the end of 2013 and many of you are probably thinking about 2014 and what it will bring. In business, as well as personal life, I’m a big believer in visualizing dreams and goals to make them come true. Inside my bathroom cabinet, I have a vision board where I paste pictures of things […] Read More

How to present using touch in PowerPoint 2013

How to present using touch in PowerPoint 2013?

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Microsoft has designed PowerPoint 2013 to support both touch-screen devices as well as traditional computers where you use a mouse and keyboard.  Even though it’s quite straight-forward to use PowerPoint 2013 on a touchscreen device, it helps to have the basics covered before you deliver a presentation. In this week’s blog post I’ll share some […] Read More

Unable to insert YouTube videos in PowerPoint 2013

YouTube videos currently not working in PowerPoint 2013

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Last week I was recording a training video on how to make eye-catching presentations using video in PowerPoint 2013. To my big surprise the option to insert online videos from YouTube or Bing where gone! After spending way too much time troubleshooting my installation of Office 2013 I did some online research to find out […] Read More

Present using your mobile with Office Remote

Present using your mobile phone with Office Remote

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Do you like walking around when you are presenting? You should try it! Presenters who move around and use more of the podium are perceived as more relaxed and they connect better with their audience.  In this week’s blog post I’ll share with you how you can use an application from Microsoft Research called Office […] Read More

Create a video ad using PowerPoint 2013

Create a video advertisement using PowerPoint 2013

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Video is an extremely powerful tool to advertise a product to a large audience online. Video platforms like YouTube have made it really easy for companies to upload videos and spread them free of charge. If you go to an ad agency and ask them to produce a video ad for you it will be […] Read More

Benefits of the task list in SharePoint 2013

Benefits of the Task list in SharePoint 2013

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Whenever multiple people are working together on a joint project or initiative you need some way of effectively communicating what everyone is supposed to do. You also need to track what everyone has (or has not) done in order to manage the project properly to deliver on time. I’ve always been a big fan of […] Read More

Business Productivity broadens its reach via YouTube

Business Productivity broadens its reach

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In a continuous effort to provide the best possible training services for our customers, and to reach our vision of becoming the premier channel for business professionals who want to increase their business productivity using Microsoft Office, we are making a change to our video delivery channels.  Since we started our company, it has been […] Read More

My business my family my life

My business, my family, my life and how technology helps me every day

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Tomorrow I’m giving a speech at the Qatar International Business Women Forum in Doha with the title, “My business, my family, my life and how technology helps me every day”. The objective of the speech is to show how technology can empower women to reach their goals in their careers, their relationships and lives.  In […] Read More

Effective teamwork using Microsoft SharePoint and Lync

Effective teamwork using Microsoft SharePoint and Lync 2010

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More and more companies are implementing organizational productivity tools such as Microsoft SharePoint and Lync to enable employees all over the world to work better together. Even though these applications are rather straight forward to use, it’s not always evident how to most effectively use them in a work environment. Today I’m pleased to announce […] Read More

How to use SkyDrive for personal and business data

How to use SkyDrive for both business and personal data?

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Update: Microsoft SkyDrive has been replaced with Microsoft OneDrive. You can learn more about OneDrive here. SkyDrive Pro has been replaced with OneDrive for Business.   Do you have business-related documents on your laptop that you need to share with colleagues, access from various devices and back up properly? Do you, on the same computer, have photographs of friends […] Read More

6 steps to help you get started with Windows 8.1

6 steps to help you get started with Windows 8.1

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October 17, 2013, Microsoft announced the general availability of Windows 8.1. It’s not a new operating system – it’s an update to Windows 8 that Microsoft released about a year ago. Even though a lot of effort has been put into the update, the improvements aren’t revolutionizing so you shouldn’t be expecting a huge change. […] Read More

Professional document using Microsoft Word 2010

Professional documents using Microsoft Word 2010

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Microsoft Word is one of those applications that most business professionals use on a daily basis.  Even though it’s so widely used, very few people leverage the full functionality of Word. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen people waste hours and hours of their valuable work time by manually inserting page […] Read More

How to get started with stand-up meetings

How to get started with stand-up meetings?

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It’s a well-known fact that a lot of time is wasted within organizations during meetings. In order to save time and to increase the level of knowledge transfer and collaboration many teams, primarily software development teams, are using so-called stand-up meetings. A stand-up meeting is a short (5-15 min) status update meeting, where all team […] Read More

Exciting enhancements with Surface Pro 2

Exciting new enhancements of Surface Pro 2

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About a year ago, on October 25th, 2012, Microsoft launched a new range of tablet devices called Surface. If you’ve missed what this device is all about you can read my blog post, “What is Microsoft Surface? A tablet I want for business “. Since then, the two devices Surface RT and Surface Pro have […] Read More

Why would I consider buying a Windows mobile phone

Why would I consider buying a Windows mobile?

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On September 3rd, Microsoft announced that they will be acquiring Nokia’s Devices and Services division and patents for a total of 5.44 billion Euros. This is a clear signal that Microsoft is serious about taking a fair share of the mobile phone market. Most people who purchase a new smartphone today seem to choose between […] Read More

Communicate effectively leveraging DISC profiles

Communicate effectively leveraging DISC profiles

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Effective communication – where the listener receives the exact message you intended to send, is affected by a number of things. We all have “filters” based on our personalities, our experiences and our current mood. To be successful communicating it’s important to decipher the listener’s “filter”. Without knowing a person closely, you will rarely know […] Read More