Springhouse Blog: SharePoint, EPM, Professional Development and Office Articles

A Better Way to Create Lookup Fields

Bob S — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:27:12 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

You might be tempted, when thinking about creating a Lookup field in Microsoft Access, to use the Wizard.

Don’t.

It involves too much cleanup work after you are done. For example, if you use the Lookup Wizard, you must destroy any existing relationship between the two tables. During the running of the wizard, you will see a recommendation to hide the key column. This will also cause confusion, because if you do this, the field stored and the field displayed will be two different items. And finally, if you did have a relationship between the two tables with referential integrity set up, you must go back into the relationships after completing the wizard and reset the integrity.

Why do all of this?

Why not just change the properties of the field on the Lookup tab so that the field becomes a lookup field. It is faster and easier if you know which tabs to change. The list below shows how each property on the Lookup tab should be set. Simply follow these suggestions and you will have Lookup field without the bother of correcting and resetting properties.

Command	Setting
Display Control	Select Combo Box
Row Source Type	Choose Table/Query
Row Source	Create a query that displays all the fields you would like to see in the dropdown area.
Bound column	1
Column Count	Match the number of columns in your query
Column Heads	Leave this as No
Column Widths	Set the width of each column in the drop down area and separate them with semicolons
List Rows	Set the number of items to be displayed when the dropdown button is selected
List Width	Sum the column widths in the previous property
Limit to List	If set to Yes, no new entries are allowed, and auto-complete is enabled

Leave the rest of the properties alone.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Access

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Invitation to Upcoming Windows Server 2008 Conference

Jeff Tincher — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:53:46 +0000

We’d like to make you aware of an upcoming Microsoft Click to Attend Conference next Tuesday, November 11th, in the Greater Philadelphia market. This full-day, multi-track Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Conference is intended for IT Executives and IT Professionals.

Some of the areas covered will be:

Make better use of server investments and lower IT costs by consolidating multiple server roles
Increase resource optimization by creating a virtual environment for Servers, Desktops and Applications
Reduce IT complexity by simplifying server setup, configuration and on-going management.
Simplify management, strengthen security and improve network performance for branch locations.
Utilize secure, robust, easy to manage platform for developing and hosting web applications and services

Space is limited to 150 registrations so visit our Server 2008 Conference page on our web site for more details and to register.

Click to Register for the Windows Server 2008 Conference

Springhouse Executive Briefings

To find other events visit the Springhouse Executive Briefings page.

We have five other events that typically run on a monthly schedule and are complimentary half-day briefings. The briefings cover:

Technorati Tags: Conferences, Events, Microsoft, Windows Server 2008

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Using Mind Mapping to Help Gather Requirements

Dee Anne Kotzer — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:35:23 +0000

Mind Map Example - click for larger view

One tool that works great for capturing requirements is a mind map.

I have been using mind mapping since 2001 and I just love it. Whenever I am in a client meeting or facilitating a discussion, I use a mind map to capture the stream of the conversation and make connections as the dialog occurs. The mind mapping tool allows me to quickly capture the topic and the associated comments and feedback from others taking part in the conversation. As the dialog takes place, I can move the topics and threads around the diagram to more logical locations.

After the conversation, I can go back to the mind map and remember the conversation based on what I have captured. The flexibility of the tool allows me to easily update the map and export to other applications like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to create deliverables without having to retype the content.

One of my most recent mind maps helped me understand the requirements for a portal page for my finance department. I start by asking a few questions about how the job gets done, what things are needed at your finger tips, etc. After a few minutes, I have a map that shows how to organize a site that matches how the end user will access the information.

After a little practice, it becomes second nature. My preferred application is MindManager Pro, but there are many types available and some versions are free. To read more about mind mapping, check out Wikipedia by searching on Mind Mapping.

Technorati Tags: Mind Map

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Springhouse Presents at Microsoft Project Conferences

Jeff Tincher — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:06:52 +0000

Gerry Vogler, EPM Specialist from the Springhouse Enterprise Project Management Team, was invited to present at the Microsoft MASD Project 2007 Conference, held at the Microsoft Technology Center in Reston, VA and Malvern, PA. Vogler presented on the topics of New Features in Microsoft Project® 2007, Microsoft Certification in the EPM Space, and Leveraging Software Assurance for EPM.

“Portfolio Management will take on new importance in this tightening economy,” says Vogler. “Enterprises will be looking even more closely at the Projects selected for implementation and how those Projects map to strategic initiatives. Tools like Microsoft Project Portfolio Server and Microsoft Project Server 2007 can provide real visibility into those Projects and help stakeholders monitor delivery. That edge is critical in today’s economic climate.”

Over 300 EPM Stakeholders from a variety of industries attended the events and participated in multiple presentation tracks. Attendees represented a diversity of enterprises across the Northeast United States, all sharing the goal of leveraging technical innovation to enhance process and portfolio management. Keynote speakers included Martin C. Van Der Schouw, CEO of Looking Glass, Inc and Tad Haas, Senior Project Product Manager, Microsoft.

Find additional Springhouse EPM events or contact Gerry for additional information, 610-321-2090.

Technorati Tags: Conferences, Enterprise Project Management, Events, Microsoft Office Project Server, Microsoft Project

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Executive Briefing Series Expands - New Events - New Markets

Jeff Tincher — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:00:52 +0000

With the fall months now here bringing us college and pro football and what looks like a great end to the baseball season (we’re all excited that the Philadelphia Phillies are one game away from the World Series), we would like to announce to our readers and customers some additions to our Executive Briefing Series.

Collaboration: Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007

This briefing features Microsoft Office 2007, Windows SharePoint Server 3.0, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Our consultants and trainers will be presenting this event in the Philadelphia Market on an on-going basis. We have designed this briefing to help business people understand the full benefit of having Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by looking at real world scenarios.

Learn more about the Collaboration Briefing and see what dates and locations we’ll be running this event.

Office 2007 Deployment Strategies Executive Briefing

Another new and highly demanded briefing will be geared toward helping businesses build strategies for a successful and efficient Microsoft Office 2007 deployment. Successful deployment strategies will be discussed to insure end user adoption, maximize productivity and insure integration with your existing applications.

Learn more about Office 2007 Deployment Strategies and see what dates and locations we’ll be running this event.

Knowledge Management Executive Briefing

Our Knowledge Management briefing is geared toward the Executives and Management of a corporation. As an executive in an organization you are challenged to harness and leverage the intellectual property of your most valuable assets…your people. This task can be effectively accomplished through Knowledge Management. Let Springhouse demonstrate KM Best Practices!

Learn more about our Knowledge Management Briefing

and see what dates and locations we’ll be running this event.

Taking Our Events on the Road

We also want to remind you about our Enterprise Project Management briefing and SharePoint 2007 briefing. Both of which typically fill up within a few days of posting. View our Upcoming Events page for dates and venues. We have begun to take our EPM briefing on the road to the following new markets - Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC. We are also going to be taking some of our other briefings to these markets and others in the near future! Look for Springhouse!

All Events Are Free

All of the Executive Briefings at Springhouse are Complimentary. Please look for a briefing in your area and send us a comment if you would like additional information or have a location you would like to have us visit.

Technorati Tags: Briefings, Collaboration, EPM, Events, Knowledge Management, Microsoft SharePoint

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Neall Alcott, Springhouse VP of Technology, to Present at PMI World Congress

Jeff Tincher — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:59:37 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Neall Alcott, Springhouse Education and Consulting Services VP of Technology, has been invited to speak at the PMI World Congress, October 18-21, 2008. Neall will be sharing the speaking bill with other Enterprise Project Management (EPM) experts and will feature a keynote address by Former U.S. Secretary of State and World Leader Colin Powell.

Springhouse’s expertise in deployment and support of the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management suite of tools has raised Springhouse to be recognized as a premiere partner. In addition to the presentation at the PMI World Congress, Springhouse is also presenting on EPM topics at the regional EPM Conferences held in the Philadelphia and Washington, DC markets throughout October.

Neall will be presenting on the topic of Mitigating Project Risk through Microsoft Project Certification. His talk will introduce new certification processes, share the success metrics that come with certification, and outline the certification process.

“We are excited that organizations are seeing the value of training and certification in mitigating risk on major projects,” says Alcott, “Our experience has proven that Client Satisfaction is consistently higher for those teams with high concentrations of Microsoft certified team members. Our goal at Springhouse is to provide those skills to help get teams to that level of knowledge, efficiency and validation.”

Simple Way to Track Your Twitter Tweets Using Google Analytics

Jeff Tincher — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:46:33 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

As micro-blogging is becoming more and more mainstream and business are started to adopt the social media aspect of it to help market services and products, I wanted to share a simple solution for tracking that information using Google Analytics.

Twitter, a leading web application in micro-blogging, allows users to send short, 140 character messages (”Tweets”) to other people that are followers. This is a great way for businesses to share information with their followers. I use Twitter to publicize our upcoming events for SharePoint and Enterprise Project Management along with upcoming classes we are offering. You can Follow Springhouse on Twitter to receive our tweets.

The first step to track the traffic from your tweets is to add Google Analytic tracking code to the page/post URL. I use the following code:

?utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=micro-blog

An example of a full URL would look like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/page.htm?utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=micro-blog

Then I copy the full URL with added code and browse to TinyURL to shorten the URL for my tweet. Past the full URL into the box and TinyURL will create one for you, something like:

http://tinyurl.com/3dF73j

Now you can take the tinyurl and copy/paste it into your tweet and send it out to your followers.

Sit Back and Wait

See that wasn’t too hard to do. Now just sit back and wait a day or so for people to click-thru your tweet. Google Analytics will start to see these hits and begin to track them accordingly.

I use the following format in my tracking code for all of my blog posts/twitter tweets unless there is a special post I need to track separately.

utm_campaign=blogpost

utm_source=twitter

utm_medium=micro-blog

This allows me to drill down in Google Analytics to find the exact number of hits from a tweet.

Technorati Tags: Google Analytic, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0

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Let Springhouse Simplify Your ITIL Training and Certification

Jeff Tincher — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:31:33 +0000

We’ll Simplify your ITIL® Training and Certification

Springhouse Education and Consulting Services would like to announce that we have recently added Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) training back to our curriculum. We will be offering three courses to bring you and your organization up to current ITIL V3 certification.

Familiar with ITIL?

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of best practices that may be used to deliver high quality IT services. ITIL’s body of knowledge represents the consensus derived from over a decade of work and experience by thousands of IT professionals world-wide, earning for it the status as de facto world standard for IT service management best practices. ITIL Version 3 (V3) is the latest evolution of ITIL which puts heavy emphasis on the alignment of IT to the business.

Looking to Implement ITIL?

If you or your organization is looking to implement ITIL V3, our ITIL V3 Strategy Workshop will assist with developing a strategy for implementation and help define and prioritize the problems to be solved and the opportunities to be capitalized on. This is a two day ITIL consultant-delivered workshop based on the new ITIL® V3 publication suite. Learn more about this workshop.

“I currently hold no ITIL certification”

With our new partnership and training offerings, Springhouse can help get you the training and certification you need. Our 3-day ITIL V3 Foundations course and certification is intended for IT Managers, IT Support Staff, Business Managers and Process Owners, Service Providers and System Integrators. The ITIL V3 Foundations course will prepare you to take the ITIL V3 Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management.

“I hold just the V2 Foundation certificate and will take only V3 courses”

Since you already hold certification in V2, Springhouse can help update your certification to V3. Just take our ITIL V3 Foundation Bridge Course.

This is an intensive 1-day course that introduces learners to the lifecycle of managing IT services to deliver to business expectations. This Bridging Course is designed as an update for candidates who hold Foundation certificates from earlier versions of ITIL to a level of knowledge and understanding in line with the ITIL® v3 Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management. Learn more about this bridge course.

Need Additional Information?

You can call and speak to our specialists and ask questions and receive answers to your ITIL or other training needs. Please call us at 610-321-2090 to discuss all of your training options.

Technorati Tags: best practices, information technology, ITIL V3

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Connect with Springhouse on Facebook

Jeff Tincher — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:49:59 +0000

That’s right readers, you’ve asked for it and now you’ve got it.

Not only can you read our blog posts here, but if you have a Facebook account you can now jump over to the Springhouse Facebook page and receive updates for blog posts, events and whatever else we post on the page.

Technorati Tags: facebook, Social Media, social networking

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Creating forms in MS Word 2007

Sheri T — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:02:30 +0000

In MS Word 2003 there was a Forms toolbar which allowed you to place fields on a document for input on a generic form. The fields could be customized to be restrictive as to the type of input. In 2007, where there aren’t any toolbars, these form fields are not by default on the ribbon.

First click on the Office button, then click on the Word Options button along the bottom of the menu. Check Show Developer Tab on Ribbon.

This allows you to find fields to add to your document. BUT the problem is that the ab| field does not allow you customize its properties.

The solution is to click on the Legacy Tools button (found in the bottom of the Controls group on the Designer tab). The Legacy Tools are the same buttons that you had available to you in the 2003 version of MS Word! The ab| field found here allows you to limit the type of data that is input into this field to text, number, date, time or a calculation.

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