The Advantages of Technology Tamers Training
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Custom Course Structure and HighlightsOur classes are 1.5 to 4 hour sessions for up to four people taught on our site (or on your site using your equipment). We supply snacks and manuals/ quick reference sheets/ class work sheets. We take two 15 minute breaks during a 4 hr class. Here at our office, we run morning or afternoon classes from 8:30-12:30 or 1:00- 5:00. We can use your network, databases and class cases as course work examples. Your actual business document files, reflecting your business processes, can be integrated into the training for concrete examples and experience for new users. Additionally, new users can receive your corporation’s systems and procedures instruction at the same time they are learning the software product. Considerations when working on your site:
The classes and course materials will be tailored to fit the actual work the participants routinely do during the day. We can accommodate the creation of forms for report printing and centralized information compilation. We will build custom template and binder files (including formatting style tags and macros and OLE2 objects) as needed to automate the daily paper work duties of your staff. Our classes will be designed around the use and manipulation of these actual documents. We specialize in integrating multiple software applications to automate your existing organizational systems. For example, we can use your existing Word files with their embedded intelligence (i.e. macro’s, templates, document, character and paragraph styles). We can generate a class geared specifically to WordPerfect die-hards who need a smooth transition to the Microsoft Office suite. We can offer an especially sensitive soft-sell to this clientele. Motivation is always key in learning anything. The closer we come to recreating and solving real work related problems of the students, the more retention, excitement and productivity gains your staff will experience through our training sessions. Extensive consultation with the supervisor or appropriate delegate for development of the courseware is important in creating customized and truly valuable classes. The more information you give us on how you work now and how you hope to automate the work you must do, the more valuable our training can become for you and your staff members. We expect to work hard to do a good job for you. And we expect you to be pleased with the results. All our classes are completely malleable and can change based on your feedback. This kind of training is usually a growth experience for all participants (trainer included), and we welcome the opportunity to fine tune the work we do to make it more meaningful for you, the customer. The development of courseware pertinent to your organization’s unique needs takes time. We need two weeks to one month’s advance notice and some energy invested on your staff’s part to bring us up to speed on what you really need and want to know about the software. Any telephone support for issues covered in the class work is free of charge for two years. We can submit to the supervisor class evaluations and individual reports for each course conducted. We maintain a database of each individual’s training goals and actual work completed. This is made available to individuals (for themselves exclusively) and supervisors (for their entire staff inclusively) as needed in a report format. We provide course evaluation forms to each participant and compile the feedback we get and share this with the stakeholders you designate. Investment considerations: We charge $100.00 per hour of class time with a minimum four hour commitment. There is a $50.00/hr charge for meeting with you to gather course content information and for generating the class outline, class project assignments and other documentation such as the courseware manual. We look forward to working with you and your staff.
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Course Name |
Duration |
Description |
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1 |
Word: |
4 hr Class |
This course assumes you know nothing about word-processing and takes it from there. Here, we cover the Word screen layout. What’s up with the toolbars and how to manipulate them. We tackle formatting fundamentals using the task pane, margin and page orientation setup, generating simple tables, formatting bulleted and intelligent numbered lists, sorting, inserting and formatting text boxes and pictures, using tabs with the ruler bar, importing Excel Charts, using and creating Word templates, using and creating paragraph and character styles, printing issues including envelopes, spell checking, dealing with Intelligence features and customizing Word’s auto-correct tool. |
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2 |
Word: |
1.5 hrs Mini Course |
Labels are tables in Word (unlike WordPerfect!) and we group these together because of that. We build tables 3 ways: menu command insert or toolbar drag, free hand create and embed from Excel. We sort, we add a formula, we get it to repeat the row heading on other pages etc. Bring your own forms or table making issues and we will try to cover them in class. |
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3 |
Word: |
1.5 hrs Mini Course |
How do you add cool drop-down boxes and check boxes in Word? How do you limit the amount of text someone can type in? How do you automatically Title Case something your form user inserts, or format a date a certain way? If these are quandaries that keep you awake at night, this is the mini-course for you. We create a fun form to win a mini-vacation for two using MS Word and then publish this as a template as well as an HTML object for those of you struggling with FrontPage or other WEB-enabled forms. Knowing how to build tables is a help. See our Tables and Labels course description for details. |
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4 |
Word: |
1.5 hrs Mini Course |
The H n F mini-course was developed to help users who need to do book-style publications. We build a document that includes a cover or title page without H or F, a TOC section with roman numeral numbering F only, the main body of the document with different left and right and different first page H and F. We auto-create the TOC from the headings we elected to use throughout the document (using styles). Usually, we don’t do a TOA, but that is easy enough to incorporate. We do build an index as well, first auto-marking entries in the main doc from entries in a concordance file. When the project is complete we save it as a template, removing the actual text with place holder descriptions. If you have a standard look and feel document that you want us to use as the demo project, we can easily customize the class to accommodate that. |
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5 |
Word: |
1.5 hrs Mini Course |
Ed McMann will have nothing on you, once you’ve completed our through investigation of mail merging in MS Word. We use several different data sources and three types of main document forms to generate more mail than my mom at Christmas time. Special consideration is given to Excel, Access and Outlook users to tap into their existing datasets without duplicating effort. We build party invitations complete with matching envelopes, we create a corporate product guide, and we have a lot of fun to boot! |
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5.5 |
Word: |
1.5 hrs Mini Course |
Ever want your merged letters to have the pronouns morph (i.e.: say “she” when referencing a girl student and “he” when referring to a boy)? Or your dunning letters to get more intense depending on payment lateness? Or have a dialog box prompt you for input and incorporate the response in the letter? Relational expressions (if-this-do-that-otherwise-do-the-other) and other powerful programming devices are at your fingertips when using Word fields. This advanced user mini-course (1.5 hrs) goes into Word fields extensively. Word fields used in mail merges will be covered as well as many other tricks to automate document handling. This class assumes a pretty thorough understanding of standard mail merge concepts. |
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6 |
Excel Introduction |
4 hr class |
This course begins with a tour of the Excel screen. We get to know the MS Excel Anatomy— parts like the toolbars, the edit line, the worksheet frame, and the task pane. We get to know the extents of an Excel workbook. We cover basic spreadsheet concepts like:
As a group, we work on several exercises (like building a Quarterly report, amortizing a loan, and setting up a budget) which require formatting and formula creation skills. We create a chart for the quarterly report numbers. We explore scaling the chart, inserting headers and footers, changing the orientation, printing etc. Additionally, we examine Excel’s data list manipulation capabilities including sorting, filters, form entry and find utility, and cross tabulation using the pivot table wizard. This usually covers what most novice users need in the course of their work with Excel and then some! If however, something a student needs to know is not presented we can certainly attempt to address any content requirements inside the scope of the class or (if it is of limited interest to most participants) we can usually work it out during the breaks. |
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7 |
Excel Advanced |
4 hr class |
This course requires participants to have mastered the concepts and skills described in the Excel Beginners class. Advanced Excel covers many different aspects of Excel functionality. In general, course participates express their needs or interests prior to class so we may fully focus on what people need or want to know about for the class agenda. Topics include:
We can work with pivot tables and pivot charts, retrieving data from an external ODBC data store. We can build workbooks using database lists that work with these formulas and functions. We can go over some financial functions when we generate an amortization schedule. We can cover retrieving and consolidating data lists. |
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8 |
PowerPoint Introduction |
4 hr class |
In this course students will learn how to create a professional looking presentation using PowerPoint. Participants are asked to bring any digital images or video as well as presentation outline files they may elect to use during the training session. (Example files will also be provided if students don’t have a current project.) We will learn how to import an outline from Word into PowerPoint. We will work with the different view modes, focusing first on the outline view, then slide sorter, then full slide view. We will learn how to create screen builds (i.e., each line of a list flying in from the right) and slide object animations as well as transitional screen wipes between slides for an effective, polished looking presentation. We will create both speaker notes and presentation hand outs for the audience of your slide show. The class will be taught about printer and printing issues for hard copy to hand out and for the generation of overhead slides. They will learn slideshow shortcuts and how to draw interactively on the screen during a digital presentation. They will insert clipart, video and sound file objects to demonstrate PowerPoint’s multimedia functionality. We will discuss automating the slide show with timing loops, custom shows, etc. We will publish our presentation to the web. |
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9 |
Access |
4 hr class |
Do you find yourself in the position of inheriting an in-house Access database? Just want to get along with the thing not re-engineer it? This class teaches end users how to “get around” in Access, covering these basics: easy table data entry, the navigation tool bar, duplicate a record, a field, filter by selection and by form, sorting options, spell check, the dynamic antics of the office clipboard. Additionally, simple query basics are thoroughly reviewed: how to save a filter as a query, how to generate a query from scratch, add criteria, add a sort, prompt the user for input and use that as the criteria, etc. This is a very customizable class; we’ll go where you need to go, clinging tenaciously to the rudimentary concepts or venturing off into more sophisticated territory, driven by the participants’ needs and requests. Bring your database progeny or we can use our own courseware examples. |
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9.5 |
Access |
3 x 4 hr segments |
This class is a real time commitment but it delivers a solid foundation for beginners in Access who want to be database developers in Access. (Also for people who find themselves in the position of developer whether they want to be or not!) We begin training in Microsoft Access with a discussion of Relational Database (RDBMS) terminology and design concepts. This includes database normalization rules in relationship building, the object oriented nature of Access and the database management window. The course work is designed to use the Northwinds Trader database; however any student or organization defined Access database can be substituted as applicable. The class first focuses on data entry skills using existing forms. We use and examine the navigation bar and adding and editing records and the use of data entry short cuts. We examine the functioning of combo and list boxes, text boxes, check boxes, option buttons, option groups, command buttons as well as other controls for managing and manipulating the data. After the high-level overview of the data entry process has been conceptualized and experienced from an end user perspective, we begin the analysis of how Access effects form utilization by a discussion of table design, defining data types and adding/editing field properties. Additionally, we work with sorting and filtering data inside a table, using the filter by selection and filter by form buttons. We save a filtered selection set as a query to begin our exploration of that database object. As we begin work with queries, students build select queries using matching criteria and the expression builder. We explore turning these queries into action or data manipulation queries including: make table, append, update, and delete objects. We build a totals query and examine other aggregation and grouping issues. We work with cross tabulation queries and examine the Office linking utilities that allow for full blown data analysis via Excel’s pivot table object. The SQL statement window is briefly examined as we discuss the Union query object. Now we move our examination back to the form object but this time from the purview of form design considerations like formatting commands, input masks, validation rules, moving, sizing and editing controls on a form. The class focuses around a single project example during the introduction of concepts phase, and then the students are challenged to use their skills in designing a second project from a paper form handout. We then apply the same skill set used on form design and creation to another object: the Access report object. We create and edit reports using the report wizard. We examine the similarities and differences between forms and reports, the fortes and pitfalls of each. As the course progresses we work with more advanced concepts using macros and finally some Visual Basic for Applications: We build macros to automate the workings of our database. We build forms to shield the data entry user from the inner workings of Access, hiding tool and scroll bars, building a form that automatically executes, attaching an external database, and adding buttons that call both procedures and macros. We build main and subform forms. We build more advanced queries using the expression builder. We add reports. Modules are briefly examined. VBA is introduced and discussed along with a tour of the VBE; however, this course is not designed to be a programming class. By the end of this three part course, students should be very familiar with all the Access jet engine database objects except (DAP). They shall have gained comprehensive entry level design knowledge of how the objects interact with each other and how we manage them. This MS Access training is geared toward productivity not just application content. We specialize in integrating applications to automate the business systems in place. This strategy permeates most of our courseware. |
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10 |
FrontPage |
4 hr class |
Microsoft FrontPage class is designed to give students the ability to create and maintain their own websites including data collection and manipulation via the WEB. We begin with a brief overview of the internet and html functioning. We then use FrontPage to build a simple web page and examine its code creation in the source view. We create a corporate presence web site using the FrontPage Wizard. We add pages that focus on manipulating tables and graphics. We add a text string hyperlink to another page. We add a book mark to the current page and link to it. We add images with hot spots that map to additional hyperlinks. We work in the different views of the page and then the site including: Page Views: Edit View/ HTML View / Publish View Site Views: Folders View/ All Files View/ Navigation View/ Hyperlinks View/ Hyperlink Status View/ Themes View/ Tasks View We explore the search page and the user feedback page for form controls. We investigate the Page banner and other FrontPage components and/ or Web bots. We integrate a Data Access Page inside the Web site for Access users to see how easy it is to do simple data binding in dynamic HTML. We discuss the n-tier structure of DAP objects and how to trouble shoot them. |