MatterSphere handy hints - Fuzzy searches

Any screen in MatterSphere that contains a Client search option now contains a Fuzzy search tick box.

A fuzzy search carries out a search for similar sounding names using the letters in the name you entered, a useful feature when you don’t know how to spell a name. For example, if you don’t know whether a Client’s name is Smyth or Smith – enter Smith into the Client name field and tick Fuzzy search and it will find all.

MatterSphere handy hints - Enhanced searches

An enhanced search does not use the Client Search Keys to find a match but instead performs a wildcard search. By entering only a small portion of the client’s name into the Client name field the system will search for any client names that contain those characters. For example, if you enter ‘yth’ in the Client name field and tick Enhanced Search the system will find all client names where those characters exist anywhere in the client name e.g. Smyth, Lythgo, Blythe

MatterSphere handy hints - Client Search Keys

A standard MatterSphere search is performed using Client Search Keys, these fields are automatically generated by the system when a new Client is created and will usually contain the Client’s forename and surname but can also contain additional ‘known as’ names e.g. if a Client is called Elizabeth but uses Lizzy – this name could also be added to the Search fields and can be used when searching for a Client. The Client Search keys will be used when searching for a Client in all cases unless the ‘Enhanced’ or ‘Fuzzy’ tick boxes are ticked.

To check (or amend) what has been entered in the Client Search fields, search for the Client and on the Search

Office handy hints - Selecting cells in Excel

There are a number of ways to select cells, rows and columns in Excel – these are explained in more detail in the following table:

To Select	Use
A single cell	Click the cell or use the arrow keys to move to the cell
A range of cells	Click the first cell in the range and then drag to the last cell or click the first cell, hold down the SHIFT key and use the arrow keys to extend the selection or press F8 and extend the selection by using the arrow keys (press F8 again to stop extending the selection)
A large range of cells	Click the first cell in the range, hold down the SHIFT key and click the last cell in the range
All cells on a worksheet	Click the Select All button (positioned above row 1 and to the left of column A or press CTRL+A (if the worksheet contains data, CTRL+A will only select the current data, press CTRL+A a second time to select all the data)
Non- adjacent cells or cell ranges	Select the first cell, hold down the CTRL key and click all other cells that you want to select.
An entire row or column	Click the column heading or the row number
Adjacent rows or columns	Click the first column or row heading and drag to select all adjacent rows or columns
Non-adjacent rows or columns	Click the first column or row heading, hold down the CTRL key and click all other columns or rows
The first or last cell in a row or column	Select a cell in the column or row, hold down the CTRL key and use the left or right arrow keys for rows or up or down arrow keys for columns
The first or last cell on a worksheet or an Excel table	Press CTRL+Home to select the first cell in a worksheet or list. Press CTRL+End to select the last cell in a worksheet or list
Cells to the last used on the worksheet	Select the first cell and then press CTRL+SHIFT+End to extend the selection to the last used cell
Cells to the beginning of the worksheet	Select the last cell and then press CTRL+SHIFT+Home to extend the selection of cells to the first used cell on the worksheet
More or fewer cells than the active selection	Whilst a range of cells is selected, hold down the SHIFT key and click the last cell that you want to select. The range will be extended to include (or exclude) cells
Cancel a selection of cell	Click any other cell on the worksheet

MatterSphere handy hints - Editing a document

Editing letters
Most MatterSphere templates have merge fields built into them that are used to display data recorded in the system. If you create a letter and notice that the address needs changing you should not change this information in the letter, although you can successfully make the changes when you print the letter the details will revert back to what they previously were. If any details are incorrect they will need to be corrected in MatterSphere and then the new details need to be re-linked to the letter.

With the document open in Word, click the Current Document ribbon and select the relevant icon for the details that you need to change.

 

 

If you need to amend Client details, click Current Client Info. If you need to amend Matter details, click Current Matter Info and if you need to make changes to any of the Associate information, click the Current Associate Info.

After making changes to the relevant information, click the Re-Link Fields icon.

 

 

NB: Some of the data that you make changes to will prompt you to relink the fields in the document when you close the MatterSphere window. If this doesn’t happen you should manually relink the data by clicking the Re-Link fields icon.

MatterSphere handy hints - Viewing only received or sent documents

On the Documents tab at Matter level you can filter the document list to show only those documents that have been received (or sent).

The Inward icon will filter the Document list to show only those documents that have been received.


The Outward icon will filter the Document list to show only those documents that have been sent.


The In/Out icon is the default view and will show all documents.

MatterSphere - Alerts

Alerts are a useful way of notifying colleagues about important information relating to Clients or Matters.

Client Alerts
Alerts at Client level are added on the Search/ Marketing tab.

Click the Client Information icon on the Matter Centre toolbar and search for the Client.

Click the Search/ Marketing tab.

To create an Alert at Client level, tick the 'Alert on Client' box.

Enter the text that you want to appear into the Alert Message Text field and click Save at the top of the screen. The Alert will be displayed at the top of the Client screen and will be visible each time the record is opened.

Matter Alerts
Matter Alerts use the traffic light colours of Green, Amber and Red.

To add an Alert, click the Matter Information icon and search for the Client. Matter Alerts are added on the Matter Notes screen.

Enter the text that you want to appear in the Alert Message text field, select the Alert level and click Save.

If both a Client and Matter Alert are added to the same Client, the Matter Alert will appear above the Client Alert when the Matter is opened.

Microsoft's next surprise is free Office for iPad, iPhone, and Android

 

Microsoft's Office suite for iPad, iPhone, and Android is now free. In a surprise move, the software giant is shaking up its mobile Office strategy to keep consumers hooked to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. Starting today, you'll no longer need an Office 365 subscription to edit documents or store them in the cloud. The move comes just days after Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with Dropbox to integrate the cloud storage service into Office across desktop, mobile, and the web. You can now download Office for iPad and store all your documents on Dropbox without paying Microsoft anything at all. Microsoft is also releasing a brand new iPhone app today, alongside a preview of Office for Android tablets, all with Dropbox integration.

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Free mobile Office sounds crazy, but is it really?

Microsoft's plans might sound crazy to most, and at first glance it's easy to come to that conclusion, but the company argues it's a matter of moving its free web apps to mobile. "It’s an extension of the strategy that we’ve got," explains Microsoft's head of Office marketing Michael Atalla. "It’s not a total strategic shift, as much of an extension of the existing strategy." Microsoft offers free Office apps online, and Atalla argues that recent development model changes inside Microsoft have allowed the company to open up editing functionality to mobile clients. "We’re taking that same user experience we provide online to the native apps of iOS and Android. We want to make sure that our customers can be productive across all the devices they have."

While consumers using Office mobile will be able to access the apps for free, Microsoft isn't extending this free functionality to businesses. An Office 365 subscription will be required to edit documents that are stored on OneDrive for Business or Dropbox for business, a clear sign of how Microsoft will continue to generate money from the thousands of businesses that rely on its productivity suite and cloud platform. "There’s still premium value that we’ll add on top of that," says Atalla. "There will still be subscription value, most clearly and easily identifiable in the commercial space, but also in the consumer space around advanced authoring, analysis, presentation, and unlimited storage with OneDrive." Microsoft is also restricting some chart element customization and track changes to paid customers, making them premium features.

 

The key here appears to be a strategic move by Microsoft to keep Office competition out of the mobile space. It's all too easy for competitors to build rival products and ship them for free on iPad, iPhone, and Android, offering premium features on top. Microsoft's Office suite is dominant, which also means it's ripe for disruption. If there's a rival Office iPad app that's free and easy to use, that could tempt consumers away from their preconceived reliance on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. CloudOn, a gesture-based app for editing Office documents, has seen some early success here. Apple also offers its own iWork apps on iPad at no extra cost, and several rivals, including the maker of the popular Paper iPad app, are emerging to threaten Office on mobile. The nightmare situation for Microsoft is that consumers realize soon that they don't need Office to create their resume or personal documents, so why should they pay for it on a smartphone or tablet where they're used to getting free apps.

While Microsoft will never admit it, it's that threat more than anything that has forced the company's mobile shift here. "By in large we want that core authoring experience in front of all the users that love Office on any device they choose," explains Atalla. That core authoring experience can help keep Office users hooked, and Microsoft doesn't want to face a future where consumers, and eventually businesses, are no longer obsessing over Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. There's also a play here to get consumers using OneDrive cloud storage and a Microsoft Account. Both of these can help Microsoft tempt consumers over to Office 365 for additional storage and the added benefit of Office for PC and Mac as part of a subscription. It's a bold move from Microsoft, but also a defensive one. Microsoft's competition will now have to look elsewhere to plot their Office attack.

Office handy hints - Drawing a perfectly straight line

If you use drawing objects in Word or PowerPoint and draw lines it may look like the line is straight on screen but when you print the document you'll realise that it isn't straight at all. Try holding the SHIFT key down whilst dragging to draw the line and it will be perfectly straight.

Office handy hints - Changing the case in Word really quickly

Have you ever typed something in Word and realised it's all in CAPITALS. If you've done this you'll be relieved to know that you can undo it without having to type all your text in again. Select the text that's in the wrong case and press SHIFT+F3 on your keyboard. Each time you press SHIFT+F3 it will cycle through UPPERCASE, lowercase and Sentence case - just stop when you get to the format you want.

MatterSphere handy hints - Attaching documents to emails

When sending attachments in emails the method you pick will depend on whether the document is already stored in MatterSphere.

If you want to attach a MatterSphere document, click the Create option and select To Associate. After selecting the Associate and clicking Proceed, click the Current Document ribbon. Click the Insert icon and then select Attach Document.

 

The MatterSphere Documents area will be displayed – click the document you want to attach and click Select.

 

If the document you want to attach is not already saved in MatterSphere click the Attach File icon on the Message ribbon.

 

Browse to the location that the document is saved in and click Insert.

When you send the email you will be asked if you want to save the attachment to MatterSphere.

MatterSphere handy hints - The Information Bar

The Information Bar is the area on the left hand side of the screen that contains information about the record you are viewing and also lists any actions that can be carried out for the selected tab.

If you prefer not to see the Information Bar, you can close it by clicking the Info Bar icon on the toolbar.

Or alternatively by clicking the double arrows at the top right of the Information Bar.

MatterSphere handy hints - Opening your most recent documents

After connecting to MatterSphere, click the File menu and choose Open. An OMS Document Dialog box will be displayed, which will display the last 50 documents that you saved to MatterSphere.

Select a document from the list and click OK to open it.

MatterSphere - Creating private emails whilst connected to MatterSphere

If you need to create an Email that’s not related to a Matter you don’t need to disconnect from MatterSphere to do this.

In Outlook, click the New Email button on the toolbar.

Create your email as normal and click the Send button.

The Select Associate screen will be displayed.

 

Instead of clicking Proceed to find an Associate, click the Private Email button.

An email will be created that will appear in your Inbox only i.e. not associated to a Matter.

MatterSphere handy hints - Windows Explorer save option

Windows Explorer can be used to save any file type to MatterSphere.

Open Windows Explorer and right click any document that you want to save to MatterSphere.

 

If the document has previously been saved to MatterSphere click the Save option – the Save wizard will be displayed.

If the document has not previously been saved to MatterSphere the Select a Client and Matter screen will be displayed, followed by the Save wizard.

If you’re not connected to MatterSphere when you select this option the login window will be displayed for you to login.

MatterSphere handy hints - Document properties

If you realise that you’ve saved a document with the wrong file name you can change it quickly on the Documents tab in MatterSphere.

Select the document that you want to change and click the Properties icon at the top of the screen.

 

You will be able to change the Document Description and the Wallet that the document is saved in.

 

After making your changes remember to click the Save icon.

NB: You may not see the new document name immediately on the Documents screen but if you click another screen and then go back to the Documents screen it will be updated.

Word - Format Painter

Have you ever applied formatting to text, got everything looking just how you want it and then needed to apply it to other text?

The Format Painter will become your best friend in situations like this. This feature will copy all formatting that has been applied to the selected text and apply it to any other text in your document – really useful if you’ve applied a lot of different formatting and can’t remember what you did.
 

Select the text that has the formatting you want to use. You don’t have to select all the text either – one word will be enough. The only time you would need to select an entire line or paragraph is when you’ve applied numbering or specific paragraph formatting.

Click the Format Painter icon on the Home ribbon.  

Select the text that you want to copy the formatting to.

Format Painter can also be used in Excel and Outlook and to copy formatting from one Word or Excel document to another.

Excel - Calculating totals without using Formulas

Sometimes you may need to check the current total for a group of cells but you may not be ready to create the formula at this stage.

When a number of values have been entered in a worksheet and these values have been selected a total will be displayed in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. More often than not the total displayed will be a sum of the cells but this can be changed by right clicking the sum calculation and selecting another calculation option from the list e.g. Average or Count. The method explained below relates to Excel 2013 but the same principal works in all versions of Excel.

Select the figures in the worksheet that you want to use in the calculation. The taskbar at the bottom of the worksheet will now display the 3 most popular calculations – Average, Count and Sum.

 

 

You can also access another 3 calculations by right clicking the taskbar and selecting one of the options from the shortcut menu. If you click one of the additional calculations, this will also appear on the taskbar and will be available on the taskbar in each new worksheet or workbook that you open.

Excel - Creating a simple bar chart

Charts are a really effective way to provide a visual representation of data in Excel. Excel provides a number of different Chart types but if you’re in a rush and want to create one quickly you can use a keyboard shortcut to create a simple bar chart.

Select the data that you want to create the chart from.

 

Press F11 on your keyboard and hey presto a really simple bar chart is created on a new worksheet.

The chart can be customised and you can even change the chart type if you want to by using the chart tool bar and icons.

The screenshots above relate to Excel 2013 but the method for creating the chart applies to all versions of Excel.

 

Networking – are you doing it without realising it?

What is networking and are you doing it without even thinking about it?

Do you chat to colleagues when making a coffee or waiting for the lift? You may think that all you’re talking about is last night’s TV or the state of the weather but without realising it you’ll be networking. These interactions with colleagues can be the start of building a network of people who can add to your business success. What might start out as an innocent conversation might provide the answer to a problem you’ve been struggling with for ages.

Don’t assume that networking is all about selling or getting leads – basically it’s about making connections and these connections may come in very useful one day.

To ensure that you network successfully, follow these simple rules:

·         Be interested - in what the person you are talking to is saying to you - you never know what you might get out of the conversation

·         Be interesting - don’t just talk about yourself - give a little though and you may get more back than you anticipated

·         Answer correspondence promptly - don’t just leave that email sitting there, a prompt response might open up a discussion that may prove beneficial

·         Don’t let your eyes wonder - if someone is talking to you, even if they’re not the most interesting person in the world, make them feel like they are - look at them whilst they’re talking and ask questions that may prompt them into expanding on a subject you’re interested in.

Remember that we are social animals and whichever method you’re using to communicate it doesn’t take much to be sociable. Get it right and you could open up a number of doors that will benefit not just you but the organisation you work for too, get it wrong and the doors may start to close.

Learning Styles

Have you ever attended a course and felt like other delegates understood it better than you? This may not have anything to do with your ability to learn but probably has a lot more to do with the way you learn. I struggled for a long time when I first started attending work related courses, I knew it wasn’t because I couldn’t understand the subject but for some reason I always left a course feeling like I could have grasped it better – after a while I began to think that maybe it was my fault after all.

After deciding to have a career change to IT Training I attended my first course to gain my training qualifications and discovered learning styles. Suddenly it all made sense and to my relief I realised it wasn’t me at all.

If you’re looking on the Web you may see different terminology mentioned regarding Learning Styles but they all pretty much cover the same basic methods. In this blog I’m going to talk about the Honey & Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire, this was the very first way of identifying learning styles that I came across when I attended my first Delivery Skills training session. In short Honey & Mumford developed a questionnaire based on a group of learning styles identified by David Kolb. This questionnaire takes around 15 minutes to complete and is used to identify a person’s current learning style. This questionnaire is not exhaustive and it’s a good idea to repeat it regularly as you may find that as you change so does your learning style – I know mine has over the years (a couple of times at least)!!

Activists -                  these are hands on learners who prefer to learn by having a go and learning through trial and error.

Reflectors -              tell me learners who like to be fully briefed before proceeding

Theorists -                convince me learners who want reassurance that a project or system makes sense

Pragmatists -           show me learners who want a demonstration from an acknowledged expert

A good training session should ideally cater for all 4 styles of learning and a good trainer should always bear these methods in mind when delivering training.

If you want to know what your learning style is try the questionnaire out for yourself – you may be surprised at what you find out. You can probably find a copy of the questionnaire online (or some variation of it – there are many!).