CHRISdotTODD

I originally created this PowerPoint in 2007 to assist knowledge base writers at my company. As I've worked at different companies and time has passed, I found that this presentation is still relevant.In fact, not only is it still relevant, but it's relevant to more than just titles -- it's relevant to the headings and subheadings in your documents, too. Many years later, I find myself still referencing these same principles, but I no longer need the presentation to speak to them. Instead I usually weave them into various discussions and make sure they get added appropriately to training and governance related materials. Here are a few take-aways. Your goal in writing article titles is to get your users/customers to click on the pages of relevance to their situation and to not introduce click fatigue because they've had to view so many articles to find the right one. We browse, we don't read. We did in 2007 and we still do. When viewing a list of search results, we

Keeping in-touch with family and friends using the phone, SMS, or email is good, but with a video conference, you can have a great time together. There are several video conferencing solutions, some free, some fee (WebEx), and some restrictive (Apple Facetime). I've found Google Hangouts to be a great platform that nearly anyone can use. You can participate in a Google Hangout meeting using your computer, tablet, or smart phone. Join a Hangout As long as your device meets the requirements, just click the link sent to you by the organizer to join a Hangout. Google Hangout Requirements Must be started by someone who has a Google account. Camera (for you to be on video). Speaker. Microphone. App installed if you're using a mobile device (see below).  If you're using a computer, no additional software required -- it's just a website. Pro Tips Have an older computer that is missing some of these capabilities? Most of us have a smart phone that will work

I really struggled with this one. I had a Visio diagram (Microsoft Visio Pro 2019) that ran 50 inches by 11 inches, i.e. 3 tabloid pages strung together in landscape. The solution ended up being quite simple. I had a few things set that I don't think matter, but may be helpful to know. The Design was set to Auto Size.  In Page Setup (Design > Size > More Page Sizes), the Page Size was set to let Visio expand (add) pages as needed. With the Page Breaks on (See the View ribbon), it's easy to see where each page begins and ends as you expand pages across and down. The actual steps are as follows: Make sure you can see your entire diagram on the screen. Click File (upper-left). Click Save As from the left navigation. Click Browse from the list to the right of the navigation. This will open a Save As dialog box. Navigate to the place you want to save your file using typical Explore functions. Click the dropdown on " Save as type ." Find and sel

Slow and steady wins the race. -Robert Lloyd It took me 5 months from the time I was let go from my former job to find another position that would leverage my skills and bring me both challenges and satisfaction in my work. I learned a lot during the 5 months and I also wrote an article abour hiring, “ Finding the right candidate is difficult at best ,” in March 2019. IMHO the hiring manager and team needs to do the bulk of the work to find the candidate who’s the best fit for the position. BUT, as a candidate, it’s up to you to be prepared so you have the best chance of landing the role. Below I’ve captured 14 15 steps/categories that I used. If I had to choose one key takeaway, it would be that you need to have enough practice interviewing so you’re comfortable and able to tell your story and that your expertise, therefore, comes through. Start log files . Track all job-related activities by date in a Word or Google document file. These next ones can all be tabs in

Occasionally we have the need to search just a single website, yet the site search engine doesn’t seem to be up to the task. Google has a great feature that many don’t know about that lets you search a website using Google. The steps are quite easy to follow. Go to www.google.com In the search box enter the following: site:domain search term(s) . For example site:nba.com damian lillard . Site:  (including the colon) is the Google keyword telling it to restrict its search to the domain you will name next. The domain must come immediately after the colon -- no spaces . You don’t need to include “www.” or other sub-domains unless you’re certain you want to restrict the results. Here are some examples: nba.com for the NBA website ( https://www.nba.com ) nhl.com for the NHL website ( https://www.nhl.com ) adobe.com for Adobe’s website ( https://www.adobe.com ) Treat the search term(s) like any other Google search Check out the results. There are a few tricks that you

There are many job search apps and websites including LinkedIn , Monster , and Indeed . It seems with all the various search apps and sites, it’s difficult to find a good match for the job titles I’ve been seeking. After many frustrating attempts to use the advanced search features on these sites, I discovered that good old reliable Google has a better solution. To use Google to find your next job, search Google by following this simple pattern: job level (optional) of job title followed by jobs . For example, “manager of social support jobs.” If you want to search in another city or if you’ve blocked your location, just modify your search to include the city, “manager of social support jobs in Seattle.” When you get the initial results, either select the heading or one of the many filter options, e.g. “Full-time,” and you will be directed to a page specific to job postings matching your search criteria. From the job postings page, you can very easily further refine the resul