Peter Walsh provides organizing tips for Microsoft Office users
Last month, reader Bev wrote in to our Ask Unclutterer column looking for tips on how to use Entourage on a Mac to organize e-mail and create tasks. A few days before I received her question, I had spoken to super organizer Peter Walsh about the program and was able to pass along a few of his tips.
Peter has gone on to create a 15-minute video for Microsoft talking about how he recommends using Microsoft Office to organize three specific areas of one’s life (family, finance, and health). It’s on the Microsoft for Mac section of the website, but I’ve watched most of the video and can’t really see that any of his tips are necessarily Mac-specific. If you’re a Microsoft Office PC user, you can benefit from the video just the same.
A few words about the video:
- If you don’t have Microsoft’s Silverlight browser plugin on your computer, you’ll be prompted to download it. It’s free and you don’t have to reboot your computer after installing it.
- The video includes helpful advice, but in this specific situation Peter talks much slower than he usually does. His slow speech is obviously so that people can open up programs and move things around while following along with the video. However, if you’re not opening programs and following his advice while watching the video, you’ll probably miss his typical fast-paced, cheerful style.
- He recommends backing up your data to CDs or DVDs. I disagree with this since a disaster that could destroy your computer very likely would destroy this disc-saved data. It’s better to back up your data online (gmail, Mozy.com, a Flickr Pro account for your pictures, etc.) at an off-site location than having your backup and the original in the same house.
I was particularly interested in seeing how he recommended using Office to help track health-related matters. If you’re a Microsoft Office user, you might be interested in checking out Peter Walsh’s video.
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Posted by Erin on Jul 8, 2009 |
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15 comments posted
Posted by OogieM - 07/08/2009
If you are running Open Office the same tips work and you are not dealing with bloated, buggy, virus risky SW that costs too much.
Posted by PJ Doland - 07/08/2009
@OogieM – I use OpenOffice.org, but the Macintosh Business Unit over at Microsoft actually has a much better track record than their Windows counterparts. It’s a very good product if you spend all your time dealing with Office documents for work.
Posted by molped - 07/08/2009
I disaggree with You regarding not backing data up to CD/DVD.
It is always a good thing to make two CDs/DVDs and then store one offsite.
I think it’s a good idea to combine different backup-methods. Personally I use an external USB-harddrive plus http://www.carbonite.com for day-to-day backup. On a regular basis I also make backups to DVDs.
Another smart solution is to use http://www.getdropbox.com.
Here You get 2GB of storage plus synchronisation between online storage and all of Your computers. Hereby You get Your data synchronised and backed up at the same time.
Regards
Posted by Erin Doland - 07/08/2009
@molped — CDs and DVDs degrade over time, get scratches on them, and warp. They’re bad as a stand-alone backup method. I agree, though, that multiple backup systems are the way to go.
Posted by Kris - 07/08/2009
DVDs stored in cases in a safe deposit box do not get scratched and are unlikely to warp over the course of a few years. For people who are not backing up work product, they’re not so bad in the short term.
Posted by Lex - 07/08/2009
So far I’ve been very satisfied with Jungle Disk for automated backups.
Posted by cm - 07/08/2009
Seriously, Microsoft Silverlight is definitely clutter. Microsoft should be taking Firefox as an example, with its open video support.
I, for one, am not installing Silverlight just to watch a video.
Posted by Sean - 07/09/2009
Microsoft’s SkyDrive is another good online backup solution. It offers 25GB of storage free, and the ability to share files (pictures, etc.) with others.
Posted by CG - 07/09/2009
Very useful, thanks. I agree about not using CD/DVD as your SOLE backup, but I recommend burning these discs are a supplement. And I recommend burning 2 copies and then reburning to newer media every few years. Having said that, my data CDRs going back to 1999 are still readable. Then again, I live in a place with a fairly consistently cool, dry climate.
Posted by Business Development | Social Media Literacy | » Productivity Recap- Friday, July 10th/09 - 07/10/2009
[...] Erin of Unclutterer shares tips for organizing Microsoft Office in her post “Peter Walsh provides organizing tips for Microsoft Office users”. Erin writes about a video Peter Walsh made to help Office users become organized, and provides a link. http://unclutterer.com/2009/07.....ice-users/ [...]
Posted by Peter - 07/10/2009
I am in no way a fan of Microsoft Office, least of all Entourage. It looked promising, so I bought it, but only to find the usual Microsoft bloatware. My biggest issues where with Word crashing, this caused a lot of unnecessary re-typing. In the end I decided I bought a Mac to get away from this stuff. I think iCal, Google calendar or something like Contactizer would be much better options.
Posted by Botan - 07/11/2009
“CDs and DVDs degrade over time, get scratches on them, and warp. They’re bad as a stand-alone backup method.”
Actually, CDs and DVDs are very resilient to damage (they last for more than a hundred years). Even if the CD does come to degrade overtime, it is very likely that the format will become outdated/less popular and be replaced by a newer digital media which you would migrate over to (such as the transition from CDs to DVDs, which have more capacity). This virtually eliminates any chances of damaged media and lost data.
I used to distrust digital media such as CDs and DVDs for archiving simply because I find them to be a clutter, but they are perfect for storing data which you want to keep permanently and safely. The best form of backup with digital media is to store your CDs and DVDs in a secure location in your home, and make a copy of that data and keep it off-site (perhaps at a friend or relative’s house) but obviously with someone you trust.
Posted by WilliamB - 07/11/2009
You say you disagree about using CD/DVD for backup because if something is bad enough to destroy your computer it’d probably destroy your backup as well.
Um, maybe. Roughly speaking, there are two types of disasters: physical disasters and disk disasters. You’re talking about physical disasters such as flood or fire. It’s true that some physical disasters will destroy both computer and backup. Some others won’t. If basement floods 4′ deep than your computer may be toast but the backups you keep on the 2nd floor won’t be. If your house burns down then both are gone.
The other sort of disaster is when your computer goes bad – the disk eats itself, the fan stops working and you didn’t notice so the computer fries, you were installing more memory and spilled coffee on the drive. None of these will affect your backups even if they’re right next to the computer (the coffee might).
The best solution is a combination of backups. A physical one somewhere else in the house, a physical one mailed to your brother or kept at work, using cloud computing. (Personally, I don’t want my data in someone else’s database because I don’t trust their security, but everyone needs to find their own comfort level on this one.)
Posted by TJ - 07/12/2009
Office 2008 is a huge step backwards and runs as if it is a beta. The biggest problem is that it does not support MACROS. If you have many, as I do, they will not work.
If you know how to use word, excel, ppt, you will not be happy and will have to work hard to put things back in order, but still will have a host of un-necessary problems, such as tool bar that does not go away, having to save everything in different format. If you don’t mind not having macros, wait till they fix the other problems.
Posted by CarlosHawes - 07/13/2009
If you are running Office on Windows you are already loosing potential productivity simply due to the slow performance of both the operating system and the Office applications. Morning boot times, program load times, document open times, save and print times are all glacial compared to other alternatives.
I had been a frequent user of Open Office on Windows which provided better stability that MS Office but with no real increase in speed. Then recently, I started playing around with Open Office on Ubuntu Linux, and for email, Evolution with Exchange plug-in.
All I can say is WOW!!! Now whenever I hop back over to my Windows XP box and try to do ANYTHING, I feel like pulling my hair out just waiting for programs to open or a new document to load.
Linux isn’t the right fit for everybody, but if you don’t mind a little bit of change and a learning curve, give Ubuntu a try. Easy install, no viruses, lightning speed and a cost of ZERO!
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