Month: March 2018

We’ve all got Access Points up on our ceilings somewhere – how much do you really know what yours does to keep your business secure?

It’s one of those things you know about, but if it’s doing its job properly, you’ve probably never had to think much about it. In this Tuesday Tech Tip, Curtis Hyde talks about what Access Points do, and how they work.

In a nutshell, your Access Point has the dedicated job of providing wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi. This is instead of wired Internet access, which is limited to one spot, usually your desk. Thanks to the Wi-Fi provided by your Access Point, you can automatically connect your laptop, tablet or phone to the Internet from anywhere in its range (usually the area of your office building).

However, that’s not all an Access Point can do. While Access Points designed for home use are limited, enterprise-grade Access Points have a lot more functionality, especially when it comes to security.

Say, for example, your Access Point is situated so that it provides Internet access as far out as your staff parking lot. While that may be great for your employees who need to check their email when they park their car, it does present a security risk as well. Other people who aren’t employees at your business could also park in that lot, access your network, and interfere with your business data. Even if you have a password on your network, these cybercriminals could have methods of circumventing those security measures.

This is precisely why enterprise-grade Access Points have the capability to limit the range of their bandwidth. Instead of configuring your Access Point to extend to its full range, well outside your building, you can limit it specifically to the area of your office. That way, only those in your building (you and your staff) can access the network.

For more Tuesday Tech Tips, and for expert IT support that will help you keep your business safe, get in touch with Data Magic Inc. right away at (469) 635-5500 or datamagic@datamagicinc.com.

With the 2016 version of Excel, Microsoft has really upped the game for people who aren’t great with numbers. You can now easily use one-click access that can be customized to provide the functionality you need.

This is the first of a three-part series about using Microsoft Excel 2016 to help you identify trends, construct helpful charts, and organize information to maximize the value of your data.

You can use Excel Worksheets and Workbooks in conjunction with programs like Microsoft Access and PowerPoint. Excel 2016 possesses many capabilities that aren’t readily apparent. That’s why we’re providing this three-part series for you.

What is Excel and how is it organized?

Excel is an electronic spreadsheet program that’s used to store, organize and manipulate data. You enter data into Workbooks that are made up of individual Worksheets. In the Worksheets, you enter data into cells that are organized into rows and columns. Excel data can consist of text, numbers, dates, times and formulas.

Why would you want to use Excel?

If you or your employees work with financial data, it’s a great tool to use for:

• Basic mathematical operations like adding, dividing, and multiplying.
• Finding values like profits or losses.
• Calculations like averages, percentages and number counts.

Performing calculations in Excel is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s much more you can do like creating charts and graphical layouts to make it easier to recognize trends and more easily analyze data.

Navigation

What’s great about Excel is that it has the same set up as other Microsoft products you’re familiar with. You have tabs across the top, where each tab has a corresponding ribbon with many functionalities to choose from.

The Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar is a drop-down menu where you’ll find functions that you commonly use like Print and Save. You can also customize the Quick Access menu with other functions you use on a regular basis.

The Formula Bar

This is located underneath the ribbon next to the Name Box that shows you where your cursor is located on your Worksheet. The Formula Bar is important because it’s what calculates the math for you. Excel does the calculation and displays the answer in the cell you choose. The Formula Bar also shows you the contents of the particular cell you’re in.

Adding Data

There are three ways you can add data to your Excel Worksheet. You can:

1. Type in the data,
2. Copy and Paste data, or
3. Import data from other sources.

This is great if you have a large amount of data. For example, if you have customer lists in a database, you can even pull this into Excel.

You can enter data into only one cell, into several cells at the same time, or even on more than one Worksheet at once. And, as mentioned, the data can be numbers text, formulas, dates, or times.

On your Worksheet, simply click a cell and type in the information that you want to enter. Then hit ENTER or TAB. If you typed in a date, Excel will recognize this and format it the way you’ve specified in your default settings.

Formulas

Excel computes the correct answer when you enter a formula into a cell. Once you’ve done this, it recalculates whenever you change any of the values. The way Excel knows that you’re entering a formula is by starting with an equal sign. Then you follow the equal sign with a SUM or AVERAGE.

For example, C2: =A2+B2 means that the number in C2 is what occurs when you add the numbers in A2 and B2.

You can type this in manually, but now Excel has great functionalities to help you do this. The simple way is to put your cursor in cell C2, hit = and type in A2+B2. The numbers in A2 and B2 will be added, and the SUM will be entered in cell C2.

Note: You always want to calculate using the actual cells rather than typing in numbers like 1 + 2, etc. The reason for this is so you can go back at any time and change the values in cells and the formula will calculate with the new numbers.

Let’s say you want to add a bunch of numbers together in your Worksheet. You can type = sum (a1:a5) in the cell where you want the answer to appear. Or you can do this and drag your mouse across the cells you want to add. Type =sum ( and drag your mouse across the cells and hit ENTER. The sum will appear in the cell without you having to typing in all the numbers! When you put your cursor on the cell, you will see the actual formula you just created.

There are many ways to do the same thing in Excel. It’s like this across all Microsoft products. You can go to the Ribbon at the top to “Auto Sum” to do the same calculation. Select a cell next to the numbers you want to add, click AutoSum on the Home tab and press Enter. Do what works best for you.

Once you create a formula, you can copy and paste it into another cell. You can also copy and paste formulas into different Worksheets as well. This can save you a lot of time.

Formatting Worksheets

With Excel 2016, you can format your Worksheets much more easily than you could before. You can use document themes throughout the Worksheets in your Workbook to present a professional and consistent appearance. You can also apply predesigned formats as well.

Let’s say you have a Worksheet with many rows that are hard to read. You can go in and create fill colors and more to differentiate the rows, columns, and headers to make reading much easier.

You have options to create borders around cells, rows or columns from the drop-down menu. You can also shade cells with a solid background. Don’t forget that you can change the style and types of fonts. Right-click the text, and a drop-down menu will appear where you can make these and other selections easily.

Creating Charts

If the data isn’t complex, you can easily read it, but if you have a lot of data, creating a chart will help you better analyze it. You can select specific cells, rows, and columns for your chart. One way to do this is to highlight the data and go to the top ribbon to select the type of chart you want to create.

With Excel 2016, you have a “recommended charts” option. Excel will help you choose the chart that best suits your data.

You can then go in and further customize your chart in the “Chart Tools”. You can change the color scheme, 3D effects, shading and more. If you change the data in the cells in your Worksheet, your chart will reflect the changes.

Some of the new charts in 2016 include:

• Waterfall
• Tree Map
• Box and Whiskers
• Sunburst

Creating Tables

You may be used to creating tables in Word or PowerPoint. Some people think the format in Excel is already in a table, but it’s not; at least until you tell it to do so. If you want to do this, select your data, go to “Insert” and select “Table.”

Similar to other Microsoft products, tabs will appear to help you format your table.

Viewing Worksheets

When dealing with lots of information, it can get unruly trying to work around various rows and columns. This is where Viewing Worksheets can be helpful. You can freeze a portion of your worksheet with “Freeze Panes” to more easily view it.

You also have the ability to “split” the data to view different parts of your Worksheet. You can compare two Worksheets in the same Workbook or even in different Workbooks by viewing them side by side.

Saving and Printing

If you have Worksheets that are so large they won’t fit on one page, go to “Save As” and decide on the name, where it gets saved, and go to “Print” where you can save the file to a pdf that you can send.

You can select options for printing the entire sheet, part of it, resizing it, and more to suit your needs. Going to “Page Setup” will allow you to shrink the entire Worksheet down to a size that’s more manageable for printing.

Sharing & Security

In Excel 2016 you can share Workbooks and Worksheets with others and password-protect them. The people you send them to need to know your password to open them, whether you send them via email, share them on your network, or via the cloud. From within Excel, you can designate who can access your Worksheets and Workbooks, and also whether they can edit them or not. There are a variety of parameters you can set within a Worksheet.

For example, if you want to hide employees’ salaries, you can hide this section when you share it. Or, you can let people see your data but lock it down, so they can’t change it. You can also protect your Worksheets and Workbooks to keep them secure from non-authorized users.

The Quick Analysis Tool

When highlighting data, click on the Quick Analysis button to create a chart, highlight specific cells, and much more. It doesn’t give you the functionality you’ll find in the Ribbon, but you can get things done quickly and easily with this tool.

3D Power Maps

This is another new tool in Excel 2016 that lets you look at information in ways you might not have seen in the two-dimensional format. This helps you strategically create your data on a 3D map. You need latitude and longitude data to do this. You can also import your own maps into 3D Power Maps.

PivotTables

PivotTables help you analyze your Worksheet data. You can summarize, analyze, explore and present your data in just a few clicks. They are very flexible and can be adjusted to your unique needs. Note: Your data should be organized without blank rows or columns for this to work properly.

The good news is that Excel 2016 will also help you pick the best format for your PivotTables!

PivotCharts

PivotCharts are another great way to add visualizations to your data. You will first need a PivotTable to create a chart. Now, your PivotTable will behave like a PivotChart. When you change the information in your PivotTable, the PivotChart will also reflect this change. The PivotTable is connected to the PivotChart.

Are you an expert at using Microsoft products? Microsoft wants to hear from you — and wants to make your feedback part of an update — but first, they need to know what you think. How can they find out?

How often do you use a Microsoft product? Are you a daily Microsoft Word user? Is your primary email client Microsoft Outlook? What about SharePoint? The list goes on (Teams, Flow, you get the idea). And those are just the software products! Maybe you have a Surface Book, too? Or a Surface Book 2?!

One of the great things about Microsoft is they love user feedback. Software updates are often based entirely on suggestions from users on what features they’d like to see, what improvements can be made, and how to make daily use easier for users in general. The main goal is to increase efficiency with the Microsoft product while increasing productivity at the end user perspective. This is a win-win-(win). That last “win” was in parentheses because it’s silent – Microsoft sees increased dependence and therefore long-term customer loyalty, which translates into an ongoing revenue stream. That’s understandable.

What’s often less clear is how Microsoft tries to collect user feedback. No, they don’t really call users at home. Well, actually, they might – but in this case, the most effective way to communicate a suggested feature is through the Microsoft Excel Community, a forum of over 16,000 members in which to communicate about all things Microsoft Excel. If you’re in search of a feature, this is the place to peruse. Formula got you flummoxed? Need help with a pesky pivot table? Is a macro making you crazy? You’re most likely to find your answers here. The best part is that this community has super users, and we don’t mean users who wear capes. One such super user has over 400 posts, and these users can be found under “Experts” – a clear indicator they know what they’re talking about in Microsoft Excel!

There is also an active Blog, where Microsoft posts content about Excel. Content ranges from posts aimed at beginners, like how to use general features for newbies, to content focusing on new features released to satisfy the needs of super users (“experts”). These Blog posts are great for deeper insights and step-by-step instructional processes, but the forums are the better space for finding tips and suggestions for specific needs.

Microsoft loves to hear from users about what’s working and what can be improved and encourages engagement through a custom portal on their Community page. Roughly halfway down this page, on the right-hand side, users will see a vivid green box — the green will be instantly recognizable as “Excel” green — with “Submit your ideas”. Clicking on this will open a dialogue menu for users to submit as a digital version of a suggestion box.

Trust us when we say, Microsoft listens. This is their way around getting you on the phone for a personal interview. Recent updates have been made that actually result from feedback in this manner. Users can submit ideas, and other users can “vote up” suggestions. The recent features that have been added to Microsoft Excel have gotten anywhere between 200 to over 1,000 votes from users supporting the suggestion. This is one of the most effective ways to communicate directly with Microsoft – because they’re watching this forum closely.

Stalker Level: Microsoft

Based on user feedback, Microsoft recently updated Excel to include features expanding the use of foreign languages. Before the update, users would attempt to import a CSV file that included text strips that did not contain traditional Latin characters, like Arabic. Users would then get an error message that this information would be lost in the text encoding process upon opening the file. Users affected by situations like this need no longer worry as CSV UTF-8 file formatting is now permitted.

• This error dialogue used to pop up all the time in situations like this, no matter how many times a user followed the same process. Excel now allows you to select “Don’t Show Again” to disable this warning for the same user. But even if a user only accidentally clicks the “Don’t Show Again” option, this can be toggled on again. Microsoft is trying to allow users to cater their Excel experience to their custom preferences, and it’s starting to show.

Another feature that came into existence through user feedback via the Community is the improved pivot table experience. Users can now alter pivot table settings and then establish these as the default settings for pivot tables at the user level. No more re-formatting pivot tables with each file! Users can even create a pivot table in a new worksheet and import the settings from the existing table data, to save time. Microsoft realized how big of a time saver this would be, and jumped at the opportunity to satisfy a huge community user base with this update.

A cool feature Microsoft just released for Excel Online is an improved search experience. Remember when you would open the “Find” dialogue box, enter your search parameter, and then Excel would show you the next location? And then to find the next location, you had to repeat the process? Well – good news! The search window no longer disappears with each search query. BONUS: users can search within the pivot experience, as well! These filters work on Excel Online just like in the desktop version.

When Microsoft makes an update to any of their products, the goal is to improve efficiency and productivity, as already stated. That’s why they began including the Quick Access icons in the toolbar at the top of the application window several versions of Microsoft Office ago.

• Did you know the Quick Access toolbar is customizable? Users can change the icons that live in this section, at the very top of the document window. This is where your magical “undo” button is, by default. If you select the drop-down arrow just to the right of the last icon, there is a short list of actions you can include, and an option for “More” under these. Imagine the possibilities!

Microsoft also likes to share lesser-known features with users to make sure they are getting the most out of their Microsoft products. One of their recently-highlighted features was the Document Location Information, where users can toggle on the ability to see the full address for the location of a file, should the user need to access the file, perhaps for sharing.

• One cool workaround for file sharing is that you can click on the icon next to the file name at the very top of the window on the desktop version and use a drag-and-drop feature this way to attach a file to an email or to cloud storage platforms.

Visit the Community to check out all the top features that are packed into Microsoft Excel to see how to simplify your day-to-day tasks, automate reporting processes, and improve overall efficiency. And remember – if you think of something else, tell Microsoft. You never know, the next Microsoft Excel feature that gets announced may be your suggestion!

Will You Be Ready When 5G Finally Gets Here?

5G Network Technology seems to be overdue in America. We now have so many smart homes, smart cars and smartphones just crying out for a better network. Add to that the huge advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, and you can see how critical a 5G network really is.

Mobile Phone Usage

According to a 2014 Business Insider report[1], 50 million people now stream video on their mobile phones. That usage number has been climbing dramatically over the last five years. Today, 40 percent of the traffic on Youtube comes from mobile phone users- even Netflix has been affected. About 23 percent of all subscribers say that they’ve watched a movie on their phone. As phones and mobile technology advance, those numbers will increase.

Up to now, the only thing missing was a better, faster network. Ultra-fast 5G networks will support mobile video while providing more dazzling HD screens. Whether you want to stream video on your Kindle device or watch a favorite YouTube video on your phone, speed and quality will always reign supreme. Consumers just aren’t happy with weak video and sound quality anymore. They’ve been spoiled by mobile phone manufacturers like Samsung and Apple, who push the envelope every year to offer even more innovative services.

The Future Will Require Blazing Fast Speeds

However, 5G is not just about upgrading your wireless service. Though all carriers are excited about the faster network heading our way, there’s a lot more at stake nowadays. People are starting to get more comfortable with smart cars. Manufacturers are looking to the future to see what new gadgets and devices they can add to the smart car. Some of these include:

• Augmented display across the windshield
• Thin, pliable batteries
• Communication between vehicles
• Self-healing paint
• Full smartphone integration

The one thing these futuristic technologies have in common is the need for a stronger, more secure network. The 5G network promises that and much more.

Industry Leaders Believe This is Just the Beginning

Ana Tavares Lattibeaudiere, head of the industry advocate for mobile operators known as GSMA, commented that “We’re very excited that all the US operators are really taking seriously the path to 5G. Many have announced that they will bring it to market by the end of the year. Some of them have announced pilot cities, but the excitement is there. We believe that there will be commercial deployment by the end of 2018, which is amazing”.

She went on to say that though 5G networks have seemed like they were a long time coming, their invention came much sooner than similar advancements of the past. She believes that this is due to the faster-than-expected adoption of “smart” technology. Amazon’s Alexa can be found in millions of homes across Canada and the U.S. It began as a novelty item, but now most people say they love their Alexa and couldn’t live without it. The stories about smart homes and smart cars are similar. These began as novelties that had good potential and now people love having the technology so much that they’d probably not be willing to give it up.

New Smart Technology Runs Better on 5G

As 5G networks become the norm, this will fuel invention in every field, including robotics. Your new robot housekeeper could potentially speak 17 languages, answer questions about almost anything and interact with appliances. They could actually be programmed to make dinner, then clean up the mess and load the dishwasher. If the dishwasher breaks down, it has on-board technology built-in that enables them to repair simple errors.

Lattibeaudiere added, “Artificial intelligence is coming – home assistants, smart homes, smart cities, all of those things are becoming real. We used to be talking about it in the past and now you’re seeing it day to day. The connected cars I mentioned, driverless cars, that’s something that with low latency will become possible. All of those applications will definitely be disruptive”.

Samsung rolled out its 5G home routers at the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. These routers reached speeds of up to 4 gigabits per second. In more understandable terms, a consumer would be able to download a 100 GB 4K movie in about four minutes or a 50GB game in two minutes. Developers believe that 5G will be easier to implement and distribute than older wired internet formats. 5G millimeter waves will be delivered wirelessly through the air the same way that a mobile network is delivered. That means no expensive infrastructure to build.

How Does 5G Work?

The Samsung 5G Home Router will be installed outside a window in your home and connected to a WiFi router in your home. Special antennas will be able to pick up wireless signals transmitted from “millimeter wave” cell towers. 5G will be the fifth generation broadband cellular network with applications that provide users with faster technology for games, TV, IP telephony, mobile web access, video conferencing, and high-def mobile television viewing.

The Cost of 5G for Users

The one drawback to technology like this is often the cost. Right at the beginning of any new advancement, service providers often raise prices because they know certain people will pay more just to have the clearest, fastest signal in the world. That’s why industry experts expect the initial price of 5G networks to be higher. However, as with all technology, competition will eventually drive the price down. In addition, providers will not have to build any new infrastructure as mentioned above, so eventually, 5G internet should be cheaper.

When Will 5G Arrive?

The searing question for most consumers is, “When will 5G become a reality?” Both Verizon and AT&T claim that they will be rolling out 5G networks in the latter part of 2018. Expect to see smartphones and other devices that support 5G around the same time. Although manufacturers are ready to move forward, this is one of those situations where both the technology and devices that support it will be released around the same time.

Final Thoughts

As 5G technology is incorporated into everyday life, expect to see more applications that use machine learning and artificial intelligence. With faster, better connectivity, new opportunities will open up for products and services. For instance, games and videos that feature more virtual and augmented reality could become the norm. Cars with a wide range of sensors to help drivers make better split-second decisions could save lives. And lastly, watching a great movie on your phone should become a much more enjoyable experience.