Escaping to New York City this past weekend to get some away time and see a couple spectacular Broadway shows, I was looking forward to getting my camera into St. Patrick's Cathedral for Easter Mass. I hadn't realized that the cathedral was in the middle of a 3-year, $177 million restoration project inside and out. The collection of scaffolds and ladders produced a network that would have pleased Michaelangelo. Me.... Not so much.

In This Issue
April 2014

Music

Office for the iPad

OneNote

 

Welcome to News from trif.com! First time readers, I am glad you're here! Returning readers, welcome back!

Greetings and Happy Spring! Welcome to our Newsletter! We wanted to share the many photos we have taken of places, people and things throughout the country and beyond. Each month our headline photo will be something new and different. The caption will present a small explanation. We hope you enjoy. Keep in mind, we don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give us your feedback. By all means, forward to a friend using the link at the bottom of the Newsletter. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!

 

Technology solutions are a part of doing business just like sales and marketing, It is an important component in servicing customers, managing costs and controlling operations. Our capabilities bridge database design and development, Internet services, network and computer sales and support, document imaging, bar code scanning, corporate communications, fax and email programs, mobile applications, cloud computing and help desk services. Interested in taking a step forward with technology? Looking to take advantage of the latest advances? Or just want to take advantage of your new computer?

Email me at rmj@trif.com The first consultation is always without charge.

Now Presenting... Background Music

Finding music to use as a background for a slide show, presentation or video is risky at best. Using copy written music without paying appropriate royalties is a recipe for disaster. But there are solutions available. Istock photo has been providing royalty free music for some time, but it isn't cheap. A three minute track can cost $50 or more. Incompetech.com has a wide selection of free music. Sure you can make a donation, and should. It is your choice. Select music by genre or by feel, that's right, by feel. Aggressive, epic, eerie, somber, uplifting, and many more emotional triggers.

Consider making your own movies using PowerPoint. Add a music soundtrack at the beginning of a presentation and click play through all slides, set the transition with an automatic effect and set the timing between slides at two to five seconds as you see fit and save the PowerPoint as a video file. That's all there is to it.

Sure you can use Microsoft Movie Maker for a few more bells and whistles, or go all out and use Adobe Premier or Apple Final Cut Pro, but it really isn't necessary to make a simple presentation. Here is an example of what I mean. This is a photographic portfolio I put together in PowerPoint, it is less than 3 minutes and makes my point. The pictures are all mine, but the music comes from incomptech.

 

Microsoft Office for the iPad - Close

OK, It took a really long time, but Microsoft has finally acquiesced, recognizing that Apple has a superior tablet that is here to stay. Office Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel and Word are now all available for the iPad.

I have been using Outlook for a while and find it sluggish, but it will give me all my mail whereas the default Apple IOS mail client is limited to 1 month at most.

PowerPoint for iPad is a stripped down version of the powerful Windows presentation application so it is really only appropriate for showing ppt files which isn't really necessary since the Apple App Keynote will happily show PowerPoint presentations.

Excel does have some potential as does Word. These application seem robust enough to work with existing spreadsheets or word documents.

In the end, you will find that a laptop will serve you better in the long run for creating Office documents, but these Apps will permit you a very portable viewing option.

 

 



Social

Microsoft OneNote

I thought I had reviewed Microsoft OneNote before but it seems I have not. Shame on me! Microsoft OneNote is a quiet little powerhouse of an application. Think of it as an incredible personal assistant organizing every aspect of your life. Office 365 users have this application at your fingertips.

So what is it? It is an enormous file cabinet, the contents of which are safely synchronized to the cloud and accessible using your office desktop, home desktop, laptop, Windows or MAC, iPad or iPhone.

The file cabinet is filled with Notebooks containing colored folders, the tabs of which are displayed for quick access. Within the folders are pages, subpages and sub-subpages. Within a page can be a year's worth of emails, contract documents or memos, links to web references, attached spreadsheet, a Visio diagram, screen-shots, pictures, recorded audio notes and even video clips.

It works with scanners, news readers, livescribe smartpens, Office Lens, OneNote Clipper, Feedly and more! Share a Notebook with employees, collaborators or partners. Mutually make modifications to folders or pages and OneNote will not only synchronize those changes but maintain a history of revisions as well.

Integrate Outlook with OneNote and you are able to link between a calendar item, like a meeting, to the notes you took in that meeting. Once the connection is made, synchronization between OneNote and Outlook allows you to flip back and forth between event and the notes for the event. A great use is to email OneNote pages directly from OneNote to participants of a meeting.

OneNote is one of those tools that is so powerful, most users will only use a tiny sliver. Let us know if you would like to really implement OneNote. At a minimum, take some time and watch some Youtube videos.

 

TRI is a

Specializing in deploying

 

Robert McKay Jones
TRI
50 Leominster Road
Suite #3
Sterling, Massachusetts 01564

978-422-7770
rmj@trif.com


Copyright ©2014 TRI
All Rights Reserved
All Photographs Copyright ©2014 by Robert McKay Jones unless otherwise credited
Artists Sketch by Bruce Davidson


This document is provided for informational purposes only.
The information contained in this document represents the views of Robert McKay Jones and Transportation Resources, Inc.
All information provided in this document is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied.
The reader assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document.
Permission to use the words in this document for commercial purposes usually is granted. However, commercial use requires advance authorization.