Did you know that you can jump right to various sections in your Word document without having to scroll back and forth? Using the Navigation pane, you can quickly get a handle on your large documents. See the video below to find out how.
All posts by Gina Nairn
Engaging Meetings – Start with the Agenda
Check out Gina’s free template, video and article here!
Check out My YouTube Channel: Young Career Pros
Recently I’ve dusted off an idea I had 5 years ago and re-launched my YouTube channel, Young Career Pros. On the channel, I feature tutorials and career advice for — you guessed it — young career professionals! The concept of the channel is to dish out everything from fundamentals to advanced skills that will work together to help a person produce better work and ultimately advance in their respective jobs/career path.
So do you want to hear a story? Having a YouTube channel with less than 10 videos in 2021 hardly seems blogworthy, and I’m a pretty busy person, so why take on a YouTube project? Thinking back to when I first had the idea, in January 2016, I had been in business for myself for a little over a year and was not doing half bad. I had landed several well-paying consultant gigs. They were very rewarding, but also very short term, which means I had a fair amount of down time between gigs — which in all honesty means sometimes I was not sure what gig was next or when that would be. Little did I know a really good one was right around the corner (spoiler alert, it was NOT YouTube fame waiting in the wings). Regardless, I wanted to do something with my time that would build my skills, give something of value to others, and maybe become another business or income stream. I had already launched ginanairn.com and was creating content for that whenever I had time. One of my blog ideas was to create a tutorial for a certain topic in Word that really lended itself to video more than written instructions. So, that was the driver by which I launched Young Career Pros with a single video, a Microsoft Word tutorial on Heirarchical Numbering in Word.
Remember when I started this story that I said a really good gig was around the corner. I landed a consulting gig that was only supposed to last 6 months tops, and here I am still with that same customer today. Soooo… the blog and the YouTube channel quickly took a back seat. I did write a bit more here and there for ginanairn.com over the years, but not consistently. My “day job” was booming and that was plenty of blessing for me! Fast forward to 2020 when the world shut down… and suddenly we ALLLL had a lot more time on our hands. No judgement here, but I can only binge watch so much Netflix, so I was looking for things to do. I poured myself into family time and music and counted my blessings once again that everyone in my circle was healthy. One weekend afternoon I was hanging out with the kids (probably binge watching something on Netflix) and I noticed a notification on my phone: “so-and-so has subscribed to your YouTube channel.” I ignored it. But then I started noticing that I was getting several of these notifications every week. Sometimes it was every day. Honestly I had kind of forgotten I even had a channel. Finally curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check in on it. To my complete surprise, my one-video channel had almost 400 subscribers and that one video had nearly 100,000 views!
Those numbers are actually quite small by YouTube standards, but I was completely blown away. Based on what happened when I initially posted it (or should I say, what didn’t happen — no one watched it)… I really thought that the effort I had expended to create and edit that video had been kind of a waste of time. I started reading the comments and I could not believe it. There were hundreds of thank-yous and kudos and compliments on my “one dumb video.”
Needless to say, it sparked my interest, but I did not take immediate action. I decided to brainstorm and research a bit. I had a little bit of extra time given that the world was locked down. I love creating and editing video and I REALLY love teaching. So, in the fall of 2020, I started creating again, and the channel growth is starting to take off. In 2020 we doubled our subscriber count. At such small numbers that really isn’t saying much, but I am proud of the growth and I’ll be “throwing in” a little more in 2021 to keep it going.
Best Home Office Upgrades for 2021
Up Your Game With a Great Table of Contents
Campfire Birthday Party Featuring Campfire Cupcakes!
Bubble Diagram Visualizations in Word and PowerPoint
I’ve had some fun today learning this new feature of Microsoft Office 2016 — the ability to make bubble diagrams. Bubble diagrams are basically a way to plot out information points with three sets of values. The first two values in the set are plotted on the x and y axes of the chart. The third value determines the size of the bubble. If you would like to learn more about bubble charts, click here to see a Wikipedia article.
Why Bubbles?
Most charts in Office reflect two values of data. For example, sales amount in dollars per month; number of subscriptions per country; and so on. Bar charts and line charts do a fine job of illustrating those. But, what if you have a third value that goes with each pair? For example, let’s say you have dollars in sales, number of subscriptions, and square miles of sales territory represented by the sale? And what if those square miles of coverage are a major data point that you need to convey in your document or presentation? That is where a bubble chart comes in. The POSITION of the bubble reflects your first two data points. The SIZE of the bubble reflects the third data point.
How to Set It Up
Bubble charts are a little hidden in MS Office. Technically, they are a kind of scatter chart, and that is where you will find the bubble charts in the Insert Chart dialog.
1. Go to Insert Tab, click Chart, and select X Y (Scatter), and on the top right click on the bubble diagram icon. When you have the right choices selected, the dialog should look like this:
2. Click OK.
3. Word will show the diagram in your document with some dummy data filled in a spreadsheet. Modify this data to contain your own. You will see the bubble diagram update live as you update your numbers.
4. Click the X in the top right of the data window to close it.
5. Now you can format the bubbles and labels. Click the plus (+) icon next to the diagram.
6. Check the box for Axis titles. Note here that Word does not pick out the column titles from your data sheet. You have to type them in. Format them as you wish, by double clicking on the axis title.
7. I find it helpful to show a number in the bubble to reflect its numerical value. It takes a little bit of massaging of the labels to get this to work, though! If you simply check the box next to Data Labels, Word places the value in your data sheet’s second column inside the bubble. Visually, you expect that value to be the one in the third column, which is the one that determines the size of the bubble. There is a workaround. Click the plus (+) icon. Check Data Labels, then click the right arrow next to Data Labels to open another context menu. In the second menu, select Data Callout.
8. You will see all three values next to each bubble now. For each one, double click the label and simply delete the first two values. A bit of a pain, but it works.
9. If you would like to change the color, click the Paintbrush icon, then click the color tab in the menu that appears to the right. Click the color you want to use from the available selections. For the multicolor palettes, Word uses the color that shows on the left (first square) of the palette.
10. If you need to edit the data, right click the diagram and click Edit Data.
Bubble Diagram Limitations in MS Office
There are a few things to remember when creating and editing bubble diagrams in MS Office:
- Bubble diagrams will not render correctly with less than 3 rows of data values.
- You must have exactly 3 columns of data. If you add a 4th column, Word just creates another set of bubbles on the diagram to reflect the size values of the 4th column, with no visual correlation to the rest of the data.
- Do not remove columns and add columns to the data sheet. Type into it as is. The bubbles get really funky if you start moving columns around.
Let me know in the comments how you are using Bubble diagrams in your presentations and documents. I reply to all comments and questions!
Heirarchical Outline Numbering In Microsoft Word Headings
Ever try to set up a Word document with headings that are numbered (1, 2, 3, etc) with subheadings that are also numbered (1.1, 1.2, 1.3…)? In this tutorial video I explain the mechanics of how to set up this feature, as well as the situations and types of documents in which you would use it. You can get more free training at my YouTube channel, Young Career Pros.
8 Things You Can Do To Facilitate Change Effectively
Everyone dislikes change to some degree — and some dislike it to the extent that it actually strikes fear or bad behavior in people. The idea of doing things differently leaves employees wondering whether their job function will be eliminated or change beyond their understanding or desire. Change can leave your group members in fear that their skills are no longer needed, or invite the notion that people will be inconvenienced in some way. It never fails, when I facilitate workshops for tech modernization, a participant will always ask some form of the same questions:
“Am I going to have to learn something new?”
“Will my department no longer be needed?”
“What will happen to my job?”
This challenge is not unique to the workplace. The thought of changing processes brings out the worst fears in people in volunteer organizations as well. One time, I had to work with a group who made coffee and refreshments regularly for a large crowd. When the crowd showed up, lines to get coffee were lonnnnng. But the coffee wasn’t the problem. Just before the coffee pots on the same counter were platters of grapes, cheese cubes and crackers, arranged in a manner that people had to serve themselves ONE GRAPE AT A TIME. So I suggested a change to their process: do some prep work with the refreshments to pre-package them in cups, so each person could grab a cup and move on, thus making the line move more quickly. The volunteers who had been serving in this capacity for years were completely against even trying the idea! I heard everything from “You just don’t understand how the kitchen works” to “You do realize that is a lot more work for US?”
Fear of change is rampant, especially among long-time employees and members of organizations. These folks are not necessarily “old” as far as age goes, either… they just have been in their particular role long enough to be very comfortable in it… and change makes them very uncomfortable! Here are some great things to do to help facilitate change in an organization.
1. SOCIALIZE.
Communicate clearly the WHAT and the WHY, before a decision is made. Explain WHAT changes are needed and WHY they are needed. Answer the question: What problem are we trying to solve? In my example, I kept pointing to the people in line. We needed to help the people! If you can, have these conversations before you make a decision about what to do. This is not always possible — sometimes, you have to implement something quickly — but if the timeline allows it, taking your time and having conversations with the team will go a long way toward socializing the solution.
2. ASK.
Solicit feedback from members of the organization. Most of your employees/volunteers/stakeholders know a LOT about what works, and what does not work. Leverage their experience. Seek input on how to facilitate the change, and how to effectively implement it. Not every suggestion can be implemented, but your staff members and/or volunteers have thought of things you would not. In my example, I spoke to some of the leaders in the kitchen to float my idea. They did not exactly welcome it warmly, but I listened to their feedback. I addressed their concerns, and worked with them myself to ensure the process I had proposed actually worked. They reasoned that if someone as young and inexperienced as me could pull it off, well, maybe they could do it after all.
3. MODEL.
Be willing to accept the proposed change yourself. Change is really hard for people to swallow if your decisions impact them, and you clearly are not impacted at all. Serve with them, and prove that your idea is workable. In the kitchen example, I stood there with the team in my high heels and put thousands of grapes and cheese cubes into hundreds of cups. In another example, I needed to facilitate a group and get them to share their organizational plans in a web-based program. They had always used email, and frankly, had no desire to change their process. By working directly with them for several weeks and implementing some of the plans online myself while guiding them, I was able to show them that the change was not only possible, but the outcome of online sharing was preferable to the old way of doing business.
4. TEACH.
Educate your team members. Often, the greatest resistance to change stems from a lack of knowledge about the new process. If someone is not great with computers, they may resist a web-based file sharing or scheduling system. Design a training guide, hold a class, or create a video to illustrate how to accomplish things the new way.
5. THANK.
Thank people for making the change with you. Once people are on board, genuinely thank them. This will be hard, because if you are a change agent, you will be completely irritated with some folks who did not get on board with you right away. You are human and you are allowed to feel that — BUT — you are NOT allowed to show it! Put a smile on your face, and thank them. Keeping things classy and polite will go a long way to keeping the team moving forward.
6. SHARE.
Illustrate success for the team. Be sure to communicate out to your team some measurable success stories. You could say or write in an email something like this. “I wanted to share with the team some of the terrific feedback I have heard from our visitors. A newcomer told me that she has never seen a food line handled so efficiently for such a large group. Not only that, we now are getting people into the meetings in a more timely fashion because they are not waiting in line. Thank you so much for being willing to serve!”
7. ADMIT.
Be willing to acknowledge when a change does not work. Every once in a while, your bright idea (or the bright idea that was not yours, but you were charged with carrying out) just does not work. You have choices here: you can keep jamming the change down everyone’s throat because you are in charge; you can tweak the process to see if that works; or you can just admit to everyone that the solution did not work, and solicit feedback for what to try next. Obviously the first choice is a bad one. Sometimes, the second is optimal. Just remember, you have to be willing to admit when you were wrong. Doing so, and being honest and gracious with your team, goes a long way to establish trust.
8. ACCEPT.
Understand that even with your best efforts, not everyone will like it. Some people just cannot handle change. For some, it is a lack of control that they have a problem with. For others, the problem is fear. Still for others, the problem may lie in their specific relationship with you and their opinion of your leadership. Regardless, if the change was successfully implemented and the rest of the organization is working well under the new process, this attitude needs to be addressed with the team member in question. At this point, it is not a problem with you or the new process, it is a problem with them as an individual, and you will have to handle it accordingly.
Peace Plants and Intentionally Eradicating Racism
Tonight, on the evening of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I am celebrating something that I have learned my kids have no idea about. I am celebrating the fact that they are clueless… please allow me to explain.
The children created these lovely “peace plants” in art class in school this week. The teacher drew a stem and leaves, and the children made handprints in brown, pink and white to make the “flowers.” I asked Mikayla about their significance, and she started to explain what she had learned about Dr. King and his desire for “all of us to be free.” She used the word “us.” But she wasn’t sure why people weren’t free at that time…
I started trying to explain to my 6-year-old that when Dr. King was alive, our world was very different, and especially black people were treated very badly. I was stunned by her next question. “What are black people?” … And her next question after that, “Are we white people, or black people?” She truly had no idea.
My kids attend a school that is roughly 60/40 black/white student population. It has never occurred to her that skin color defines people and it certainly has not factored into how she would befriend someone or treat someone. And I celebrate that.
Eradicating racism in our culture requires us as parents to instill in our kids that hearts and minds make people, not outward appearance. We have to also practice what we preach, every day. I know I am not alone in this intentionality as a parent, and it gives me hope that there will come a day when these words of Dr. Martin Luther King will come true: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”