New Web Development Course Offerings!

Summit Training recently started meeting the needs of web designers and developers by offering a series of web development and technical training classes.

Like all of our Microsoft and Adobe courses, these web development courses are hands-on and Instructor-led training classes. They are currently offered online, or the training can be conducted onsite in your company’s classroom by special request.

Below is a list of these new Technical and Web Development classes:

(Click class name in list to download course outline)

CSS3

HTML5

jQuery

jQuery UI

PHP

Progressive Enhancement Web Development

XML

XSLT

WordPress

Search Engine Optimization – S.E.O

View Schedule

Ask Amy: Want to make the background to a picture transparent?

How to make the background to a picture transparent using MS Office

 

In Office 2010, you can do it in PowerPoint, Word, Publisher, and Excel.

• In Word:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Color button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color.  The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

• In PowerPoint:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Color button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color. The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

• In Publisher:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Recolor button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color.  The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

• In Excel:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Color button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color. The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

Ask Amy: Useful Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts in every office program. Here are four Excel Shortcut Keys that we find extremely useful:

Keys	Action
CTRL + ; (semicolon)	Enters the current date into the selected cell
CTRL + : (colon)	Copies the current time into the selected cell
CTRL + ' (apostrophe)	Copies the data from the cell directly above into the selected cell
ALT + + (plus sign)	Is the same as clicking on the AutoSum tool

Which Adobe class do I need to take?

“I want to create a website – what Adobe program do I learn?”

“I need to create flyers – which Adobe class do I take?”

If  you're uncertain as to which Adobe Creative Suite program will help you accomplish your task, or you are unsure which class you need to take, check out our Specialized Paths page on our sister company website: http://connectlearning.com/outlines/paths/

This will also help you if you are considering becoming Adobe Certified.

Ask Amy: How to delay sending an e-mail message

Recently I was asked if is possible to create an email and have it sent at a later time and/or date. The answer is “Yes.”

This handy feature allows you to create an email and delay its delivery for hours or even days.

1. Create an email message.
2. Click on the Options tab.
3. Within the More Options group, click on the Delay Delivery button. The Properties dialog box displays.
4. Within the Delivery options area, the “Do not deliver before” options should be checked. If not check it.
5. Select the date and time for the message to be delivered.
6. Click on the [Close] button.

Ask Amy: How do I remove all formatting in Microsoft Word?

I was recently asked how to remove the formatting from a paragraph

I gave the answer I have given for years which is, “Select the paragraph and press the CTRL+SPACEBAR keys.” Only to be told that didn’t work.

Well it works for some things. For instance, it removes the attributes of bolding, underlining, or italicizing. But what if you want to get rid of all the formatting? Follow these steps:

1. Select the text to be stripped of all formatting. If it is the entire document, press CTRL+A to select it.
2. Click on the Home tab.
3. Within the Styles group, click on the Launch button to display the list of Styles.
4. From the top of this list, click on Clear All. All the formatting is removed.
5. Close the Styles list.

Ask Amy: PowerPoint 2010 Animation Painter

New to PowerPoint 2010 is the Animation Painter.

The Animation Painter is used to copy animation from one object to another and works very much like the Format Painter found in Word and even in PowerPoint (Home tab, Clipboard group).

Using the Animation Painter

1. Select an object that has the animation you want to copy to another object.
2. Click on the Animations tab.
3. Within the Advanced Animation group, click on the Animation Painter. The mouse becomes a white arrow with a paint brush next to you.
4. Click on the object you want to transfer the animation to.

Note: You can copy the animation between objects on the same slide as well as between objects on different slides. This tool can really save you a lot of time and mouse clicks.

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training's monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.

Ask Amy: How to Update Your Browser's Cache

This month’s tip is a result of working with Adobe Certified Dreamweaver instructor Melissa Piconne. Melissa is an Adobe Certified Instructor teaching a broad range of Adobe classes including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and InDesign. She is an accomplished information technology professional with extensive experience in user interface design, usability, navigation and look and feel. She has designed created both physical and digital media websites, animations, video games and print media.

Update your Browser’s Cache

When you surf the web, your browser stores pages in the form of Temporary Internet Files – or cache – so that when you re-visit websites they load faster, and may even be available off-line.

It became apparent that our website urgently needed some repair and updating, so we turned to one of our Instructors, Melissa Piccone, for help. Melissa did a great job repairing and updating the website, but when we visited the site, we didn’t immediately see the changes that she had made – so Melissa gave us this tip, which you can try:

1. Visit a website that you have visited before, for example, ours: www.summit-train.com
2. Prior to updating our site, our homepage listed Office 2003 and 2007 courses & courseware (both at the bottom and in the right sidebar of the homepage). After updating, we now also list Office 2010. Do you see it? If not, you will need to refresh your browser’s cache by using Melissa’s tip: Hold down the ALT key while clicking on your browser’s Refresh button.
3. Now do you see it? Your browser’s cache has been refreshed for our website.

We will be keeping Melissa on her toes with more changes to come, so when visiting our site, remember ALT+REFRESH!

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training's monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.

Ask Amy: Windows 7 Minimize Tip

Ever want to Minimize all Open Windows at Once? Here’s how…

By Amy Pearson

In Windows 7 it is very easy to minimize all open Windows at once. Simply click once on the Show Desktop button at the far right end of the taskbar. All open Windows are minimized and the Desktop is displayed. At this point you can click on the Taskbar to display any window you want to work with or if you want to return all the windows to their open position, click on the Show Desktop button a second time. 

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training’s monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.