Office workers are far too familiar with slideshow presentations that are either more soporific than cough medicine or are horrible time sinks that make them miss their deadlines. To avoid becoming the next target of their ire and resentment — and perhaps become the presenter everyone actually enjoys — here are some tips on how to use Microsoft PowerPoint. Start slideshows instantlyThe audience doesn’t want to see the speaker’s cluttered desktop or unread emails as the PowerPoint presentation is being set up. Simply select the file and save it as a PowerPoint Show. Bypass the editing mode and start the show with a double click and end it with the Esc key. Pull back the focus with blackouts and whiteoutsAudience members tend to lose focus or drift away when presentations are longer than usual. If you suspect audience members are starting to lose focus, hit the B key for a complete blackout or the W key for a total whiteout. Then hit any key or click the mouse to return to the slides — this technique helps get the eyes back on you, where they belong. Say no to bullet pointsBoth Steve Jobs and Tim Cook agree that bulleted lists aren’t the ticket. A better way to create lists is to drop each item in one at a time, if possible, next to a big image that is the main focus of your presentation. Don’t forget to talk about each individual list item, but not with bullets. Insert pictures from Flickr and OneNoteJazz up presentations by including images or memes that’ll make the audience laugh instead of doze off. Head to the Insert tab and select Online Pictures — you’ll see Office.com Clip Art, Bing Image Search, Flickr, OneNote, and even Facebook. A vast pool of online imagery is now at your disposal. Chart animationThe challenge doesn’t lie in inserting a chart into the presentation, but in making it interesting. Enter chart animation. After inserting the chart, click the Animations tab and activate the Animations pane. From there, click Add Animation. Pick an animated effect. Then, in the Animation Pane where you see the entry for the chart’s animation, right-click and select Effect Options. This lets you customise sound and animation timing. But on the final tab — Chart Animation — be sure to change Group Chart from “As One Object” to “By Category.” This makes charts display on screen one element at a time as you click, with bars or pieces of pie arriving one after the other, as if each was its own slide. Kiosk presentationsKiosk mode simply plays your presentation on a loop without allowing any human intervention or desktop access. This is ideal for trade shows and kiosks that you’d find in malls. Simply click the Slideshow tab, then go to Setup Slideshow > Next (in the dialog box) to browse the kiosk. Duration, audio, animations, and transitions are fully customisation. Extend music over multiple slidesTo add music to your slide, go to the Insert tab, select Audio > Audio on My PC. Then, in the file explorer, find the music file you want to use and then select Insert. But why confine your favourite tunes to just one slide? Expand it over the duration of your presentation by clicking on the speaker icon that indicates the embedded audio. On the Playback tab, choose Play in Background to have the audio play across the next few slides or until the music stops. DuplicationIf you are constantly reusing the same element throughout your presentation, the good old Ctrl-C+Ctrl-V is fine, but Duplication is better. Hold Ctrl while you click and drag on the object to create an exact dupe; keep selecting and making dupes and they’ll all space themselves out evenly. You can even duplicate entire sets of slides: simply select one or more slides on the left navigation pane, select Insert > New Slide > Duplicate Selected Slides. Animate, animate, animateAny element of a PPT slide can be animated. Choose the element, go to the Animations tab, and at the right end of the Animations Gallery, click the down arrow to get “More.” You can choose from many options about how an element appears, gets emphasis, or disappears — but for animated motion, go to the fourth section. If you pick Custom Path, you can get the object to do just about any wild motions you want on the screen before it settles down. Use animations to add flair to your presentations. Don’t overdo them — you don’t want your audience to get motion sickness. PowerPoint presentations are complicated — that’s a fact. So is how effective it becomes once utilised properly. If you have any further questions regarding our tips or how to execute them, Contact us or give us a call on 011 435 0450 in Johannesburg and 021 879 1950 in Cape Town . We’re more than happy to answer all of your questions.

Businesses seeking to integrate their various systems may be intrigued by a cloud solution. An increasingly popular cloud solution for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) is the enterprise resource planning (ERP). Find out what a cloud-based ERP is, and how your business can benefit from it. Define: Cloud-based ERP ERP is management software, usually offered as a bundle of applications, that aims to help businesses automate the collection, storage, management, and interpretation of data from various sources like accounting, inventory, marketing, service delivery, etc. With ERP, business owners and managers can get an integrated real-time view of business processes, resources, and commitments. Cloud-based ERP solutions are simply a suite of ERP apps delivered to users over the Internet, usually accessed via a browser. The software usually does not need to be installed on computers and is offered on a per-user, per-month, flat-rate fee. Companies using a cloud-based integrated ERP solution have experienced the following five benefits: 1. Increased ERP performance One issue with in-house ERP solutions is that they require proper set up and maintenance to function at their most efficient. If all that is done poorly, then performance suffers. With cloud-based solutions, the provider takes care of hosting the solution. You know that experts are the ones maintaining the system, so you’re assured that your ERP should perform at its peak performance. 2. Decreased operating costs An in-house ERP solution requires the purchase of the software, its related licenses, and the hardware to support it. Plus you need to hire staff to install and maintain it. All that will drive up the overall IT budget, something most SMBs cannot immediately afford. But with a cloud-based ERP, you normally only have to pay a flat-rate monthly fee, so the total cost of implementation will likely be far lower. Many providers can also manage the solution for you. This will even out your operating costs, and if implemented correctly, will result in an overall decrease in expenses. 3. Enhanced access to information Companies that don't have any ERP will likely struggle to find the information they need, when they need it. ERPs can help consolidate the relevant information in a more effective manner than, say, spreadsheets. And since cloud-based ERP solutions are accessible via the Internet, you now have access to your information from anywhere with an Internet connection. 4. Increased security ERP systems process critical business information, so you will want to keep your data secure from outside sources and unauthorized users within your organization. To keep your data safe from unauthorized outside sources, cloud-based ERP solutions offer enhanced security measures that protect your data when it is at rest and when it moves from your systems to the host servers. And for internal data security, users will need an assigned account to access your ERP systems. This gives you control over who is given an account or not. Furthermore, you can also limit who can access your system via central admin panels. 5. Continued support Cloud-based ERP solutions offer 24/7 support. ERP solutions providers can fix problems faster than if you leave them to your employees. Providers also make sure that solutions are kept updated. Hackers have been known to attack businesses that use outdated versions of popular ERP programs. If you want to learn more about cloud-based ERP solutions, contact us today on 011 435 0450 or 021 879 1950. We’ll be glad to assist you. You can also visit us on our website for more information

You can’t afford to lose business data. It takes away the trust of your clients, leading to loss of revenue. Cybercriminals are here to stay, so it’s more important than ever to utilise tight security measures to keep your business data safe. Still, some hackers may have advanced cracking skills, or are really determined to break into your network, so it’s a good idea to use the following methods for safeguarding your corporate data. Use Two-Factor Authentication Using a complicated password to secure your system is no longer an effective way to solve the issue of cybersecurity. We tend to use that same complex password in our email accounts or bank accounts, and if one of your logins is compromised, this can result in grave consequences. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security for your systems and accounts. It can be bio-metric verification for devices that you own, or a time-sensitive auto-generated code that is sent to your mobile phone. This security feature works in the same way websites would require you to confirm your email address. They want to make sure that you’re not a bot or anything else. Encrypt all data Encryption is a great obstruction to hackers, since it scrambles and descrambles data every time someone tries to read it. Encryption also causes compatibility issues if the data is not being accessed via the company’s own network systems. While applying encryption can be costly, it is certainly well worth the money if it can protect your business data from falling into the wrong hands. Keep systems up to date Technology is moving at a fast pace. Hackers are always upgrading their tools to take advantage of outdated security systems, so companies should do likewise to protect their valuable resources. Yet many companies don’t install software updates immediately. If the update closes existing security loopholes, delaying an update exposes you to external attacks. So install software updates as soon as they are released. Back up frequently Although you’ve implemented several layers to your security, sometimes hackers can still find their way in. This is why you need to back up data frequently, whether it’s on-site, off-site, or by way of cloud backups. In the worst-case scenario where your systems do get infiltrated, you can restore lost data from those backups. Monitor connectivity Many businesses have no idea how many computers they have, so it’s very hard to keep track of which computers are online. Sometimes a company’s computers and servers are online when they don’t need to be, making them tempting targets for attackers. It’s advisable to configure business servers properly, ensuring that only necessary machines are online and that they’re well-protected. It’s much more expensive to recover from a data breach than to prevent one. If you’re looking to protect your business IT systems for potential threats, contact Multi IT & Telephony Solutions today so we can help. Call Johannesburg on 011 435 0450 or Cape Town on 021 879 1950