Category: Tech Tutorials
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Functional Design Specification
A Functional Design Specification (FDS) is a document used by companies in a pre-development phase to translate all notes, concepts, and scope into a complete requirements document. The document can include anything from flowcharts, screenshots, and wire frames. At a minimum, an FDS will contain an organized list of requirements that can be used for…
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Stupid Word Features that should be Turned Off
I’m an avid user of Microsoft’s Word. While it is still the best word processor available, there are plenty of “features” that will drive me nuts. Some of those features were introduced in recent versions of Word and they are turned-on by default. This tutorial will show you how to turn off the following features:…
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Learn from The Matrix: Design Before You Code
The most important thing you can do to increase the success rate of a software project is to fully define the software before a single line of code is written. Fantasy Land While it sounds good on paper, this practice is something that only exists in my version of Fantasy Land. Deadlines, budgets, and excited…
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Quick XML Formatting with Microsoft Excel
You have a long list that you want to put in an XML format. This tutorial will show you a quick way to do it with Microsoft Excel. For this example, I have a list of the Fortune 100 companies and their locations. You can download (Right-click and “Save As”) the list and following along the tutorial.…
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Multiple References to One Footnote in Word
This question comes from Ram Ramakrishnan. Ram was writing a Word document and wanted to use a footnote. He wanted to reference that one footnote multiple times throughout the document. When inserting a footnote (Insert > Reference > Footnote), Word will place a number, letter, or symbol that is used to refer to the footnote.…
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Using ClearType on Windows XP
For those of you on a Windows XP machine, there is a way to increase readability of text on your screen by 10-15%. Microsoft has introduced what they are calling ClearType to their operating system. Apple has been using a similar technology since 1976, but Microsoft has just finally caught on. What it basically does…
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Conditional Formatting in Excel
Conditional Formatting is one of the features that takes Excel from a simple spreadsheet tool to an application builder. Depending on the value of a cell, you can change the formatting of that cell. Formatting in cells can also be conditional based off of the values in another cell or the results of a calculation.…