I get a lot of my ideas through reading and keeping up on a number of blogs. I checked my daily reads book marks and these are my top 10 (in no particular order):

1. Gizmodo/Lifehacker – Published by Gawker Media, this is the tech and productivity geek’s blog. A lot of the material is curated from other sites but they also publish a lot of good original content.
2. Jess3 – This is a young but kick ass awesome data visualization company ran by some really entrepreneurial geniuses. They make really amazing graphics and really make data fun.
3. Viz Think – This is the visual thinking community. Content is a little slow but when they post, it’s really valuable. The archives hold a lot of information on visual thinking and visual design.
4. xBlog - Now a part of the Dachis Group, this is the xplane blog. The visual thinking company ran by Dave Grey continues to publish invaluable thoughts on business modeling and change through visual language.
5. Duarte - Published by Nancy Duarte, author of Slide:ology. She posts some really useful information here.
6. Swiss Miss – Swiss designer living in NYC, Tina finds some of the neatest design examples and innovative products. She posts a lot which is good to keep entertained.
7. 99% – Published by Behance, they publish cutting edge ideas on a variety of topics. Very high quality.
8. Thinking for a Living – This is sort of a online web magazine with very well written content. The navigation of the site is amazing and a lot of work goes into generating their material.
9. Gamestorming - Another Dave Grey site, this blog/forum contains the collective knowledge of business gamers out there.
10. Change This – They curate some of the best presentations and documents on a variety of subjects. All the documents can be downloaded in either Power Point or PDF.

Any other sites you would recommend?

Screen shots are great. They help create a visual that can replace a lot of written text instructions. There are plenty of options out there.

First off, show me the free options

Don’t want to spend money and buy software. Most operating systems contain some free options.

• Windows 7 – The Snipit Tool will do screen captures.
• Windows XP – There’s no built in tool. Press the print screen button (Prt Scn). It will save the image in your clipboard. Just paste it anywhere you want. You’ll have to use some tool to crop the portion you want.
• Mac OS X – Type in Command-Shift-3 to capture the full screen, or Command-Shift-4 to capture a portion of the screen. For the latter option, your cursor will change and you can select the portion of the screen you want to capture. Images will be saved on your desktop.

What about a more advanced way

I use Techsmith Snagit to capture screen images. It’s been on the market for a long time and is a great tool. There was a recent promotion that let me upgrade my Windows version to the latest version and also get a copy of the Mac version as well. The Mac version was just released.

If you need to capture screen images often, Snagit comes with many predefined workflow processes. For example, you can click a button to capture a portion of the screen, save it at a certain resolution, and copy it to your clipboard. I use this when creating user manuals. There are tools out there that will automate these functions but I still prefer to do this manually to capture the right images.

The new Snagit also has the ability to capture just portions of the menu bar, great if you’re trying to display navigation.

People are always asking questions. How do I do this and how do I do that? I always have an answer. Usually, if I’m on a phone call, there will be a few moments of pause and then I have the answer. If it’s over email, it’ll take a few minutes as well. Below are a few examples of scenarios I’ve answered and how I knew that answer.

• How do I record a Skype call?
• How do I setup a pivot table?
• How do I make chocolate chip cookies?
• How do I get rid of this page break in Word?

Let me Google that for you by using these easy steps:

1. Open your web browser.
2. Go to http://www.google.com (this should be your home page).
3. Type in your questions (literally if you must).
4. Click on links until you get an appropriate answer.

I’ve used Google to do many things such as:

• Searching for a phone number to screen calls (telemarketer?)
• Typing in “do I need to repair my tie rods in my Chevy Malibu” to make sure if I really need the service at the car shop
• Making Windows 7 run faster
• Clear vs Comcast

Please learn to use Google. It’s how every guru, ninja, specialist, expert that you know find out their answers.

After going back and forth with several options for building out my personal document management system, I opted to sign up for a premium Evernote account. Before this, my options were:

1. Do nothing and digitize documents on an ad hoc basis – too chaotic and disorganized.
2. Store digital scans on Dropbox – files are not searchable.
3. Use Google Docs – limitation on PDF file size and clumsy upload process.
4. Install local document management system – requires maintenance and backup.

By upgrading to the Evernote premium edition, I go from 40 mb upload a month to 500 mb. Additionally, I can now upload any file type and search within a PDF. I have a Lexmark Prestige 805 multiprinter at home. It’s wireless and has a built in Evernote function that with one click will scan and email the PDF to my Evernote email upload account.

My workflow goes as follows:

1. Input into Evernote using scanner, iPhone app to snap an image, or clip using the web tool.
2. Periodically, log into Evernote and tag and categorize my files.
3. Search when I need info.

The key feature that was the selling point for me is the ability to search everything. Evernote includes built in OCR to recognize text from PDFs to images, including handwritten notes. When you’re looking for a document, you’ll find that search is the lifesaver. Instead of sifting through piles and piles of documents, I can simply use a few keywords and narrow things down.

When I was going to Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy, my career counselor said she heard from a fellow faculty member that Daniel walks on water. What does that mean? Walking on water means living without limitations. Just because we’re told that we can’t walk on water and that we’d sink and drown doesn’t mean it can’t be done. From a practical perspective, I can’t physically walk on water. However, on a day to day basis, I live as if I can.

When working on a problem, I take it from the perspective that nothing can’t be done, no matter how hard or how impossible it may be. Nothing can’t be solved, it just may require a unique solution.

Walk on water.

Nearly everyone has a blog in some form or another. I so often see individuals, and even companies use a service provider to manage their blog. This is referring to the many popular ones such as Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, and so on. They’re easy to use, simply provide some basic information and they’ll set you up with a ready to use blog with easy configuration. However, my biggest concern is ownership of data. Who owns the data you post? With the recent Facebook privacy issues becoming a hot topic, it’s time to step back and evaluate the information you post online.

photo credit: Forrestal_PL

This blog is hosted through Dream Host. I pay a monthly fee for shared space on a server. They provide the tools to assist me in installing the WordPress application, the SQL database to house the information, and ongoing backups. That middle part is the most important one, the SQL database. This means that I own my data. Every comment, picture, post, link that I post on this blog is kept in a database, that I own, can save and archive.

Here are some basic questions to ask your provider. You may have to pull up the dreaded terms of service to answer these questions.

1. Who owns my data?
2. Can I export all my data into a file for future use and backup?
3. How much control do I have over the configuration?

What do you think? Am I being paranoid or is there legitimate concerns?

The MS Office suite can be a pain in the butt at times. Even the most basic activities can easily be messed up or corrupted with bad data. Over time, a lot of formatting and hidden data is entered into a document. After a while, the document is filled with headers, styles, formats, hidden text, hidden meta data, etc. This is problematic especially if templates are not used but old documents. For example, when a previous used document is reused again for new purposes, the existing errors are carried over to the new document. Additional user errors are then added and the process repeats. After a while, a document is almost unusable.

photo credit: TheBrady

Here are some good practices:

Do not cut and paste from different documents.

Cutting and pasting carries over previously used formats. If it’s not compatible with the new document, the application attempts to use a similar format. If there are hidden data and formats, those are also carried over. When possible, copy or cut, and use paste special –> unformatted text. You’ll then have to restyle the text to your new document.

Use document styles when possible.

Rather than making ad hoc document formats, like fonts, colors, borders, etc., try to use defined styles. If it doesn’t exist, define a new style and apply it to the text. Using styles allows you to make changes to one style, which will update the entire document.

Start over from time to time

We’re not always able to follow these practices and are in a rush to meet a deadline. This results in sloppy document practices that carry over. When time is available, start with a fresh document and follow the above practices. Take those old documents out of commission and archive them. Don’t use them again.

Any other tips?

photo credit: catchthefuture

This is a series of Frequently Asked Questions. I find my peers, coworkers, and friends asking the same question over and over. I always seem to have the answer. Naturally, I’m often asked:

How do you do all your magic?

I’m no Harry Potter or Warlock. It’s no secret. I don’t have a bag of tricks or keep a book of knowledge around. In fact, if you ask me point blank with no time to figure it out, changes are, I’ll tell you I’ll get back to you. Instead, I am an expert at looking things up. Instead of trying to learn everything, I simply learn how to search to do things. There will always be someone that can do things better than you. Why reinvent the wheel? About 99% of things you want to do has already been done.

Want to cure cancer? Look it up here.