That combination of blank screen and tight deadline can be terrifying. So how can you create the best environment for your business writing? Simple. Work out if you are a monk or a rockstar. What does the monk want? Complete silence as he lifts his fountain pen from the oak desk. Absolutely no interruptions. Shhhh!

You know those automatic Office updates that Microsoft does when your computer is having a snooze . . .  ? Well, on 10 December 2014, Microsoft issued Security Bulletin MS14-082 -  Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (3017349).

  Having recently attended the Learning Technologies 2015 exhibition, I thought it would be topical to write about one of the learning trends that was prevalent at the event. After spending some time sitting in on seminars from a host of providers and competitors, the topic which struck me the most was the 70:20:10 model for staff development.

Online training still has its sceptics. However, there is no doubt that e-learning has been a growing industry worth $55.2 billion with the type of learning technologies available doubling in the last five years, demonstrating human behaviours shift towards how we choose to learn in recent times.

Admittedly, making a spelling or formatting mistake in Word is unlikely to have the catastrophic consequences that an error in a Microsoft Excel formula can result in. However, there's still a very big difference between being able to use Word, and being able to use Word well. Given how much time individuals and organisations spend creating letters and documents, not knowing how to get the best out of Word can cost you a great deal of time and organisations a lot of money.

How many roads does a man walk down? The short answer is 4.715 x 10^284, if he’s a student of our Excel course. A more useful answer is: eLearning user journeys can be non-linear. This is usually a good thing - students can access training in a pattern that suits them, personalising not just the pace of training but also its emphasis and direction in a way that would be unaffordable with conventional, face-to-face training. But the degrees of freedom available to a student make it difficult to control or even understand the user experience.

If you wish to learn Excel inside-out, I'd recommend to go over some key principles that will let you understand first and foremost whether a spreadsheet is the most appropriate tool for your job, and then how to turn it into a dynamic, shared piece of work. When it comes to the latter, I'd encourage you to work collaboratively, share ownership and suggest review to maximize results and turn your Excel spreadsheets into powerful, recyclable tools, as opposed to one-off, isolated pieces of information. Especially if it takes so much effort to create or analyse a spreadsheet, why do it all over again next time? After nearly two years at Filtered, and being involved with spreadsheets every day, this is possibly the best advice I can give to anyone looking to improve their Microsoft Excel knowledge.

At Filtered we have a range of business training and software courses including Microsoft PowerPoint. Our PowerPoint online training course will teach you everything you need to know about this popular application so that you can produce impactful presentations quickly and efficiently. This post, however, is a quick five point tongue-in-cheek guide of things to avoid in your PowerPoint presentations to ensure you keep your audience engaged and your delivery clear.

I took a project financial management course many years ago. The course was chalked full of formulas and calculations to analyze project performance.  While the information was good and I gleaned value from the course, I feel the material overlooked one critical factor to variance analysis. A properly developed and baselined schedule is imperative to facilitate meaningful analysis.