Microsoft
Word 2000 or Word XP
TechSpectrum wants to teach you just enough Word 2000 or Word XP so
that you can build quick efficient memos. If you need to
build something more complex, you can contact us for more information
and help.
Microsoft
Excel 2000 or Excel XP
It's hard to imagine any manager not understanding and using the
potential of Excel. It's not just for "numbers"
people. How do you expect to administer departmental budgets if
you can't use a spreadsheet?
Would you like to take our quiz to decide if you need Excel
training?
Microsoft
PowerPoint 2000 or PowerPoint XP
When you need to make your first presentation to your graduate class
you'll be glad you invested time in learning PowerPoint months before
you needed it. When you're at a conference with your laptop and
you realize you need to make a PowerPoint presentation overnight, you
will be glad you know PowerPoint.
PowerPoint will not be something you will delegate to a typist.
You'll want to know how to prepare PowerPoint presentations on your
own. How do you put your name on each slide? How can you
add bullets that appear and disappear? How will you animate your
presentations? We will teach you.
Would you like to take our quiz to decide if you need
PowerPoint training?
Microsoft
Access, Outlook, and more
We can also teach you Access and Outlook. Most of my training
staff know Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook very
well. If you need to learn FrontPage, Publisher, or Project we
may need to bring in another trainer.
And we can teach non-Microsoft products (Lotus Notes, Goldmine, to
name a few). All you need to do is ask.
A
Sample Session
After you email or telephone, we call you. Our goal is to briefly
understand your training need in about 10 minutes. We arrange a
2 hour computer training session (or longer) that meets with your
schedule and with ours. (If you need hardware, software, or
Internet problems, tell us. We will then send a PC technician to
your house.)
We visit, on time (we ask that you do the same).
Training sessions seem to go two different directions. Sometimes
clients ask question after question, self-directing their
learning. Other times, clients ask us to direct them as
professional trainers (with less questions). At the end of the
training we make arrangements for the time and location of the next
session.
You pay our fee at the end of the session. When your
check clears we send an invoice to you marked PAID through the U.S.
mail (soon we will accept credit cards).
Most of our
private training clients take at least 2 sessions from us. How
long will it take to learn something you're not good at, Excel for
example? Your learning time is related more to your practice
time after we leave. With most good software, you learn in
direct proportion to your investment of time after the training
consultant leaves.
An
Excel Quiz
If you're uncertain as to whether or not you need Excel training
why not take the quiz shown below? No one is watching, just
you. What qualifies the writer to assess you? My name is Richard
Kraneis and I have taught over 10,000 people in my lifetime how to use
computers. I hope you enjoy the quiz. Please launch Excel
on your computer and follow the questions below.
Question 1: Beginner.
Time: 3 minutes.
Examine the Excel screen shown below.
In cell A4, please perform two operations. Add up cells A1 and
A2. Then, divide the sum by the number 2. The answer in
cell A4 should then be 100.
An intermediate user of Excel will think Question 1 was easy. A
novice Excel user may have trouble with the question.
Do you need private Excel training? Call us now at 773-685-8746
or send us an email at
et@techspectrum.com .
Question 2: Intermediate.
Time: 15 minutes.
How old are you today?
Using Excel, can you determine your exact age? We don't want to
know that you are 28. We want to know if you are 28.57 years of
age. Please do it for you and 3 friends.
This is "date math" and it's incredibly important in
Excel. If you understand it, then you can determine the age of
your receivables, the age of your inventory, how long it's been since
you last called your clients, and so forth.
This assesses your knowledge of formulas, time, copying, and
pasting. It's a good intermediate exercise.
Do you need private Excel training? Call us now at 773-685-8746
or send us an email at
et@techspectrum.com .
Question 3: Intermediate - difficult.
Time: 20 minutes.
Examine the Excel screen shown below. Please build this table in
Excel.
Now, please build a bar chart for Profits for all three years. We
don't want Total Revenue or Total Expense information, only
Profit. Charts are essential in business and many managers
delegate that to their staff (hoping their staff knows how to do it).
The next part is even more difficult. With the same chart, can
you predict Profit for the years 91 and 92? This isn't
easy. If you can do it, you certainly don't need our training
help.
TechSpectrum hopes you did well with your quizzes. Do you need
private Excel training? Call us now at 773-685-8746 or send us
an email at et@techspectrum.com
.
A
PowerPoint Quiz
The Excel quiz was a bit strenuous. Hopefully these PowerPoint
questions won't be so difficult.
Question 1: Beginner.
Time: 15 minutes.
PowerPoint is really outlining when you come down to it.
Certainly, it's pretty, but it's outlining.
Please sit somewhere and write five major points with sub points
regarding a hobby that you love. (For me, that would be
fishing.) Now, please build a simple PowerPoint presentation of
those 5 slides.
This should take less than 15 minutes. For an experienced
PowerPoint user it's easy. If you're a beginner, it may be more
difficult or a longer task.
Do you need private PowerPoint training? Call us now at
773-685-8746 or send us an email at
et@techspectrum.com.
Question 2: Beginner - intermediate.
Time: 15 minutes.
Please insert a clip art slide or two in your presentation. Now,
place your name exactly at the bottom-middle of every slide (if you're
doing this slide by slide, you're doing it incorrectly).
If you can do this task in the time allotted, maybe you don't need
training. Did you have trouble?
Call us now at 773-685-8746 or send us an email at
et@techspectrum.com.
Question 3: Intermediate.
Time: 15 minutes.
Please change the clip art and its colors. Can you change the
skin tones of a person in clip art? We can and we'll show you
how. It's a diverse society, and changing clip art colors is a
good thing.
Finally, change some of slide's titles so they "swivel" and
some of the bullets so they "appear from the right".
These are definitely intermediate topics. And, we haven't even
tried video clips, sound clips, retouching scanned images, etc.
Do you need private PowerPoint training? Call us now at
773-685-8746 or send us an email at
et@techspectrum.com.
Hardware
Support
If you have a computer hardware problem, please let us know before
we begin your computer training.
In this business, training
consultants rarely are hardware experts. And, hardware experts
rarely want to train or do application problems.
For hardware
support at your home or home office call us now at 773-685-8746 or
send us an email at
et@techspectrum.com.
Fees
I think people should be clear about their services and their
fees. It avoids misunderstandings later. So, here goes.
Our fees are $100 per hour. We schedule a 2 hour training
session with 30 minutes for notes. We teach for 2 hours and then
we send you training notes for your session (they normally take 30
minutes to write). Each session is $250.
You pay our fee at the end of the session. When your check
clears we U.S. mail to you an invoice marked PAID. (Soon you can
charge with a credit card.) For some of
our clients, their training session is often covered by their employer
(you should see if your employer covers this type of training).
For others, your training may qualify as a tax expense.
Parking. You know the neighborhood, you pay the parking
bill.
Travel time. We normally don't charge for travel
time. But if you live in Zion or Wheaton and it's an hour travel
time, we need to set a reasonable fee. But, I think we're worth
it.
Cancellations. This is a delicate topic but it needs to
be addressed. Your cancel policy and our cancel policy is the
same. If you (or we) cancel the day of class, you and/or your
company will be billed for the entire class. If you (or we)
cancel one, two, or three days before class, you will be billed for
1/2 the fee. If you (or we) cancel 4 days or more before a
class, there is no charge. If we cancel on you, we will send you
a check for the amount. We expect the same courtesy. We've
never cancelled on anyone, but if we do, you can expect a check from
us.
You send us your cancel fee through the U.S. mail or we can charge it
over the phone.
So what do you get besides training?
- You get excellent training. My name is Richard Kraneis
and I have taught (and enjoyed teaching) 10,000 people in my
lifetime. All my training consultants have taught at least
1000 clients.
- You get specific training notes from your session. It's a
simple outline, but if you use it, you will learn more.
- You will receive a good book or training magazine with your
training session.
- Limited help desk. On demand help desk is expensive.
But if you email us a question, we select a question or two each
week for email answers and our newsletter. We may select
your help desk question.
Contact Us Now
Phone us at 773-685-8746.
Or email us at
et@techspectrum.com .
The ET stands for Executive Training.
We
look forward to hearing from you.
Training!