Icebreakers & Group Exercises

The Contact Point website has a section dedicated to group exercises and ice breakers at www.contactpoint.ca/index.php?option=com_resource&view=list&category_id=9&Itemid=28.
We've shared this link in of Job Club Coach program and on our website under Did You Know, but I thought it important for us internally to remember the resource as well.

A Cup of Christmas Tea

I hope you each have an amazing Christmas with special times with friends and family and a chance to reflect on the year almost ending and the next soon to begin. One of my favourite traditions is to read or listen to "A Cup of Christmas Tea" - I hope you enjoy this video.

How to Change a Web Address to a Hyperlink on a Word Doc

Quick Tip: If you type in www. in front of the address in a Word doc and put a space after the entire address, Word should automatically hyperlink the document. To turn off the automatic hyperlink, right click it and then click remove hyperlink. If it does not automatically hyperlink simply highlight the address with your cursor and right click, select hyperlink, and type in the web address in the address line.

The Tyranny of the Urgent

As you know, our focus this fall has been on consolidation - trying to be more intentional about our work, spending more time on billable work and less on "internal stuff," trying to cluster our tasks, and ultimately spending more time on meaningful tasks that are personally and professionally rewarding. As is always the case, it's easy to get distracted by "urgent" but less important requests (e.g., phone, MSN, text, or email interruptions when we'd blocked out time to move important projects forward).

Just wanted to update you that we're still working on this...and will need to continue for the next few months at least. What this means to each of you is that there are less "just for fun" projects that we can fund right now, we need to move projects forward very efficiently, and yet we can't drop balls. I'd encourage each of you to keep looking for projects that interest you - we love the team we've built and want to keep working with all of you. :-)

Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

Roberta passed this along so I thought I'd share it in our blog. Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a free website in which you can submit an inquiry which will be sent out to qualified sources around the world to respond. Go to http://helpareporter.com to check it out; there is a helpful audio explaining the system which provides more details.

Embedding Fonts in Word and PPT

Hi all...we've recently run across an "issue" when converting documents to PDF to upload to a publisher. The publisher needs fonts to be embedded which "just happens" for some fonts and not for others. Here is how you embed fonts:

• Click on the Microsoft Office Button in the upper left hand corner
• Choose “Word Options”
• Select the Save tab on the left
• Under the “Preserve fidelity when sharing this document” section, first choose your document. 
• Then check the box for “Embed fonts in the file” and “Embed only the characters used in the document”

This has worked 95% of the time so obviously not a perfect system. If I figure the rest out I'll let you know. If anyone knows of other "tricks" please let me know.

Password Protecting A Document

Some of the documents we use (e.g., the code table) need to be password protected for security. To do so within a word document:

1. Click the MS Office button at the top left hand corner of your screen
2. Select "Prepare"
3. Select "Encrypt document"
4. Enter in your password and click OK
5. Confirm your password and click OK

To ensure passwords are strong, include a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.