Kelly LaForest

I’m happy to announce that there’s a new community group in town, and as co-founder and co-organizer of this group, I invite you all to attend! This free event is a great fit for those who want to see what Microsoft is doing in the cloud. All Office 365-related topics are up for discussion. Members meet …

The first step in my process to assist an end user with trouble shooting an issue is to know what operating system they are using. This is so I can frame my directions in a context that makes sense to them. So what? Well, I’m not going to tell a Windows 8 user to click on …

Although an avid Internet Explorer user, other internet browsers have their shining moments. There is an add-on available in Mozilla Firefox named ColorZilla that had me very excitable yesterday. (Thanks Sean!) This colour picker tool allows you to use an eyedropper to get a colour reading from any point within your browser. Free. Two second download. Restart browser to …

Every morning, after a quick scan of my Microsoft Outlook calendar and inbox, I open up my internet browser to take a peek at our social media efforts. I have over 20 folders in my Internet Explorer Favourites – including one for Social Media bookmarks, which has six links to itgroove’s various social profiles including Facebook, …

A client wanted to know: “If you store an Excel file in a document library (via Office 365 SharePoint Online), can multiple people open and view/edit data in a worksheet at the same time, and will updates appear in “real” time?” I knew the ability to collaborate has been available since Excel 2010, but the answer …

Clicking is cool, but keyboard shortcuts are hot. I knew a keyboard shortcut existed to toggle or navigate between Microsoft OneNote notebook pages: I assumed CTRL + DOWN ARROW would be my ticket to productivity paradise, but no dice… it just sent me to the next paragraph on the page… After trying various combinations, including TAB, …

I wrote a blog post back in October 2013 about “How to Get a Free Non-Profit Office 365 Subscription in Canada” – and recently realized that it contains key points that are relevant to ANY organization looking to get started with Office 365. [NOTE: Since originally posting this in April 8, 2014, I have added two more …

Making an edit to multiple items in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 is referred to as “changing multiple records”. The process is simple enough. (For this example, we’ll make a chance to a batch of tasks.) 1. Select the tasks you want to apply the edit to. You can select all of the tasks by clicking …

As avid SharePoint users, my colleagues and I are conditioned to avoid sending documents as email attachments whenever possible. (Why? I’ll save that lengthy list of reasons for a separate blog post). Our rampant use of Microsoft OneNote to brainstorm, compose, compile and collaborate reinforces this best practice since obtaining a link to a page in a notebook is a two …

Today my colleague Colin Phillips noticed the ridiculous amount of screen real estate my Windows 8 Notification Area was using up. After clarifying that I did not actually want to be drowning in screen clutter (see below), he offered the following suggestion for how to improve my Windows 8 experience. My original attempt to remove the insignificant icons in the Notification …