Working in IT - Checklist to live by

Hello fellow readers and welcome once again to another edition of El Toro’s Tech Blog.

I figure for today’s issue, I talk about the career and give you all some tips to live by. These are things I learned in all my years working in the field. Some were taught, others were obtained the hard way. All in all, this is about 15 years of experience so any little help I can provide the current and future IT folks out there, I hope this will be helpful.

The most common misconception these days is the following phrase “the customer is always right”.

This has gone around for a very long time and at first they were truly words to live by, however sad enough to say that isn’t the case in the present time. Too many people take advantage of this just to get things taken care of much faster. Instead of that motto, just work on the tasks I am about to introduce below and I am pretty sure things will work out much better down the line.

If you work in IT (whether you are a help desk, desktop support, network operations, or any IT related field) you are essentially in the role of customer service. The customer is looking to us for support on any of their technical, and sometimes non-technical, issues. It is up to us to do the most important task of all … LISTEN.

Listening to the customer’s issues tells us the story of what may have gone wrong and prompting us to ask the correct questions.

Here is an example:

A user calls the support desk very annoyed and gets a tech on the phone:

TECH: Thank you for calling the support desk, how may I assist you?

USER: My computer is not working and it is stuck on this hour glass for 30 mins and I need to get my work done!

TECH: I am sorry you are having trouble with your computer. May I ask what you were working on when you noticed something was wrong?

USER: I was typing out a very long document and I wanted to save it so I clicked on Save and nothing is happening. I do not want to lose this document. Please Help!

TECH: If you can do me a small favor and just click on the program that you were trying to save in and tell me if anything happens?

USER: Hey, the save prompt just showed up! I don’t know how you did that but thank you so much!

TECH: My pleasure, if this happens again please feel free to call us back and we will further investigate the issue for you. Have a great day!

Let’s break this down line by line. The tech picked up the phone with a greeting (most have a script involved depending on where you work) and is asking the user “how may I assist you”. Already this is a very welcoming greeting to what could be a very frustrating call so the tech is already defusing any anxiety the caller might already have. To be able to convey this easily, always smile when answering the phone. Trust me on this one. People on the other end will know when there is a positive vibe coming from the person picking up the call and 9 out of 10 times will result in a calm and effective support call.

The user, sounding frustrated, goes with the standard “my computer is not working” line. This may sound very obvious to us in IT since they are calling the support line but that’s why we are in IT support and not the caller. They are NOT computer savvy for the most part so let’s not patronize them. After all, it’s because of them that we HAVE a job. So be patient and listen.

The tech first apologizes (even though it isn’t anyone’s fault) which makes the situation calmer. Then the tech asks questions about what the user was doing prior to the issue happened and it was the right question to ask. Now that the user had a chance to get someone polite on the phone they were able to provide information on what they were doing and the tech was able to conclude what solution would work best. The user, extremely thankful, will know the next time they get this tech they are going to get excellent service.

This comes down to the next important task … PATIENCE.

You need to be patient with any user on the phone. Let them talk it out. Remember, they are frustrated something isn’t working. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT make the mistake of interrupting them. Doing so will make a situation hostile when it really doesn’t need to be. Let them finish speaking. They are going to give you an answer on what they were doing at the time the problem happened, or at least clues that will help you get the answer quicker and ready to put into action, making you look like the superstar you are.

Next thing to remember … DO NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY.

There will be times where you will get that one person who no matter what you do, they are still disrespectful, rude, obnoxious, and at times very vulgar. Don’t take it to heart. Remember, they are having a problem and need your help. If they are still irate, disrespectful or vulgar, that is where the supervisors are there for, to help defuse it. Always respond with a smile on your face no matter what and when your work day is over, leave all of that at work. Never bring home that drama. Chances are you will run into that same person and they will be very chipper and sometimes will even apologize for their actions that day. I can’t begin to count the times where I met up with the person when walking the floors, they pull me aside and apologize for the way they had spoken to me. To this day, I am still friends with each of those people.

Final thing to do … ALWAYS FOLLOW UP.

Great customer service doesn’t just end when the call is over. It continues when you reach out to the customer the next day just as a courtesy to see how everything is. This is what makes you into one of the best techs out there. Whether it’s a phone call or a desk side visit, believe me, they will truly appreciate it. That is when your “greatness” will spread to his fellow colleagues. That person will tell 2 people next to them, who will tell 2 more people, spreading like wild fire. You need to always make yourself a valuable asset to any company you work for.

Those are some of my tips that I feel if you can master, will make you THAT much better in the IT field of your choice.

Thank you for reading and as always, Be Safe! =)

Samsung Galaxy S5 - Should I get it?

Howdy folks and happy Friday to you all! Welcome to another edition of El Toro’s Tech Blog.

In today’s issue, I am going to talk about the next best thing, the Galaxy S5. People have asked me “I just only got my S4 and this one came out, is it worth upgrading to or not?”

Below I provided a simplified specs sheet of both devices.

For the most part there isn’t really too much of a difference. The cool factor of the GS5 vs the GS4 is it has a fingerprint reader. Other than that, the specs are either almost the same or slightly better.

In my honest opinion, if you have the GS4,  wait for the GS6, which is rumored to be released late 3rd quarter of next year. If you have a GS3, I would still wait for the GS6.

I hope you enjoyed today’s article. Until next time. Be Safe! =)

Steven Toro

Regional Computer Lead

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L L P.

Suite 3400 | 601 Lexington Avenue | New York, NY 10022

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E-Mail: storo@rkmc.com | FAX:  212-980-7499 

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PowerPoint 2010 - Using the Format Painter

Welcome fellow readers to another edition to El Toro’s Tech Blog. Today I have another great tip you can use in PowerPoint 2010, one of my favorite tools in the Office Suite known as the Format Painter.


Save Steps by Using the PowerPoint 2010 Format Painter
How many times have you changed a string of text or a complete text block in PowerPoint, applying two or three different options? For example: You have increased the font size, changed its color and made it italic. Now you want to apply these same changes to several more text strings.

Enter the Format Painter. The Format Painter will allow you to copy all of these attributes at one time to a different text string, rather than having to apply all three (as in the example above), individually. Here is how to do this.

Copy text attributes to ONE text string

1. Select the text containing the formatting that you wish to copy.
2. On the Home tab of the ribbon, click once on the Format Painter button.
3. Navigate to the slide containing the text you wish to apply this formatting. (This could be on the same slide or on a different slide.)
4. Select the text to which you wish to apply this formatting.
5. The formatting of the first object is applied to this second text string.

Copy text attributes to MORE THAN ONE text string

1. Select the text containing the formatting that you wish to copy.
2. On the Home tab of the ribbon, double click on the Format Painter button. Double clicking on the button will allow you to apply the formatting to more than one text string.
3. Navigate to the first slide containing the text you wish to apply this formatting. (This could be on the same slide or on a different slide.)
4. Select the text to which you wish to apply this formatting.
5. The formatting of the first object is applied to this second text string.
6. Continue to apply the formatting to as many text strings as necessary.
7. When you have applied the formatting to all text strings, click once again on the Format Painter button to turn the feature off.

I hope you find this very helpful. Until next time and Happy Easter to all!

PowerPoint 2010 - Using Slides

Welcome to another entry on El Toro's Tech Blog. Today's entry will give you some information on PowerPoint slides, how to insert new ones, changing its layout, making a copy, rearranging a slide and deleting slides.

Inserting New Slides

When you insert a slide into a presentation, PowerPoint inserts it with the default layout immediately after the current slide. If you want to add a slide with a different layout, you select the layout you want from the New Slide gallery. The available layouts and their design depend on the template used to create the presentation.

After you have inserted a slide, you can change its layout at any time.

If you want to insert a slide that is similar to an existing slide, you can duplicate the existing slide and then change it, instead of having to create the slide from scratch.

To insert a new slide after the current slide

•  On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the New Slide button to insert a slide with the default layout.

• On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the New Slide arrow, and then click the layout you want.

To change the layout of an existing slide

• On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Layout button, and then click the layout you want.

To duplicate a slide

• On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the New Slide arrow, and then click Duplicate Selected Slides.

• In the Overview pane, on the Slides tab, right-click the slide, and then click Duplicate Slide.

Rearranging Slides

You can rearrange a presentation’s slides at any time so that they effectively communicate
your message. You can rearrange a presentation in three ways:

• In Slide Sorter view, you can drag slide thumbnails into the correct order.

• In Normal view, you can drag slides up and down on either the Slides or Outline tab of the Overview pane.

• You can also cut and paste slides in the Overview pane.

To reorganize slides in Slide Sorter view 

1. In Slide Sorter view, on the View toolbar, click the Zoom In or Zoom Out button to adjust the size of the thumbnails as necessary to see the slides you want to move.
2. Drag the slide thumbnails to their new positions.

To move a slide in Normal view

• In the Overview pane, on the Slides tab, click the slide’s thumbnail, and then drag it up or down.

Or

1. On the Slides tab, click the slide’s thumbnail, and then cut it.
2. Click the thumbnail of the slide after which you want the cut slide to appear, and then paste the slide.

Or

• In the Overview pane, on the Outline tab, click the icon of the slide, and then drag it up or down.

Or

1. On the Outline tab, click the slide’s icon, and then cut the selection. If necessary, click Yes to confirm the command.
2. Click the icon of the slide after which you want the cut slide to appear, and then paste the slide.

Deleting Slides

You can easily delete slides you no longer need.

To delete the current slide

• On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Cut button.

• In the Overview pane, on the Slides tab, right-click the slide thumbnail, and then click Delete Slide.

• In the Overview pane, on the Outline tab, right-click the slide title, and then click Delete Slide.

To delete multiple slides

1. In the Overview pane, on the Slides tab, select the slides you want to delete, and then do one of the following:

• Cut the slides.
• Right-click anywhere in the selection, and then click Delete Slide.

I hope you enjoyed this entry and found this useful. As always, Be Safe! =)

PowerPoint 2010 - Adjusting Views

Did you know in PowerPoint 2010 you can adjust the views for a particular task? It's True!

Switching Views

For efficiency you should know which view to use for a particular task. For example, you could change the order of the first four slides in a presentation in Normal view, but you would probably want to switch to Slide Sorter view to change the order of the first 14 slides.

➤ To switch to Normal, Slide Sorter, or Reading view

➜  At the right end of the status bar, on the View Shortcuts toolbar, click the button of the view you want.

➜   On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click the button of the view you want.

➤ To switch to Slide Show view

➜ At the right end of the status bar, on the View Shortcuts toolbar, click the Slide Show button.

➜  On the Slide Show tab, in the Start Slide Show group, click the From Beginning

or From Current Slide button.

➤ To exit Slide Show view

➜  Press the Esc key to return to the previous view.

➤ To display notes pages

➜  On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click the Notes Page button.

➤ To display the slide master, handout master, or notes master

➜   On the View tab, in the Master Views group, click the button of the master you want.

Use what is best for your purposes and you will make working in PowerPoint that much easier!

Until next time fellow readers, Be Safe! =)

How to Perform Simple Maintenance on your Computer Part 2 - Apple

Welcome fellow readers to another edition of El Toro’s Tech Blog.

When last we met, we were talking about the wonders of maintenance on your Windows computer. Today we will cover Performing Simple Maintenance on your Apple Computer.

Let’s get started.

Apple is really big on promoting their products as “they work out of the box, so you don’t have to”. And while it is very true, you can still do a little maintenance to ensure you have everything up-to-date, run automated backups, and a few other things.

Apple Updates – without knowing what version you have for Mac OSX, the process to update it is still the same. Just go to the Apple menu and click on it, then select Software Update. It will check your system and let you know what’s available to update. Just like Windows, you can also have it automatically check for updates regularly. If you have anything version Lion or above, the App Store, located on the dock will flash you a number telling you there is an update and you can update everything from there. (just do not install Maverick OSX. That will be an entry for another day)

Anti-Virus – The beauty about Mac products when using the Mac OSX operating system, it is harder to get a virus or any type of malware to affect your computer. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t accidently transfer a file to your Windows friend and have them catch the virus. So my rule of thumb, get antivirus for any computer you have (apple or not). My recommended choice of software (free as well) is Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac. It actually does more than what aVast! and much more user friendly. Set it to always check for updates and let it run a scan once every 2 weeks.

Back Up your Computer  - Just like Windows, the Mac has its own built-in Backup program called Time Machine. I will say this first though, to get the most out of backing up a Mac, follow the same rule as in Windows; get an external hard drive that has double the space of what your hard drive on the computer is (if computer is 500 GB of hard drive, get an external 1 TB hard drive). Setting up Time Machine is as easy as connecting the external drive to your Mac. Since this is the first time you would set up a device with Time Machine, all you need to do is connect the external drive, Launch Time Machine (located in the Applications Folder or by searching for it using the Spotlight) and you will see a screen similar to this one

Just say “Use as Backup Disk” and you are all set. Simple!

Clean Temporary Files – In Windows, we talked about CCleaner. This is also available for Mac and it works just as great. Install it, run it, and let it do its thing. It’s that simple. It will clean the temp files up in no time and if you want advanced features, you can purchase that version as well. Worth every penny.

Uninstall Unneeded Apps – For those who may or may not know, uninstalling an app is a little bit different on a Mac. You would go into your applications folder, click and drag the app to the trash. However, what you don’t know is Apple still doesn’t have a proper uninstaller program that removes the app properly. Honestly, if you want something that works great, you need to pay the price but I suggest Hazel. This works behind the scenes without as much as intervention from you (unless you want it to). It has been known to be your “personal housekeeper” for the Mac. This is probably the safest way to remove apps correctly. I recommend it.

Additional Maintenance – Mac has some cool apps built in to do most of this but you need to run them yourself. I like my stuff automated and running on a schedule so I suggest downloading OnyX (just make sure you download the one that corresponds to the OSX you are running). The software is free and you can use the Maintenance and Cleaning tabs to have it run daily, weekly and/or monthly tasks. It’s pretty sweet!

If you automate most of this stuff, there should be less intervention from you (just remember to keep the system turned on the day you set to run the tasks). Depending on your use, either once every 2 weeks or once a month should be more than enough.

That’s it for today. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share this with your friends. Until next time, Be Safe! =)

How to Perform Simple Maintenance on your Computer Part 1 - Windows

Welcome fellow readers to another edition of El Toro’s Tech Blog.

With today’s blog, I will be doing 2 parts. This edition will cover Performing Simple Maintenance on your Windows Computer, and part 2 will cover Apple Computers.

Let’s get started.

One of the biggest things I hear at work is “my computer is so slow and it won’t work” or “what can I do to make it move a little faster?”

As the jokester than I am, I always encourage my users to not forget to feed the hamster inside because he is always running on that little wheel. I had to stop telling that joke because people actually started to believe me.

The one thing I recommend people NOT to do is download these programs advertised on TV like My Clean PC, or anything similar to that. It really doesn’t clean your PC but rather give you more headaches than you deserve thus forcing you to purchase software that would potentially make it worse. Your Windows computer has what it needs to keep things running well and there are free things to get to make it even better. Don’t worry, I will discuss in details =)

Windows Updates - The most important thing to always do is make sure you are installing your windows updates. I cannot stress this enough. Windows Update makes sure that your computer has the latest drivers, service packs, security updates installed to ensure your computer will continue to work and prevent anything malicious from doing harm to your programs when installing the security updates. For Windows Vista users and above, just do a search for “Windows Update” and click on it to let it run. You can even schedule a time to run and install the updates automatically. When doing this, it will require your computer be on during that time and this will only install critical updates and security patches. For the other updates, you will need to manually run it. For Windows 8 users, the search is the same, just located in a different spot.

Sadly for my Windows XP users, it is time to either upgrade or purchase a new PC. Microsoft will officially cut off support, service and security updates as of April 8th 2014 for Windows XP . You will still be able to use it but since there won’t be any more updates available, this can leave your system vulnerable to attacks on your system.

Anti-Virus (and updates) – Every Windows computer should have an antivirus program. Windows has more of a chance getting hit with a virus, spyware and/or malware. One of the best Antivirus tools out there is also one of my favorites, avast!. Rated the “World’s most-trusted antivirus” (available for Windows and Apple computers as well as Android devices), Avast! has a very easy to use interface that makes updating it so easy. With a simple click, it updates and keeps you protected. Once installed, it will run in the background protecting and alerting you of potentially anything it catches. They have the free version and paid versions which offer extra protection so it is up to you what to get. As long as you have an antivirus program installed, you’re golden.

Back Up your Computer – Newer versions of Windows have a handy backup tool called “Backup and Restore” (you can find this by searching for that term). This is important to note in order for you to perform a good back up on your computer, you need to have an external hard drive connected to the computer. Making a backup onto DVD/CDs is time consuming and you are better off just clicking through and letting it do its magic on its own. Here is the rule of thumb. Your external hard drive must be at least double the space of your computer. Meaning, if your desktop computer has 500 GB of hard disk space, you need to do your backup on an external hard drive with at least 1 TB (1000 GB) of space. You can sort of get away with using a 750 GB drive but you will run out of space quickly so I wouldn’t advise doing that. The reason for doing this is just simple. If your hard drive dies, you lose everything on it. If you have a backup of it, you just get the internal hard drive replaced and restore the backup you made and you are up and running again in no time! There really isn’t any need to purchase any software for this so you can use Microsoft backup feature.

Clean Temporary Files – The definition of temporary: lasting for only a limited period of time; not permanent”. Apparently someone didn’t tell the temp files that. They stay on your computer and don’t disappear. The more stuff you do on your computer, the more temp files appear and remain permanent. There is a solution to cleaning these and it comes in the form of another cool free app called CCleaner. Just launch the app, follow the prompts and let it do its magic. If you want more advanced features, they offer paid versions of the program. If you were to purchase it, I promise you it’s worth it.

Remove Programs You Don’t Use – When you purchase a computer, 9 times out of 10 there is crap you won’t need or ever use. Just search for Windows’ Add/Remove Programs, select the program you don’t want and click on Uninstall. You will regain space on your computer as well as make it run a bit faster. Use Google as your best reference to find out what something installed on your computer is first before you start uninstalling stuff unless you know for sure what you don’t need.

This might seem like a lot to do. The good thing about the Windows Updates, Antivirus and CCleaner, you can set it up to run a schedule update/clean and it will do it at the time specified so there really isn’t too much intervention from you. I recommend doing this at least once a month, or if you use your computer a lot like I do, then once every 2 weeks. Set a calendar entry to remind you.

You do this, you will begin to notice an improvement on your computer and extend the life of it as well.

That’s it for today. Stay tuned for Part 2, where I will cover what you need to do on a Mac. Until then, Be Safe! =)