April 2009 Newsletter

Have you been enjoying our mascot Wizard’s seasonal costume changes? Maria Pasiuk, our Operations Coordinator, is becoming quite adept at Photoshop and having way too much fun with it. Want to add a little fun and interest to your work? Take our Adobe Photoshop classes and spice up your creativity on the job. We can’t guarantee your employer would appreciate the changes to your company logo as much as we do, but hey … it works for Google, right?

Training Links to Bookmark:
Professional Development Courses – Business Magic Training
Computer Magic Training home page
Online Class Registration – Computer Magic Training
Printed Class Schedule for January-June 2009
Chronological Class Calendar March-June 2009
Magic Stimulus Packages for Excel discounts
Course Outlines and Descriptions
Skills Assessment Tests
Download Student Class Files for after-class practice
Free Class Drawing Entry Form

Is PowerPoint causing you pain?
(Or is the power missing from your presentations?)

There are three parts to a successful PowerPoint Presentation: content, graphics, and the presentation. Our specialists can help you address all three parts. You will be amazed at how blazingly fast and effective PowerPoint can be when all the tools are used correctly.

Do you need a PowerPoint specialist? Imagine the amount of time you would have to concentrate on your other responsibilities if a PowerPoint expert produced your slides, effectively communicating your message to the audience.

PowerPoint specialists know how to incorporate graphics, content, and design style to make you a success. They focus on highlighting your message, adding complex animation and stunning graphics while keeping ease of use, including all your important details and concepts, and ensuring it goes off without a hitch.

We can meet and discuss how you can save time, reduce your costs and frustration, and increase the effectiveness of your presentations by hiring a PowerPoint specialist. Contact us today.

New Professional Development Classes

We’ve been busy building our outstanding new curriculum! Business Magic Training is pleased to announce new additions to our line of Professional Development Classes, delivered by our fantastic professional facilitators:

Deciding to Decide: A Decision-Making Workshop
Productive Problem Solving
Delegating Skills
Managing Conflict
6 Key Skills for Leaders and Managers
High Impact Communication
Interviewing Skills
Communicating with Your Manager
Providing Feedback
Performance Review Series (3 modules):
     • Skills for Writing Reviews
     • Skills for Delivering Reviews
     • Self-Appraisal and Collaboration on Your Review
Skills for Writing Reviews
Skills for Delivering Reviews
Dynamic Training! How to Run Exceptional Training Programs
The Trainer’s Advantage Workshop
The Tech Trainer’s Advantage Workshop
The Global Trainer’s Advantage Workshop
The Presenter’s Advantage Workshop
The Meeting Manager’s Advantage Workshop
The Webinar Trainer’s Advantage Workshop

And a number of others to be announced soon … let us know what YOU need so we can design and customize a course just for you!

MURPHY’S MANNERS
POLISHING YOUR PROFESSIONAL IMAGE

Dear Murphy,
I recently interviewed a candidate for a first-line management position. This individual’s resume presents a perfect fit for the technical skills the job requires. The applicant was quite charming during the interview and expressed a willingness to work hard.

I had arranged a lunch with the candidate and two other managers from our company following the interview. I was shocked when the candidate treated the waiter rather shabbily—she was rude and dismissive, treating the waiter like a lowly worker. At the same time, she never lost her charm with our company’s managers.

I’m perplexed. What do you make of this?

Dear Perplexed,
Hiring Mangers have long relied on The Waiter Rule. How your applicant behaves toward a waiter most likely reflects how she would treat her employees. It sounds like your candidate is exhibiting situational values, turning on the charm when she wants to impress and turning it off when dealing with people she considers inferior. This person may have a need to feel important by putting others down. People with strength of character follow the same values regardless of the situation.

Murphy suggests you keep interviewing.

Guest Instructor – FileMaker Pro Classes (special offerings)

CPR for Database Design using FileMaker Pro – May 7th, 2009, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Have you experienced databases that looked like they need to be resuscitated? Or do you just want to know how to start things off on the right foot? During this full day class you’ll learn:
- How to look at the data you’re using and figure out what basic tables you need.
- The common sense reasons for storing data in particular field types.
- When and how to break up data (and when it makes sense to leave it alone).
- Relationship types
- How to create and display relationships (and implications for reports)
- Learn about development standards and practices and how to create your own
We won’t use examples made up from a book – we’ll use yours! You tell us about your data and we’ll structure your database. It is amazing what you can learn from real life and from each other.

FileMaker 10 New Features and Tips & Tricks – May 8th, 2009, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
You asked for it – now it’s available! Wrap your arms around the new features in version 10:
- Script triggers
- Saved Found Sets
- Dynamic Reporting
- Emailing without using email client software
In the afternoon we’ll learn how to integrate functionality to create some very useful (and cool stuff):
Working with objects to
- Move users smoothly through your interface
- Re-use scripts in different tables and databases
Implement hierarchical (cascading menus)
- Ensures that only appropriate choices are available to users
- Users aren’t overwhelmed with too many choices Document Management
- Sharing documents (Word, Excel, PDF, etc.)
- Version Control
- Emailing and maintaining records of customer’s documents
Create Portals that are user customizable
- Filtering by selection
- Sorting
This is the foundation that you need to ease development and data entry burdens and improve user interface. Each database you create can benefit from these solutions.

About the instructor:
Jane Reeder has been using FileMaker Pro for 16 years. She spent 10 years working at FileMaker, Inc. in technical support and engineering. She has consulted and created solutions for many companies including: Alcon Laboratories, Stanford, Dolby Laboratories, Filoli Center, NASA, and Our City Forest.

Let us empower you and your employees to achieve success in your professional goals and increase your productivity with individual or group classes of the highest quality! Please call us at (408) 261-2600 or email us at info@computermagictraining.com. Or visit us at www.computermagictraining.com and www.businessmagictraining.com for more information & on-line registration!