Awake and Alert

I slept for 10 hours. It was lovely. I feel much better today. Awake and alert.

Which is great since I'm going to be working on my procedures' manual at work. A huge undertaking. My task is to write out the details for all of the various things I do at the company. I'm finding out that writing step-by-step instructions is very time consuming. And things I do intuitively need to be thought through and documented. Fortunately I have until the end of the year. Another co-worker, who had to put one together for her job, suggested that I do it as I go. When a project/task comes up I should do it and then type up what I did. I'll try to do that whenever possible.

Here's an example of one I wrote out on Tuesday. (It took 10 minutes to do and 30 to type up what I did...this is going to be a long 6 months.)

Quarterly New Business Report

Look-up Data
Open ACT!
Lookup àBy Example
Put an “X” in the “830 Gang Member” field (upper-right corner)
Click on the Exclamation point.
Switch to the Contact List view (left side of screen)
Click on View àAdd Columns.
Add “Date Entered” and “830 Gang Member”
Sort on Date Entered.
Switch from the Edit Mode to the Tag Mode.
Tag all of the records with dates in the last quarter.
Click on the “Lookup Tagged” box.

Exporting Records
Choose File àData Exchange àExport
File type: “Text – Delimited”
Click on the ellipse box for “Filename and location”
Find a location and type in a name for the file.
Click Save
Click Next
Leave the “Contact records only” toggle checked.
Click on the “Options” box.
Check the “Yes, export field names” box
Leave the field separator as “Tab”.
Click Next
Choose the “Current lookup” toggle.
Click Next
Choose the fields you want to export or just Reset the Map to export all of the fields.
Click Finish.
Close ACT!

Import into Excel
Open Excel
Open the file. Change the file type to “All Files” so that it will locate the “.txt” file.
On the Import Wizard, choose “Delimited” as the file type.
Click Next.
Check the “Tab” box.
Click Next.
Click Finish.

Format the Worksheet
Delete (or hide) the columns you don’t want for the Report.
Rearrange the columns in the datasheet.
Change the text to Wrap-Text. Expand the fields so that you can see the data
These are the fields you should end up with: Contact, Company, Owner, Source, Est $ (changed from Estimated $ Amt), Change w/l/p/na? (a column you need to add), Win/Loss/Pend/NA (changed from Win/Loss/Pend), and Comments (concatenate the last two years of Comments to get this data).
Make the Header Row Bold and Yellow.
In the Page Setup: change the orientation to Landscape. Changing Scaling to “Fit to:” 1 page wide by 40 tall.
On the Margins tab: Change the Margins to Left: .5; Right: .5; Top: .75; Bottom: .75; Header .3; Footer .3
On the Header/Footer Tab: Change the Header to say New Business Report (insert Quarter and Year)
Change the Footer: Left side: Return to (XXX) by (Date). Middle: “Please change the Win/Loss/Pend/NA status as appropriate.” Right side: Page number.
On Sheet Tab: add “$1:$1” to the “Rows to repeat at top” field.
Click OK.
Print Preview to confirm settings. Adjust column widths as needed. Readjust row heights as needed.
Save.
E-mail to Gang Contacts.
Sample Note: “Attached is the draft of the 2nd quarter 2008 new business report.
Please review your items and make any changes necessary to the Win/Loss/Pend/NA field (or to any others that you find).
I will compile it on 7/21 with any changes and then give the final report to Lynn.”