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Create Your Own WordPress Website in Just 3 Days

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WordPress  has come a long way for a Web Design platform. It started as a Blogging platform, but now more and more websites are using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS).

In fact, WordPress is ideal to be used as a CMS, and it is extremely easy to install, configure and setup WordPress driven website. WordPress web design training can help you get started faster.

After being the world’s most popular CMS & Web Design software, it is still a mystery to many. Here are some common questions answered about WordPress.

Is WordPress Free?

Absolutely. The WordPress foundation has provided you with the software absolutely free for your business or personal use. You can download the latest software from WordPress.org website. It is updated regularly, and you will be prompted to update it every time another version is released. It is always best to keep the latest version installed on your website.

WordPress also offers a free, hosted website option. It is of no cost to you too. But the site will be hosted at WordPress, and will be using their domain name. So you will get a sub domain at WordPress to build your blog or site on.

This option is good if you are running a small or experimental website, and don’t want to spend anything. However, the self-hosted option is much better. Of course, you will have to invest in a domain name and hosting, but then you have full flexibility about the design, and content of your own website.

What are the Benefits of using WordPress?

There are several benefits of using WordPress.

Benefits of Using WordPress For Web Design
Benefits of Using WordPress For Web Design
  1. WordPress is open source. You are free to download, examine and extend it.
  2. Thousands of themes and plugins are available, allowing you immense extensibility and flexibility in your web design
  3. It is quite easy to build your own website, once you understand the structure and layout, and the various terminology.
  4. Easy to find website developers and designers, if you do not want to do it yourself.
  5. Being a CMS, you can easily add people to the design or content editing teams, and provide access by roles. This way they can only modify what they are supposed to, keeping the site secure.
  6. Easy to maintain. WYSIWYG interface also gives you a visual of what you are going to get at the end of the design.

What are the Disadvantages of Using WordPress?

Not all is rosy with WordPress. There are a number of disadvantages, and some grudges or inconveniences that can hamper a smooth sailing with WordPress.

  1. Prone to hacking, malware attacks. Need to keep the site always updated.
  2. can be difficult for beginners to understand the various terms – Themes, Plugins, Widgets, Templates, Posts, Pages, Permalinks, Categories, Tags & numerous Settings for Header, Footer, Slider, etc.
  3. Too many choices in Themes and Plugins can also make it difficult to choose the right one
  4. Too much reliance on External Plugins can cause incompatibility, can break the site, and cause a lot of heartache.
  5. Difficult to debug. A small issue with any code or plugin can disrupt your site. There is no easy way to debug such issues.

Disadvantages of Using WordPress CMS

Is WordPress Suitable for Business websites?

Most businesses need simple websites to get started. For static website, it is pretty easy to get started and have a basic site ready over a weekend. For mid sized businesses, it takes a bit of time to configure the structure.

Once done, a dynamic website can be created pretty easily. Best of all, it is a breeze to manage and maintain a large website if setup correctly.

Manufacturers, Retailers, B2B, B2C, E-Commerce companies are all creating Online Stores with freely available plugins like Woo Commerce.

You can pretty easily add and setup the following with WordPress:

  1. Setup shopping carts,
  2. PayPal buttons,
  3. Product catalog,
  4. Search product,
  5. Add Featured products,
  6. Manage Ratings for products,
  7. Setup Billing and shipping terms,
  8. Add Privacy, Terms & Conditions etc.
  9. Build a  system to track customers, orders, shipments, members, subscriptions etc. easily

All this functionality, without investing in a full E-Commerce system that used to cost thousands.

It can all be done DIY, easily.

Big business like New York Times Newspaper, Ron Kaufman, Singtel, all use WordPress for their websites.

How Hard is it to Learn WordPress?

Like any other software, free does not mean easy. There is a bit of terminology to understand before you jump into website design. But once you figure out the difference between Themes & Plugins, Pages vs Posts, Widgets vs Headers vs Footers, etc. you are on your way to success with WordPress Web Designs.

Having a mentor, guide or friend who has built a few sites and has experience with WordPress can be a real boon.

It can be intimidating at first, but keep at it. There are WordPress training programs easily available. Join one and learn WordPress in a short crash course. It is a much better option.

How to Use WordPress?

The best way to use WordPress is to get started in your quest for a website.

How To Use WordPress
How To Use WordPress
  1. Register a domain name.
  2. Install WordPress.
  3. Choose from the thousands of free themes. If you really fancy, you can pick a premium theme here.
  4. Install a few important plugins like Akismet, Yoast SEO, Classic Editor
  5. Do a concept design of your website on paper first. Don’t jump straight into WordPress. You can look at competitors, other websites in other industries for inspiration. Check out some award winning sites.
  6. Then come up with your own original design that works for you and your company. If possible, get it vetted by a manager, boss, colleague or two. This will give you a sanity check and you will be on you way to a successful website.
  7. Once your menu, structure, layout is finalized, you can build the nomenclature – setup categories, pages, and a high level menu.
  8. With the structure in place, start creating pages for your products, services, about us, contact us, sitemap, Home page etc.
  9. Edit the widgets to bring in categories, tags, meta into sidebars. Setup Headers, Footers, and Logo in the right places.
  10. Integrate your physical store with Google Maps.
  11. Your basic website should be ready
  12. Add social share icons
  13. Congratulations! Launch your website.
  14. Announce to the whole world. Tell all your friends, colleagues, mom to visit it. Print it on your stationary, email signatures etc.
  15. Begin to Promote your products and services like crazy…

How to Learn WordPress?

How To Learn WordPress
How To Learn WordPress

Intellisoft has created a short, practical, hands-on training workshop for creating a WordPress driven website from scratch. This will help you if you are looking for ways to build and manage your own website.

You can learn all about Web Design in our practical hands-on WordPress training

  • Installing WordPress,
  • Choosing the Right Theme,

    Step For WordPress Web Design
    Step For WordPress Web Design
  • What are Widgets,
  • What are Plug-Ins,
  • Choosing and Configuring the best Plug-ins
  • Configuring the Widgets
  • Setting up a Contact Us Form
  • Adding Your Company Logo,
  • Tweaking the Header and Footer of Your Website

In short, you will have a READY, FULLY FUNCTIONAL WEBSITE, IN JUST 3 DAYS.

Join the 3 day practical hands-on workshop, and begin to create a fully functional Website, using WordPress. Build Your Own WordPress Site/Blog/Shop

You can find more information at the Intellisoft Website, or check the Course Outline for WordPress Training.

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash

Founder & Master Trainer at Intellisoft Singapore

Attend WordPress Training at Intellisoft

How To Design & Promote Your Own Website With WordPress
How To Design & Promote Your Own Website With WordPress

With up to 90% Government Funding for eligible participants & companies.

Microsoft Project Training Crucial to Project Success

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Microsoft Project training at Intellisoft, Singapore

Microsoft Project Training is Crucial for Project Success

Many project managers think Microsoft Project software (Microsoft Project 2016, MS Project 2013 et. el.) to be just useful for creating a list of things to do… like a laundry list.

Some think that MS Project is more of a scheduling software, and it is useful only upto coming up with a Gantt Chart or a Network Diagram for their project.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

Microsoft Project 2016 is a sophisticated piece of software, which is capable of doing much more than mere scheduling.

According to Microsoft – “Microsoft Office Project Standard 2016 gives you robust project management tools with the right blend of usability, power, and flexibility, so you can manage projects more efficiently and effectively.” In fact, I would go on to say that using the proper software, tools and techniques is crucial to project success – because of the amount of time and money it saves… Here’s how:

1. A simple, familiar look and feel of all Office products:

The simple ribbon is power packed with options that make it easier to work with project tasks, schedules, and track progress.

2. Tighter control and delivery:

Now you can quickly compare budget versus actual versus forecasted values, and measure the progress of a task, or a summary task,  with the flexibility of setting multiple baselines. You can also create high-level, time-phased budgets, which can have multiple user-defined categories for costs and labor. This level of granularity was only available in much more expensive software previously.

3. It is much easier to validate budgets against bottom-up estimates:

Built by using labor, material, and cost resources. This enables a project manager to control project costs by comparing budgets to completed tasks and forecasted totals. The earlier any deviations are discovered, the better it becomes to take some corrective action, and make improvements to the project.

4. Built in EVM (earned value measurements) enable you to do predictive analysis:

and integrated performance management. This can make it much easier to measure where the project stands – how much has been spent, what much more is required, at what rate are we spending, and at what rate is the work getting completed… all crucial factors to measure the progress of the project, and deliver it successfully, better,  faster, and cheaper.

5. Build Scenarios and Play What-If:

There is a constant need to evaluate multiple scenarios and consider options when planning new projects or monitoring ongoing work. Using inactive tasks, new in Project Professional 2016, you can easily experiment with your project plan and perform what-if analysis – this new feature is a boon to project managers.

A simple toggle option can remove or insert one or more tasks, along with their effect on the project schedule. Project 2016 also offers more built-in tools to help support what-if analysis and scenario comparison, including multiple-level undo and change highlighting. With these details, it becomes much easier to get an idea of the best options available, with their impact the project, and the triple constraints.

As you can see, there is much more to MS Project than meets the eye initially. You need to learn the MS Project 2016 software by attending formal training… even a short, 2 day dedicated training on learning the basics, and more advanced features of MS Project can do wonders for you.

At Intellisoft, we run 2 day hands on, practical workshops on Microsoft Project 2016 and Microsoft Project 2013 training. Attended by new and experienced team members and project managers, this step-by-step ms project training can help you maximize the use of this software for your projects, and help you be more successful in managing project.

Next Training Schedule is available at our Training Calendar. You can also Contact Intellisoft for more information on Project training and even Project Management Certification Training.

Printing Gridlines in Excel

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Gridlines in excel

Do You Know How to Print Gridlines in Excel?

Make a nice report in Excel. Then print it. You’ll be disappointed. Because the gridlines that are visible in Excel, that make the rows and columns visible, don’t get printed by default when you print any Microsoft Excel file.

It is much easier to type in Excel when you can see the grid lines to demark rows & columns.  However if you print your beautiful Excel file, it may not seem so easy to read, because the lines that separate the rows and columns are not printed by default.

You may miss the row/column alignment and misread the wrong data with the wrong row… specially when there’s a lot of data on a page, and the fonts are a bit small.

That’s when printed gridlines in Excel reports come in handy.

Gridlines in Pagesetup
Gridlines in Page setup
Page setup
Page setup

Now there has always been a way to get the grid lines to print, since Excel 2000, and it is still available in Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019 or Office 365, in the same place. In  Excel , you have many ways to get to the Print Grid lines option.

Go to Print > Print Preview & Click on Page Setup. The option to print gridlines in Excel is hidden here.

You will see a popup box come up. Click on the 4th tab and select Sheet. You should see something like this screen shot below.

Page Setup Dialogue Box
Gridlines in Print Preview

As you can see, there is a checkbox which says – Gridlines in the Print section. Select the Checkbox, and then click OK.

You will see tiny gridlines appear on the screen. Now when you print the sheet, you will see gridlines being printed, and it is much easier to view the figures on the printed sheet with gridlines printed.

Hope you find this tiny tip useful…

If you want to learn more, you can join us for our Basic-Intermediate Excel Training course, or for the Advanced Excel Training in Singapore. We offer classroom and online trainings for your benefit.

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash

Founder, Intellisoft Systems

How To Write Excel Formulas

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Learn Excel at Intellisoft

Do You Know How to Write Excel Formulas?

Chances are that you can only click on the Autosum button to add a few numbers. If you have never written a single formula in Microsoft Excel, fret not. It is not difficult at all. In fact, with our step by step Excel training, you will be able to write Excel formulas in no time.

Advanced Excel training at Intellisoft in Singapore
Advanced Excel training at Intellisoft in Singapore

The real power of Microsoft Excel is the usage of Formulas. This is what differentiates it from Paper or Typewritten Reports. With the use of Formulas, Excel can calculate and update the totals, and complex calculation or computations on the fly.

How Excel identifies Rows and Columns

Excel uses a simple numbering system to differentiate between cells. Each cell or box that you see in an open Excel file has a unique number – pretty much like the pigeon hole letter box that each house has. Each letterbox number is unique, making the life of postmen easier.

In Excel, Rows are numbered from 1 onwards. These Rows appear on the Left of your screen.

Excel VLookup Sample
Excel VLookup Sample Setup

For Columns, it uses alphabet combination – like A, B, C, and when it comes to Z, it starts with AA, AB, AC and so on.

So the first cell cross-section of column A and row 1 is called A1, column M and row 5 is called M5. Simple huh?

Using Rows & Columns in a Formula

How does these unique references to each cell make a difference? Well, let’s say you want to add the total of A1 and A2  in the cell A10. All you need to do is to go to A10 cell, and then start to write a formula.  A formula begins with the = sign.

So you are at A10. Key in =A1+A2 and hit the enter key.

That’s it. You see the totals of A1 & A2 show there.

Go ahead. Fire up Excel. You can’t learn Excel by looking at tutorials. You have got to try it out, and practice. Practice makes you perfect.

Exercise:

  1. Key in 20 in cell C1, 30 in cell C2, and 40 in cell C3.
  2. Then go to cell C4, and key in the formula to calculate the total.
  3. If it matches 90, you have got it correct!
  4. Congratulations. You are on your way to write Excel Formulas and get better at computing using Microsoft Excel.

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
founder & principal trainer at Intellisoft Systems Singapore.

Looking for Microsoft Advanced Excel Training? You have come to the right place! 

Contact us at +65 6250-3575 for any questions, or to join our upcoming classes in various versions of Excel.

What are you using Microsoft Excel for?

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excel_2013_chart
Excel Chart
Excel Chart

Most people learn Microsoft Excel by hit and trial. As soon as someone explains, or they figure out how to write a simple formula to add two numbers, they think that they know everything about Microsoft Excel.

Nothing could be far from the truth! There is much more to Microsoft Excel than just adding numbers.

And I have even seen people using a Calculator even when a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is open.

Right out of the box, Microsoft Excel, whether Excel 2010, Excel 2013 or Excel 2016 can do wonders! Let’s see some examples of what Microsoft Excel can do.

Pivot Tables
Pivot Tables

Basic Things that Microsoft Excel is great to use for are:

  • Creating Tables
  • Finding Duplicates
  • Eliminating Duplicates

Advanced Excel Techniques

  • Using Range Names
  • Formulas and Function like Vlookup, Text Functions, Date Functions
  • Pivot Tables
  • Pivot Charts
  • Macros to automate routine tasks
  • Sharing Worksheets and Workbooks
  • Protecting Worksheet, Workbook, individual Cells

Advanced Analysis Techniques and Data Analysis using Microsoft Excel:

Excel VLookup Sample
Excel VLookup Sample

 

 

Are you using Excel to your advantage, or just using it as a basic calculator?

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
Intellisoft Systems

Choosing A Career in IT Industry

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Thinking of starting a career in IT?

Love to play with Computers and  Mobile Phones, and thinking of making IT a career choice?

Like to develop new IT products and services and be the next generation whiz-kid?

You are not alone. Thousands of people are moving to IT for continuous and long term job prospects with great salaries.

According to Forbes, top jobs pay anything from $120,000 to $150,000 for starters.

Business Insider lists over 40 technologies that pay over $120,000 per annum.

The IT Industry is a huge, and booming industry. In the coming years, more and more automation is happening, and more computer engineers, and support people are needed than ever.

The Internet of Things (IOT) is firming up and taking leaps and bounds. According to several surveys, the number of jobs in providing IT Development (Cloud Computing, Green Computing, Web Design and Development, Mobile Application Development, Graphics Design, Game Design) and in IT Services.

Programming languages like Ruby, ASP.NET, PHP, and databases like SQL, MySQL, Oracle, C, Java, C++ are all in the vogue. You don’t even have to master all of them. Just take one, and master it.

Use it to program trial and real projects. Experiment and learn the nuances of each language. There will be several versions and flavors of each language. Figure out the correct framework and go for it.

Computer programming is not only for computer science graduates. Several top universities, including Stamford, National University of Singapore etc. get their Engineering students studying Mechanical, Civil, or any other specialization to take C or Java programming as electives or one of the core modules in the first or second year itself.

Where Should I Begin For an IT Career?


First of all, you must look at your interest and passion, and browse the world of IT. Find out what kind of things make you feel like you will want to do it? It could be Design, or Development or Support Services.

For Design, you could look at Product Design, Creative Design, Web Design, User Interface Design.

For Development, you could take up Mobile App Development, Web App Development, or Back-end Interface Development, Business Intelligence, ERP, Data Warehousing, Data Mining etc.

For Support & Services, there are Cloud Services, Web Hosting Services, Network Services, Hardware Services, Software Services, Web Services, SEO Services, Email Marketing.

There’s a whole new world of Social Media Services, in Using and Exploiting Facebook for Business, Using LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and ever increasing new platforms to explore.

To begin with, you can visit Wikipedia and read a little bit about each one… It will give you a better understanding of the various options available, and then explore your interests.

There are several good books available on the broad topic of IT, Internet, Social Media to explore. A visit to your local library is a must to look at the plethora of choices available. You don’t have to purchase so many books. Just browse, borrow some, and gain as much knowledge about the various options.

You can then begin to talk to your peers, friends, colleagues, and friends of friends to generally discuss and get a better, first hand information about choosing an IT career. Schools, colleges, Polytechnics and Universities also organize several talks and seminars about choosing the right career, and how to pick the right thing for you.

Finally, create a mind map of all your ideas and thoughts. If you are not familiar with it, read about it here and begin using it. If you want to follow the old fashioned way, you can jot down all your notes in a diary or paper, and then sift through them.

Make detailed notes, and review them yourself, as well as others who support your goal in choosing the right IT career for you.

Next Steps in Choosing an IT Career

Strategy in IT Career
Once you have a fair idea about the kind of things you want to within IT, you can join some short term courses to know more about the things, and get direct experience at working on these.

Sure, you will have to spend some time and money, but it is better to spend a little and get a better idea, rather than spending a long time studying a particular topic, and then realizing it is not for you.

I have seen countless people graduating from college with a degree, and not pursuing it as a career, because they did not really like it… they had chosen something because of their parents, or peer pressure.

Don’t waste a college seat doing something that you have no interest in. Imagine someone studying 5 years to be a doctor, and then deciding to not be a doctor and help cure people… What a waste of time, money, resources. As well give that seat to someone else whose passion it is to be a doctor.

Similarly, to gain mastery over any area within IT, you will have to spend a lot of time studying it. Invest your time, money and passion in something that you really care for. Once you have chosen a field of study, put your heart and soul into it.

While I was studying Computer Programming back in the 1980s, after learning Basic, COBOL, ForTran,Pascal, and C, I fell in love with Pascal & DBase III (a database programming language). I then spent countless hours in the lab experimenting it.

I purchased almost every book on these topics and even got my father, my uncle to support me in purchasing very expensive books on these topics. I am proud to say that I mastered both Dbase, Pascal and C to a great extent, and it helped set my foundation in Computer Programming, which helped me all along in my IT career.

Even as I got promoted, and was not writing code, it helped me supervise my team, and work closely with them in implementing several cool features that were unheard of in those times. This gave me great visibility in the company and the senior management got to know of my skills.

It paved the way for frequent promotions and helped me accelerate my career within the company. Pretty soon I was commanding a high 6 figure salary, all because of my passion and interest in the chosen field within IT.

Conclusion

Don’t spend your entire lifetime finding your purpose, your passion, your dreams. Find it, and spend the time in achieving it. Choose something not because of the money, but because of your passion.

Once you have chosen a field, go deep in it. Make a trench that you know every bit of. It will give you immense advantage in the field, and help you accelerate your career, and help you achieve you dreams.

Remember, success is not achieved by luck alone. Success is 99% perspiration, and 1% inspiration. If you stick to the thing that you love, you will attract luck and success automatically, and make the world better for you, for others and leave a legacy that will make an impact in this world.

Written By Vinai Prakash

This article is written by Vinai Prakash, the founder and managing director of Intellisoft group of companies in Singapore. He has helped, coached and guided thousands of participants in achieving their goals, their dreams and finding their passion.

Vinai lives in Singapore. He loves to teach Project management, IT Courses, Photoshop, Web Design, Management Dashboards with Excel, Facebook for Business,  Communication Skills, Time Management techniques and Killer Presentation skills among other topics.

Recommended IT Courses: C, C Programming Fundamentals, C-Advanced, C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, Python, Create DB Apps PHP & SQL

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