Controlling Your Computer

Overwhelmed by your inbox? Wondering how to leverage your PowerPoint presentations and create new revenue streams? We'll help you conquer your inbox and increase your prowess with PowerPoint technology to make the most of your time and earn more money to boot.

Powering Up PowerPoint
PresentationPro.com offers a wide range of custom templates and flash capabilities to give your presentations more zip. Jazz up your presentations with sound and movement by following these three steps:

• Click on "slide show" and then "custom animation."
• Select the text box or picture you want to animate.
• Click "add effect" for a dizzying array of entrance and exit options.

"You can also create great presentations with or without timed audio for each slide, using the 'package for CD' option," says Melanie Gass, president of CenterPoint Solution, a technology productivity and training company based in Connecticut. This is an effective and inexpensive way to produce a tutorial, promotional montage or presentation, Gass says. The results are useful for sales efforts, training or as part of your press kit. You have the capability to burn multiple or single copies at any given session to meet your objectives.

To use this option:

• Open your presentation and click "file."
• Click on "package for CD."
• Type a name in the popup box and click "options"
• Check "PowerPoint viewer," "linked files" and "embedded true type fonts."
• Click "OK" and follow the rest of the prompts.

Taming Your Inbox
If you waste more time sorting, filing and deleting e-mail than you'd like, it's time to tame your inbox. Gass recommends the following steps:

• Look at what you do every day and determine the best way to consolidate.
• Create a list of file possibilities, such as Admin, Clients, Vendors, New Biz Opps and Marketing Info.
• Limit your categories to a workable "top 10," creating individual subfolders as needed.
• Sort core folders by priority, rather than by alphabet, by assigning numbers. If you want Strategic Partners to get top billing and Accounts to be second in your top 10 list of folders, precede the title with the appropriate number, as in 1Strategic Partners, 2Accounts, etc.
• To streamline the processing of incoming or sent mail, add a new folder to your Favorites list (e.g., Daily Priorities or Can Wait). Click and drag any mail folder into the Favorites box (located in the top left portion of your e-mail screen if you use Outlook). To switch a folder from your Favorites back into the main folder list below, do the opposite.

The next step is to assign priorities, by flagging e-mails with different colors. Red should designate today, Gass says, while yellow could mean you have some freedom to respond within a couple of days. By creating a color priority system, you'll train yourself to work on the stuff that's really important and not get sidetracked by less critical communications.

Finally, create rules to automatically sort incoming e-mails without lifting a finger. Think critically about how you work. E-mails from a certain person or company can autopilot directly into their respective folders. You can easily check on what mail has been dealt with each day by looking into your search folders. Find this category in your main folder viewing pane. Click on "search folders" and then on "unread mail" and, voila. You can see in a heartbeat what you may still have to sort, attend to, delete, forward or copy.

Deb Forsten, founder of Zenith Associates, a marketing and technology consulting company in Florida, knows the value of training her active inbox. In addition to running her business, Forsten is a board member of the Association for Women in Communications and an adjunct professor at Palm Beach Community College. She receives more than 300 e-mails a day and controls her burgeoning inbox by applying rules to segment each client group, as well as newsletters and e-mails she subscribes to. She used the Tools menu to pull up the Rules Wizard and set a specific rule for each group. She's able to check all the folders at a glance because the bolded numbers that appear outside each folder indicate whether new mail has arrived.

Don't wait. Make it a priority to get organized and be more productive this month. You might find the time to direct new revenue to your door.