Several months ago, we were introduced to the North Coast Community Woodshop, an non-profit organization that is planning to set up a membership-based workshop in a 7,500 square-foot place in Avon Lake. Since that time, NCCW has been slowly but surely setting up their organization structure, with the idea that TOG Solutions would get involved with the development and launch of their Web site at a later date.

That later date, as it turned out, was last week, when members of their board brought us back into the fold to discuss their site. While we previously provided NCCW with a mock-up of a static Web site, we determined that, for the purpose of allow members of the organization a more user-friendly platform to make updates, the site would be built using WordPress for content management.

Once we hammered out the hosting provider, we went to work, putting up all of the site components. And, in a stroke of luck, we were able to find a theme, Ground Floor, that served a a pretty cool complement in keeping with the North Coast Community Woodshop’s wood-working motif.

The NCCW’s site is up, and not a moment too soon, as members of the board announced that the organization will be participating in the Avon Lake Business Expo later this month.

We’re happy to have provided the North Coast Community Woodshop with their new Web site, and we’d love to provide the same digital media services for your organization. Please feel free to Contact Us for more information.

To download the LibreOffice suite, please visit LibreOffice.org

And it may very well have all over the world. However, it would appear that LibreOffice training has not had a foothold in the North America, or at least the United States.

Until now.

TOG Solutions, having always provided support for OpenOffice.org, made the transition to offering the same level of training and support for LibreOffice. Up until now, it has only been available to organizations at their request.

Now, we have taken this idea to the next level. We have partnered with the Funutation Tekademy, a Cleveland-area company that currently provides technical educational programs to school-age children. In addition, Funutation also provides technical training to adult, particularly Linux.

The partnership with TOG Solutions and Funutation Tekademy has developed into the creation and kick-off of a new program. LibreOffice basics training will now take place every second Tuesday of the month, starting on November 13, 2012 at 1:00pm Eastern, at a price of $99 per person.

The four-hour program provides a transitional experience for users whose employers are moving from Microsoft Office into LibreOffice. The training session will also guide participants through the entire LibreOffice suite, including the most frequently used functions like mail merges and charts.

If you are interested in participating in this training, please visit the LibreOffice page of our Web site and following the registration instructions. You may also register through Eventbrite.

As always, you may also contact TOG Solutions at 216.245.0840 for more information about this training or even crafting a program to suit your organization’s needs.

First, if you’re in a phone interview, you’re scheduled a time to speak with the hiring manager, and when the time arrives,  you hear nothing. So, you wait and wait. Most times, they never call and it’s essentially a waste of your time. If this is the case, you’ll likely never hear for this employer again and that’s that. However, there is the rare occasion where they get back in touch and try to re-schedule.

At this point, you either may have already lost interest enough in the position. But let’s say you’ve gathered enough sympathy to have the phone interviewed rescheduled. You’d think there would be enough diligence on the employer end to make good on the scheduled time.

Not in this scenario. This time, however, you call the scheduler back to see what the delay is all about. They, in turn, make an effort to connect you with your interviewer. However, in this case, you get interviewed by one of their surrogates. Surprisingly enough, soon after that interview ends, you’re invited to participate in a face-to-face interview.

But is that invitation really worth it?

The scenario screams of an employer that either is too busy to be bothered with the important task of hiring top-notch candidates or is simply not interested with the entire process. Either way, this has to constitute some sort of red flag.

Even prior to the first scheduled phone interview, you should be well-prepared by researching this organization. And that may even include insights from other job seekers. Glassdoor, a site that contains user-generated intelligence on numerous employers, may also have comments about interviews. And in this case, you may have already found that your situation is not unique.

First impressions are everything, as job seekers well know. And as much as you’re trying to make a good impression on the employer, you’d want for them to do the same. Missing scheduled interview times does not set a good tone on either side, and it’s up to you to decide whether you even trust the employer enough to believe they will make good on a do-over.

Please visit the New Lorain Corporation site by clicking on the image.

During this time, what we have learned over the years from digital media, we have taken inward and used it to make improvements to the TOG Solutions site. In the past month, however, we are happy to announce that we have taken a project that brings us back to our roots.The New Lorain Corporation (www.newlorain.com), was launched by a group interested in revitalizing the city of Lorain by taking advantage of its primary asset, Lake Erie. Their ultimate goal is to set up the Adventure Inn, a hotel that would cater to people that want to explore all that Lake Erie and the Black River has to offer, including fishing, snorkeling, paddleboarding.

TOG Solutions came into the fold, mostly because of the layout of our own Web site, and we discussed our previous history with Web design and social media. As a result, TOG has not only launched New Lorain’s site, using WordPress for content management, we have set up and began populating New Lorain’s social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

The launch of the New Lorain site and its social media pages marks a re-boot, of sorts, for TOG Solutions. And as we look  forward to helping New Lorain towards its goals, TOG Solutions wants to help other organizations as well. Please visit the Digital Media section of our Web site, and contact us to get more information about what we can do for you.

So, with everything out there on what’s the best practices for using LinkedIn, ever wonder what’s not a good idea to do on the site? Here are a couple of items that some users, perhaps even you, have been guilty of doing on LinkedIn.

You talk about politics and religion…and it’s not your primary industry.
It’s true that these days, there are numerous politicians, including both Presidential candidates, that have an active LinkedIn presence, as well as members of various religions. However, if you’re not clergy and you’re not running for or holding political office, you will probably run the risk of offending some of your connections. And that may result in you having less connection.

On top of that, you may find yourself subject to some unnecessary bias if a prospective employer happens to come across  your profile. Like it or not, your political or religious affiliation could come into play during the job search. Your best bet is to seek another avenue for your views besides LinkedIn.

You create a LinkedIn Group…then disappear
Being an active member of a LinkedIn Group can be a great way to network with people in your area and your field of expertise, especially if you are in the job market. Taking the initiative to create a LinkedIn Group for a particular area or discipline can also give you the ability to raise your stature.

But you have to maintain that group, and certainly keep it from turning into a breeding ground for spammers. Once that has happened, the praise you received for creating the group will mutate into resentment for letting it fall into a state of neglect.

You assume an accepted LinkedIn connection is permission for e-mail marketing
It seems like an innocent practice. You get a LinkedIn connection, complete with their e-mail address, and you have a product or service you want to tell them about. So, you shoot out an intro e-mail about who you are and what you do. There’s no doubt that your LinkedIn connection can be a resource to connect you with potential new leads, so an introduction e-mail is pretty standard practice.

However, that does not mean that sending one message to your connection is equal to them giving you permission to send out regular e-mails about your services and products like they’re a part of your mailing list. While your connection might let the first e-mail slide, they may be much less understanding after that.

First came LibreOffice, which, since its branching from the original OpenOffice project, has been plugging away constantly on making improvements and upgrades. Two weeks ago, LibreOffice 3.6 became available, with a minor upgrade, 3.6.1, released today.

In LibreOffice 3.6., The Document Foundation, the organization that has spearheaded the project, added several new features that include the addition of word count to the status bar, improved support for importing Office SmartArt and the inclusion of a PDF export with watermark option. In addition, the newest version of LibreOffice includes a complete makeover of the splash screen and Start menu.

In May, Apache released OpenOffice 3.4, marking the first version upgrade since the Apache Software Foundation assumed control of the project from Oracle. Last week, Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 was made available, adding additional language support and fixing a number of errors, including Undo and Redo issues within Calc and the non-detection of Java.

The announcement of the release of Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 also included plans for the release of version 3.5 early next year, plus plans for a major upgrade to 4.0, also planned for next year. Apache has already set up a Google Moderator site for users to lend their input on what should be included in OpenOffice 4.0.

As upgrades continues, the distinctions between the two programs are becoming clearer. LibreOffice, for its part, has the edge, considering OpenOffice’s long lull in development purgatory. At this point, Apache is lagging behind, as LibreOffice is not only able to install the wide array of extensions in the OpenOffice library, but also is available as a portable version, capable of being installed on any removable storage device.

For future versions of both programs, what will be at stake is the ever-expanding mobile and tablet market. LibreOffice appears to be primed to created an Android-friendly version, and this should be the likely direction of Apache OpenOffice as it looks to their future in 4.0.

No matter the case, the big winner in this race to upgrade is the users of both platforms, since this will give them a better side-by-side comparison of the two.

In the interest of full disclosure, TOG Solutions supports both projects and will continue to provide training and support for both LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice. In fact, we are happy to report that in addition to the return of OpenOffice Wednesday, TOG Solutions will also present a weekly feature of LibreOffice on a day of the week to be determined.

“Why should we hire you?”

On the surface, it seems like a fairly simple question to answer. However, consider what the employer is looking for as answer. The easy way for you would presumably be to repeat your strengths and best skills in a simple, narrative format.

Unfortunately, if you intend to answer in that manner, you are likely not giving your interviewer what they’re seeking at all. In reality, the majority of employers want to know what it is you, as their employee, would bring to the table.

Effectively, you’re looking at a cause and effect type of situation. Look at it as if the interviewer is asking, “If I hire you, what is going to happen that will move us forward?”

With that in mind, be sure to prepare to answer this question by drawing on your previous experiences. What have you done before that made your previous organizations better? Did you improve something that made the organization run more smoothly? Did you increase the overall productivity in your department?

Once you have assessed what you have done, look forward and consider what you can do. Here is an example of the type of answer you could give if you were interviewing for an administrative position.

“If I were to be hired, I would take what I have learned from my previous companies and improve the way your organization operates and, as a result, would increase the overall productivity and decrease operational costs.”

While this answer is rather broad, research of your perspective employer should give you the chance to expound on this statement and make it more specific to the position that you are being interviewed for.

Organizations are always seeking those individuals that will, in the end, provide them with a more productive environment and especially save them money. With this in mind, anything you can tell them that will convince them that you are that individual will go a long way.

Dear VisualCV Member

We regret to inform you that the VisualCV.com website will be ceasing operations, effective December 30, 2011.

Since our launch almost four years ago we’ve been gratified by the response to VisualCV, and how it has enabled thousands of professionals to better represent themselves online. Even more importantly we have been delighted to see VisualCV help people secure significant new career positions. However, we have been unable to turn the site into a viable, self-supporting business and therefore we reluctantly made this decision.

We recognize that many of you need time to recover your resume data from VisualCV — which is why we are providing you with thirty days’ notice. We recommend saving a PDF copy of your current VisualCV. You can easily do this by clicking on the button on the bottom of the page you see when viewing or editing your VisualCV. We also recommend you separately save any images, videos or documents in your portfolio that you do not currently have stored somewhere else.

To ensure we meet all our members’ privacy concerns, we will destroy all user data once website operations have ceased. This includes any and all backups we have. As a result, once the deadline has passed it will not be possible for us to recover any member data. You can be assured that we will not be providing any user data to third parties of any kind.

We will be contacting the small number of paying customers that still have active subscriptions to arrange a prorated refund for the months remaining on their annual subscription.

Thank you for all your support over the past four years. We wish you well in your future career endeavors.

Best Regards,
The VisualCV Team

Because TOG Solutions has long served as one of the advocates for people to create online portfolios, and VisualCV in particular, we will be researching and reporting on some of the alternatives out that for you to use once VisualCV ceases to exist.

OpenOffice 3.3 arrived, then stalled out during the development of 3.4, much like OpenOffice Wednesday. Then, in June, Oracle donated OOo to the Apache Software Foundation, which has been incubating what they intend to call Apache OpenOffice.org. In the meantime, an offshoot of developers have went ahead and moved on, and LibreOffice has been the result.

With the inactivity in OpenOffice development and the ongoing progression of LibreOffice, you’d think that we may have seen the last of OOo. But rumors of OpenOffice’s demise may be a bit premature. Two weeks ago, Apache announced on its blog that the OpenOffice.org Community forums have, at long last, been migrated to Apache.org.

And while there isn’t a set date in which Apache will begin rolling out OpenOffice again, we will be back every week to answer your questions about OOo and try and get you the latest news and updates.

Until then, stay tuned…

Within LinkedIn Groups, there have also been changes over the years that included member-generated content, including discussions, job postings and news articles. However, one thing that has not changed is how many groups a user can join. At the moment, the limit is 50.

Though 50 groups seems like a big number, long-time users have found no problem reaching that upper limit in a very short period of time. Meanwhile, new LinkedIn groups pop up at a relatively fast pace.

Because of this, the question then lies in which groups are the most useful to you?

To figure out which LinkedIn groups are right for you, consider the following elements:

1. Industry or Field – Search groups based on the industry or field you’re in or about to enter.
2. Location – Professional organizations in your region tend to have groups, along with regional groups created by individuals.
3. Company – There are many groups associated with companies or former company employees.
4. School – LinkedIn groups are constantly launched for schools either by the institutions themselves or by fellow alumni.
5. Hobbies or interests – You never know if a particular hobby or interest could turn into a business opportunity for you.

After joining the groups you want, observe the discussions, job postings and news articles for the next couple of weeks. If you find that these groups have a great deal of useful activity, you will certainly want to remain an active member.

During your trial period, you should also make note of any users who are attempting to use the group as a mailing list for their own purposes rather than the groups. If this is the case, you will probably want to either think about limiting the group e-mails you receive or, in the extreme case, leave the group altogether.

Always remember, of course, the you can get a great deal out of LinkedIn Groups, so long as you are able to utilize this feature properly.

A role model, from a business standpoint, can simply be defined as they person who you can look to for any information. They serve as a mentor and can provide the blueprint for a work ethic you would be proud to follow.

With the volatility of the professional world, however, finding that role model, for some of us, has become increasing difficult. It’s almost impossible if you happen to find yourself in an organizational role that has been newly created and that no other person has any previous knowledge of what is entailed in your position.

Do you have to go it alone? Of course not. It truly is incumbent upon you to seek out knowledge. And realistically, that knowledge shouldn’t be too hard to find.

The first step in finding a professional role model is to seek out professional organizations that cater to your industry. Don’t be afraid that the people you meet work for other companies. There’s a good chance you will come across veterans of the industry who have been in the same position you’re in right now. And most of them are gracious with their time and would be more than happy to be of assistance.

Once you’ve been able to establish contact with a potential professional role model, take it slowly. Nothing turns people off more than inundating them with a thousand questions all at once. There will be plenty of time for that in the future.

Instead, consider scheduling something informal, like a lunch or coffee. Nothing breaks the ice like a sit-down at the local Starbucks.

Once you’ve eased into your professional relationship, you will find that your role model can be your greatest key to success.

You know them as spammers, the scourge of the Internet. And historically, spammers and their non-human counterparts, spambots, have made life for community managers miserable.

The problem has always been what is the best was to counteract these constant nuisances so they don’t flood your community with ads for porn, Viagra or fake watches.

Adding captcha to allow for user registration or posting is one possible answer. Realistically, asking a user to type a random set of letters, number or words can weed out the spambots. However, the human spammers will be privy to this little trick, and many have found ways to sidestep this.

For forum programs such as PHPBB, an internal solution in the form of modifications, or add-ins to their software, can be the answer. Their site contains a wide array of anti-spam mods for community managers to use.

Registration tools can also be used. The most restrictive is admin user activation. While this can guarantee that no spammers can get through, the process can be time-consuming on the adminstrator’s end and could be potentially off-putting to users. E-mail activation can also be useful, given that many spammers don’t register using valid e-mail addresses. Again, there is a risk of spammers side-stepping this hurdle.

Like the vanquishing of trolls, a topic we’ve recently tackled, ridding your community of spammers will take constant vigilance and monitoring of your community. While there is not surefire way to complete eradicate spammers,the above steps can get your community as clean as possible.

That idea has already crossed over into popular culture with the airing of the CBS reality series, “Undercover Boss,” in which corporate executives go undercover to one of their local offices and do the work of the people on the ground.

I bring all of this up because of a recent experience I had at a local Wendy’s, in which I was served by not a regular crew member but a member of the management staff. What I found on this visit was astounding. The management member had a difficult time utilizing the touch-screen cash register and had to ask me numerous times to repeat items in my order. Truth be told, I wondered if I was ever going to have my order completed.

What I took away from this experience was this: No matter what your capacity in a particular organization, you must have at least basic knowledge of what your co-workers do, if, for no other reason, you may be called upon to perform that very task.

As a member of management, go beyond reading the written job descriptions. Schedule cross-training opportunities for yourself and your subordinates. The skills you gain by participating in these events can help you both in your current position and potentially down the road.

How you grow professionally has always depended on what you learn. And by learning about the various tasks, you can increase your value within the organization.

You will be able to download the new version via the OOo Website – http://download.openoffice.org. Also, for those of you following along, here are our posts as part of our Countdown to OpenOffice 3.2:

Part One – The Countdown Begins
Part Two – Writer
Part Three – Calc
Part Four – Impress and Draw
Part Five – Base

Also, be sure to check out the Features page on OpenOffice.org.

The OOo team has touted this version as one with better compatiability with proprietary software, faster load times and improved security. For our part, we’ve already downloaded our copy and will provide a full review next Wednesday.

Until then, download away! And, of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

However, as an entrepreneur or freelancer, doing the same thing with prospective clients may seem, at the very least, awkward and at worst intrusive. After all, here is a potential source of income for you, and how is it going to look if you make mention of the fact that you want to research them a little further?

Obviously, there are differing opinions about whether or not conducting background checks on prospective clients is appropriate. But the truth of the matter is that, like when you were a job seeker, you want to make sure that the client is the right fit for you.

This subject hits pretty close to home for us. On at least a couple of occasions, we have agreed to do business with clients who turned out not to be on the up and up. The end results became a massive loss of man-hours and money. Effectively, we wasted our time and efforts and turned down other projects.

As much as we, as entrepreneurs, appreciate the business our clients have to offer, clients, conversely, have to understand that this is no game to us. We didn’t get into business for ourselves to give away our services. And 99 percent of clients do understand this.

So, how can we spot that other one percent? Or, a better question should be: When is it appropriate to do more research on a prospective client?

Normally, this is the part where we lay out advice on what to do. However, we’re interested in hearing what you have to say on the subject. Please feel free to comment on this post or reply to us on Twitter at @togsolutions. We’ll follow up on this subject next week.

We look forward to hearing from you!

And no, it’s not the groundhog.

It’s the start of spring job fair season. And like in the fall, organizations and job seekers alike are gearing up to meet each other.

We have made it a note to discuss job fairs during the spring and the fall as it has consistently been an opportunity to at least speak with organizations to get an idea about the overall job market. Unfortunately, for many job seekers, there been more talk than opportunity, as the touch economic times has increased the number of fair attendees and slashed the number of employers.

Now that the employment outlook is looking better, it’s important for you, the job seeker, to get back to the fair circuit to see what’s out there. Unlike the last couple of seasons, though, you’ll find that the number of employers will likely be going up.

That, of course, leads us to the job fairs themselves and a pertinent question: When times were good, which job fairs were effective and which weren’t?

During 2006 and 2007, when the job market was still good and there were plenty of opportunities to be had, my work afforded me the chance to attend a variety of different fairs. As a result, it allowed me to conclude that not all job fairs are created equal.

At the top of the list are job fairs conducted by colleges and universities. These events are aided by a strong career services staff, alumni employers and venues that can accommodate large numbers of organizations.

Next up are non-profit and public organizations, such a local urban leagues and unemployment offices. Again, their community connections allow for a more diverse group of potential employers, giving you a better chance to connect with places you may want to work for.

Job fairs sponsored by employment periodicals and online job boards are hit and miss. In the past, some have taken the wise step in partnering with a non-profit or institution, in which case they are able to present more prospective employers.

Some, on the other hand, do no such thing and bring around the same employers over and over again. This does not bode well for you as a job seeker, who, even in the best of times, would be staring down the barrel of an hour and a half wait to see the same half-dozen employers you saw the last time they set up shop.

With all job fairs, be mindful of what employers will be at these fairs. If you see a job fair advertised that doesn’t have a list of employers, it’s probably best to skip it.

In its “end-of-life” state, OpenOffice 2.x will, at least from a community standpoint, cease to be maintained. That means support no more bug fixes or security releases. Translation? If you have a 2.x version, you’re pretty much on your own from this point forward.

That’s not to say that all users with older versions of OOo 2.x are completely out in the cold. As with most legacy software, there are numerous resources available online. In the case of OpenOffice, the community itself will be your best bet to answer questions about your older versions.

Also, if you happen to be running a system that came with the older version installed, you may also be able to get technical support through them.

Meanwhile, the long, winding journey that has been OpenOffice 3.2 is slowly, but surely, reaching its send. Since December, there have been numerous Release Candidates available, the most recent being today’s availability of Release Candidate 4.

And while we spent most of the end of last year in our Countdown to OpenOffice 3.2 series discussing the new features, OpenOffice.org has gone on step further, postineven more information about OOo 3.2′s new features on the OpenOffice Web site.

With news like this, users can be confident that a public release is just around the corner.

Yes, and at the same time, no.

As we’ve been counting down to this date with the new

features that will be a part of all the programs that make up OOo 3.2, in anticipation of this day, December 14th, in which, according to the OpenOffice Wiki page.

But, since the holidays are upon us, the development team decided that perhaps this wasn’t the best time to release a new version. So, the wiki has been updated to read that OpenOffice 3.2 is pushed to a January release.

Meanwhile, as it has been for several months, a beta version of OOo 3.2 is available for those brave enough to check it out.

For this week, though, we can look for a Release Candidate version of OpenOffice 3.2 that will be ready on December 17th. For those scoring at home, the Release Candidate isn’t a beta, but not quite the finished product, as there are, as with any software, some remaining bugs that need to be worked out before being ready for public consumption.

While a definite release date is looming (though not concrete at the moment), we will, for our part, be switching back over to our regularly-scheduled OpenOffice Wednesday next week, but will certainly get into any news that we can find regarding the release of OOo 3.2.

Hopefully, we will see 3.2 in January, mostly because it looks as if the development team is already setting up to get OpenOffice 3.3 out the door next June.

Part One – The Countdown Begins
Part Two – Writer
Part Three – Calc
Part Four – Impress and Draw

The development team for OpenOffice.org certainly had a field day with the database program, Base, the open-source counterpart to Microsoft Access. In fact, the number of changes and additions to Base far outstrip those of the other OOo programs.

• View/Zoom Menu Item - With Base, all documents within the database could be zoomed by using the View/Zoom menu item, with the exception of forms. That restriction has been lifted, and you will be able to manipulate the view of all your database items.
• Sun Report Builder - The report builder within Base will feature three items that will allow the removal of excess space. The top shrink and bottom shrink removes top and bottom spaces, respectively, while the Shrink command removes space from both directions
• First Line as Column Names – When rich-text format and HTML pages are copied to a database, there was no ability to allow for the first column of the copied material to be used for column names. With OOo 3.2, that capability has been added to Case with the click of a checkbox.
• Multi-line Text Controls – Multiple cut-and-pastes should be easier with the addition of the multi-text controls. That means the formatting will go with the text when it is copied.
• Form Property Browser – With 3.2, more information will be displayed in the property browser, including font name/style/size, plus the ability to change the positioning, size and anchor, which is very useful in the event you wish to modify multiple shapes.

Next week: OpenOffice 3.2 is available, and we will present a special Monday edition of OpenOffice Wednesday to review everything!

This recent trend should come as no surprise. Because the Hispanic community is one of the fastest-growing demographics in the United States, along with a sharp increase in companies expanding operations in Latin America, the ability to speak Spanish is an ever-useful skill.

However, foreign language education of any kind tends to stop after high school, as many college students focus more on their specific majors. As a consequence, they will find themselves shut out of any bilingual opportunities.

The trend has gone beyond Spanish. Language ability has also extended to Chinese and Arabic as well, again because of the business growth in those regions.

So, if you are interested in seeking out these multi-lingual opportunities, you will certainly want to find educational opportunities that will allow you to market yourself to these positions.

First, and foremost, it’s never too late to return to school. Many two-year colleges offer foreign language courses at the fraction of the cost of their four-year counterparts. Also, some two-year institutions have taken their courses online, allowing for schedule flexibility for people with busy lives.

If you are looking for a more specialized and concentrated option, there are companies that cater exclusively to foreign language training, the most popular of which is Berlitz.

Software training options are also widely available. Rosetta Stone is the most popular software, plus foreign-language tutorials can be found for free all over the Internet.

When searching for opportunities to learn a foreign language, it’s always important to find a situation that is right for you, especially when it comes to price and schedule. That way, you will get the type or training that can help you to move at your own pace.

Once you have mastered a particular language, be sure to add this skill to your resume. And prepare yourself before the interview, because it’s a good bet you will be asked about it.