It has taken a couple of weeks, but we’ve entered the fifth stage of grief over the departure of our colleague Patrick Shaw for his new job at Denny Mountain Media. Acceptance.

Patrick spent six years with us at NPower Seattle in a multitude of roles–some of which were in his job description and many others that he just assumed out of his commitment to the work. As the manager of our Web and CRM teams for the past couple of years, Patrick helped to pull those fledgling areas of service into the growing powerhouses that they are today. We all wish him the best of luck in the for-profit consulting world.

I’ve taken on the Management of the Web and CRM teams and I’m ramping up as quickly as possible. For ten years I helped build and run an Internet consulting firm that grew to 150 people. So the role feels comfortable. But I still have a lot to learn. Luckily I have a wonderful team of colleagues to help paper over any of my cracks: Jesse, Patrick, Evan, Kevin, Veronica, and Mike–as well as Elaina, Bridget, and the rest of our colleagues.

Patrick isn’t going far: he’s working from his perch on Phinney Ridge. So, while we say good luck, we don’t say good-bye.

So last week I posted about the new version of Office which was officially announced and is suppose to ship the 1st part of next year (2010). And I asked readers to submit what version they were currently using because I’m curious. And you can still respond if you haven’t already.

Now I intentionally didn’t list any of the Mac versions of Office. Because I didn’t think it applied, the new version hasn’t been announced. Being a Mac user at home, I have the latest version - Office 2008 for the Mac.

Not one to hold back, I think it sucks and do not recommend it to anyone. Please keep in mind, that’s my personal opinion.

So what am I posting about? It certainly isn’t to nag about the qualities of Office 2008 that I don’t like. The folks over at Macworld’s website had a nice post about the previous version of Office for the Mac (2004). Seems that Microsoft has announced when they’re going to stop supporting it in October. So if you’re using Office 2004 for the Mac, make sure you read it.

Which brings up a good point as to why this information is important for all of us Office users, Mac & PC. Generally when they stop supporting the suite, you stop getting updates. No updates means higher risk in using the programs. Those updates generally fix security issues which is very important.

If you’ve taken NPower’s InDesign courses, then you know I’m full of tips for commercial printing. There are lots of thing you can do to get the best print job for your money. I barely cover the surface. Let’s face it, most of us are not professional graphic designers nor do we have time to be.

But if you’re looking for some helpful tips for that next project AND you know you’re going to have it printed digitally; then the folks for at the Graphic Mac have a great post full of tips.

Seems like nonprofits are slowly jumping on the Office 2007 bandwagon. And I do mean slowly. I’ve been using it for a year and a half now and really like it. But I’m wondering, what version are you using?

Why do I ask? Well according to the Seattle Times today, Microsoft announced the next version of Office will be released in the 1st half of 2010. So If you’re still on an older version, you’ll soon be left behind.

If your organization is interested, NPower does have a nice workshop on Office 2007 that provides an overview of the suite.

Can you spare me some time? Seems like these days we’re being inundated with requests, emails, enewsletter, you name it. But do you throw out the baby with the bath water?

I try to be careful in what 1) I send out and 2) what I throw out. So while I may not “read” every email or enewsletter that comes into my inbox, I at least skim it.

So what’s my point? Well our Network office (now you did know NPower Seattle is part of a National network right?) put together a survey with Accenture. The focus? What are nonprofit using to get their work done. Now we’re not the only ones who want to know (our Network office and Seattle’s office), Holly over at NTEN (now you do know about NTEN right?) is curious too.

I think many people would be interested in the results. So if you can spare me some time, wander over the the survey and fill it out. Who knows, you may win an ipod shuffle.

Wow! EveryJoe has a great post about re-thinking how you compose your email messages. It’s nothing mind shattering  but I think it’s a great idea on how to re-think the steps you take in composing email.

I’ve lost track of how many times either I have, or someone who has sent me email has, forgotten to include an . This post has you do that step first, that way you don’t forget. They have some really compelling reason on each step. I’m going to start applying this to my email composition today, just to see if it makes a difference. And I think I’m going to add this to NPower’s Outlook class.

You can check it out over on the EveryJoe blog.

Now I mostly use InDesign around here at NPower. But once in a while I want to something really cool, like the post I had about using Illustrator to create a spirograph type image. Well the folks over at the Graphic Mac for bringing to my attention a cool tutorial from Layers Magazine.

Check it out, it may come in handy for your next project.

Now InDesign has a great numbering feature. But have you ever needed to create an outline? Bob over at InDesign Docs have a great post about doing just this. It can be a bit tricky and has a bunch of steps. But he’sdone a great job of documenting those steps and walking you through just what you need in order to make it happen. You can check it out at http://blogs.adobe.com/indesigndocs/2009/04/numbered_lists_part_i_outlines.html

Be warned! It requires on of my favorite things in InDesign, Paragraph Styles.

That’s right – we’re holding yet another Salesforce Basics class here at NPower. Perfect for anyone that is using Salesforce and wants to learn, well, the basics: How to login, how to manage contacts, how to manage Accounts (which are organizations/businesses), what an Opportunity is, and more,

Our class is geared towards the customizations that we’ve made to Salesforce. But the concepts are universal – no matter what customizations you’ve made to your Salesforce account!

Visit the NPower website to read all of the details!