But there were few things which I was really missing:

• F2 shortcut to edit cell / text field in Excel and Powerpoint
• Keyboard shortcut to paste as unformatted text in Excel and Powerpoint

Solutions that I used don’t seem very elegant (basically making Applescript emulate clicks and key strokes), but at least it works for me and makes me more productive, so I share it below.

F2 to edit cell in Excel

On Mac Excel you are supposed to use Ctrl-U to go into cell edit mode, which for me is much worse than just pressing F2.

It didn’t seem possible to remap the shortcut, so I used app called Butler to do it. If I remember correctly the order of steps in Butler would be the following:

• Add smart item -> keystrokes
• In Keys tab, press Ctrl-U
• In Triggers tab, in Hot Key field press F2
• In same triggers tab, add “Microsoft Excel” to “only” exceptions, so the shortcut is limited to Excel

Paste special (as values) in Excel

The goal is to have one shortcut (like Ctrl-v) to paste copied cells as values.

The only way I found so far is to use Applescript and assign it to keyboard shortcut in Butler.

Important: for this and following scripts to work, you need to activate System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing > “Enable access for assistive devices” checkbox.

The script:

tell application "Microsoft Excel"
	activate
end tell
 
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "Excel"
		click menu item "Paste Special..." of menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1
 
		click radio button 3 of radio group 1 of window "Paste Special"
 
		click the button "OK" of window "Paste Special"
	end tell
end tell

In Butler you add smart item Applescript > Applescript, paste code in Source Code tab, and assign a shortcut in Options tab, similar to previous case.

F2 to edit text in Powerpoint

The goal is for F2 to enter text edit mode of active shape, with all current text selected.

I used the following Applescript:

tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
	tell active presentation
		if (count shapes of shape range of selection of document window 1) is not 1 then
			set scenario to "no selection"
		else if (placeholder type of shape 1 of shape range of selection of document window 1) is placeholder type object placeholder then
			set scenario to "Placeholder Object"
		else
			set scenario to "Text Object"
		end if
	end tell
end tell
 
if scenario is not "no selection" then
	tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
		activate
	end tell
 
	tell application "System Events"
		tell process "PowerPoint"
			click menu item scenario of menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1
		end tell
	end tell
end if

Assigned it in Butler to F2, similar to previous case.

Paste special as unformatted text in Powerpoint

Applescript again:

tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
	activate
end tell
 
tell application "System Events"
	tell process "PowerPoint"
		click menu item "Paste Special..." of menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1
 
		keystroke tab
		keystroke tab
		keystroke tab
 
		repeat with a_row in rows of outline of scroll area of window "Paste Special"
			if value of static text of a_row is not {{{"Unformatted Text"}}} then
				--click static text of a_row
				keystroke (ASCII character 31)
			end if
		end repeat
 
		click the button "OK" of window "Paste Special"
	end tell
end tell

Assign to Ctrl-V in Butler as previously.

Yes, it seems pretty long way round, but that’s my best shot for now. I will update here if I find any easier way.

http://senseable.mit.edu/obama/index.html

I find visualizing data to be such a cool topic – which can easily be seen from the number of posts related to statistics on Ogito blog, like this one.

But there is often a gap between aesthetics and usefulness of advanced visuals.

To be useful we typically require easy access to lots of context, to be able to draw any conclusions from the data, for example:

• ability to drill down – investigate what contributes to the variable value
• ability to compare variable level through time
• ability to compare variable level in case of different objects (e.g. competitors, regions, etc.)

(Ogito statistics for cities — registration required to see the charts — use simple Google Charts and tables with links to underlying sets of objects, and this is already enough to get the basic understanding outlined above)

Sometimes complex visualizations add difficulty to perform these basic operations rather than reduce it.

Why tedious? Well, one reason is that process documentation tends to have large volume, while efforts required to produce it are mostly not automated.

I was wondering if there is any simple way to streamline this kind of jobs, aside from hiring more analysts or investing in a some BPM software package, which would probably be an overkill for most of the projects I did.

Making any amendments to the processes is especially pita, due to all the custom diagrams interlinked with detailed textual content.

(that is if you use diagrams + text – sometimes just slides are used, especially for high-level documents – I think text is much more flexible if you need to accommodate more information)

While in fact, amending the design based on remarks from business users is the core of process-related projects.

Process-related projects shouldn’t be such a chore – if you take away all the time wasted with Microsoft Office, these projects allow to get the best idea of how the business really works.

Looking back, projects involving deep understanding of processes provide most powerful references today.

The kind of customized process work that is done during relatively short strategy project shouldn’t be mistaken with implementing whole “process-driven” approaches in the company, for which elaborate business process management IT solutions exist.

The idea is to store process designs in central repository, where they can be easily versioned, accessed by large groups of employees (which can be assigned different access rights), monitored, and modified.

Truth is – maybe it’s because it’s Eastern Europe and we are backwards – I never saw any of these system in real world use at any of the clients. Perhaps they are more popular in production company than the financial sector. I remember one Russian client mentioning before the project started that they had one, and that deliverables (processes to a large extent) would eventually have to be integrated in it somehow, but it was the only time the topic emerged.

I think there are plenty of good reasons for such solutions to have difficulties in real life adoption.

Enabling new users (like external consultants) to access the system requires at least creating new logins, in worst case it might require to buy additional licenses. Hardly easier that just emailing process documents.

People are used to work with Word or Powerpoint documents, but might need time to master unfamiliar interface of the process application.

Even though usually it should be possible to export process information in format like PDF, it might not be possible to export in format that is editable, so ad-hoc participants can contribute remarks.

The reason are many and truly converting organization to be managed around a consistent BPM system must be a daunting task. And partial implementations often leave orphaned systems that are not used.

For now, I was rather thinking if there was any way to improve the way stand-alone process documentation is created, rather than an end-to-end system.

Starting with drawing process flow diagrams, for example. Which, for now, may take place in Visio, or, since many clients may not have Visio, in Powerpoint.

I started to look around if there are any online services allowing to create process diagrams and I stumbled upon LovelyCharts, which are really lovely.

The interface is friendly and simplistic (app is created in Adobe Air, for the record).

Basic process components are all there (more than I use in fact, I believe processes are mostly tools to communicate and adding symbols that require legend to understand doesn’t facilitate communication).

You can just drag components and the app takes care of aligning the arrows etc., unlike Microsoft Office.

Unfortunately, one key feature is missing as far as actual process documentation is concerned, which is ability to create swimlanes diagrams, to illustrate roles of many actors.

Also, currently LC can export diagrams to images or PDF, but it would be optimal if it could export to powerpoint files, so that it can be delivered to the client in editable format.

Having a tool like LC to quickly visualize processes and amend them effortlessly would be just first step.

Diagrams are accompanied by text documents detailing each step (at least the documentation style I use), and having diagram changed requires to manually adjust all the detailed descriptions.

I could image a higher level application interfacing with visualization tool like LC, allowing to automatically number the steps, add description or technical details to each one, and export both diagrams and text into one word document with one click.

Just an idea. Note that I look at it from strategy consulting perspective (hence the emphasis on stand-alone process documentation, design-and-deliver), and I fully expect, for example, ISO consultants to have possibly quite different needs.

Dr. Dornhaus found that fast ants took one to five minutes to perform a task – collecting a piece of food, fetching a sand-grain stone to build a wall, transporting a brood item – while slow ants took more than an hour, and sometimes two. And she discovered that about 50 percent of the other ants do not do any work at all. In fact, small colonies may sometimes rely on a single hyperactive overachiever.

Quite shocking and may undermine some “hard working like an ant” proverbs.

Thoughts:

Ants just pretended to work and relied on their reputation for so long.

Or maybe: ants who appear not to do any work in fact realize some very important but unrecognizable to us function. Like social media experts.

Sometimes only writing a post forces me to identify why something I read seems significant.

First I found this tutorial on how to setup a daily backup routine from the command line.

The solution is fancy enough, but I thought, why not simply use Apple’s Mail app to get all the mail on the desktop?

Here we go.

I was following instructions from here and here.

Synchronization seems to work all right, so aside from backup, now I can use Mail app to work on email offline.

1. Public speaking
2. Writing
3. Self-management
4. Networking
5. Critical thinking
6. Decision-making
7. Math
8. Research
9. Relaxation
10. Basic accounting

I don’t really agree that skills are most critical factors for success (vision is), but surely many of these are important.

The ones I personally plan to work on in nearest future are relaxation and self-management.

From September I will have no choice but to master “basic accounting”, too.

But this article proved I was wrong:

In every project, there are issues that that frighten the bejesus out of the team. They are so frightening that no one wants to talk about them publicly. The schedule might be impossible. There might be the lurking suspicion that Management does not believe in the project. More commonly, there is a major technical flaw that no one is handling.

The article relates to game development, but the issue is relevant for any other project. The urge to keep sensitive issues under the carpet is familiar enough.

Here are some steps I recall from the latest consulting project that helped in management of the “scary” stuff:

• Carefully store and process remarks sent by the client (there is good chance that sensitive issues are among them): store all remarks in one document, color-code them to distinguish difficult ones, dedicate a meeting with a client for walking through the remarks to ensure that they are understood properly and agree the solution
• When sensitive issue is identified, create dedicated approach to solve/mitigate it: brainstorm possible solutions, create issue tree to structure the thinking, identify constraints related to the issue (e.g. define most pessimistic scenario and start from there)
• Dedicate resources to follow the agreed approach to resolve/mitigate the issue

Some issues may really seem scary, but it turned out that solving them (or at least addressing them and mitigating related risk as far as it was possible) raised client’s confidence in the overall direction and justified all the effort that went into sorting them out.

The playwright Richard Foreman, cited by Carr, eulogised a culture he once felt at home in thus: “I come from a tradition of western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and ‘cathedral-like’ structure of the highly educated and articulate personality – a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West.

“[Now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self – evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the ‘instantly available’.”

The article adds to the discussion about how the web is changing the way we think. With ever shorter attention spans, are we losing the ability to think deeply?

The main feature of this program is its ability to open full screen and hide all the elements except for the text itself.

I love the idea. I wanted something like this for some time already.

I think idea of removing distractions will be a big topic for the future.

Even now I would appreciate to have a magic key which would make all the clutter disappear and leave visible only the thing I am working on. Preferably, it would block alt-tab combination and require a password for coming out of the isolation.

I don’t write much lately, even though there are some interesting topics – the reason – I don’t feel like writing. As usual, I never manage to force myself into undesirable activity. Why not wait, anyway. The productivity advantage, while being motivated to work on something, is huge.