The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (Project Schedule)

Betty: All this for just a map?
Morgan the Goat: Just a map!
[putting his hands around her waist]
Morgan the Goat: Maps, my dear, are the undergarments of a country! They give shape...
[moves his hands up to her breasts]
Morgan the Goat: ... to continents.
[Betty raises her fist, and Morgan runs out of the room]

Learn how to view a project's schedule

Morgan may be right about maps... Similarly, I believe that a good schedule is the "undergarment" of a project!

That's why I was so thrilled when I discovered that you could view the project's "agenda" in just one click:


And there's more: if the project has sub-projects and you ask for the planning view, you get an overall overview!





Try it out!

Rachel

The Wedding Planner (check agendas when planning meetings)

Penny: Oh no, darnit... I just remembered that I promised my friend's brother's godmother that I would help her change her fax cartridge because she's going out of town tomorrow... on an African safari.

Learn how to check your colleagues' schedules when planning a group Meeting.

Internal meetings? I love them, as long as my cute assistant Tag can be there! I plan meetings with my colleagues all the time! Here's how.

First, check the schedule of your colleagues:


Then, look for a free spot:


And add your meeting as usual.

About viewing a colleague's agenda: help - aide - hulp
About the Planning view: help - aide - hulp
About adding a meeting: help - aide - hulp

Try it out!

Rachel

Secrets & Lies (Sharing information)

Maurice: Secrets and lies! We're all in pain! Why can't we share our pain?

Learn how to share items with other Efficy users.

With Efficy, all information is stored into a central database. Get the most out of it by sharing the useful data.

Also think of sharing e.g. your Templates and your Views with others. Thus, you avoid that everyone creates his own - which is time-consuming and decreases the homogeneity of your external communication.

To share an item in Efficy, you need to edit it and to look for the button Select Users:

Learn how to use the Select Users window: help - aide - hulp

Please mind: Sharing something does not mean that all linked users will have access to that piece of information. So think of checking the item's Securities to make sure everyone will be able to use it as wished.



Find out more about Securities: help - aide - hulp

Find out more about Views: help - aide - hulp

Try it out!

Rachel

Finding Neverland (advanced search options)

J.M. Barrie: When I think of your mother, I will always remember how happy she looked, sitting there in the parlor watching a play about her family, about her boys that never grew up. She went to Neverland. And you can visit her any time you like if you just go there yourself.

Learn how to use the advanced search options to find that missing piece of information

Sometimes it can be pretty tricky to find the data you need in Efficy - especially in large databases containing so many items!
Happily, the Advanced Search options can help you there. Neverland is just a few clicks away...

Start with a standard search window and click the link Advanced Search in the top right corner.
Example: searching for a sales meeting with Rachel Green and linked to any Contact, in a given period:



Find out all about the advanced search options in the Efficy Resources Center: help - aide - hulp

Try it out!

Rachel

Out of the Past (view past undone actions)

Whit Sterling: My feelings? About ten years ago, I hid them somewhere and haven't been able to find them.

Learn how not to loose the tasks that you have not marked as done yet.

The My Day in Efficy page and the Task List show you what actions you're supposed to carry out today. But what happens to the tasks that you couldn't do? They stay "stucked" on the day you had planned to do them...

Happily, you can still view these undone actions. There are different ways to keep track of them

Using the Task List


Using the Deadlines to see the actions in My Day in Efficy



Try it out!

Rachel

Contact (link contacts to actions)

Young Ellie: [on HAM Radio] CQ, CQ, this is W9GFO. Is anybody out there?

Learn why it is important to link Contacts to your Actions (meetings, tasks).

Efficy databases are relational. That means that items can be linked to each other. For example, you can link a Contact card to an Action.

When people just start with Efficy, they often add Actions in their Agenda that mention the name of the person they are going to meet in the Subject or Memo. You kind of miss a point if you do so.

This is why it is worth taking those extra 10 seconds linking Contacts:

- if you need to look for the Contact's address, you can click the hyperlink in the Agenda and view his/her card instantly

- you build up a history of actions that you can see on the Contact's card, so that, in 6 months, you'd see who met him or talked to him, when and why.

To learn how to link a Contact to an Action, see help - aide - hulp

Try it out!

Rachel

Spy Game (get notified of changes to records)

Nathan Muir: If I'm walking into a shit storm I wanna know which way the wind's blowing.

Learn how to follow-up a record by getting notifications when someone changes it.

Eavesdropping is one of my favorite activities... and seriously, it is even useful to know how some things evolve in your company.

In Efficy, there are several ways to follow up a record (e.g. a Task that you have delegated, or a Project that you manage, or an interesting Document...).

There is the "standard" way: notifications are sent for all records that you're linked to - according to your preferences set in Tools - Manage my notifications - My default notifications:


More info here: help - aide - hulp

And then there's the "spy game" way: you can ask to be notified about a specific record, even if you're not linked to it!
Just edit the record, press the button Notifications and check the operations that you wish to be notified upon.


More info here: help - aide - hulp

Try it out!

Rachel

Runaway Bride (click-and-drop to reschedule a meeting)

[Maggie has just left her groom standing at the altar, and has jumped aboard a FedEx truck]
Ellie: Where is she going?
Fisher: I don't know, but she'll be there by 10:30 tomorrow.

Learn how to quickly reschedule an appointment in the Agenda with the click-and-drop feature.

We all need to reschedule things from time to time, don't we? Even I ran away from my wedding... Admittedly, climbing through the bathroom window is less romantic than the FedEx truck or the horse.

So, this is the fastest way to move an appointment: in the Agenda, click the walking person in front of the action - then click on the day and time where it should be rescheduled.



Try it out!

Rachel

Mr and Mrs Smith (Gender or Title?)

John Smith: [after his wife checks his crotch for a weapon] That's all John, sweetheart.

Learn how to use the Title or Gender of Contacts in Templates.

When adding a Contact card, you will see a field Title (where you can choose Mr, Mrs, Dr etc.) but also Gender (Male or Female so far...).

Now, when you make a letter or e-mail template, you can use these fields to automate the greeting (Dear Mrs Smith, or Dear Madam).

Here are a few things to take into consideration:

- If you use the Title, bear in mind that the field often contains just the abreviation (Mrs and not Madam). In Word, you can add a condition to display the long version using the Insert Function button:


- If you use the Gender, you cannot use it as such in a letter (because the field contains M for male or F for female. You should then put a condition on the field in Word using the Insert Function button.


- Whatever you choose, make sure to encourage all Efficy users to input the used fields correctly and systematically!

Try it out!

Rachel