Microsoft Office — Digital Content? Advantage You! (Part 1)
Stand out with your clients and peers by leveraging digital content!
Fast Company — “Ulimate Checklist for Digitally Upgrading Your Resume”
This recent Fast Company article caught my attention.
Why?
The observations of the author — although targeted at resumes — is spot on any content we create and share! Let’s explore this…
Here are a few key observations the author (Lillian Childress, Glassdoor) made:
1 — “We all want a resume that will jump out of the pile into the hands of HR managers.”
2 — “First and foremost, you need to ditch the conventions of the paper-based version.”
3 — “It’s about turning your resume into a sleek, interactive, and thoroughly digital resource.”
4 — “Now that resumes are generally sent along electronically, focus on making yours interactive and easily clickable.”
5 — “Especially focus on including creative work, such as published articles or an online portfolio.”
6 — “…test your resume on multiple devices before finally sending it out. If it doesn’t look great on mobile, don’t hit “send.”
Translate Key Points to Digitally Sharing ANY Content
In the workplace, this usually means Microsoft Office / PDF documents.
Now, let’s translate those observations into our content sharing routine in our professional lives:
1 — We want content that stands out and is useful. (“We all want a resume that will jump out of the pile into the hands of HR managers.”)
2 — Ditto — no changes (“First and foremost, you need to ditch the conventions of the paper-based version.”)
3 — It’s about making your content fully interactive and digital (“It’s about turning your resume into a sleek, interactive, and thoroughly digital resource.”)
4 —Since content is shared electronically, leverage that! (“Now that resumes are generally sent along electronically, focus on making yours interactive and easily clickable.”)
5 — Link to external content that supplements your content and helps the user. (“Especially focus on including creative work, such as published articles or an online portfolio.”)
6 —Optimize your content for mobile devices! (“…test your resume on multiple devices before finally sending it out. If it doesn’t look great on mobile, don’t hit “send.”)
How About Some Ideas?
Using Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint and Word), here are a few basic digital enhancements that can help you stand out when you share content:
Excel
- Hyperlinked Table of Contents sheet (if there are multiple tabs)
- Links to external content that supplements data
- Link to file workflow instructions (maintained outside workbook)
- Links to necessary folders / directories to eliminate user searching requirements.
- Automate printing to PDF (worksheet or report of multiple worksheets)
PowerPoint
- “Hotlinks” to navigate around presentation
- Consider designing presentation for tablet or smartphone use
- Convert content to PDF — live interactive links, navigation buttons, etc. must be active
- PowerPoint conversion to PDF with bookmarks auto populated
- Optimize for mobile!
Word
- Use Word Headings capabilities to build a Table of Contents structure
- Use Word Table of Contents feature — these create active links when converted to PDF digital documents
- Convert content to PDF — live interactive links, navigation buttons, etc. must be active
- Links to external content that supplements data
- Links to necessary folders / directories to eliminate user searching requirements.
- Optimize for mobile!
In Part 2 of the Digital Content considerations, I will show actual examples of some of the ideas using Excel, PowerPoint and Word!
About Don
“It’s time for different”
Don is passionate about helping professionals and organizations keep up and adapt to the changing business world that we operate in.
“What Do You Do?”
I frequently get this question. My response (it’s not what you think!)? Check it out here!
