Project Connect Update

The annual Junior Achievement Online Holiday Auction will take place at www.akronarea.ja.org November 7-December 2. The auction will feature more than 250 FANTASTIC items just in time for the holiday shopping season. Auction shoppers will find things such as: sporting event tickets, gift baskets, golf packages, holiday items, spa packages, get-a-ways, car care items, children's toys, restaurant gift certificates, tickets to local attractions and much much more. Many of these items will be able to be purchased for a fraction of the regular price!

All dollars spent on the JA Online Holiday Auction will make a difference! One of Junior Achievement's largest fundraising events, the auction proceeds will help JA to reach more than 23,000 students throughout Summit, Medina, Portage, Wayne, Holmes and Coshocton counties with JA's economic education programs. JA programs use hands on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life. In partnership with business and educators, JA brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential. JA programs prepare our future workforce, help students stay in school, educate young people on personal finance, and help students make good decisions. JA programs are taught in the classroom by a community volunteer that is a role model for the students.

For more information, contact Ashley Kellicker at .

Victim Assistance Program & Furnace Street Mission Holiday Baskets for Crime Victims are on sale now at Victim Assistance Program. Baskets are $5 each, 5/$25, or 10/$50 - purchase a basket today!

Each basket will be lovingly filled with food for a holiday meal & delivered on December 23, 2005. All donations are tax deductible. Make checks payable to: Victim Assistance Program or Furnace Street Mission. Contact: 330-376-0040 ext 225 for more information, or drop-off your donation at: 150 Furnace Street, Akron, Ohio 44304.

Idealware Review: Selecting an Online Donation Tool

Would you like to be able to accept credit card donations from your website? Idealware reviewed twenty-seven different lower-priced online software tools that can be used to accept donations from an existing website. What we found was good news: many affordable tools are also powerful, friendly, and flexible. We offer our recommendations for high-quality tools, detailed reviews of 19 of them, and a method to choose the right tool for you. For more information, visit www.idealware.org/donations/ .

So we all know that if someone sends us a file attached to an e-mail, we can easily right-click on it, and save it to our computer, delete the message and save loads of mailbox space. That's a great space-saver for those of us with limited mailboxes.

But what if the body of the message contains important information about what to do with the file? Sure, you could copy and paste the instructions into another document, or click File > Save and save it as a web page (.htm). But neither of those allow you to reply back to the message (maybe those instructions need a little clarifying?), or forward it on to someone else.

The solution: Save the message in Outlook Message Format (.msg). This isn't like the MSG at Chinese restaurants - this file format lets you save a complete message, attachment and all, in your My Documents folder (or wherever you choose), and still interact with it just like a regular Outlook message! Yes, even the attachment is still an attachment.

To use this nifty feature, just open the message, and click File >Save As. Choose Outlook Message Format (.msg) as the file format, rename the file if you wish, and click Save.

Now, you can go back and delete the message from your Outlook mailbox, and whenever you need it, just navigate to it from the My Computer icon or Windows Explorer, double-click it, and proceed as usual.

No more nastygrams from the System Administrator saying that your mailbox is over its size limit! You really can have your cake, and eat it too - keep your mailbox clean, and save those important messages!

Project Connect now offers classes "on demand": just call or e-mail to have your name added to the list, and as soon as we have enough folks registered, we'll schedule the class. This way, we can run whatever classes you need, when you need them!

Microsoft Excel will be offered Wednesdays starting December 14, from 9am to noon. (Please note: This date has changed!) Excel 1 covers the basics - getting to know the spreadsheet tools, navigating around the workbook, and basic formulas. Excel 2 covers formulas, and Excel 3 covers advanced tools. If you're interested in pivot tables and interactive charts (and if you're not, you should be!!), Excel 4 is for you!! Complete descriptions of each course are on our website, https://infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm.

QuickBooks is the accounting program preferred by non-profits for ease of use and reasonable cost. If you've just purchased it, come join us and get your database set up and ready to go for 2006. If you're already using it, come and find out how to do more than just balance your checkbook. QuickBooks will be offered Tuesdays in December, starting Dec. 6. Complete course descriptions are available on our website, https://infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm.

Missed it the last time around? The Microsoft Access waiting list is filling up, and will be scheduled again in January 2006. The first session will focus on identifying what needs to be included in a nonprofit-related database and how to structure it so that the database will be easy to use and easy to retrieve useful information. Over the next 3 sessions, we build our databases, using forms, queries and reports to aid data entry and data extraction. Access 5 covers troubleshooting and database maintenance. We recommend you sign up for the entire series, as each class builds directly on the previous one. Complete descriptions of each course are on our website, https://infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm.

If you have always wanted to learn more about the database you're currently using, or think that creating one will improve how you handle information, please sign up! Send an email to and let us know you're interested.

Don't forget - we also offer custom sessions. Just get a minimum of 8 people together, and we'll do a special session just for you. You don't all need to be from the same organization, so tell your friends!

Don't buy anything technology-related until you've visited these three websites first!! They offer significant discounts for nonprofits with Microsoft, Dell, CDW, Adobe, and more!

As always, we are interested in hearing from you to learn how we can best meet your technology and connectivity needs. Give us a call at 330-315-1335 or e-mail us at .