All Over The Map

Lenvo Yoga 3 Pro Review - Love it!!

Just got "my little clementine" 5 days ago and I love it!! I've heard negative reviews of Windows 8 and I find it very intuitive. I love the combination tablet/laptop concept. I prefer the touchpad of my 2009 Lenovo Ideapad, but that's the only negative. It's harder to left click the Yoga 3. I find myself using the touch screen more because of this. I'm still trying to configure it so the soft keyboard ONLY when I "do the back bend". It's constantly popping up when I don't want it to even though I set it not to display. Still...not a big deal. The 13" screen is great. I love how thin it is. Battery lasts 5-6 hours. And, it's lightning fast!!! I get a new laptop every 6 years. I once had a Thinkpad (made by Lenovo for IBM) and loved it. Since then, I only buy Lenovo. Although my Ideapad (Vista) is still running great, I just couldn't resist getting the Yoga 3 Pro any longer. Love it!

Enabler for Excel - Essential Tool for Salesforce Admins

I am a Marketing Operations Salesforce.com Administrator. Almost daily, I update hundreds and thousands of records in Salesforce. I'm constantly cleansing and segmenting records. Initially, I used Data Loader, because that's what our Salesforce consultant recommended and it's typically what Salesforce recommends. I also tried Jitterbit.  I have many years of experience manipulating and massaging data and I find Data Loader and Jitterbit very cumbersome. Poor interface, saving field maps, multiple steps in a wizard, time-consuming, etc.

One day, my colleague discovered Enabler for Excel and told me to check it out. Enabler for Excel is an Excel plug-in that directly interfaces with your Salesforce.com instances. The plug-in adds a new "Salesforce" tab in the Excel ribbon. You simply login using your Salesforce credentials and choose an environment (Production or Sandbox). 

(Click an image below to enlarge.)

Here's how it works.

Login

Choose Update All or Updated Selected from the Salesforce tab in the ribbon.

If the Object name is in the worksheet, Enabler for Excel defaults to that Object. (How clever!) You can change the Object if it's not correct. 

If the column headings in your source data match the Salesforce field names, mapping is done automatically.  In this case, my column heading was "Lead ID". Enabler knew to choose Id. You can easily drag and drop if Enabler didn't get it right. It usually does though. :) It's wicked smaht! (I'm from Boston.)

You will see a Warning/Confirmation of the amount of records you are about to update.

When it's finished, you will see a summary of the results in a window.

Enabler adds two columns to the right of your data with the import/update results of each record/row. Here are some example results I have seen. Some are custom to our Salesforce instance. When you're updating, it doesn't create an ID. I don't know why they call it that. It should be called "Reference or Created ID".

And voila!  You're done!!

In this example, I was trying to update a Lead record that was converted. I paste/append the Lead Id into the base Salesforce URL and click on the link to the converted record. I then manually update the info. I haven't figured out a way to programatically retrieve the new Contact Id. It's usually not that many records. It depends on how much time goes by between downloading the data and updating it again.

Reports
You can create reports in Excel and just click a button to refresh the data from Salesforce into your worksheet.  I haven't tried this yet, but I'm sure it's easy.

Enabler for Excel is Inexpensive!
Enabler for Excel is extremely affordable at a nominal $10 per month. I think they offer a free trial. They sometimes offer deals where you can get it for free!  How good is that?

 

KTM Repair Manual Trick for Extracting PDF from CD

My friend recently ordered a repair manual CD for his 2014 KTM 250 SX (KTMTwins here). The CD contains its own PDF Viewer, but doesn't allow you to access the actual PDF.

Here's how you can extract the PDF. Since there are no EULAs or other click-through disclaimers on the CD I don't feel bad sharing it. I'm not redistributing the PDF.

1. Find a Windows machine with a CD drive if you don't have one. Put the disc in.
2. The program didn't launch for me, so I had to right-mouse click on the appropriate HTML file on the CD and open in a browser. Then, I clicked the linked for my friend's bike.
3. The disc spins for a while because the manual is almost 300 pages.
4. Wait until the embedded PDF Viewer launches. Leave the file open in the PDF Viewer.
5. Search your C:\ drive for:  psf*.tmp  (The file is named "psf****.tmp. 
• Make sure you are at the root of your C drive when you search so you are searching the entire drive.
6. (The actual filename changes from launch to launch.) Copy this file somewhere and change its extension to ".pdf". 
7. This folder/file may be hidden. If you can't see it, follow these directions to enable seeing hidden files.
8. Open it in the PDF reader of your choice. There's your repair manual.

Thank you to "El Gran Camino" on the ADVrider.com forum for this hint.

MX101 Motocross & ATV Track new website

Announcing the new MX101 Motocross & ATV Track website (June 2014). MX101 is located at New England Dragway in Epping, NH. The track is always well-groomed and maintained. Parking is conveniently located next to the track. Practices run in classes on the big track: A, B, C, Youth and ATV/Quads. Separate Kids Track. Check out videos and photos. Open Wednesdays 1-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm.

 

I volunteer my time to develop the MX101 website and promote MX101 online to support my favorite motocross track.

Axis Powersports at Croom Motorcycle Area

Announcing the new Axis Powersports at Croom Motorcycle Area pro shop website. Axis Powersports is located at the entrance to Croom Motorcycle Area in Brooksville, FL. Wide selection of dirt bike & off road gear, apparel, helmets, boots, parts in stock. Motocross bike repair & specialty rebuild services. Dirt bike, ATV (indoors) and RV storage (outdoors). Low monthly storage rates.