A quick guide to creating a basic table in APA format using Excel

While APA formatting can seem difficult and unfriendly at first the great news is it is often very easy to implement and is very well defined. APA formatting provides a consistent, systematic structure to references, figures, and tables helping to ensure that articles are easier to read.

When it comes to formatting tables the APA guidelines are fairly easy to follow.

You want to:

- Avoid Vertical Lines

- Minimise Horizontal lines

- Include a Table Caption at the top

And they're even easier to follow if you're working with the microsoft office suite.

While you can use MS Word to create an APA formatted table the easiest way to format your table using APA guidelines is to use MS Excel.

Simply enter your data in an excel spreadsheet, ensuring that the headings are in the top rows

Once you have done this highlight the top Row and right click

Select Format Cells

Go to the Border tab then select the top border and bottom border

Now select the bottom row and right click

Select Format Cells

Go to the Border tab then select the bottom border

Now highlight your table, copy it and then paste it into a MS word document.

Enter a title above the table using the following format:

Table 1: The title that you want for your table should replace the words you are reading now, the ones that come after the colon.

By this stage the hypothetical example should look something like that below:

Table 1: The title that you want for your table should replace the words you are reading now, the ones that come after the colon.

Easy!

Nikon Tell Us Who They Are - An Attempt at Communicating from the Inside Out?

For a while now Nikon have been advertising their cameras by telling us who those cameras are. Now Nikon are telling us who Nikon are. This seems to be following the idea of communicating from the inside out - if you can engage people on an emotional level they will buy from you for who you are rather than what you are selling them.

It will be interesting to see if this continues and if it gains them any ground. While many point to Apple as the best example of this approach working the fact that it worked for Apple doesn't mean it will work for anyone. Certainly this video isn't up to the standard that we see from Apple which may lead to them falling short. Furthermore it worked for Apple because people believed them. Will people believe Nikon?

New Diesel's in NZ - The case of the failing engines

New diesel engine require very pure fuel. The water content must be very low.
Much of our local Diesel supply is not up to standard.
When the engine's fail who is at fault?
The supplier of the fuel for not meeting the appropriate standard?
The importer of the vehicle for not ensuring that their product will survive on the local market?

Unless the fuel suppliers are stating that their fuel meets some standard of purity related to water content it seems like it would be difficult to put the blame on the fuel suppliers. Given that earlier diesel engine's did not suffer the same problems such a claim seems unlikely.

Moving from a signed Wedding Photography Contract to terms and conditions

http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/for-consumers/services/contracts

If I understand the information in the link above correctly services such as wedding photography do not require a signed contract. The only contracts that require signatures are:

• consumer credit contracts
• door-to-door sales contracts 
• contracts agreeing to act as a guarantor 
• contracts for the purchase of a motor vehicle from a dealer 
• contracts for the purchase of real estate.

None of those are wedding photography. Yay!

Coronation Street Moves to 5.30 - Automatic Recording - TVNZ's missing piece of information

While I don't watch Coronation Street and am unphased about it moving to an earlier time slot many loyal watchers are upset. While TVNZ did raise the rating argument this, unsurprisingly, has not pleased the fans. While many have suggested that you could automatically record Coronation Street and watch it later it is somewhat surprising that TVNZ did not point out that you don't need to record it to watch it when you want to. Afterall not everyone is able to record programs through services such as tivo, MySky, or even a standard VCR or DVD recorder.

Coronation Street is available On Demand through TVNZ's website.
This means that you can watch it when you want to.
In fact you can watch it online at 7.30pm if you want to.

While Coronation Street's key demographic probably aren't currently heavy users of TVNZ On Demand this is an opportunity for TVNZ to change that. An opportunity to introduce a new group of users to convenience the On Demand experience.

It's not all a bed of roses though. It does require a solid internet connection, dial-up won't cut it, and a fair amount of data. Anything less than a spare 1GB of data on the monthly plan might leave room for concern.

The link to the Coronation street page is below:
http://tvnz.co.nz/coronation-street

Lytro's New Camera - Shoot First, Focus Later

It would seem that Lytro's first camera will be released on schedule at the end of this year.

As expected the cameras seem to be aimed at the consumer market and some commenters have suggested that the cameras may become the polaroid of the digital age; providing hassle free shooting with an apparent user friendliness. With a price tag hovering around $400 US it's also comparable to high end compacts which should make it a true competitor.

Whether or not it takes off will be interesting to see. While the ability to focus later is a huge strength it is also a potential weakness. Requiring focal points to be selected by users later may be equivalent to forcing consumers away from the user-friendly point and shoot of jpeg toward the post processing intense RAW photography work flow. Hopefully the desktop software they have written will include features such as face detection to pick popular initial focal points in order to overcome this issue.

In terms of resolution the team are a little cagey. While they do say it can record Hi-def images (1080p) in the video at the bottom of this post they also say it can be scaled up and are quick to argue that the camera debate will be moving from megapixels to consideration of lightfields. What they mean by scaling up is a little unclear. If they simply mean that the images can be enlarged then that's nothing new. However if they mean they can create higher resolution images by using information from the light field then that is something that is truly exciting and should be expanded upon. However as they didn't come straight out with such an answer it's more likely to be the first option; low resolution images that can be enlarged,

In the long run I'm not sure where this camera will end up. It is likely to gather a cult following and will undoubtedly find a worthy place in technological history. Will it be taken up by professional photographers though? While it may be beneficial for some static advertisements - to lead the eye from the cool person to the cool product perhaps - such techniques are already employed in a number of banner ads by using  multiple images. While using Lytro's cameras would reduce post processing it would reduce control over individual elements meaning that the status quo will probably hold its ground.

Check their website for full specs, prices, and additional information including example photos.

https://www.lytro.com/camera

Shopping Online - How are you treating your customers?

While I am not an online retailer I am an online purchaser. Previously I hadn't really noticed how silly some of the things we are asked to do at online checkouts really were. However this video from the google analytics team makes some really strong points really nicely. If you run an online business watch this video closely and think about how you can apply the lessons to your business.