Tech TIPS

Don't Live Out of Your Recycle Bin. Empty Your Trash!

2010-08-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

At home, you don't store everything you need in your trash can or let your trash sit. Your trash is contaminated; letting it sit would only allow the contamination to spread to the things you value.

The same is true for the trash on your computer. Recycle bins and trash folders are places where viruses can hide. You need to empty your recycle bins regularly to avoid contaminating the rest of your computer. Make the following part of a weekly clean-up routine:

Identify old files and messages. (See Penn State Policy AD35 University Archives and Records Management and the General Retention Schedule for details.) If you still wish to keep them, archive them to CD/DVD. Then delete them.
In Thunderbird (or any other email client you use), delete all the messages in your Junk folder.
In Thunderbird (or any other email client you use), empty your Trash folder.
In Thunderbird (or any other email client you use), compact your folders.
In Windows (or any other operating system you use), empty your Recycle Bin.

Thanks to Tim Arnold, DLT, for suggesting this tip.

Identity Finder Resources

2010-08-23T08:00:00.003-04:00

Identity Finder will help you find and remove PII (personally identifiable information) from your computer. Here's how:

For written documentation on how to use Identity Finder with your Libraries workstation, see https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/dltpub/Identity+Finder+Documentation

Why Do I Care About PII?

2010-08-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

What is PII?
PII (or personally identifiable information), is information that can be used to uniquely identify a person. In the wrong hands, PII can be used to victimize a person, via theft, stalking, harassment, and more.

Why Do I Care About PII?
As a Penn State employee, it is your responsibility to make sure this information (about yourself or others) does not fall into the wrong hands. If you have PII on your workstation, you risk exposing this information, putting individuals at risk for crime, and costing your department money.

What is the difference between having PII on my machine and having malware (viruses, spyware, etc.)?
PII is personal data. PII alone does not affect the functioning of your machine. Malware are applications that run without your knowledge. Malware affect your machine by doing things that you do not permit it to do, such as record what you are doing or share your data (including PII) with its creator.

Thanks to Tim Arnold, DLT, for suggesting this tip!

Logging Into Windows 7 on a Shared Workstation

2010-08-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

"Help! I can't log into a Windows 7 machine!"

If you would like to log in to a Windows 7 workstation where someone else was logged in previously, do the following:

From the Windows 7 Welcome screen, click the Switch User button.
For username, enter your Access ID and append "@dce.psu.edu" to it, as in abc123@dce.psu.edu.
Enter your Access Account password and log in.

Even More Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

2010-08-02T08:00:00.005-04:00

If you like to use keyboard shortcuts, here are a few more for Microsoft Windows. Use your numeric keypad with your NUM LOCK on and you will be good to go!

Character	Shortcut
À	ALT+0192
Á	ALT+0193
Â	ALT+0194
Ã	ALT+0195
Ä	ALT+0196
Å	ALT+0197
Æ	ALT+0198
Ç	ALT+0199
È	ALT+0200
É	ALT+0201
Ê	ALT+0202
Ë	ALT+0203
Ì	ALT+0204
Í	ALT+0205
Î	ALT+0206
Ï	ALT+0207
Ð	ALT+0208
Ñ	ALT+0209
Ò	ALT+0210
Ó	ALT+0211
Ô	ALT+0212
Õ	ALT+0213
Ö	ALT+0214
×	ALT+0215
Ø	ALT+0216
Ù	ALT+0217
Ú	ALT+0218
Û	ALT+0219
Ü	ALT+0220
Ý	ALT+0221
Þ	ALT+0222
ß	ALT+0223
à	ALT+0224
á	ALT+0225
â	ALT+0226
ã	ALT+0227
ä	ALT+0228
å	ALT+0229
æ	ALT+0230
ç	ALT+0231
è	ALT+0232
é	ALT+0233
ê	ALT+0234
ë	ALT+0235
ì	ALT+0236
í	ALT+0237
î	ALT+0238
ï	ALT+0239
ð	ALT+0240
ñ	ALT+0241
ò	ALT+0242
ó	ALT+0243
ô	ALT+0244
õ	ALT+0245
ö	ALT+0246
÷	ALT+0247
ø	ALT+0248
ù	ALT+0249
ú	ALT+0250
û	ALT+0251
ü	ALT+0252
ý	ALT+0253
þ	ALT+0254
ÿ	ALT+0255

Tips for Windows 7 Searches

2010-07-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

Windows 7 has great search capabilities:

You can use search to find a program or command that you don't see on the Start Menu (eg. "vpn" or "run").
You can search the contents of a specific location only by browsing to that location in Windows Explorer and using Windows Explorer's search box.
You can use Windows 7 Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) to refine your search (eg. "tags:=CMS" or "author:lnm105"). For more AQS terms and examples, see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx
You can save searches to a folder location or to a library by clicking the Save Search button above your search results.

Using Windows 7 Libraries

2010-07-19T08:00:00.005-04:00

Windows 7 Libraries collect folders of related content in a single location.

Windows 7 has 4 default libraries: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Video. In addition to including locations such a My Documents and My Pictures, you can add other local folders, network shares, some external drives, and even saved searches.

To Add or Remove a Location to a Library:

Open Windows Explorer, expand the Libraries directory, and open the library. Windows Explorer will display the title and contents of the library.
At the top of the window directly below the title of the library, you will see the following "Includes: # locations". Click the locations link and the locations dialog box will appear.

To add a location, click the Add... button, browse to the location, and click Include folder. The folder will be added to the library.
To remove a location, select the location, and click the on will remove the location Remove button. Your folder will be removed from the library only; it will not be deleted.
Note: Clicking the Remove button will remove the location from your library immediately; you will not be prompted to confirm this choice.

Tip: You can even create your own custom libraries for projects, committee work, or course materials:

Open Windows Explorer, and click the Libraries directory. Windows Explorer will display list your current libraries.
From the menu bar at the top of the window, click New Library and rename the new library that appears (eg. CMS, Discovery Day, Services Training Team, IST Courses, etc.).
Add locations to your library using the instructions above.

Changes to the Windows 7 Taskbar

2010-07-12T08:00:00.013-04:00

In Windows XP, if you had multiple files open with the same program, each file was had its own taskbar button taking up space on your Taskbar. There was also a set of shortcut icons to programs you used frequently, called the Quick Launch Toolbar.

In Windows 7, there are some changes to how the taskbar works:

Taskbar buttons work like Quick Launch shortcuts (links); you can "pin" any application to the taskbar as a shortcut by right-clicking the application and choosing Pin this item to the taskbar.
Note: If you pin Workflows, your taskbar button will look like a Java icon.

Only one taskbar button appears for each program. When you hover over an application's taskbar button, you will see a list (or preview) of files that are currently open with that program.
If you right-click a taskbar button, you will get a jump list of recently opened files. You can also "pin" files to this list so they remain there.
The notifcation area in the right takes up less space. If you need to view more security and maintenance information, click the Action Center button in this area. If you'd like to add buttons to the notifcation area, click the Show hidden icons button to custiomize this area.
The Show desktop button is a small bar on the far right. Click it once to show your desktop and again to restore the files you were working on.

Changes to the Windows 7 Start Menu

2010-07-06T08:00:00.008-04:00

In Windows 7, a number of changes have been made to the Start menu:

Windows 7 uses Jump Lists instead of the Recent Items menu option. When you locate a program from the Start Menu, you may see a right arrow. If you hover over this arrow, you get a jump list—a list of recently used files opened by that program.
Windows 7 uses Libraries as well as folders. A library is not just a physical location on your hard drive; it can include multiple folder locations on your hard drive, as well as folders on external drives and network drives. Your default libraries are Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, but you can create your own libraries for special projects, committees, etc.
Windows 7 has a Search built into the Start menu. Use search to find programs, folders, and even email more quickly.

Hosting a Session in Adobe Connect

2010-06-28T08:00:00.011-04:00

Are you planning on hosting an event with Adobe Connect? Check out http://meeting.psu.edu/hosts for advice on hosting 1-on-1 sessions, small groups, dispersed groups, classes, guest speakers, and more!

Tip: To learn more about Adobe Connect, register for a session with ITS Training Services.

Learn About Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010 at Lynda.com

2010-06-21T08:00:00.006-04:00

Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010 are coming soon to a workstation near you... Are you ready?

You can learn all about Windows 7 and Office 2010 via Lynda.com. Here's how:

Go to http://its.psu.edu/training/lynda/ and click the Penn State access page on the lynda.com Web site link.
Find the Vendor... drop-down menu and select Microsoft.
Select a Windows 7 or an Office 2010 (eg. Access 2010, Excel 2010, etc.) training link.

The Case of the Missing Thunderbird Attachment

2010-06-14T08:00:00.006-04:00

If you have been working in Eudora, you might be expecting to clean up or backup the location where Thunderbird holds your attachments. You might look for this location, but you will never find it.

Why? Thunderbird does not store your attachments in a permanent location. On a Windows machine, any attachments you open will be placed in a temporary location (eg. temp) that is periodically emptied. If you want to keep an attachment, it's up to you to save it somewhere permanent. Here's how:

In Thunderbird, open the message that contains the attachment.
Right-click the attachment and select Save.
Save the attachment to a permanent location.

Tip: Don't forget to do a little clean up on the location you choose for saved attachments. Something you need to keep this year may not be useful 5 years from now!

Thanks to Marti Lindsay, Life Science Library for suggesting this tip!

Add Sort to Your CAT Search URLs

2010-06-07T08:00:00.002-04:00

In addition to the basic search features that you may have used to embed CAT searches into your web pages you can now include a sort attribute in the string to produce the result list sorted by Title, Subject or Author by adding the string &sort by=XX to the end of your search url string where XX stands for TI, SU, or AU, as appropriate to your search.

For example, a search for all items in the MontAlto DVD collection sorted by title would look like this:

http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=&location=DVD-MA&sort_by=TI

More details on CAT search URLs are available at:
https://intranet.libraries.psu.edu/home/groups/lias_unicorn/interfaceteam/dynamiclinks.html

Thanks to Linda Klimczyk, I-Tech, for supplying this Tip!

How to Connect to a Fileshare from Off Campus Locations

2010-06-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

Prerequisites

You must have an active internet connection.
You must install the updated registry settings for the DCE domain--available from https://downloads.its.psu.edu/products/kerbPASS/psuksetup.reg You will only have to install the registry change update once, not each time you connect.
You must have the PSU VPN installed--available from https://downloads.its.psu.edu/ .

Steps to Connect

Double-click on the VPN connection and connect using LIAS VPN enter your Access ID and password Once connected, click the Windows Start button.
Click Run. A dialog box will appear.
Type \\fileserver.psul.psu.edu\share name (For example to access the user share on roo enter \\roo.psul.psu.edu\abc123)
If you are prompted for your Access user id and password, enter user ID as dce.psu.edu\abc123 (where abc123 is your Access ID) and your Access password. The share you requested should open in a new window.

Thanks to Mark Campbell, DLT, for sharing this tip!

Using Thunderbird as an RSS Feed Reader

2010-05-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

You can make Thunderbird your RSS feed reader so that your mail and RSS feeds are in the same program.

Step 1: Set up an RSS/Blog account.

In Thunderbird, go to File → New → Account.
Select RSS News & Blogs.
Click Next.
Enter the account name (eg. My RSS Feeds) and click Next and then Finish.

Step 2: For each RSS feed you want to add, subscribe.

In the folders pane, right-click on the new account (eg. My RSS Feeds).
Click Subscribe.
Click Add and enter the URL for the feed and click OK.

Note: This does not include listservs.

Thanks to Nicole Ortmann, Email Migration Assistant, I-Tech, for submitting this tip.

Facebook Privacy Resources

2010-05-17T08:00:00.001-04:00

Facebook's changing privacy policy has been getting quite a bit of attention. Here are some useful links to help you keep up with all of the changes:

How to Keep Your Privacy Safe(r) on Facebook: a walk-through of Facebook privacy settings
What does Facebook publish about you and your friends?: a tool that let's you enter your Facbook alias to see what Facebook is making completely public
Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options: a chart that provides the details to all of Facbook's privacy settings
The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook: an interactive graphic that shows the privacy changes of your Facebook account over time
How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account: instructions to permanently delete your account and your personal information from Facebook. Note: Deactivating and deleting a Facebook account are two different things.

Customizing the Thunderbird Toolbar

2010-05-10T08:00:00.002-04:00

If you'd like to customize the Thunderbird Toolbar (eg. add or remove a few icons, change how items appear, etc.), this tip is for you!

Right-click in the toolbar area at the top of the screen and click Customize... The Customize Toolbar window appears.

To add an item to the Toolbar, drag it from the Customize Toolbar window to the Toolbar.
To remove an item from the Toolbar, drag it from the Toolbar to the Customize Toolbar window.
Use the Show dropdown menu to select how you want your items displayed (as Icons and Text, just Icons, just Text, etc.).
To change the size of your icons, you can check or uncheck Use Small Icons.
To return Thunderbird's Toolbar to it's original state, Click the Restore Default Set button.

Click Done.

Thanks to Nicole Ortmann, E-Mail Migration Assistant of I-Tech, for submitting this tip!

More Windows Keyboard Shortcuts for Symbols

2010-05-03T08:12:00.000-04:00

If you like keyboard shortcuts and use special characters, here are a few more for Microsoft Windows. Use your numeric keypad with your NUM LOCK on and you will be good to go!

Symbol	Description	Shortcut
¶	paragraph sign	ALT+0182
±	plus-or-minus sign	ALT+0177
µ	micro	ALT+0181
–	en dash	ALT+8211
—	em dash	ALT+8212
†	dagger	ALT+8224
‡	double dagger	ALT+8225
‰	per mille sign	ALT+8240
←	leftwards arrow	ALT+8592
↑	upwards arrow	ALT+8593
→	rightwards arrow	ALT+8594
↓	downwards arrow	ALT+8595
↔	left-right arrow	ALT+8596
↵	carriage return	ALT+8629
∅	empty set	ALT+8709
∈	element of	ALT+8712
∉	not an element of	ALT+8713
∋	contains as member	ALT+8715
√	radical sign (square root)	ALT+8730
∝	proportional to	ALT+8733
∞	infinity	ALT+8734
∠	angle	ALT+8736
∨	logical or	ALT+8744
∩	intersection	ALT+8745
∪	union	ALT+8746
∫	integral	ALT+8747
∴	therefore	ALT+8756
∼	tilde operator	ALT+8764
≅	congruent to	ALT+8773
≈	almost equal to; asymptotic to	ALT+8776
≠	not equal to	ALT+8800
≡	identical to	ALT+8801
≤	less-than or equal to	ALT+8804
≥	greater-than or equal to	ALT+8805
⊂	subset of	ALT+8834
⊃	superset of	ALT+8835
⊄	not a subset of	ALT+8836
⊆	subset of or equal to	ALT+8838
⊇	superset of or equal to	ALT+8839
⊥	perpendicular	ALT+8869

Tip: Take a look at other tips on shortcuts, including more keyboard shortcuts for special characters.

Setting Thunderbird as Default Mail Client in Windows XP Via MS Word

2010-04-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

To set Thunderbird as your default mail client in Microsoft Word:

Go to the Start menu and select the Control Panel.
Double-click on the Add or Remove Programs option and then choose Set Program Access and Defaults on the left side of the box.
Click on Custom and then click on the arrows icon (two arrows pointing down on the right side of the box). Under Choose a default email program, select Thunderbird and click OK.

Thanks to Nicole Ortmann, E-Mail Migration Assistant of I-Tech, for submitting this tip!

Make Your Own Playlists with Grooveshark!

2010-04-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

Do you want to stream music like you do with Pandora, but have a specific playlist in mind? Then Grooveshark is for you.

Step 1: Create an Account

Go to http://listen.grooveshark.com and click the Create an Account button in the upper-right corner.
In the Sign up for Grooveshark dialog, create your account with a Desired Username and Password (as well as other information required) and then click Signup button.

Step 2: Create a Playlist

Click the New Playlist button on the left column.
In the Create New Playlist dialog, give your playlist a Name and optional Description. Then click OK.
Select your new playlist. An empty timeline will appear at the bottom of the browser window.
Use the search tool in the upper-left corner to find music. When you find a song, left-click and drag the song to the playlist timeline at the bottom of the browser window.

Tip: You can left-click and drag the songs to reorder them along the playlist timeline.

Step 3: Saving and Sharing Your Playlists

Click the Save button on the playlist timeline. (If you want update your playlist, choose Replace Playlist. If you want to create a new version of this Playlist choose Save as New.. and rename the Playlist in the Create New Playlist dialog.)
Click your playlist from the left menu. The list of songs will appear in the main pane of the browser window.
From the Options dropdown menu in the right-hand corner, click Share. From here, you can shorten the playlist URL and email a link to your playlist.

Tip: If you want to create a Grooveshark widget with your playlist, click the Export button and follow the wizard to get the code you can use to paste a Grooveshark widget onto your Web pages.

Get More Information from Director’s Station!

2010-04-12T08:00:00.003-04:00

Contributed by Michelle Dzyak, I-Tech

Have you ever pulled up a report in Director’s Station and wanted to drill down into more detail about a particular piece of data? Here’s how:

In your Director’s Station report, find the data you want to see in more detail and use your mouse to draw a box (click and hold with left mouse button) around it.
From the menu that appears, choose a one of the reports listed in the menu (eg. Show Shelflist). You will see a more detailed report.

Tip: You can export this report (or any other report) to Microsoft Excel.

Using Creative Commons Images from Flickr

2010-04-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Are you looking for an image to go with a PowerPoint Presentation, a handout, a Web page, or a blog post? Thanks to photo-sharing sites like Flickr task of creating large image galleries has now been crowd-sourced.

On Flickr, many people upload and share their photos and then choose what rights they wish to retain for their work. Some of these people may decide that sharing and exposure of their work is more important than monetary gain.

You benefit by being searching Flickr for these images, using them in your work, and crediting the original creator. The creator benefits by having his or her work seen by more people.

Searching Flickr for Creative Commons Images

Go to http://www.flickr.com/
Enter search terms into the textbox and click the Search button. Thumbails of all images that meet your search criteria appear, including those with more restrictive copyrights.
Click the Advanced Search link. The Advanced Search page will appear.
Under the creative commons section, make the following selections:
1. Check Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.
2. If you are using the images in a for-profit project, check Find content to use commercially. (If unsure, check this just to be safe.)
3. If you plan on cropping, editing, retouching, or modifying the images in any way, check Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon. (If unsure, check this just to be safe.)
Click the Search button. Thumbails of all images that meet your search criteria and are licensed for sharing appear.

If you plan on searching for images with these search terms again, add this search page to your bookmarks so that you do no have to recreate it again.
Select the image you wish to include in your work and click on the thumbnail.
Verify the licensing of the image:
1. Find the Addtional Information section on the righthand side.
2. Open the Some rights reserved link in a new tab to view the specific details regarding the licensing of the image.
Copy the following information into a document so that you can credit the author:
1. The URL of the current page.
2. The title of the image, if given. (It will appear in a large heading just above the image.)
3. The creator of the image. (It will appear as Uploaded on date by creatorusername in the upper-righthand corner.)
Click on the All Sizes link. The Available Sizes page for the image will appear.
Select a image size and click on its link to download it.
When using the image do not forget to credit its creator. Example: Photo Credit: Title, by Creator (URL), as in Photo Credit: The circle (of laptops) is complete. We are those guys. #eduweb by opacity (http://www.flickr.com/photos/opacity/3742796009/in/set-72157621760200034/)

Advice for Using Images from Flickr

Periodically recheck the licenses of the images you used to make sure you can still use them. Sometimes creators may change their minds and decide they no longer wish to share their work. (See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:FLICKRVIO#Flickrwashing:_is_the_work_original_with_the_uploader.2C_or_a_copyright_violation.3F)
Avoid images that appear to be photographs of artwork, logos, posters, etc. The creator may not have the full rights they are granting you. (See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:FLICKRVIO#Flickrwashing:_is_the_work_original_with_the_uploader.2C_or_a_copyright_violation.3F)
Credit the original creator, even when you are not required to do so. There are many reasons for doing this. First, by crediting creators is a courtesy and it encourages more people to share their work. Second, it gets you in the habit of crediting authors so that you don't forget to do so when your required to credit them. Finally, you don't have to worry about going back and crediting a creator he or she changes it to requirement later.

Saving PowerPoint Slides as Images

2010-03-29T08:00:00.005-04:00

Did you know that you can save PowerPoint slides as pictures?

Save every slide as an image.

Click the Office Button (multicolored Windows symbol in the upper left corner) and choose Save As→Other Formats…
In the Save As dialog box, do the following:
1. Select a destination for your images.
2. Under File Name, give your collection of images a name.
3. Under Save as type, click the dropdown menu and select one of the following image types: GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, or BMP.
Click Save. When you navigate to the destination you selected, you will find a folder with the file name you selected. It will contain an image of each slide.

Save a single image.

Make sure you have grouped and/or selected all objects that comprise the image.
Select the image and right click. A context-sensitive menu will appear.
Choose Save as Picture…
In the Save As dialog box, do the following:
1. Select a destination for your images.
2. Under File Name, give your image a name.
3. Under Save as type, click the dropdown menu and select an image type.
Click Save. When you navigate to the destination you selected, you will find a single image. If this did not work, you may have to go back and make sure you have grouped/selected every object in the image and save again.

Tip: By saving a PowerPoint image or slide as a picture, you can use it anywhere: Design an official logo. Export graphics for handouts. Create images for Websites.

Computer Security and Social Media Etiquette

2010-03-22T08:00:00.024-04:00

When you're a driver on the road, you must be alert. You are aware of your vehicle, the signs and signals on the road, where you are going, and even the other drivers and what they might try to do. This awareness protects you every other driver and passenger on the road.

When you use a computer, the same awareness of the controls, signs and signals, where you are going, and the intentions of others is essential for securing your information and as well as that of every other person you know.

Consider that the following are not just computer security issues, they are etiquette issues; when you make a decision (or fail to make one) that affects the personal information of others:

Don't sign up for spam. Free offers seldom are. You could be signing up for a company's newsletters—or worse, turned over to a whole horde of marketers! If you have to supply the personal addresses, phone numbers, or emails of friends and family, make sure they are comfortable with receiving the amounts of email that may be generated from this action.
Think carefully about sharing any part of a birthdate online. Become fully aware of the privacy policies of online greeting card companies and calendaring companies. Consider opting out of special birthday offers entirely. If you have included information about the year you graduated in an online resume, and your birthday somewhere else on the Internet, someone doing a thorough search can figure out your full birthdate. If your friends have not made theirs birthdate available on Facebook, perhaps they are not comfortable with having that information shared. Wish them happy birthday over the telephone instead.
Ask before posting. Before posting information that includes the name of someone else, consider talking to the person before including any identifying information. Before posting an image that includes people other than yourself, check with them about their comfort levels with having an image online. Are they comfortable with how they are being identified? Can the post or image be publicly visible? Can search engines index it? Are there minor children in the image and are they identified? (See Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English for more information.)
Think carefully about revealing your location. Geotagging allows you to tag your posts with your precise location. While geotagging has its benefits, the site Please Rob Me! illustrates one of the many ways sharing your location could be unsafe. Be wary of posting your location, especially if you are away for an extended period of time or are revealing the location of someone who wishes to remain private. (See Web Posts May Make You Vulnerable to Crime for more information.)
Remember that social networks share information. Secure what you don't want to share, and make sure you are not sharing information about your friends and family that they would not want public. (See 10 New Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know for more information.)

Tagging and Addict-o-matic

2010-03-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

On the Web, tags are keywords that users themselves assign to content. Tags can be used in blogs, photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa, video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, social bookmarking sites like Delicious, and microblogs like Twitter. In Twitter, a hashtag is simply a tag with a pound sign or "hash" in front of it, as in #ala10.

There is no central authority or official set of tags, but if many users begin to use the same tag for the same topic across all Web content, the information can be aggregated to a fuller picture of participants' experiences.

One way to view the aggregate all of this content is with a site like Addict-o-matic:

Go to http://addictomatic.com
Enter a tag (ex: Chile or ala10)
Click the Create button.

A custom page is created based on the tag you entered. Based on the activity of a particular tag—I tried Chile for one page and ala10 for another—you might have some of the following:

Twitter "tweets",
FriendFeed updates,
Wordpress, Twingly, and Bloglines blog searches,
Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Ask.com searches,
Digg articles,
Flickr images,
YouTube and Truveo videos,
and more!

Here's a Tip: If you are planning an event, like a conference or an open house, use Addict-o-matic, to check to make sure the official tag you want to promote is not being actively used by another group with a very different topic in mind.

Don't Get Phished In

2010-03-08T08:00:00.008-05:00

A phishing scam is an attempt to fish for personal information and access to accounts by posing as a trusted source, like a bank, an IT department, a government official, or even a friend. To learn more about how to avoid getting "phished in", read on...

1. Avoid giving your passwords to third-party sites.

Don't offer up your password to anyone or anywhere but to the site to which it belongs. If there is an issue with your account, a real IT professional won't need to ask you for your password; he or she can reset it.

If you want an application to work with your Facebook, your Twitter, or other account, there should be APIs (or application programming interfaces) that allow it to do so without you sharing your password. Many Twitter and Facebook accounts have been hacked by people sharing their passwords with malevolent applications. These applications then message their friends with spam, phishing scams, or other security threats. Which brings us to...

2. Always verify links and attachments before clicking on them.

If you have ever worked on a Web page, you know how easy it is code a hyperlink (legitimate website). You could get a link that looks like it's from you bank, but link to someone's fake site. You could get a link that looks like a funny video from a friend, but it was a virus or malware from a friends hacked account.

Attachments can contain malware, or software that runs without your consent (viruses, worms, spyware, etc.) Many other file types, including Microsoft Office files, can contain malicious code. (If you've ever opened an Office file and gotten a security warning about macros, this because viruses can be sent through the marcos in any office file.)

Before you click, try the following:

Make sure the sender is legitimate and he or she intended to send it. . Call the sender on the phone if you weren’t expecting an attachment. (If you are sending an attachment, let recipients know in person or via phone to expect it.)
Hover over the hyperlinks to check URLS before clicking on them. (Does the URL match the text of the link? Do you recognize the URL where you are being sent? Be suspicious of URLs that are a few letters off from legitimate sites or substitute .gov with .com, etc.)
Weigh the risks with the benefits.

3. Know what you are downloading and/or installing.

Don't treat downloading and installing like an impulse buy. Make sure people you know and trust have heard of the application. Ask I-Tech if they know of any compatibility issues it may have.

Just like coding a hyperlink to say anything, buttons can be coded to do anything as well. If you ever get prompted to install software that you don't want and you are suspicious of it, don't just close or cancel:

Press CTRL+ALT+DEL.
In Task Manager click on the Applications tab.
Select the program or browser asking you to install and click the End Task button.

4. Keep yourself up-to-date.

Threats are out there. Just as we get smarter and the software to prevent attacks gets better, the criminals are getting smarter and creating better ways to compromise your machine. You need to treat security as an ongoing process:

Clean up old files so backups and scans run faster. (See https://intranet.libraries.psu.edu/home/itech/training/tutorials/cleaup.html)
Make sure your regular backup is running and set properly so that it includes the files you need. (See https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/training/Backup+Checkup)
Keep virus definitions updated.
Run regular virus scans.

New Adobe Connect at Penn State Users

2010-03-01T08:00:00.003-05:00

If you are participating in a Penn State Adobe Connect session for the first time, you may want to take a few minutes before the event to do the following:

Check the System Requirements at http://meeting.psu.edu/requirements.
Follow the Quick Start Checklist at http://meeting.psu.edu/checklist.
Learn more about Adobe Connect at http://meeting.psu.edu/learning.

Tip: Adobe Connect works best from an Ethernet (wired network) connection.

Penn State Adobe Connect FAQ

2010-02-22T08:00:00.006-05:00

Q: Who can use Adobe Connect?
A: Adobe Connect can be used by anyone with a Penn State Access Account (faculty, staff, and students) or Friends of Penn State Account (https://fps.psu.edu/mkuser/index.html). First-time Friends of Penn State (FPS) Penn State Adobe Connect users must go to http://meeting.psu.edu/login to login before attending any Adobe Connect sessions.

Q: What machines have Adobe Connect installed on them?
A: Machines with a current Web browser should be capable of running Adobe Connect. For more details on the specific requirements, see http://meeting.psu.edu/requirements

Q: What do I need to do to participate in an Adobe Connect session?
A: http://meeting.psu.edu/quickstart

Q: Does I-Tech lend equipment (headsets, microphones, cameras, etc.) for Adobe Connect to University Libraries faculty and staff?
A: No. It’s a good idea to order your own so that you have it whenever you need it. (It’s fairly inexpensive.) Recommended equipment can be found here: http://meeting.psu.edu/camera

Q: What do I need to do to host an Adobe Connect session?
A: University Libraries faculty and staff can contact one of the designated University Libraries Adobe Connect Meeting Creators listed at https://intranet.libraries.psu.edu/home/itech/training/tutorials/adobeconnectadmins.html. See http://meeting.psu.edu/hosts for more instructions on hosting.

Q: Can MediaSite Live capture a remote presenter on Adobe Connect?
A: Yes. Make sure you do the following:

Don’t use wireless internet connections. (Wireless may get bogged down by audio/video.)
Have someone on site to keep the screen from hibernating.
Have the person on site field the questions to the presenter through Adobe Connect’s chat.

Q: Where can I get training on Adobe Connect?
A: The following resources are available for Adobe Connect training:

Users Guide: http://meeting.psu.edu/users
Lynda.com: https://shib.lynda.com/Shibboleth.sso/InCommon?providerId=urn:mace:incommon:psu.edu&target=https://shib.lynda.com/InCommon
ITS Training: https://register4its.psu.edu/catalog (https://register4its.psu.edu/catalog/rss.asp?Area=10 —via RSS feed)

Q: Whom can I contact for support?
A: ITS HelpDesk (http://helpdesk.psu.edu) is available for 24/7 support. I-Tech can help University Libraries faculty and staff with your on-site issues during the workday. Please make sure you test your equipment and sessions in advance either in the meeting room set up for you or in the test meeting room at https://breeze.psu.edu/testmeetingroom.

Thanks to Heather Ross, Library Supervisor, Social Sciences Library, for suggesting this tip!

Help: From Self-Service to Full-Service!

2010-02-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Penn State University Libraries is fortunate to have many resources available for technical help, ranging from self-service... to full-service! Take a look at some of your options below:

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Self-Service Help

Try some of these first. Someone may have already solved your problem or answered your question for you.

Lynda.com - technology training video tutorials available to Penn State faculty, staff, and students. Use them troubleshoot a problem, learn a new technology, or answer a desk question! Topics range from Microsoft Office, Adobe products, Google Applications, AutoCAD, and more...

I-Tech Technology Training - I-Tech's collection of training documents. Many of these were created in response to your questions. If it's not in there yet, let us know; we'll add it!

Training (Libraries Intranet) - a directory of links to training resources, including those from Access Services, CMS, Desk Tracker, Discovery Day, DLT, Human Resources, I-Tech, ITS, and more... If it's not in there yet, let us know; we'll add it!

Technology Training Community - a community hub provided by ITS Training Services, with forums on Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Oracle Calendar, Wikispaces, etc. You can subscribe to all forums or just individual ones to have the posts of helpful hints delivered to your RSS feed reader automatically!

ITS Knowledge Base - a search-able knowledge base on Penn State-specific technology information

HelpDesk Community HUB - provides information from DLT related to Libraries-owned machines and Libraries-hosted services. Alerts specific to these machines and services will be posted here.

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Full Service Help

Turn to these places for full-service assistance!

Libraries HelpDesk - provides assistance with Libraries-owned machines and Libraries-hosted service such as Unicorn, the CMS, or Libraries E-Mail (psulias).

ITS HelpDesk - provides assistance with services such as Oracle Calendar, ANGEL, Wikispaces, Blogs@PSU, or Penn State E-Mail (psu).

For more on troubleshooting and IT Help, check out this post on IT Self-Help.

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Troubleshooting Corrupt Mailboxes & Folders

2010-02-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Periodically your mailboxes get corrupted from use. Try compacting your folders. (It's sort of like spring cleaning; it lets your email client know where to find things.)

For Thunderbird users, go to File→Compact Folders.
For Eudora users, go to Special→Compact Mailboxes.

After that has run, your email should be back to normal. If not, when you request help from your IT support people, you can let them know that you've already done this step and skip some of the phone tag!

To keep your mailboxes running smoothly in the future, perform regular clean up:

Make sure folder names do not contain special characters like "@, !, /, _, or $".
Archive or delete mail according to recommended schedules.
Compact your mailboxes according to the instructions above.
Run your regularly scheduled backups.

Tip: For more ideas on how to be a troubleshooting expert, see Troubleshooting Self-Help.

Using Delicious

2010-01-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

Do you work with multiple Internet browsers (eg. Firefox and Internet Explorer)? Do you have trouble synchronizing your bookmarks between multiple computers? Are you tired of making sure your bookmarks are backed up when you get a new computer? Don't you wish you could get to your bookmarks when you were on someone else's computer?

Delicious is a social bookmarking site that allows you to place your bookmarks on the Web and access them from any Web browser. You can even share them with others. (Click here for a CommonCraft video related to this content.)

Here's how to use Delicious:

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Step 1: Join Delicious

Go to http://delicious.com/
Click the Join Now link.
Sign In with your Yahoo! ID. (If you don't already have a Yahoo! ID, click Sign up for Yahoo! and create one.)
You may be asked to provide security questions.
You will also be asked to create a link for your Delicious account (eg. http://delicious.com/username). This will become the URL you use to access your bookmarks.
1. Select from one of the suggested links, or choose your own and click the Check button to verify that this link is still available.
2. Click Save once you have selected a link.
Click the Add a Bookmarklet button. You will be taken to a page that provides you with instructions on how to add a Bookmarklet button to your browser.
Follow the instructions on the page to add the Bookmarklet tool to your browser.

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Step 2: Bookmark Sites Using Delicious

Navigate to a Website of interest
Click on the Bookmarklet button (should read "Bookmark on Delicious") that you added to your browser. A Save Bookmark on Delicious popup window will appear.
You may edit any of the following:
- URL (prefilled for you with the link to the page)
- Title (prefilled for you with the title of the page)
- Notes (optional description you can add)
- Tags (keywords you can add, great for sorting many bookmarks--highly recommended)
- Mark as private (by default, unchecked--visible to anyone who finds your Delicious URL unless you check this box)
Click Save when finished. The window will close.
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Step 3: Accessing Your Delicious Bookmarks

Go to your Delicious bookmarks using your Delicious account link (eg. http://delicious.com/username) or via a My Delicious button/link from your browser.
By default bookmarks are sorted by most recent.
You can also find your bookmarks by clicking on your tags in the right-hand column.
You can also find bookmarks from other people.
1. Ask if your colleagues are on Delicious and add them to your Network.
  1. Click the People dropdown menu at the top of the page.
  2. Click Go to a User.
  3. Enter the username. The user's bookmarks are displayed.
  4. Click Add to my Network. From now on, this person's bookmarks can be accessed when clicking on the Network link.
2. Click on links such labeled Popular, Related or Recent while browsing your bookmarks.
3. If you like the the link, consider clicking the following.
  1. Save a new bookmark (to add the link to your bookmarks).
  2. Add to my Network (to add the person who bookmarked this link to your list of contacts).
Share your Delicious account link (eg. http://delicious.com/username) with others!

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How Do I Change My Page Numbering with a New Section in Word?

2010-01-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Word has two main kinds of breaks: Page Breaks and Section Breaks. To change your numbering in a section, first you will need to use a section break.

Step 1: Create a Section Break Between the Two Sections

On the Ribbon, go to the Page Layout tab→Page Setup→Breaks.
Select one of the following Section Breaks: Next Page, Continuous, Even Page or Odd Page. (Your selection will determine if the section after your break will appear on the next page, immediately after the previous section, on the next even page, or the next odd page, respectively.)
Repeat for each section you need to add.

Step 2: Insert a Header and/or Footer

On the Ribbon, go to the Insert tab→Header & Footer.
Select Header (and/or Footer), and choose the style you would like to use.
Add/edit all of the Header and/or Footer items that should be identical for all sections.

Step 3: Customize Each Section

With the page number highlighted in the first section, go to the Ribbon, click the Design tab→Header & Footer→Page Number→Format Page Numbers...
Use the dialog that comes up to customize the numbering for the first section, and then click OK.
Scroll to the next section that you want to be numbered differently. On the Ribbon, go to the Design tab→Navigation and turn off Link to Previous.
Change number formatting the same way you did with the first section.
Repeat these steps for each section that needs to be customized.

Refining Your X-PSU-Spam Filters

2010-01-06T10:17:00.005-05:00

Follow the ITS Knowledge Base instructions for your email client:
Before saving your filter, add a second condition:
- In Eudora:
  1. In the unlabeled dropdown menu, select and.
  2. From the Header dropdown menu, select <>.
  3. Select contains from the next unlabeled dropdown menu.
  4. Enter email.psu.edu into the text box.
- In Thunderbird:
  1. Under For incoming messages that, click the Match all of the following option and click the plus sign ( + ).
  2. In the first dropdown menu, select To or cc.
  3. In the second dropdown menu, select contains.
  4. Enter email.psu.edu into the textbox.
Save your filter as the instructions for your client instruct you to do. Your filter will filter only PSU-flagged spam coming to an invalid address.

Note: You can also use these instructions to create refined filters on other problem addresses. For example, create two more new filters, follow these instructions and susbsitituting email.psu.edu with:

mail.psu.edu
psulias.psu.edu

With these filters running, you will catch spam flagged coming from all of these addresses!

Warning: For this filter to work, please make sure you are giving out your correct Penn State email address, so that legitimate mail may be distinguished from spam. (See http://alerts.its.psu.edu/alert-1102)

Special thanks to Susan Ware, Vairo Library, Brandywine, and David Hutchinson, MTSS, for suggesting this tip!

Email: Get Your Address Book in Shape

2009-12-14T10:17:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Helen Smith for supplying this great Tech Tip idea!

As we wend our way to year’s end, it’s a perfect time to include this tip in your list of new year resolutions: weed those “psulias” addresses from your address book! As Helen pointed out, psulias addresses often automatically pop up in the address field when you start typing. You can easily fix this problem, whether you are a Eudora or Thunderbird user.

Thunderbird: Go to Tools/Address Book. Scan the addresses for entries that include “psulias.” For each address that belongs to a person, right-click, and choose Properties. Then edit the email address to delete psulias, and click OK.

Eudora: Go to Tools/Address Book. Click on each person’s name to display the email address. When a psulias address is found, delete that phrase. Finish up by clicking File/Save.

Reminder: Note that global email addresses still include psulias, although future plans include changing them as well. For example, notice the Tech-Tip email. This tip applies only to email addresses for persons.

Thunderbird: Address Books Made Easy

2009-12-07T08:49:00.002-05:00

Thanks, Sandy Ball, for this useful Tip!

If you want to add folks to your Address Book who have sent you emails,
just follow this easy steps:

Click on the user's name in any of these sections of your email message: To, From, or CC. The user names are hyperlinked with their "mailto:" addresses.
Right click and select "Add to address book."

Thunderbird: Send That Message Again!

2009-11-23T16:35:00.000-05:00

Again, our thanks to Sandy Ball for this great Tip!

There are times when you need to resend an existing message. Thunderbird offers an easy way to do this: From the Message drop-down menu, choose: Edit Message As New

Thunderbird will open the message you are currently viewing in a new message composition window. There, you can make any necessary edits, edit the To/CC fields as needed, and then re-send your message.

Thunderbird: Changing the Font Size in your In Box

2009-11-09T16:20:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Sandy Ball and Nikki Massaro Kauffman for this handy tip!

Thunderbird uses a default font size of “8” to display the messages in your In Box. You can easily increase the size of the font to create a larger display of the same messages. So if your eyes could use a break from small print, give this Tip a try:

1. Open any of these programs (NotePad, WordPad or DreamWeaver); then make a new file containing the text shown in red below. Then type “save as” and name your file: userChrome.css

/*
* Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning
*/
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* set default namespace to XUL */
/*
* Make all the default font sizes 20 pt:
*/
* {
font-size: 10pt !important
}

2. Next, go to C:\Documents and Settings\[yourusername]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles
3. There, you'll find a folder with the ending ".default"; click on this folder
4. In the .default folder, create a new folder called chrome
5. Double click to open the chrome folder
6. Copy or move your newly created userChrome.css file into the chrome folder
7. Finally, open Thunderbird. Your messages will display in the revised font size

Hint: If the font size is too large or too small, you can use NotePad or WordPad to easily change the font size. Note that the file shown here conbtains "font-size: 10pt" ... you can simply increase or decrease the number as needed.

Get to know the F11 Key

2009-11-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick tip that's useful in Firefox or IE.... Just press the F11 key to temporarily make your browser toolbars disappear so you can see more of your web page. This is especially handy when you use PrintScreen to copy a web page; unnecessary toolbars are not in the image, and there's more page visible. Leaving full-screen mode and bringing the toolbars back is easy too: just press F11 to toggle back.

Oracle Calendar: Taming your In-tray

2009-10-05T10:00:00.007-04:00

by Sandy Ball, Assistant to the Associate Dean for University Park Libraries

How do I accept all of those reminders that recently appeared in my Oracle In-tray? (Classes begin/end, semester begin/end, etc.)

You simply need to accept them and you can do so "en masse." Here's how:

Left click on the first entry (for example: Classes End/Second Six Weeks). Then, scroll to the bottom of the in-tray proposals. On the very last entry, hold down the Cntrl and Shift keys and left click. All of the entries will be highlighted.

Right click and select Will Attend from the list of options. It will take a moment and all entries will be accepted and be removed from you in-tray.

Time's 50 Best Websites 2009

2009-09-28T15:13:00.000-04:00

About this time every year, Time produces its recommended list of the year's 50 Best Websites. It's fun to peruse the annual list to see what's new, what's hot, and sites you might not yet know about.

We discussed ten of the heavy hitters on this year's list in earlier Tech Tips and Tech Updates: Internet Archive, YouTube, delicious, Google, Hulu, Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, drop.io and Pandora. To make an even dozen, here are two additional websites from one from this year's list that we suggest you take a look at.

Academic Earth lets you experience the Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLC and Yale classrooms from your desktop. Here's a snippet from AE's mission statement: We are building a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars.

popurls. Launched in 2006, popurls is a gateway to a selective list of the world's most popular web sites. popurls describes itself as the mother of aggregators, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular sites on the internet. If the web site looks a bit manic, it's because in one place popurl provides access to YouTube, delicious, Flickr, Twitter, NYTimes, Technorati, and more. You can personalize the page to suit your own needs.

Now that we've whet your appetite, here's the link to all 50 Best Websites. -buzz, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular sites on the int

Quick Launch Toolbar

2009-09-07T09:38:00.000-04:00

The Quick launch Toolbar resides at the bottom of your computer screen (directly to the right of the Start button). You can add or remove icons there so you have quick and easy access to your favorite programs.

Note: If you don't see the Quick Launch toolbar, right-click an empty area next to Start, click Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch. Then you'll see it!

To add a new icon to the Quick Launch Toolbar....

Find the program on your desktop,in your Start menu or in All Programs. Then just drag and drop it into the Quick Launch area. Voila, an icon will automatically be created for quicker access.

To remove an icon from the Quick Launch Toolbar....

Right click on the item, select Delete, followed by Yes. The program is not deleted; only the icon in the Toolbar is sent to the Recycle bin!

Here's what the Quick Launch Toolbar looks like:

XP Toolbar

Vista Toolbar

Lynda.com Technology Training Video Tutorials Penn State-Wide

2009-08-10T10:35:00.002-04:00

Lynda.com tutorials are now available to Penn State faculty, staff and students via a University-Wide site license.

What is Lynda.com?

Short technology tutorials delivered via 3-10 minute videos.
Content can be watched from any Web browser.
You can pause or replay in any order. Skip ahead to just the question you need answered!

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Example Lynda.com Titles

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional: Essential Training,
Adobe Captivate 4 Essential Training,
Adobe Photoshop CS4,
Getting Started with Adobe Connect,
Google Docs Essential Training,
Office 2007 Essential Training, etc.

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What does "Universty-wide site license" mean?

No cost to users. Just login with your PSU Access Account.
Supports 250 concurrent users.
Does not provide individual user profiles, track course usage, or allow for transfer of courses from current individual accounts.

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How do I access Lynda.com?

Go to http://its.psu.edu/training/lynda/
On the ITS Training Services page for Lynda.com, click on the Penn State access page on the lynda.com Web site link. (You may be prompted to log in with your Penn State Access Account.)
Find a topic by Subject, Software, Vendor or Author or Search.
Click on the link for the tutorial to begin viewing.

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Thunderbird Email How To's

2009-08-03T08:44:00.001-04:00

The Thunderbird email client will soon replace Eudora throughout the University Libraries. We already have a number of Thunderbird users at campus locations, and some at University Park.

Nikki Massaro Kauffman has created a number of useful Thunderbird how-to topics on I-Tech's Email Migration page. Here are some of the topics:

Intro to the Thunderbird Client
Intro to the Thunderbird Client
Thunderbird Add-ons
Thunderbird Junk Filtering
Thunderbird Address Book
Thunderbird vCards and Signatures
Troubleshooting Corrupt Mailboxes & Filters

Whether you're a seasoned Thunderbird user, or a soon-to-be fledgling, rest assured that Thunderbird documentation is available to help.

The Library Toolbar: Libx PSUL

2009-07-20T10:28:00.006-04:00

Here’s a new gadget that can be best summed up with an old-fashioned word: nifty! What is it? The Library Toolbar is a customizable plugin that you can easily add to your Firefox browser. After a couple of clicks, the Toolbar, like the one shown here, will install at the top of your browser:

The library toolbar (also known as LibX) integrates access to our own Libraries electronic resources into the Firefox browser. Users no longer need to open another browser, or find their way to these resources. They are visible and available for use anytime, anywhere. From the Toolbar, users can step out to The CAT, WorldCat, or Google Scholar. Just type your search terms in the Toolbar’s search box, and away you go to the resource of your choice. The toolbar also:

Facilitates full text access to PSU’s online journals.
Places "Get it @ Penn State" buttons on websites like Google Scholar and Wikipedia to guide you to the complete article.
Adds the PSU logo on web pages like amazon.com to help you check the libraries’ holdings.
Provides support for off-campus access.

Where is the plugin? Look on the right side of the Libraries home page, in the Get Help column. Click on this menu choice: Tools and Widgets. There, you’ll find the installation link and directions.
The best way to get to know the Library Toolbar is to play with it. You’ll see that it is very robust. For instance, you can search The CAT using Keyword, title, author, subject, journal title and ISBN/ISSN, or a combination. For all details, be sure to read the Features text on the installation page.

When will the plugin be included on the Libraries’ image? Libx PSUL will be added to the staff image this year. Following review by Libraries personnel, the next step is to discuss its addition to the public image. It is already available on the Tools and Widgets menu for staff and public users to individually install.

LibX was developed at Virginia Tech. Our local Penn State Libraries version was adapted by our Web Tools & Discoverability Team: Emily Rimland, Janis Mathewson, Binky Lush, Cheryl McCallips, Al Williams and Dan Hickey.

hulu: TV, Your Way

2009-07-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

Hulu.com launched in March 2008,with this simple agenda: Watch your favorite videos right from your browser, anytime, for free. With full episodes of TV shows both current and classic, full-length movies, web originals, and clips of just about everything. What's not to like?

Hulu users access premium streaming videos when (24x7), where (just provide browser) and how (full screen or pop-out) they want it from such entertainment giants as: NBC Universal, Fox, ABC and Disney. There's a rich array of TV channels, in categories such as Food, Sci Fi, Music, Horror, Reality, News, Sports, Politics and Sci/Tech, and an ever-growing list of popular movies, documentaries and trailers. Need that social network fix? No problem! Go ahead and share your favorite videos via email, embed full-length or program clips into your own web pages, join discussion groups, and/or write reviews.

Who pays? Advertisements, video streams from partner websites and from the embeddable Hulu video player provide revenue.Hulu focuses on streaming videos, and does not currently offer commercial-free downloads for purchase.

Hulu management believes that users want to consume media on their own terms: easy to use and consumable when, how and where they want it. Following that strategy, Hulu is dealing with its main competitors... the Piracy Bad Boys ....by providing access for free to content that it knows users want to see. Smart, very smart.

TED.com

2009-06-22T10:57:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Jon Leslie, AV Technician, Media Tech, for suggesting this Tip!

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) website provides access to the “world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” The TED conference has been held yearly since 1984, with more than 50 speakers each year delivering impassioned speeches in a crazy-quilt kind of program to an ever-growing audience. In 2007, the website ted.com was launched; its aim is to provide the best talks and performances for a worldwide audience, for free. Currently, there are more than 400 TEDTalks available, with new ones added weekly. Participants view for three $100,000 TED Prizes, and “the granting of one wish to change the world.” These wishes open the door to far-reaching collaborative initiatives. Good ideas beget further good ideas, so to speak.

The range of topics is as diverse as the world is interesting. If you aren’t sure where to start, try the three 2009 TED Prize Winners: deep ocean explorer Sylvia Earle, astronomer Jill Cornell Tarter, and maestro José Antonio Abreu. It’s a good bet you find something in ted.com to keep you coming back.

Trouble Opening winmail.dat Files

2009-06-15T10:31:00.000-04:00

Tip suggested by Donna Swartz, Business Office, and Karen Struble, Development.

Someone keeps sending me winmail.dat files that I can't open. What are they? What can I do? Hmm... Let's answer these questions one at a time.

What is `winmail.dat`?

A winmail.dat is the file Microsoft Outlook generates when an Outlook message is sent in Rich Text Format or as HTML mail. In other words, if the sender of the message is on Outlook and uses anything other than plain text—things like colors, fonts, italics, etc.—the message will be send as a winmail.dat attachment.

For other Outlook users, this is not a problem. Their email clients can open the message and view it exactly as they composed it. However, many other clients are unable to open this message. Depending on the options they have selected on send, they either get a plain text message plus the attachment they cannot open or—worse yet—no message at all, just the attachment.

What can I do?

If you receive a winmail.dat file and cannot open it, you probably want to know what your options are. Your best option is to contact the sender and ask him/her to send the message as plain text (usually found somewhere under Outlook's Tools→Options menu).
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Try It! Microsoft's Bing

2009-06-01T17:55:00.004-04:00

This is a big week for Microsoft, with the release of its brand new search engine, called Bing. What? isn’t Google enough?? Well, here’s what Microsoft says in its press release….

The way the world searches is changing. You want more than just information. You want knowledge that leads to action. The truth is you’ve evolved. It’s time search caught up. We took a new approach to go beyond search to build what we call a decision engine.

Among Bing’s features ….

Fast searching
Clean look
Left-hand navigation, with the kind of look and feel that we’ve seen in Endeca catalogs
Quick Preview: text-based synopsis of the pages search results. Drag you cursor over individual search results, and up pops additional relevant information!
Video mouse-over. In a word: amazing!
Cashback program
Location sensing
Instant Answers, which serves up answers to questions such as currency conversion, weather forecasts, and movie items

Since today (June 1) is Bing's birth date, it's a great day to join the crowd, and take Bing for a test drive!

Adding Non-Oracle Calendar Users to a Meeting in Oracle Calendar

2009-05-16T08:24:00.000-04:00

The value of a calendaring system is the ability to share calendars with your colleagues. If you're all on Oracle Calendar, this is easy. But what if someone you want to invite is not on Oracle Calendar? All you need is his/her email address:

In the New Meeting dialog box, enter the person's full email address in the Add field, as in "personsname@domainname.com".
Click the Add Person/Resource button (looks like a green checkmark). The person will be added to the list of people and resources below. An email icon will appear beside this name.
Repeat this process for each non-Oracle Calendar user who should attend this event. Then Click OK.
When prompted to send an email reminder about this meeting, click Yes. You will be able to send vCal and iCal attachments to your non-Oracle Calendar user attendees via email along with their reminder. They can add this data to their calendars.

Setting Default Email Client in Windows

2009-05-04T12:26:00.000-04:00

Internet Explorer

Open Internet Explorer.
Go to Tools→Internet Options... and a dialog box will open.
Click on the Programs tab.
Set your default E-mail client from the drop-list and click OK.

Tip: You may also set other default programs such as Calendar from here.

Firefox

Open Firefox.
Go to Tools→Options... and a dialog box will open.
Click on the Applications tab.
Under Content Type, find mailto, set your default email client in the Action drop-list, and click OK.

Tip: You may also set other default programs such as Calendar (webcal) from here.

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Microsoft PAINT -- Save Your Images

2009-04-27T12:19:00.000-04:00

Tip suggested by John Attig, Cataloging and Metadata Services.

John came across a handy tip published by pcmag.com about an easy and efficient way to save sceen captures. John shared the tip withUnicode team members who are doing a lot of screen captures. However, it's such a useful tip that we decided to share it here in Tech Tips too.

An earlier Tech Tip discussed how to use the PrintScreen key to take a snapshot image of whatever is on your screen, while Alt+PrintScreen lets you copy just the currently active window. Today's tip lets you paste the image using the Paint graphics program, which is found on your Accessories menu. To find it, go to: Start / All Programs / Paint. Then paste the image you want to save onto the Paint canvas.

If you need to trim the canvas away, so that only your image remains, no problem! You can trim by clicking and draggin the "dots" at the canvas edge to the edges of your image. Or, you can select Image/Attributes to reduce the canvas size in Image. In this case, just change the width and height to something small, it will expand as needed to fit around the image.

You can save your image in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format, which compresses the image without losing detail. JPG is also a good choice, although the file size will be somewhat bigger. However, pcmag.com warns that you should not save as a BMP file, which is very space-intensive.

Summary: There are lots of great ways to save screen captures, such as PhotoShop, and Jing. However, "Paint" comes standard as one of the Microsoft tools on your computer, so give it a try!

Modem Pool Lines-- Scheduled Reduction at UP

2009-04-12T19:10:00.005-04:00

Thanks to Peggy Myers, DLT, for submitting this reminder from ITS...

On July 1, Information Technology Services (ITS) will reduce the number of active dial-in lines for the University Park (814) 863/865-2222 modem pool. This reduction is in preparation for complete termination of this modem pool, scheduled for July 1, 2010.

Dial-up modems are still provided as an Internet connectivity option to the Penn State community. However, modem usage has decreased steadily over the last few years. Given this trend, modem users are strongly encouraged to transition to alternative Internet connectivity options such as AOL, Netzero, Verizon's DSL service, or Comcast's cable modem service prior to July 1, 2010.

To learn more about this initiative (including instructions, troubleshooting
information, and alternative options), visit the ITS Knowledge Base at
http://kb.its.psu.edu/. Additional information about the University's dial-up
modem services is available at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/dialup/.
Inquiries and requests for assistance should be directed to helpdesk@psu.edu.

YouTube Videos -- Deep Linking

2009-03-30T07:52:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Jon Leslie, AV Technician, MediaTech, for submitting this post

Using a YouTube feature called Deep Links, it's easy to start watching YouTube videos at any point that you specify. To do so, just add to the end of the web address (URL) the minute and second where you want the video to begin playing. The format you must use looks like this: #t=2m27s

Here's an example:
Ordinarily, YouTube starts at the beginning of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM

However, this URL starts at "2 minutes 27 seconds":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM#t=2m27s

You can, of course, change the minute/second values as needed.

Easy Formatting in Word

2009-03-23T12:48:00.000-04:00

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. But how about some cleverly applied consistency using two very useful tools in Word?

Styles

Up until recently you may not have used Styles before, but in Word 2007, Styles are prominently featured on the home tab of the Ribbon.

You can give all of your titles, headings, quotations, emphasized text, and more, a similar look and feel throughout your document without fiddling with multiple formatting buttons in the hopes of getting it exactly right. You can even use the Change Styles button, to customize existing styles or add new user-defined styles for bulleted lists, special outlines, or whatever you need.

To apply a style, highlight the text and click the style you want.
To change your styles, click the Change Styles. You have options range from fonts, colors, style sets, and more!
To create a new style, highlight formatting that you like on your document, expand your list of styles and choose Save Selection as New Quick Style.
To edit a style, expand your list of styles, choose Apply Style, select the Style Name from the droplist and click Modify...

Format Painter

The Format Painter is probably the most undervalued formatting tool in Word. It is used t replicate formatting on the fly without defining new styles. To use the format painter:

Highlight a piece text with formatting you would like to copy.
Click the Format Painter. (It can be found near your clipboard.)
Highlight the text you wish to format.
Repeat the process above for each item you wish to duplicate.

Tip: If you would like to duplicate the formatting of one item to several places, double-click the Format Painter. The Format Painter will format anything your highlight until you double-click it again to turn it off.

Which VPN Do I Use?

2009-03-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

What is a VPN?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN allows you to be part of a private network, like the Libraries network, from any public connection.

Did you ever need to access a resource when you weren't "wired in" to the Libraries network? What you need is the VPN client.

Downloading the VPN Client

Penn State faculty, staff and students can download the VPN client from https://downloads.its.psu.edu/. (Individuals without a Penn State Access Account cannot access the VPN.)
Click Connecting to Penn State.
Next to the row beside VPN - Virtual Private Network, click your operating system (Windows, Mac, etc.). Select and install the most recent version for download; it will have the highest number.

Which VPN Do I Use?

Want to know which VPN to use to connect from the road or from home? Take a look at the chart below:


Which VPN?	Where Can I Use It?	Why Would I Use It?
ITS Wireless at [Campus]	on campus only	wireless internet access on while on campus, as in ITS Wireless at University Park for University Park, ITS Wireless for Berks at Berks, ITS Wireless at Fayette for Fayette, etc.
LIAS-VPN*	off campus only	access to Penn State resources, and network shared drives plus psulias email, Libraries licensed resources, Libraries databases, and Google Scholar, etc.
ISP to PSU*	off campus only	access to Penn State resources and network shared drives only

*Note: The number of concurrent connections to LIAS-VPN is limited, so if you cannot access LIAS-VPN try ISP to PSU instead.

Plans for Vista and Windows 7 in PSU Classroom and Labs

2009-03-09T08:15:00.002-04:00

by Michelle Dzyak, Technology Specialist, I-Tech

Last year, ITS/TLT announced a tentative plan to migrate from Windows XP to Vista by Fall 2009. They recently re-evaluated the plan, and decided to continue using Windows XP in Penn State classrooms and labs through Spring 2010. Windows 7 will also be fully deployed in 2010.

Here is a summary of their current plan:

Continue to use Windows XP in classrooms/labs through Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
Have builds of Windows 7 in classroom/lab infrastructure working by January 2010; begin deploying test workstations for end users to review during Spring 2010
Begin migration of all labs and classrooms to Windows 7 at the beginning of Summer 2010
Complete deployment for Fall Semester, 2010

This is assuming, of course, that the Windows 7 final version is available and stable by December 2009. Meanwhile Windows 7 beta is running on many staff computers.

Chanaging Capitalization in Word and PowerPoint

2009-03-02T08:00:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Jane Ingold, Penn State Erie, for suggesting this Tip!

In Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007, you can easily change the case of words, sentences, or paragraphs. Here's how:

Highlight the text that you want to change
On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Change Case, indicated by Aa (shown in the attached image)
From the menu of choices, you can pick the capitalization option that you want:

Sentence case capitalizes the first letter of a sentence, and leaves all other letters lowercase.
lowecase excludes capital letters from your text.
UPPERCASE changes all the letters to uppercase
Capitalize Each Word capitalizes the first letter of each word, leaving other letters lowecase.
tOGGLE cASE shifts to the opposite case for each letter highlighted

Oracle Calendar: Save State

2009-02-09T17:51:00.002-05:00

Contributed by Susan Walker,
Assistant to the Dean, University Libraries and Scholarly Communications

Do you routinely open a number of individual or group agendas in Oracle Calendar? Do you find yourself opening the same agendas or group agendas every day? If so, there is a nice feature in Oracle Calendar called "Save State" that opens the same agendas or group agendas every day upon startup of Oracle Calendar.

Here's how to use this feature:
From your agenda's menu bar, click "Tools" and then"Options." From the Options Menu, select "General" and "Startup." The screen shown here appears and you can select the radio button "Open new session with the saved state." Then, click "Save State" and "OK." You are then returned to your agenda.

At the end of the day, before exiting Oracle Calendar, from your agenda's menu bar select "File" and "Exit." When you sign in to Oracle Calendar the next morning, and thereafter, all of the agendas and group agendas that you had open the previous day will all be open for your use.

If you follow the same routine every day before exiting, for any changes that you made to agendas that you have open -- either closing some or opening others -- the state that you exited will be remembered and opened the next morning.

One note, however: On limited occasions when you sign in to Oracle Calendar, you may find only your agenda opens. I have found that this happens when the Oracle Calendar server has gone down for some reason (i.e., maintenance). If this happens, just re-open all the agendas and group agendas that you wish to have available and follow"Save State"upon exiting, as described above.

Give "Save State" a try. It really saves a lot of time if you work with a number of calendars.

Word 2007: Page breaks and more

2009-02-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

In Word 2007, you can easily manage where lines and pages break within your document. Here’s how:

On the Home ribbon (tab), find the Paragraph section, and click the arrow in the bottom right corner to go to the Paragraph dialogue box. There you’ll find a tab called “Line and Page Break” and the top section is called Pagination. You can check these boxes:

Widow/Orphan control tells Word not to leave (orphan) the first line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page or leave (widow) the last line of a paragraph at the top of a new page. Instead, when this box is checked Word avoids this situation by moving the a solitary first line of a paragraph to the next page or solves a solitary last line by also moving the line above it.
Keep with next tells Word not to separate the paragraph you select from the one immediately following it.
Keep lines together tells Word not to insert a page break anywhere within a selected paragraph.
Page break before tells Word to insert a page break before the paragraph you select.

The END Key

2009-01-19T09:44:00.000-05:00

For this tip, I borrowed liberally from the folks at WorldStart.com, where lots of good hints reside. Perhaps you, like me, spend a lot of time scrolling to the bottom of web pages and documents when just a little tap would do the job nicely. My own personal new year’s resolution: Give the End key a chance! Enjoy…..

From WorldStart Computer Tips ….
You’ve probably seen the End key on your keyboard, but have you ever used it? Have you ignored it because you don’t really know what it does? The End key can do different things, depending on the program you’re using. Its main use is to help you quickly move from the top of a page to the bottom. For example,let’s say you’re browsing the Internet for some FAQs on a specific topic. You find a great Web site that will help you out, but your question is answered clear at the bottom of the page. Do you sit there and scroll all the way to the bottom? Well, you shouldn’t! Instead, use the End key.

Hit it once and you’ll be whisked away to the bottom of any Web page, document, file, etc. Or, if you’re working with some shorter text, End sometimes takes you the end of a line, which is also helpful and a much faster way of doing things.

Location: The End key is on the right side of your keyboard, under the Home key and between Delete and PageDn. It can be found on any PC keyboard and on some Macintosh extended keyboards. It really is a great use of a key, so go try it out!

The Mouse: Back to the Future

2009-01-12T13:11:00.000-05:00

As we begin 2009, let’s take moment for a technology backwards glance. Did you know that the humble mouse just celebrated its 40th birthday? The mouse is question is not Mickey, but rather the ubiquitous computer mouse. On December 9, 1968, at a computer conference in San Francisco, Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute demonstrated a small wooden device with its single button which could control a computer. On that day, Engelbart also showed the audience what would today be considered very primitive but which then was revolutionary: his research team’s NLS (oN-Line System), which featured rudimentary windows, hyperlinks, text editing, and video conferencing. The tool Engelbart used to demonstrate with was… the mouse. In 1970, Engelbart received a patent under the name, "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System."

Here’s a little more information about Engelbart.

It took more than a dozen years before the mouse (named by Stanford researchers because the cord attached to the rear of the device resembled a tail) was first marketed. In 1981, Xerox included the mouse as part of its Xerox 8010 computer system, and Apple and Microsoft followed in the next few years. When you use your mouse for your computing activities today, remember that you are touching a part of history!

Oracle Group Agenda: Find a Meeting Time

2008-12-15T15:53:00.000-05:00

Have you been having a hard time finding a common meeting time and room for several people? Let Oracle Calendar's Group Agenda (view) feature help you!

To Open the Group Agenda

Using Oracle Calendar desktop client, click File→Open→Group Agenda... A dialog box will appear.
In the Open Group Agenda dialog box, add the names or userids (ex: abc123) for each person, one at a time.
Add each resource. You can do this by searching, or you can type res: plus the name of the resource. Example: res: UL UP/Paterno 108
Make sure you have added all the people and resources you need, then click OK. A Group Agenda will appear.

How to Use Group Agenda

The Group Agenda view shows a single day at a time for all group members, but you may use the Previous, Next, and Select Date buttons to move to any date you wish.

Combined column: Red areas show where one or more members of your group are unavailable. White areas are times that are free for all group members.

If you are having trouble getting the whole group together, you may decide to meet without a few really busy members who are not essential to your meeting. Each member of the group has a checkbox beside it. To have a member's availability removed from group consideration, uncheck this box.

Double-click on an any block of time from the this column and all members of your group will be added to the meeting proposal automatically!

Self-Help: Getting the Answers You Need

2008-12-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

When you get stuck on a technical problem, you are empowered with a number of resources to help you find the answers you need. Try working your way through the self-help resources below, before requesting IT help. Even if you can't resolve the issue completely on your own, you may be able to provide your IT support with the information they need to resolve your issue faster!

Searching for Help

Get to know the terminology your software application uses for the menu commands, buttons, etc. and so that you use the correct terms in your searches. (Examples: Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, wizard, etc.)
Start by using the Help files of the application in question to see if you can find your answer. Then widen your search to other sources. (Often training documents end up being recopied versions of your applications help files. An application's Help files may be a better source because they are the same version as the software itself and are indexed for searches.)
If you can't find what you need in the Help files, widen your search to other sources, like the HelpDesk Community Hub, the ITS Knowledge Base, and Google.

Troubleshooting Strategies

Identify the date and time of you noticed problem as well as anything that may have changed since then.
Copy the full text of the error message (if any). If possible, take, save, send and/or print a screen shot of the problem. (ALT+PRINT SCREEN to get the screen shot and then CTRL+V to paste it into an application.)
Try quitting the application, clearing your cache and closing your Web browser (if it's a Web application) and/or shutting down your computer.

Requesting IT Help

Know and use the correct terminology that the application uses (Examples: Oracle Calendar instead of Oracle, the Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, dialog box, wizard, etc.)
Describe the troubleshooting steps you've already taken, so that no extra time is spend repeating these steps. Include the full text of any error messages and send copies of ant screenshots if possible/applicable.
Describe how to duplicate the problem step-by-step. Don't assume the person helping you will figure it out; you may hold up your resolution while he/she plays phone tag with you!

The Word on Indenting

2008-12-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

In Word, indenting is easily done using your mouse and clicking these icons: Decrease Indent and Increase Indent. There are also some key strokes that let you perform the same task without your hand leaving the keyboard. Here they are:

Ctrl + m indents an entire paragraph. (Repeat for larger indents)

Ctrl + Shift + m removes an indent for an entire paragraph. (Repeat to remove multiple indents)

Ctrl + t creates a hanging indent. (Each repeat increases the indent size by one tab stop)

Ctrl + Shift + t decreases a hanging indent. (Each repeat decreases the indent size by one tab stop)

Extra Tip: You can use these keystrokes at any place in the paragraph!

Happy Birthday, Firefox

2008-11-24T10:37:00.000-05:00

As November draws to a close, let’s recognize the open-source browser Firefox, who this month reached the ripe old age of four years. To prove that it is truly growing up, Firefox’s share of the browser market jumped four points in the last three months, to almost 20%. The spike was due to the release of Firefox Version 3.0 which the first day it was available in July achieved a record-setting 8.2 million downloads. This success, which landed Firefox in the Guinness Book of Records, was the result of slick enhancements and one heck of a marketing effort by the Folks at Firefox. So, what’s all the fuss about 3? PC Magazine summarizes eight enhancements it especially likes. Here are some:

Create additional tabs by simply pressing the Ctrl key while dragging an existing tab into an empty space on the toolbar. Neat!
Shrink the size of the icons on the toolbar
Use smart bookmarks, for instance: the 10 sites you’ve visited most often, or the last 20 sites you’ve visited with a particular keyword in the title
Send Gmail or Yahoo mail by default
View your saved passwords for any page. This one is both exciting and kind of scary. Worthy of inspection in a future Tech Tip.

Although PC Magazine doesn’t include it, here’s one more feature that is perhaps the best of all: Zoom In / Zoom Out: You can change the size of text and images with these quick keystrokes:
Zoom in: Ctrl +
Zoom out: Ctrl -

Another Way to Get Your Monday Tech Fix

2008-11-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Last Monday, Nov 10, 2008 NPR launched a new segment called "All Tech Considered" on its All Things Considered show. The show wants to hear from its listeners about the world of technology and how it is changing the way we live, and invites questions and story ideas. You can join the All Tech Considered Group and participate in the group blog and Technology Questions discussion list.

You can also listen to the short Monday Podcast segments. Last week's podcast discussed the wonders of the new Android phone, including the T-Mobile G1 and the Apple iPhone. You were already introduced to that topic in last month's Androids Tech Tip.... it's definitely a hot topic.

Clear Web Passwords

2008-11-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

Your IE or Firefox web browser may contain saved passwords for certain sites that you visit. It's often helpful to store this information on your computer because it can improve web browsing speed or automatically provide information so you don't have to type it over and over. However, you may want to delete that information if you're cleaning up your computer or are using a public computer and don't want any of your personal information left behind. If you want to clear saved passwords, or want to change them to new ones, it's easy to clear existing passwords from your web browser. Here's how:

Internet Explorer, Version 7
Select these menu choices: Tools/Internet Options/General
Then, in the section entitled "Browsing History" select the Delete button
The Delete Browsing History window opens; select the Delete Passwords button

Firefox, Version 3
Select these menu choices: Tools/Options/Privacy
Then, in the section entitled "Private Data" choose Settings
The Clear Private Data window opens; to clear your passwords, select the Saved Passwords choice
Click OK

Note: As browser versions change, the choices you click to delete saved passwords may change slightly. However, it's a good bet you'll always find it somewhere in Tools/Options.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Web Services

2008-11-03T06:31:00.004-05:00

We previously published several tips that give shorthand ways to move around Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, copy or delete multiple files, print screens, etc.

This tip provides additional useful keyboard shortcuts, but this time for popular Web services. You’ll find shortcuts to please any Google fan: Gmail, Google Reader, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. You’ll also find shortcuts for Yahoo! Mail, Netvibes, Pandora, Wikipedia, and these two blogs: Blogger and WordPress.

You can find these Web services keyboard shortcuts in an addictive blog called http://mashable.com/. You might go to the blog with the idea of saving some time, but chances are you’ll find lots of reasons to stay a long while!

Example: Some Gmail Keyboard shortcuts

a | reply to all recipients

c | compose a new mail

/ | puts your cursor in the search box

f | forward message

k | move to newer conversation

j | move to older conversation

m | mute (archive, and make all future messages from this conversation skip the inbox

n | next message

o or Enter | open a conversation

p | previous message

r | reply to a mail

s | star a message or conversation

u | return to conversation list

x | select conversation

y | archive a conversation

! | report spam

ctrl+s | save a draft

Android !!

2008-10-27T17:21:00.009-04:00

Get used to the word … you’re apt to hear it often. Android is open source operating system and software for mobile phones. Android was developed by more than 30 technology and mobile companies who united to form a group called Open Handset Alliance; members include giants such as Google, T-Mobile, Sprint, Motorola and eBay. Their goal is to accelerate innovation in mobile technology and offer consumers a better and less expensive mobile experience. They intend to accomplish this by providing an open, complete, and free platform created specifically for mobile devices.

On Oct 22, 2008, Google and T-Mobile USA, Inc announced national availability of the T-Mobile G1, the first Android-powered mobile phone. The marriage of Google and T-Mobile ensure that beloved Google products like one-touch search, maps, Gmail, Calendar and YouTube and more are well represented in this phone. On its website, T-Mobile brags that T-Mobile G1 is “Everything you love about the web, now on a phone.” But wait, isn’t that what we heard just a few months ago about the iPhone? Can the T-Mobile G1 go head-to-head with its muscular competitor, the iPhone 3G, released last July? They do share some similarities, including:

WebKit-based browser and touch-screen interface

accelerometer, to change view from portrait to landscape

multiple apps

wireless

3G broadband

support for multi-megapixel photos and music

no video support

So what’s different? According to Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine, these differences keep the iPhone at the head of the pack:

G1 has a keyboard; iPhone does not

G1 has a dedicated search button; iPhone has barely any physical buttons

iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange server; G1 does not

G1 is built on an open-source; iPhone has an applications development platform, but Apple tightly controls what people can deliver through its App Store

If that’s not enough of a head start, in its 4Q earnings report, Apple announced that it sold 6.9 million iPhones in just two months. And, while the T-Mobile G1 offers more than 50 applications for download, the iPhone App Store offers ten times that many.

However, here’s the kicker that has technologists buzzing: Google’s Android Market. Beginning today (October 27, 2008) any developer, anywhere, will be able to register and upload applications which will be available for free. Early next year, developers will also be able to distribute paid apps in addition to free ones. Developers’ appetites have already been whetted; Google ‘s Android Developer Challenge supplied $10 million for mobile apps built on the Android platform.

It will be fun to watch the race of the iPhone and the Androids. With more than 3 billion mobile phone users on the planet, there’s great incentive to be the first across the finish line!

Ignore Backup of Certain Files

2008-10-20T13:46:00.000-04:00

How do I get my Scheduled Backup to ignore selected files so that my backup does not become too large?

If you followed the Backup Setup instructions from the I-Tech Training site, you have selected to back up your entire My Documents folder. You can setup a shortcut folder within My Documents for your large files (i.e. images, video, audio, etc.) that you do not want included in your backup but still want to access conveniently from My Documents:

1. From the Start button, your Desktop, or Windows Explorer, navigate to Local Disk (C:\)
2. Go to File→New→Folder.
3. Name your folder according to your preference (ex: Media Files).
4. Right-click the icon for the new folder and choose Copy from the menu.
5. From the Start button, your Desktop, or Windows Explorer, navigate to My Documents.
6. Choose Edit→Paste Shortcut, so that the shortcut for your folder appears inside My Documents.
7. From now on when you save files that you do not want to be included in your backup, save them inside this new folder.

Note: You may use this method to create as many backup-ignored folders as you'd like. Just remind yourself that any file you save in these folders will not be included in your scheduled backup!

Should I use Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel?

2008-10-13T07:12:00.008-04:00

Should I use a Spreadsheet or a Database?

Are you struggling to get the information you need from your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet? You're not alone. Many times we set up a data project in Excel, only to find it would be better suited to Microsoft Access, a database application. Database applications include tables for storing data, queries for viewing a specific subset of the data, forms for entering data, and reports for printing and sharing data.

Microsoft estimates that 70% of Excel users put database structures into Excel. Although Excel has some added features that are similar to those of databases, you still may find your data projects outgrowing the application. To help decide whether Excel or Access is the right choice for your project, ask yourself these questions:
• How big is my data project?
• Do I want to control the data entry?
• How will I use my data?

Spreadsheet	Database
I have less than 2000 records.	I have 2000 or more records.
This data file is for one time use, or is a template set up for a series of one-time use data projects.	I plan on using this data file repeatedly and expect that this project may grow.
I'm not very concerned what kind of values get entered into the a given data field.	I may need to restrict what gets entered into a field by data type or format, set default values, etc.
Duplicate records are unlikely or not a problem with my project.	I may need to restructure my data to minimize the possibility of entering duplicate data.
I am the only user will will need to access the data in the file.	Many users will need to access the file.


I'm more concerned with getting my records in quickly than making sure they are saved as I enter them.	I am more concerned with making sure my data is saved as each record is entered than I am about the quickest method.


My data will only be used and viewed in one way.	I need to manipulate my data to view it from many perspectives.
I mainly want to make calculations and generate charts and graphs.	I mainly want to store data, run queries, and generate reports.

What if I need the best of both worlds?
Putting your data into a database does not mean you are limited to using only the features and tools a database has to offer. Microsoft Access and other such databases have Import and Export commands so that you can pull data into a database from an Excel spreadsheet or send data out to one.

You can store your data in the database, run queries and reports, and then export a subset of that data to an Excel spreadsheet to make charts and graphs!

Internet Explorer7 … Website Security Certificate

2008-10-06T09:41:00.000-04:00

Requested by Amy Pfeffer, Lending Services,University Park

Amy asked us to revisit this Tech Tip, which had originally been published in August 2007. Since IE is one of the browsers supplied on the Libraries' life cycle image, and the page illustrated below is frequently encountered, it's a good idea for us to review it. Thank you, Amy!

Internet Explorer, Version 7, warns users when it doesn’t recognize web pages as trusted sites. In such cases, IE sends users to the screen displayed here:

In this example, Amy used IE to access the Libraries Helpdesk. IE didn’t recognize the Libraries locally-created security certificate, and was unable to determine that it is a trusted site. IE presented the intermediate screen to let Amy evaluate whether the site being accessed was secure.

In the case of the Helpdesk... it is secure, so it is OK to “Continue to this website.” However, this is a good reminder to always heed such warnings and evaluate each site before going there. Don’t just click through.

You may encounter this page when you use IE. The folks at IE have placed this page “in your way” as an extra step to help you practice safe computing.

PASS Storage Space Increased to 5GB

2008-09-29T16:01:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Kurt Baker, of Information Technology Services, for this Tip

PASS (Penn State Access Account Storage Space) disk/file storage space is available to the Penn State community. All students, faculty, and staff members with an Access Account receive an initial allotment of 500 MB of online storage space. Users have been able to to increase their storage allocations to 1GB via the ITS Secure Server. Effective October 1st, users will be able to increase their PASS space quota to 5GB.

There are a number of services at the University that rely on PASS as a key component for storage and delivery. For instance, PASS is used for these services, and more:

Penn State Personal Web space
Personal blog via blogs@Penn State
Departmental and Course Web space
ePortfolio
Remote login to ITS UNIX clusters
File Sharing
ITS Secure Server (www.work.psu.edu)
Penn State Portal
downloads.its.psu.edu

To learn more about PASS, including how to publish content to PASS for private or public sharing, visit http://its.psu.edu/PASS/

Workstation Management

2008-09-24T08:14:00.000-04:00

Just in time for Lifecycle upgrades! Learn or review …

• where critical folders and files are stored on your workstation
• how to create a backup folder in your space on U:\ on the network server
• how to copy files from your local drive to U:\

This class is being offered on the following days and times:
Thursday, September 25. 1:00-2:00pm
Wednesday, October 1. 1:30-2:30pm

Location: I-Tech Training Room, 108 Paterno

To Register: Please register online using Tech-Smart. Go to the Tech-Smart website from I-Tech and click on the link for “Tech-Smart Online Course Registration.” Enter your name and password.
Questions on registering using Tech-Smart should be directed to I-Tech (814) 865-2378

Customizing Office 2007

2008-09-08T15:34:00.009-04:00

Q: How do I add or move command where I want them on the Ribbon?

A: You can't. You can, however, add items to the Quick Access Toolbar, move the Quick Access Toolbar to a more convenient location, and/or minimize the Ribbon for some more screen real estate.

Adding Items to the Quick Access Toolbar

Use the Ribbon to locate the command button that you want to add to the Quick Access Toolbar and right-click that button.
Left-click the Add to Quick Access Toolbar menu option.

Note: You can only add commands that have buttons on the Ribbon.

Moving the Quick Access Toolbar

Click the Customize the Quick Access Toolbar button ()—a down-arrow next to the Quick Access Toolbar.
Make your selection:

If your Quick Access Toolbar is above the Ribbon, you can choose Show Below the Ribbon.
If your Quick Access Toolbar is above the Ribbon, you can choose Show Above the Ribbon.

Minimizing the Ribbon

Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button ()—a down-arrow next to the Quick Access Toolbar.
Choose Minimize the Ribbon.

Note: To work with the minimized Ribbon, just click on the Tab name. Once you make a selection, the Ribbon will minimize again!

Pandora: Make and Share Your Own Internet Radio Stations!

2008-09-08T08:44:00.000-04:00

Looking for some background music while you work? Pandora is a free Internet radio service that works like this: First you create a station by telling Pandora what artists or songs you like. When Pandora plays music that is similar to the music you like, you decide which songs to keep playing on your station. When you get a station you really like, you can even share it with your friends!

Pandora is from the Music Genome Project, started in 2000 when a group of musicians and technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Step 1: Create a Station

Go to http://pandora.com. If you don't have an account, click create an account. If you have one, login with your email and password.
Click the Create a New Station... button.
You can enter the name of a favorite artist or song (example: The Beatles).
If your selection is in Pandora's database, Pandora will create a station based on your selection. If Pandora selected incorrectly, you can click Hey! That's not what I wanted.
Your station is named for the artist or song you selected. To rename it, click the Station Options arrow beside your station and choose Rename this Station.
To add more songs to your station, click the Station Options arrow beside your station and choose Add Variety to this Station.
You can create more than one station. To create another one, repeat these steps.

Tip: If you select a song, Pandora may never play the song you picked, just songs similar to it. We recommend adding artists instead of favorite songs.

Step 2: Decide Which Songs You Like

Once you have a station, Pandora plays songs that are similar to your favorite selection(s). You may hear songs you already know and like, as well as new songs you've never heard. Unlike real radio, you have control over the programming:

If you like a song, and want to keep it in your station, click I like this song (the thumbs-up icon).
If you like a song, but it doesn't fit the overall mood of the station you are trying to create, you can move it to one of your other stations. On the thumbnail image, click menu→Move song to another station.
If you like a song, but just aren't in the mood to hear it, you can skip up to three songs per day by clicking the icon that looks like a fast-forward button, or you can switch to another station.
If you like the song, but are sick of hearing it, on the thumbnail image, click menu→Don't play this song for a month.
If you don't like the song, click I don't like this song (thumbs-down icon).

Tip: The more feedback you give Pandora, the better your station will get!

Step 3: Share Your Station

Click the Station Options arrow beside your station and choose Share this Station With a Friend.
Enter Your Name and Your Friends' Email Addresses (up to 25, separated by commas).
You can click Add a Personal Message to compose a message to send with your station.
Click Share.

Note: Pandora also works with your AT& T and Sprint mobile phones, and with your iPhone!

Desktop Shortcut to Web Page

2008-09-01T14:56:00.000-04:00

Requested by Frank Georgiana, Fayette Campus Library
Frank wanted to create a short-cut on his desktop to the EZ Borrow web page. It’s easy to do this, for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Here’s how …. 1. Open your web browser to the page that you want to create a shortcut to. 2. Resize your web browser so you can see both your computer’s desktop and the browser window at the same time. 3. Click and hold the icon that appears at the left edge of the URL address 4. While holding the left mouse button down, move your cursor pointer to the desktop – notice that the icon appear to move with the cursor – then release the mouse button. Voilà! The shortcut will be created.

Help Desk Hub

2008-08-25T10:15:00.001-04:00

Submitted by Peggy Myers, Technical Support Coordinator, DLT

The Help Desk Hub, which provides peer-to-peer sharing, ITS alerts, and other support information, was launched on August 14^th. DLT’s Senior Director, Mairéad Martin, took the audience in Foster Auditorium and MediaSite live for a tour and discussion of the new web site, found at https://communityhub.libraries.psu.edu/HelpDesk.

If you haven’t had a chance to try out the Help Desk Hub, we encourage you to do so. Log on with your Access ID and password and share your ideas by submitting a comment on an existing conversation or start one of your own. While you are there, take a look at the Message Board, ITS Alerts or try out the ITS Knowledge Base. And of course, you also can submit and review Libraries Help Desk Requests from the Hub.

If you missed the presentation, you can still view it via MediaSite Live at http://live.libraries.psu.edu . The presentation is entitled “UL Help Desk Community HUB” and the open presentation does not require a log on.

Word 2007: How Do I Make Times New Roman My Default Font ?

2008-08-18T07:13:00.001-04:00

You may have noticed that among the other changes to Word 2007, your default font is Calibri instead of Times New Roman. If you would like your Word documents to use Times by default again, this Tip is for you:

You will need to change Word's Normal document template, called Normal.dotm. This file determines what settings appear when you create a new document.

In the upper left corner, click the Office Button, then click Open
In the Open dialog box that appears, choose Trusted Templates on the left, and then double-click Normal.dotm to open that file.
Make sure the word "Normal" appears in the Word title bar at the top.
On the ribbon, click the Home tab.
Look for the Styles area and click Change Styles→Fonts→Office Classic.
Then, click Save.

That's it! From now on, your font will default to Times Roman.

Adding Room Locations in Oracle Calendar

2008-08-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

Submitted by Susan Walker, Assistant to the Dean, Penn State University Libraries.

To reserve a meeting room, go to… File / New / Meeting. Then follow these two steps:

1. On the "People/Resources" tab, click on the magnifying glass ("Advanced search" tool).
2. The Directory Search window opens. From there, click the Resources tab, then the Search by Resource radio button. To supply the resource name, type UL, and press Search; a list of University Libraries (UL) resources will be listed in the left-side window. Select the resource you want and "Add" it to the proposal. Click OK. (For example: Mann Assembly Room is UL UP/Paterno 103 Mann Assembly.)Hint: You can also list resources in the "New Meeting” window. On the "People/Resources" tab, type res: ul in the Add box, and press enter. A pop-up window appears containing all the Libraries' resources. Select the resource and click OK. [Note: You can also be more specific and type res: ul up/paterno. Only resources for Paterno will appear in the pop-up window.]If inviting a resource such as Mann Assembly Room, Foster Auditorium, Libraries Wide Calendar, or any of the instructional rooms that are published to the Web, don't forget to change "access" level of your meeting from "normal" to "public" so that it is viewable on the published calendar.

Unicorn Workflows Shortcut

2008-08-04T22:05:00.001-04:00

Here’s an easy tip for putting your Workflows icon on your desktop……

Click: Start / All Programs / Sirsi
Right click on WorkFlows, and then select Create Shortcut
Drag the shortcut to your desktop

Mailbox Inbox Reconstruction

2008-07-28T09:41:00.002-04:00

I delete it, but it keeps coming back!" -- Webmail users sometimes find a stubborn message they can't delete; Eudora users get an error saying they need to reconstruct. What to do?

Email guru Lance Wilkinson, of Digital Library Technologies, gave an excellent presentation at this month’s Tech Update about how to solve these email dilemmas. Following Lance’s easy directions, users can reconstruct their mailbox inbox. For details, you can watch the July 8, 2008 Tech Update on Mediasite Live. Libraries colleagues: If you need to review Mediasite login details (username, password), are available on the Tech Update web page.

Print Screen – Two Ways

2008-07-21T07:59:00.002-04:00

In a previous Tech Tip, we showed you how to use Print Screen to take a snapshot image of whatever currently appears on your screen and save it to the Windows Clipboard. To review…
1. Press the Print Screen key
2. Then, go to your destination location (such as a Word document or email message)
3. Right-click and select PASTE
4. The captured image will pop into the selected destination

But, there may be times when you want only a snapshot of the current window, not all the whole screen. That’s easy too! If you would like to capture only the current window, hold down the ALT button while you press the Print Screen button.

So, Just how big is WorldCat??

2008-07-11T11:29:00.005-04:00

A few WorldCat facts picked up at the ALA Conference in Anaheim…

How many records?	100+ million
How many holdings?	1.29 billion
How long to get to…....
50 million records?	31 years
100 million records?	6 additional years
How often is a record added?	Every 10 seconds
How many records added FY 2008?	210 million
Multilingual WorldCat…....
Non-English in 1998	36%
Non-English in 2008	50%
Languages/dialects represented	470+
What’s the monthly traffic?
Unique users	2 million
Page views	13 million
Full-record views	6 million
Click-throughs to library services (ILL, OpenURL, OPAC, etc.)	750 thousand
How many libraries represented?	69 thousand
How many countries represented?	112

Wikipedia added to Google Maps

2008-07-07T11:13:00.003-04:00

Wikipedia articles have been added to Google Maps! The new Wikipedia tags can be turned on through the “More” button that appears in the top right-hand corner of the map you have chosen.
When you select the Wikipedia box, small “W” tags appear on the map where Wikipedia articles are available.

Clicking on the “W” opens an information window containing the Wikipedia article.

Filling in Online Forms: Keyboard shortcuts

2008-06-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

Two keys on your keyboard really help when you are filling in web forms online: Tab and Spacebar.

Tab: When you fill out a form that asks for your name, address, etc., you can use the Tab key to advance from one line or information box to the next: your mouse cursor automatically moves each time you press Tab.

Spacebar: When you have to place a checkmark in a box, just hit Spacebar. Or, if you want to uncheck a box, hit the Spacebar again.

Next time you need to fill out a form, let these keys help you with the task.

IBIS Upgrade - Connecting through Hummingbird

2008-06-02T08:00:00.005-04:00

Reminder! Before July 1st, IBIS users need to install a new version of Hummingbird HostExplorer in order to have the encrypted telnet access that AIS is requiring. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes.

To download Hummingbird HostExplorer 2008 V13.0.0.209:
1. Go to: https://downloads.its.psu.edu/
2. Click: Connecting to Penn State
3. Find Hummingbird HostExplorer 2008, then click: windows
4. Click: "Version 13.0.0.209", then click: save Note: Leave unchecked the box that says “Close this dialog box when download complete.”
5. Once the file downloads, click: install

Once you have Hummingbird installed as described above, to get to IBIS….
1. Click: Start (lower left corner of screen)
2. Click: All Programs
3. Click: Hummingbird Connectivity 2008
4. Click: Host Explorer 5. Select: Secure AIS, then click: Connect

You should now be in IBIS. Questions? Contact Michelle Dzyak, med15@psu.edu

Word: Moving Paragraphs Around

2008-05-26T08:50:00.001-04:00

Three key strokes let you easily move paragraphs around in Word documents:

1. Place your cursor anywhere in the paragraph you intend to move.

2. Next, press and hold these two keys: Alt + Shift

3. Then, press the up or down arrow to move your paragraph in either direction.

Each time you press the arrow key (while holding Alt + Shift), your entire paragraph moves up or down one paragraph. To move something quickly past multiple paragraphs, simply hold down the arrow key until you reach the desired spot in your document.

Twit-Wits

2008-05-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't heard of Twitter or microblogging, let us start there:

What is a microblog? What is Twitter?

Just as a blog is an easy means of communicating one person's message out to an audience of many subscribers, a microblog is a means of sending your message to many subscribers. The difference is microblog messages are much, much smaller.

Microblogs, such as Twitter, limit users to a number of characters, so the entries are shorter and more frequent. Microbloggers can use the Twitter Web page, a cell phone, or other third-party software to enter their messages to their subscribers, or followers.

How are people using Twitter? Why should I use it?

People are using Twitter in a number of ways:

Everyday chit-chat.
Posing a question to a large audience.
Sharing links and pictures of interest immediately.
Discussing a conference or presentation as it happens.

There are a number of reasons why Twitter could be useful to you:

You can feel like people at another location are right in your office (shorten the "virtual distance"—consider colleagues from other campus locations).

You can ask post a question to a large group of people and get nearly immediate feedback.

You can share notes about important work-related events, just-in-time so that when you go back to formally report on them you have been taking notes all along.

I'm ready to give Twitter a try. Now what?

Download the Using Twitter instructions at https://intranet.libraries.psu.edu/home/itech/training/archives.html to set up an account and install the third-party application of your choice.

Then, if you would like to be part of the directory of PSU libraries users, send an email to Nikki Massaro Kauffman. Your Twitter handle will be listed on our Intranet for other PSU libraries users to find you.

How Do I Fix Line Spacing in Word?

2008-05-12T14:44:00.000-04:00

Any of these can affect the amount of white space that occurs between two lines of text:
• Line Spacing: The spacing between individual lines can be single, double, etc.
• Spacing Before/After Each Paragraph: These options are used to visually separate paragraphs; they add extra space before and/or after each new paragraph starts.
• Line and Page Breaks: These options include concepts like widow & orphan control --ways for you to keep sections of text together by forcing page breaks, etc.

To troubleshoot spacing problems, do the following:
1. In the Home tab / Paragraph section, click the line spacing icon (it has up/down arrows).
2. You can adjust it to 1.0, 1.15, etc.
3. If setting this does not fix the problem, go back to Paragraph and choose Line Spacing
Options...
4. Note the Indents and Spacing tab. There, check Spacing to review the amount of space
Before and After each Paragraph.
5. Notice there is also a checkbox for “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.”
This will suppress extra spacing before and after similar paragraphs.
6. Finally, you may can also check the tab called Line and Page Break. See under Pagination:
o Widow/Orphan control prevents the first and last lines for a section from appearing on a
separate page from the rest of the section. If you check this option, Word will
automatically place extra spacing before the section to prevent widows and orphans.
o Keep with next ensures that the selected text is never the last item on a page, and will
always be on the same page as the next item. If you check this option, Word will
automatically place extra spacing before the selection to keep it from being last.
o attempts to treat the selection as a group. If you check this option,
Word will automatically place extra spacing to keep a page break from falling within this
selection.
o Page break before will place a page break right before the selection.

Oracle Calendar: How to Print a Single Calendar Entry

2008-05-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

Submitted by Susan Walker , Assistant to the Dean, Penn State University Libraries. Thanks go to Jennifer Cain in Libraries' Human Resources for sharing this tip.

Did you know that in addition to printing daily, weekly, and monthly Oracle calendar schedules, you can also print a "single" entry? Here’s how:

1. From your agenda, click on the activity that you wish to print. Note: A bar will appear above and below the selected entry.

2. Then click File, and choose Print Selected Entry…

3. A Print Setup screen appears. Choose Portrait or Landscape from the “setup” button for your printer or the “layout” dropdown menu for Oracle.Your printed page will include all information pertinent to that activity: title and location; date and time; attendee information (attending, not attending, unconfirmed); resource information, detail information, and information as to who proposed the meeting.

Take the printed page with you to the meeting and write your notes on it. What a great way to have all information about the meeting together and you can file it with your meeting folder.

What is CAPTCHA??

2008-04-28T08:01:00.002-04:00

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing [test to tell] Computers and Humans Apart. Although you may not be familiar with this acronym, it’s very likely that you’ve experienced one on various web sites. A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test used with computers to determine if a user is human or not. Whenever you are asked to type in a series of letters and numbers, often distorted, on a web page, you have been presented with a CAPTCHA test.

CAPTCHAs may be used to limit access to web services such as banking and e-shopping sites to “real people,” and to try and block access by computer “bots” masquerading as people. They are also used on other web sites such as Yahoo mail. In short, they are a useful ally in the effort to make the web secure.

Page Borders: Print the Bottom Border too!

2008-04-21T15:55:00.000-04:00

Have you ever tried to print a page border in an MS Word document, only to find out the bottom border is missing? Here’s a way to solve that problem:

In the Page Layout tab, choose Page Borders, which opens the Borders and Shading Dialogue window. Then, click the Options button (lower right).
The Border and Shading Options sub-window opens, and includes a field called “Measure from:” occurs there. Select Text from its drop-down menu.
Note that the margin numbers in the fields above change. These numbers represent the amount of space from the text area of the page to the page border. You can experiment with those settings to see what you like best.
To return from the open windows to your document, click OK, and then OK again.

Once you're back in your document, you can see the borders you've set and you should find that with the page border pulled in closer to the text, your printing dilemma is resolved.

SPAMALOT: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your SPAM Filter...

2008-04-08T10:25:00.020-04:00

What is the Spam Filter?

If you are using your psulias email account, your email is being filtered by the PreciseMail Anti-Spam Gateway (PMAS). PMAS checks each message coming into your @psulias.psu.edu address and gives it a score based on the likelihood of it being spam. (Note: Some messages--like those sent from "trusted" libraries machines--may skip the scanning process.)

How does PMAS know what to do with a message?

PMAS will either allow, quarantine, or block a message based on your personal settings. (Note: PMAS can also discard messages, but this feature is disabled for all PSUL users.)

A message that has been allowed will skip the spam filtering process and go straight to your inbox.
A message that has been quarantined will be placed in the PMAS Quarantine. You will not see it in your inbox unless you go to the PMAS Quarantine and release it.
A message that has been blocked will never reach your inbox or your quarantine. It is gone!

You should check your PMAS Quarantine and Settings regularly by going to: https://psulias.psu.edu/spamhunter/pmas/quarantine and logging in using your access account.

You will see the following:

How Do I Release Messages from Quarantine?

Place a checkmark beside each message you wish to release.
Press the Release button.
You will get a prompt like the one on the right.

To allow just this message through, click Close Window.
To allow this and any future messages from the sender, place a check on the left checkbox.
To allow everything from the sender's domain (e.g. "@psu.edu", "@gmail.com"), use the checkbox on the right (not recommended--domains can be spoofed).

Click Add Checked Items to Allow List.

How Do I Check/Adjust My Settings?

Click on the Preferences button. You will see a table summarizing the default settings for all PSUL users. You can Enable/Disable these settings as well as modify the Threshold by adjusting them in the sections just below the table.

If Tagging Subjects is Enabled, all spam scored above the Threshold will be tagged as spam in the subject line for you.
If Quarantining Messages is Enabled, all spam scored above the Threshold will be placed in the PMAS Quarantine.
We currently do not enable Discarding Messages. You do not need to do anything here.
Save Preferences when you finish.

Click on the Allowlist. Make sure addresses you want allowed or "whitelisted" are on this list.

You will see a section for adding email addresses or domains (New Address or Domain, Optional Description and Add button) before they fall into your quarantine.
You can also Edit or Delete addresses and domains already on your Allowlist.
Save Changes when you finish.

Click on the Blocklist button. Make sure addresses you want blocked or "blacklisted" are on this list. (The steps are similar to the Allowlist.) Remember, that you will never have the chance to release these messages. Once blocked; they are gone!

For more on Spam and Filtering, find the detailed document in the I-Tech training archives.

Text Lingo

2008-04-07T15:22:00.000-04:00

Every day, millions upon millions of people text message each other using IM, cell phones, Blackberries, chat rooms, blogs and newsgroups. Cryptic abbreviations such as those illustrated here are part of the standard lexicography of the texting crowd.

AFK	Away from Keyboard
BRB	Be Right Back
CUS	See you soon
F2F	Face To Face
GTG	Got To Go
IAC	In any case
IC	I see
IMO	In my opinion
JK	Just Kidding
L8R	Later
LOL	Laugh Out Loud
NP	No problem
THX	Thanks
TTYL	Talk To You Later
TY	Thank You
YW	You're Welcome

Google recently discussed this very issue in Google Talk goes green posted on Tuesday, April 01, 2008 12:01 am. Deep scientific discussion or an epistle in honor of April Fool’s Day?? You be the judge. LOL-CUS!!

Using the Oracle Calendar In-tray to Check for Conflicts

2008-03-31T18:42:00.001-04:00

by Susan Walker, Assistant to the Dean, Penn State University Libraries.
For details, contact:slw1@psulias.psu.edu

Are you frustrated when reviewing proposals in your Oracle Calendar In-tray because you can’t see if there are conflicts on your calendar or what is scheduled around a meeting? Do you leave the In-tray and look for the proposal on your Agenda (Calendar)? Good news: You can check these things from your In-tray. Here’s how: Simply highlight the proposal and right-click with your mouse; a separate menu pops up that allows you to Check Conflicts and Find Meeting.

You may have no conflicts. In this case, you can go ahead and acccept your meeting.

Or, the pop-up may state: “This meeting causes 1 conflict(s) in your Agenda.” In this case, simply highlight, right click, and select Find Meeting. A separate Agenda window for that day/time pops up for you to view the conflict. Right click on the meeting and you can accept or reject the meeting from the next pop-up window. You can also send an email from that window.

Remember: just right click on the mouse to bring up the “time-saving” pop-up windows!

How to Get the Filepath & Filename into a Word Document Footer

2008-03-24T14:30:00.000-04:00

If you already have a footer in your document, start by clicking on it, then press Enter to advance to the next line, where your filename/path will be inserted without writing over existing footer text.
If you don't have a footer, go to the ribbon and click the Insert tab. Then, in the Header & Footer group, click Footer, and select one of the footer choices.
Once you have a footer, highlight one of its empty footer fields.
Note the label above the ribbon called Header & Footer Tools. Click the Design tab beneath it. From the Design tab ribbon, find the Insert group, then click on the Quick Parts button, and choose Field.
The Field dialog box opens, where you can choose the following:

Categories: All
Field names: FileName
Field options: Add path to filename

Selective Printing: Save a Tree!

2008-03-17T14:24:00.005-04:00

Sometimes you need to print only part of a web page or email. Here’s how:

First, use your cursor to highlight the area you would like to print
Then, select File and choose Print
The printer dialog box will appear. In the Print range frame, choose the option Selection.
Click OK

Note: This tip only works if your printer driver and software application support this choice. If it is not supported on your computer, you can copy/paste the desired text into a Word file. It’s not as slick, but it also helps to solve the excess paper problem.

How do I create a Print button in Word 2007?

2008-03-10T07:39:00.000-04:00

You can do this by customizing the Quick Access Toolbar. This toolbar is usually located near the upper-left corner, next to the multi-colored Microsoft Office Button, or may be above or below the ribbon. It is easily recognizable by the downward-pointing arrow at its right edge.

Adding Print (or other commands) from the Quick Access Toolbar:

Click the down arrow to the right of the toolbar
Select More Commands
Select the desired command
Click Add
Click OK

Adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar from the Office Button:

Richt-click on the Button
Click Customize Quick Access Toolbar

Adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar from a command on the Ribbon:

Right-click on the commnad
Click Add to Quick Access Toolbar

Backup 101

2008-02-28T11:42:00.005-05:00

How to Check your auto-backup on your Personal Network Drive Space

Using Windows Explorer, navigate roo to the U:/ directory, and find the file that ends with .bak. Then, check the following:

Is there just one .bak file in your entire U-drive? If not, stay tuned, and a future Tech Tip will tell you how to eliminate extra backups.

Is the file Size between 1,000,000 and 4,000,000 KB?
Too low? You might not be backing up everything you need.
Too high? You may be backing up too much. Stay tuned for an upcoming Tech Tip on what you should—and should not—back up.

Is Date Modified within the past two weeks? You may have an old password or the machine may be off during the scheduled time. Check scheduled backup time and fix your password as described below.

How to reset your auto-backup Password

Click the green Start button (bottom left).
Click All Programs→Accessories→System Tools→Scheduled Tasks.
Then, right click on your auto-backup and select Properties.
To reset your password, choose the Task tab, and click the Set Password button.

Extra Hints...

Supply the same password you use to log into Windows.
You must supply a password, or Backup won’t run, even if it’s scheduled.

How to check your auto-backup scheduled Frequency/Time

Click the green Start button, and click through to Properties, as described above.

Choose the Schedule tab, and note the scheduled day and time for your backup. Make sure your workstation will be on during the specified time. If it is turned off, no backup will occur.