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Technology Tip of the Month Archive

Fall 2012 tip

Connecting to Wireless on VIU's campus

When you are asked for your username ensure you type it in the following format:

Students: discovery\student#

Faculty: capitan\username

Summer 2012 tip

VPN connection. Access your U drive, Shared drives, and email from home.

Did you know that you can access your U drive and Shared drives from home? Have you ever wanted to access your VIU email via Outlook from home? You can do all of this using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection. For information on how to set this up please visit our VPN page.

Fall 2011 Tip

Outlook Archive files (.PSTs) that are saved on the network are NOT backed up.

If the Outlook Archive file becomes corrupted or is deleted it cannot be recovered. ITS recommends that Archived Outlook files be stored on CDs/DVDs or USB drives. A copy can be restored onto your computer so that you can easily access it from within Outlook. Please refer to our web page for detailed information: http://www.viu.ca/technology/employees/archiving.asp

Summer 2010 Tip of the Month

Make sure your computer always gets the latest patches and updates.

For campus computers, ITS recommends the following computer practice, at the end of each business day:

  • Do not power off your PC
  • Close all applications
    • Click Start --> Logoff
  • Power off your monitor
  • Once a week restart your computer
    • Click Start --> Shut Down -->Restart

Frequently, ITS gets little or no notice about security updates or patches and needs to push them out immediately. These updates are pushed out at night so require the systems to be left on. Some of these updates and patches require a restart to complete their installation.

April 2010 Tip of the Month

Make sure your computer always gets the latest patches and updates.

For campus computers, ITS recommends the following computer practice, at the end of each business day:

  • Do not power off your PC
  • Close all applications
    • Click Start --> Logoff
  • Power off your monitor
  • Once a week restart your computer
    • Click Start --> Shut Down -->Restart

Frequently, ITS gets little or no notice about security updates or patches and needs to push them out immediately. These updates are pushed out at night so require the systems to be left on. Some of these updates and patches require a restart to complete their installation.

March 2010 Tip of the Month

Microsoft OneNote:  Creating a Side Note

OneNote Side Note

February 2010 Tip of the Month

Add items you use on a regular basis to the Word 2007 Quick Access Toolbar

We all have features that we frequently access. For example, if you change your page margins on a regular basis then it would be useful to add the Margins button to the Quick Access Toolbar.

To do this:

  1. On the Ribbon, select the tab containing one of your favourite buttons
  2. Right click the button
  3. Then, left-click ‘Add to Quick Access Toolbar’.

For a visual approach to customizing the Quick Access Toolbar, check out the steps and video in this Microsoft http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA012341051033.aspx.

January 2010 Tip of the Month

One of the least talked about features of Office 2007 is the online help system Office Help, for an introduction on how to use help click here(pdf).

December 2009 Tip of the Month

Create a Watermark for your Word Document. Watermarks are often used to provide information about a document. For example, they can be used to show that a document is a copy or a working draft. Click here for more information (pdf).

November 2009 Tip of the Month

When you are working in OneNote you can easily record a voice clip and play it back at a later date. Click here to find out how.

October 2009 Tip of the Month

Planning an event? Will the attendees require computer or Internet access? Contact the IT Helpdesk for options (ithelp@viu.ca or L6300). Minimum 1 week's notice.

September 2009 Tip of the Month

The Calendar feature in Microsoft Outlook can help to organize your day, week, month or even year! Navigate to Outlook and then use the steps below to schedule a class, meeting or other appointment:
  1. On the file menu, point to New and click Appointment.
  2. Type a meaningful description in the Subject box.
  3. Type the location of the event in the Location box .
  4. Enter the start and end times. HINT:Uncheck the 'All Day Event' box if your event is less than all day.
  5. To make your event recur, look for the Options group on the Appointments tab. Click on Recurrence. Choose the desired frequency options. Click OK.
  6. Select other options you'd like then click Save & Close.

Want to know more? Click below for more Calendar tutorials. These links will take you to the Microsoft site tutorials.

Calendar Basics I

Calendar Basics II

April 2009 Tip of the Month

Inspect your PowerPoint presentation for comments, annotations, invisible off- and on-slide content, presentation notes, etc. that you may prefer to remove before displaying or sending your file to others.

  1. Click the Office button.
  2. On the 'Prepare' menu, click 'Inspect Document'.
  3. Click to place a check mark in the check boxes of the items you want the Document Inspector to look for. Click to remove any unwanted check marks.
  4. Click 'Inspect'.
  5. Click 'Remove All' for those items you want to remove unwanted content.
  6. Click 'Close'.
  7. Either resave this file with the content removed, or save the file under a different name if you want to keep the original copy of the file, as well as a copy with the content removed.

March 2009 Tip of the Month

Update your Distribution Lists

The change to the new viu.ca domain name will have an effect on your Outlook Distribution Lists.
Internal recipients added before the change will have a mala.bc.ca or a mala.ca email addresses if the members were picked from the Global Address List. Distribution list members added after the domain name change will have the correct viu.ca address. Distribution Lists of external recipients are not affected.

To update your lists:

  1. Open a distribution list in Outlook
  2. Add or remove recipients if needed
  3. Click the “Update Now” Button

This will update all the recipients to the new Firstname.Lastname@viu.ca format, and prepare for the time when the old domain names are retired (N.B.: as yet there is no date set for the retirement.)

If the Distribution List does not update to the viu.ca addresses, the recipients were added to the list by another means. They will need to be removed and then added again from the Global Address List.

February 2009 Tip of the Month

Add the document name to a footer in Microsoft Word 2007

  1. Double-click in the margin area at the bottom of the document to open the Footer pane
  2. Place your insertion point where you want to add the document’s name
  3. Click ‘Insert’ tab
  4. Click ‘Quick Parts’ and then click ‘Field’
  5. In Categories column, select ‘FileName’
  6. In Field Properties, select  any one of the ‘Field Options’, e.g. Lowercase
  7. In Field Options, add the name of the drive and/or folder in which your document is saved by clicking ‘Add path to filename’
  8. Click OK to complete the action
  9. Double-click anywhere in the document area to close the Footer pane

To learn more about document parts, complete this Word training interactive exercise http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102414221033&pid=CR100654561033

January 2009 Tip of the Month

Exploring Document Views
Under the View tab in Word 2007, you will find a selection of five different document views including: Print Layout, Full Screen Reading, Web Layout, Outline, and Draft. If you hover over each view with your cursor, a dialog box will appear explaining the best way to use each view.

Document View

For quick access to document views, enable your View Shortcut toolbar. It will appear in the bottom right hand corner of your Word window.

Document View Shortcut

December 2008 Tip of the Month

Keeping Organized with Outlook
Outlook 2007 allows you to stay organized by using colour categories to group emails. Just click the 'Categorize' button on the standard toolbar and choose a colour and name to classify your emails.

Outlook Categories

You are also able to change the category name and colour by clicking 'All Categories' off the menu. The 'Colour Categories' dialog box will then appear, and you will be able to edit existing or create new classifications.

Outlook Categories

November 2008 Tip of the Month

Having trouble locating your favourite tools and features in Office 2007? Try these Interactive Command Reference Guides from Microsoft©. Each guide allows you to click a feature or tool in Office 2003 and then shows you the new location in Office 2007.

October 2008 Tip of the Month

The Quick Access Toolbar is a customizable toolbar located in the default position directly beside the Microsoft Office Button. Users are able to build or alter the selection of commands available on the toolbar according to individual preferences/specifications. The Quick Access Toolbar is a convenient way to keep the most commonly used commands available at all times.

Quick Access Toolbar