Category Archives: Windows/Computer

Question of the week of 1/9/12 – Why doesn’t my email size shrink?

Posted by on January 9th, 2012
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Question: Why is my email size not shrinking after deleting hundreds of messages?

Answer: If you’ve been slaving over deleting your email and converting messages to PDF, you may notice that your email size still isn’t shrinking that much. Maybe you’ve experienced a similar frustration after starving yourself with your New Year’s diet and not seeing immediate results on the scale. You have to keep up those good habits and eventually you’ll see some progress. Some of the reasons for not seeing your mail size decrease are:

  • Deleted email goes to your trash and is emptied after 96 hours (unless you empty trash yourself)
  • If you converted mail to PDFs, those messages remain on Lotus Notes. You still need to delete them.
  • Mail is compacted from the Lotus Notes server, which usually happens nightly. However a more complete compaction takes place on the weekends. So it may take up to a week to notice any significant reduction in your mail size.

Please BE CAREFUL when deleting mail. In some cases staff have accidentally deleted all email messages or folders and have later asked to have messages restored, which creates extra work for everyone and not all messages may be restored. Deleted messages automatically go into the trash folder for 96 hours, allowing you to restore the messages if necessary. In most cases people realize their deletion mistake within that time frame. If you remove a folder, however, it cannot be recovered from trash. ITS recommends deleting only folders that you are sure you do not need to keep.

Don’t be too concerned about deleting messages and instead focus on messages you need to keep. Copy those messages into folders called “keep” or rename your folders with “keep” before the folder name so you can easily identify them. It is likely only mail after 1/1/2012 will be migrated, so deleting old emails is not that productive. You will be able to convert messages to PDF or forward messages to Outlook for several weeks after the initial migration.

Just be patient and you’ll eventually see positive results, and you’ll get that elated feeling similar to when you clean your closets or your basement….or when you lose a few of those extra holiday pounds!

 Click here for some excellent tips from PC Week to get better organized in the new year and to change your business practices for saving files.

Question of the week of 1/2/2012 – Resolve to get organized in 2012!

Posted by on January 4th, 2012
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Question: Can someone help me determine how to best save email and files for easy searching?

Answer: Unfortunately, only you and your colleagues best understand your work flow and requirements. The new year is a great time to resolve to get better organized. This means brainstorming and possibly changing your business practices so that email is NOT used as your records retention/file storage location. Since only a limited amount of Lotus Notes mail (if any) will be migrated to Outlook, and because the new email system has size limitations and no automatic archiving, we must find ways to work more efficiently. PCMAG has a series of excellent articles addressing this topic which will give you some suggestions.

In addition, concentrate on which Lotus Notes mail you want to keep and less on deleting. Save those messages in a folder called “Keep” or rename folders with “keep” before the folder name to easily identify them later. You will be able to convert those to PDF or forward emails to Outlook for several weeks after the conversion to Outlook.

Question of the week of 11/21/11 – Email Spam/Scams – It’s that time of year

Posted by on November 22nd, 2011
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Question: I received a message and wonder if it is legit?

Your email has been subjected to compulsory update to secure it from spam and unwanted messages.
Please Click Here to update.
Note: Failure to confirm your email account within 72 hours will result to email account suspension.

Answer: No, it is not legit. It seems like this time of year even more spam and scam messages appear in our email. One way you can often identify if email messages are suspicious is to hover your mouse over the link in the messages. You’ll see the link in the lower left of the status bar. If it is an unidentifiable link, more than likely it is a scam trying to solicit personal information . DO NOT respond and simply delete the message. If you have questions about specific messages, please contact our IT Helpdesk at 402-559-7700.

 

Question of the week of 1/3/11 – Refresh and update your computer skills in the new year

Posted by on January 3rd, 2011
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Question: Do you offer classes to help update computing skills? I am self-taught and would like to improve my computing skills but prefer not to attend long classes since I already have some knowledge.

Answer: Besides our regular course offerings, ITS has several other options to help you enhance your technology skills. Some are are listed below. In addition, be sure to check out the ITS Classes/Training link here .

Shape up your skills watching these tutorial sessions on the “big screen”

 

  • Overview of self-study options on 1/5 from 10-11:30. Learn where to find ITS training videos and how to sign up for and access other free online tutorials.
  • Personal Computing Fundamentals on 1/6 from 2-4 p.m.
  • Network and Internet Basics on 1/13 from 12-1 p.m.
  • Mac Operating System X Snow Leopard – 1/25 from 2-4 p.m. Feel free to bring your Mac laptop.
  • Publisher 2010 Basics – 2/3 from 2-4 p.m.
  • OneNote 2010 – 2/22 from 2-4 p.m. Keep tabs on your life by taking notes, make plans and get organized using OneNote.

 

 

Email Crash Diet -  - In this hands-on session learn how to trim your email storage and manage your inbox with rules and other productivity tools on 2/10 from 10-11:30 a.m.

Drop in Makeover Sessions - Stop by the ITS training room (8011 Wittson) during the times listed below and get one-on-one help with your projects and give your files a facelift!

  • Access Drop-in Makeovers – 1/6 from 10 a.m. – 12 noon
  • PowerPoint Drop-in Makeovers – 1/20 from 10 a.m. – 12 noon
  • Word Drop-in Makeovers – 1/26 from 1-3 p.m.
  • Excel Drop-in Makeovers – 2/3 from 10 a.m. – 12 noon

 

 

 

Question of the week of 10/4 – Snipping tool (partial screen capture)

Posted by on September 30th, 2010
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Question: You showed a really cool feature in your “What’s New with Office 2010″ session this week which captures part of a screen, and you mentioned Windows 7 has a similar tool. I often need to use screen shots but find myself having to use the crop feature to get the part of the screen that I need. Can you tell me how to find it again?

Answer: Yes, Office 2010 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook) now has a ”Screen Shot” button available on the Insert Tab of the ribbon. If you click the Snapshot button it will show the current windows open and you can click on the window you’d like to capture and it will paste into your document. If you click the down arrow to get the Screen Clipping option, you can click and drag over the area of the window you want to capture and that section will paste automatically into your document. Really slick!

In Windows 7, the “Snipping Tool” works similarly. It is located on the Windows “Start” button on the desktop (lower left of desktop) and in the Accessories folder. Click Snipping tool and then go to the desired Window and drag to select what you would like to capture. Then you can click Copy and then paste into a document. I use this feature so often that I pin it (right click  on it to pin) to my Windows 7 taskbar or my Start menu.

Lotus Notes also has a similar feature. It is found only if you are logged into Sametime Instant Messaging – on the client, select File > Sametime > Log in (or you can click on the right side of Lotus Notes Notes screen to expand the sidebar and log into Sametime). Then click the double arrow pointing down (more buttons) above the “type to find name field” and select capture part of screen. The only problem with the Notes feature, you need to have both windows on the screen, so you may have to resize your windows to get that to work.