We’re now offering a new technology workshop on the Fordham Training website called
“Blackboard Made Easy“.
This for instructors who have never used Blackboard before and have little or no computer experience but want to take advantage of using the online system to post class materials.
At the end of the hour long workshop, some of the basic tasks instructors will be able to do are:
- Posting content to Blackboard
- Creating a discussion board forum
- Making their course available and accessible
We hope to offer this workshop monthly, and perhaps even have a more advanced course available to showcase some of the other features in Blackboard that would be useful to instructors. If you are interested in attending please visit the Fordham Training website to sign up.
The next dates this workshop will be offered are 12/9 at Rose Hill & 12/10 at Lincoln Center, but space is limited so register soon!
If you’re as much of a multi-tasker as I am, chances are you’ve usually got about a million programs opened up at once. While Macs certainly have the RAM to support that, their standard screen sizes don’t necessarily have the surface area for it. I’m a graphic designer, so at any given time I have Photoshop and Illustrator open together. I compulsively check my email, so Firefox and Lotus Notes are always a must. Factor in iChat and iTunes, and you’ve got one cluttered screen.
Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard come with a feature that saved me from this clutter: Spaces. It’s an incredibly easy way to organize your windows and applications by simulating a multi-desktop experience. The feature splits your computer into four (or more) screens and allows you to toggle between each by setting up your own keyboard commands.
Fordham University will be switching from Microsoft Office 2003 to 2007 over the next few months. For more details about when computers in the labs will be upgraded and how to get a copy for your home/office computer, see the previous blog entry.
So what’s new in MS Office 2007?
The biggest change that you will notice as soon as you open a MS Office 2007 product is “The Ribbon”. Instead of having choices that open up a drop-down menu, the new interface organizes tabs into “Tasks” that will display options on the ribbon.
Mini Tool bar
When text is selected the mini text toolbar will appear allowing you to edit such things as the font size or color without having to make a selection from the Home tab. Right clicking will also open the floating mini toolbar. For those of you who find the tool bar distracting and would like to turn off that feature, simply click on the Office button and select “Word Options”. On the “Popular” menu, you can check or uncheck the box for “Show Mini Toolbar on Selection”.
Live Preview
This is another new feature in Office 2007 products. When you mouse-over any formatting option, you will see a live preview without actually applying the new format. For example, if you highlight a portion of text and scroll through the font choices, you will see how your selected text looks with that font applied to it. This lets you quickly view different options without having to actually change the text.
File format issues
There are several things to keep in mind when saving documents in Office 2007 products. If you save a document in the 2007 file format and send it to someone who has Office 2003, they will be unable to open the document unless they download the Compatibility Pack from Microsoft (see below). To save a file in the 97 – 2003 format, select “Save As” from the Office button and choose that format from the selections offered. For people who want to save the majority of their files in this format, it is possible to set the default for saving documents as a 97 – 2003 file. To do this, click the Office button and select “Word Options” at the bottom. Select the “Save” menu and choose the desired file format from the drop down menu.
What is compatibility mode?
Compatibility mode will allow you to open, edit, and save documents in the 2003 format, however; in doing so you will lose the ability to use the new features available in MS Office 2007 such as SmartArt. It is also possible to convert a 2003 to a 2007 file format. To do this, simply click the Office Button and select “Convert”. To read more about compatibility mode in MS Office 2007 products, visit the Microsoft TechNet Website.
Can I still use shortcut keys?
Yes, to view the shortcut keys, press the “ALT” key at any time to display the shortcut keys next to their corresponding functions. For example if you press the “ALT” key, the H that appears shows you that you can press “ALT + H” to move to the Home tab. The shortcut keys can be toggled on and off at anytime by pressing the “ALT” key.
In the next several weeks, we will take a close look at Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 by sharing tips, tutorials, and resources. In the meantime, for more information:
When will the computer labs have MS Office 2007?
The computer labs on the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Westchester campuses will begin installing MS Office 2007 this summer.
How do I get MS Office 2007 installed on my office computer?
Contact the University Help Desk to put in a request by phone (718-817-3999) or email (helpdesk@fordham.edu). User Support will be notified and will schedule a mutually convenient appointment at the client’s location to install the software. Can I get a copy of MS Office 2007 for my home computer?
If you are a full time faculty member, then you are eligible to download Microsoft Office 2007 for $9.95.
Stop by the Faculty Technology Center or Walk-In Technology Center on your campus and present a valid Fordham Faculty ID to have your license approved. An email will then be sent to your fordham email address with a link to download Office 2007. Payment via major credit card will be required at the time you download the software.
What if I need help using Office 2007?
Fordham IT Training is offering training classes this summer and fall semesters. Visit the Fordham IT Training website or email training@fordham.edu. We will also be posting tips, tutorials, and resources for the next several weeks on the ITAC blog.
Additional Information:
On July 15, 2009 Fordham IT began distributing to the University community Microsoft Office 2007 for PC users and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac users. The new Office Suite will be delivered with new and replacement equipment or upon request. Prior versions will no longer be distributed at the University, however support will continue until July 1, 2012.
New or Replaced Equipment: All new and lease-replacement desktop computers will be distributed with Office 2007/2008. Any existing computers that must have the operating system reinstalled will be returned to the client with Office 2007/2008.
Have you ever scribbled a note to yourself on a convenient piece of paper, and then lost it? Or maybe you’ve taken a picture of something you wanted to remember with your cell phone, but it got accidentally deleted? Well, Evernote is a free application that can help you keep notes and ideas easily accessible and organized on your phone, computer and/or web:
“Cookies” are generally harmless and oftentimes helpful bits of information stored by your Web browser when you visit many Web sites for the first time. Once a Web site sets a cookie in your Web browser, unique information stored in the cookie is used by the site identify you on subsequent visits. Because the site is able to set you apart from all of its other visitors, it is able to effectively customize itself according to your past preferences and recall information that you may have entered on previous visits; the reason that the Google search engine “remembers” how many results that you prefer per page or your favorite Web-based store is able to display the contents of your shopping cart from a week ago, for example, is due to the fact that cookies from these sites have been implanted in your Web browser.
It should be re-asserted that cookies are essentially harmless; they are not viruses or malware and cannot directly alter information on your computer. Many Web sites, in fact, will not function properly unless your Web browser is configured to accept cookies. Cookies are not, however, viewed positively by everyone. The use of “tracking” cookies by advertisers to monitor personal browsing habits is considered by some to be a violation of their privacy. In addition, cookies can in rare instances cause Web-based applications such as the Fordham University Portal to malfunction until they are removed.
Because of these concerns, it is advisable to be aware of how to control the way in which your particular Web browser handles cookies and delete cookies from your browser if necessary. This week’s screen cast will demonstrate how to configure cookie handling and removal in the Mozilla FireFox Web browser. Next week, I’ll do the same for Internet Explorer and Safari.
This feature that enables this is a portal “channel” called “My RSS”. Along with many other useful channels, this feature may be added to your personal Fordham University portal page as you customize it to suit your needs.
Although not as powerful as using a full-featured RSS reader such as those demonstrated in my previous posts on the topic (e.g. see posts demonstrating Google Reader, NetNewsWire, FeedDemon), using the “My RSS” channel can allow you to quickly check up on one of your most valuable RSS-enabled Web sites while conducting your daily business on the Fordham portal.
Documentation regarding the use of the Fordham portal as well as several screencast tutorials can be found on your portal home page.
-Jim
(behnke@fordham.edu)
Photo Credit RSS and MyFilesby technovore via Flickr
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Most people don’t give much thought to what browser they use to surf the internet; in fact they might not even realize how many different kinds there are to choose from.
Why should you make the switch from using Internet Explorer to another browser such as Firefox? There are several good reasons: security, customization, and speed. Firefox is not only a more secure browser and faster than Internet Explorer, but it also allows you to customize your browser experience with add-ons to make your browsing experience easy and save you time.
Delicious Bookmarks integrates delicious into the browser. For all readers who are new to social bookmarking or have not yet signed up for a Delicious account, take a look at my previous post on “What’s so Delicious About Social Bookmarking?” for more information and resources on using Delicious.
Twitterfox: I primarily use Twitter to keep in touch and share resources with other educators. At work I use Twitterfox and Twhirl to keep up with the latest tweets (at home I prefer to use Tweetdeck). I’m planning a future blog post on the benefits of educators using Twitter, but in the meantime if you are interested in learning more then take a look at the Twitter tab on my Pageflake for some helpful links. If you are a Twitterer, please feel free to follow me (kris10_), I primarily tweet about education, technology, and math.
Download Statusbar: Instead of getting an annoying little pop-up every time you download something from the web, you’ll see a notification on the status bar of your browser. There are also many other features available to customize your downloads.
Session Manager: I like this add-on because it’s an easy way to restore previous browsing sessions. This is especially helpful after a crash occurs when I’ve got multiple tabs open!
Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar: I’m a big fan of being organized and this add-on lets me further customize the bookmarks toolbar so that I can not only use folders to organize my bookmarks by groups, but I can also add multiple rows.
Coral IE Tab: While most web pages that are created now are compatible with various browsers, sometimes websites need to be viewed in Internet Explorer. This add-on is a great way of viewing a page in Internet Explorer in a tab which avoids having to open up a new window.
Colorzilla: This handy add-on lets you get a color reading from anywhere inside the browser. If you are into graphic design or frequently use products like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, this add-on can save you valuable time when you need to match a particular color on a website.
FireFTP: If you are looking for a free and secure FTP client, this is an easy and intuitive option.
FoxyMeter: An unobtrusive way to keep track of the number of web pages you surf.
Additional Ways to customize Firefox:
Browse for Firefox add-ons by catagory or collection. There is even a collection add-on that will notify you when there are updates made to the collection. In addition to add-ons, you can further customize your Firefox browser by changing the theme, which is the way the buttons, icons, and browser looks. Personas are a new Firefox feature that adds an image to the top and bottom (status bar) of the browser.
NetNewsWire is a free RSS aggregator for Mac OSX created by Newsgator, the same company that produces the free “Feed Demon” RSS reader for Windows. In addition to NetNewsWire and FeedDemon, Newsgator offers “Newsgator Online“, a free Web-based RSS reader service that can synchronize with NetNewsWire or FeedDemon. This allows users of either desktop application to follow their RSS feeds when away from their computers and effectively create a backup of their RSS subscriptions.
For my third screencast on the topic of RSS feeds, I’ve decided to demonstrate how to use NetNewsWire’ to subscribe to RSS feeds, organize their subscriptions, and, in conjunction with Newsgator Online, create custom RSS feeds based on existing RSS-enabled content from around the Web. Custom RSS feeds are made using NetNewWire’s “Clipping” feature (also available on FeedDemon). For professors who maintain their own Web sites or Blackboard pages, this capability could provide a way to quickly share content from around the Web with students and colleagues who use RSS readers applications.
