IT-Digest: Vol. 4

July 26, 2005

This e-newsletter is intended to inform the USM community about technology related issues, events, updates and news.

Subscribe to IT-Digest

In This Issue

8 Tips for the 8th Month
  1. USB storage devices should be stopped before they are removed from your PC
  2. USM's McAfee license expired on June 30, 2005; Statewide license for Symantec Antivirus (SAV)
  3. Using Find with Financials
  4. Don't plug fans in the same power strip as your computer OR put the fan next to your monitor
  5. Dashboard "Widgets"
  6. Clean Out Your GroupWise Junk Mail List
  7. Mail Merge Tip
  8. Templates in Microsoft Office
1. USB storage devices should be stopped before they are removed from your PC

Those nifty little thumb size storage "sticks" are fantastic for carrying data with you. But you could run into some problems if you just pull it out of your computer. Most of these devices are hot swappable; that is, you don't have to "install" them. So how can you tell? Plug in your device. If you are using Windows XP, you should get a little pop up in the lower right corner of your screen. This corner (where the time shows up) is your system tray. An icon with a green arrow will stay there while your jump drive is plugged in. Right-click on that icon and choose Safely Remove Hardware.

If you use one of these devices regularly, you may want to check your operating system to make it easy to "quick disconnect". With your device plugged in, go to My Computer, right-click on the drive and choose Properties > Hardware, highlight your device in the list, and click Properties at the bottom of the window, then choose Policies. Choose Optimize for Quick Removal.

2. USM's McAfee license expired on June 30, 2005; Statewide license for Symantec Antivirus (SAV)

USM's McAfee license expired on June 30, 2005 and there is now a statewide license for Symantec Antivirus (SAV). On June 30, the McAfee software was automatically uninstalled from your computers and soon after, E policy Orchestrator (which manages McAfee) will also be uninstalled. Your machines that do not login to Novell will not automatically get SAV installed so your machines may be at risk of a virus infection. To avoid this situation, you should manually uninstall McAfee and EPO; and then install SAV.

To remove EPO:

  1. Go to a command prompt (Start > Run; type cmd; hit Enter)
  2. Type C:\Program files\Network Associates\Common Framework\FrmInst.exe /Remove=Agent

To uninstall McAfee:

  1. Go to Control Panel.
  2. Click Add/Remove Programs.

To install Symantec:

  1. Go to http://antivirus.usm.maine.edu/symantec/tech and follow the instructions there.
  2. The installer will need a valid UNET/Peoplesoft ID
3. Using Find with Financials

Did you know that when you are searching for information in a Peoplesoft page, you can use the Find feature of Explorer? After you've done an inquiry (that has in theory produced dozens of results) you can use the Search feature of Internet Explorer to help you find that specific item or vendor. Click on Edit > Find at the top of your browser window or hit Ctrl+F. Type a snippet of what you are looking for in the white box and hit <Enter>. The first occurrence will be highlighted on the page. If there are multiple instances, simply click the Find Next button.

4. Don't plug fans in the same power strip as your computer OR put the fan next to your monitor

Does your monitor image get wiggly? Is your fan or pencil sharpener plugged into the same power strip as your monitor? That will do it. It's best not to plug any appliance or other items into the same outlet or power strip that your computer is plugged into.

5. Dashboard "Widgets"

"Dashboard" is one of the many cool, new features found in Mac OS X Tiger, which is the latest version of Apple operating system. With a single click, Dashboard instantly appears on your desktop, complete with a number of nifty "widgets" that bring you a world of information, everything from real time weather, stock tickers, flight information and much more. Dashboard can disappear just as easily, so you can get back to what you were doing.

Mac OS X Tiger is packed with preinstalled widgets for you to explore and enjoy. To get you started, Apple includes a variety of widgets in Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" that will help you follow stocks, check the weather, track a flight, translate a phrase, look up words, find an address, just to name a few. You can check out the top 50 most popular Dashboard "widgets" for yourself, at the Apple web site.

6. Clean Out Your GroupWise Junk Mail List

Because spammers' addresses change so frequently, GroupWise's "Junk Mail Handling" data can get out of date. In addition, there is a limit on the number of entries the list can hold: each list can have a maximum of 500 domains and 1000 email addresses. Unused entries in these lists are no longer effective and only serve to eat up processing power on the GroupWise server.

If you have been using Junk Mail Handling in GroupWise, take a moment to clean up your Junk and Block lists.

  1. Click on Tools > Junk Mail Handling.
  2. Look at the Junk List and Block List tabs.
  3. Consider deleting any entry that has an old "Last Used" date and/or a low "Count." Such entries are likely out of date.
  4. Make sure anything with a HIGH "Count" is something you really intend to block!
7. Mail Merge Tip

Do you need to make lists or labels for envelopes? The Mail Merge Wizard in Word XP or higher is ridiculously simple to use and reuse! You can enter the information in Word and it will automatically save as an Access database file. Or you can pull the info from an existing Access database. The Mail Merge Wizard walks through 6 easy steps that you can jump back and forth through to meet your needs. Choose Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge Wizard. Let us know if you have questions on details!

8. Templates in Microsoft Office

There are lots of useful templates to be found at Microsoft.com. In Word, Excel, Access, or PowerPoint you can select File > New. There are dozens right on your computer and hundreds more online. Check out these categories:

  • Greeting Cards
  • Holidays
  • Occasions and Events
  • Business Finance
  • Legal
  • En español
  • Calendars
  • Stationery
  • Schedules and Planners
  • Community and Fundraising
  • Cooking and Entertaining
  • Families
  • Resumes
  • Cover Letters
  • Interview Letters and Tools
  • For Teachers
  • For Parents
  • For Students
  • Meetings and Seminar Planning
  • Project Management

If you have any questions or IT problems, please contact the USM HelpDesk at 780-4029 or email helpdesk@usm.maine.edu.

The USM Computing site is maintained by Robin McGlauflin.