Publications CITations #15

CITations

December 17, 1999
No. 15

CITations is a report featuring information technology-related news of interest to UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members, graduate instructors and the staff who support them. CITations, published twice a month, is an electronic service of the ITS Center for Instructional Technology.

Courseware Downtime Scheduled
CCI Machines Prices Drop
January 2000 ATN Computer Training Class Schedule
UNC-Chapel Hill Resources for Departmental Web Designers
Carolina Computing Initiative Update
Featured CBT Course: Windows NT 4.0: Managing Printing
ITRC Tip: Mail Merge Methods
ITRC Tip: Hide Pictures In Word 2000 Documents
Scholarly Communication Working Group Meetings
Conference Announcements
2000 CITations Publication Schedule
How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to CITations

COURSEWARE DOWNTIME SCHEDULED

Both WebCT and Course Info will be unavailable next Monday, December 20, so that the server operating system can be upgraded. If you have any questions, contact Lori Mathis, Courseware Coordinator at the Center for Instructional Technology.
Tel: 962-8256
Email: mathis@email.unc.edu

CCI MACHINES PRICES DROP

Effective Monday, December 13 the base price of each Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) machine dropped by $44 to reflect the implementation of the Microsoft agreement. This reflects the cost of the MS Office software installed on the base software load on CCI machines.

See http://www.unc.edu/microsoft/ for details on the Microsoft license.

JANUARY 2000 ATN COMPUTER TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE

The January 2000 ATN Computer Training Class Schedule is now available. ATN's computer classes are open to UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, staff, undergraduates, and graduate students. Schedules and registration information are available at http://help.unc.edu/training/schedule/

New classes offered:

Introducing ArcView Courses
This course is designed to introduce faculty and staff to the new ArcView training courses. It will also provide an opportunity for attendees to examine the capabilities of this GIS (Geographic Information Services) software and data collections so they may take advantage of it for class planning.
Thursday, January 6, 2000; 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., Course #GI02-001

Introduction to ArcView
This course is a basic introduction to ESRI's ArcView GIS software package. Focus will be on navigating the different user interfaces, accessing data, and performing simple mapping routines.
Prerequisite: Windows experience.
Friday, January 14, 2000; 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.; Course #GI03-001
Tuesday, January 18, 2000; 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.; Course #GI03-002
Wednesday, January 19, 2000; 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.; Course #GI03-003
Thursday, January 20, 2000; 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.; Course #GI03-004

FrontPage 2000: Creating a Web Site
This workshop is the first in a series about using Microsoft FrontPage 2000 to create a web site. In this class, you will learn the basics of creating and publishing your web files with FrontPage.
Please have an Isis email account or know your department's web server and host name, along with your login ID and password. Bring a 3.5" disk to save your work.
Prerequisite: Word 97/2000 Introduction, and Internet Essentials or equivalent experience.
Friday, January 7, 2000; 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.; Course #FP06-002

Publisher 2000: Formatting & Design
Prerequisite: Publisher Introduction or equivalent experience.
Tuesday, January 25, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #PU04-001

UNC-Chapel Hill RESOURCES FOR DEPARTMENTAL WEB DESIGNERS

If you are creating web pages to represent your department on the UNC-Chapel Hill website, here are some resources to help you:

Web Page Template
-- provides suggested styles for departments that wish to be consistent with the new UNC-Chapel Hill homepage design
http://www.unc.edu/template/

UNC-Chapel Hill Web Style Guidelines
-- contains general guidelines and tips that hold value for just about any level of web-page designer
http://help.unc.edu/cgi-bin/getdocs?docnumber=iid19

Creating WWW Pages at UNC-Chapel Hill
-- a convenient summary of UNC-Chapel Hill World Wide Web policies and procedures, including the different categories of web pages provided for on Ra, the campus Web server, and the responsibilities of web authors and information coordinators for the content and maintenance of their pages
http://help.unc.edu/cgi-bin/getdocs?docnumber=iid03

UNC-Chapel Hill Trademarks
-- contains campus trademark usage and images of UNC-Chapel Hill trademarks
http://www.licensing.unc.edu/

CAROLINA COMPUTING INITIATIVE UPDATE

The CCI staff has finished the political science department deployment and orientation for the history department. The history department deployment will begin on January 24, 2000.

FEATURED CBT COURSE: WINDOWS NT 4.0: MANAGING PRINTING

Whether you have only your machine to worry about, or are an administrator for an entire network, you inevitably have to worry about configuring a printer at some point. It isn't glamorous, but it is crucial to the office.

The CBT course "Windows NT 4.0: Managing Printing" can make you savvy about this area of the operating system and its pitfalls. After this course, you will easily be able to set up and troubleshoot your printers, whether they're local printers or on a network. You'll be able to:

-- describe the NT printing model
-- describe NT printer driver components
-- use the Printers folder
-- manage print jobs
-- set up printing queues and assign permissions
-- perform advanced printer configuration

The course can either be downloaded to your hard drive, or simply taken online from within your favorite web browser. You should be familiar with the with the Windows NT environment and possess an understanding of operating system fundamentals to get the most out of this course. The course URL is http://help.unc.edu/cbt/curicula/courses/nt40003/nt40003.htm

Find out all about CBT courses at UNC-Chapel Hill by visiting http://help.unc.edu/cbt/
Thanks to Cheryl Lytle, ATN Computer Training Center, for making CBT course information available to CITations readers.

ITRC TIP: MAIL MERGE METHODS

In Microsoft Office 97/2000, there are many different ways to create mailing labels, form letters, or printed envelopes. So many options can create problems and confusion. Here's a mail merge method that works well and allows you to manage your lists over time in Excel 97/2000.

The method is identical for form letters and envelopes, but let's say you want to create labels from a mailing list maintained in Microsoft Excel. Make sure the headings in the mailing list are uniquely formatted (for instance, make the column headers (i.e., Name, Address, ...) bold), and do not add a row separating the headers from the rest of the data.

With a data source created in Excel, follow these instructions:

1. In Word 97/2000, go to TOOLS menu and select "Mail Merge"

2. Under Main Document, choose "Create"

3. Select "Mailing Labels" and "Active Window"

4. Under Data Source, choose "Get Data" and select "Open Data Source"

5. Change the "Files of type" to "MS Excel Worksheets" and select your source file

6. Choose to use the "Entire Spreadsheet" and click OK

7. Click "Setup Main Document"

8. Select the appropriate label type and click OK

9. Click on "Insert Merge Field"

10. Format the labels-selecting the fields to be printed on the labels (e.g. select First Name (space) Last Name (press Enter), select Street Address, etc.

11. Click OK and then "Merge"

12. Click "Merge" again Your labels are ready to print from the data that existed in Excel. This method offers you flexibility -- you can maintain your lists in Excel or import them to Access, if the project grows to require it.

If you have any questions or comments, please send email or call the IT Response Center, 962-HELP.

ITRC TIP: HIDE PICTURES IN WORD 2000 DOCUMENTS

Word 2000 slows down considerably when you are editing a document with large graphics. Completing a lab report with large charts and screen shots can be frustrating if you cannot move quickly through the text of the document. You don't have to trim your graphics to solve this problem. Rather, you can configure Word 2000 to hide your graphics while editing.

Here is how it's done:

1. Go to VIEW menu and select Print Layout

2. Then, go to TOOLS menu and select Options

3. Select the View tab, then check "Picture Placeholders" check box (hides inline pictures)

4. To hide floating objects and drawing objects, clear the Drawings check box

5. Click OK

Word applies these settings to all documents, so if you want to display pictures and drawing objects in a different document, remember to undo these settings.

Thanks to Bryan Ayers in the Information Technology Response Center for making ITRC Tips available to CITations readers.

For more computing assistance, contact the Information Technology Response Center, Wilson Library, Suite 300
Walk-in Hrs: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Phone: 962-HELP - 24 hours
Email: help@unc.edu

SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION WORKING GROUP MEETINGS

The topic for the January 11, 2000, Scholarly Communication Working Group meeting is NCSU's MyLibrary. Caroline Beebe, Head of the NCSU Digital Libraries Initiative, will talk about this user-driven, customizable information service that is hosted by the NCSU Libraries for use by NCSU faculty, students, and staff. For more details see http://my.lib.ncsu.edu/

For more details about time and place for the meeting, see http://ils.unc.edu/schol-com/programs.html

The topic of the Group's December 14 meeting was incentives and rewards for faculty using technology. If you missed the meeting, you can view the Web pages that Daniel Anderson, UNC-Chapel Hill professor of English, used to illustrate his talk at http://sites.unc.edu/~daniel/p&t/

The UNC-Chapel Hill Scholarly Communication Working Group is sponsored by the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (IRSS). Meetings are open to all faculty, staff, and students from the university community. See http://ils.unc.edu/schol-com/ for more information.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Keep informed about technology conferences scheduled in 2000 with the CIT's "Calendar of World-Wide Educational Technology-Related Conferences, Seminars, and Other Events." The calendar is on the Web at http://confcal.unc.edu:8086/

2000 CITATIONS PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

January 14
January 28
February 11
February 25
March 10
March 24
April 7
April 21

CITations welcomes announcements from all UNC-Chapel Hill campus organizations involved in instructional and research technology. To have an announcement considered for publication in CITations, send email to Carolyn Kotlas, kotlas@email.unc.edu, or call 962-9287. The deadline for submissions is 11:00 a.m. the day before the publication date.

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