Publications CITations #17

CITations

January 28, 2000
No. 17

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.

2000 Carolina Technology Expo
Volume Purchase for Macromedia Products
Carolina Computing Initiative Update
February 2000 ATN Computer Training Class Schedule
Featured CBT Course: C/C++ Programming: Manipulating Objects
ITRC Tip: Create a PowerPoint Presentation from an Outline
ITRC Tip: Access 97/2000: Using Leszynski Naming Conventions
Scholarly Communication Working Group Meeting
CBT Tip: Netscape Composer
2000 CITations Publication Schedule
How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to CITations

2000 CAROLINA TECHNOLOGY EXPO

Mark your calendars for the 2000 Carolina Technology Expo on February 29 and March 1 in the Great Hall of the Student Union. The Expo is sponsored by the Faculty Information Technology Advisory Committee (FITAC) and Student Government. Come and see what your peers are doing with technology on campus. More details will be available in the next issue of CITations.

VOLUME PURCHASE FOR MACROMEDIA PRODUCTS

The Software Acquisition Office is investigating a Volume Purchase for Macromedia Products. Macromedia makes Web publishing products such as DreamWeaver, Flash, FreeHand, Director, FireWorks, Authorware, and Generator. The deadline to commit to a purchase is February 11, 2000. If you have questions or concerns about Macromedia Products or the possible Volume Purchase, please visit http://www.macromedia.com/ or email Nancy Cox at ncox@email.unc.edu

CAROLINA COMPUTING INITIATIVE UPDATE

The CCI deployment has started for the History Department and will continue for the next two weeks. CCI staff held an orientation for the Music Department and an initial meeting with the Chemistry Department, the Center for European Studies, and Latin American Studies.

FEBRUARY 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. To register, call 962-1160. Complete schedules and registration information are available at http://help.unc.edu/training/schedule/

New classes offered:

FrontPage 2000: Fine Tuning & File Management
Prerequisite: FrontPage 2000: Creating a Web Site or equivalent experience.
Learn more about frames, HTML, WS_FTP, and more.
Monday, February 14, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #FP07-001

Guide to Theses and Dissertations
Prerequisite: Word Increasing Efficiency or equivalent experience and Word Tables and Styles experience helpful. Learn how to make formatting your UNC-Chapel Hill thesis or dissertation as painless as possible.
Friday, February 18, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #WD43-002

Introduction to STATA
Prerequisite: Must have an account on StatApps. Learn the basics of using STATA on StatApps.
Wednesday, February 9, 2000; 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Course #SQ03-001

The following courses have been revised:

Access 97/2000 (User Series): Tables and Queries
Prerequisite: Database Concepts or equivalent experience.
Tuesday, February 15, 2000; 2:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Course #AC35-003
Thursday, February 17, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.; Course #AC35-004

Access 97/2000 (User Series): Forms and Reports
Prerequisite: Access Tables and Queries or equivalent experience.
Thursday, February 17, 2000; 12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.; Course #AC34-002
Tuesday, February 22, 2000; 2:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Course #AC34-003

Access 97/2000 (Developer Series): Tables
Prerequisite: Database Concepts class or equivalent experience and substantial Windows or Macintosh experience.
Wednesday, February, 2 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.; Course #AC27-003
Tuesday, February 8, 2000; 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.; Course #AC27-004

Access 97/2000 (Developer Series): Queries I
Prerequisite: Access Tables or equivalent experience.
Wednesday, February 9, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11 a.m.; Course #AC28-003

Access 97/2000 (Developer Series): Queries II
Prerequisite: Access Queries I or equivalent experience.
Wednesday, February 16,2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #AC29-003

Access 97/2000 (Developer Series): Controls
Prerequisite: Access Queries II or equivalent experience.
Monday, February 21, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #AC30-002

Access 97/2000 (Developer Series): Forms
Prerequisite: Access Controls or equivalent experience.
Wednesday, February 23, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #AC31-002

Access 97/2000 (Developer Series): Reports
Prerequisite: Access Controls or equivalent experience.
Monday, February 28, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #AC32-002

PowerPoint 97/2000: Introduction
Prerequisite: Windows Getting Started or equivalent experience.
Friday, February 4, 2000; 12 noon - 2:00 p.m.; Course #PT11-006
Thursday, February 10, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #PT11-007
Tuesday, February 22, 2000; 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.; Course #PT11-008
Wednesday, February 23, 2000; 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Course #PT11-009

PowerPoint 97/2000: Formatting & Design
Prerequisite: PowerPoint Introduction or equivalent experience. Learn how to work with slide masters, slide color schemes and backgrounds, create graphics, and work with objects.
Friday, February 18, 2000; 12 noon - 2:00 p.m.; Course #PT12-003
Thursday, February 24, 2000; 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.; Course #PT12-004

FEATURED CBT COURSE: C/C++ PROGRAMMING: MANIPULATING OBJECTS

C and C++ are among the hottest programming languages around; strong C/C++ skills often translate into a better job or better pay. One of the strengths of C++ is the flexibility afforded by its object-oriented nature, and you can quickly learn all about it while browsing the Web.

The CBT course "C/C++ Programming: Manipulating Objects" shows you how to exploit the power of C++ through its manipulation of data structures. After this course, you'll have the skills to use dynamic memory allocation in C++. You'll be able to:

-- describe how to create and use pointers to objects
-- explain how objects can be dynamically linked
-- describe how to create and manage a linked list of objects

You should have knowledge of structured programming techniques and some experience with C to get the most out of this course. A basic understanding of C++ objects is useful but not necessary.

The course can either be downloaded to your hard drive, or simply taken online from within your favorite Web browser. The course URL is http://cbt.unc.edu/cbt/curicula/courses/cprg03e/cprg03e.htm

Find out all about CBT courses at UNC-Chapel Hill by visiting http://help.unc.edu/cbt/

Thanks to Patrick Murphy, Academic Technology & Networks, for making this CBT course information available to CITations readers.

ITRC TIP: CREATE A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION FROM AN OUTLINE

Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 can generate a presentation from an existing outline. If you have outlined your lecture in Word 2000 (or another word processor or text editor), then you can create a presentation without the tedious copying and pasting.

To import an outline into PowerPoint, follow these steps:

1. In PowerPoint 2000, go to File menu and select Open
2. From the "Files of type" dropdown list, choose "All Outlines"
3. Navigate to your file and open it

PowerPoint opens the file in Outline View and creates a new slide for each main heading in your outline. The automatic assignment of heading levels to slides will vary depending on the structure of the outline. The generated presentation will need some revision, but it will save you some time.

ITRC TIP: ACCESS 97/2000: USING LESZYNSKI NAMING CONVENTIONS

Consistent naming conventions are a necessary part of database design. Naming conventions help the designer to organize objects within the database. And they help make the database readable to other users.

The Leszynski Naming Convention (LNC) is popular within the Access Developer community. The convention is helpful to programmers and users alike. The LNC suggests that you name each object in the database with a 3 letter prefix, called a tag. The tag identifies the object's type. Tags are always lowercase and the object name begins with an uppercase letter. For example, the table containing all of my MP3 titles would be: tblMyMP3Titles (avoid underscores and spaces)

Here's a short list of object tags and their corresponding object types:

Table = tbl
Form = frm
Query = qry
Report = rpt
Macro = mcr

For some more helpful hints on database design, try an ATN Training Course or a CBT Course (Beginning Access 2000): http://help.unc.edu/cbt/curicula/courses/msof29e/msof29e.htm

For a list of some more LNC Object Tags see: http://www.thincsolutions.com/other/Obj_Tags.txt

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 MEETING

The topic for the February 8, 2000, Scholarly Communication Working Group brown bag meeting is "Trends in Scholarly Publishing." David Perry, Assistant Director & Editor in Chief, University of North Carolina Press, will give his perspective and lead a discussion on trends in scholarly publishing. The meeting will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Davis Library Conference Rooms on the 2nd floor. Meetings are open to all faculty, staff, and students from the university community.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Scholarly Communication Working Group is sponsored by the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science (IRSS). Link to http://ils.unc.edu/schol-com/ for more information.

CBT TIP: NETSCAPE COMPOSER

The tip below can be found in the online Netscape Composer CBT course. To access the CBT course on Netscape Composer please follow this link: http://cbt.unc.edu/cbt/curicula/courses/nc4004e/nc4004e.htm

Tip: Any image can serve as a background image for your web page. Here's how you do it:

1. Highlight the graphic if you already have it placed on the page. If you haven't, it can easily be inserted in step 2.

2. Click the Insert Image button. If you haven't already inserted the file, do so now by clicking the Choose File button.

3. Select the Use as background checkbox.

4. Click OK.

Note: This method will not enlarge a graphic to fill the screen with one copy of the image. So if your image is small, you will especially notice that the image is repeated across the screen in order to fill the entire screen with a background image.

Thanks to Patrick Murphy in ATN for making this information available to CITations readers.

2000 CITATIONS PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

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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