Emily Blackmore

Geekspeak 101

By: Amber Clark

As you may have experienced in your own discipline, having a common language, or technical jargon, is immensely helpful. It is a shortcut that makes communicating easier. We computer technologists have our own common language. However, the SMU Help Desk staff understands this possible communication problem, and will gladly translate “geekspeak” in order to better assist you when you have a problem.

These are a few “geekspeak” terms that you may or may not know:

Browser, formally known as a web browser, is a program on your computer that you use to surf the Internet. Most of you use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.

Internet service provider, or ISP, is the company that provides your access to the Internet. Here on campus, SMU is your ISP. At home, you would contract with companies such as Time Warner for cable Internet or AT&T to be your Internet provider or ISP.

Java is a programming language that most advanced websites need to function properly. It is a program or applet that needs to be installed on your computer and periodically updated. Java is needed to provide the interactivity that we have come to expect from most websites. It allows a website to customize its content, words and graphics for you based on your activity or information you submit in a form.

Blog, or web log, is a web page made up of posts displayed in chronological order with the most recent appearing first. A blog is most commonly used for informal information and discussion devoted to a subject area. For example, IT Connect is a blog that has posts all related to informing you about new technologies or tips for technologies you already use. You access blogs through their webpages. Blogs gained additional legitimacy when “certified bloggers” were given press credentials to post on events from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. From time to time, there are now bloggers in the White House Press Corps.

Twitter is a micro version of blogs. Individuals post tweets, statements of no more than 140 characters, that individuals can interact with in much the same way as commenters to a blog. You access Twitter through its main webpage, twitter.com, or an app. OIT has a twitter account, @smuoit, for IT updates if you are interested in following us.

Those are just a few terms you will overhear in the Office of Information Technology. Please tweet @smuoit comments asking us about geekspeak you are curious about or want to share with others!

What’s Your Crash Plan?

Did you know that SMU has a backup service for University owned, primary computers?

CrashPlan Pro is a software application that Faculty and Staff can install on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms via LanDesk. After installation, it performs a complete backup of your profile or home directory (file folder structure). If you store your files in the default locations (My Documents, Desktop etc.), those will be included.

CrashPlan-Pro-webpage

Once the initial backup is complete, the application will backup any changes every three hours. Although the process runs continuously in the background, it utilizes very few resources. This process is fully automated and requires no user intervention! When you need to recover data, there’s a quick and easy process to locate the folders or files you need from the backup client.

It’s secure too! The backup is completely encrypted. That means your data is protected by an algorithm that only your SMU ID and password can unlock.

For more information about eligibility, obtaining the software, restoring data, and more, please visit our service page http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Services/Backup.

How to fix common Mavericks problems?

This post by Digital Trends highlights some of the common issues and fixes with Mac OS X Mavericks.

Get iPhoto working again in Mavericks
Fix the slow Time Machine problem and make it run faster
Reinstall Java after upgrading to Mavericks
Make iCloud save your password
Keep Mail from crashing
Fix the constant Welcome to Mail message problem
Fix the Time Machine Mavericks install issue
Fix a buggy Menu Bar in OS X Mavericks
Make iWork, iPhoto, iLife and other apps work in Mavericks
Fix the ‘Contacts app not syncing’ problem
Fix the Wi-Fi disconnect problem

Discover New Features in Microsoft Word (Part 2)

By Rachel Mulry

In Part 1 of this article, we discussed Quick Parts, creating your own templates, and the Screenshot tool. Today we’ll continue with two powerful Word features.

Navigation view: If you use the styles in Word, not only can you create a consistent polished document, but you can also use the Navigation view to help rearrange and jump to various portions of the file quickly. You can enable navigation view from the View menu, or you can simply click on the page number in the bottom left corner of the screen. There are three options in the navigation panel. Viewing by headings allows you to view the overall structure of your document but also allows you to reorder the sections in a document simply by dragging and dropping! The page view displays a thumbnail image of each page in the document. You can jump to the desired page by clicking the thumbnail. The results view allows you to search for words, images etc in your document and then navigate to each instance where that search term was detected. To turn off the navigation view, just click on the page number on the bottom left and you’re back to full screen view of your document.
Available actions properties: I admit I stumbled across this nifty feature while I was writing this article!
By default, the available actions menu is turned off. However, once it is enabled it will allow you to right click on certain types of data and select from additional options. For example, you could right click on a data and create a calendar appointment! Or right click on an email address and add it to your Outlook contacts. To enable this feature, click File—Options—Proofing— AutoCorrect. Click the Actions tab. Then check “enable additional actions in the right-click menu”. Select the types of data that you wish to enable these actions. Click OK. When you are viewing or creating a document, simply right click on the text and a new “additional actions” field will appear.

These are just a few of the many powerful features in Word. There are so many others waiting to be discovered! So be adventurous! Click through those menus on the ribbon or view a few new tutorials to discover something new in Word today!