Microsoft – Page 20

Response to Excel Survey

Microsoft Office Excel At the end of February, we sent out a survey to all SMU staff regarding their interest in Excel training. This survey was created as all of our Spring sessions were filled to capacity the same day registration was announced! We also had a number of staff inquire about attending student-only sessions. However, those sessions were also heavily attended; therefore, we could not meet staff requests for attendance.

In order to accommodate both staff and student requests, we have increased our class offerings. Four additional Excel training sessions will be offered this fall for students. Eleven Excel sessions will be delivered this spring marketed primarily to SMU Staff. Visit our website to register for one of the newly added Excel sessions. Continue reading Response to Excel Survey

Office 2016 & Window 10 Coming to Campus Computers

Office 2016 available April 1

Office 2016 will be available for all campus Windows and Mac OS computers beginning April 1st. You will find these products available via your computer’s LANDesk software portal (The LANDesk Portal Manager for Windows clients, or LANDesk Workspaces for Mac OS) where they may be selected for download and installation on your local system. Uninstalling the previous Office products is recommended, but not required. Please contact the OIT Help Desk if you do not see Office 2016 listed, if you have any difficulty accessing the LANDesk Portal Manager, or just have questions for us!

For installations off of the campus network, be sure to download and sign in to the campus VPN client prior to launching LANDesk. Please note that Office 32 bit will be the standard offering for all Windows systems regardless of the version of your computer’s operating system . For more information visit Choose the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Office.

Windows 10 available July 1

New campus computers ordered after July 1st will be delivered with Windows 10 Enterprise. Existing Windows 64 bit computers will be offered an optional Windows 10 upgrade via the LANDesk software portal (LANDesk Portal Manager) beginning July 1st. Computers currently being scheduled for upgrade through the campus tech fund will be delivered to customers running Windows 7, with Windows 10 upgrades offered for download and installation from LANDesk as well. If you utilize or support a lab or shared group of computers and would like to request an upgrade within those areas, or for any Windows computers running a 32-bit operating system, please contact the helpdesk for further assistance.

For more information on what version of the Windows operating system you have, visit http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-operating-system and for information on Windows 10 Enterprise features and changes see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/windows-for-enterprise

How to remove voice mail transcriptions from Unified Messaging Voice Mail

Exchange Unified Messaging Tips & Tricks
The new campus voice mail service (Exchange Unified Messaging) has a feature which provides text transcriptions of voice mail messages to the Inbox by default. The accuracy of these text transcriptions may suffer for callers with accents, or poor quality calls (e..g, cell phone callers with bad reception).

Voice Mail Preview isn't available for this message. We expect the accuracy of these transcriptions to improve when we upgrade the system within the coming months. However, some users may wish to opt out of text transcriptions and check their voice mail by either playing the audio attachment or by dialing into the system at extension 88673. Here is how to disable the transcription feature:

Login to webmail.smu.edu. Click the gear icon, click Options, then click General, then click Voice Mail Preview.
-or-
Open Outlook, click File – Manage Voice Mail.
Under Voice Mail Preview, uncheck “Include preview text with voice messages I receive”.
Click Save.

Updated 07/10/2017: Include updated instructions for the new system.

Inside.SMU moving to SharePoint Online

OIT is happy to announce that Inside.SMU, our on-campus collaboration tool, is moving from an onsite Microsoft SharePoint server to a Microsoft-hosted SharePoint in the Cloud service. This upgrades our SharePoint software to the latest version automatically. On top of that, we also will have greater storage and backup capabilities. Most existing sites within Inside.SMU can be moved over to the new system with ease. We are working with primary stakeholders to design a roadmap for a final switchover sometime before the end of Q2.

Even though the functionality of SharePoint remains the same, some features have been renamed and moved around. The new version will also have a look-and-feel that is reminiscent of Office 365 and Office 2016. In preparation for the conversion to the cloud service, OIT will be offering a webinar for current users interested in learning more about how the new system will function and the new features. The webinar will take place on February 26 at 2PM. Visit our upcoming workshops page to register.

Microsoft ending support for older browsers

Microsoft will soon stop supporting older versions of Internet Explorer and will only continue to support Internet Explorer (IE) 11 and their new Edge web browser.

In fact, you may begin receiving prompts to upgrade your version of IE from Microsoft. This raises a common question regarding browser compatibility issues with the various applications and tools we use on a daily basis.

What browsers are available?

Microsoft Internet Explorer/Edge, Firefox and Chrome are the most popular browsers. It is recommended that you have at least two if not all three of these browsers installed on your computer.

Should I upgrade my browser when prompted?

Yes! The vendors provide upgrades to the browser software on a regular basis. Most of these upgrades include critical security patches to ensure the safety of your browsing sessions. Failing to install the latest version makes your system vulnerable.

What do I do if my web applications aren’t working?

When vendors develop the upgrades, they are not able to test their upgrades with every application on the market. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for a website or web application to “break” with a particular update. Thus, it is beneficial to know a few troubleshooting steps when you encounter issues with an application:

Clear the browser cache and relaunch the browser completely
Sometimes, the temporary files behind the scenes cause issues. Clearing the browser cache and restarting the browser completely often fixes application issues.
Try a different browser
If one browser isn’t working right with your application, try launching that application in a different browser. Believe it or not, the applications may function a little differently in each browser.
Use the browser compatibility option in Internet Explorer
Because application developers are not always able to integrate new changes in the browser code quickly, browsers have several tools built in to fix compatibility issues. It is often helpful to know how to activate these tools if you really want to continue using a specific browser. For example– in Internet Explorer, click the gear icon and select Compatibility View Settings.

For additional troubleshooting tips for each browser, click on the appropriate links below

Firefox: support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems
Chrome: support.google.com/chrome/troubleshooter/6273575?hl=en
Internet Explorer: windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/internet-explorer-help