Tips for Using Student Email at SMU

CSC-SC2-Tip_2_02Navigate your email with ease

With Office 365, your email is even smarter. Find important messages, communicate confidently, and collaborate with others in real time.

CSC-SC2-Tip_2_05Quickly view your important messages

Take control of your inbox. People View lets you read important messages first—from those you communicate with most often. Expand or collapse this view depending on your needs.

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CSC-SC2-Tip_2_09Avoid common mistakes

Have you ever selected Reply All to a large group? MailTips warns you about common mistakes before you send an email. Turn MailTips on or off or customize which tips appear.

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CSC-SC2-Tip_2_13Always share the latest file

Your email is now fully integrated with OneDrive for Business, allowing you to easily share your work with others while always maintaining just one version.

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CSC-SC2-Tip_2_17Search your email

Find exactly what you’re looking while on the go for by searching your email directly from Outlook Web App. You can search by sender and date and filter to get what you want quickly.

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Locker.SMU: Migrate Personal Files before March 1

By Rachel Mulry

OITicon-locker2-128x128Locker.SMU will be decommissioned as a service in August 2015. This file storage and sharing application is being replaced by two other services: Microsoft OneDrive and one that is still to be determined. The current locker service has several limitations in storage allocation and cross platform functionality. Therefore, it will be replaced by other services that can address these deficiencies in a cost effective manner.

Project Timeline

  • January 2015: Stop provisioning new accounts in Locker.SMU
  • December 2014-February 2015: Communication and migration assistance for personal storage
  • March 31, 2015: Eliminate personal storage
  • April-June 2015: Migrate Organization storage to new service
  • August 2015: Locker.SMU taken offline

At this time, we are encouraging individuals to begin migrating their personal files off of Locker.SMU. The migration process for your personal files can be done in several ways. Step-by-step instructions are located here.

one driveThere are a number of applications that you may choose to use to continue storing and sharing the files online.  All faculty, staff, and active students have access to Microsoft OneDrive through Office 365. OneDrive provides unlimited data storage and files can easily be shared as well. For more information on using OneDrive or to login, click here.

Please note, the OneDrive license is only available while you are an active faculty, staff, or student. Once you leave the University, the license will expire, and the data will be unavailable. 

Microsoft OneDrive is not the recommended solution for Departmental or Organizational storage. We will provide more details for organizational storage once the new service has been selected.

Email Calendar Availability

Here’s an easy step to send someone your Outlook calendar availability!

  • From the calendar tab, select E-mail Calendar.

email calendar

  • Select the desired Date Range.
  • In the detail section, select the desired availability options you want to share.

availablility

  • Select/deselect the working hours only options.
  • You can choose the layout you prefer by clicking the show button under the advanced section. To close, click ok.
  • An email will then populate with a screenshot of the layout you selected.

Calendar view

calendar viewList View

list view

Tips for Better Calendar Use in Office 365

CSC-SC2-Tip_3_02Simplify your scheduling

A busy day means a complicated calendar. With Office 365, students at SMU can easily set up and manage your meetings–saving you time to get more done.

CSC-SC2-Tip_3_05See other people’s calendars

Add a team member directly to your calendar view to see their availability whenever you want. Overlay their calendar with yours or hide it as needed.

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CSC-SC2-Tip_3_09Quickly set up a meeting

See the availability of all attendees and nearby conference rooms without leaving your meeting invitation.

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CSC-SC2-Tip_3_13Search your calendar

Need to find an event on your calendar but don’t know when it occurred? Whether you’re using Outlook or Outlook Web App, you can quickly search your calendar, or other people’s calendars, to find a particular event.

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For more information on Office 365 at SMU, please visit our webpage http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Services/o365.

4 easy steps to keep the leading zero in Excel!

When working on spreadsheets you might have a need to have a column that has leading zeros. For example, let’s use an ID number, if I was to input the beginning of my id “0010” Excel would automatically remove the first two zeros.  Here’s how to keep the leading zero in Excel:

  1. Right-click on the column you want the leading zero, and select Format Cells.
  2. Select Custom from the category list.
  3. In the Type field, enter how many digits you need. The SMU ID is 8 digits which we will use in our example below.  (Note: You do not need to add quotes to the string.)

Format Cells

4. Click OK. The column will now utilize the format you created!

ID number