Rangeview High School

Just Say “NO” to Browser Toolbars

tfox — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:56:41 +0000

Browser toolbars are evil. They take up screen space, they are an eyesore, some of them have spyware, and many of them slow down your system as they run tasks in the background. I know many of you depend on that Google toolbar because its too much hassle to go to google.com, and you can never remember their URL anyway. (Last week, the 6th most searched for term on Google was "google" -why???) But many users install browser toolbars accidentally or are duped into installing them when installing other software or updates. The latest Java update and Shockwave install will install Bing (on IE) or Google (on Firefox) if you aren't watching the accept/accept/accept screens click by during the process.

gotcha!

If you do accidentally install one of Satan's plugins, you can (usually) easily cleanse your machine of the foul creature by following these steps:

Click Start > Settings > Control Panel.
Double-click Add or Remove Programs and wait for the list to build.
Locate the toolbar in the list and highlight it by left-clicking once.
Click Change/Remove and follow the onscreen directions (if any).

Access Your Favorite Web Sites Anywhere

tfox — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:29:05 +0000

Working on several computers has its challenges, such as trying to remember the address of a really great Web site when you aren't on your home computer. Google Bookmarks can help by giving you access to all of your favorite personal, business, or school Web sites on whatever computer you are using. Your personalized list of clickable Web sites comes up in a Google gadget and can be sorted by category, date added, and/or name. Adding new sites is as easy as copying/pasting the URL.

To use Google Bookmarks, you will need an iGoogle home page. (To set one up, go to www.google.com and locate the sign in link on the upper right corner.) If you don't already have a Google account you can create one using your gmail or other email account info. Then, from any computer in the world, you can log in and bring up your personalized list of bookmarks.

This is just one of thousands of Google gadgets that can be added, deleted, customized, and dragged around on your Google homepage. There are productivity tools (such as to-do lists and calendars), games (such as sudoku) and social networking plugins for Facebook, Twitter, and others. Try them.

Atomic Learning

tfox — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:07:10 +0000

Atomic Learning is a repository of thousands of video tutorials on current software such as Office 2007, Photoshop CS3, Promethean ActivStudio and many others. This service is available to all staff and students in APS and since it doesn't come cheap, the District really wants to see us get our money's worth.

To use the service, go to www.atomiclearning.com and login using the username staff376 and the password atomic. Students can login using student376 and atomic. Parents can login using parent376 and atomic. Having three separate logins helps us keep track of how the service is used.

To browse the available tutorials, start with Training Library > All Collections

The quickest tutorials are the "Just in Time Training" modules

The tutorials are listed alphabetically, and can be filtered by Windows/Mac and/or searched.

Each topic is divided into one or more mini-movies. Watch just the ones you need, or watch them all. Most are under 3 minutes long.

The video segments will launch in a new window. If they do not play, you likely need to update your video player (Windows Media Player or Quicktime). Nearly all have sound, so make sure you have speakers and your system is unmuted. You can pause the tutorial, replay it, or review just a part of it.

Computers Need to Breathe, Too!

tfox — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:32:20 +0000

Your computer's worst enemies are heat and dust. Heat causes electronic parts to fail, and dust allows the buildup of heat. Your computer has specially designed features to help it get rid of heat. Sitting on top of the main processor chip is a series of fins, much like the fins on the radiator in your car. These fins help draw heat away from the chip. But if they are plugged with dust (like the ones in this picture) they can't do their job.

No one expects you to clean out these trophy-sized dust bunnies, but you can help prevent their buildup by making sure your computer has some room to "breathe". You may have one of those GX280 computers that sounds like a leaf blower, and if you do, that's because the temperature sensor (which controls the fan speed) is HOT and its trying to cool down by running the fan as fast as it can go.

If your computer is jammed up against a wall or has piles of junk around and behind it, move it away from the wall.

At least 6 inches of open space between the sides and back of the computer will give the fan a fighting chance to keep the air flowing through the computer's innards.

Office 2007 – The “x” Files

tfox — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:36:16 +0000

Staff - No doubt you have already come across a Word document ending in .docx. If you can open these and work with them, quit reading this page and get on with your day. But if you can't open them and wonder what to do, read on to learn more about these "x" files...

Microsoft Office goes through major revisions about every 3-4 years, and 2007 saw one of the most thorough Office revisions yet. Most users will immediately notice the entirely new look in Office's user interface. Instead of the nested text-based menu structure of the 2000 and 2003 versions, 2007 presents users with tools and icons in a "ribbon" that runs across the top of the screen. The ribbon is on a toggle - pressing Ctrl+F1 removes it, and pressing Ctrl+F1 again restores it, which is very handy if you are working on a smaller screen.

One serious failing of the new ribbon interface is that experienced 2000/2003 users have a lot of trouble finding the familiar File commands such as Save As and Print. Those are hidden under the Office logo in the extreme top left.

There are numerous handy commands here, including one the most important ones to use (at least until 2007 becomes the de facto standard), which is the ability to save Office 2007 files in formats that can be opened in previous versions. If somebody had done that before emailing you the "x" file, you wouldn't be reading this! Office 2007 formats its files using something called XML, and this results in documents that are much easier to re-format, much faster to open, less error-prone, and lots of other technically boring but cool improvements. But until .docx completely replaces .doc, we'll go through an awkward phase where its best to save in .doc unless you know for sure that your audience is using 2007 and expects that format.

Other cool features of Office 2007 include:

the ability to create PDFs
the ability to mark a document as "final" and prevent any changes
expanded "track changes" features
many more options for formatting
expanded templates
an easier-to-use and more reliable clipart interface
better document recovery
much more intuitive interface for PowerPoint design
increased flexibility in PowerPoint slide layout and design
expanded ready-to-edit PowerPoint charting features and 3-D icon set

If you are ready to make the switch, and you are a Novell user logged into the APS network, you can upgrade to Office 2007 fairly easily. It is a one-way street, though. If you decide you want to go back to 2003, so sorry. Short of re-imaging your machine, there's not much that can be done. But you'll get used to the new look, just like you got used to 2003, and it will be the standard in the next year or two.

To make the switch, follow these steps:

Log on to the APS network
Open My Computer
Locate the O: drive
Open the Dai folder
Open the MSO folder
Open the 2007 folder
Double-click the setup.exe folder and follow the prompts

The upgrade can take 10-30 minutes depending on the condition of your computer, the network load, and whether you are using a wireless or wired connection (wireless is always slower than wired). Do not turn off your computer while this upgrade is working or you will have problems. Let it finish and restart your machine when it is done.

If you are not quite ready to make the switch, you can get another year or two out of Office 2003 by installing a compatibility pack which allows you to open "x files" in good ol' Office 2003. To get this compatibility pack, click here to get the 28 MB file. Once you have the file saved to your computer, just double-click it and follow the prompts.

There are lots of Office 2007 help tutorials on Atomic Learning (which you can get to using your OnePlace login). Oh dear, you don't know about Atomic Learning? You don't use OnePlace? Hmmm...guess I know what the next Tech Topix needs to be...

Put Your Website in IC

tfox — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:32:16 +0000

If you are a teacher with your own personal or district teacher Web site used in support of your instruction, you should put that Web URL into Infinite Campus. It's fast and easy, and when parents/students access the IC parent/student portal, they will have one-click access to your site. To add your Web site to IC, log into IC and choose Instruction > Admin > Preferences. Click the image at left to get a better view of the IC window. Enter your full URL in the Teacher Web Site URL box (the easiest way is to have your Web site open and copy/paste it). Then save and your students and their parents will be able to click their way to your site. Parents who don't know about your site will be pleased to find it, and those who knew about it will appreciate the convenience.

What If YOUR Computer Crashed?

tfox — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:13:28 +0000

All of us have valuable data to keep track of: PINs, passwords, phone numbers, Science projects, whatever. Do you have a backup copy? Is it physically separate from the original?

Maybe your system crash won't be as dramatic as this one, but eventually you will lose files. Hard drives fail, accidents and thefts happen, and even the most careful computer user can lose a valuable photo or document. Protect yourself and your data by making sure you have a backup of your data and keep it physically separate from your original. A copy does you no good at all if it was in the same bag with the laptop that was stolen.

The easiest solution for students and staff members at Rangeview is to store files on the Rangeview server. Every student and staff member should be able to log in and get connected to the Rangeview network when working from a school computer. Files saved to the server are automatically copied to tape, and should Rangeview lose the files, they can be reloaded from those tapes.

When you want to work at home, send the files to yourself via email. School policy permits students to use email for this purpose (and only for this purpose). Another alternative is a USB drive (sometimes called a thumb drive). You don't need a big one-a 1GB drive ($9.99 - $15.99 at local stores) will hold about 8000 ten-page papers or 1000 typical PowerPoint files! Of course if you are going to store digital photos or music files, you'll need a little more capacity. And forget about storing video files on a USB drive. Video files get very large very quickly.

Be regular with your backup plan. Students-just save to the server and email your stuff home and back. Staff-drag your personal files from your laptop or desktop to your server once a week. Then when your hard drive fails-and IT WILL FAIL someday-you won't be singing the "I want my data back, data back, data back, data back, data back, data back, now" blues.