All

Users

Target Audience

Since everyone is so busy, we will now be tagging the Update articles with a note to indicate the intended audience. Hope this will save you some time and allow you to read just the information that you need!

PC

Users

Security--Here or At Home

Last month, we provided a lengthy explanation of ways to protect your home computer. If you have chosen to be the administrator of your on-campus machine, you are also vulnerable here. You increase the risk of exposing the campus network to viruses and worms. You could potentially even have someone committing credit card fraud or spamming others using your machine as the host.

The cost and the risk to your information, as well as the local area network, can be potentially quite expensive. With the Blaster virus last fall, Stanford University estimated their repair cost at $806,000. (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 19, 2004, A30) We certainly have better uses for SHSU funds!

If you currently are the Admin of your machine, acknowledge April 4th, National Cyber Security Day, by requesting that we remove your admin status. If you want to download specific programs, just notify the Helpdesk that you need to be made a Temporary Admin of your machine. A technician will change your machine just long enough for you to complete your task. This way, you can have the advantages of doing what you want, but less maintenance responsibility.

University of Arizona's campaign for Cyber Security emphasizes that the key to security is derived from the word itself: sec-U-R-IT-y. In other words, “You Are It!” Your help is essential to keep Sam Safe.

Support

Staff

Sam Menu

A graphical version of the Payroll Action Form (PAFF01M) is now available on the Sam Menu. The Payroll Office will be offering full training on this program this summer and the Nell version will be discontinued at some point after that. The Sam Menu version will allow you to modify and print an existing form, or create and save (and print) a new form. Hopefully you will find this version to be much more user-friendly. Macintosh users who are still unable to use the Sam Menu need to have their workstations upgraded to OSX and contact the Helpdesk (4-1950) about having terminal services installed.

All

Users

Workstations---Time for a New One?

Any money left in your departmental budgets? Find out if it is time for you to replace your staff office or department-maintained lab machines.

If you want to know if your PC reaches the minimum level needed for the campus local area network, use the Utility under Start, All Programs, SHSU Utilities, SHSU Check Computer Utility. You will receive a Pass/Fail grade. If your machine fails, you can use the PC online order form to purchase replacement workstations.

Macintoshes should have a minimum 866 Mhz and 128 Mb of memory for connection to the SHSU LAN.

Faculty: You are on a three-year replacement schedule at this time. We are currently replacing 800 Mhz PCs and 400 Mhz Macintoshes.

When you are ready to turn your old machines over to Property, please first do a Computer Services work order. For security and licensing purposes, the hard drives must be completely erased.

All

Users

Media Circus III

It's time to see what's new and what you can do differently. The Office of AITDL is coordinating this technology and technique showcase. It will be April 6th from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. and April 7th from 9 a.m. till noon in the LSC Ballroom.

Faculty

Blackboard

Come by the Blackboard Booth at the Media Circus and learn about the great new features in Blackboard 6.1 as well as pick up some “Bb Freebies.”

The semester change is once again upon us so it is time to clean out your Blackboard closet! Your Summer ‘04 courses are now listed in the Courses you are teaching in Bb. Now is the time to copy any information out of your Summer I 2003 courses because they will be removed the day before Summer I 2004 begins.

SH Press

Customers

SH Press Tech Tips---Best Methods and Colors

Document Printing--Use InDesign
Other than for single sheet one-color printing, Microsoft Word documents are not conducive to printing on an offset press. The color model in Word is designed for laser printers, and Word does not generate registration marks to register the inks. In other words, the colors may not print in the correct places! It can be very difficult, or simply impracticable, to convert a Word document for offset printing that you may have spent hours formatting. A massive amount of reformatting (yours and ours) adds costs and time for printing, so please start differently.

Sam Houston Press & Copy Center requests you use the following formats instead of Word:

1. Adobe InDesign (most preferred, and the replacement for Adobe PageMaker)
2. Quark xPress (acceptable)

Microsoft Word files can be flowed into Adobe InDesign files, however the formatting then needs to be carefully checked. Files generated in Adobe PageMaker, mentioned above, are easily converted into Adobe InDesign files. This can be done at the Press if you wish. In importing any file into another program, the graphical links need to be reestablished.

Document Printing--Choose Your Colors
The official SHSU orange is Pantone 021. For the PC, please use the color library “solid to process” found in T:\Press\PCtoMAC\Pantone universal swatches. For the Macintosh, please use the color library “solid to process” found in SHPress:Pantone universal swatches. You will note that the color libraries are named the same, but they are platform-specific, so a PC color library cannot be used in a Macintosh. Using these color libraries yields ink colors with a “PC” suffix in the color names/swatches lists in your programs. Please take care not to confuse the PC platform's color library with the specific ink names; for example, the official SHSU orange is named “PANTONE Orange 021 PC” both on the Mac and on the PC. The correct platform's “solid to process” color library must be used to access this or any other ink for each platform.

Other ink colors are also available in these color libraries. First read the “Pantone_solid_to_process_User_G” pdf file found in each Pantone universal swatches folder. Information for loading and accessing these libraries can also be found in your program’s Help. You may call Rick Carpenter at the Sam Houston Press & Copy Center (x4-1858) for further help.

All

Users

Training

Want to learn how to use InDesign so you can send your documents to Sam Houston Press for printing? Beginning InDesign classes will be offered in April. Review the Training Calendar for details on this and other classes. 

All

Users

Tech Tip

Protect your documents and programs. Logoff each night when you go home. It is extremely time-consuming and sometimes impossible to restore your information. This is your first most important step in responsibly saving hours of your labor. Secondly, regularly backup your files. Use a memory stick, CD, or your hard drive. If it will KILL you to reproduce the document, make sure you have it in more than one location.