Microsoft Office XP

Last month, we requested input regarding the timing of the upgrade to Office XP. The votes for the timing of the upgrade indicated you'd prefer the beginning of summer, rather than waiting till Fall. Therefore, the campus network upgrade from Office 2000 to Office XP is now scheduled for May 15th. This upgrade is for the PC's only. Some of the changes that will be coming with the new Office suite are:

• Speech Recognition
• Office Clipboard (Task Pane) – holds double the amount of copied items of 2000
  
• Smart Tags – A set of buttons shared across MS Office programs
• Compress Pictures
• Print from Browser – HTML documents are now printed directly from the program that created them allowing a formatted printout
• Web Options Capability – make documents more compatible with specific browsers
  
• Digital Signatures
• Document password encryption
• Repair and Extract – helps when documents don’t load properly

Security

Department directors: To help maintain the security of the critical programs on Nell, you can now view daily which programs your students (or other employees) have accessed. The program MTRK09R is on the Nell menu system. This program allows you to enter a username and select the timeframe. You can then view the list of Nell programs, and the beginning and ending times of access.

Training

On-campus one-on-one and class sessions are posted on the training calendar for March. Enroll in a course or suggest other ideas for classes that you would like offered.

Blackboard

A big thank you goes out to all the SHSU professors using Blackboard. We appreciated your patience as we dealt with the Blackboard technical staff in resolving the problems the past 2 weeks. We do realize the gradebook difficulties could not have come at a worse time for your classes. The Server is up and running now. If you notice any difference in your courses, or if you have any questions, please contact Jacob Spradlin.

As a reminder, we recommend you print a hard copy immediately after entering grades online. This way, obviously, they could then be reentered manually if there is a system failure with Blackboard.

Do you want quick answers to frequently asked Blackboard questions, but don't want the added hassle of having to enter Blackboard and access the support site? Or do you want to give your students access to those same answers? We have provided a new resource called the Blackboard FAQ Pages, that offers quick but thorough answers to many questions you have thought of and probably some you haven't.

Computer Services is sending 2 staff members to the Blackboard Convention in Phoenix. Christy Cross and Jacob Spradlin will be attending to get the technical end knowledge. However, if you have any questions or comments that you would like them to share with Blackboard's staff, please let them know. The grade system will be on the agenda!

Mail Services

As previously announced, Carl Hicks joined the Mail Service Center as the new Manager on March 1st.

Does your department want to send something to all on-campus student residents? There are 2,299 boxes currently in use. You do NOT have to put mailing labels or return addresses on the outside. We'll be glad to put your flyer in each student box--and you don't have to take the time to staple, label, or stamp your return address.

Give Carl a call at 43001 if you have questions or concerns.

Institutional Research

In an effort to optimize data use, the Office of Institutional Research's website can be used to request data. Click on the Data Request link in the left hand column. After filling out the form, your request will be submitted by e-mail. Each request will take approximately two weeks. For more information, call Peggy at 294-3619 or by e-mail at ird_pat@shsu.edu.