Macintosh

The Norton Anti-virus application is now available for Macintoshes. Instructions for installation and use are online.

Blackboard (BB) Forum

This past month, we've held two meetings with current BB faculty and one open forum for all interested users. We will be designing a questionnaire this month to get more faculty input. We would also like volunteers for a BB steering committee. Just send e-mail to Jacob at ucs_jws@shsu.edu if you are interested. This month's BB training classes will be on the 9th and the 22nd.

Questions included:

• Dr. Reames asked if faculty could add students to their BB classes themselves. This change is being made at this time.
• Roster-created e-mail addresses for students: Dr. Ashorn mentioned many graduate students prefer to use their business e-mail address. The solution for this is to have them forward their STDxxx mail to the other address. There is a quick utility for this on the SamInfo, Computer Accounts links from the University Web page.
• Security-issues: Dr. Dowling questioned the security of placing graphics on the Web. We will provide tips on ways to make it more difficult to copy them. However, it will not be impossible.
• Ownership-Dr. Stowe asked if it had been resolved who owns these classes. Dr. Eglsaer responded that this issue is still being addressed, and the TSUS is meeting on this and other Distance Learning issues next week.
• Student Orientation: Dr. Lichtman asked how students could learn to use the system. Computer Services will offer demo sessions for students at the beginning of each semester.

Security

You can help increase the security of the University workstations and information by following these guidelines for the password and PIN.

• Do not use your University password or PIN for external vendors.
• Never give your username, password, or PIN to anyone else.
• Never use someone else's username, password, or PIN. If additional access is required for your duties, contact your supervisor for help.
• Do not use easy-to-guess passwords or PINs.
• Be aware of those around you and ensure they cannot watch you typing your passwords or PIN.
• Do not write down passwords or PIN's. Shred any documentation that may have this information on it.
• Do not allow others to access programs or data from within your account.
• Change your password often.
• Log off of your workstation when leaving for the day.
• Lock your workstation with a screen saver when leaving the desk.
• Use a password-protected screen saver.

Mac users: If you are running OS 9, you now have the option of password locking your computer. You can set up administrative users, and regular users (these users have less power to change things on the computer), and even a guest account, and have a login screen. The overall setup is close to the standalone Windows NT workstation model where you create local accounts. Details will be available by March 9th from the Computer Services Web page.

Training

WThis month's training schedule is now posted. As always, we are providing one-on-one training on using FileMaker Pro for the University forms completion. Although this program can be a real time-saver over using a typewriter, it does require some instruction. When a new employee takes over this function in your department, please call for an appointment to learn the ins and outs. If you are a trained user and are having problems using one of the forms, please call the department responsible for that form: Purchasing, Travel, Physical Plant, etc.

A new class being offered this month is Dreamweaver. This software provides more sophisticated Web page creation.

Printing from Nell

Need only a couple of pages printed from the SALPOS report? Don't want to wait for the greenbar print-out? Print to the Web as a PDF file, and just print the section you want.

To print a PDF document from Nell:
Enter web for document destination
Enter LP11 for document type
Enter the normal forms code you would use (1prt06 for instance)

When you press Enter, the document will be formatted according the forms code and sent to the Web.
You may then view/print your documents from the Faculty/Staff link to the Admin Menu page. (http://www.shsu.edu/faculty/admin/)

On this page you will be presented with a logon screen where you must enter your e-mail username and password. This will display a page that lists the filename in a table with buttons on both sides for viewing/printing and deleting the files.

To print a file, click View, which will prompt you to Save or Open the document. Choose Open in the dialog box. The dialog may not appear if you already configured your browser to open PDF files automatically. Once the document is opened in Adobe Acrobat reader, you may view the document or print it by clicking the printer icon at the top of the document.

Files will remain on the server until you choose to delete them. This will consume space and eventually prevent new files from being transferred/ viewed/printed from the server until unneeded files are removed. To delete a file just click Delete and it will remove the file from the list and refresh the page.

This will also adjust the total file size at the bottom of the page. Each user is allowed 20mb of space on the Web server, and this includes documents, Web pages, and e-mail. Files will not be removed from the server until you choose to delete the file; they will never be purged automatically.