July 18, 2007

Dear Sassy: I tried to assist a medical student in the lab - he needed help logging into the LSUHSC Medical School Curriculum page to get into Grade Book to view his grades. I was able to get there on the Reference desk but not in the lab. Why not? It kept asking me for a user name and password.
~ Dying to see if I Passed!

Dear Passed: Ahh, you have come across a difficulty with having "public" machines on the network. In order for students to log into the Curriculum page and Grade Book the students MUST user their email username/password in the lab. The catch is that they have to precede their username with LSUMC-MASTER\ just like when we log into OVID. For example mine would be username: "lsumc-master\aander" and then my email password. The reason you were able to get into the Curriculum page at the reference desk is because you were logged onto that machine and the Curriculum page used those credentials.

July 16, 2007

Dear Sassy: I was assisting a patron in the lab the other day and the printer kept saying to add paper - but I checked the printer and there was plenty of paper. What was going on?
~ Silly Printer there IS paper

Dear Printer: Oh how Sassy feels your frustration! The printer says to load paper, but all the paper trays are slap full of paper. Argh!! Sometimes what the printer says and what it really means are two different things. Some of the PDF journal articles are not meant to be printed on 8.5 by 11 paper, they want to be printed on A4 paper. If the patron has already sent the job to the printer (they have paid for it) you can follow the instructions on the printer to get it to print on 8.5 by 11 paper. Or you can always come get a member of the Systems department to assist. If the patron has NOT sent the job to the printer (or has more print jobs to go) there is a setting that needs to be changed. Open up the PDF document and click Print. On the Print Window there is an option to "Choose Paper Source by PDF Page Size" uncheck this option! This setting will be remembered the next time the patron prints.

July 16, 2007

Dear Sassy: I heard a rumor about iPods and lightning... Do iPods attract lightning strikes like a tall tree?
~ Ecstatically Waiting

Dear Ecstatic: You know, Sassy has also heard that cell phones also attract lightning strikes. But this appears to be a common myth according to Snopes.com. Cell phones and iPods do not attract lightning strikes but you do not want to have your metal ear buds in your ears during a storm. If you should get struck by lighting with your ear buds in your ears, the electricity from the storm combined with the metal in your iPod/cable/ear buds will serve as a conductor and allow the electricity to penetrate your body. This does not sound good and most likely will require a trip to the emergency room. It is better to be safe than sorry, don't listen to your iPod or plug into your cell phone during a storm.

Armadillo Pins

Sassy just wants to remind everyone that SCC/MLA chapter pins and Armadillo pins can now be purchased online at: http://www.sccmla.org/fundraising/order.htm. So order yours today!

July 10, 2007

Dear Sassy: I created a PowerPoint presentation and ran the spell checker, but I still noticed some misspelled words - especially in the headings. How do I catch those errors?
~ Can't Spell

Dear Spell: Of course you can spell! Sometimes Sassy's fingers don't type as fast as her brain thinks, or maybe it is the other way around... Anyway, there is a fix for your spelling errors. Sassy is guessing that your headings in your presentation are in all CAPS. Spell checker by default does not check words in all CAPS. To activate this feature click on Tools > Options > Spelling and Style. You will need to uncheck the "Ignore Words in Uppercase." Run the spell checker again and this should catch the misspelled words in all caps. On a side note, this also works in Word.

July 2, 2007

Dear Sassy: I received a distribution list via email. Is there a way to save this to my Contacts in Outlook or do I have to enter in all the names/email address to my Contacts?
~Missing my Contacts

Dear Contacts: Hmm, Sassy had to work on this one to figure it out. So thanks for sending me the question. At first Sassy kept trying to "save" the distribution list and then "import" into the Contacts. This is absolutely wrong! What you will want to do is to open up the attachment of the distribution list from your email. Next, click on File > Copy to Folder and choose your Contact Folder. This will save the distribution list into your Contacts. Now you can open up your Contacts Folder and you should see your new distribution list.