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.

June 29, 2007

Dear Sassy: I have been receiving a lot of e-cards in my inbox lately. They say that they are from a "family member" but I don't recognize any of the sites listed to click on. Do you think these are spam?
~ It's not my Birthday

Dear Birthday: Sassy is glad that you asked this question. This IS spam that can compromise your system. Do not click on the link! There have been several emails sent from "E-cards.com" and "Netfuncards.com". As always if it looks suspicious it normally is suspicious.

PhD

I have been accepted to the PhD program in Library Science at TWU to begin this fall. Sassy won't be going anywhere as she is too expensive and thus will continue her day job.

June 22, 2007

Sassy has been asked to participate in the 2008 SCC Dallas invitation. Here is a link to their blog: http://sccmla.org/blogs/scc2008lac/invitation/. So stay tuned to learn more about the exciting SCC Annual Meeting to be held in Dallas next year. Also don't forget to schedule your hotel arrangements for Albuquerque for October.

June 22, 2007

Dear Sassy: On some blogs, I see an icon labeled "Del.icio.us It." What is the purpose of this icon? Why would Sassy it to her blog?
~ Is it really Delicious?

Dear Really: Sassy does apologize for not responding sooner. Sassy just created a del.icio.us account ~ not that there is anything posted there... Del.icio.us is a way to store your Internet bookmarks out on the web. This means that if you (or anyone else) needed to access your bookmarks no matter where you are or what computer you are using, you would be able to access them. The del.icio.us software will need to be installed on your computer and has an icon that looks like this: and will be placed on your Internet browser. On Sassy's blog there is a list of my favorite links. Sassy does now have a del.icio.us account but hasn't added anything quite yet. However, you can look at Kerri's del.icio.us page at: http://del.icio.us/kchris56/ to give you an idea of what it looks like.

June 6, 2007

Dear Sassy: I typed up my email message on my computer but I can't find the "send" button. What happened? Where did it go?
~ Starting to panic

Dear Starting: Don't panic! You can easily fix this problem. Since you already have a new mail message open you can click on View, Toolbars and make sure Standard is checked. Sassy is guessing that it was unchecked. After you select Standard your Send button (and many others) should reappear.

MLA

Hope everyone is enjoying reading the MLA blog while Sassy is away...

May 14, 2007

Dear Sassy: How can I tell if a website is secure?
~Probably lacking Security

Dear Probably: Great question! You can never be too secure when you are online! Shoot, you can never be too secure when you are off line! If you look up in the address bar you frequently will see: "http://" but if the site is secure you will see: "https://" The "s" designates that the site is a secure one. Also another identifying factor is the little padlock on the bottom right hand side of your internet browser window. If you would like to be extra, and I mean extra, cautious you can double click on the padlock to gain additional information on the security certificate.

MLA

This is not an ordinary Sassy post but wanted everyone to have a chance to read the Ask Sassy Systems... poster that will be presented at MLA. This will be Sassy's first trip to Philadelphia and first trip to MLA.

May 10, 2007

Dear Sassy: I just received an email with several word attachments. Is there a way to save all the attachments in one fell swoop?
~The Thane of Fife

Dear Thane: Interesting Macbeth tie in - very impressive! In order to save all the attachments in one fell swoop you will first need to open up the email message. Next click on File and then Save attachments. This will open a window in which you can designate a location in order to save the attachments. Do know that this method does NOT save the email but only the attachments.

May 10, 2007

Dear Sassy: I accidentally installed Internet Explorer 7 on my machine. Oops! How do I remove it and go back to IE6?
~Help me back to IE6

Dear IE6: Not a problem! You will find removing IE7 to be an easy task. Simply click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Find "Windows Internet Explorer 7" and click Remove. This will require a reboot of your machine so make sure all files have been saved. Once your machine is restarted IE6 will have returned. Voilà!

May 4, 2007

Dear Sassy: I found an Excel document out on the web that I would like to send in an email to a colleague. How would I do that? I opened the document but can't find it to send as an attachment.
~TGIF

Dear TGIF: Sassy agrees Thank Goodness It's Friday! From your question Sassy knows you are almost there, you just need to save the file to your computer first. When you open a document (excel or word, etc.) from the web you must save it to your computer in order to send it in an email as an attachment. Just make sure you save the file in a memorable location.

Sassy has an addendum: Yikes! Looks like Sassy was mistaken. It appears that some individuals have the a toolbar at the top of the document and can send the document via email through this application.

May 3, 2007

Dear Sassy: I have noticed the Start menu looks different at the Reference desk vs. my office machine. How can I change this menu on my office machine?
~Just a Little Distraught

Dear Distraught: No worries! This is a feature that you can adjust according to your own tastes. Just Right click on Start and click on Properties. A window will pop up where you can select the Start Menu tab. You are provided two options at this point: Start Menu and Classic Start Menu. When you click the radio button next to each one, a graphic will appear and you can then Customize each menu. With either selection you can control what items are on your Start Menu. Once you have made your selection Click Apply and then Ok.

April 30, 2007

Dear Sassy: Every time I open Outlook I get an error message saying that I am missing a scanemal.dll file and that I might be out of memory. I've attached a picture of the error message below. How do I fix this problem?
~Happy Monday












Dear Happy: Thanks for including an image of the error. The complete error message really helps Sassy to determine what is going on with your machine. There is an "add-in" with Outlook that is trying to talk to McAfee, so what we need to do is to disable this communication. Open up Outlook, click Tools and then Options. Find the Other tab and click Advanced Options and then click on Add-In Manager. Click to clear the Exchange Scan check box and then click Ok to apply. This should solve your error message.

April 26, 2007

Dear Sassy: Where did the term "jewel" come from in relation to the jewel cases that house cds?
~Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

Dear Diamonds: Sassy must agree that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but sadly the term "jewel" in jewel cases does not refer to that kind of gemstone. According to Wikipedia, the meaning is derived from a watchmakers' use of "jewel" and generically refers to a polished bearing used in a mechanism. High quality watches and clocks use gemstones as bearings for their low friction proportion. Not that Sassy would know much about watches, as she can't keep a battery working so she doesn't wear a watch. But back on track regarding the jewel cases... If you look at a jewel case you will notice that there are plastic bearings (in its hinges) when you open/close the case, hence the term "jewel" case.

April 26, 2007

Dear Sassy: I have a Google toolbar that suddenly added a button I do not want. The button is for the Rolling Stone website. How do I remove this?
~Gathering no Moss in Shreveport

Dear Gathering: Glad to hear that you are keeping busy! Sassy had to download Google toolbar in order to assist you with your question. In order to change the settings for the Google toolbar you first need to have your internet browser open. In the Google toolbar there is a search box with a letter "G" and a down arrow. Click on this down arrow and then click on Manage. A new window will open up with some Toolbar options. Click on the Buttons tab. In this window you can add/remove buttons to your toolbar. If you would like to investigate other button options for your Google toolbar, visit this website: http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/gallery.

April 18, 2007

Dear Sassy: I received an error message on my computer stating that my virtual memory was low. Am I really losing my memory (on my computer not in real life)?
~Memory Loss

Dear Memory: Sassy is guessing that the error message also said that Windows was fixing the problem. If you have received this error message once - don't worry. Like Windows said, it fixed the problem. However, if you have received this message several times it could be a problem with Windows. First, we should make sure that your hard drive isn't too full. To do this, Right click on Start, Left click on Explore, locate the drive that you want to check (in this case it is the Local Disk C:), Right click on Local Disk C:, and Left click on Properties. This will open a new window with a graph as well as text noting your free space vs. used space.

If the amount of free space is under 10%, you will need to clean up your computer a bit. You can utilize the Disk Cleanup button on this screen to gather more free space. You could also delete old files - or move them to the libfilesbackup machine.

If the amount of free space isn't the problem, it could be just a setting in Windows that needs to be altered. On your desktop is an icon for My Computer. Right click on My Computer, Left click on Properties, Click on the Advanced tab at the top, find the Performance section and click Settings, Click Advanced, in the Virtual Memory section click Change, look for the System Managed Size option and select it if it isn't selected. With this change you will need to restart your system for it to be in effect plus it should end all the warnings.

April 18, 2007

Dear Sassy: I have to tell you I L-O-V-E your blog! I’ve got a real puzzler for you this time. I recently completed a project, and would like to gather all the various information on the project, including emails I have placed in personal folders, word documents, spreadsheets, etc. together in to one folder. Can you advise me on the best way to accomplish this? Where would you locate such a folder?
~ Ready to fold in Forbing

Dear Forbing: Excellent question! This question caused Sassy to test a few things before answering. Sassy would L-O-V-E to assist you in organizing your files. First, you need to know where you are saving your files (word documents, excel spreadsheets), most times these files are saved in the generic My Documents (or My Files) folder. If you don't know how to tell where your files are being saved - open up the file, and click Save As. This will open up a new window in which you can determine where the file is being saved.

Let's create a new folder in My Documents and place all the related files into that folder.

Here are the steps: Open My Documents. <If you are unsure how to get to My Documents: Right click on Start, (left) click on Explore. This will open up a new window. You should see a folder called My Documents (or whatever folder you save your documents to) on the left hand side.> Here you can right click within this window and click New and click Folder. Name the folder appropriately. Within this window you should be able to drag and drop your related files.

Now to get the emails to this newly created folder... Sassy hopes that you already have a personal folder set up with the emails that you want to put in this folder. Click on the personal folder that you want to incorporate into your folder in My Documents. You will want to Select All (CTRL A) and Copy (CTRL C) the emails. Once you have the emails copied then you will open your folder in My Documents and Paste (CTRL V). If your emails are spread throughout your Outlook, you will need to individually copy and paste the emails into this folder.

Whew, Sassy thinks this was the longest post ever. Sassy needs to go home early...

April 11, 2007

Dear Sassy: Why have the latest Ask Sassy Systems... emails been kinda plain? I mean, what happened to the snazzy new graphic of Sassy?
~ Missing the Graphic

Dear Missing: You have been paying very good attention to the latest Sassy emails, great job! Since this blog was created changes have been in the works for Sassy. Not only is Sassy able to publish to this blog, but I can also push out emails to the library faculty and staff with each new posting on the blog. Sadly the emails come from the blog software and aren't really that pretty. But at the bottom of each email is a link that will take you to the graphical blog. Plus all the previous Sassy articles are posted to the blog and it is searchable. It is available at http://sassysystems.blogspot.com.

April 10, 2007

Dear Sassy: What is a firewall? I hear about it all the time, I just don't know what it is.
~ Just call me the Fireman, that's my name

Dear Fireman: This is a great question! There are several uses for the word firewall. For instance, did you know that your car has a firewall? It is located between the engine of your car and the driver. Its purpose is to protect the driver in case of an explosion or other dangerous malfunction the engine might encounter. But Sassy is guessing that the "firewall" you are asking about is not in your Honda. A computer firewall separates one computer from the other computers on the other side of the "wall." Firewalls help limit computer viruses and spam email, and serve as a filter to the Internet. A firewall can either be hardware or software based. Basically a firewall will let you perform regular Internet surfing while making sure that individuals on the Internet can not access your files on your machine. So in a sense, both types of firewalls protect the end user; however, Sassy hopes that your computer will not explode nor have a dangerous malfunction.