August 23, 2007

Dear Sassy: I send and receive many emails at work. What is the proper etiquette for emailing?
~Not so Miss Manners

Dear Manners: That is a great question! Sassy receives a lot of email as well so this is a perfect question to address. Sassy found a link for the Emily Post Institute that discusses Netiquette. Netiquette is etiquette for technology. Sassy also found an article that discusses business etiquette. Take a moment to read the articles. But of course, Sassy must put in her own two cents. Remember that email does a poor job of displaying emotion, so be cautious when writing sentences that can be taken multiple ways. Typing in ALL CAPS is hard to read, plus it suggests yelling and quite frankly intimidates Sassy. Use the Reply All button sparingly, we all have a lot of email to wade through... Also, take caution in using the CC and BCC buttons, again we have tons of email.

August 20, 2007

Dear Sassy: What happened to the printer out by the public workstations in the Reference area? Can students no longer print at those computers?
~Hoping to Print

Dear Hoping: You are very observant! Sassy had to "borrow" that printer late Friday afternoon to replace the public printer downstairs. But never fear, the machines in the Reference area can print to the printers in the large computer lab. In fact, the two machines that did print to the missing printer now have all the same privileges as the rest of the machines on this table. Previously that was not the case. Full text searching and access to the networked printers is now available on all machines.

August 1, 2007

Dear Sassy: What is an iPhone? I have heard lots of news about it and the hype surrounding it - but what makes this phone a big deal?
~iLost

Dear iLost: Sassy is excited that you are current with new technology! You may remember when the iPhone came out, the news station was interviewing all the people waiting in line to get it. The iPhone must be a big deal if that many people are that dedicated to wait in line to purchase one. Here is the Wikipedia link that will give you more information about the iPhone. But basically this is a camera, has Internet capabilities, e-mail, iPod (music), YouTube (video), has a touch screen like a PDA - oh and it is also a phone. :) The iPhone is about the same size as a PDA but offers many more functions. Apple makes the iPhone as well as the iPod. This is a new technology and the cost is high, hopefully the cost will decline as the hype fades.

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.

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.