Category Archives: IT news, hints & tips

Skydrive – free upgrade and mobile apps

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UPGRADE YOUR MICROSOFT SKYDRIVE TO 25GB

Microsoft have very cheekily reduced all hotmail and live@edu Skydrive storage spaces to 7GB from 25GB.  It is possible to upgrade back to 25GB free of charge for a limited time, so please hurry to grab your share as soon as you can!  Please find instructions above to show you how this can be done.

Also, you can now access your Skydrive directly from your computer and mobile device with an app.  Please check out these webpages for details on how to do it – it makes life much easier.  We are working on being able to add this to the student computers for next year, so keep your fingers crossed …

Mobile App download info

Windows and Mac OSX download info

 

 

Saving PDFs

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We’ve had a few complaints recently that Summon doesn’t allow you save PDF files. This isn’t actually anything to do with Summon, but seems to be a recent change Adobe has introduced in their Acrobat Reader software.

If you find that the “save” icon is greyed out in the Acrobat toolbar…

…select “File”, “Save As” and “PDF”…

Alternatively, if the PDF has opened within a web browser window, hover your mouse near the foot of the PDF window to display a toolbar and then select the “save a copy” icon…

According to Adobe Support, the “save” icon only becomes active once a user has made changes to the PDF document. However, as the vast majority of full-text journal articles don’t allow you to alter the PDF, the icon remains inactive.

New printing system at UCB

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In the past we have had complaints about queues at the printers during busy times,  comments about the huge amount of paper wasted through students printing work and not collecting it and confusion about which print queue to send printing to.  But no more!!!  We have found a solution to all these problems!

We have scrapped all our old printers and got new ones that both photocopy and print (and before long scan too!).  All printing is sent to just one print queue – UCBY Print Queue and then you can go to any printer/copier (MFD) on campus to collect your printing.

You can now send as many print jobs to the printer as you like, but nothing will print out until you ask it to – saving money for you and paper for us!  A win-win situation.  All printing will automatically default to black and white (again to save you money), but you can easily print in colour if you really want to.

An email will be send out to all students shortly after the start of term explaining how the system works, but if you need to do any printing before then just come to the Library and Computing Helpdesk and we will be happy to help you get started.

***NEW*** UCB Discussion Forum ***NEW***

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Ever found that you have a question to ask, but there is no-one around to ask? Well we have found a solution for you! We have created the UCB Forum especially for our students to be able to find answers to their questions. The Forum will be accessible through http://portal.hud.ac.uk and has been broken down into chunks:

• Library
• IT
• Careers
• Disability
• Chat
• Students Union
• Academic Skills
• And more!!!

Simply log onto PortalPlus to be able to find the forum on your “My studies” tab, create an account using your Unimail account, log on an you are off! You can ask or answer any question but please keep it clean though or your account will be disabled!! Want to know how to use the new printing system? No problem – ask the forum and someone will be able to answer your question. Has someone asked a question that you know the answer to? Why not help them out by answering? Believe us, it feels good to know you can help others.

And if you really want to help your fellow students then you can even become a moderator! Julie will be asking students to keep an eye on the Forum, answering questions, reporting any abuse (although we are sure there won’t be any!) and she will be sending out an email inviting you to join her for a chat about the Forum just as soon as you have all settled back in at Uni.

Inserting and updating a Table of Contents in Word 2007

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If you are struggling with creating your Table of Contents, then have a look at this link through to the Microsoft website.   It explains how you create your TOC quickly and easily so that it looks really professional.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-a-table-of-contents-HP001225372.aspx

It also explains how you can update your table automatically.

 

New addition to PortalPlus

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We hope that you are already enjoying the new improved PortalPlus which is now especially designed for UCB students, but if not we have something that might be more tempting for you.

We are proud to announce that the new UCB Discussion Forum goes live today within PortalPlus.  The forum has been created to allow UCB students to:

  • ask for help from fellow students or staff,
  • help peers by answering forum questions,
  • make comments and suggestions regarding our services.

To gain access to the forum you will need to log into PortalPlus and then click on the “Support and Advice” tab.  You will then see a section called “UCB Discussion Forum”.  Click on this to gain access.

Once you are within the forum, you will be able to view messages posted by other members but if you want to post a message yourself you will need to register and then login.  This is a very simple process – but if you have any problems please speak to a member of the LCC staff.

If you need a reminder of what is available within PortalPlus, then please see our short presentation which can be found here.

If you have any questions about PortalPlus, or anything else IT related just come and see us in the Library.