- While the pop-up box is displayed you can read and/or delete messages making the appropriate selection from there.
- Click the System Tray icon to launch the notify dialog box, you will see a list of all unread messages.
- Right click the Notify icon in the System Tray and choose Options.
- Under the General tab, you can change how often Notify looks for new messages, how long it displays the pop-up and more.
- Under the Notify and Alarms tabs, you can select a sound file to play when a new message comes in.
(Week of 10/13/08) Tech Tip: Windows Users, Channel 3 Screen Saver is no Longer Being Updated
If you're a Windows user with the screen saver that echoes the information from
channel 3 then you've probably noticed it's no longer showing the current content.
The reason is due to recent, drastic increases to the licensing fees for the
updating service, so it is no longer supported here at the college. When you get
tired of seeing the outdated messages you may switch to a standard Windows
screensaver through the process described below. If you need assistance with
this email 
or phone the doIT helpdesk at 268-doit.
To change your Windows XP screen saver: Right-click on your desktop (this is
any part of your computer screen's background where there isn't an icon or
program window covering it). Select "Properties" and the Display Properties
window will open. Select the "Screen Saver" tab, click the pull-down list under
"Screen saver" to see a list of what's available. A click on any selection will
show you a small preview. To see what you've selected full screen, click the
"Preview" button. Additional settings may be available via the "Settings" button.
Once satisfied click "Apply" and "OK". Repeat this procedure to try others.
Please don't download any screen savers. Many screen savers harbor viruses or
trojans and can be designed to collect personal information about you or the
college network putting us all at risk.
(Week of 10/06/08) Tech Tip: Communicating With Students via Email
As we all know, the caspercollege.edu domain receves a lot of spam.
Some days, the colleges anti-spam system identifies over 50,000 messages as
spam and unfortunately many still get through. We're literally being
spammed-to-death every second of every day.
One of the consequences of running an anti-spam system is false positives.
These are messages that have been incorrectly identified as spam. CC students
using email systems outside of myCC (ie. their college-assigned email) to
communicate with CC employees have a higher likelihood of having their messages
identified as spam by our anti-spam system. For this reason it is recommended
that college employees have CC students use their college-supplied email for
any official correspondence.
About myCC: It is hosted by Google and the domain is
my.caspercollege.edu. Students can login via
http://my.caspercollege.edu/. Casper College student email accounts are
automatically assigned to all
registered students. It is to these accounts that the College will send
all official email communications. This is the email address listed in
College directories (ie. GroupWise and Colleague). Use of this system
helps ensure that faculty, administration and students can communicate
with one another via email as the need arises.
(Week of 09/29/08) Tech Tip: "The address that pops into the TO: BC: or CC: fields when I start typing is spelled wrong"
This is most likely a bad entry in your GroupWise "Frequent Contacts" address book. By
default name completion uses a search order of your Frequest Contacts first then
if there's no match found it looks in the Novell GroupWise Address Book (system
address book).
To keep this misspelled email address from popping up, open the Address Book,
then click on your Frequent Contacts. Find the bad address here, right-click on
it and select delete.
The order and which address books are used by the name completion search feature is
customizable. You can also customize how addresses are saved to your Frequent
Contacts address book.
For details on this please see the GroupWise 7 Client User Guide for your OS at
the bottom-right of
this web page.
(Week of 09/22/08) Tech Tip: Recommended GroupWise Maintenance - Cleaning Out your Frequent Contacts
Your Frequent Contacts should be cleaned out often especially after we've had a period of employee turnover such as at the beginning of each semester. Keeping your Frequent Contacts clear of Casper College addresses ensures that all your college group lists and email addresses come directly from the GroupWise System address book.
To clean out old Casper College addreses, it's really more efficient to delete them all since you don't really need them in Frequent Contacts anyway. Here's how to get it done.
- In GroupWise, go to Tools - Address Book.
- In the Address Book pop-up window, go to View - Define Custom Filter
- In the Filter window, choose "Email address" from the first drop-down, "Contains" from the 2nd drop-down, and type caspercollege.edu in the box.
- Click OK
- In the Address Book window, click once on "Frequent Contacts" to select it.
- The addresses in the right-hand pane are now all the caspercollege.edu addresses in your Frequent Contacts address book, and can be deleted. Click the first entry once, scroll to the bottom of the list, hold down the Shift key, and click the last entry to select them all.
- Press Delete. Click to confirm you really want to do this.
- Click View and choose Filter Off to restore your address book view to normal.
(Week of 09/15/08) Tech Tip: How can I set a birthday date in my GroupWise calender that repeats every year?
Remember that every 4th year is leap year with 366 days, so you can't use the repeating function with 365 days
- Start a new appointment/note - whatever you wish - and put "Fred's Birthday" in the subject line.
- Under Actions, choose Auto-Date and click the Example tab.
- On the dropdown, change from "Days of the Week" to "Days of the Month".
- Click the Month (e.g., September) and then the day (e.g., 23).
- Double-click the "days" field that shows Sun, Mon, Tues, etc., so that all days are selected. The default number of occurences is 50, you may change this if you don't feel the need to go out that many years.
- Click OK to get back to the Appointment window.
- Check "All Day Event" unless you want to set a time.
- Click Post or Send, depending on what kind of appointment, note, etc., you are creating.
(Week of 09/08/08) Tech Tip: Create an Email Distribution List of Students in GroupWise
- Prerequisite - create a CC Students Directory in your Address Book
(see http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/student_ab_howto.html) - Open your GroupWise Client
- Open the Address Book
- Click your personal address book from the list on the left
-
(or click "File" then "New Book..." to create a new one)
- Click the New button on the toolbar
- Select Group and click OK
- Give your Group a name (e.g. CMAP1892)
- Select the CC Students Directory in the Look in: field of the Novell LDAP Address Book
- Drag-n-drop the students from there onto your new Group name
- Anytime you want to email the Group, select the Group, then Action, then Send Mail
Related: Creating Non-GroupWise Distribution Lists to use in GroupWise in the link to Casper College "Campus Weekly" Tech Tips Archive on the DoIT Computer Help--FAQ web page at http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/
(Week of 09/01/08) Tech Tip: How to Lookup Student Email Adresses from the GroupWise Address Book
Student email addresses are now available for lookup right in your GroupWise Address Book. All you need to do is
create a new Directory in your Novell LDAP Address Book.
It's easy to configure, all the steps are listed here: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/student_ab_howto.html
Next week: How to create a GroupWise Email Distribution List for Your Class or Student Group
(Week of 08/25/08) Tech Tip: Changes to Student Email for Fall 08
The student email system at register.caspercollege.edu will be decommissioned on November 1st, 2008. Students mailbox contents will not be available on or after this date. Students should save any messages they wish to keep by forwarding to another messaging system, or printing a hardcopy. Beginning August 25th, 2008 student email will be available to registered students via myCC. MyCC features Google's Gmail, Docs and Calendar web applications. Students may access myCC at any time by typing "http://my.caspercollege.edu" into the location or address bar of any web browser. Also, the student email address domain is changing from register.caspercollege.edu to my.caspercollege.edu (ex. "zappaf@register.caspercollege.edu" - becomes - "zappaf@my.caspercollege.edu").
(Week of 05/05/08) Tech Tip: The Summary View: A different Look at Your Mailbox
The Summary View in GroupWise is an alternative to the normal column view. On
the first line you will see the Subject and on the second line you will see the
Sender and the Date Sent. This feature is enabled by using one of these two methods.
In the folder view, right-click on the Subject or Date columns of an item and select View
Summary or from the main menu, select View > Display Settings > Summary. This
might be less useful in the normal folder view, but if you use the Home View you
might like the way it looks within a panel better than the column view.
(Week of 04/28/08) Tech Tip: Spring Cleaning - Frequent Contacts
When was the last time you cleaned out your GroupWise Frequent Contacts? Keeping your Frequent Contacts clear of Casper College addresses ensures that all your college group lists and email addresses come directly from the GroupWise System address book, and is important to do fairly often, especially after we have periods of employee turnover. Here's how to get it done.
- In GroupWise, go to Tools – Address Book.
- In the Address Book pop-up window, go to View – Define Custom Filter
- In the Filter window, choose “Email address” from the first drop-down, “Contains” from the 2nd drop-down, and type caspercollege.edu in the box.
- Click OK
- In the Address Book window, click once on “Frequent Contacts” to select it.
- The addresses in the right-hand pane are now all the caspercollege.edu addresses in your Frequent Contacts address book, and can be deleted. Click the first entry once, scroll to the bottom of the list, hold down the Shift key, and click the last entry to select them all.
- Press Delete. Click to confirm you really want to do this.
- Click View and choose Filter Off to restore your address book view to normal.
(Week of 04/21/08) Tech Tip: Sending Existing Recurring Appointments to New Hires
You sent that recurring office meeting appointment two years ago, but now you have a few new people in the office. Here's a tip to help you painlessly send recurring appointments to new hires.
- Select the appointment you wish to send in either the week or day calendar view.
- Click the Delegate button.
- Click All Instances.
- Enter the new hires' addresses in the To field.
- Delete all "-Delegated" tags.
- Click Send.
- When the dialog asks if you wish to keep the original item, click Yes.
(Week of 04/14/08) Tech Tip: Getting "Message Delivery Failures" from messages You Didn't Send
What you're seeing is called backscatter. These are "Bounces" from mail servers, that usually have a subject of "Delivery notification: delivery has failed", "Returned Mail: see transcript", "failure notice", "Mail Delivery Failed", etc. The messages typically originate from "MAILER-DAEMON", "postmaster","Mail delivery subsystem", etc. Legitimate bounces come back to you when you enter a recipients address wrong or their mailbox is full but if you're getting bounces from messages you didn't send then you're seeing backscatter.
Backscatter is a growing issue because SPAM is increasing at an unprecedented rate. You get backscatter messages because of two problems. One, a spammer has started a SPAM run forging your email address as the "From:" address and two, poorly configured servers don't properly reject it, instead they send a "bounce" non-delivery notification to the forged "From:" address. So you get notices about messages you didn't send. Because SPAM runs can include thousands of messages some victims will see thousands of backscatter messages in their mailbox. Sadly, there are too many email servers on the Internet today that create backscatter.
What can you do? The bad news is, you can't stop spammers from forging your email address and until the mail servers that create backscatter by bouncing SPAM are configured not to do so, the backscatter problem will continue. The good news is that in *most* cases once the spammer's SPAM run has completed, the backscatter will soon cease as well. The problem you are having with backscatter may periodically repeat as a result of spammer's actions.
One other action you can take is to configure a rule to delete or move bounce-type messages to a special folder. You will need to keep in mind that legitimate bounces may also be subject to your rule's actions. For an example of creating such a rule see "Moving Received Items to a Folder" at: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/gw_training/rules.html#move
As a last resort, your CC email address can be changed.
(Week of 04/07/08) Tech Tip: How do you Find the Date when an Appointment was Created?
This information may help you establish priority of appointment - which came first, second or third.
- Open your Calendar in GroupWise.
- Select the View menu > Display Settings > Details.
- Right-click the column headings and select More columns.
- Select Created in the left column.
- Click Add to add it to the displayed columns.
- Select OK to close the Select Columns window.
Now in your GroupWise Calendar you will see all of your Calendar items in a detail view, with the Created column to the right. This column shows you when an appointment was created. You can sort items by clicking on the title of the column you wish to sort by. - To switch back to your normal view, select View > Display Settings > As Calendar (or you can click away to your Mailbox and back).
(Week of 03/31/08) Tech Tip: Using Junk Mail to Help Keep SPAM out of Your Mailbox
Junk Mail and SPAM are not the same. The Junk Mail feature in GroupWise doesn't
work for SPAM because SPAM seldom comes from the same address every time and Junk
Mail relys on the sender's address to determine if it's junk. A lot of the SPAM
I receive "appears" to come from the big email systems out there like yahoo,
hotmail, gmail, aol...you get the picture. I say "appears", because this information
is always forged in SPAM anyway. Whether forged or not, the fact is I don't expect
to get many messages from those systems, so I can use the junk mail feature in the
GroupWise Client to "junk" any mail from those domains. Once I've done this, I can
then use the junk mail "trust list" to allow messages through from the few people
I know on those domains. I can then go through my junk mail folder periodically
to see if anything got junked that shouldn't have.
For more info, Windows users
can browse the section titled "Handling Unwanted Mail" on page 96 of the GroupWise Windows Client User Guide:
http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/GW7_Windows_User_Client_Guide.pdf
Mac users, see the section titled "Handling Unwanted Mail" on page 40 of the GroupWise Cross-platform Client User Guide:
http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/GW7_Cross_Platform_Client_User_Guide.pdf
(Week of 03/24/08) Tech Tip: DoIT Computer Help - A Wealth of Technical Information
If you've ever found these tech tips helpful and would like to revisit any of them
you're in luck. All tech tips and a lot of other Casper College specific computer-related
information can be found within the DoIT's Computer Help - FAQ web page.
A few selected topics: * Help Yourself - GroupWise Learning Resources at Casper College
* What can you do about unwanted email? * Managing Your GroupWise Mailbox Size *
Attachment limitations for GroupWise email * Email Maintenance Best Practices *
Why am I Getting SPAM from Myself? * How do I change my Novell Login Password? *
How can I create a backup of my work files?
Here's three ways to get there:
- Tune your web browser into http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit
- From the CC Home Page click "Faculty and Staff", "CCIntranet" and finally "Computer Help"
- From the CC Home Page click "Faculty and Staff", under the Casper College header hover your mouse over the "Administration" pull-down menu and select "Information Technology" then "Computer Help - FAQ"
- Finally....once there add it to your Bookmarks or Favorites for easy access
(Week of 03/03/08) Tech Tip: Delayed Delivery of your GroupWise Email Messages
Did you know GroupWise has the ability to create messages to be sent automatically at a predetermined time in the future. It is called "Delay delivery". These are the steps to create a "Delay delivery" message. 1. Open a new message window. 2. Click on the "Send Options" tab 3. Put a check mark in the "Delay delivery" check box, and fill in how you want the mail delayed. 4. Now click on "OK" and you can continue with your message composition. When you send this message, a sent item will be created in your "Sent Items" folder so you can delete it before it sends, if you need to.
(Week of 02/25/08) Tech Tip: Inserting Message Content From a File When Composing a GroupWise Email Message
Did you know that you can retrieve a pre-existing file into an email message? In other words, you can create a message in a word processor, text editor or html editor, save the file and then transfer it into the message body of a new email. The way you do this is to press the "F11" key when you have a new, reply-to or forward message window open in GroupWise. When you press "F11", a dialog will pop up and allow you to navigate to where the document is located. When you locate the document, select it and click "Open". The document will be retrieved into the body of the email message. If retrieving an html file, you'll need to change your compose view to "HTML" prior to using F11 to paste the file in.
(Week of 02/18/08) Tech Tip: WebAccess Security - Username and Password Being Automatically Filled-in?
When you access GroupWise WebAccess from home or work, do you just have to type the
first letter of your user name and the rest of it automatically fills in? Then when
clicking in the password box do you see your password automatically entered? Sure,
it's convenient, but this scenario will allow anyone using your computer to access
your email. If you consider this to be a bit insecure as you should, you might consider
reconfiguring your browser settings so it doesn't remember and auto-fill these fields.
What's happening is your web browser remembers your username as a fill-in form field
and your password because it is configured to do so. To change this behavior for better
privacy follow these steps.
If you're using Internet Explorer 6 (IE7 similar): Tools > Internet Options > Content
(tab) > Personal Information > AutoComplete... > uncheck boxes, do Clear Forms and Clear
Passwords > OK
If you're using Firefox: Tools > Options > Security > un-check "Remember passwords for
sites". Click Privacy > in the History section, uncheck "Remember what I enter in forms
and the search bar" > OK.
(Week of 02/11/08) Tech Tip: GroupWise Shared Calendar How-To's and Tips
GroupWise Shared Calendars provide an easy way for the personnel within a department or group to see when others will be out of the office. This can help avoid scheduling conflicts for vacation time and people wasting their time looking for you when you're not in. Also any kind of information that affects everyone such as a holiday or meeting can posted for all to see. For information regarding GroupWise Shared Calendars please tune your web browser into: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/shared_calendars.html
(Week of 02/04/08) Tech Tip: Finding the Date when an Email Message was Created
How can you see when an email message you've received was created? There's a couple
of ways to visualize this. To temporarily view the creadtion date, right-click a
message and select "Properties" or open a message and click the "Properties" tab.
The "Creation Date:" is displayed just a few lines down fron the top.
If you wish to see this attribute of all your messages in your mailbox or any other
folder you can add a column to the display that will show the creation date. In this
example we'll explain how to show this column in your mailbox.
- Open GroupWise and click on your "Mailbox" folder
- Right-click any of the column headings and select "More columns"
- From "Available Columns" add "Created" to the "Selected Columns"
- You may now specify this new column's position in your Mailbox display
- Select OK to close the Select Columns window.
- To remove this or any other column left-click-hold the column heading and drag it up till the cursor icon changes to a trash can and let go.
(Week of 01/28/08) Tech Tip: Resending Common E-mails (Part 2)
Many of you may find yourselves sending the same email message out periodically. GroupWise can help you capitalize on the work you've already accomplished by reusing an email. Last week we looked at using the GroupWise resend action. This week we'll look at using GroupWise Views to create a template of an email message that you can use over and over again. This may help you maintain consistency, save time and streamline your work flow by using GroupWise Views to work smarter, not harder.
-
Using GroupWise Views:
- Compose the new message you know you will need to use again.
- Optionally, add any recipients in the To, CC, or BC fields.
- From the File menu select Save View.
- Name the view file using a simple file name, click Save.
- Now name the message appropriatley such as "Time Card Reminder", then click OK.
(Week of 01/21/08) Tech Tip: Resending Common E-mails (Part 1)
Many of you may find yourselves sending the same email message out periodically. GroupWise can help you capitalize on the work you've already accomplished by reusing an email. If this is you, here's an idea that can save you time and streamline your work flow. If the item you want to resend is still in your Sent Items folder you can open it, modify as necessary and send it again.
-
Using the GroupWise Resend action:
- Locate the email you wish to resend in your Sent Items and select it.
- Select Actions > Resend. GroupWise will recreate the email just as you sent it before.
- Remove the original recipient(s) and send the email. Be sure to click No when asked if you want to retract the original email.
(Week of 01/14/08) Tech Tip: It’s our favorite time of year - tax time - but BEWARE
Along with tax season comes the predictable onslaught of IRS scam emails. No,
these don’t come from the IRS. They are from the same old bad guys trying to
separate you from your money. This scam is on the rise and there are several
variations. However, the underlying theme remains the same--the scam tries to
convince unsuspecting taxpayers into believing that they are due a refund. The
victims are then directed to an authentic looking website to provide personal
information to receive such refund.
If it makes you feel better, you may forward any IRS-related scams you receive
to the IRS. The IRS is very concerned and aware of suspicious emails or phishing
schemes. Because they need the header information that accompanies the message
so you'll need to use the "Forward as Attachment" forward option in GroupWise.
The forwarded message should be addressed to "phishing@irs.gov".
To learn more about about financial scams and identity theft through internet
schemes ,the office of Francis William Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts has published a handy reference called "Eight Tips to Avoid Phishing Scams"
which you can download or view at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/sctphish/avoid_phishing_scams.pdf
(Week of 12/17/07) Tech Tip: This page contains both secure and nonsecure items, Do you want to display the nonsecure items?
If you use Internet Explorer and get the above warning when you go from page to page in Colleague for faculty, you can do the following to fix the problem:
- Go to Tools/Internet Options...
- Click the Security tab.
- Click Custom Level...
- Scroll down to the "Display mixed content" option (which is around the middle of the list)
- Click Enable
- Click OK.
- Click Yes.
- Click OK.
(Week of 12/10/07) Tech Tip: Customizing GroupWise Windows Client Header Colors and Font Sizes
The following steps affect all of your GroupWise headers. Headers display above your Folder List, Mailbox, QuickViewer, and sent and received messages. To change color: Right-click the header > click Header Color or click Header Text Color > Click a color > OK. To change font size: Right-click the header > click Header Font Size > click a font size. While the header properties options are open take a look at the others you can customize. To restore headers to their original appearance, right-click a header > click Reset to Default.
(Week of 12/03/07) Tech Tip: Importing GroupWise Address Book Info into Excel
GroupWise has the functionality to export your contact information from an address book in case you need the exported data for some other application. In this example we'll export contact information from GroupWise then import it into Excel.
- Open GW Addressbook
- Choose the desired Address Book
- Select File > Export
- Choose the desired option (whole AB or selected entries)
- Save to a *.NAB file at the desired location
- Open Microsoft Excel
- Create a new sheet
- Select Data > Import external data > Import data...
- Find and select your saved *.NAB file to open (select 'All Files (*.*)' as filetype!)
- Use the text conversion wizard and you'll have your data in a spreadsheet
(Week of 11/19/07) Tech Tip: Saving Your GroupWise Calendar to an HTML File
One feature of the GroupWise calendar printing options is to save the calendar as a web page. Once saved you can open the file in your favorite web browser for viewing and printing or upload the file to your web space for the world to see. Here's how to do that. Click "File" > "Print Calendar..." > select the "Options" tab > check the box "Print to an HTML file". When you click "Print" you'll be prompted to name and save the file.
(Week of 11/12/07) Tech Tip: Printing Sub-Calendars
Do you have multiple personal calendars, like one for yourself and a sub-calendar for your class(s)? You can print a calendar or sub-calendar without the other calendars content and here's how to do it. Open the calendar that you're interested in printing, select File > Print calendar, select the Options tab and in the "Print items" area select "Selected folder".
(Week of 11/05/07) Tech Tip: Email Error 552 5.6.0 Headers too large
If you've sent a message and gotten this error bounced back to you it's because the remote SMTP server rejected the message because the message header is too big. It can happen when the header is really too big. For example there are too many recipients listed in the header, which is the most common cause. You may need to break your distribution list into smaller groups of recipients. This issue is becoming more and more prevalent as postmasters impose a header size limit as deterrent to spammers who will send one message to many recipients.
(Week of 10/29/07) Tech Tip: Maintaining Multiple GroupWise 7 Archives
When one archive isn't enough. Perhaps you would like to organize archived email by year or maintain separate personal and work archives or even save/maintain an archive on removable media. For more on this, tune your web browser into: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/multi-archives.html
(Week of 10/15/07) Tech Tip: Can I Access My Network Home Folder Contents from Off-Campus?
Novell's NetStorage interface allows access to your network home folder files
through a web browser or via WebDAV. With NetStorage you can open, upload,
download, copy, rename and delete files. There are three ways to utilize NetStorage.
1: Login to Virtual Office at http://ac2.caspercollege.edu/vo and click on the
blue round icon that looks like a file folder with an "i" within it.
2: NetStorage login at https://ac2.caspercollege.edu/oneNet/netStorage
Hopefully with these 2 access methods the file options (upload, download,
rename, delete...) procedures are self explanatory. Try right-clicking on files
for options too.
3: WebDAV method (Windows only) - Go to My Network Places and add a network
place: "https://ac2.caspercollege.edu/oneNet/NetStorage", this is case sensitive.
This allows you to open MS Office files and manage other file types without going
through a web browser.
(Week of 10/08/07) Tech Tip: Opening Attached Microsoft Works Files (.wps) Received in GroupWise
Problem: Students send you documents created in MS Works with a .wps extension,
and you cannot view them from GroupWise. So you save the file to your computer,
and dangit, you still can't read the file by double-clicking it. Since Microsoft
Word will open these files, you need to make it the preferred program to open
this type of file.
Open one of the email messages with a .wps file attached
Right-click the attached file and select "Open With ..."
In the "Open With" window, select "Microsoft Office Word"
Check the box next to "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file"
Click OK.
Double-clicking from the GroupWise attachment pane should now open the .wps file
in Microsoft Word.
(Week of 10/01/07) Tech Tip: Office 2007 Files and Incompatibility With Earlier Versions
Currently there's a mix of Microsoft Office versions on campus and during the
period of transition to Office 2007 we're going to have to deal with the
incompatibility of the new Office file format with the old. Along with Microsoft
Office 2007 comes a change in the default format that Office documents are saved.
The new file format, called Office Open XML Formats, is incompatible with previous
versions of the Office suite however the binary file format used in Microsoft Office
97 through Microsoft Office 2003 Editions is still available as a save format in
Office 2007, but it is no longer the default when saving new documents.
Office 2007 users, to make sure your Office files can be viewed by others save
your file so it's compatible with older versions of Office using the Save_as
feature and selecting what is appropriate.
Office 2003 Windows users, if you end up with a file in the default Office 2007
format and find you can't open it, then you can download the "Microsoft Office
Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats" add-on.
This will allow you to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations
in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. Download from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
Mac users, with the Office Open XML Converter, you can convert Office Open XML
files to a format that is compatible with Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac and Microsoft
Office v. X for Mac. You can choose to convert and open one file, or convert a
large number of files. Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac
0.2 (Beta) Download from:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/download/Office2004/ConverterBeta_0_2.xml
(Week of 09/17/07) Tech Tip: Is Someone's Mail not Getting Through to You?
Casper College uses blacklisting services to identify email coming from mail servers known to be a source of spam. Sometimes the mail you're expecting may have been relayed through a mail server that is on one of these blacklists, interpreted as spam and deleted. If you think this is the case, DoIT can whitelist email addresses that you have isssues receiving email from because whitelisted addresses will bypass spam scanning. Simply email helpdesk@caspercollege.edu or call the helpdesk (3648) with the email address you should be receiving messages from and we can whitelist it.
(Week of 09/03/07) Tech Tip: GroupWise WebAccess Issues with Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox Browsers
If you've upgraded your home computer with XP or Vista IE7 or Firefox 2.x you may have found the latest iterations of these two web browsers display a few behavioral problems with the GroupWise WebAccess client. The primary problem with IE7 and Firefox is a "Certificate Error" because they don't trust Casper College's self-signed Certificate of Authority (CA) used with the WebAccess client. They're instructed not to trust it because it was not signed by a commercial CA vendor to whom we have paid our "protection" money to. The College's CA is otherwise like any commercial CA, uses 128-bit encryption and although the browsers have issues with who signed it, you can trust it to encrypt your data transmissions. These annoyances are easily overcome and a full explanation of this can be viewed on the following DoIT Computer Help web page: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/webaccess_ie7.html
(Week of 08/27/07) Tech Tip: Getting a New Computer, Dealing with Old Data
If you're getting a new Windows computer to replace another you should know that the only data on your computer that will be saved and restored to your new computer is that which is in "My Documents". The doIT copies this folder and all of it's contents to a temporary location and then copies it back to your new computer. It's recommended you keep your GroupWise archive folder there along with any other data that you would miss if not available on your new computer.
A lot of us keep backup or stale data (data we keep but will probably never need to access again) on floppy disks or ZIP disks and this is OK except when you suddenly find yourself with a new computer and no way to access the data files you so diligently copied for safe keeping. Floppy and ZIP disk technology is all but obsolete and replaced by faster, higher capacity and more reliable types of removable media. Popular current types include CD's, DVD's and USB flash drives. You should take the time to copy your data from old technology to new and the perfect inspiration to do so is when you know you're getting a new computer. Please contact the doIT helpdesk if you need help planning your data move from old to new media.
(Week of 05/20/07) Tech Tip: A Wealth of Technical Information
Tune your web browser into the Department of Information Technology's Computer Help--FAQ web page at: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/ or from the CC Home Page click "Faculty and Staff", "CCIntranet" and finally "Computer Help". Once there you can bookmark or add the page to your favorites for easy access. Here's a few selected topics:
- GroupWise Learning Resources at Casper College
- Web Page Mail Links Won't Open a New GroupWise Message
- SP1 Issue: Users added to a Group through the Address Book interface are not saved
- Creating Non-GroupWise Distribution Lists to use in GroupWise
- How to create a Keyword Rule
- Create a Vacation (auto-reply) rule to internal users only
- What can you do about unwanted email?
- Attachment limitations for GroupWise email
- How to make a recurring appointment
- Email Maintenance Best Practices
- Why am I Getting SPAM from Myself?
- Why do I get UNDELIVERABLE notices about messages I didn't send?
- Maintaining Multiple GroupWise 7 Archives
- Training Opportunities Scheduled in BU126
- The Latest Virus Alerts and more...
- Network printer installation instructions
- Classroom Login Using Generic Account
- How do I change my Novell Login Password?
- Can I configure my computer to use another printer? (a walkthrough)
- How can I create a backup of my work files?
(Week of 05/13/07) Tech Tip: Warning, When Deleting the Contents From a GroupWise Folder
Did you know: If you select to delete the contents of a folder you will also delete the contents of all the sub-folders beneath it too? No its not a bug, its "working as designed" but GroupWise doesn't state this very clearly. Future releases will but for now here's more info. Technically you are warned, you are told the total number of "items" that will be deleted, you just may not notice that this is a sum total of all items in all sub-folders. On the bright side, you *should* be able to retreive the deleted files from your Trash folder unless you selected to delete "Folder(s) and Items", because with this option the deleted items are emptied from your mailbox. Be sure to review carefully the "Items to be deleted" statistics information prior to clicking OK.
(Week of 05/06/07) Tech Tip: Managing Your GroupWise Mailbox Size
Email attachments are your enemy. They gobble up your message space much
quicker than messages alone and have no place in your dynamic message store.
If you've got your mailbox whittled down to a few hundred messages and it's
still full you're most likely using your mailbox space to store files
(as attachments) not just messages.
The body of messages, appointments and tasks usually aren't very big so
they don't really impact your mailbox space until you have thousands of them.
Individual items that do adversely affect your mailbox space are messages
(or appointments) that have attachments associated with them. The best place
to store attached files is not in your live mailbox but on your computer's
hard drive. How can you find the big messages, like ones with attachments?
There's a couple of ways to locate those big files. One is to add a column that
will display the size of each message. For an explanation of how to do this and
additional information tune your web browser into
http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/mailboxsize.html .
(Week of 04/29/07) Tech Tip: Tech Tip Archive is Online
Remember some details about a tech tip that you would like to revisit? Tune your web browser into the Department of Information Technology's Computer Help--FAQ web page at: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/ or from the CC Home Page click "Faculty and Staff", "CCIntranet", "Computer Help" then click on the 'Casper College "Campus Weekly" Tech Tips Archive' link. You can browse through all the tech tips from the Campus Weekly there.
(Week of 04/22/07) Tech Tip: Web Page Mail Links Won't Open a New GroupWise Message
When a Windows user clicks a link to send a message from within Internet Explorer, she gets a message that the default mail client isn't properly installed. In Firefox, nothing at all happens. The current workaround for this is to copy gwmailto.exe, gwmlt1.dll and gwmltous.dll from S:\GroupWise\Webpage_Mailto_Issue_Files to the C:\novell\GroupWise folder on the Windows computer. For details see: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/mailto.html. Contact the DoIT Help Desk at x3648 or helpdesk@caspercollege.edu for assistance.
(Week of 04/15/07) Tech Tip: Sharing Distribution Lists or "Groups" in GroupWise
Is there a need for the individuals in your committee or other special interest group to have access to the same distribution list, but there's no need for it to be visible to everyone in the System Address Book? GroupWise 7 has made sharing these lists with specific individuals easy. To do-it-yourself, create a new personal address book, share it with whoever you wish and then create the distribution lists within it. This simple process is explained on page 5 of the GroupWise 7 Quick Reference Card. The card is a pdf file and can be viewed/printed/downloaded from the DoIT Computer Help and FAQ web site at: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/GW7_Quick_Reference_Card.pdf. Mac and Linux clients use the same procedure.
(Week of 04/08/07) Tech Tip: Why am I Getting SPAM from Myself?
The first time it happened, you were probably confused and even a bit curious, especially if you were not aware of this phenomenon of self-sent spam. A message appears in your e-mail inbox with your own e-mail address as the sender of the message, but you are pretty sure that you did not send yourself an offer for a rock-bottom mortgage rate or secrets to making millions on eBay. So then, what’s happening?
It’s not because a spammer has hijacked your e-mail account and is spamming the world using your identity.
This is a common tactic by spammers, who simply want to make you curious about getting an email 'from yourself', to get you to read the e-mail and/or click on the hyperlinks contained in the e-mail. For more of an in depth look at this, tune your web browser into: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/spamfrom_me.html
(Week of 04/01/07) Tech Tip: GroupWise for Windows PDF Attachments are Too Small to Read
If you're experiencing this issue, most likely you've opened the Campus Weekly inside a GroupWise message window instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader. While the GroupWise viewer does a pretty good job rendering many file types it renders PDF files too small to read and there aren't any controls to change the size to make it readable. If PDF attachments in the GroupWise Client for Windows are too small to read you have some options:
- Right-click the attachment and in the resulting pop-up window select "Open"
- Save it to your computer's desktop and open it from there
- Change the "double-click on an attachment" behavior in GroupWise for Windows so it launches Adobe Reader: Tools > Options > Environment > Default Actions, Under File Attachments select Open attachment
(Week of 3/25/06) Tech Tip: DoIT Helpdesk is Now Taking Requests for All Computer Support Issues
The DoIT help desk is the only point of contact you need to know for your computer support issues. All IT support issues should be routed through this single focus. Your computer support issues can be submitted by phone 268-DoIT(3648), by email helpdesk@caspercollege.edu or via Live Chat from within GroupWise Messenger. GroupWise support via live chat within GroupWise Messenger is also available. For both, just click "Tools > Chat Rooms...". As always feel free to browse the online computer help that's available from http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/.
(Week of 03/04/07) Tech Tip: Daylight Saving Time and GroupWise Appointments
Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the U.S. has been extended by three weeks in the
spring and one week in the fall. This will affect some messages sent out by GroupWise
or any other collaboration email system. Appointments and other scheduled events
sent out before workstations received the updated DST time zone changes may be
off by one hour during the periods from March 11-31 and from October 28 to November 4.
During these periods we recommend you edit the subject line of scheduled
appointments to include the intended time of day for your appointment and also
include this in the subject line of new appointments you send out. This way you
and your co-workers will know what time the meeting is intended to be held.
The DoIT has been busy installing many server-side patches to address the
changes to DST but this may not address all of the ramifications the DST changes
may bring about. Please be aware that your GroupWise appointments may need
additional scrutiny during the additional 4 weeks that have been added to DST.
(Week of 02/25/07) Tech Tip: Someone sending email to you complains they receive an (UNUSED) message
When this sender attempts to send email to you, an undeliverable message is returned as follows:
The message that you sent was undeliverable to the following: Userid (UNUSED)
This message is returned to users that have been added to your GroupWise block list.
You may have accidently added this user to the block list in the GroupWise client junk
mail handling options. If the sender was placed in the block list inadvertently,
remove the sender from the list.
The junk mail options do little to stop spam so it's not a good practice to
junk the spam you receive. If you've been junking spam this might be a good time
to clear out entries in the block list and start over putting only relevant entries
in so you don't block someone unintentionally. Junk Mail handling is discussed in
detail in the GroupWise Users Guides and under GroupWise for Windows Advanced
Topics > Working with Messages > Junk Mail Handling on the GroupWise Learning
Resources Web Page at: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/gw_training
(Week of 02/18/07) Tech Tip: Live Technical Support from IT - "DoIT Live" Chat Now Available
Have a technical support question for our help desk specialists? In addition
to help desk phone, email and online computer help FAQ's we now offer "DoIT Live"
technical support via online chat. "DoIT Live" is available between the hours of
8:00am-12:00pm and 1:00pm-5:00pm. It is ideally suited for providing quick answers
to your technical questions in a dynamic, interactive manner. For this reason your
moderator won't always have the freedom to research more complicated issues and
may open a support incident so our technicians will be able to properly research
your issue and provide resolution.
"DoIT Live" is easy to use, just log into GroupWise Messenger, Click > Tools >
Chat Rooms... > hilight "DoIT Live Technical Support" then Join. Type in a question
and press Enter. Response may not be immediate, so go about your business and a
respondent will chime in as soon as time permits.
(Week of 02/11/07) Tech Tip: Instant Messaging with GroupWise
Have you ever wanted to ask your colleagues a quick question, but it doesn't
deserve a phone call or a trip from your seat to theirs? Have you ever had a
long phone conversation with someone and ?wish? you could remember important
parts of it without having to call 'em back? Then there's that time you're on
the phone and it would really be beneficial to bring one or more other people
into the conversation. How about having someone check out a website you've found
that they should see?
GroupWise Messenger provides solutions for these and many other scenarios, allows
you to multi-task more effectively and it's already installed on your computer.
If not, you can download and install it from:
https://gw.caspercollege.edu:8300/
I log into messenger every morning and leave it running all day long. Although
I'm old and not much of an IM'er I find it a convienent way to communicate and
it provides me time to compose my thoughts prior to replying. It's usually fun
to converse with someone in this unordinary way.
-
Some messenger features include:
- Searchable employee directory
- Multi-party conversations
- Chat Rooms
- Allow or disallow users to see/message you
- Customizable contact lists
- Customizable fonts and colors
- Audio or visual alerts
- Send "clickable" web site URL's to others
- Save your entire conversation thread for future reference
- It's already installed on your computer
- Works with Windows, Mac and Linux computers
- And yes....Emoticons!
(Week of 02/04/00) Tech Tip: Using the GroupWise Address Book to Lookup Office Phone Numbers.
Many of you may already see the office phone numbers listed within the Novell GroupWise Address Book but if you don't there's a couple of easy ways to get them displayed. The easiest is to hover your mouse over the user in the Novell GroupWise Address Book and the phone number along with other information will pop-up. To have the phone number displayed in a column along with the other address book properties, open the Address Book, click Edit and then Columns. From here you can add and subtract the columns that are displayed. Add "Office Phone Number" to selected columns and click OK.
(Week of 01/28/07) Tech Tip: Is Your GroupWise Mailbox Running out of Space?
With GroupWise for Windows, as you reach the 75% threshold of your GroupWise storage limit you will begin to receive system messages alerting you that you are approaching the mailbox limit. This gentle reminder appears because once your limit is exceeded you will no longer be able to send mail from your GroupWise account. GroupWise for Mac users won't get this notice, but will no longer be able to reply to or forward messages. Mac users can log into a Windows GroupWise client for detailed space analysis or WebAccess which has a simple fuel style gauge. Solutions include good mailbox maintenance practices combined with the Archive feature in GroupWise. Using a web browser, visit http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit and browse the GroupWise-Related topics for more on this and other GroupWise matters.
(Week of 01/14/07) Tech Tip: Replying to Email Sent from WebAdvisor
When email is sent from WebAdvisor the reply-to address defaults to donotreply@nw4.caspercollege.edu. You cannot send email back to this address. When you select the Reply function when reading one of these messages, it automatically adds donotreply@nw4.caspercollege.edu to the To: field of your new message. This isn't a valid email address and you'll have to delete that address and add the sender's email address in the To: field...OR...click on the sender's email address which is in red and near the top of the message body and GroupWise will start a new email to that address.
(Week of 12/03/06) Tech Tip: Access Your GroupWise Email and Calendar from Anywhere in the World
GroupWise WebAccess is a web-based interface you can use to access your email and calendar. You can use it anytime although it was originally intended for use when you're away from work computers that have the GroupWise client software installed (i.e. from home, vacation or conference). WebAccess is platform-independent which means the interface is the same whether you use a Windows, Mac or Linux computer. From the Casper College home page, click "Faculty & Staff" then "GroupWise WebAccess" or tune your web browser into http://gw.caspercollege.edu/ and give it a try.
(Week of 11/26/06) Tech Tip: GroupWise WebAccess Tip, Firefox 2 Will "Spell-check As You Type"
This feature is not exclusive to GroupWise but when using Firefox 2 to compose GroupWise mail through WebAccess you'll find it has a built-in spell checker that checks as you type, and you can right-click and choose replacement words. This makes using WebAccess even more like using the regular GroupWise client. Firefox 2 is a recent release and can be downloaded from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
(Week of 11/19/06) Tech Tip: How to make a recurring appointment in GroupWise
To create a recurring appointment: In the appointment composition window click on the calendar icon next to the "Start date:" field and then click "Select Recurring...". Then you have three methods of selecting the recurring date. Documentation for the 3 methods of selecting recurring appointments can be found in the GroupWise User's Guides at: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/gw_training/
(Week of 11/05/06) Tech Tip: GroupWise 7 for Windows Computer Based Training(CBT)
The doIT has purchased 2 copies of GroupWise 7 for Windows CBT from Brainstorm Inc. and they are available for checkout from the Helpdesk in AD3. You may call or email the helpdesk to reserve one for your viewing. Stop by AD3, phone 268-doit or email helpdesk@caspercollege.edu to check availability.
(Week of 10/29/06) Tech Tip: Creating Non-GroupWise Distribution Lists to use in GroupWise
Example: You want to email all of the students in your class but don't want to create a Contact for each one in your GroupWise Address Book.
Problem: You cannot create a Group or distribution list in GroupWise if the members are not within your contacts.
Solution: You can maintain a list of email addresses outside of GroupWise in a text file. Send a message to the users in the list even though they're not in your GroupWise Contacts. Click the following URL to see how: http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/how_to/dist_list.html
(Week of 10/22/06) Tech Tip: Have you experienced this GroupWise problem?
Users added to a Group (distribution list) from the "Novell GroupWise Address Book" listing are not saved. This is a bug in GroupWise 7.0.1. Fortunately there's an easy workaround. Tune your web browser into http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/ and click on the link titled "SP1 Issue: Users added to a Group through the Address Book interface are not saved"
(Week of 10/08/06) Tech Tip: Email Maintenance Best Practices
Your email is one of many tools you use to get your job done. Your job efficiency can suffer as a result of a neglected and unorganized mailbox. Daily diligence on your part is required to keep your mailbox in tip top shape.
Email Maintenance Best Practices:
* If after reading your new mail you regularly have more than 20 messages in your
Mailbox consider spending more time organizing your messages
* Organize messages from your Mailbox into folders to reduce clutter
* Don't procrastinate tending to messages that require a response
* Move messages that are no longer current but must be kept to Archive
* Use Junk Mail to keep recurring unwanted messages out of your Mailbox
For more tips on keeping your Mailbox in tip-top shape, tune your web browser into http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/ and click on "Email Maintenance Best Practices"
(Week of 10/01/06) Tech Tip: Are your Students Having Trouble Logging onto their Student Email?
Here are some instructions that can be passed on to the student.
The student should go to current student on the Casper College home page. Once there click on the email link, this will pull up the student mail server page. Click logon this will bring up what you see below.
Logon using "your" Web Advisor Account name@register.caspercollege.edu
**Example: dsmith@register.caspercollege.edu**
The "Web Advisor Pin" will be the same password as your web-advisor password
(Week of 9/24/06) Tech Tip: GroupWise Auto-Reply, Vacation Rules, Out of Office...are these good things?
Is your GroupWise auto-reply or Vacation rule revealing too much? This feature was started with good intentions back before spam, viruses, phishing and other abusive email were responsible for the estimated 80% of current Internet traffic. Nowadays the dark side of the Internet is privy to your out of office information as well as your trusted circle. Find out what alternatives you have to auto-reply or how you can configure it to be triggered only for internal users. Tune your web browser into http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/ and click on "Create a Vacation (auto-reply) rule to internal users only"
(Week of 9/17/06) Tech Tip: GroupWise Training for Fall 2006
GroupWise for Windows training will be offered beginning in October. Sessions to include GroupWise Basics, GroupWise Advanced and GroupWise Calendar will be scheduled for 1 to 1 1/2 hours each. These sessions will all be held in BU126. To attend the scheduled training being offered watch the BU126 calender, your Mailbox and the log-in Welcome Message to find a suitable day and time and RSVP as instructed. If the available training opportunities do not fit into your schedule please contact Dan Straka or James Crockett for alternative training solutions. Use the following URL or click Training on the log-in Welcome Message to access the BU126 Calendar. http://wind.caspercollege.edu/cgi-bin/lozcal/calendar.pl?dept=bu126
GroupWise for Macintosh training is currently offered on-demand and in a one on one format. Please contact James Crockett for your GroupWise for Macintosh training needs.
(Week of 9/10/06) Tech Tip: Attachment limitations for GroupWise email
Maximum attachment size = 10MB,
Zip files are allowed, but if the file contains a blocked filetype (see below),
the zip file will be blocked.
Password protected archives (ZIP,TAR etc) are blocked.
Attachments with multiple file extensions (e.g. students.fall.doc) are blocked.
(possible attempt to hide real file type)
The following attachment types/extensions are blocked:
.ANI, .ASF, .BAT, .BMP, .CER, .CHM, .CMD, .CNF, .COM, .CPL, .CUR, .EXE, .HLP, .HTA,
.ICO, .INS, .ITS, .JOB, .JS, .JSE, .LNK, .MA[DFGMQRSVW], .MAU, .MD, .MHTML,
.MNG, .PIF, .PRF, .PST, QuickTime movies, .REG, .SCF, .SCR, .SCT, .SHB, .SHS,
.SYS, .TMP, .VB[ES], .VSMACROS, .VS, .WS, .WS[CFH], .XNK
For more see
http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/attach_limits.html
(Week of 9/03/06) Tech Tip: New Anti-Spam measures put into place mid-August
Prior to this as much as 70% of the messages bound for the colleges GroupWise Post
Office were indentified as Spam and deleted before they could reach your mailboxes.
With the new measures in place we've seen this number increase to as much as 83%.
Its sad but true that as much as 83% of CC's mail volume is Spam. Spammers are
constently finding new ways to get their messages delivered so don't make Spam
fighting a personal crusade. You'll be wasting your time trying to stop ALL unwanted email.
What can you do about unwanted email? (see
http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/ for details)
* If you must use Auto-Reply or vacation rules, reply only to internal users
* Setup a keyword rule to delete mail containing offensive or annoying reoccurring words
* Use a throw-away email address (or service) with web forms, newsgroups, guestbooks...
* Use the GroupWise Junk Mail feature to handle ligitimate but unwanted email (not for Spam)
* Lastly for a fresh start, your CC email address can be changed
(Week of 8/27/06) Tech Tip: DoIT Helpdesk and Online Help Resources for GroupWise and more
We're pleased to announce David Dutton has joined the doIT team as our Helpdesk Technician. Along with the new hire we've added a new phone number for your support issues 268-doIT (268-3648). All IT support issues can now be routed through this single Helpdesk line. DoIT online help is available for Faculty, Staff and Administrative users at the doIT web site. To get there from the CC home page click "Faculty and Staff" > "CCIntranet" > "Computer Help" or after logging in to your computer click "Computer Help" at the welcome message window, finally the URL is http://wind.caspercollege.edu/~doit/. Don't miss the great printable Windows GroupWise client reference cards. New to your Windows GroupWise "Help" in the main menu is an "Interactive Tutorial". Check it out for even more helpful GroupWise information.
(Week of 8/20/06) Tech Tip: Faculty and Staff Login to Lab and Classroom Computers
Lab computers are setup different than Faculty/Staff computers in order to expedite student logins. These computers have a generic Windows Workstation account called CC with no password, so as long as the username is already filled-in with CC, you simply click OK at the Windows Workstation Login screen. We run into 2 scenarios for login to these computers.
Scenario 1: (normal)
You have two logins to get through. The first is the Novell network login where you
type your username and password, then simply click OK at the Windows Workstation login window.
Scenario 2:
You can't get past the Novell Network login. This is because there is a student
user object with the same login name as yours. The workaround here is to add
".academic" after your username then proceed as normal. Example: dstraka.academic