Faculty and Staff Edition December 2007

IN THIS ISSUE:

 
For Your
Students

2007 Falls Hours

ACE Support Center
328-5407
Student Computing Center
(Austin 101)
Mon-Thurs 8:00am - 6:00pm
Friday 8:00am - 4:00pm
Sat-Sun 12:00pm - 4:00pm

ACE West
744-5380
(Laupus Library room 3536)
Mon-Thurs 8:00am - 6:00pm
Friday 8:00am - 4:00pm
Sat-Sun closed

Student Computer Labs
View the labs located on campus.

Austin Computer Lab
328-6438
(Austin 104)
Hours of Operation
Sun-Thurs 24 hours
Fri closes at 8:00pm
Sat 8:00am - 8:00pm 

IT Help Desk
328-9866
The Help Desk is open:
Mon-Fri  7am - 5pm

Walk-in IT Help Desk

Visit Austin 103, a walk-in help facility for faculty and staff. The Walk-in IT Help Desk staff provide OpScan test grading, one-on-one training and consulting sessions on computing technologies, as well as access to equipment and software tools that may not be available within your departments.

About Tech Digest

ECU Technology Digest is an electronic publication sent to all university faculty and staff.

The Digest informs you of new technologies implemented on campus, upcoming training opportunities and provides a compilation of important service announcements about scheduled e-mail, network, academic and administrative computing interruptions and downtime.

New topics of interest to faculty and staff may be added to the Digest in future issues.

Technology Digest Archives

Student Tech Digest
Check out the Student Tech Digest for announcements
that pertain to your students.

ITCS wishes you all a happy and safe holiday season!

LAST CHANCE: ITCS Technology Survey

What do you think about campus technology services and resources like SharePoint, CommonSpot, MailMarshal, and others? Are there technologies that you're not currently using but would like to begin using in the upcoming year that are not yet supported on campus? What kinds of software do you need that the university doesn't currently offer?

Please respond to the ITCS Faculty and Staff Technology Survey as soon as possible. The survey should only take about 10 minutes, and your survey responses are completely confidential and anonymous.

RESPOND TO THE ITCS FACULTY AND STAFF TECHNOLOGY SURVEY NOW

Don't miss this opportunity to share with us your thoughts about technology services and resources at ECU!

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Creating PDF Files

ECU's PDF conversion server will no longer be available after February 1, 2008. Adobe is discontinuing development of the Acrobat Elements product that our server uses to convert files, and future upgrades will not be offered.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause; however, there are many PDF conversion tools available that provide the same service as ECU's PDF conversion server.

A few suggestions:

• Visit ITCS's PDF Converters Web page for links to FREE converters, such as PrimoPDF and PDF Online.

• If you have Microsoft Office 2007 installed on your computer, download the FREE "Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in" that works with many of the Office programs, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and others.

• Consider purchasing Adobe Acrobat at an educational discount price from ECU's approved vendor Computer Intelligence Association.

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Want to Join the Virtual Computing Initiative (VCI) Pilot*?

On-campus and distance education students can now access software they need for their courses without having to purchase it themselves or worry that a program won't run properly on their personal computer or even come on campus to use a computer lab. Students can log into the Virtual Computing Lab from home or their residence hall 24x7 and choose software from an “image” designed for their course(s) by their professor.

Faculty interested in adding their courses to the VCI for the spring 2008 semester should contact David Hodge (hodged@ecu.edu) with software requests. If your software requires licenses, the number of licenses available will be the maximum number of student connections allowed at one time.

More information: http://vcl.ecu.edu

*The Virtual Computing Initiative is currently in a testing phase.

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Learn More About MS Office 2007

ITCS began supporting Microsoft Office 2007 in February of this year. Once you are familiar with the new user interface and feel comfortable upgrading, you can submit an Office 2007 installation request through the IT Help Desk (328.9866; http://help.ecu.edu).

You can take advantage of a variety of resources to become familiar with the Office 2007 new user interface and added features:

• Enroll in the New Horizons online training program that offers self-paced courses on the new features in Office 2007 applications. If you do not already have a New Horizons account and would like one, please submit an online training request form: go to http://help.ecu.edu >> click Submit Online Request >> online forms are in the left menu.
  
  
• Visit the ECU Office 2007 Web site or Microsoft Web site to view helpful tutorials, videos and documentation.

ECU Office 2007 Web Site: www.ecu.edu/itcs/office2007

Microsoft Office 2007 Web Site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/getstarted/FX101055081033.aspx

Note: Please back up your data prior to upgrading to Office 2007. Minimum hardware requirements are listed below.

Operating System: Windows XP SP2
Processor:  Pentium IV 1.8 GHz
Memory: 512 MB*
Available Hard Drive Space: 10GB

* Grammar and Contextual spelling are not turned on for systems with less than 1GB of memory.

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How Do I...?

...FTP files to my personal ECU Web space?            [Print these instructions - PDF]

Step 1. Open an FTP program like FileZilla, a FREE Internet download.

Step 2. Select the Address text box. Enter the address for the personal server: personal.ecu.edu.

Step 3. Select the User text box. Enter your PirateID.

Step 4. Select the Password text box. Enter your ECU Passphrase.

Step 5. Click the Quickconnect button. You are now connected to the personal server. Use the "Local Site" explorer to locate the files on your computer you wish to upload.

Step 6. Select the files or folders you wish to post and drag them to the "Remote Site" explorer.

Tip: The area at the bottom of the window displays information about the files being transferred. Use the scroll bar to view the progress of multiple files as they are uploaded.

NOTE: Beginning spring semester 2008, personal Web directories will no longer be automatically created; rather, any individual interested in having such a directory will need to submit a personal Web site directory* request form through the Online IT Help Desk. If you believe you were assigned a personal Web directory but never used it, the directory has most likely been removed, and you must submit a request form to have it recreated.

To submit a request form: Go to http://help.ecu.edu >> Click Submit Online Request >> Online forms are in the left menu.

*Do you have suggestions for the "How Do I...?" section? Please let us know what technologies or computing-related activities you'd like more information about and we'll try to include your suggestion in a future edition of the ECU Technology Digest! Send e-mail to Jennifer Raby at rabyj@ecu.edu.

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Microsoft Vista at ECU

Friendly reminder: Currently, ITCS is NOT supporting Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 7 for faculty and staff computers due to compatibility issues with key ECU applications.

Faculty who would like to have Vista available in departmental computer labs should contact their respective computer lab administrators.

More information: www.ecu.edu/itcs/vista

NOTE: Faculty and staff who would like to upgrade their Microsoft Office suite to 2007 can submit a service request through the IT Help Desk at 328-9866 or http://help.ecu.edu.

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