UNHCE Information Technology & Distance Education Blog: September 2004 Archives

The CIS Training Center is offering a brand new class on October 13 & 14:

Photoshop CS: Level 1

In this course, students learn to use tools for selecting parts of images, and move, duplicate, and resize images. Students also learn to use layers, and to apply layer effects and filters to create special effects, including lighting and texture effects.

Registration: You may register online at: http://training.unh.edu. A full description of the lessons that will be covered is available on that site.

This class will be held October 13 & 14 from 9:00-4:00 at the CIS Training Center, Room 123, One Leavitt Lane, UNH, Durham. The cost is $198.

Questions: Call the CIS Training Center at 862-4242 or email at: cis.training.center@unh.edu.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is a relatively new way to subscribe to content from a variety of web sources (news outlets, blogs, discussion forums, etc.) If you'd like to learn more about it, C-NET.com has a great introduction to RSS, including a video tutorial.

In reviewing the usage statistics for the UNHCE website for January 2004 through July 2004, I noticed some interesting things:

• There were about 3,000 user sessions per day.


• The most downloaded file was The Effects Of Divorce On Children (24,823 views)


• The next five most downloaded files were: The 3, 4 and 5 Year-Old Child: Changes in Social Behavior (8,959 views), The 3, 4 and 5-Year-Old: Physical Changes (8,010 views), Care of the Mature Backyard Apple Tree (7,398 views), Growing Raspberries (6,444 views), and Growing Strawberries (5,483 views)


• The top referring sites were Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, and AOL Search.


• Some of the top search phrases: "effects of divorce on children," "growing strawberries," "disciplining children," "growing raspberries," "how to sharpen chainsaw," "tomato blight," "raising turkeys," "verbal communication," and "french fries."


• Microsoft Internet Explorer was used by 67% of visitors and Netscape Navigator by 20%.

People often ask, "What's the difference between a blog and a discussion forum (or message board)?" This post from CommonCraft gives a good explanation:

What are the Differences Between Message Boards and Weblogs?

New offerings are available through CIS and the state, plus FREE training and professional development opportunities are offered through CLL in the next few months. Sign up EARLY!

The following training opportunities are available in the next two months.

I. UNH CIS  

Sign up early for CIS classes. Not only are the most popular classes oversubscribed early; CIS has begun to cancel classes which are under enrolled two weeks prior to the class date. 

CIS has changed some of their offerings. New courses being offered include:

Vendor-based Training

CIS has arranged with outside vendors to offer classes on a variety of topics for a nominal fee. The cost is typically $99 for a full day or two half-day sessions, or $198 for 2 days or 4 half-day sessions. That is less than half the cost of the training offered to the public.

Classes in the following topics will be offered in the next two months.

• Dreamweaver
• PhotoShop CS
• Access Level
• PowerPoint

All Microsoft Office applications are taught using Office 2003. Dreamweaver is version MX 2004.

For further information or to register, please consult their web site at: http://www.cistrainingcenter.unh.edu/

II. TheState of New Hampshire offers classes “at cost” to all UNH employees. This is at considerable savings from what one would pay with an outside vendor.

Two NEW classes offered are:

Basic PC Skills
Research on the Internet

In addition, the state is currently offering classes in the following topics during the next 2 months.

• Access
• Acrobat
• Dreamweaver
• Excel
• Internet Explorer
• Introduction to Personal Computers
• PageMaker
• PowerPoint
• Windows
• Word

Topics are on a variety of levels, including special topics, such as a Word Booklets or Brochures, Word merge workshop, and Excel Formula or Macro workshops.

Please consult their website for further information on the above listings.

To consult their website, go to: http://www.nh.gov/hr/docs/ Then scroll down to the section on training and select the term for which you’d like information. (Note – The URL for the specific calendar changes each semester. If you bookmarked their site, you may want to replace it with the new URL listed above. Then follow the directions for scrolling to the appropriate term’s document.)

III. College for Lifelong Learning will be offering the following classes during the next two months.  

Seacoast Region – The following topics are offered in the Seacoast region in the next two months. (Note: Various levels of some of these topics are offered.)

• Access
• Excel
• Using the Internet for Research
• PowerPoint
• Word

FREE computer workshops in the Merrimack Valley Region

• PC Basics - Tuesday, October 12 3:00-5:00 pm at the Bow site and
  
• PowerPoint - Wednesday, October 13, at the Manchester site

For information on these two seesions, please contact Beth Ericson, Academic Skills Coordinator (beth.ericson@cll.edu) or Kathi Hennessy, Regional Librarian (kathi.hennessy@cll.edu). Registration is required. Call Bow at 226-9000 or Manchester at 627-2010.

Also of interest is a FREE course in Presentation Skills offered October 7 in the Littleton Center .

For further information and to register, consult their website at: http://www.cll. edu / .

CBT and Training Resources Guide

Training Resource Listings

The UNHCE Training Resources Guide (http://ceinfo.unh.edu/Intranet/ITDE/trg/vend_app.htm) has been revised. This guide contains information on training resources available in applications utilized by employees of UNHCE, including Microsoft Office, Adobe products (Acrobat, PageMaker, PhotoShop), as well as operating systems, and applications used by smaller audiences, such as DreamWeaver, Blue Ribbon YOUTH enrollment, or WordPerfect.

Included in this guide is a listing of Extension or University-owned Computer-based Training CD-ROMs (CBT), which can be used for free. UNHCE has a library of CBT (Training CD-ROMs) available from the ITDE office. The CDs are free to UNHCE staff, and can be borrowed for up to 2 weeks. CIS also has free CBT available to be used on campus.

This CBT can be used interactively, and allows you to receive information on just the topics where you desire training. For instance, you can select a topic such as “Creating/modifying headers and footers” in Word. It will show you how to do that step-by-step. You can repeat any sections as needed, and skip to other sections.

For further information on our CBT and a listing of the offerings, go to: http://ceinfo.unh.edu/Intranet/ITDE/trg/trcdtoc.pdf

Do you often find yourself typing the same phrase over and over again? For example, let's say you work for the Southern Chesterfield Regional High School District Board of Education. Just entering the name of your employer can become quite time-consuming.

But you don't have to manually type the entire name of your organization each time you use it in a document. Instead, you can add it to Word's list of AutoText entries, and you'll never have to type the entire name again.

Follow these steps:

• Type the name of your organization as you normally would.


• Select the text, and press [Alt][F3].


• Click OK in the Create AutoText dialog box.

If the screen tip doesn't appear, make sure you've enabled AutoComplete. Follow these steps:

• Go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options.


• On the AutoText Tab, select the Show AutoComplete Suggestions check box, and click OK.

From the TechRepublic Microsoft Office Suite Newsletter