UNHCE Information Technology & Distance Education Blog: October 2005 Archives

It's been proven that short stretch breaks are a good way to decrease the likelihood of developing a repetitive motion disorder, such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. There are many ways you can accomplish this. Getting up and walking to the copying machine, getting your mail, or getting a drink of water part way through a project, rather than staying glued to your computer for hours on end, are some simple examples.

While sitting at your computer, having something like a stress ball (a small, soft, tennis-ball sized ball which you squeeze), is a way to change muscle movements to stretch & relax muscles in your hands, wrist, and even lower arms.

Several stretching exercises have already been posted in the ergonomics section of this Blog, including:

Shoulder Stretches
Copy Machine Stretches
and
Hand & Wrist Stretches

Search the Blog for these, or select ergonomics on the side bar for a list of postings with information on ergonomics and exercises.

If you're looking for ideas for easy exercises during a break, this brief, one-minute promo for a commercial product demonstrates some useful examples:
http://www.easydesktopyoga.com/wp-content/themes/LetterHead/video.php

To print an Excel spreadsheet with (or without) gridlines:

1) Open the desired worksheet in Excel
2) Click on the file drop-down menu
3) Select Page Setup on the File menu
4) Select the Sheet tab on the top of the Page Setup menu
5) Select (or clear) the Gridlines check box
6) Print the worksheet with the revised setting

One of the easiest ways to prevent injury caused be repetitive motions (known as RSIs or Repetitive Stress Injuries), is to simply alter your routine!

Stagger tasks throughout the day. Varying your routine by changing tasks, doing each in shorter intervals, allows you to use your body in different ways. This allows your muscles to have some "recovery time."

Even in jobs which tie you to your desk, you can change your sequence of duties to accomplish the same amount in day, just in a different order. For example:

Rather than keyboarding for 4 hours straight, take a break to:
* Make some calls
* Do some filing
* Make copies
* Proof something you've entered (off line - from hard copy)

Even just getting up to get a drink of water and walking the long way back to your office can give your body a much-needed break.

Remember that Repetitive Stress Injuries (such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) build up over years. Don't fall for the myth that, "I feel O.K., so I must not be susceptible to this type of injury." Most people aren't aware they are becoming injured until they experience pain. That's actually the THIRD step of injury. (See "Stages of an Injury" in this Blog.)

Take an ounce of prevention!

MarTech made an oversight when rewriting the software for this year. They added a drop-down selection box for the optional school code, but didn't give you a convenient way to add new school codes.

To add school codes to the School Master Code list, you need to first make that an option in the menu system. Page 2-14 in the User's Manual walks through the steps in customizing the menus, which can be used as a reference.

Here are the step-by-step instructions from MarTech for adding the School Code file to the File Menu:

1. On the opening screen in Youth Enrollment, two menu bars appear at the top of the screen. At the far right end of each bar is a small drop down arrow. On the second bar (the one with the colored icons), right click on the drop-down arrow.
2. A menu will appear. Select 'Customize'.
3.The Customize box will appear in the center of the screen. Select the 'Commands' tab.
4. On the next screen a 'Categories' and a 'Command' box will appear.
5. In the 'Categories' box, click on Files. The School Code file is a file option.
6. On the right side of the screen, under 'Commands' , scroll to the end of the list. You will see 'School Codes'.
7. Left click on 'School Codes' to grab it. Hold the mouse key down and drag the menu option to the upper-left corner of the main screen. As you hover over the word 'File', the File Menu will drop down.
8. I usually hang on to the 'School Code' option and move down the file list, dropping it at the bottom of the list.
9. The School Codes option is now on the File Menu. The file can be opened like any other master file. The question has come up as to what to do with leaders. I have suggested creating a school code as 'None' and using it for leaders. Counties have been very happy with this.
Please pass this information on to your counties. They may have the edit the School Code list as they are doing new enrollments for 2006.

Need to print out all the documents you have open? Word doesn't
provide a way to do this, but the macro in this tip will make short
work of the task.

Read the full tip: http://wordtips.VitalNews.com/T0166
Courtesy of: Allen Wyatt's WordTips

If you want to conserve paper and print documents very fast, then you
may want to use draft printing mode. You can invoke this printing
format by making one small change to the Options dialog box, as
described in this tip.

Read the full tip: http://wordtips.VitalNews.com/T0613
Courtesy of: Allen Wyatt's WordTips

Phishing is a techniques which utilizes the Internet to obtain personal information about you. It can be used to redirect your funds, steal your identity, and more.

ALWAYS be careful when entering credit card, banking, or personal account information over the web. Never enter information from a link provided in an unsolicited email unless you verify the source. "Phishermen" are resourceful at setting up sites which appear to be legitimate, yet your information is redirected to the spammer who "phishes" out your data.

For an article about it's risks and how to avoid it, go to: http://www.unh.edu/signals/october2005/phishing.htm

CIS offerings for October & November include several FREE sessions in addition to their vendor-based training.

CIS has announced training in the following topics for October & November.

Vendor-based classes are being offered in:

* Access

* Adobe Acrobat

* Dreamweaver

* Excel

* Photoshop

* PowerPoint

Vendor-based classes are generally one or 2 days. The cost is typically $99 per day. They are held at the CIS training lab, 1 Leavitt Lane, at the UNH Durham campus.

In addition, FREE sessions are being offered, including:

* Several sessions of BlackBoard on a variety of topics

* Scanning Demo

* Internet 2

and

* Desktop Video Demo (Faculty only)

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

Some December offerings have also been posted.

To see current offerings and their descriptions, or sign up for a session, use their website at: http://training.unh.edu They keep adding to their offerings, so check back for updated information.

Granite State College (formerly CLL - College for Lifelong Learning) has openings in several Microsoft training sessions for this fall. Sessions are at the Portsmouth campus (formerly Pease.)

NOTE - Classes are offered at other campuses. See the July posting in our BLOG for other listings.

Classes offered this fall at the Pease Tradeport include:

Intro to PowerPoint - October 12

Intro to Access - October 17

Access II - October 24

Intro to Excel - October 26

Access III - November 7

Excel II - November 9

Classes run from 9:30-4:30. The cost is usually $120 per class, but UNH employees can use a staff waiver to get 1/2 tuition. (County employees would have to pay full price.)

For further information on these classes, or to see other listings offered through Granite State College, go to: http://www.cll.edu/

If you have a column of whole numbers in a table, and the negative
values have parentheses around them, then you may wonder how to best
align the numbers so they look professional in the table. This tip
explains a couple of different ways you can do the formatting.

Read the full tip: http://wordtips.VitalNews.com/T1704

Word allows you to format your text so it is justified, with each line
of a paragraph extending from the left margin all the way to the
right. At times this can cause your text to appear "choppy," with too
much space between some characters on the line. This tip explains how
you can minimize or reduce that choppiness completely.

Read the full tip: http://wordtips.VitalNews.com/T1703