Weekly tech tip #4: my shortcut doesn't work any more

Many of us create shortcuts to programs on our desktops and occasionally these will stop working. The most likely reason for this is that the original program has been updated and is no longer in the original location. As a result the shortcut points to a file that is no longer there…

Items on your desktop are “yours” which means that the IT folks have no control of where your shortcuts point. To fix this you should delete your old shortcut and then copy a new one from the SMUS Network Menu.

On a related note, if you are in the habit of saving files to your desktop, this could cause your log in times to slow down dramatically since your desktop gets copied over when you log in. Please save files into your H: drive

For some lighter tech support information, check out “My Blackberry Is Not Working!”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

cheers

Mike

Weekly tech tip #3: Copy/Cut/Paste - CTRL-C/X/P

There are many ways to copy and paste on a computer. You can select the content you want to copy and then right-click and choose cut or copy and then move to were you want to paste and then right-click and choose paste. You can also select the content and then use the  edit menu.

Probably the quickest way is to use the Control (CTRL) keyboard commands after selecting your content. CTRL-C to copy or CTRL-X to cut and then CTRL-V to paste.

On a related note, to select content you can also use the keyboard. Holding the Shift key down while moving the arrow keys will select an area of text. Double-clicking on a word will select the word. Triple clicking will select the paragraph.

Holding the Shift key while selecting will allow you to select a range of items from the first place clicked to the last. Holding the CTRL key down while clicking on a list will allow you to select multiple individual items.

If you want to explore more ways to copy/paste check out: http://www.wikihow.com/Copy-and-Paste

8 Ways to Copy and Paste - wikiHow How to Copy and Paste. The Copy and Paste functions are some of the most important fundamentals to master for manipulating objects on a computer. Once these skills ... Read more...

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! If you have any suggestions for future tips, please let me know.

cheers

Mike

Weekly tech tip #2: My classroom screen is black/blank

If you come to a computer and find that the screen is blank (or not showing your desktop), the chances are that you have a projector connected to that computer and the projector has become the "main screen" and the desktop screen has been "lost" or "extended".

To fix this, 

1) turn on the projector so that you can see the other screen.

2) once you can see the screen, use the Windows-P keys to bring up the projector dialog box:

 and make sure that "duplicate" is selected. You should then get your screen back.

A related thing to note is that when people present PowerPoint presentations, PowerPoint will change your set up to "Extend", but will not change it back afterwards! This means that you will have to do "windows-P" afterwards to go back to "duplicate". Also, if you want to hide what you are doing on the screen from being projected, you can use "windows-P" and choose "computer only". To show the screen again, change to "duplicate"

If you are getting a black screen repeatedly, then please send a message to help@smus.ca and ask to have your primary display set properly.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! If you have any suggestions for future tips, please let me know.

cheers

Mike

Michael Jackson, Academic Technology Coordinator

St Michaels University School

Weekly tech tip #1: If Chrome won't start for you

This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series of technology-related tips that specifically relate to technology used at SMUS.

Many of you may have encountered a situation where you try to open up Chrome on a computer and it won’t start. This happens because Chrome will only allow one “instance” to run at a time on the network and you have Chrome open on another computer (perhaps your office). The same also applies to Firefox and some other programs.

You should if possible avoid being logged into more than one computer at a time. Logging into multiple computers CAN result in “black desktop syndrome” and corruption of your user profile.

The short-term solution to this problem depends on how far away the other computer is. If it is close by, you may want to just go and close Chrome on the other machine. If it is not close by, or you do not wish to close the browser in your office, your best work around is to open a different browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer (both of which are available on all SMUS computers).

By the way, Internet Explorer does not work well with Google Docs. We recommend that you use Chrome or Firefox for accessing Google Docs.

If you have any suggestions for future tech tip topics, please feel free to email them to me!

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Mike Jackson, Science Teacher

Academic Technology Coordinator

St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC