Windows XP and Office 2003 Support Ends April 8, 2014

On April 8, 2014 Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates for Windows XP or Office 2003. If you or a student employee are using a computer in an office environment and it still has the Windows XP operating system on it or Office 2003, please contact the TAC at tac@ferris.edu or
231-591-4822 and place a ticket to have it upgraded. Our current campus standards are Windows 7 and Office 2013.

Do you know of any lab computers still using Windows XP? If there is specialty software that will not run on Windows 7, contact the TAC to discuss upgrading the lab software with your support technicians. Microsoft Office will be upgraded to Office 2013 this summer in labs and classrooms.

Adding Bookmarks to PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Pro X

Do you have a lengthy PDF file? Would you like to separate information to make it easier to find what you are looking for? Try using the Bookmarks feature in Adobe Acrobat Pro X:

• Open your PDF.
• Go to the first page you would like to bookmark.

• Open the Bookmarks Panel.
• Select the New Bookmark icon.
• Type in a name for the new bookmark and press the Enter or Return key.
• Go to the next page you would like to bookmark and repeat the process.

Survey Drawing Winner for January 2014!

Each time you complete the satisfaction survey emailed to you after the TAC has closed a work ticket, you will be entered into a drawing to win a free lunch at The Rock. The drawings will be held at the end of each month throughout 2014. The winner for the month of January is
David Marion. Thanks David for taking the time to share your experience with us. Enjoy your free lunch at The Rock!

Have You Heard of Vimeo?

When you make a video and want to upload it to the Internet, the first place you probably think to go is YouTube. But there is another well-known video hosting site called Vimeo. YouTube is a video giant, with over 72 hours of video being uploaded every minute. Vimeo, on the other hand, is much

more refined, simply because it aims to provide professional and inspiring videos. Both websites are effective for uploading and sharing video content, but which one is better?

Reasons to pick Vimeo:

• Vimeo tailors to creative video-makers, meaning that the video selection and the user experience in general is more refined.
• Vimeo has a less cluttered, more professional feel.
• Vimeo’s videos are ad-free.
• Vimeo has tons of great tools and options for your video, including password protection and website embedding widgets. 

 Reasons to pick YouTube:

• YouTube has extremely high traffic, so your videos will probably get more views.
• YouTube is more well known in general.
• YouTube is owned by Google, so YouTube videos show up well in Google web searches.
• Since YouTube is owned by Google, you already have a YouTube account if you have a Gmail or Google Plus account.

In In the end, neither comes out as a clear winner. The decision is up to you to decide which video hosting service suits your needs best.

Written by Daniel Lidman

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a lot of helpful keyboard shortcuts for Mac OS X. Here are a few everyone should know and use on a daily basis. They will help you be more efficient at using your computer.

Key combination	What it does
Command A	Select all
Command C	Copy
Command V	Paste
Command X	Cut
Command S	Save
Command Q	Quit
Command N	New
Command Z	Undo/Redo
Command M	Minimize window
Command W	Close window
Command P	Print
Command F	Find

Key combination	What it does
Command B	Bold
Command I	Italicize
Command U	Underline

Written by Jason Wilkins

Being Secure in a Public World

Do you use public WiFi connections when you are at a restaurant, coffee shop, or airport? Public WiFi is great for staying connected, but presents a host of security problems. Most of us know this, but how can you keep yourself secure while using a public WiFi network?

The first thing is to ensure your email uses HTTPS. HTTPS is a secure system for

transmitting and receiving information across the Internet. Many email clients send through HTTPS to logon, but change to HTTP after you login. HTTP makes your information vulnerable for anyone on the same wireless network to access without a password. This allows others to steal your session cookie and log in to your webmail session without your password.  Gmail and many corporate email systems use HTTPS throughout the access period making them more secure.

Paid Hotspots give the illusion of security while not giving any real security at all. Though many of these sites use HTTPS in order to secure your credit card data, they switch over to an unsecured HTTP connection that does nothing to protect your data.

Being aware of these simple facts can help you stay much more secure while using a public network.

Written by Russell Smead

January 2014 Computer Equipment Resale Promotion

Happy 2014!  To start this year off right, we’re offering 14% off all items purchased on the Computer Equipment Resale site from January 27 to January 31, 2014.  Enter promotion code TC010814 on the Payment
Details page.  Item availability is limited.  Also check out our Facebook page (Ferris State University – Computer Equipment Resale Store) for additional savings opportunities.

Accessibility Training Now Available Via Atomic Learning

Imagine you have been directed to fill out a form on a website. You notice that the cursor is not in the first box, so you use your mouse to relocate your cursor to the first box and fill in the information. You hit the tab key expecting the cursor to go to the next box, but it goes to a box further down the page. Once again you use your mouse to relocate the cursor to the next

box, enter your information, and hit tab. The cursor does not go to the next box. How frustrating! Now imagine you are blind and can’t use your mouse to move to the correct box. How do you know what field you are in and what information to provide? If someone had taken the time to create this website so the tab order followed the proper order of the text boxes and each text box could be identified by a screen reader, this frustration could have been avoided. 

Web and media accessibility is a hot topic here at Ferris. Everybody benefits when time is taken to properly create a website, make a document, or caption a video using best practices. Atomic Learning now has accessibility training videos available to help you create accessible documents, forms, and videos in addition to how to use assistive technologies such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, Jaws, and Kurzweil. 

You will need to log in to Atomic Learning to access these videos. More information on how to access Atomic Learning and the Assistive Technology videos is available on the FerrisConnect support website.

Written by Jody Gardei

Register for Web-Base Clicker Training

Are you considering using clickers in the classroom this semester? Turning Technologies is offering free webinars on Getting Started with TurningPoint 5. TurningPoint is the standard classroom response or “clicker” system at Ferris. In the session you will learn about:

• Student Purchase and Registration Process
• Overview of Polling Environments in TurningPoint
• Instructor Use of the System in Class
• Basic Use of Response Devices
• Tracking of Data via Learning Management System

Select the following link to register: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/Pages/getting-started-webinars 

Written by Jody Gardei

Twelve Chances to Win!

New this year! Each time you complete the satisfaction survey emailed to you after the TAC has closed a work ticket, you will be entered into a drawing to win a free lunch at The Rock. The drawings will be held at the end of each month throughout 2014. Your
feedback on our services is appreciated.