Get Your Files Back in Windows with Previous Versions

Panic usually sets in when the file that you carefully worked on all day suddenly is corrupt, accidently modified, or deleted. For Windows users, all is not lost though–the previous versions feature allows you to turn back the clock to restore an earlier version of the file.

The previous versions feature works off of shadow copies, essentially snapshots of files or folders that Windows saves at different times as part of a restore point for your computer. Windows Vista users can envoke this feature for files stored on their computers’ hard drives or on their OET network drives. Windows XP users can use this feature on any file stored on their OET network drives.

To restore a file to an earlier version in Windows Vista, right click on any available file and select Restore previous versions. In Windows XP, right click on any file stored on your OET network drive, select Properties, and the Previous Versions tab. You will see a list of any available previous versions and have an option to open, copy, or restore each file. To avoid accidently overwriting a file, OET recommends that you choose Copy and Make a New Folder to keep the restored file separate from any current file.

To restore a deleted file, right click on the folder that it was saved in and select Restore previous versions in Vista, or within XP, select Properties and the Previous Versions tab. You will restore an entire folder in this case, so choose Copy and Make a New Folder so that you do not overwrite the current folder with the restored version.

Online Technology Training Available to Staff

Frequently, oet-help receives requests for sources of online technology training. The University of Delaware subscribes to two services, Virtual Training Company (VTC) and Lynda.com that provide convenient on-demand video training on a variety of technology topics including Office 2007, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, and Drupal (Lynda.com).

Although the total length of a course may span several hours, courses are broken into smaller, more manageable video segments that allow users to target information that interests them, and users can bookmark a section to return to later.

Information on how to access these services, which require a login and password, is available on IT’s web tutorials site. In addition, this site lists a variety of online Office 2007 tutorials from Microsoft.

Outlook Autocomplete Tip

As you probably know, Outlook has a feature which builds a list of email addresses you have used before.  This list is used for automatically completing the address when you begin typing into the “TO:”  or “CC:” box on a new message.

Over time, the list can become rather long and might contain addresses that you no longer need in the list. 

To delete an address from the list:

• Open a new message and begin typing an email recipient’s name or address in the “To:” box.  Keep typing until the address you want to remove appears in the autocompete list.
• Using your arrow keys, highlight the address you want to delete.
• Hit the Delete key.

File Converter Available for Office 2004 for Mac

If you use Office 2004 for the Macintosh and cannot open files created in later Office versions, a file converter is available from Microsoft that will allow you to read most files.

The Open XML Converter allows Office 2004 users to open Excel, PowerPoint, and Word files created in Office 2008 (Macintosh) or Office 2007 (Windows). In addition, to enhance Office stability, Microsoft recommends that Office 2004 users install an Office 2004 for Mac Update.

There are some known issues with the file converter for working with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word files in Office 2004 and only specific file types are supported. See the Microsoft article, Information about how to work with Open XML Format files in Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, for further information.

Viewing Shared Calendars with Outlook Web Access

Outlook Web Access (OWA) is great for accessing your mail and calendar from anywhere on the web.  However, viewing someone else’s shared calendar with OWA is not as straight forward as it is with Outlook.  With OWA you don’t have the convenient check boxes in the navigation pane to choose the shared calendars you want to see.  You can view a shared calendar by keying in the necessary information into the browser’s address line:

Example:  When you’re in OET Webmail, your address line will show as follows:

https://webmail.oet.udel.edu/exchange/ 

After the final slash, key in: Smith/calendar

Like this: https://webmail.oet.udel.edu/exchange/Smith/calendar

Where Smith is the Windows user name sharing the calendar.

How to Export Outlook Contacts

If you want to move or copy your Outlook Contacts to another email system, there are a few options from which to choose.  For instance, if you’re moving the contacts to another Outlook environment, the best way to port the data would be to save the data in an Outlook “.pst” file.  This file type saves the data in exactly the same format as the original contact information.  If the new email system is not Outlook, you would choose one of the following file types: Comma Separated Values, Tab Separated Values, MS Access or MS Excel.  If you’re unsure of the file type your new email system expects, your best bet is to use Comma Separated Values (.csv).  This file type can be easily converted to many other file types, if necessary.

1. On the Outlook file menu, choose Import and Export…
2. In the Import and Export Wizard select Export to a file.
3. On the first Export to a file window, select your file type.
4. On the next Export to a file window, locate and select your Contacts item under Mailbox – yourname.
5. On the next Export to a file window, key in or browse to a place to save the file.
6. On the final Export to a file window you have a chance to Map Custom Fields, in case your new email system requires different field names for the contact information.  If not, just hit Finish, and you’re done.

Applying Microsoft Updates

Microsoft updates are released by Microsoft the second Tuesday of each month and shortly thereafter pushed to Windows computers on the OET network. It is absolutely essential for the security of your computers that these updates be applied promptly. The number of updates varies from month to month as does the time that it takes for these updates to be installed.

When updates are ready for installation, Windows XP users will see a yellow shield with an exclamation point on it in the system tray (right-bottom corner of your desktop), and Vista users will see a similar shield near the shutdown option in the start menu.

Windows users have some leeway as to when updates are applied. If you see that updates are ready to be applied, you can click on the shield to apply the updates which may require a shutdown or restart of your computer. Depending on an update’s critical nature, it will automatically install, possibly during the work day, if not given the opportunity to do so within a certain time frame.

If you want to prevent updates from interrupting your workday, you can apply updates at shutdown by selecting the option to apply updates and shutdown. Updates will then be applied before your computer turns off. Another option is to log off your computer and leave it on overnight, when you either see the yellow shield or receive notification through the shutdown process that updates need to be applied. Updates will be applied and your computer will reboot overnight. When you next log onto your computer, you will receive a message that updates have been successfully applied.

Changing Your Outlook Font Size

There are many display settings in Windows to change the font size on various components.  You might have used some of these and find that your Outlook Inbox is still too small to read.  Outlook has its own settings for “Outlook Views”.  To enlarge the font in your favorite Outlook view:

1. On the View menu, select Arrange By.
2. On the Arange By submenu, select Custom…
3. In the Custom View dialog box, choose Other Settings…
4. The Other Settings window has options for changing the fonts sizes by Column, Row and the AutoPreview pane.

This works the same way in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

Microsoft Office License Now Includes Non-University Owned Computers

The University’s Microsoft Office license has been extended to include installation on non-University owned computers that are used for University-related work.  So if you are a faculty or staff member who works at home, you will be able to download and install Office without purchasing a license. Previously, under this agreement, staff and faculty could download and install Office only on University-owned computers.

Office is available for download by faculty and staff from UDeploy software distribuition site at https://udeploy.udel.edu/. Students are not covered under this license agreement. For further information on the details of the license agreement, see UDaily or contact oet-help@udel.edu.

Managing the Size of Your Exchange Account within Outlook

Exchange account users on the Office of Educational Technology (OET) domain each have a mailbox on the OET Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange mailboxes have a physical size limit imposed by Microsoft which cannot be overridden by any Microsoft-supported settings. Therefore, to ensure that you have continued e-mail service through the Exchange Server, you need to maintain your mailbox within the established size limits.

If you are an Exchange client, the OET mail storage limits are set to warn you when your mailbox reaches 1.4GB in size. If your mailbox continues to grow, you will not be able to send mail when your mailbox reaches 1.75GB, and you will not be able to send or receive mail when your mailbox reaches 2GB. However, you can easily manage your Exchange account within Outlook.

For details on how to manage your Exchange account e-mail within Outlook, see How-to-clean-up-your-exchange-account (PDF). If you’d like to meet with an OET technician to manage your Exchange account, just send a note to oet-help@udel.edu.