Tag Archives: Tech Tip

Learning & Development

Are you sending emails to yourself?

We all do it. An idea for later. Something we must remember to do. Some ideas relating to a project.

For example, say you have an Outlook email folder containing email relating to a particular thing you are working on, and you’d like to save some thoughts of your own in the same folder…. So you send yourself an email containing those thoughts, which you then save in that work folder. Sound familiar?

There is a better way!
It is called Post In This Folder, and it is a button in Outlook Mail.

To use Post In This Folder in Outlook Mail:

  1. Open the folder in Outlook that you’d like to post the note in
  2. Click the New Items button (at the left end of the Home Ribbon)
  3. Click More Items
  4. Click Post In This Folder
    – a blank note “page”  appears
  5. Add a subject line
  6. Write any notes you’d like to record
  7. Click the Post button

NOTE: if you use this button a lot, pin it to the Quick Access Toolbar so that you can access it quickly.

For other great time-saving tips, look up:
– Being more efficient with your technology
– Technology Information for Staff website

Was this tip helpful to you? Anything else you want to know? Got some suggestions? Please leave a comment below or let me know.

You’ll find more learning at Learning and Development.

Learning & Development

Save Travel Time for Meetings

Some fresh air is great, but you don’t always have the time to travel to and from a meeting. There is an alternative.

Did you know that you can meet with your colleagues around the University, from your desk, using the teleconferencing and video conferencing* features on your computer?
(*video conferencing is available if you have a camera on your computer)

In Microsoft Outlook Calendar:

  1. Click New Skype Meeting on the Home ribbonNew Skype Meeting button
  2. Add your participants (as you would normally add recipients to an email) so that each recipient will receive an invitationNew Skype Meeting Invitation with invitees
    You’ll notice in the body of the meeting there is a link to Join Skype Meeting.
  3. Complete the other details of the meeting and Send the invitation as you normally would.
  4. When the meeting time is due: you, and each participant, click Join Skype Meeting and a conference between you and all the
    participants will be formed.

You can also use this feature for external meetings – eg, with people external to UC – even if they don’t have Skype!

For other ways to make the most of your Skype for Business tools, see these other Skype for Business Basic Tasks.

For other great time-saving tips, look up:
– Being more efficient with your technology
– Technology Information for Staff website

Was this tip helpful to you? Anything else you want to know? Got some suggestions? Please leave a comment below or let me know.

You’ll find more learning at Learning and Development.

Learning & Development

Recover Closed Browser Tabs

Sometimes I intend to only close one browser tab but accidentally close the browser itself, thus closing all the tabs. It’s one of those “oh bugger!” moments.

The good news is that there’s a solution, and it is Ctrl-Shift-T.

Open the browser again and press Ctrl-Shift-T, and all your previous tabs will reopen.

This also usually works after a system reboot. You know: you come into work and discover your system has rebooted itself overnight, and all those browser tabs you had open are gone…

For other great time-saving tips, look up:
– Being more efficient with your technology
– Technology Information for Staff website

Was this tip helpful to you? Anything else you want to know? Got some suggestions? Please leave a comment below or let me know.

You’ll find more learning at Learning and Development.

Learning & Development

Computer Monitor Not Working?

The lights are on but nobody’s home!

This morning I got to work, woke up/unlocked my computer, and only one monitor displayed anything. The other monitor stayed resolutely black, even though its power light was on.

Do you have trouble with a computer screen (monitor) switching itself off from time to time? It might  refuse to wake up from sleep mode, or just apparently switch itself off. One moment you’re working with two monitors, then one goes black – and you can no longer see what’s on that monitor!

Here’s a solution:
Reach behind the monitor and switch it off (using the monitor’s on/off switch). Wait a minute or two, then switch it back on. This usually resolves the problem.

If it still stays switched off:
Check that all the cable plugs going into the back of the monitor are firmly plugged in, and check that the other end of each cable is firmly plugged in as well.

If that still doesn’t work, contact ITS for help. (Click the link, then look to the far right side, in the Need Help? section.)

For other great time-saving tips, look up:
– Being more efficient with your technology
– Technology Information for Staff website

Was this tip helpful to you? Anything else you want to know? Got some suggestions? Please leave a comment below orlet me know.

You’ll find more learning at Learning and Development.

Learning & Development

Five Things to Massively Simplify Your Day

I posted these tips almost exactly 3 years ago. Did you see them? Read on.

How many times have we heard the words, “if only I had known that yesterday”!

Are you using these five tips?
They make a difference to my life every day. The time investment it takes you to read and implement them will be repaid to you many, many times in time, effort and satisfaction.

  1. Simplify your Emailing with this quick way to find an Email recipient’s name, using Ctrl K
  2. Make your computer type “University of Canterbury” (and other repetitive long phrases) for you
  3. Use Outlook Quick Steps to avoid repetitively entering email address names
  4. Lock your computer when you step away from it
  5. Archive of Tech Tips

For other great time-saving tips, look up:
– Being more efficient with your technology
– Technology Information for Staff website

Was this tip helpful to you? Anything else you want to know? Got some suggestions? Please leave a comment below or let me know.

You’ll find more learning at Learning and Development.