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Tips & Techniques from Users to Users

Compiled by IT/User Services


Introduction

This new column is aimed at sharing "tips and techniques" within the user community. If you have some practical advice to share, then we want to hear from you! Just send an e-mail to the CNL editor (CNL.Editor@cern.ch) for publication both in the NewsLetter and on one of our forthcoming web pages.

The following "Useful links" amd "tips" have been provided by a CERN user. The "tips" have been checked, and a few comments (in Italic font) have been included by the service responsibles.

Some Useful links

  1. Mail tools on the Web: http://mailwww.cern.ch/
    (change password, set holiday message, etc.)
  2. List of Common Acronyms and Abbreviations encountered in the CERN environment:
    http://cern.ch/library/information_sources/accr.html
  3. Administrative Procedures Manual:
    http://as.cern.ch/AdminMan/chapeng.html
  4. Helpdesk FAQ:
    http://consult.cern.ch/qas
  5. CERN Conversion Service: http://documents.cern.ch/Convert
    Enables you to convert many different files from one format to another (e.g. Microsoft Word to Postscript or Portable Document Format (PDF), Latex to HTML, gif and jpeg to PDF, etc.)

Tips for WORD users

  1. "Fast Save" option: disable the "Fast Save" option to avoid unnecessarily large files.
    For information, the "Fast Save" option saves ALL changes, so if a document has been edited a lot, even if it is one page, it can go up to 400 KB or more! -- which will bounce from most listboxes and is ridiculously large to send by email.
    To deselect this option: "Tools" menu, "Options", "Save" tab and deselect "Allow fast saves"

    Please note: the default installation of WORD leaves the "Fast Save" option disabled and the NICE team recommends to keep it disabled. Furthermore, "Fast Save" cannot be performed when working on a document over the network.

  2. Naming of documents: when sending e-mails ALWAYS use correct extension names, e.g.: word.doc, excel.xls, powerpoint.ppt, etc. This means people can click straight away on documents to open them, without having to re-save them and rename them.

    This is certainly a good practice, at least to immediately see what is the file type in attachment. However, in general, Windows is able to recognize the file type and use the right tool to open the file, even without extension.

  3. Page setup: please ensure you have set the default page setup to A4.
    To do this: "File" menu, "Page setup", "Paper size" tab, select A4, then YES to set A4 as the page setup, but for your current WORD session only. It is not possible to change the default paper size coming from the server, which is "Letter" (however this is very close to A4) unless you create your own private template.


For matters related to this article please contact the author.
Cnl.Editor@cern.ch


CERN-CNL-2001-003
Vol. XXXVI, issue no 3


Last Updated on Fri Dec 07 14:18:28 CET 2001.
Copyright © CERN 2001 -- European Organization for Nuclear Research