Easy screenshots

Ever wanted to embed a screenshot in a document or presentation? With Windows 7 this is now easier than ever to do.

Click on the Windows start button (bottom left of screen) and choose All Programs, Accessories and Snipping Tool. The screen will now go slightly pale and the cursor will change to a crosshair (+). Simply move the cursor to the top right of where you what to copy, then hold the left-mouse button down and drag the cursor to the bottom right.

When you release the mouse button a new window will pop up showing your screenshot. There are option to take a new screenshot (if your not happy with the results), save the screenshot (in PNG format by default) or copy the image ready for pasting into a document.

And remember if you think you’re going to use the snipping tool a lot then why not pin it to your start menu.

Scanning directly to the LB-Shared-Drive

Normally when you scan documents on the print/copiers the files are sent as email attachments. This is fine when there are only a few documents to scan or if your email still below quota. But what happens if you have lots of scanning or no room left in your inbox.

Fear not!

Simply log on to the staff printer/copier (or the one in the Academic Services Team) as usual. Then do the following:

  1. Press the scan button on the console (this had a rectangular symbol with a line coming out of it)
  2. Click on the Folder tab on the touch screen
  3. By default documents will be scanned as black and white TIFF files, if you want something different then click on Scan Setting on the touch screen and make your selection
  4. Click on [00001] Library button on the touch screen

Now simply put your document under the glass or in the document feeder and click the green go button. The results will be uploaded directly to the “Store – Interim” on the LB-Shared-Drive. Files are named with the date and time that the scanning was done.

When finished scanning please click on the MENU and log off as usual.

Introducing the Sample button


When photocopying a document a large number of times it is often useful to use the Sample button. The Sample button is white, round and located directly above the green Copy button.

Pressing this button will produce one copy of the document, perfect for checking before you produce lots more copies. Also, this sample copy is included in the total number of copies required – which makes it much easier than setting up the photocopier to print 1 copy then changing it for 99 more copies.

Printing – Emergency stop!

Imagine the situation: you’re printing a job on the staff photocopier and all of a sudden you realise it’s the wrong document! Or maybe instead of your nice printout the photocopier is spewing out loads of sheets of paper with nothing but gobbledygook on them. What would you do?

Me, I’d first press the Print option button on the left-hand side of the console (fourth button down) then click Job Reset on the bottom right of the touchscreen. This will safely cancel the current print job.

And finally click on the MENU button (bottom-left of console) to return the photocopier to it’s usual screen.

Want to print a booklet?

Ever wanted to print your document as a booklet? Well now thanks to the super wizzo print system you can!

Simply choose the Print option in the application (e.g. Word) you are using. Then when the Print window appears click on the Properties button on the top-right. In the middle of the screen you’ll see a pull-down menu labelled Duplex. Simply click on the down-arrow beside this and choose Booklet. Finally click OK on the printer Properties window and OK again on the Print windows to send this to one of the printer or photocopiers.

Printing in booklet fashion means that it print 4 pages on just a single sheet of paper. Saving the environment and, even better, Library budgets!

 

Photocopying – Emergency stop!

Have you ever started photocopying something and then realised half way through it’s the wrong thing or contains an obvious mistake? It’s bad enough that you’ve already wasted a load of paper, you don’t want to waste any more!

Fear not for our photocopiers come with a big red Stop button to safely halt the production of unwanted copies.

When is the best time to save your new document?

Short answer: Immediately!

Long answer: When you create a new document (be it Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) it is always best to save it as soon as possible to an appropriate location. By doing this it not only means you know where the document is but also this greatly reduces the risk of losing any future additions or amendments to the file.

When to attach?

When should you attach a file to your email and when not? This is usually dependant on how many people you are emailing and whether they are internal to the University or external. The below table provides some basic guidelines:

1-3 recipients 4+ recipients
Internal audience Yes No*
External audience Yes Yes

*In such cases it is always better to put the file on the staff filestore (i.e. Y drive) under the appropriate folder (e.g. “store – interim”) and then email people saying where they can find it.

Scan to Email

When using the staff printer/copier to scan documents the default “email To” option is yourself. Whilst this can be changed (so as to email the scan directly to someone else) this isn’t recommended because:

  • It’s always a good idea to check the scanned image is readable before forwarding it to someone else, otherwise they will only contact you back to have the document re-scanned
  • Emailing it to yourself then forwarding it on means a copy of the document will be in your sent box in outlook just in case you need to refer to it (e.g. to resend in case the other person has deleted the email)