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LRC Outlook/Exchange 2010 Resource Calendaring: How students can view resource "Calendars from the Internet" in web browser and OWA

2011/09/20 5 comments
  1. Want a shorter version?
  2. Students, unless specifically TBA:invited, will encounter a permission problem when trying to view calendars like staff.
  3. Instead, students can use the scheduling assistant to view a basic version of the resource’s calendar. This works “out of the box”.
  4. Students can also view an advanced version of the resource’s calendars (one-time, or bookmark this link in your web browser – hope you know how to synch your bookmarks between all the devices you use…). This requires little work: click on the “view” link  in the “student calendar” column of our  list of LRC resources that you can book or check out, to see the current calendar in your web browser: student-internet-calendar-in-browser
  5. For students  who check the calendar of a resource regularly (e.g. to see when the LRC main classroom is available for your self-access/the tutor in your language, for help), it is better to “bookmark” the resources’ calendars in NINERMAIL. Here is how:
    1. Copy the URL for the calendar you just opened, from the web browser address bar: student-internet-calendar-in-browser-uri-marked
    2. Go to NINERMAIL,  click on the lower left “Calendar-icon” calendar-icon_thumbto unfold the “My Calendars” list my-calendar-icon_thumb in the left pane, then right-click on “My Calendars”, choose “Add Calendar”owa-mycalendars-add1_thumb1 .
    3. In the “Calendar URL” field, paste URL of the calendar you just opened, but replace “html” at the  end with “ics”: student-internet-calendar-in-owa2-marked, click “OK”.
    4. For on-premise users in OWA (seems OWA stirs on-premise users to the superior intranet calendars, which would be good. But what if the intranet calendar has not been shared with this user, but internet sharing is intended?), This may not work as advertised (neither with protocol http and webcal) OR just need a lot of time (~12hours?) to synchronize,student-internet-calendar-in-owa-errorwhile it works (both with protocol http and webcal) when subscribing from Windows Live? student-internet-calendar-in-windows-live-works. Most importantly for us (as we have now tested), it works for students with accounts in the cloud from NINERMAI.
    5. OWA remembers your internet calendar subscriptions, and you can easily display or hide them, using the checkboxes it provides. To keep an overview over your calendars added from the internet, you need to rename them, by right-clicking on them, like so: student-calendar-adding-renaming
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, e-infrastructure, service-is-library Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

How to use the LRC Lists

2011/09/20 2 comments
  1. The LRC lists are built with MS-Excel Web app, one of the new features which came with NINERMAIL (live@edu, try logging into http://skydrive.com .
  2. Important benefits of MS-Excel Web app include
    1. sorting: click on column header / down arrow, and choose menu item: “Sort Ascending/Descending”
    2. filtering: click on column header / down arrow, and choose menu item:
      1. either “filter”, excel-web-app-filter1, to choose from a condensed overview of all unique items that occur in the column, and e.g. filter out “Blanks” by removing the checkmark in front of it: excel-web-app-filter2
      2. or the advanced “number filter” (in columns with numbers) or “textfilter”,excel-web-app-filter3 , to do more advanced searches, like for all items that contain “camera”: excel-web-app-filter4 
      3. sharing beyond viewing: Authorized users can click on an “edit link” below the list display to update the information from their web browser.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-infrastructure, software Tags: , ,

Our Office 2010 natural language features upgrade: A running log

2011/09/15 1 comment
  1. Just logging some notes, observations, issues, step-by-step instructions… – other than non-natural-language, most collaboration features, which are being logged here.
  2. Office 2010 proofing tools (proofing-tools2010-install.wmv),:
    1. again, we select custom install, “run all from Computers”
    2. install is extensive, but uneventful
  3. Office 2010 proofing tools (proofing-tools2010-first-run-German-set-language.wmv), first run:
    1. German is not autodetected. You have to set the language of the selected text manually, and first find the button on the ribbon:reviewing
    2. While choosing the language, you can see from the checkmark which languages now have proofing tools installed
  4. Foreign Language Support
    1. One of the strongest benefits of upgrading to MS-Office 2010 in the language center is the improved foreign language support licensing for so called “Language Packs”, and that we have a complete set of licenses to the MS-Proofing Tools.
    2. In addition MS-Office supports free download of so called “Language interface packs” which seem essentially downscaled language packs for LCTL (usually come only with (see feature list) a spell checker and help in the language). Compare: “If a language is available in a language pack or as a fully localized version, it is not available as a language interface pack”.
    3. Unfortunately multi-user (= learner of different language) support is not the primary usage scenario of these tools. It is, however, possible, to set the language to a default (e.g. Spanish, Arabic or Chinese, depending on your environment). Switching to another language is relatively easy for a user
      1. changing the screen-tip language: http://skydrive.live.com/embedicon.aspx/screencasts/office-2010-switch-screentip-language.wmv?cid=4fa3329905d7e1ce&sc=photos
  5.  
Categories: all-languages, audience-is-language-learning-center-manager, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, documentation, e-languages, office-software, Screencasts, software Tags: , , , , , ,

How do I make a video out of my PowerPoint Presentation?

2011/09/14 Leave a comment
  1. Many streets may lead to Rome, but here is the "One Microsoft way”, built into PowerPoint 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/turn-your-presentation-into-a-video-HA010336763.aspx: You can essentially “save as”  video, including recorded narrations. You have to have your media inserted in 2010 format. Here is a walk-through:
  2. under “file”, “save&send”, use “create video”powerpoint-save&send-create-video
  3. if you get a compatibility error like so: powerpoint-save&send-create-video-error-media
  4. follow the instructions given; powerpoint-save&send-create-video-error-media-convert
  5. watch the progress bar: powerpoint-save&send-create-progress
  6. Takes over 60 minutes with on average over 50% CPU of an Intel i5 with 8 GB Ram, to produce a 75MB file of 920*760 and less than 18 minutes in length. But this video streams from MS-SkyDrive.
Categories: audience-is-teachers, documentation, e-infrastructure, learning-materials Tags: , , , , ,

Room and Equipment handling using MS-Exchange Resource Mailboxes: Sharing Resource Calendars with Students in Outlook Live. A running log

2011/09/13 6 comments
  1. Our users can view the free/busy information of our Resource mailboxes in the Scheduling Assistant of their Meeting request – and also, though even less convenient and more limiting, in the GAL.
    1. This includes student accounts (hosted) being able to view resource mailboxes (on premise) free/busy – which seems the default, different from the solution to achieve this here – or are resource mailboxes permissions more liberal than regular mailboxes?
  2. To allow users the more convenient access to the calendar of the resources (without being able to book through this interface), we have used this: 
  1. # permissions: make default user a reviewer (read-only) of resource mailbox calendar

     

    # so that default user cannot schedule through the calendar & bypass resourcescheduling attendant

     

    Set-MailboxFolderPermission

     

    -Identity LRCLcdproject01@uncc.edu:\Calendar

     

    -AccessRights Reviewer -User Default

     

    # work around apparent permissions bug:

     

    # http://www.flobee.net/found-a-bug-with-set-mailboxfolderpermission/

     

    Set-MailboxFolderPermission

     

    -Identity LRCLcdproject01@uncc.edu:\non_ipm_subtree\freebusy data

     

    -AccessRights Reviewer -User Default
  2. Based on this, we have successfully tested sharing our resource calendars with staff accounts (which are on premises).
    1. We have been hoping to share calendars of our resources also with our student user accounts (which are hosted).  However, “Default” in the above does not seem to include these. When students use the built-in “Add Calendar”feature from their  Outlook Live/NINERMAIL, they receive a permission error: “The calendar for the mailbox you chose can’t be opened. You may not have permission to open this calendar”.calendar-add-error-student 
  3. Student staff cannot view the resource calendars. A limited workaround could be to share calendars with individual student staff, so that they can display these calendars to walk-up clients. However, we cannot even share such resource calendars manually with individual students. While, when  impersonating the resource,  I can send out an invitation email to student staff, the student again gets an error when clicking the “Add calendar” link in the invitation mail: “This folder could not be opened. you might not have permission to open it, or it might not exist anymore”. calendar-share-error 
  4. We also cannot see our student staff’s  busy time, even if this busy times when working for us: “No information (Error code: undefined”): scheduling-assistant-student-no-information

  1. A similar issue elsewhere  seems to have been addressed successfully by adding federation for
    1. multiple tenancies within live@edu in “Sharing Free Busy across the cloud”, example: 

      Get-FederationInformation

       

      –DomainName <the other Live@edu tenant> | New-OrganizationRelationship

       

      –Name <the other Live@edu tenant>

       

      -FreeBusyAccessEnabled $true

       

      -FreeBusyAccessLevel LimitedDetails

    2. and for mixed hosted/on-premises environments “Set up Federated Free/Busy and Calendar Sharing between Exchange 2010 SP1 and Outlook Live”, which is a bit too evolved for posting a short sample/summary here.
  2. Another workaround could be to add calendar internet publishing privileges to individual resource mailboxes and sharing calendars with student staff, having them display these to walk-up clients.
    1. What data gets published needs to be careful considered. However, it should be possible to hide personal information and just display usage of resources, using the built-in sharing levels (note that organizer may have been put in subject by Resourcebookingasssistant configured with AddOrganizerToSubject, so subject should not be included for calendars “LRCAssistant” and “LRCTutor”## which are offices held/resources booked by students):
      1. CalendarSharingFreeBusySimple   Share free/busy hours only
      2. CalendarSharingFreeBusyDetail   Share free/busy hours, subject, and location
      3. CalendarSharingFreeBusyReviewer   Share free/busy hours, subject, location, and the body of the message or calendar item
    2. Code samples are given here (for hosted):
      1. New-SharingPolicy -Name "Calendar Sharing Policy"

         

        -Domains "anonymous:calendarsharingfreebusysimple"

         

        set-mailbox <all LRC resource mailboxes here>

         

        -SharingPolicy "Calendar Sharing Policy"
Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, e-infrastructure, service-is-library, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Testing embedding the MS-PowerPoint Web App

2011/09/13 Leave a comment
  1. In WordPress, a SkyDrive embed code for PowerPoint 
    iframe src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidPowerPointEmbed?p1=1&p2=1&p3=SD25C841818181C2!132&p4=&kip=1" 
    width="402" height="327" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">/iframe

    gets converted to: 

    office src="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidPowerPointEmbed?p1=1&p2=1&p3=SD25C841818181C2!132&p4=&kip=1" 
    width="402" height="327"

    (similar to the behaviour shown with Excel Web App. Likely here also, you will have to replace a secure protocol "https", if it occurs in your embed code, with "http").

  2. WordPress displays this like so: ppt-from-embed-wordpress
  3. And you can full-screen to SkyDrive like so: ppt-from-embed-to-full-screen-skydrive
  4. Online editing is also possible, but not part of this test.
Categories: e-infrastructure Tags: , , ,

Links Dual-Monitor

2011/09/13 Leave a comment

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/twomonitors.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-monitor

Categories: e-infrastructure, websites Tags: ,

How LRC assistants log into the reception desk computers

2011/09/08 Leave a comment
  1. Let the computer finish its startup tasks:
    1. Browsers: both internet Explorer and Firefox will open on relevant pages, since you and your client will have to work in different browsers, ensuring that both your and your client can be logged into different NINERNET accounts.
    2. Excel will load a checkin.xlsm. In Excel, under the ribbon, press button:"Enable content". Use this to generate codes that you can paste into users"’ meeting requests when they check in and out LRC equipment. The spreadsheet will not save the codes since your computer is frozen.
    3. A program called bginfo will analyze the computer settings and display the results on the desktop
    4. ZoomIt: press “ok” on the startup dialogue. You can now press CTRL-2 (thanks Ashley) and drag the left mouse button (ESC to stop) to paint on screen to communicate with client across mirrored screens, and vice versa.
  2. Do you have a client at the counter?
      1. yes: press CTRL-ALT-F10 to clone/mirror (= show the same screen on) both monitors. You can now collaborate with the client using a computer (e.g. in OWA or in a database)
      2. no client: press CTRL-ALT-F11  to extend the desktop. You can now display an informational window on the LRC-facing monitor, while working on your own monitor in privacy.
      3. The reception computers use Deepfreeze. You cannot save information on reception desk computers between reboots.
        1. All personal information you want to save needs to go to your H: drive.
        2. All information you want to share with LRC staff needs to go into LRC Moodle site, UNCC-LRC website or NINERMAIL.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, e-infrastructure Tags: , , ,