Tips, tricks and stuff I didn't know where else to put...
Computers:
Portable Storage solutions: The AV Center NO LONGER SUPPORTS ZIP or FLOPPY DRIVES.
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Instead, buy a Flash Drive (also known as a thumb drive or pen drive). They are small, thumb sized USB drives that use the same flash memory that cameras & PDAs use. They come in sizes from 32MB to 2G. One company (simpletech.com) sells a drive with replaceable flash cards so you can have each class on a different card. The benefit of these units is that they are USB and plug-and-play; that is, they require no software. Just plug into any USB port and the drive appears to the computer as an external drive. Do not purchase one that requires software. See http://www.usbflashdrive.org/ for more information. Also, see http://www.usbflashstore.com/usb.html USB 2.0 flashdrives are compatible with USB 1.1. |
Laptops: If you are considering the purchase of a laptop for presentation use, be aware that all laptops are not created equal. There have been mirroring issues with some low-end laptops. Here's the problem: All laptops have a VGA (or external monitor) connector. The internal hardware that controls the functions of that connector may not be powerful enough to send the computer image to the laptop screen and to a projector at the same time. This means you will have to shut off the laptop screen to get an image on a projector. Most teachers find this an awkward way of teaching. Make sure the laptop can "Mirror" the image equally. Rule of thumb, don't buy the cheapest laptop a manufacturer makes. Spend a little more money, ask the right questions and don't be afraid to walk away if they won't speak your language. Or ask us, we can give you some advice, but we don't recommend one manufacturer over another (cough, buy a mac, cough).
RAM: RAM is the space in a computer system where information is stored when a program is in use. The more RAM you have, the faster and more efficiently your programs will run. Both Windows XP and Mac OS X require 1Gig minimum to work efficiently. Adding RAM is the easiest way to speed up your system. RAM is cheap and easy to install. ramseeker.com or crucial.com have fairly easy interfaces to find the RAM that's right for your machine. Treat your computer to an upgrade. It'll thank you for it.
Operating Systems:
Windows users: When you connect to the internet, Windows checks to see if there are operating system updates available. You'll see a balloon appear in the lower right corner of your screen telling you there are updates available. Don't ignore it. Windows needs frequent updates to keep up with security issues. Click on the little icon under the balloon and update your operating system. It will prevent virus and worm vulnerabilities. If you have no idea what I'm referring to, contact the Division of Information Technology on campus and ask for help. The hard drive you save might be your own.
Mac users: You too. Just because Macs are not as vulnerable to viruses as PCs, doesn't mean you're off the hook. Apple is constantly improving and tweaking OS X. System Preferences: Software Update. Do it now. I'll be here when you get back.
Quick Application Switching:
Windows Users: Alt-Tab allows you to switch between open programs. Say you're running a Powerpoint presentation and a web browser and you want to flip back and forth. Alt-Tab cycles between them.
Mac Users: Command-Tab does the same thing.
PowerPoint:
Best fonts for presentations: Helvetica, Arial or Verdana. These are sans-serif fonts that have more information for the projector to render.
More font stuff: Do not use anything smaller than 30 point for your text. You might be able to get away with using 20 point for smaller classrooms, but no one in the back of a large lecture hall will be able to see it. Keep in mind the size of the room and the number of students and adjust font size accordingly. In this case, size does matter.
When you want to quickly open an existing PowerPoint presentation, just double click on the file you want to use and it will open Powerpoint. Many people start PowerPoint first, then use the "open" command and have to navigate through their computer to find the file.
Slide Show: to
quickly start your slide show, click on the little screen icon in the lower
left corner of the PowerPoint window. It looks kinda like this: 
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When your presentation is interrupted by discussion, press the letter B key (or the period key) on your computer keyboard to put up a blank black slide. Or press W (or the comma key) for a blank white slide. Either way, your audience can now focus on you, instead of being distracted by your slide. Press the same key again to go back to where you were.
To Exit Slide Show: Press the "ESC" key.
Web Browsers:
Back in the day, the browsers wars created a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about security, privacy, phishing and compatiblilty. I'm not here to endorse on browser over another, but I can tell you that having more than one browser on your system is essential. I'm also a big supporter of open-source software. (Software by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.)
There are many alternative browsers out there, the best of the bunch being Firefox. It rocks. But it's not perfect. Ferinstance, you can't use Firefox 3 for inside.sfsu.edu, you need Firefox 2. Anyway, links on our links page.
Hiding the Toolbars:
Internet Explorer has a bunch of toolbars at the top of the window, you know,
the address bar, favorites bar, etc. full of icons and text. When all the bars
are visible, that can take up a lot of your viewable area. To make the bars
disappear press the F11 key (Windows) or press Command-B, as in "bars" (Macintosh).
The bars all disappear. Poof.
To bring the bars back, press the same keystroke again.
Open links in a new tab or window: When you do a search on Google, you get a list of results. When you click on one, it goes to that page and getting back to your Google results can be time consuming. Try this instead:
Okay, that's it.
I'm done.
"Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to." B. Banzai
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