Answering some questions that have been hanging around De Sales Hall recently.
Answering some questions that have been running rampant here in De Sales hall!
1) You’ll see two versions of the student printers
– “regular” and “pi”. They both go to the same printer. The idea is that only 1 will go insane at a time.
2) If your document does not print,
check Print Center before printing it a 2nd/3rd/4th/time. Double-click the home button, and find print center. If job #1 is stuck, jobs 2,3,4, etc will NEVER print. You must delete it.
NOTE: On the “no home button” 9th grade iPads, 4-finger swipe to one side or the other to switch between running apps.
3. If you have umpteen apps running
[either double-click the home button, and do the “close 5 fingers swipe” on the screen] – swipe out of them!
4. If you don’t remember the last time you shut your iPad down
– swipe out of all your running apps and shut it down. Wait 10 seconds. Fire it back up.
5. To print from Notability:
Three dot menu, top right
Quick Share
Print
Pay attention to what printer you are selecting, and double sided option
To print from Google Docs:
3 dot menu, top right
“Share and Export”
Print
Select a printer, set your double-sided etc. option
Here are some things to keep in mind as you use your computer. See the bottom of the article for credits
DO NOT start clicking randomly when things go wrong. Randomly clicking things on the machine can at the least cause things to go even slower …and at the worst can really mangle things up.
When things go wrong, TAKE YOUR HAND OFF THE MOUSE OR SCREEN. Take a deep breath. Contact MDS Tech – or slowly DECIDE on your next move.
CHECK THOSE LINKS before you click on them. Internet scams are still going strong, so do NOT assume that email promising you a Dyson Vacuum or a DeWalt Drill from Ace Hardware is legit. Look for speeling errors, wonky grammar, really bad writing. Hover over those links to see where they ACTUALLY go – if that email from “Ace” doesn’t actually link back to Ace Hardware, it just might be a scam.
You can also check the Reply-To and the source email addresses – that is usually a clue on whether is it legit or not. That email from “Paypal “saying you’ve been charged $1100 for that iPhone XXi that you never ordered likely ACTUALLY comes from kdjvbdfiejfnl02937@whatever.com
DO NOT PANIC WHEN THINGS GO WRONG. Pause. Breathe. Think about other routes you can take. Doublecheck what you just did [did you ACTUALLY print to the ARC-student printer….or is your printout in Sheridan hall?] Can you try a different browser? Do you have a live connection to the network?
Have you asked for help from MDS Tech?
DO NOT INSTALL RANDOM APPS. This includes things like web browser extensions – ALL of whom slow your machine down [at least a bit]. Make certain the software is from a reliable, trusted source…. and when in doubt, ask MDS Tech.
Do note that the iPad App Portal apps have been checked out and are OK to install.
BE ORGANIZED Keep your sock drawer [i.e. your documents] organized. We have multiple sock drawers now – your machine, your devices, cloud storage like Drive and iCloud… Keeping them organized is the key to avoiding panic attacks when looking for something.
Create folders! Name them something that makes sense! Actually stash things in them that make sense!
UPDATE YOUR MACHINE This really is critical. Yes, system updates happen all the time, and MOST of the time you can wait until a more convenient time. Sometimes, though, it really is critical. For example, as of this writing [August 2022] Apple just put out IOS 15.6.1 update, which closes a security hole that HAD been exploited “in the wild” – allowing attackers to take over a device. Google put out an update to Drive AND Schoology updated their LMS app – both fixing bugs that was keeping a select number of “lucky” students from submitting class assignments.
So, yes – UPDATE YOUR MACHINE. PLEASE!
REBOOT! Quit out of ALL your running apps and shut your machine/device down [also know as the iPad Reboot Dance]. MDS Tech says AT LEAST once a week will reduce your headaches and stress from wonky computer chicanery.
Seriously, it isn’t a joke. Yes, it is still funny.
===============
Credit:
The inspiration for this article came from a post by Jack Wallen over at Tech Republic. His information was modified to fit our situation here at MDS.
In Part 1, we looked at how to THINK before you start searching. Remember that the goal is to find what you seek in ONE search.
Here are some other ways you can “make Google Dance” as you search the web. MOST of these tips will also work for DuckDuckGo.com, and possibly the other search engines as well.
Note that much of this material is drawn from an article from macsales.com
Site-Specific searching.
If you’d like to search a specific website [macon, com, for example], then add “site:domain_mane” to the end of your search.
should find every mention of the school at the macon.com website.
Getting rid of some results
Let’s say you are researching “fording a river”, but you keep getting results for Ford vehicles. You can use the minus sign to remove articles about the cars, which would make it easier to find what you seek;
Sometime the search engine gives you results that DON’T contain your search terms, or the results contain SOME of them. You can force the results to contain the terms by using the plus sign.
Use the asterisk to represent ANYTHING. That is useful if you aren’t quite sure of what you are looking for, or if you’d like to know what info is available about something general.
If you are looking for info relating to a particular computer, or car, for a specific year, the “after:” and “before:” options will save you some time.
So if you are loking for info about teh Ford Mustand, but only the models from teh late 1960’s, you would search this:
No, these aren’t words that will get you into trouble. They refer to ways to require ALL of your search terms or ANY of them in your search results, by using the words “AND” and “OR”. They can be used with ANY of the above options.
So if I want to search for a Ryobi one+ air compressor, but limited to Homedepot, Lowes, and Ace Hardware:
If you are having trouble finding, and have learned to THINK about your search, then dive into advanced search. At the top-right corner, click Settings, then Advanced Search. There are a lot of options here, but most are easy to figure out.
FINAL ADVICE:
DO NOT GIVE UP. There are a gazillion ways to find what you seek on the Web.
THINK about what you are looking for. Be as specific as possible.
Contact Tech, or visit the ARC, to get more advice [but ONLY after you have tried these tips and are just absolutely out of ideas.]
