Welcome to the NEW Computing Tip of the Week Web Site!
This week the computing tip is introduces users to the new look and functionality of the Computing Tip of the Week (CTOW) web site. The URL is http://www.uwex.uwc.edu/outlook/tips/.
Thanks to Dana Burmaster and David Huntsman for their assistance with the creation of this new look and functionality. Special Thanks to Patrick Swailes who converted all the old, but current CTOW's to the new format. David and Patrick are both student workers in our office here in Madison.
Remember, if you have ideas for the Computing Tip of the Week,please send them to Pat Fellows.
What's new?
The site has a new look and feel. It uses the same template that the Chancellor 's site has. A page dedicated to Microsoft Outlook has been added. Three great tools, a Print button, an RSS link, and a Search tool, have also been added to the site. Navigation Buttons have also been added to make moving around the site easier. More on those later.
Outlook Home
On the new site there are two information pages. The first is referred to as Outlook Home on the new navigation buttons. This page was created to provide a one-stop site for new Outlook users. UW Extension faculty and staff and new UW Colleges faculty and staff can go to this page and find many resources for Outlook. This page also includes a link to the archive page for CTOW. Click on this Outlook Home link to check out this page.
CTOW Archive
The archive page for the Computing Tips of the Week is arranged differently now. They are listed chronologically. The newest tip is on top and includes both the date of the tip and the title. The tips on the list are links to the actual tips. Here is a preview of that page.
Computing Tip of the Week
The tips themselves will look pretty similar to how they looked in the past. The difference will be the overall template color scheme and the new tools that have been added. They will continue to include step-by-step instructions with screen shots and in some cases videos. So, what are these new tools?
Cool New Tools!
- Search Tool: At both the top of each page on the site and in the navigation bar on the left side of the page, there is a Search text box. Type in a keyword or words and click on the GO button. In the example below, I have typed the word "Flags" in the search box.
- Print Button: Users can use the Print Button to quickly print the Computing Tip, and get only the tip itself, without all the color frames and navigation bar, and it will look nice. When a user clicks on the Print Button the Print Dialog Box will appear and provide the usual print options. Click OK and the page(s) will print. For those of you who want the tip close at hand when trying a new tool or technique, the Print Button can be very useful.
- RSS Feed Link: For those users who have become avid RSS users, there is a link that will provide the Shortcut to the RSS XML file. Copy the shortcut to your RSS Reader to subscribe to this new CTOW site. Because we have moved the tips to a new URL, RSS users will need to do this once to get the feeds from this new site. For users interested in getting started with RSS, please go to http://www.uwc.edu/training/wlwarchive and watch the October 12, 2005 video.
The result of that search brings back the results shown below:
I hope you like the new look, the new tools, and the whole new site. I think it is much more user friendly and now that I turned the graphics work over to the graphics professionals, it looks great. Thanks again to all who helped to launch this new site.