CCI Tech Tip Tuesdays

Ctrl+Z (or Command+Z on the Mac) is the best way to undo the last thing you did on many programs - the last thing you typed in Outlook, Word, and gmail, the last cell you edited in Excel, the photo you accidentally deleted from your document, and more. And if you accidentally press Ctrl+Z and want to redo the thing that just got undone, you can always hit Ctrl+Y (Command+Y on the Mac).

Sometimes in Word you want to put a bunch of text into a table.  It already has spaces, or tabs, or commas, organizing the text the way you want it but you don't want to have to retype everything into rows and columns.  Or you have a table in a Word document and you want to remove the text from the table. In Word you can use the Convert-text-to-table function, or the Convert-table-to-text function to quickly and easily create or get rid of a table. Learn more here.

When you view your files in a folder, sometimes you see a long list when you were hoping to see photo thumbnails so you can easily look for a particular photo. Other times, you see large icons but need a list so you can quickly look for your file.  You can easily change how you view the files in your folder by clicking on the View tab, and selecting a different option (large and medium icons will show you thumbnails of your photos.) If you want, you can change the defaults as well for different types of folders.  Learn how here. You can also do this on a Mac.

You may know how to Search in Outlook (type any word in the "Search Current Mailbox" textbox), but did you know that you can refine your search?  Maybe you only want e-mails that have an attachment, or have the word "party" in the subject line.  Here are some of the ways you can filter your search results: From: filters your search results to only show messages sent by a specific person. For example, you can search for all the messages sent by Sara. Subject: filters your search results based on the subject line of the email. For example, you can search for all the messages that have the keyword “report” in the subject line. Has Attachments: gives you all the messages that contain an attachment. This Week: choose a time frame to narrow your search results based on the time you received a message. Learn more about refining Outlook searches here.

Did you know that you can get new blog posts that you follow straight into your Outlook? In Outlook, you just have to set-up an RSS feed to the blog that you want to follow. Learn how to do it!

Today's Tech Tip comes from Anna Krist, Planner: If you are not using conversation view in Outlook, you may find yourself searching for the right e-mail in a thread.  You find one email in a thread, but that wasn't the one you were looking for!  By right clicking on a message, you can easily find related messages (e-mails from the same thread), or e-mails from the same sender.

Did you know that you can quickly search for any word on a webpage, or in a document (like Word or Excel?)  Simply press Ctrl+F, and type your term into the search window.  You can hit F3, or find the next arrow, to cycle through all the instances of that word.  

Often we may need to use many different computers as we move offices and desks.  If we don't do take a few simple precautions, we can cause our computers to run out of space, and we can end up getting locked out of computers (in a way that is difficult to solve!)  Here are some tips to being a good shared computer user at the Center: At a different desk?  Don't use the Outlook desktop application. Instead, log into Web Outlook.  This stops all your mail from being downloaded to that computer! After using another computer, always make sure to log off!  This will help ensure you don't have issues getting locked out of other computers in the future, and helps to keep the computer from running slowly.  

Forgot that attachment?  Forgot to cc someone on your e-mail?  For those of you using Gmail /  courtinnovation.org , there's a way to set-up Gmail to allow you to unsend an email that you accidentally clicked the Send button on a bit too fast.  Once you enable "Undo Send", you'll have up to 30 seconds to unsend an e-mail, make your corrections, and then send it out again. Learn more about how to use Undo Send in gmail.

Sometimes you may have a template letter that you have to write over and over again, and remembering to change the date is just another thing on a list of items to change (or forget!) Luckily, with Word you can add in a Date field and have it automatically update every time you open the document. Learn more here . Thanks to Allison Gao for the tip!

As part of our  branding efforts, the Center wants all staff to use the same format for signing e-mails – also called an “e-mail signature.” To make sure these e-mail signatures are consistent, we have created a Signature template webpage . Use this page to create your own e-mail signature, complete with your operating program logo. which you can then easily copy and paste into any e-mail program so it automatically appears at the end of your emails.   Do not use these logos for any other purposes.  E-mail smeah@nycourts.gov to get high-quality logos. Here are detailed video instructions, as well as overview instructions, to use the template for Desktop Outlook, web Outlook, and Gmail (which includes the courtinnovation.org account). See the bottom of this post for mail app instructions on your phone.  You can also print out these instructions (Ctrl+P). Questions or issues?  E-mail CCI Tech Support for extra help! Desktop Outlook Clicking Fi...

Two online services to collaboratively collect data, and manipulate it, are Google Forms and Airtable.  Unsecure forms such as Google and Airtable are helpful to: Collect food preferences for an upcoming event or large meeting Get additional information from people attending a training on what their goals or skill level is Collect feedback after an event Get clothing sizes for the swag you are going to order Note: These forms should never be used with clients because they are not a secure way to collect data  and  all research projects involving clients should be reviewed by the Center’s Institutional Review Board.  If you are interested in conducting research or data collection from clients, always contact  CCI_IRB@courtinnovation.org  first or the researcher assigned to your operating project.  Google Forms , which all CCI staff have access to, allow you to easily create forms to send to CCI staff, collect data, and have the dat...

It's time sheet time!  But the new link to the ADP timesheet has changed what technology it uses.   Experiencing issues?  Read below... 1. Open the time sheet link in  Google Chrome  using this URL:  https://adpeet2.adp.com/1 12funp/navigator/logon 2. If you see that you are being asked to install Adobe Flash player... then click on the lock in the address bar 3. Scroll down to the option “Flash”. Click the arrow beside it and select “Always allow on this site”  4. Refresh the page and access the login!

Want to quickly chat with multiple colleagues?  It's easy using Skype for Business! Simply open a conversation window, click on the "Invite More People" button, and then select people to join in on the chat! Learn more here.​

There is a fast way to quickly find a word on a web page, a Word document, Excel document, and more.   Control F , or command F on a Mac, is the keyboard shortcut for the Find command. Simply press Control + F in whatever window you want to search in, and type the word you are looking for in the search box. You can press the arrows to go through all instances of that word.

Printing Excel sheets can sometimes be difficult.  One issue you may encounter is that when your spreadsheet prints on multiple pages, you can only see the header row / column on the first page!  There is a way to set-up your sheet to automatically repeat specific rows or columns on every page. Click here to learn more

You are working away on several different websites in several different tabs, and you accidentally close the wrong one!  It happens.  Did you know there's a fast way to re-open the last tab you closed?   Just hit CTRL + SHIFT + T in any of the major Windows web browsers ( Chrome , Firefox , Edge , Internet Explorer).  On a Mac use COMMAND + SHIFT + T.

Sometimes you want to e-mail someone several files - for example you have 15 photos, a PDF, and a word document, and you don't want to attach each one individually.  An easy way to do this is to compress (zip) your files together. A ZIP file, like other archive file formats, is simply a collection of files, compressed into a single file to make it easier to send and make the file smaller. Once you have created a ZIP file, you can attach that one file, send it along, and the person receiving it can quickly open it and access all the files. Learn how to zip multiple files together, and unzip a file, in Windows. Remember - never open a file that you receive via e-mail unless you are expecting it (even if it is from someone you know) - it could contain a virus!

Foxit PhantomPDF - available on most of our Windows 10 machines - easily allows you to combine multiple files into one PDF file.   You can read more about how to easily combine multiple files here. And as a bonus, here's a shortcut: select all the files you want to combine in the File Explorer window, right-click, and select to combine files in Foxit Phantom PDF.

Not everyone at the Center uses a PC - we know there are some Mac laptops out there as well.  The shortcut keys apply to you as well! For a general rule of thumb, when Windows users use the Control key (Ctrl) , Mac users should use the Command ⌘ key.  For example, on Windows Ctrl+C is a shortcut key for cutting, but on a Mac it is Command+C .  Instead of Alt , on a Mac press the Option button.  For example, on Windows Alt+Tab allows you to switch windows, but on a Mac it's Alt+Option. Learn about more shortcuts you can use on your Mac.

You have several programs open and you don't want to miss anything!  In Windows 10 you can quickly snap windows next to each other so you can split the screen evenly between 2 - 4 applications. Using your keyboard: Hit Windows + Left Arrow to snap a window to the left side of the screen or Windows + Right Arrow to snap it to the right. If you want your application to take up a quarter of the screen, hit Windows + Up Arrow or Windows + Down Arrow after you snap it to the left or right and it will move into the corner, taking up less room. Using your mouse: drag a window all the way to the left or right side of the screen if you want it to take up half or into the corner if you want it to take up a quarter of the space. Learn more about how to use Windows snap function.

Excel is great for recording data, but how can you quickly analyze all that information?  Sometimes a pivot table is the answer to help us quickly summarize, explore and present data.  Using the visual interface, you can quickly summarize information by categories into easy to manipulate tables, and even view them as charts.   Initial data   Quick and easy pivot table   Click here for an overview on what pivot tables are. Click here for a tutorial on using pivot tables .  

There are many, many useful shortcut keys to help you do your work faster and more efficiently.  Today we'll share the keys for copying, cutting and pasting.  These shortcut keys can be used across most programs, for example in Word, Excel or Outlook, but also to copy text from a website and paste them into Word or even a Skype chat window. Simply select the text you are interested in, and then press Ctrl + C for copy (command if you are on a Mac), or Ctrl + X to cut the text.  To paste text, use Ctrl + V . Learn more here.    

Did you know that using Skype for Business you can really easily share your screen with a colleague?  And you don't have to share you entire desktop, you can easily just select one program (Excel or Internet Explorer, for example) to share. Click here to learn more.

Last week, we talked about Doodle for group scheduling .  Doodle can also be used to schedule one-on-one interviews, but another option is  Calend.ly , which is made for specifically this purpose and has many of the features you would want! For example, you have to schedule 20 people for one-on-one interviews in the next 3 days. You can either start e-mailing everyone back and forth, keeping track of replies as best you can, or you can set-up time blocks in Calend.ly, give all 20 people the link, and let each one pick their own interview date and time. With  Calend.ly  there are many customizable options including if there should be breaks between meetings, questions for attendees to answer prior to the meeting, creating a custom e-mail for people with additional information after they have signed up, and automatically updating your calendar with meetings.  It will also send reminder e-mails to meeting attendees. Want to learn more?  Visit...

Have a big group of people and need to schedule a meeting?  Find the ideal location to meet?  Pick the best lunch option?   Doodle  lets you set up a simple poll, everyone can select their preferences, and then you can pick the best option! Doodle pro tip: select the  Yes, no, if need be  option to allow people to pick maybe.  Or select Limit the number of votes per option  to let people sign-up for timeslots instead of a poll (for example if you are trying schedule one-on-one interviews). Learn more about setting up Doodle for scheduling. Learn more about setting up Doodle for non-scheduling polls (example locations, food choices, etc).

Sometimes you get a document that someone has edited with track changes, and while you would like to accept all of their bolding, italicizing, and font changing, you don't want to just accept all their edits. There is a simple way to accept all the formatting changes quickly, while leaving the other suggestions for you to sort through manually! Step 1: Click the arrow beside Show Markup from the Review ribbon and ensure that only Formatting is selected. Step 2: Click the arrow under Accept from the Review ribbon and click Accept All Changes Shown Click here to learn more.

In a past Tech Tip Tuesday, we shared how to mute a thread of e-mail replies that do not apply to you , whether you are using Outlook or Gmail.  How about if you are the one sending the e-mail?  To send an e-mail that eliminates reply-all e-mail threads, you simply BCC the e-mail list, and put our own e-mail address in the To line. For example, here is how we would send a Tech Tip Tuesday to all staff - ensuring that any replies only come to us, and not to all staff: Gmail: Web Outlook:

If you are trying to keep your inbox clean, you may want to move not just an e-mail conversation to a folder, but have all new replies automatically get moved to that folder as well.  You can do this in desktop Outlook! Simply select the conversation, and click the Move button on the Home ribbon, and then select Always Move Messages in This Conversation. Learn more here

You don't have to have a Skype application open to chat with your colleagues. If you are using Outlook on the web, you can use Skype directly in the Outlook interface. Just login to instant messenger by clicking your name, and then click the Skype icon to find your colleagues and start chatting! ​ Learn more about how to find and chat with colleagues in web Outlook here

Did you know that anyone who lives or works in New York State has access to all the e-learning courses offered by Lynda.com?  They have a variety of classes, including how to better use technology.  They have options for beginners such as  how to use Outlook's calendar and task functionality  or  how to use Skype for Business  all the way to the very advanced and specific like  how to do logistic regressions in R and Excel .   Lynda.com is free for anyone with a New York Public Library card, which is  available for anyone who lives or works in New York State.   Many other public libraries across the United States also offer free access to Lynda.com. Interested?   Access Lynda with your NYPL card information here.