CCI Tech Tip Tuesdays

You can now navigate to tech resources using InsideCentral.  Just go to "Technology Resources" in the red section on the left side of the InsideCentral homepage.   Here you'll find a link to the support hub for submitting tickets, as well as more info on requesting technology purchases, a  *new*  list of official CCI software/websites, and info on the process for CCI-issued cell phones.  

Have you joined CCI's Slack workspace and want to make sure you can always find the information you need?  Slack's search function is here to help! You can search by keyword, narrow your results by channel or date, and much more.  More info  here .    Interested in joining CCI's  Slack  workspace?  Open a  tech ticket  to get started!

Have you joined CCI's Slack workspace, but find yourself overwhelmed? Not sure how to use Slack in a way that works best for you?   Here are some  tips and tricks  for setting up Slack to suit your needs.  You can customize how you get notifications, easily view your latest activity, and more! Interested in joining CCI's Slack workspace?  Open a  tech ticket  to get started!

Have a tech issue and need to contact Tech Support?  You can put in a ticket at  courtinnovation.org/support  (CCI's website + /support).  You can access this from a computer or a cell phone.   If you're on your work desktop computer, you can also click on the desktop icon that will take you right there.   

Trying to improve your team's communication and stay in better touch with other departments?  You can join CCI's Slack workspace!   Slack is a messaging tool that helps you collaborate with one person, a group of people, your whole team or even across teams.  You can login on the web, install the app on your desktop or download the app on your phone.    See a video of Slack in action  here . Interested in joining?  Open a  tech ticket  to get started!  

Need to make a flow chart or diagram but don't want to draw it by hand?  There's a free add-on to Google Drive called  draw.io  that provides many different templates for making diagrams.   Just select the template you like best and you can edit the text, the layout, and the style to be exactly what you like.  When you're done, you can invite your coworkers to add comments, or export it and send via email.  More info  here .

Trying to schedule a meeting with a large group of people and want a scheduling tool that works directly with your Outlook calendar?   FindTime can be added directly to your Outlook, where you can create a poll about which meeting time would work best.  Just download FindTime, open a meeting invite and click on the red FindTime button to create your new meeting poll.   You can download this free add-on and read more  here

Trying to convert a PDF into a Word document?  There are a few easy ways to do it! FoxIt Phantom PDF, which is already set up on most CCI computers, has the ability to convert from PDF to Word.  Read more  here .    There's also a free app called  Smallpdf.com  that allows you to convert PDF to other file formats including Word, and vice versa.  We recommend that you do NOT upload any documents with sensitive or confidential information for conversion, for security and privacy reasons. 

Looking for something simple to help keep you organized?  Google now has a tool that lets you create to do lists, link tasks to your calendar, and more.   It's called  Google Tasks  and you can read more here:  https://gsuite.google.com/ learning-center/products/apps/ keep-track-of-tasks/#!/   

When creating a document that pulls in text from different places, getting all the text to match in terms of formatting (like font size, and type, if it's bolded, color) can be frustrating.  The Format Painter function can help with this.  Format painter lets you easily take the format for one section of text and apply it to another section of text in a document.  You can use Format Painter in Microsoft Word, Excel, Google Docs, and Outlook, among other programs. Simply highlight the text whose format you would like to use, click the Format painter icon, and then select the text that you would like to change.  The Format Painter tool is located near the Paste, Copy and Cut functions in the program.  See screenshots below for where to locate the Format Painter tool. In Outlook: ​ In Microsoft Word: ​ In Google Docs: ​Happy pasting!

Did you know you can delay delivery of your e-mail messages?  In Outlook, you can schedule individual messages to be sent at a later time, or even set-up a rule so that all of your e-mails are delayed a few minutes before they're sent.    Learn more here .   Note: you must have your computer turned on and Outlook open at the time you want to send the message. If you are a Gmail  user,   Boomerang   allows you to schedule your e-mails for the future and more. The free version has a limit of 10 e-mails per month.

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.

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...

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...

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.