Monthly Archives: April 2016

Thing 7: Sending big files

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We often have to send large files to folks by email. And I’ll bet you have had either bouncebacks telling you the recipients mailbox is full, or a message saying the email failed to send, or you get a phone call from the recipient saying they haven’t had the attachment, or even the email.

Frustrating, eh?

There are lots of easy ways around this, which mean you can send big files (without clogging up yours or anyone elses mailbox) like graphics heavy PDFs, high resolution images, image heavy PowerPoints or video/audio files really easily.

Can you think of a time when this would have been useful?

Why is this important?

Avoiding sending big files by email is a good thing. Even though many companies are moving towards cloud based email solutions with gigabytes more space per person than ever before, a couple of video files can easily eat up a great deal of space, which is annoying for the person whose inbox is being filled up, and furstrating for you as you may have to try sending the file more than once. And even then the quality may have been compromised.

By using a specific service for sharing big files you can ensure that the version of the file your recipient gets is the same quality as the one you send. Your email will sometimes compress the files without you necessarily being aware of this, which can mean that time (and inbox space!) is wasted as you attempt to ensure the recipient gets what is expected.

If you use a service like Dropoff, you will get a receipt to tell you that your file has been sent successfully, and when it has been picked up.

How can I send big files, then?

  1. You can use the University’s own Dropoff service: dropoff.ncl.ac.uk It works best with your campus login. One logged in you get three options. Usefully, you can also use the service to request big files from other people too!
    Choose Drop-off. You’ll get a screen like this:
    Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 14.15.10
    Choose Next.
    You’ll get this:
    Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 14.16.38Fill in the form, browsing to the file/s you want to send. Then click Drop off files and you’re away. You’ll get a drop off summary screen and once the file/s have been picked up you will get an email notification telling you who picked them up and when. There is further information on the NUIT website.
  2. You can also use Skype for Business/Lync. This is useful if you are involved in a Skype/Lync call and need to share a file quickly.  You can attach the file to a meeting in a couple of ways.
    sendingFilesWithSkype
  3. There are lots of other options like:
    1. Dropbox – this is popular and very easy to use, though for University business it is recommended to use the Dropoff service.
    2. Use a shared drive/filestore, save the relevant files to it and send a link by email to navigate to it – though the recipient must also have access to the shared space for this work.
    3. Create the files from scratch with collaboration in mind – see Thing 3

Practice sending and picking up big files

Pair up with someone in your office. Try sending a big file to each other using Dropoff or Skype for Business. Was it difficult? How easy is it to pick them up?

Thing 6: Get Outlook to work for you

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Is email a headache? This thing is a chance to step back from your inbox and think about what you could do to make it work for you.

A quick poll of LTDS colleagues  suggest that the following techniques work:

  • Use folders to hold emails on different topics
  • Colour code items to indicate whether actions are needed
  • Set reminder flags
  • Use rules to delete or move messages that fit particular conditions

Here are three scenarios by way of examples:

  1. You anticipates lots of emails from a particular source that you only need to look at once or twice a day.
    eg:  You have created a form that sends you an email or a Doodle poll and want to keep track of responses, but only want to look at this once every couple of days while it is open.
  2. You want to watch out for certain routine and regular communications and make sure you read them
    eg: You want to make sure you jump on Richard’s weekly update from the Strategy Group
  3. You are part of a small project team of 5 people and want to easily identify communications about this project.
    eg: I work with Angela and Catherine on the Dementia Care free online course, and with Steve, Kovila and Martin on the Cyber Security one. We sometimes use a mailing list and other times communicate with each other individually.

I’ve used these scenarios to illustrate a few things that are possible with rules.  Work through one or two, translating them to your own context. Or, if you like consult with one of the team’s uber-organised colleagues to help you fix something immediately useful to you.

If you are new to rules you may want to have a look at one or two Microsoft training videos.

Scenario 1: Lots of emails from a source that you only need to look at infrequently.

This is crying out for a rule.  One option is to create a folder and move all responses automagically to the folder.

  • Right click on the email message

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And select Rules

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  • Then fill in the boxes and click OK.

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Scenario 2: Watch out for important communications and flag them

Let’s highlight all strategy group updates and flag them.

  • First off find one in your inbox and right click on it.
  • Click advanced options

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  • Click Next to move on to “What do you want to do with the message?” screen and select “flag message”
  • Click “follow up at this time”

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  • Select when you want it to go red

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  • Click through the dialogue boxes to make the change.

Now these will be flagged – you can tick them when read and digested and move them to folders if you want to keep them.

Scenario 3: Colour code items from particular people

Outlook  gives us the possibility of creating custom categories.  You can edit categories in use in Outlook and add new categories, by clicking  the arrow at the bottom of the Categorize button.

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But, helpfully, you can also do this on the fly in the process of creating a rule.

Here’s what I want to do: assign all emails from the Lynne, Catherine and Angela to a new category “Dementia”.

Create the rule;  in the “Which conditions?” box select the “from”

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You can add extra people to the list in the rule description box by clicking the underlined value:

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Then  click next to go onto “What do you want to do with the message?”

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  • Click category in the bottom part

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  • Add a new category

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Now, presto, everything from this project team is signaled on my inbox.

For your blog/comments on this post

Which strategies do you use to manage email?  What have you done/will do as a result of thinking about this thing?

Thing 5: naming conventions (aka “The joy of an ordered sock drawer”)

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We all know that giving files sensible names when we save them saves time, just as pairing your socks before they go in the drawer brings a certain joy later.

In this thing we’ll dare to look at our own file naming practice and see what we can learn.

First off let’s be realistic:

If you start a new project or venture chances are you’ll give it a folder and then start saving stuff. But, you don’t always know how many things you will need to save as the venture progresses.  So it’s normal for the filing structure to evolve to a degree.

Quiz

I’m going to invite you to have a go at helping me rename some of my files and sort out some ideas.

We’ll use some examples taken from the project we have just started to develop a Cybersecurity MOOC.

dodgyFileNames-NMD

.. and we’ll do this via a Typeform Quiz – so please click this link below before reading on:

GO to Quiz 

A few pointers

  • Filenames should be meaningful, and if you are collaborating with others they need to be meaningful all round.
  • If dates go in the names then do think about these being “sortable” in some way.
  • “2016-03” will often be better than “March”
  • Avoid spaces (totally) on files on the web – they’ll generate URLS with % signs in.
  • Whilst Windows is not fussed if you call something “stuff.txt” or “Stuff.txt”, it’s a different story on many of our unix webservers so lower case filenames are more web friendly.
  • Having a quick strategy for sending someone a pointer to a file is really useful to have up your sleeve.

Ultimately, in teams filenames and directory structures need to be negotiated, perhaps something for your next team meeting!

For you to thing about

Add a comment to this post or write a note in your own blog to share any top tips.  Please add any resources that you have found helpful.

Some of us, like me, know that we can do better. Following the shame of looking at my own sock drawer I have renamed my files.

 

 

Thing 4: Screen Sharing

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Have you ever spent far too long explaining something to somebody, whilst trying to work out what they were actually seeing? If you have, then screen sharing may make your life easier.

In this thing we’ll have a look at screen sharing using Skype for Business and Skype. You need to team up with a colleague as it’s kind of difficult to screen share with yourself.

Skype for Business

Office2013 is now fairly standard across campus so we can be relatively sure that everyone has access to Skype for Business (previously Lync).  You don’t need a web-cam or microphone to screen share, you just need to both be signed into Skype for Business.

We’re going to share a screens and permit our buddy to take control of our desktop. There are some step by step instructions below.  (If you’d rather dive in go to this Microsoft Article.)

If your buddy is an different office you may want to call them up on the phone while you do this.

  • Launch one of the applications you commonly talk to people about (EvaSys, Policy pages on the website, Blackboard, maybe even eportfolio)
  • Start Skype for Business, by searching for it in your Start Menu or Finder.
  • Sign in using your Office365 address campusid@newcastle.ac.uk  eg:

  • After Skype for Business loads, start typing in the name of your buddy…. I’ll pick on Graeme

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  • Double click on your buddy’s name to start an instant message conversation.
    It’s polite to offer some suitable salutation at this point, you’ll need to press enter to send the message.

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  • Once you have your buddy’s attention, click on the “Present” icon at the bottom of the Skype for Business window:

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You’ll see we can present a variety of things….for now

  • click “Present Desktop”

Your buddy will receive a notification – they’ll need to click to accept the meeting content.

  • Entertain your buddy by clicking on a few things in your chosen application.

Now the scary bit.

  • On the sharing toolbar at the top of the screen click on “give control”  (NB: sadly Mac using colleagues  won’t have this option)

Your buddy will now be able to move around your desktop clicking things at will. If they become a little cavalier remember that you can use the sharing toolbar to Take back Control. 

  • Now, swap roles, ask your buddy to share her/his screen with you and see how they feel as you rearrange their icons.
  • Try out presenting “programs” – you may be more inclined to let someone take control here!

On a more serious note screen sharing (without taking control) can be a most excellent way of talking somebody through a difficult task.  The explainer and explainee get to see the same thing and confusion is much diminished.

Skype (Free)

A few releases back Skype had an update that brought screen sharing into the standard product.  If you haven’t tried this it’s worth giving it a go, check out the instructions

For your blog

Drop a line or two about how you got on with this, where you think this may be useful, and perhaps any notes on other screen sharing apps you may have used.