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Windows Vista Support Statement:
The Mars Hill College ITS Department recognizes the role of innovation
and change with regard to information technology policy. Over the past
several months the ITS staff has been testing Microsoft Windows Vista on
selected staff systems.
While the upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Edition will
eventually rolled out campus wide, the operating system is not compatible with
several software applications at this time, and lacks vendor specific
hardware drivers for most laptops and tablets. The College is not
recommending Windows Vista be installed on current systems, or on the Fall
2007 systems, in order to give hardware and software vendors time to update
the compatibility of their products.
If you choose not to follow our recommendations, you are upgrading at your
own risk. The College WILL NOT be providing technical or academic support
for Windows Vista at least through the summer of 2008. As hardware and
software issues are confirmed to be resolved we will be updating our
support timeline.
The lack of technical support means that our support staff will not be
obligated to assist students in fixing Vista-related problems.
The lack of support means that students who experience Vista-related
problems causing a lack of proper course participation in any required form
will have no valid excuse and their grades will be affected accordingly.
If you do upgrade, please do not upgrade your primary computer system to
Vista, unless you intend to configure it to dual boot.
If you have purchased a machine preinstalled with Vista, you may contact
your system vendor for support.
Microsoft Office 2007 Support
Statement:
Microsoft has recently released the latest version of their Office
application package called Microsoft Office 2007. This version
incorporates major changes from previous versions and is currently being
tested and evaluated by the ITS staff. While Office 2007 will
eventually be installed campus wide this will only happen after testing is
complete and faculty training is in place. Microsoft Office 2003 is
installed on all college owned systems and is the only version that will be
supported.
If you choose to purchase Microsoft Office 2007 our support staff will
not be obligated to assist you with any problems or compatibility issues.
Office 2007 includes the ability to save files in a format compatible
with previous versions. If you wish
to open any Office 2007 document on a college owned system you must save it
in Microsoft 2003 format.
To save a file in Office 97-2003
format: Click “File” ŕ
“Save As” ŕ
Select the option for “97-2003 format”
Office 2007 Compatibility
Issues
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Microsoft Office 2007
introduces new file formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These new
formats are incompatible with all previous versions of these
applications.
In order to share files with older Office versions, Office 2007 users
must save their files in a format that is backwards compatible with the earlier
versions. Instructions on how to save Office 2007 and pre-Office 2007
files in a compatible format can be found below.
The default file extensions
for Word, Excel and PowerPoint are:
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Application
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Office
file type
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Office
2007 extension
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Pre-Office
2007 extensions
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Word 2007
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Word 2007 XML document
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.docx
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.doc
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Excel 2007
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Excel 2007 XML workbook
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.xlsx
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.xls
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PowerPoint 2007
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PowerPoint 2007 XML
presentation
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.pptx
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.ppt
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Office 2007 Windows users
To make Office 2007 files compatible with previous Office versions,
users can change the default option to save files in Compatibility mode.
The instructions for Word, Excel and PowerPoint are similar and as
follows:
1. Click on the Office
button found at the top left of the screen.
2. In the drop-down menu, at the bottom right, select the application
options button
(Word / Excel / PowerPoint Presentations).
3. Click on Save.
4. On the Options screen, from the pull-down menu next to Save files in this format,
select the appropriate application (Word
97-2003 Document (*.doc), Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls), PowerPoint
Presentations 97-2003).
Your Office 2007 files will now be saved in Compatibility mode making
them compatible with previous versions.
Pre-Office 2007 Windows users
Users of pre-Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint can download Microsoft Compatibility Pack
which will allow them to open, edit and save files using the new 2007
file formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
This helps ensure that users of Office 2007 can continue to work with
third-party solutions based on earlier versions, and users of earlier
versions of Office can work with their colleagues who have upgraded.
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Desktop Information Area Addition
ITS recently modified the startup
procedures for all MHC owned systems that places an information area at the
bottom right of your desktop.
The message looks like this:
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THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN ADDED BY MHC ITS
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Host Name:
MHC99999
IP Address: 192.168.n.n
Service Pack:
Service Pack 2
User Name:
username
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This information has been placed there to
make it easier for us to identify a machine. Also, we often need this
information when troubleshooting a problem on the phone and it will allow
you to provide this to us simply by looking at your desktop.
What to do if this message box is
displaying twice on your desktop:
1.
Right-Click anywhere on the Desktop
2.
Select
"Properties" on the menu
3.
Select the
"Desktop" tab
4.
Select any
Desktop Wallpaper or select "None". DO NOT select the BGInfo
wallpaper!
5.
Click the
"OK" button
6.
Restart your
computer
The wallpaper you selected will be
modified to display the ITS information only once.
AVG Anti-Virus replaced with Trend
OfficeScan
Our license for AVG anit-virus expires
Feburary 2, 2007. Because of a major price increase for AVG we have decided
to switch to Trend OfficeScan for all MHC owned computers.
A procedure is in place that will
automatically uninstall AVG and install OfficeScan on your system when you
logon to the network. If you have problems or errors with this process
please call the Helpdesk at ext. 1444 and we will assist you.
AVG still provides a free version that
you may use for your personal systems. If you have a version of AVG Free
earlier than 7.5 it will expire! You must download the latest version from
AVG's website to stay protected.
Here is the location for AVG Free:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
MHC ITS does not provide support for the
AVG Free software.
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