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Information Systems Services UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Connected September
In this issue
Online learning . . . . . . .1
Software in Store . . . . .2
ISS Review . . . . . . . . . .3
World Cup traffic . . . . .3
Updated IT induction . .3
News in brief . . . . . . . . .4
Office 2007
Tips and Tricks . . . . . . .4
And finally . . . . . . . . . . .4
What's a Tiny URL?
You'll probably notice that many of the
web addresses (URLs) begin with
tinyurl.com. TinyURL lets you take a
long URL and turn it into a much
shorter one. Just type in the relevant
TinyURL and you’ll go directly to the
original page.
What do you think...
about Connected? We’d love to
hear your views. Tell us what you
think of the style and content,
what kind of articles you’d like to
see more or less of. Email your
views to the Editor, Sue
Cunningham
s.m.cunningham@leeds.ac.uk
Online learning
At the beginning of August the
ISS training unit launched its
new program of online learning,
giving all staff at the University
access to the Microsoft IT
Academy Online Learning
Program.
The courses cover the full range of
Microsoft products, including Access,
Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Visio
and OneNote. The online training
consists of short modules covering
specific topics, which typically take an
hour each, and have online assessments
to allow you to monitor your progress. For
example, Word courses include Getting
Started, Editing and Proofreading,
Formatting, Columns and Tables and so
on.
E-learning has a number of benefits
including:
Flexibility - work at your own pace,
whenever it suits you
Personalised learning - choose just the
courses or parts of courses you need
2010
Ongoing access - when you learn a
new skill, if you don't use it regularly it's
easy to forget. Now you can go back
and retake the courses anytime you
need a refresher.
Getting started
You'll need a Microsoft Live ID to access
the online training. You may already have
an ID from Hotmail, Xbox live or Games
for Windows Live. If not, go to
https://signup.live.com and follow the
instructions to create your new ID. When
you are creating your Live ID you can
use your University email address - you
don't need to create a Hotmail account.
Once you have created your Microsoft
Live ID, have a look at the list of courses
shown on the training webpages
(http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/elearning), then
email the training unit
(itistraining@leeds.ac.uk) and ask for a
code for the course you are interested in.
You can also book on the courses in the
usual way through the Courses and
Workshops search engine -
www.leeds.ac.uk/staffdevelopment
(cont)

Software in Store
The University's online store
(http://store.leeds.ac.uk) now stocks
software, and staff and students can buy
a range of software for home use that
was previously available through the IT
Shop.
Software available includes Corel
PaintShop Photo Pro, MapInfo, SAS,
SPSS and many others.
Online learning
(continued from page 1)
The code for a particular course will give
you access to all the courses about that
product, for example any Excel course
code will give you access to all the Excel
courses.
Please remember, these access codes
are for members of the University only.
You must not pass them on to anyone
else.
To access the e-learning go to
http://itacademy.microsoftelearning.com
There are full instructions on the ISS
training page
http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/elearning
Training Needs Analysis
To complement the e-learning, we are
also piloting a Training Needs Analysis
tool from Watsonia Publishing. This tool
Microsoft Work At Home Office 2007,
Office 2008 for MAC, Windows 7 and
Visual StudioPro 2008 Academic Pack
are available from the store to University
staff only. Students should go to
http://www.software4students.co.uk for
Microsoft products.
To see the full list of available software,
visit the store, click on ‘Product
will allow you to assess your own training
needs and provide links to the relevant
online courses, documentation and other
resources.
Watch out for more information in a future
issue.
Catalogue’, then either use the search to
find the software you need or scroll down
to 'The IT Shop' link. Software will be
supplied by post - downloadable software
will be available in the future.
Some software is available from other
sites:
http://www.phoenixs.co.uk/ - other
Microsoft products for staff and Adobe
products
http://edustore.adeptscience.co.uk/ -
EndNote and Reference Manger
http://www.mindgenius.com/ -
MindGenius
Note: if you are buying software for
departmental use, please continue to use
a SIPR or internal order to:
Z. Iqbal c/o The IT Shop
email: theitshop@leeds.ac.uk
Ext: 35360
For more advice on buying hardware and
consumables for University or personal
use, please see the IT Shop webpage -
http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/theitshop
More information
If you have any questions about the elearning
courses please contact the IT
Training Unit, Level 6 EC Stoner Building
Tel: 0113 343 5417
Email: itistraining@leeds.ac.uk

ISS Review
As in every department across the
University, ISS has had to reduce its
costs. The Voluntary Leavers Scheme
(VLS) allowed us to address this and
significant savings were achieved. Most
services continued to run as normal
following VLS, although there were some
changes, such as the closure of the IT
Shop and reductions in the IT Training
Unit. Where possible alternatives have
been provided - for example goods
purchased through the IT Shop are
available through Science Warehouse or
the University's online store (see
‘Software in Store’ opposite) and a wide
range of e-learning has been launched.
ISS is now in a formal review process.
The review is not just about cost savings,
but about making sure that the services
provided by ISS are efficient, effective
and aligned to the needs of the
University. The review will also address
any short term imbalances generated by
VLS. Building on the work carried out in
2009 for the University IT Delivery review
World Cup traffic
Earlier in the year, the University’s
connection to the regional network
(YHMAN) and onto the internet was
upgraded from 1 Gbps (Gigabits per
second) to 2 Gbps
The decision to upgrade the YHMAN
connection to 2 Gbps was taken to
improve services across the University,
but it was needed a lot sooner than
expected. During the England vs.
Updated IT induction
The new Student IT induction can be accessed from http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/inductions
The online student IT induction has been
completely updated for the start of the
new session.
Students will hopefully find the new ‘look
and feel’ much easier to navigate, and
the information more accessible.
The induction helps students find out
about the IT services available, to ensure
that they make the best use of them
while they are at Leeds. It also covers the
basics of IT so all students, whatever
their background, are able to log on, print
and access the Student Portal and the
VLE. Because it's online, it's available all
year round and can be accessed by any
student, in any department, at any time.
There is also a similar online induction for
University staff (also available at
http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/inductions), which
(UITD) to identify ISS services, the
review will allow us to consult with our
users (people who use our services) and
customers (people who directly pay for
our services) more widely. Inevitably the
scale of cost pressures will require a
change in some services, but the review
will help us make sure that we can
prioritise those areas most closely
aligned to the student experience and
academic need.
Slovenia World Cup game, network traffic
coming into the University peaked at 1.2
Gbps as students and staff watched the
match online.
This level of traffic is exceptional
considering normal use during the
summer break is around 350 Mbps but
the service proved faultless, which is
more than can be said of our national
team!
includes information on Corporate and
Academic services. Printable text-only
versions (PDF) are also available.

News in brief
University Cabling
Standards
A new revision of the University IT
Cabling Standards has been issued, with
many changes since the last version was
issued in 2007.
http://iss.leeds.ac.uk/itcablingstandard
High Performance
Computing facility
The new HPC facility is now complete
and in full service. The system consists of
1,952 processor cores and 3.3 TeraBytes
of memory. Following a successful
funding bid by the School of
Mathematics, the system will be further
extended later in the year.
Windows 7
Jane Lord and Phil Worsley have set up
a Windows 7 Steering Group. This will
oversee a programme of projects which
will eventually include the roll out of
Windows 7 to PCs on Campus. An initial
project is looking at the creation of a
maintained Windows 7 64bit image for
use on staff PCs and will test Windows 7
compatibility with corporate systems.
And finally...
Virtual friends
How many friends do you have
on Facebook? Do you accept
every request, from friends of
friends, people you haven’t seen
since primary school or even total
strangers, or quietly ignore most
of them?
New Scientist takes a look at the
research around how we interact
with these friends and
acquaintances.
http://tinyurl.com/2v54576
Office 2007
Tips and Tricks
Tips for Outlook calendar
Adding public holidays
You can quickly add all public holidays to
your Outlook calendar by selecting
Options from the Tools menu, then
choosing Calendar Options. Click on
Add Holidays, choose UK, click on OK,
and all public holidays will be imported
into your calendar. They will appear as all
day events and shown as ‘free’ time.
Jump to a specific date
To jump to particular date, just press
Ctrl+g, select the date and click OK.
Display several days at once
You can display your calendar a day,
week or month at a time by clicking the
buttons along the top of the calendar. But
you can also display any number of days
at once: in the Date Picker panel, just
hold you left mouse button down and
drag your mouse to select the dates you
want to display. In the example below, 10
days have been selected from the Date
Picker on the left, and displayed in the
main pane on the right.
Gesture-based computing
The 2010 Horizon report
(http://tinyurl.com/yasr4mq)
suggested that gesture-based
computing was one of the
technologies to watch for the long
term. Game companies are already
making use of it (think of the Wii).
Find out about some of the latest
developments here:
http://tinyurl.com/2dua49m
Contact us
ISS Help Desk
Level 10, Edward Boyle Library
Tel: 33333 (int)
0113 343 3333 (ext)
Email: helpdesk@leeds.ac.uk
URL: iss.leeds.ac.uk
IT/IS Training
Level 6, EC Stoner Building
Tel: 35417 (int)
0113 343 5417 (ext)
Email: itistraining@leeds.ac.uk
URL: iss.leeds.ac.uk/training