[O365] Working With File Attachments

One of the new features of Office 365 is the way file attachments are handled when you make use of your included OneDrive cloud storage or when someone that has OneDrive shares a file with you. When composing a new message, and you click Attach, you’ll see something similar to what is shown below, with your OneDrive files as the first option. If you select a file on your computer, it will offer to upload it to OneDrive for you in the next step. Once you select a file you will asked the following: If you choose Attach as a OneDrive file, the recipient will receive a link to the file with a notification that you shared it. This is extremely handy as most email providers have an email size limit. Selecting Attach as a copy will result in a traditional file attachment where the file is included with the email itself, but may be subject to attachment size limits. While the first option is more flexible in terms of storage space and not being rejected due to a size limitation, not everyone is accustomed to attaching files via cloud storage, so your recipient may be confused or suspicious of your file’s link. Be prepared to explain in a followup e-mail what it is or be clear in your first email that it is a link to your file. For those on the receiving end, an attachment from OneDrive will look similar to this: As always, make sure that any files you receive are from someone you know and something that you may be expecting.

[UPDATE] “I can’t find my e-mail.”

On Wednesday we published a post about things that might cause your e-mail to go “missing”.  Here’s another one: 5) Forwarding.  In Office 365 is it possible to have all of your incoming mail forwarded to another address.  When this setting is active, all incoming mail is redirected to that address and does not “land” in your InBox.  This setting can be found by clicking on the Settings gear in the upper right corner of the Outlook (web) window, clicking on “Mail” at the bottom of the menu, and then clicking on “Forwarding” in the menu on the left side of the Outlook window. If you inspect the Forwarding setting and discover that 1) it is active and 2) is sending to an address you do not recognize, then it is safe to assume that someone else has your Campus Computer Account password.  Go to account.potsdam.edu and change your password immediately. If you need assistance with checking your Forwarding (or any other) settings or with changing your password, stop by the CTS Helpdesk in Stillman Hall or e-mail helpdesk@potsdam.edu.

[REMINDER] SMRT Shutting Down October 1, 2016

The office of Business Affairs has asked us to remind the campus that SUNY System Administration is shutting down account views in the SMRT system on October 1, 2016.  If you have access to view an account in SMRT and have not yet been trained in Oracle’s Business Intelligence (BI) software, please contact the Budget Office at budget@potsdam.edu to sign up for training.  The Budget Office sent a faculty/staff-wide email on August 22, 2016 regarding its regularly scheduled trainings.  If you are unable to make one of the remaining training sessions, you can still arrange for training with Kevin Hennessey and/or Amanda Prescott.

“I’m not getting my e-mails.”

We have had many reports, some direct, some anecdotal, of people not getting their e-mails in O365.  In almost all cases we have found that mail was being delivered directly to that user’s InBox in O365–but they weren’t finding it.  There are several reasons why that might be: You’re looking in the wrong place.  What has been known as “Bearmail” (and SOGo) stopped receiving any new mail the day you were migrated to Office 365.  All users received a message informing them of this.  If you are still checking there for new mail, you won’t find it.  If any of your devices are still configured to check there, they won’t find it either.  You should be using Microsoft Outlook as your only means of checking for and sending campus e-mail, and should delete all other SUNY Potsdam e-mail accounts from your computers and devices. “Conversations”.  Conversations is a “feature” of Outlook that keeps all messages from an e-mail thread grouped together for easy reference.  We have seen several instances of this feature “glitching”, however.  Most recently, a user’s entire Tuesday was “gone”!  Switching to “Message” view will resolve this.  At the top of your message list in Outlook (web version) you will see the word “All” with a little arrow next to it.  Click on that and a menu pops up.  At the bottom of the menu is a “View As” option.  Switch it from “Conversations” to “Messages”.  Any “missing” messages should reappear.  (You can turn Conversations back on if you find it useful–the messages won’t disappear again.) “Clutter”  Clutter is another “feature” that tries to make assumptions about what is or is not important to you, and it is on by default.  Sort of like “Junk,” it pays attention to how you deal with the messages in your InBox.  Types of messages you deal with quickly will tend to stay in your InBox.  Messages you don’t get to may get relegated to the “Clutter” box, where you might not be looking!  To turn off Clutter, right-click on “Clutter” under your InBox (web version), choose “Clutter Settings”, and UNcheck “Separate items identified as Clutter”. Junk.  No mail sent from anyone on campus (@potsdam.edu) should be flagged as Junk, but it’s possible for any mail from an external address to end up there.  You should check there frequently for “false positives,” especially when someone’s told you they sent you something and […]

[REMINDER] Leave a message

With the new academic year underway, CTS is experiencing an upswing in the number of trouble tickets.  It is especially high given the migration to Office 365.  Please continue submitting your reports and/or questions directly to the CTS Helpdesk, either by sending e-mail to helpdesk@potsdam.edu or by calling 315-267-4444.  We will get back to you as quickly as we can. IMPORTANT: If you are sent to voice mail, leave a message! Do not hang up and call back. Voice mail messages are automatically sent as e-mail to the Helpdesk, and Helpdesk staff retrieve and triage those messages very quickly.

[ANNOUNCE] Moodle Maintenance Window CANCELLED

Dear Campus Community, The Moodle maintenance window scheduled for Friday August 26th to Saturday August 27th has been canceled. Moodle will remain available over the weekend. Please continue to prepare your Fall 2016 courses as you normally would. We continue to work on unresolved issues in the migration process. A final cutover date will be determined and announced at a later date. Thank you, CTS