Don't Miss A Post!

Don't Miss A Post!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Creating Email Signatures

One popular topic in our district these days (or will be soon!) is how to create email signatures. I've created a couple of {short} videos to walk you through these simple steps.

Creating an Email Signature in Outlook 2010

Creating an Email Signature in the Outlook Web App
If you access your email by logging in at live.com or by using the link on the Employees page of the district website, you are using the Outlook Web App. This video is for you:

Monday, September 10, 2012

Setting up Outlook 2010 on your Computer at School

This is a repost of information from August 2011.

You can always go to live.com or outlook.com to access your school email, but Outlook 2010 (Client email program) is a more efficient way of accessing your email, calendars, tasks, and more. Setup is quick and easy!

  1. Open Outlook 2010 (Go to Start > Programs > Office 2010 > Outlook 2010) 
  2. Click Next
  3. On the window that asks “Would you like to configure an Email account?  Select Yes and then Next
  4. Enter your account information for your Live Email.
    1. Make sure that you enter your complete email address. 
    2. Click Next 
  5. You will see Outlook process your account information, this should go pretty quickly. 
  6. If you see a window prompting you for your password, enter your Windows Live sign-in information.
    1. You will probably want to click for it to “Remember my password” but if you do this, just make sure you are on your personal or teacher dedicated computer, and that if you step away from your computer you lock it (Ctrl + Alt + Delete, Lock this Computer). 
  7. Next you should see a window that says “Your email account is successfully configured."  Click Finish. 
  8. When you are prompted with “Would you like to add a Hotmail Account?” Select No.
  9. Select to “Use Recommended Settings” and click OK.
View Full PDF

If you have any problems setting up Outlook 2010 on your teacher computer, please contact your CTI or IT.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Making Images with Pixlr & Gimp

Images can be fun and easy to create, but it's all about the software and knowing the right steps to take. Two of the best free programs that I have found our Pixlr.com and Gimp. There are advantages to each.

Pixlr.com is a web-based program which means there's nothing to download. It allows to you to have various layers and supply different styles (ie drop-shadow, glow). You can open PSD files in Pixlr and it maintains the layers, including text layers, however you lose the ability to edit the text. This means if you need to add or change text you must add it yourself. The following video highlights the aforementioned items.


Pixlr Tutorial: How to Make a Banner (using layers, style options, and free transform)

Gimp is a very powerful program. It has very similar capabilities to Photoshop with one major difference, it's free. This open-source software has many tools and features (more than Pixlr). The following video does a good job of helping someone get started in Gimp. It's kind of long (10:57) but it explain layers, adding a background, adding text and applying effects, and saving files in Gimp.


GIMP Basics - Introduction + Beginner tutorial example

There are many other tutorial videos available on both of the pieces of software. So if you start using them and think "I wonder if I could.." do some searches and check them out.

EM-S ISD Webmasters this video is for you! Edit PSD in Pixlr