Roaming Computing System (Windows Edition) 3.5
User Guide

1.0 Desktop Applications

Each workstation is equipped with a full suite of software applications that should cater to all your needs working with information and communicating. The same base suite of software is installed on each. Before considering having anything installed you should first consider whether you already have capable software already installed. Some workstations may have additional proprietary software that is particular to the organisation.

OpenOffice

Similar to Microsoft Office.

Extensions

You can install extensions into your OpenOffice profile. They're available from extensions.services.openoffice.org. Instructions are available at extensions.services.openoffice.org/resources/user/howto_install.

OpenOffice includes a web editor but you shouldn't use it, use KompoZer instead.

File Formats

Documents are by definition saved in a particular file format. OpenOffice's own file format is OpenDocument format (ODF). This format is thus the best to save OpenOffice files in, as the format best mirrors the capabilities of the program. This is why OpenOffice defaults to saving in OpenDocument format. Variations of ODF cater to the different OpenOffice programs, for example the word processor will save in 'ODF text document', which has a filename extension of .ODT.The Microsoft Office programs, on the other hand, are best suited to saving in their own formats. Microsoft Word's format is most commonly known just by its extension, prior to version 2007 that was .DOC format, nowadays that is Office Open XML format with a .docx extension.

OpenOffice can save and convert to Microsoft Office file formats but the process isn't 100% accurate.

If you save in ODF format, when sending files out of the building to others you need to be aware of a couple of things. If you don't expect others to edit the file then the best format for text is a PDF; if you expect others to edit your file then either they will be able to read it as they too are using OpenOffice, or they're running Microsoft Office and so you should save a copy of the file in Microsoft Office format and send that to them; if you want them to be able to edit the file and you don't know what software they have then the best option is to send a text file in either Microsoft Word format (.doc or .rtf). (Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 will read OpenDocument format files, but only version 1, not the version 2 that your OpenOffice saves in by default).

You can set OpenOffice to save by default in whichever format you choose but you're advised to save in ODF. Depending on your organisation, a default file format will have been chosen and OpenOffice pre-configured to use that as its default but you can change it to suit yourself. To change it use Tools → Options → Load/Save → General → Default file format →

OpenOffice has a plugin installed so it can open document's in Microsoft Office Open XML format (with the .docx extension). The design of this plugin is such that .docx files can only be opened and converted for OpenOffice by clicking on them from within Windows Explorer / My Documents.

Further Reading

OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas - blogging by Solveig Haugland, author of the OpenOffice.org Guidebook and owner of GetOpenOffice.org. Tips for using, transitioning, and more.

Firefox

Firefox is a web browser but also the program in which you use those programs that have a 'web' interface. Includes Flash Player and Java Runtime Environment add-ons.

Internet Explorer is installed but you are strongly discouraged from using it, using the web with Firefox is much safer. Internet Explorerby default is locked down to minimise the security vulnerabilities and it doesn't have Flash Player installed, though it does have the Java Runtime Environment.

Issues With Self-Signed Certificates

If you go to an encrypted web page (it uses https) and Firefox won't display the site, saying "Secure Connection Failed" "<web site domain name> uses an invalid security certificate.", with version 3 of Firefox the browser has a more secure, aggressive, setting with respect to web sites utilising security certificates they've signed themselves or are misusing, rather than getting a recognised authority to sign it. Firefox will warn you that the certificate isn't trusted. First make sure you've not tried the page without the 'www' when their certificate is set to only work with the 'www'. If that isn;t the case then to choose to trust the site in order to allow the web site to be used, choose: Or you can add an exception… → Add Exception... → Get Certificate → Confirm Security Exception.

Add-ons

You already have some add-ons installed and can install others into your personal Firefox profile. See addons.mozilla.org.

Note

Plugins

If you try to play a media type for which there isn't a plugin installed in your system by the administrator, Firefox may offer to install a plugin to handle the media type. You can install such plugins but beware that because of their size they will slow down your Windows login time. Discuss instead with your administrator about getting them installed into the system in general.

Thunderbird

Includes Lightning, Enigmail, Mail Redirect and UK spellcheck dictionary.

Similar to Microsoft Outlook.

Miscellaneous Tips

Add Mailboxes

Your system administrator can create new mailboxes for you. To see them in Thunderbird follow Connecting Thunderbird to your mailbox(es)(OpenDocument format).

Out of office reply

You don't setup an Out of office reply in your Thunderbird, it's done on the server by the administrator. Note that an out of office reply invites SPAM, as you'll reply to each SPAM message that you receive, thus confirming your email address to the spammer, who then responds with more SPAM.

Signature

You can create signatures in one of two ways:

You can use the old kind of signature feature to attach a message to the bottom of every email, such as a disclaimer for your organisation. Your administrator can put this common message on S: for you to link to from Thunderbird's signature feature. Write your message in plain text format as Thunderbird is set to send out all mail in plain text format.

Compose Email In HTML Format Not Plain Text

Thunderbird has been configured to compose email in plain text, not in HTML (which is a rich text format).

If you really want to compose messages in HTML you can set this using Tools → Account settings → Composition → Send in HTML format. You'll then have a rich text toolbar when composing messages and be able to paste in rich text.

Add-ons

You already have some add-ons installed and can install others into your personal Thunderbird profile. See addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/. Note that with those you install yourself there's no guarantee they will be compatible with upgraded versions of Thunderbird that may be installed without notice (those installed in advance for you will be compatible). Note that some add-ons or excessive amounts of add-ons may make Thunderbird unstable and/or slower.

Reply On Top Of Previous Message Instead Of Bottom

The standard for email is to reply at the bottom of the previously quoted text (see bottom posting guidelines). However many people are used to the non-standard method of Microsoft Outlook of replying at the top (top posting). If you want to change Thunderbird to reply at the top use Tools → Options → Advanced → General → Config Editor - enter mail.identity.default.reply_on_top and set it to 1.

Adding POP3 mailboxes

If you add a POP3 account into Thunderbird, move it from Local Folders (which is within the Windows user profile) to H:\mail\local folders or something like that.

Opening Attachments

If you open an attachment from within Thunderbird and then save it from within the program it opens in, it will save it in your 'temporary directory' (D:\<your username>\windows). Instead, either save the attachment first from within Thunderbird, and then open it from there; or, open it from within thunderbird but choose 'Save As' rather than 'Save', and save it in My Documents or your shared network drive.

Message Filters Not Saved

When you create message filters (Tools → Message Filters...) you may find they're not saved. If this is happening, in order to have them save, once you've added any message filters close the message filter dialog; open the message filter dialog again; close the message filter dialog again. If this doesn't fix this issue then contact your administrator because there are other possible reasons for this it.

Lightning

Sync with Google Calendar

To sync back and forth with a Google calendar, traditionally you've needed to install Provider for Google Calendar. As of 2009 Google provide a calendar in iCal format that may allow you to sync back and forth without any additional software.

Issues

Bug 356002 - Cannot dismiss/snooze alarms from read-only calendar

GIMP

(Raster) image editor. similar to Adobe Photoshop.

Foxit Reader

PDF reader. Similar to Adobe Reader.

Picasa

Photo viewer and editor. Gives you very easy to use tools for dealing with photos in particular. If you want a more general editor see IrfanView.

IrfanView

Image viewer and editor. Fast and has all the tools you're most likely to need unless you want much more involved image creation and editing, in which case you'd reach for the much more involved tool The GIMP.

Rotating and cropping JPG files without losing quality

A JPG file / photo isn't a complete representation of an image, it's compressed, like a zip file. Some of the information in the image isn't recorded in the file, instead it's calculated / guessed at when you open the image. This is in order to make the file smaller. A JPG image file might be 3MB on disk but take up say 20MB of memory when it's viewed. Each time you re-save a JPG file, perhaps after editing it, it's re-compressed and the resulting image is slightly different. This is known as 'lossy'. The image degrades with each subsequent change and save.

If you want the image to remain the same each time it's changed and saved, you generally need to save it in a non-compressed image format, such as TIF. Or, for certain operations, some image editing programs offer specific 'lossless' means of changing JPG files. These lossless methods are only for rotating, cropping and flipping the image and may need to be selected using a different method to usual.

Picasa's rotate feature is lossless, though its cropping feature is not.

In Irfanview you have to choose 'Options' then 'JPG Lossless Rotation... (Plugin)' or 'JPG Lossless Crop... (Plugin)'

KompoZer

Web editor. Similar to Nvu, Microsoft FrontPage.

Scribus

Layout / desktop publishing. Similar to Adobe InDesign.

For help using Scribus, see 'Why Page Layout is different from Word Processing', the 'HOWTOs', 'FAQs' and 'Tips and Tricks' at the Scribus wiki and 'Get Started with Scribus'.

If you want to use Scribus with any seriousness it's likely none of the default installed fonts are of high enough quality. See 'Where can I get good fonts?'.

There's a list of feature requests and bugs for upcoming versions of Scribus.

Inkscape

Vector graphics editor. Similar to Adobe ?, Adobe Acrobat (a little).

Inkscape - Guide to a Vector Drawing Program by Tavmjong Bah

Pidgin

Instant messenger. Works with most instant messenger accounts you might have, such as GMail, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, etcetera). Try to use 'Jabber (XMPP)' if you're setting up a new account. Similar to AOL Instant Messenger / AIM, Google ?, ICQ, Yahoo ?, MSN Messenger.

Windows Media Player

Sound and video player.

Notepad++

Plain text editor. Similar to Microsoft Windows Notepad, UltraEdit, NoteTab.

F-Prot Anti Virus

Anti-virus. Note that it isn't also anti-spyware.

InfraRecorder

CD and DVD writing. Run it using Start → Programs → Accessories, or if you want you can create a Desktop or QuickLaunch shortcut for it.

7-Zip

Zip and unzip. You'll probably find it easiest to use from the context menu, right-clicking on a zip file to unzip it, or on other file(s) to zip them.

FileZilla - FTP

Run it using Start → Programs → Internet, or if you want you can create a Desktop or QuickLaunch shortcut for it.

Eraser

Securely erase files. use it from the context menu by right-clicking on a file or dictionary and choosing 'secure erase'(?)

2.0 Drives

H:

Home directory. Only you can access files saved here.

S:

Shared drive. Accessable by all staff. Some people who aren't staff won't be able to access S:.

R:

Restricted drive. Restricted to specific groups of people. Everyone will see R: and be able to click on it, and in there will be, for example, R:\finance, where only members of the group 'finance' are allowed into R:\finance. The administrator can add new folders here and groups to access them.

T:

For hosting file-level databases. Not all organisations will have T:.

3.0 Windows

Save your work in My Documents or on a shared drive such as S:. C:, D:, and E: are there but they're not there for you to use, and they're hidden. C: is for Windows and programs; D: is for temporary files; E: is for you to save to only in exceptional circumstances when you haven't got access to the server or you're using very large files with Adobe products and the like which don't perform well when used from the server.

Don't Save Files On The Desktop

Don't save files on your desktop, save shortcuts on the desktop instead. Files should be saved on H: (My Documents), S:, R: etcetera. When you login, all the files on your desktop have to be copied from the server, across the network, to your workstation. When you logout, they're copied back again. This all takes time to wait around for. When files are saved on H:, S: or R: etcetera, there are no such issues as the files remain in place on the server.

Also, because those files on the desktop are left forever on the workstation (unless an administrator deletes them), if a number of people each have lots of files on their desktops, and each at some point login to the same workstation, that workstation's C: drive can potentially become clogged up, making Windows run slower and eventually programs fail to run.

The Recycle Bin

When files are deleted from the server they are not sent to the recycle bin, this is the way Windows works. We hide the recycle bin so as not to give the false sense of security that a recycle bin is available. So, in most circumstances, when you delete files, they're gone.

However, if the file existed yesterday then it should have been automatically backed up overnight and can be restored.

Also, files deleted from the workstation are sent to the (hidden) recylce bin. Not many of the files you'll be working with will reside on the workstation, but in the event they were you can access the hidden recycle bin using the following:

Using E: when using a laptop away from the system or when server unavailable

If you're using a laptop away from the system, or a workstation when there is no access to the server for some reason, you can save files to E:\files.

E: is hidden. You can get there in Windows Explorer by typing e:[Return] into the location bar. You can get there in file open and save dialogs by entering, where you usually put the filename, e:[Return].