2019 Holiday Gift Ideas

It's that time of year again! Bells are ringing, snow is falling, and wish-lists are filling up. Still not sure what you want for the holidays? We've got you covered. We asked a our employees around the office what they wanted this year, and this is what we came up with:

Laptops

Macbook Pro - 16"

• 16" Retina display
• 3072x1920 resolution
• Largest Retina notebook display ever
• New Magic Keyboard for comfortable & quiet typing
• Refined scissor mechanism - 1mm of key travel
• Touch bar & touch ID
• 512GB of storage

Surface Laptop 3

• 13.5" & 15" touchscreen options
• Up to 11.5 hours battery life
• Fast charging - up to 80% in about an hour
• Windows Hello password-free sign in
• Biometric facial recognition

Phones

iPhone 11 Pro Max

• 6.5" Super Retina XDR display
• Triple 12MP Ultra Wide, Wide, & Telephoto cameras
• Night Mode
• 4K video recording
• 4m water resistant

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 plus

• 6.8" display
• Up to 512GB internal storage
• Super fast charging
• 30 min charge = all day power
• S-Pen stylus 
• Take pictures remotely
• Convert handwriting to text

Watches

Apple Watch - Series 5 - Sam

• Always-On Retina display
• Time & watch face always visible
• Customizable
• Aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, ceramic bands & cases
• Built-in compass & international emergency calling

Galaxy Active 2

• 40mm & 44mm versions
• 2 day battery life
• Wireless charging
• 50m water resistant

Fitbit Versa

• 6+ day battery life
• Built-in Amazon Alexa
• 24/7 fitness & heart rate tracking

Headphones

Airpods Pro

• Active noise cancellation
• Outward-facing mic detects external sound
• Airpods cancel out external noise with anti-noise
• Comfortable in-ear silicone tips
• 3 sizes for best fit
• 4.5 hours battery life on one charge
• Sweat & Water resistant 

Sony WF-1000XM3

• Digital noise cancellation
• HD noise-cancelling processor
• 6 hours of battery life on one charge
• 10 minute quick-charge offers up to 1.5 hours of play time
• Built-in Google assistant
• Touch-free activation

Beats PowerBeats Pro

• Secure-fit earhooks
• Up to 9 hours battery life on one charge
• 5 minute quick-charge offers up to 1.5 hours of play time
• Sweat & water resistant
• Auto Play automatically plays & pauses music when you remove earphone

Gaming Consoles

PS4 Pro

• 4K-TV gaming

• Boost mode can increase image clarity & faster frame rates
• HDR technology
• When paired with an HDR TV, games appear more vibrant

Xbox OneX

• True 4K gaming
• 40% more power than any other console
• HDR technology
• Faster load times
• 326 GB/sec memory keeps games fast and fresh

Switch Lite

• Handheld gaming availability
• Take games on the go
• New colors
• Yellow, gray, & turquoise 
• Album feature
• Take screenshots, add text, etc. all on the device

Phones, watches, consoles, and more! This year brought tons of exciting new products perfect for students. Whether it's for learning or playing, we want to know, what's on your wish-list?

Tyler Parker
Social Media & Marketing Student Assistant

Web & Digital Strategies

Google Keep - Note Taking

How nice would it be if we were offered a service that would help take notes? How awesome would it be if that service was linked to an email account that has unlimited cloud storage? Well, folks, that time is here. Be sure to download Google Keep, or use it in your browser, to help organize your academic life! Google Keep allows you to create specific labels to help you organize, allows you to add handwritten notes (with supported accessories), add images to notes, share your notes with others, record audio for your note, and more. All of these notes and their attachments are stored in your Google Drive, which has unlimited cloud storage due to us being in higher education!

Be sure to utilize these amazing features that Google gives Emporia State University students. Follow this link to learn more about Google Keep.

Sam Derksen
Web Developer
Web and Digital Strategies

Protect The Nest: Cyber Security Ambassadors

ESU IT needs your help promoting safe practices on the web!

We are launching a new program called Cyber Security Ambassadors. ESU students and employees will have the opportunity to gain valuable experiences and knowledge of cyber security threats, and how they can help protect their department.

Did You Know? A study at the University of Maryland concluded that on average, there are hacker attacks on computers with Internet access every 39 seconds - affecting one in three Americans every year.

Cyber Security Ambassadors will learn cyber-safe practices, tips and techniques that relate directly to their field of study. They will be empowered to take lessons learned and share their knowledge with others to promote safe IT practices at ESU and abroad.

Ambassadors will receive a FREE T-shirt, ESU koozie, cup and will be eligible for more swag throughout their participation. Ambassadors that complete presentations and participate actively in the program will also be eligible to receive a letter of participation detailing areas of technical competency signed by the Information Security Officer.

Program orientation and welcome session will begin shortly after Spring Semester begins. At the orientation Ambassadors will be given an overview of the program and ways they can engage with their fellow classmates and other peers. During this time members of the Information Security office will take suggestions and comments about topics that the Ambassadors would like further information on.

Interested in becoming a Cyber Security Ambassador?
Click here to fill out the application and PROTECT THE NEST.

Email ITSecurity@emporia.edu with any questions or concerns you might have.

Tyler Parker

Social Media & Marketing Student Assistant
Web & Digital Strategies

Microsoft Excel Tips & Tricks

Microsoft Office: Excel is an extensive program that can be incredibly helpful when working with tables, spreadsheets, and graphs. It can be a difficult program to learn, as its' functions and capabilities are so vast that new users can quickly become overwhelmed. Here are a few tips and tricks we use in the IT department that can hopefully make life easier for you.

Input The Same Data Into Multiple Cells

If you ever need to input the same thing into more cells than one, there's a simple solution to do it all at once; that way you don't waste time retyping the same thing over and over.

Hold Ctrl while you click on all the desired cells and then type your information into the last selected cell.

After typing your information, hit Ctrl+Enter to automatically place the same information into all selected cells.

Wrap Your Text To Fit The Cell

Have you ever tried to type something in Excel, and for some reason it wants to extend past the cell? There's a simple fix to that as well: Wrapping your text.

Click the cell you wish to use, and type your information into it as normal.

After that's done, click Wrap Text at the top of your screen to fit your text into the cell. (Hint: You may have to adjust the size of the cell to fit lengthy words by dragging the edge to the right.)

Autofill Your Cells

Sometimes you'll find yourself inputting repetitive data such as names, dates, or other numerical information. Excel can detect patterns and fill in the rest of your column, granted the pattern is correct.

After typing in 2-3 cells of your column, Excel should be able to take it from there. Move your cursor over the bottom right corner of the selected cell and it should turn into a black "+"

Click and drag down the desired amount of cells, and Excel will autofill the rest of the cells with data that fits the pattern detected.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Similar to our Microsoft Word blog post, Microsoft Excel has a plethora of keyboard shortcuts that can save you time and effort when using the program. Here's a few that we find useful in our day-to-day excel tasks.

Tyler Parker
Social Media & Marketing Student Assistant
Web & Digital Strategies

Microsoft Office Keyboard Shortcuts

Microsoft Office is a great tool for typing your papers, resume, or even just taking notes. At the surface, the program can seem simple to use; but there are a lot of hidden features you might not know about.

Here's a quick tip: Be sure to save all your precious files on your ESU OneDrive, to have convenient access to your files from any device.

These are the most convenient keyboard shortcuts that can save you valuable time.

Document Shortcuts

• Ctrl+N: Create a new document
• Ctrl+O: Open an existing document
• Ctrl+S: Save the document
• Ctrl+W: Close the document

Action Shortcuts

• Ctrl+Z: Undo previous action
• Ctrl+Y: Redo previous action
• Ctrl+C: Copy text/graphic to clipboard
• Ctrl+V: Paste text/graphic from clipboard

Movement Shortcuts

• Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow: Move one word to the left/right
• Ctrl+Up/Down Arrow: Move up or down one paragraph
• End: Move to the end of the current line
• Ctrl+End: Move to the end of the document
• Home: Move to the beginning of the current line
• Ctrl+Home: Move to the beginning of the document

Formatting Shortcuts

• Ctrl+B: Bold formatting
• Ctrl+I: Italic formatting
• Ctrl+U: Underline formatting
• Ctrl+Shift+D: Double underline formatting
• Ctrl+Shift+W: Underline formatting to words only (No spaces)
• Ctrl+[ or ]: Increase/decrease font size

View Shortcuts

• Ctrl+Alt+S: Add/Remove split window view
• Ctrl+Alt+O: Outline view
• Ctrl+Alt+V: Print layout view
• Ctrl+Alt+N: Draft view
• Ctrl+F2: Print preview view

These shortcuts can be incredibly helpful when typing up those last-minute papers that you forgot about. We all know how valuable every minute is when that 11:59 pm due date is coming up fast. Hopefully this article can save you from wasting your time, and maybe even save your grade.


Tyler Parker
Social Media & Marketing Student Assistant
Web & Digital Strategies

myIT Tip of the Week

Using Adobe Acrobat for Scanning

Did you know that you can use Adobe Acrobat with your scanner? You can bypass using the scanner software and go straight to the Acrobat app. Click on Tools, and open Enhance Scans. 

Click Scan a Document and then click the Start Scan button. Choose your scanner name from the drop-down. Scan using the default settings or choose your scan options. Place your paper on the scanner, then press the blue scan button and save your PDF scan.