The printer says paper jam, what do I do?
When removing paper from any printer, make sure that the entire piece of paper is removed, leaving small pieces could cause jams and problems that are not easily fixable.
HP 4000 series - open the printer and remove the toner cartridge, remove any paper visible, also, check the duplexing unit in the back of the printer, this is another place paper tends to get stuck. (check both back and bottom of the duplexing unit for paper jams)
HP 4SI/MX - remove the paper tray, and fan the paper, or flip the stack over, on humid days, the rollers have a hard time picking up single pieces of paper. Also, open the printer, remove the toner cartridge and check for any loose pieces of paper.
I printed my document but nothing came out. Where is it?
The first thing to check: is the printer is online?, on apples, there is a green light that should be blinking, if unsure, you can power down the printer and turn it back on again. On the hp printers, check that the display says Ready or powersave mode. If it says offline, press the Go button.
If the printer icon is displayed in your system tray (by the time) double click it, a window will appear. If your document is listed there check its status. Click the word printer in the file bar and make sure that both "use printer offline" and "pause printing" do NOT have check marks beside them. If the status says printing, give it some time, heavy network traffic can cause printing delays. If the document does not print after a few minutes, check the printer itself for errors such as "low toner" or "lc loadletter".
If the printer icon is not displayed, in the printer settings folder (StartMenu > Settings > Printers ) make sure that the proper printer is set as the default (little black check mark). Right click on the printer and make sure that there is no check mark next to "use printer offline". If these two settings are fine, double click the printer icon, a small window will appear. If your document is still waiting to be printed it will be listed here. If the document is not listed here try to print it again. If this attempt fails, contact systems.
Many printers give this warning well in advanced and will continue to print for a while. Remove the toner cartridge and tip it upside down a few times to redistribute the toner and replace it in the printer. If the 'toner low' message goes away, you can continue to print.
If the message remains or the printer will no longer print, a new toner cartridge is required. Contact the supplies person in your department to order a new cartridge from Facilities.
There was a 'problem communicating with the printer'
This message indicates a network error. Ensure that you are properly logged onto the computer. (click StartMenu, above shut-down it should say logoff username. if it just says logoff, you're not connected to the network). Check and make sure that the printer is on and that the printer is online. On the hp's it says Ready. (if it says offline, press the go button)
Printing PowerPoint documents at public workstations
My mouse doesn't work, what do I do?
Check to make sure the mouse is plugged in. Occasionally, the shuffling of books/papers can pull on the cord and cause the mouse to come loose. If the mouse appears to be plugged in properly, try a full shutdown of the computer. As the system resources are lowered, certain hardware can be 'forgotten' by the system. A full shutdown will usually cure this. (Its also a good idea to check for kinks or sharp creases in the mouse cable. This could be a sign that some of the wires were severed, and systems needs to be called.)
The mouse seems slow to respond, the cursor's movement seems jerky.
This is a sign that the system is low on resources. Opening several applications at once, or opening and closing the same program several times can result in this behavior. Rebooting the machine will often solve this problem. If the problem continues, the mouse could need cleaning/servicing.
The font on my computer is too large or small.
If everything appears too small (including icons and buttons), then the computers resolution has been set too high. If everything appears too large, the resolution is too low. To resolve this, right click on an empty area of the desktop and choose properties from the dropdown menu that appears. A window should appear allowing you to change the wallpaper/background. At the top of this window, click on the settings tab on the far right. There is a slider bar about 2/3 of the way down the window on the right, moving to the right will decrease the size of fonts/icons, moving it to the left will increase these.
If the icons are fine but the font is too small/large, we can change the system's font setting. Follow the steps above, but instead of moving the slider bar, click on the 'Advanced.' button. Near the top right of this window, it says 'Display:' and below this is a pull down menu. If set on small fonts, it can be changed to large, and vice versa. If you wish to change the font size, but it is already at the proper setting here, use the steps above to change the resolution settings. (Note: after changing font size, a restart of the workstation will be required)How do I change the colour/appearance of my desktop?
No sound is coming out of my speakers
How do I change the default font / colour of my emails?
Open Microsoft Word. Under the E-Mail options (Tools > Options > General 'Email Options..' button at the bottom). Click the 'Personal Stationary' tab. Clicking the 'Font..' button, you can change the default for new mail, or for replies and forwards. (Note: these settings will only take effect if email is sent html)
How do I change my Outlook send mail format?
To do this, open Outlook and click Tools > Options. In the screen that opens, click the middle tab, 'Mail Format'. Simply change "Send mail in this format:" from the drop down list. Plain text or Html recommended. (warning: certain older mail clients cannot view html properly and will display the email as plain text including all tags like <html> <a href="loc.html"> etc)
How do I set up a news account in Outlook?
In Outlook2000, a separate application is used to view newsgroups. View > Goto >News. If no previous newsgroups are setup, the wizard will step you through the process. If not, click the 'Setup new Account' link Enter the name you wish others to see when/if you post to the group. The next screen will prompt you for an email address, this does not need to be the same server account as the newsgroup (ie. you CAN use hotmail, msnmail, etc). The following screen will prompt you for a News(NNTP) server. All UWdir accounts can subscribe to news.uwaterloo.ca (enter this). If just reading the groups, click next and finish. If you wish to post, check the box that says your server requires you to log in. Click next and enter your information (similar to email setup). Click next and finish. You will now be prompted "Would you like to download newsgroups from the account you just added?" Click yes and a list of all available newsgroups will appear. Scroll through the list, select and click subscribe to those you wish to view. when finished click ok.
How do I set up my email signatures?
The only trick to this is that you must be in Word. Tools>Options ...General Tab, 'Email Options...' button - bottom right. This process brings up a window in which you can set up your signature(s). Since you are able to set up multiple signatures, you must assign each one (think of it as a little file) a unique name, allowing you to switch between them. This is what the uppermost text box is for - entering the name of the signature you wish to create/edit. The second text box displays a list of all signatures currently available (blank if you're doing this for the first time). The bottom text box is where your actual signature goes. There are many formats people follow, but the usual is:
NameEvery time you create a new signature, you will be asked if you want this to be your default signature. Choose yes or no, click ok until you're back to word. Now when you start a new email in outlook, your default signature will be there. To change between signatures, right click on the signature, and select the name of a different one from the pop up list, or choose 'email options...' to edit your signatures.
Select the mail you wish to filter, and click the Organize button. (or Tools > Organize). A small window will appear above your inbox, where you can choose to filter by Colour (the messages are the selected colour when they appear in your inbox). or by Folders (the messages are redirected to specified folders).
When you are in the organize window, the email you have highlighted will be the default for filtering, but you can change this with pull down menus to filter by CC: To: From: etc... and enter any address you wish. You can also turn on your junk-mail filters which will help reduce the amounts of spam you receive.
Certain shared folders or network drives aren't accessible.
Its possible that you aren't connected to the network, open up network neighborhood. If you don't see a list of computers (Papyrus, Library, Libcdrw,etc) then try rebooting, and logging back in. If that doesn't solve the issue, check and see if it is a problem local to that workstation, or if it is happening elsewhere. Contact systems.
I Can't send or receive email.
Are you connected to the network? (can you access Network Neighborhood? or login to pine?) If not, see above.
If connected, when you send/receive in outlook, check the bottom right of the screen, it should say mail delivery complete, if there was an error, it will be a small yellow warning, double click this to show the error. If it was a password/sign in error, check Tools>Accounts choose Properties of your mail setup and ensure that your user name and password are correct. See Setting up an email/news account for more details.
Can't access a web page or online document.
Check your connection to the internet, can you access other pages? If not check access to the network (network neighborhood). Logoff your computer and re-login Check the spelling and the location of . / etc. also check for a comma instead of a period.
If an error is displayed:
500 - internal server error. This is a problem at the other end, report to systems.
404 - file not found. This means that the document or website no longer exists at that address.
403 - permission denied. You don't have permissions to access this folder, likely designed for viewing on an internal network only.
Can't print to a network printer.
Check your connection to the network by checking network neighborhood. Try rebooting. If you are connected to the network, check the FAQ under printing for more help.
How do I turn on/off automatic spell and grammar checking?
Tools>Options Spelling & Grammar tab. Here you can disable or enable several options, such as check spelling as you type, give suggestions, etc.
How do I change the default font?
Instead of changing the font every time you create a new document, you can change the default style / size. In a document click Format > Font... In this screen select the font settings you would like to use and then click on the button Default... on the bottom left. The font you're currently working with will be the one show in the font change screen, if you'd like to use the this one, simply press 'Default..'. Answer Yes, press ok, and continue working.
If you have a picture in an email or on a web page you'd like to add to your document, simply click and drag it into word. Other wise you can click Insert>Picture> here you can choose word's own clipart(limited), or 'From file..' to choose a picture you have saved locally, or an image online.
How can I send a document as an email?
There are several ways of doing this, if you wish to send your document as the body of an email, simply click the email button in word. (between the save and print buttons). If you want to send it as an attachment, you can click File>Send To>Mail Recipient (As attachment)...
How do I change the default folder for opening files in Excel and Word?
If the "Look-in" folder that appears when you open a file in Excel or Word is not the folder you normally work in, you can change the default setting by doing the following:
Excel
Word
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