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Frequently Asked QuestionsGeneral Questions about the KNC
Software Questions
Hardware Questions
General Questions about the KNCQ: What is the Knowledge Navigation Center? The KNC is an instruction facility where University faculty, staff, and students can learn how to use a variety of software (EndNote, PowerPoint, PhotoShop, DreamWeaver, etc.) and hardware (scanners, slide scanners, digital cameras and so on). Q: Can I make an appointment with one of your consultants? Yes. Please call us or stop by the KNC to make an appointment. We'll put you in touch with the person with the most expertise in your question area, and you can arrange a meeting time convenient for both of you. Q: Can I make a reservation to use a scanner? Last time I visited the KNC, I could not use a scanner since they were all occupied. Yes, you can. Please call us or stop by the KNC. It's always a good idea to call ahead when you want to use a scanner, since they are very popular resources, and can usually be accessed on a first-come, first-served basis. Users with reservations are given precedence over walk-in users. Q: Can I print out my documents or pictures in color? It depends. If you created those documents or pictures at the KNC, you can print them out in color (page limit is 15 pages). If you did not create them at the KNC, we encourage you to go to other places on campus with color printers such as the Angell Hall Courtyard, School of Social Work, the Medical School's Learning Resource Center and the Media Union Sites. You also can print out your files in color at Kinko's or other area copy shops. Q: Can I make transparencies for my presentation at the KNC? No. Transparencies can cause serious damage to our printer. You can take paper printouts from the KNC to Photoduplication Services, in the basement at the Graduate Library, where they will make transparencies from the printouts for a fee. Many area copy shops provide similar services. Q: Can I store my files at the KNC? Yes. We offer temporary storage on the KNC-Public server in our "Patron" folder, for files that you are working on at the KNC. We will keep your files up to two weeks. We do ask that patrons keep roughly 100MB or less of storage. This is not a secure storage space; it is accessible to anyone at the KNC. It is not accessible from anywhere on campus outside the KNC. It provides a useful space for keeping working files, for transferring from one computer to another in the KNC, or for keeping a short-term backup copy. We also have short-term memory (the "Workspace" or J: drive) available on our PCs while you are working in the KNC. Once you have signed off a computer, the Workspace files may be deleted at any time. We do recommend you bring your own storage medium (you can write to flash drive, floppy, Zip100, Zip250, Zip750, CD-R, and CD-RW at the KNC) or store a copy of files in your IFS (ITD) space. We will not be held responsible for any loss of or damage to your files left at the KNC. Q: Can I borrow your computer books? Sorry, no. You can browse the books, and use them at your leisure within the KNC. Software QuestionsQ: Why is my web page missing some components (i.e. pictures) after it is published on the Internet when it worked correctly on my desktop? You may have missed some files when you transferred things to the web server. Pictures on web pages are not included in the html file - you must also transfer the image files. Compare files in your web space and ones in your local hard disk. They should have identical names and relationships in order to display the pages correctly. If you find you are missing one, transfer that file from your hard disk to your web space by using an FTP program. For further instructions regarding transferring files click either of following links: PC user or Mac user. Sometimes you may have transferred all your files correctly, but your web authoring software is linking to the wrong file. Look at the HTML file, and check what the link for the image file to see what it looks like. If it starts with "file:///", it is trying to link to a file on a computer's hard drive, and won't work on the Web. Make sure that all your picture links start with either "http://" or simply the folder and file name for that image. Q: How do I publish my web page on the web? You should transfer all your html files and related files (i.e. pictures) from your local hard disk to a web server by using an FTP program or functions embedded in your web editor program. All U-M students, faculty and staff are alloted space on the University's servers. You must create your webspace folder (Public/html), then transfer your files there; your URL will be http://www-personal.umich.edu/~YourUniqname/filename.html - ITD has detailed information on the process. Q: How can I make the size of a picture file smaller? If you want to use your picture on the web or in your PowerPoint slide, you can reduce file size by lowering resolution - 72 dpi is good enough for these purposes. To lower resolution in Adobe PhotoShop go to "Image" in the menu bar and choose "Image size". You will see a pop up window. Towards the bottom part of the window, there is a resolution box. Enter 72 dpi into the resolution box, then click 'OK'. Then save your picture as a JPEG or GIF. You can also reduce the size of a picture file by changing the format of a picture from an uncompressed type (i.e. PSD and TIFF) to a compressed one (i.e. JPEG and GIF). First, open your picture file. Go to "File" in the menu bar. Choose "Save As". Choose a compressed file type (i.e. JPEG and GIF) from the "Format" box in the popup window. However, when you compress an image, you will lose some details of a picture - if you want to have a very sharp picture, do not compress the picture file. Good formats for non-compressed images include PSD (the default format of PhotoShop) and TIFF. Q: What is the best resolution for my scanned pictures? It depends on your purpose. If you want to post them on the web or insert them into your PowerPoint slide, 72 dpi is good enough. If you want to print out sharp pictures, raise resolution higher than 72 dpi. The usual range for computer printing is between 200 and 600 dpi - our color printer can support up to 600 dpi but some professional printers can go much higher. Q: How can I save files that I have worked on at the KNC to my IFS space? Use the locally mounted access to your IFS space, or... PhotoShop must "rasterize" images that are stored as vector files before it can display them. It just means that PhotoShop is converting them from an unfamiliar format into something it can deal with. Some PDF files need to be rasterized; you may also encounter this step when opening EPS or AI files in PhotoShop. Q: How do I save pictures from web pages? PC: Right-click on the image you want to save. In the pop up menu, choose "Save Picture as...", "Save Image", or "Save Image As..." (depending on your browser) and select the destination folder to which you want to save the image. Mac: Click and hold on the picture you want to save. In the pop up menu, choose "Download image to disk", "Save Image As..." (depending on your browser) and select the destination folder to which you want to save the image. Q: How do I remove a crease or scratch from a picture file? You can make a crease on your picture file look less obvious in Adobe PhotoShop. The Smudge tool lets you "rub out" a line into the surrounding pixels. More sophisticated users may want to try the Clone tool or the Healing Brush tool for dramatic results. Detailed instructions are available elsewhere on the KNC web site. Q: Why can't I insert a PDF file into my PowerPoint slide? Because PowerPoint does not recognize a PDF file as a picture. You need to transform the type of file from PDF to a picture file format such as JPG.
Now you can insert the JPEG file into your slide. Q: How do I change bullet types on MS-Word? Go to "Format" in the menu bar and choose "Bullets and Numbering" and choose bullet style you want. Click on "Picture" to use a clipart image as a bullet, or "Customize" to choose any character from any font as a bullet. Hardware QuestionsQ: Can I borrow your digital camera? The general population of the University can borrow the camera only for use within the library building, and for less than one-hour. People often borrow the camera to take pictures of large-format maps in the Map Library. Library staff members may check out the camera overnight. We prefer that you pick it up as close to KNC closing as possible, and return it as early as possible the next morning. Q: How do I download picture files from a digital camera to the computer? Remove the memory card from the camera, and insert it in one of the KNC's memory card readers. We can read almost all types of digital camera memory, so you can even bring in files from your own digital camera and edit or use them here! Q: How do I scan a picture which is bigger than the scanner window? You can scan the big picture part by part and combine those files in Adobe PhotoShop. You also can take a photo of the large image (for example, a map) with our digital camera. Q: Can I use a 250Mb zip disk on KNC computers? Yes. Most of our PCs have built-in Zip-250 drives,
which can read both 100Mb Q: Can I use a PC-formatted disk on a Mac? Yes, you can. But you cannot use a Mac formatted disk on a PC. By using our network drive to share data from one machine to another, we can usually get your files from any computer in the KNC to any disk you bring in. However, if you want the best chance of your disk working with our computers, we recommend you buy PC-formatted disks. Q: Why can't I rewrite files onto my CDRW? You may have formatted your CD-RW incorrectly the first time you used it. If you created it as a CD-R, you will not be able to re-write to it. Also, some computers have trouble writing multiple times to a CD-RW. You are most likely to be able to re-write to a CD-RW if you use it repeatedly on only one computer. Q: How can I print out PowerPoint slides as handouts on a Mac?
Detailed instructions are available elsewhere on the KNC web site. If you have more questions regarding the use of KNC resources, please check out our online "How To" section, or contact us by phone (734) 647-5836 or email us at knc-info@umich.edu. This page was created by Myungpil Chun and is maintained by current KNC staff. |
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and 250Mb Zip disks. Most of our Macs have only Zip-100 drives,
which can only read 100Mb Zip disks. For those computers without
built-in Zip-250 drives, we do have several external Zip-250 drives,
so all of our computers can use 100Mb and 250Mb disks, one way or
another.