Teaching with Technology
Ideas and Tips to Use in the Classroom and beyond

Volume 1, Issue 3
Spring 2005

BACKUPS

In a nightmare, the computer technician tells you your harddrive is dead and all of your files, photographs, music, and email are gone forever. You suddenly wake up and, panicking, ask yourself if it was just a dream... Then you remember that you have a backup of all of your files, so even if it wasn't just a dream, you can replace all of those precious items. Ah... you fall back to sleep...

There are numerous ways that information can be lost--sometimes it is as simple as having someone (even ourselves) accidently delete a file we needed. Keeping a backup is one way to protect your files. It isn't difficult to create a backup of your system, you can even set-up your computer so that it automatically does backups on a regular basis.

Before beginning, you need to decide what it is you want to backup. Then, you will need someplace to store your backup copies (another harddrive, a flash drive, etc).

If you keep your important documents in the "My Documents" folder, then creating a backup of all of those files is as easy as copy and paste. You can burn the entire folder onto a CD or store it on a Flash Drive for easy access--providing the folder isn't too large. You'll want to do this regularly.

If you want to keep a copy of your Outlook Express folders, including emails, you can download an "add-in" application from Microsoft (for free) that will create backup copies at regular intervals, in Outlook 2000 and later. You can also do this manually: from the Outlook Express menu select Tools | Options | MailSetup and click the DataFiles button. A dialogbox will open with the name of the directory that contains you mail files. Copy the name of the directory, because you'll need to close Outlook in order to access the directory.

To open the directory, you'll want to begin by clicking on "My Computer" if you are on a PC, or your Harddrive on a Mac. Follow the directory path you copied from Outlook. You will eventually find files named after your mail folders and news groups. Outlook Express keeps all messages in these database files. Copy the datafiles and save them to your backup disc. If you make copies of these files regularly, you'll have a safe backup of your OE mail.

In addition to backing up those all important files, you can also backup your system settings. If you are using Windows, there are backup options available in Sytem Tools: Start l Programs l Accessories l System Tools l Backup. If you are using a Mac, you'll want to investigate some of the software applications available for backing up the system files. Remember, to keep copies of any installation discs you have used to install software, and know where you keep them--especially the Operating System Software (Windows or MacOS).

Finally, there are some settings in various software programs that can help save versions of documents you are working on, in between backups (see the next article for an example).

So, how about you and that nightmare: would you be able to fall back to sleep?

BACKING UP IN WORD

Several days ago I got a call from a student who could not find the physics document she had spent half the night working on. "I saved it. I know I did--several times!" she said, "It's just not on the desktop!"

She had emailed herself the beginnings of the document, so she could finish it on her computer at home. At home, she opened it and began editing the document. After each edit, she did hit "save". What she didn't realize, however, was that the document was saving to the Temporary Internet File--which is where the current document resided because she had opened it directly from the attachment. Well, she closed out the computer and went to bed not knowing all that work would be gone in the morning. A simple "save as" the first time she saved the document would've told her the location of the document and where all subsequent saves would be as well. So, the first rule is to know where your documents are saved.

That doesn't always help though. Sometimes the application freezes, or the power goes out, and all the work you hadn't saved is lost. Sometimes you accidently save a change you did not want, and the copy you did want is gone. So much can go wrong, and you know Murphy's law...

There are some very simple things you can do to prevent lost work. Here are a few: If you go to Tools on the menu bar, and then Options a window will open like the one below.

Select the Save tab. Next, you'll want to put a checkmark next to "Always create backup copy". Every time you save the document you are working on, Word will save a copy of the changes you've made as well as a copy of the document BEFORE you made the changes. So, if you accidently save a change you did not want, you can go back a step. Further down in this window (highlighted in pink) you'll notice: Save AutoRecover info every: This option is a hedge of protection against things like power failures, and when a program stops responding. This option must be checked BEFORE the problem occurs, however, in order for it to work. The default setting is an autosave every 10 minutes. You may want to decrease this to save every 5 minutes. This option does not permanently store the document (you will still have to save it), but it will allow you to recover the document, and then save it, in case something suddenly happens--like the events I mentioned above.

For additional information on how to protect your work in Microsoft Office:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/CH060840041033.aspx

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP052497871033.aspx

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010448611033.aspx
 
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GETTING WHAT YOU SEARCH FOR

A friend of mine, who has always loved hot cocoa, recently learned she had developed lactose intolerence. I thought I would do a search on the Internet to see if I could find a hot cocoa mix that was dairy-free. My search string consisted of: non-dairy hot cocoa. The search engine returns were page after page of recipes for making your own hot cocoa mix--nice, but not exactly what I was looking for.

I changed the search string by adding one more term: -recipe. The minus in front of recipe tells the engine to exclude pages that contain the word recipe. I had more luck this time.

You've probably learned that simply typing in the terms you want to find does not guarantee you will immediately find what you are looking for, and often yields a LOT of what you aren't looking for. There are little operands you can add to your search string that will help your search tool do a better job. The operands I've listed below are from Google's Cheat Sheet, but are recognized by nearly all search engines.