"Software Updates" Update

I was able to access my email only after calling the college's Help Desk (and I *hate* to ask for help like that - I want to figure it out myself!).

But the Help Desk phone number is nowhere to be found on the college's website, so I had to call the General Information number. The "operator" instantly had the number for me, which made me ask, "Have you been getting lots of calls for the Help Desk number?"
"Oh, yeah," she said. "The college just transitioned to Microsoft Office from Groupwise, you know."

Yes, I did know. I'd been warned ad nauseam to clean out my email boxes and transfer the files that were saved on my office computer because they would be *gone forever* (never mind that I haven't been able to access that machine since July because another person's using the machine and locked access to it; therefore, I have absolutely no idea what or whether I've lost anything of importance).

The helpful help desk employee answered my questions with more questions:

"Could you please help me access my email? My current passwords don't seem to work." [I wanted to let him know I'd tried my best and wasn't just calling him as a first resort.]

"What is your login?" [This word "login" can mean many things, and luckily I chose the right answer, which is a combination of letters also known as my "username" and my "Domain/user name" and my "Century Direct username." Consistency of terminology would be nice; it's a principle I teach my tech writing students.]

"It's {blah-blah}."

"Just a minute." [He then put me on hold for a few minutes and came back on the phone.]

"Are you Julie Daniels?"

"Yes."

"Go to Century homepage."

"Okay, right now?"

"Yes."

"Um, just a minute - I'll have to move to my computer." [A couple of minutes pass.]

"Click on 'employees' at the bottom [this way of logging in is not the usual way we've been taught . . .] - do you see?" [This last question is quite important because the link for employees on our college's homepage is extremely tiny and buried in a list of other words/phrases. You've gotta know it's there to find it, really, because the homepage is not designed with employees in mind, according to the web design team: our college's homepage is a marketing device, designed to market the college, whatever that means, and I have strong opinions about "what that means" that I'll talk about some other time.]

"Okay, I'm on the Employee Services page." [You'll see a LOT of information on this page, yet I just need my email access . . . .]

"Click on 'Outlook Mail' to the right." [To the right of what? Okay, the right-hand column, which is divided in two, okay I see the "Quick Links" with "Outlook webmail" as the fourth item in the list - who decided these should be the "quick links"?]

"Yeah, I got it and see how to login. I've typed my username."

"Password is {****}."

"There, okay, I'm in. Thanks. Can I change the password easily?"

"Yes. It's with 'Options' on the Outlook page." [Where the heck is "Options"? Oh, upper-right hand corner.]

"Okay, I'm set. Thanks a lot."

My helper was kind and knowledgeable, patient, too. His accent made it difficult to make out everything he said, so this conversation isn't quite verbatim. I bet he's had hundreds of these exchanges in the past 48 hours - poor guy.

But I'm finally able to access my email and things look similar to our old email client. The only missing piece I can see that I didn't expect: my email signature is missing, so I'll have to retype the "Earthworms are so pleasant" quote from Zoe.

Now I just have to figure out how to access my work files so that I can send an old conference proposal to a Metro State colleague who wants to use it as the basis of her own proposal. I've heard that the PDFs we're "required" to read before remote login are not helpful at all. Let's see how that goes!