LITS Items

Tech Tip Tuesday: Show Trimmed Content in Gmail

Today’s Tech Tip was suggested by an anonymous user. Feel free to suggest topics for future Tech Tips you’d like to see!

Gmail has many useful features, including conversation threading, email scheduling, powerful searching, and labels. But sometimes a feature can cause confusion.

One such feature is the way that Gmail will trim the content of an email if it contains text you’ve already seen in the same conversation. This can be a big help in a conversation thread with lots of replies, as it keeps every email message from becoming long and unwieldy. But sometimes it’s helpful to see that information–especially since sometimes the trimmed content includes the sender’s signature.

If you feel like Gmail has trimmed a message you’d like to see more of, look for three dots at the end of the message. When you hover your mouse over them, a little popup will say “Show trimmed content.”

Screenshot showing the "Trimmed Content" mouseover in Gmail

Clicking on those three dots will expand the hidden content so you can see it in full.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Safety Check in Google Chrome

Google Chrome now has a feature called “Safety check”, which can help make sure your browser and passwords are as secure as possible. To access the Safety check:

  1. At the top right, click More  Settings.
  2. Click Privacy and Security .
  3. Under Safety check click Check now.

The results will give you information on whether Chrome is up to date, if you have any saved passwords that you might want to double-check, whether standard or enhanced browsing protection is enabled, how well protected your browser is from potentially harmful extensions, and whether Chrome can detect any harmful software on your device.

Screenshot of sample Safety check results in Google Chrome

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KnowBe4 Training Email

This morning, many Allegheny employees received an email notifying them that they have been added to training for a service called KnowBe4.

KnowBe4 is a service that LITS has adopted to give employees a tool to manage occasional spam and phishing attacks right from your Gmail inbox.

The email, sent from <do-not-reply@training.knowbe4.com>, is legitimate. However, this email was not intended to go out to employees just yet. Clicking on the link in the email for the training portal will give users a notice that it has not been configured yet.

For now, please disregard the email as LITS works on configuring KnowBe4 Training for campus employees.

For questions, please reach out to the InfoDesk.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Mention Another User in a Google Doc

You can now mention another user in Google Docs within the document itself. Previously, this was only possible within a comment.
When another user is mentioned, you can hover over their name for information about them and suggested actions like adding that person to Contacts or reaching out via email. This is the same information you see today when hovering over a user’s name in other Google Workspace apps, such as Gmail or Calendar.
Note that mentioning someone in a document will not send them a notification. Additionally, if you mention a user who does not have access to the doc, you’ll receive a prompt with sharing suggestions. You can share the document at that time or decline and use the regular Docs sharing function when the time is right.
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Internet Outage

The College’s Internet service provider will conduct scheduled maintenance between midnight tonight (March 7) and 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 8. Users all across campus will experience loss of internet through both wired and wireless connections for extended periods during this window of time.

Our student network will be unavailable during the outage, as will printing. Other campus services such as Self Service, Web Help Desk, and WebAdvisor will also be affected. Most campus phones will also experience loss of service during this window of time.

During this outage, incoming calls will not be received and outgoing calls will not complete a connection. In case of emergency, Public Safety can be reached during the phone outage at 814-332-2314 instead of their usual number.

Please note that you must use a non-Allegheny College phone, such as a cell phone, to reach this number during any outage. Campus phones will not be able to complete any outgoing calls during the outage.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Your Library Account

Your Allegheny account includes full access to all resources available through Pelletier Library and other libraries across campus. You can check your library account to view what you have checked out and when it’s due. You can also ask for renewals, check to see if you have any fines or fees, and see the status of any of your requests.

Screenshot of the tabs in the "My Library Account" page in AggreGator

If you’re logged into your library account, you can also track your searches in AggreGator. Our Interlibrary Loan system also uses your Allegheny account so you can request items from other libraries if you don’t find what you need in Allegheny College’s collections.

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Tech Tip Tuesday: New Gmail Layout

Google will soon be rolling out an updated layout for Gmail, becoming more integrated with other Google services such as Chat, Spaces, and Meet.

Some users will begin to see the option to use the new layout, starting in mid-February of 2022. Over time, Google will roll out the option to more and more users.

For a limited time, users will be able to continue with or change back to the old layout, but Google plans to make the new layout the standard experience for everyone by summer 2022.

Learn more about the new Gmail layout:

Please reach out to the InfoDesk with any questions.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Focus Time in Google Calendar

Do you need more time to focus on a specific task? You might already be practicing a time management technique known as focus time — planning blocks of uninterrupted time to focus without distractions. Google Calendar has added the option to schedule focus time and build it right into your daily calendar.

To schedule focus time, simply create a new event. Along with the established types of event, such as “Task” or “Appointment slots”, you’ll see the option now for “Focus Time”.

Screenshot of the event creation dialog box in Gmail, with "Focus Time" highlighted

If you set the visibility of the event to “Private”, others who can view your calendar will only see that block of time as “Busy”.

Screenshot of the event visibility dialog from Google Calendar, with "Private" selected

Learn more about using Google Calendar.

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Scheduled Maintenance – Phone System

On Thursday, February 3, from 8:00 p.m to 2:00 a.m., Windstream will conduct scheduled maintenance on the main campus phone system.  No outage is expected, but there is a possibility that the phone system may be down intermittently throughout the 90-minute maintenance window.

If there is an outage, incoming calls will not be received and outgoing calls will not complete a connection. In case of emergency, Public Safety can be reached during the phone outage at 814-332-2314 instead of their usual number.

Please note that you must use a non-Allegheny College phone, such as a cell phone, to reach this number during any outage. Campus phones will not be able to complete any outgoing calls during the outage.

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