Carleton College Academic Technologies FAQs

How do I export my timeline? What format should I use?

You can export Timeline 3D in a variety of formats:

as a Quicktime movie, best for displaying the 3D effect
as still images in PDF, PNG, TIFF or EPS formats
as text in tab-delimited format

To use your timeline in a Powerpoint, Keynote presentation or on a webpage, the best bet is to export in Quicktime format. Click the Quicktime icon in the toolbar to open the export options box. There are several preset format sizes, but we recommend the HD 480p size, which will produce a reasonably sized movie file when it's complete.

Can I add bold, italics or underline to events in my timeline?

Not really. You must use the same font face and formatting for the entire timeline, and cannot make any additions to formatting to specific events. Timeline 3D automatically bolds the Event Label of each event.

You can choose the font face used for the entire timeline by going to the Settings panel > Visual Design. If the Settings panel is not visible, click on the Settings icon in the upper right.

You can use the Format menu at the top to add bold or italics TO THE ENTIRE TIMELINE. In testing, I found that it was difficult to remove these options, so choose them carefully!

How do I submit my final grades at the end of the term? Can I just put them into Moodle?

At this point, we do not have information from Moodle automatically providing official grade information. The only way to submit grades at the end of the term is through The Hub. We have the simple steps outlined here.

How do I choose a survey tool?

There are many options for surveying people for opinions or attitudes. Choosing among them depends on what it is you need to know, of whom and in what depth. Below are three common options:

Survey Monkey is one of many free web toos for creating simple or complex surveys. You can access it at http://www.surveymonkey.com/. They have a number of tools to help you learn the different question types and how to actually set up your survey. A paid account with Survey Monkey allows for more customizing, especially in the appearance of your survey. Note that it is unlikely that you will be able to save any material and transfer it from a free account to a paid account.

Google docs http://docs.carleton.edu (Carleton's version) has the ability to setup a form attached to a spreadsheet. This is effectively a survey tool with built-in account information. The limitations and advantages are slightly different than in Survey Monkey - style tools.

Moodle has several "activities" which have different features which can be very useful for survey-style information gathering. We'll refer you to the "activities" list for more information. Note that "surveys" in Moodle are probably not what you're looking for.. focus in on "questionnaire".

My Zimbra calendar started showing double events for my courses when I imported or restored an old Moodle course into a current one. How do I fix this, and can I prevent it from happening in the future?

Unfortunately, Moodle doesn’t let you choose whether or not you import or restore events when you import or restore a course’s contents. Since class times are automatically generated as events when the course is created and automatically fed to Zimbra, you will always have duplicate class meetings in Moodle and Zimbra when you import or restore.

While you can’t avoid it, fixing it is fairly easy.

Log in to https://moodle.carleton.edu
Click on the first day of classes in the Calendar block on the right side of the page. This displays a day view of the calendar with events from all of your courses.
Delete all old events on this day:
1. Find an occurrence of a course from the wrong term (for instance, an event that ends in f08 or w09 when the current term is f09).
2. Click the X in the lower right corner of the box containing that event.
3. Choose “Delete all” to delete all occurrences of the event – if you are deleting a Monday class time, this will delete all Monday class times, but not Wednesday or Friday times.
4. Moodle will display a screen that says “Continue”. Wait a few moments and it will redirect back to the calendar.
5. Repeat for all old events on this day.
Click the link to the next day in the upper right corner under “New Event”.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have finished all five weekdays, at which point all old events should be deleted.

Don’t worry if there are still old events appearing in your Zimbra calendar after doing this – it takes a day or two before changes in Moodle appear in Zimbra.

How can I sort by columns in Google spreadsheets?

Sorting by columns in spreadsheets is easy. First, find the bar which separates frozen rows from unfrozen rows (by default, there is one frozen row, so this bar will be right below the first row -- if you have changed the number of frozen rows, it might be in a slightly different location). If you hover your mouse over that bar, a section of it will turn orange and have the word "Sort" on it. Click the downward-pointing triangle to the far right of the column and choose either A-Z or Z-A. The contents of any row above the sort bar will be unaffected by the sorting, allowing you to preserve column headings if desired.

Note: If you wish to sort first by one column, and then by another (for instance, by last name and then by first name), first sort by the column of secondary importance, and then by the column of primary importance.

Can I access and use Google Docs on my mobile phone?

Google Docs has some capabilities on mobile phones with web browsers. Direct your phone's browser to https://docs.google.com/a/carleton.edu/m. Documents and spreadsheets can be viewed this way, and on some mobile phones spreadsheets can be edited. On iPhones, presentations can also be viewed.

For more information on phone requirements, see http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77428.

Why can't I do something in some types of Google Docs but not in others?

Despite the fact that the Google Docs are connected, many things are subtly different among documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Be prepared to look for slightly different wording in menus (for instance, export versus download) and functionality in some circumstances.

If you've done something in one section under one name, try looking for synonyms or related names in the menus if you can't find the one you used before.

How do I change the margins, page size, or page orientation of a document in Google Docs?

To change the margin size, the page size, or the orientation for printing purposes, go to the File menu and choose Print Settings.

How do I freeze rows or columns in a Google spreadsheet? What effect does freezing a row or column have?

By default, spreadsheets have one frozen row and no frozen columns (frozen means that the row or column remains in place while the rest of the spreadsheet scrolls - the contents of these cells can still be modified). To change either of these, go to the Tools menu and then to either Freeze Rows or Freeze Columns. Then choose the number desired from the menu.

You can tell whether or not a row or column is frozen in a couple of ways. If a row or column is frozen, the number or letter identifying it will be grayed out and it will not scroll if you scroll the rest of the page. Also, a horizontal bar appears below frozen rows and a vertical bar appears to the right of frozen columns.
You can also move the bars to change the number of frozen rows or columns. Click on the bar where it appears between the row numbers or the column letters and drag it to the desired location.

How do I copy a file in Google Docs?

You can make copies of files, for instance if you want an easy to find backup (rather than having to wade through Revision history) or if you want two forms that are very similar. For most purposes, you can use copy and paste, but there is an easier way, and forms cannot be copied using copy and paste. Google has a built in copy function that copies an entire file, forms included.

For documents, go to File -> "Save as new copy"
For spreadsheets or forms, go to File -> "Create a copy" (Note: Copies of forms like this show up with the spreadsheet icon in your main Google Docs page, but the form is there in the copy also, with a new link.)
For presentations, go to File -> "New copy of presentation"

Note: Revision history is not copied with the file.

Why do things occasionally change or appear in Google Docs?

Google is always working to improve the capabilities of Google Docs - if you see something you haven't seen before, try it and see what it does. If you don't know what it will do and don't want to risk ruining what you've been working on, make a copy of a file and experiment in that. To make a copy, go to File -> "Save as new copy" (or "Create a copy" for spreadsheets and "New copy of presentation" for presentations).

If I have a form, can I get automatically generated feedback about responses?

Yes, forms automatically generate summaries of the data entered, including visuals such as pie charts showing how many people responded each way, among others. To view the summary, in the spreadsheet fed by the form go to the Form menu and choose "Show summary".

Unfortunately, at this time every entry to the form appears in the summary, including bogus test entries that one may do to see if/how the form is working. Despite the fact that it is easy to delete rows of entries from the spreadsheet to which the form feeds information, the information still contributes to the summary.

How can I organize my main Google Docs page efficiently?

Use folders to organize your files into related groups.

To add a folder, click New in the blue menu bar and then choose Folder. Give the folder a name, and a description if desired, and click Save. Click All Items in the top left to return to the previous view. To add files to folders, check the boxes next to their names. Click "Move to...", then the folder name, and then click the Move to Folder button at the bottom of the menu. The files will remain in the "All Items" view, but you can also view them by clicking on the folder name in the left column.

If a file is in a folder, the name of that folder will show up to the right of the name of the folder in the "All Items" view.

Files can be in more than one folder.

Can I change the background color of a document in Google Docs?

In addition to changing the background text color (by clicking on the highlighter icon in the toolbar), you can change the background document color by clicking Edit in the menu bar and choosing Document Styles. Click on the #ffffff (or other hexadecimal code) to choose another color.

Note: Despite the fact that the current background color is displayed by its hexadecimal code, clicking on it opens a traditional color table so you can see what color you are choosing.