Mar. 31, 2020
Technology can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Nicole and Jesse from the Office of Information Technology are here to help answer your lingering tech Qs.
Q. Why are our St. Edward’s email address names limited to eight characters? That causes a lot of misdirected or lost email for those of us with longer last names.
A. So here’s where we get pedantic. Technically, the first part of your email address isn’t limited to eight characters. Your username is.
And, of course, at St. Edward’s, your email defaults to your username.
Now that that’s out of the way, on to your real question. Your username is restricted to eight characters because that’s how things are configured in Banner, the university’s ERP system (a fancy term for “the central system responsible for university information”).
That configuration can be changed to expand the length of automatically generated usernames. But it takes work to do that — and more than just a few clicks. (Not to mention any other consequences that change may have in other connected systems.) Given the other projects on our list, this particular change hasn’t been prioritized.
Thanks for bringing this particular annoyance to our attention. If you want to continue this discussion, email support@stedwards.edu.
Q. Why can’t I access Outlook from my laptop (on or off campus)? I get a message that says, “Hmm. We’re having trouble finding that site. We can’t connect to the server at login.live.com.”
A. Hmm. That’s hard to tell without seeing the error itself. We don’t love saying it, but, well, the problem could be one of a number of things. The connection between Outlook and Gmail can be finicky. For these types of issues, it’s best to contact OIT support directly, so we can troubleshoot in real time.
Q. How do I adjust the settings so everything on the screen isn’t stretched? I can’t see the toolbar at the bottom or all of the widgets.
A. Different displays have different settings, so we’ll need to know which kind you’re working with here. Unfortunately, once again, working directly with support staff at the Help Desk is probably the best path forward.
Q. Is there a way for me to print from my university-issued laptop to my home printer when I’m working from home? Currently I have to email the documents to my personal laptop so I can print them. This is time-consuming when I have a lot to print.
A. Good news! There should be nothing preventing you from adding your printer to your university laptop. All you’ll need to do is add your printer to your university computer like you probably added it to your home computer. Setup instructions will vary depending on whether you’re using a Mac or PC, as well as what type of printer you’re using. But there aren’t any extra hoops just because it’s a university computer. (If you don’t have the printer manual or installation disc handy, a Google search for the printer name is the best bet.)
If none of that works, feel free to contact OIT support and we'll make sure there are no device settings holding you up.
Got Another Question?
Each month, we’ll be posting answers to a handful of questions submitted by members of the St. Edward’s community. You can submit a question any time (and anonymously) through our simple submission form.