If the user could have opened the document, they could have used the “compress pictures” tool in Word.  However, in this case they could not open the document and were desperate to save the work they had done.

My Solution

1. The Word file is really a ZIP archive, so the first step is to rename the file from filname.docx (or .doc) to filename.zip

TIP: If extensions are not visible change that under the View tab of your Folder Options.

2. Open the Archive using any ZIP file utility.

TIP: 7-Zip is a good one and it’s open source. http://www.7-zip.org/

3. Navigate to the following folder in the archive: filename.zip\word\media

4. Copy all the files out of the archive to another folder.

5. Using a tool such as VSO Image Resizer (Free for Personal Use) you can reduce all the extracted image files at once to something like 50 or 75%. Choose a size necessary to reduce the original file size to less than 512MB. Be sure to maintain the original filename.

You can always use the built in Image Compression tool in Word to reduce them further.

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/

TIP: Backup the photos before, if you wish to maintain the original images or experiment with different size reductions.

6. Copy the reduced image files back to the same \word\media folder in the archive, replacing the larger originals.

7. Close the archive and then change the file extension back to the original.   Example:  filename.zip to filename.docx.ocx or docx file.

8.  The file will now be substantially smaller and should open in Word.

9.  Select any picture in the document, right-click and choose Format Picture.  On the Picture tab click Compress, select “All pictures in document” and for compression choose either Print (200dpi) or Web/Screen (96dpi), or whatever is appropriate for your final purpose.

10. Save the file.

Using the above method I was able to reduce a document with 220 pictures from 766MB to 204MB. I used a 50% reduction in the first step and then I choose (Web/Screen compression) in Word.

To avoid this problem in the future, always resize your images before inserting them into your Word document. For more professional print publications use a program like Illustrator or Quark Xpress, that are designed to handle high resolution images and larger file sizes.

If you are leaving the campus and still wish to receive your UofM email, or would simply like to transfer your UofM email to a different mail service, this document will help you get this setup.

Login to the Mail Account System service

http://mail.cc.umanitoba.ca

Click the Basic button

Login with your current UMNetID and email password

Are You Leaving Permanently?

The Leaving Permanently option should be used if you are leaving campus and access to your UofM account will be eventually closed. This will transfer all messages to your UofM email account to a new service and send an automatic response to the sender that contains a custom message with your new contact information.

Click the Leaving Permanently link

On this next page fill in the form as follows:

1. Your new email address
2. Your custom message. A default message will be provided. Edit this as you wish.
3. Keep this at 7 days, it is just the frequency of the auto-reply to a unique sender.
4. This step is important. If you have a UofM alias like Firstname_Lastname@umanitoba.ca enter this here, if you don’t fill this in only mail sent to userid@cc.umanitoba.ca will be forwarded to the new account. If you don’t have an alias you can leave this blank.
5. Make up your own unique subject line for the auto-reply or keep the default.
6. Finally you must click the Activate button to start the forwarding.

At this point you might want to send yourself a test message to your UofM account to make sure the email is getting transferred.

Do you just want an email forward setup?

If you just want your mail forwarded to another service click the Forward your mail link.

On the next page scroll down to the Forward your incoming mail form

1. Enter the email address where you would like the mail delivered
2. If you want to retain a copy of the email in your UofM inbox you can select this. Please be aware though that over time your mailbox will fill up and you may need to login to Webmail and cleanup some messages to clear space.
3. You must click Activate to start the forwarding process.

Do you want to cancel the email forwarding?

If you need to cancel the mail forwarding choose the Resume normal mail delivery option

It is important to note her that simply selecting this link does not stop the forwarding. You must scroll down the page and click the Activate button to resume normal mail delivery.

Download the NetMeeting installer here:

http://support.galileo.com/NR/rdonlyres/2CE572C0-10E5-4BD0-98CC-E820CF6F32D1/0/Netmeeting_kb927853_x86_enu.msi

Run the installer and stick with the default options. You should now have a NetMeeting icon on your Start Menu Programs list.

Launch the program and should see the following window:

Here is a brief rundown of the features:

1. Enter the IP address of the remote party.
2. Call that IP address
3. Hang up the call
4. Address Book
5. Start your webcam sharing.
   The middle one here is picture-in-picture
6. Audio controls
7. Share a running program or your Desktop.*
8. Start a chat window
9. Whiteboard (Paint)
10. Send a file
    * You can only launch the share program or Desktop on a Windows XP system. When you run NetMeeting on Vista the share program/desktop option is not available. You can see in this picture that it is greyed out.

To begin or accept a call you need to know your own IP address or the IP address of the remote party. Here is a quick way to find your own IP address if you want someone to call you:

Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt

At the c:\ prompt enter “ipconfig”

You will see an output similar to mine below. Your IP address is listed here (circled in red/blocked for the blog ).

Now that you know your own IP address you can contact the remote party and have them call you.

You must have NetMeeting open and running to be able to accept the call. The application will not open automatically for you when someone is trying to contact you.

When there is an incoming call you will see the following screen on the bottom right above the system tray:

When you click Accept the session will begin.

At this point you can do a number of different things:

Open a chat window, share your webcam and microphone, transfer a file or share your desktop (not on Vista).

Simply click Disconnect to hang up the call.

Those are the basics. Dive in and mess around with the timeless classic that is NetMeeting. I believe the application was created in 1996 and still used by many people today. Yes it lacks a little compared to MSN, Skype, Google Chat, but it is simple and straight forward.

It looks just fantastic! Set aside an hour and 20 and check this out.

Here are the steps to remove the hard drive from this particular model of Sony Vaio:

1. Remove the battery

2. Turn the laptop upside down so that the model sticker is on your left (so that you can read it). Remove the screw directly to the left of the docking port. It should be recessed into the case. This screw holds the keyboard. Remove the three screws at the very bottom on the underside of the palm rest…left, centre, right. These hold the palm rest in place.

3. Turn the laptop over, lift the lid and locate two small tabs at the top edge of the keyboard. The left side is above the F1 key and the right side is located above Insert key. Take a small flat head screwdriver and a small 1″ x 4″ strip of plastic. Press the tab in gently and use the plastic as a shim to get it under the keyboard so it doesn’t snap down again. Repeat the same on the left.

For the shims I have a few different sizes cut out of clear packing plastic, the tough stuff used for packing toys and electronics. They are extremely handy and don’t scratch or mar plastic like a metal screwdriver.

4. Gently lift the keyboard towards you and fold it back onto the palm rest. You should see a flexible ribbon connector. Be careful not to stress the ribbon.

5. Using a small flat head screwdriver gently slide the black tabs on either side of the ribbon cable towards you. Again be careful here. Be gentle, you can work each side back a bit and alternate. The ribbon should slide right out.

6. Take this opportunity to give the keyboard a little knock on the counter or against your hand to get out the crumbs and bits that have likely accumulated.

7. You should see a smaller ribbon cable that connects to the track pad. It might have a green plastic tab on it. You should now see a small brown strip of plastic. This holds the ribbon and place, but unlike the keyboard cable on this model the tab hinges upwards. It does NOT slide out. So lift up the tab gently and the track pad ribbon cable should come out.

8. Remove the three silver screws to the left, centre and slightly above and on the right to free up the palm rest. You should now be able to slide the palm rest back a bit towards you and off.

9. You can see the hard drive on the left. Remove the three black screws holding the metal drive housing (top left, top right, bottom right).

10. The removal of the drive itself is a little tricky. Take it slow, don’t force anything, or you risk damaging the flexible hard drive cable. What I did was lift the front end of the drive up slightly with a plastic shim, use a small flat head to gently pry the SATA cable off. There is not much clearance with the system board and you can’t slide the drive back to far. A little patience and you’ll get it.

With the cable off, you can amp up the manhandling slightly and get the drive free and clear.

All done!

You now have some more options for data backup or recovery. Put the drive into an external enclosure or attach it directly to a working system. If the drive is completely dead, take it out to the field for some “Office Space” style justice or my personal favourite, introduce it to a drill press.

If you’ve made it this far, you should have no probelms reversing the order to get a drive back into the system.

I really don’t have too much to add. Basically the mail servers are experiencing, as one email to the Computer Reps put it… “catastrophic performance and crashes”. I basically receive phone calls a couple of times a day from the IST Support Desk saying “we are aware of the problem, we are working on a solution”.

I know the Mail Server Administrators are putting in some long hours trying to sort out the issues. Support staff from Sun, the server company are also assisting. Some hardware upgrades have been done but the system is still bouncing up and down.

One or two days I think everyone can deal with but we are into week three with this intermittent performance and I think everyone can agree it is extremely frustrating and stresses our ability to get work done.

They do mention in the email, four points to alleviate some stress on the system. The last two…

3. Set your send/recieve to no less than 10 minutes.

This is the normal default for most email clients so I don’t expect many need to worry about this unless you’ve made any changes on your own.

4. POP vs. IMAP mail.

Many may not know the difference between these two so I thought I’d take this opportunity to explain the difference.

For the past few years I’ve promoted the use of IMAP, mainly because this configuration leaves your mail on the mail server. This ensures a daily backup and allows you to access your mail on any other computer (at home or while travelling) or through the webmail system

IST is recommending this type of configuration, because only the header information (subject, sender, date, size) is downloaded when your client checks for mail. This reduces load on the system. However, if the system is down or you have no Internet connection while travelling then you cannot get at new or old emails.

Some may have a POP mail configuration. This type of configuration means all your email is pulled down off the server on to your local computer whenever your client checks for mail. While this has an advantage of allowing you to access your email offline it also puts an extra load on the server.

A POP configuration also means you are now responsible to backup your email that has moved from the server to your computer. To work around this you can choose to leave a copy of the message on the server or you can configure the mail software to store your email on the Novell personal H: drive (which is backed up daily) but means reliance on another system.

Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages but it is my personal opinion that with near constant connectivity at work, home or travelling (excluding our current issues), the IMAP setup works well with daily backup of your email.

I realize some may disagree and do not want to force anyone into a particular setup. However, if you would like to make a change or simply have questions regarding your current email setup or the issues we are experiencing please don’t hesitate to contact me.

If you aren’t sure what type of setup you have, please visit the following page with some brief instructions on how to find out if you have a POP or IMAP setup:

http://aginfotech.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/do-i-have-a-pop-or-imap-email-configuration.pdf

DT

I’m just firing this up here tonight on a trial basis.  It’s really to allow me to post some information on the email system problems we’ve been experiencing but I’ll see how things go.

I do have a few instructional type documents that I pass around from time to time that I thought I could post here for future reference.

We’ll see how it goes….if you stumble across this and like what you see or have some suggestions let me know and I’ll try to make a few posts from time to time.

DT