News Notes

Issue 46, Fall 2010

Free Microsoft e-Learning

All Washington State residents are eligible to register for Microsoft e-learning courses arranged through Washington State Employment Security Department. Courses for desktop applications and technical training for IT professionals are available. Go to www.wa.gov/esd/e-learning to register.

Microsoft Office Upgrades

Upgrades to Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows or Microsoft Office 2011 for Macintosh for university-owned computers are available for no charge. Simply email Software Services. We will send you network installation instructions for university-owned computers as well as information about the Microsoft Home Use Program which allows an employee to purchase one Microsoft Office license for installation on a home computer for $9.95.

Did You Know?

When word processing was accomplished with a typewriter, we were taught to use two spaces after a period. This helped to distinguish the end of a sentence from the rest of the paragraph. The letters on a typewriter all took up the same amount of horizontal space, whether they were an "i" or an "m" or a period. This is called monospace type. Modern typography uses variable width fonts that recognize the width of each individual character or letter. Now that periods occupy less space proportionally, two spaces are no longer required at the end of the sentence. While this has been a publishing standard for decades - type was set with special machines before the proliferation of office and personal computers - we can safely save the effort of clicking on that spacebar twice when writing on a computer. And, your publisher will appreciate not having to remove all those extra spaces.

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