Do you often feel frustrated with having to scroll back through your browser history to find your favourite tab? Or even accidentally closing the tab and not being able to remember the website?
With DigiTip 22, you can now pin your favourite internet tabs and have it ready for you when you open your browser next.
For internet browsers such as Chrome and Firefox, you can follow these steps:
Open your internet browser and type in your chosen URL
Right-click on your URL tab and choose the option “Pin”
Blogpost by Joel Williams (Student Digital Champion)
The environment you have around you whilst working can significantly impact how efficiently you work and the quality of your work. A good working environment can also reduce stress; you can read more about this here.
However, it can be challenging to recommend a good working environment as this is subjective and varies from person to person. In this blogpost, I aim to provide some tips and tools that will enable you to find the best working environment.
Location, Location, Location 📍
Finding the best location to complete your work is often the first hurdle; this space could be a desk in your room or a table in the kitchen; or you could use one of the many spots on campus, such as the Hugh Owen Library or the Arts Centre. Or, perhaps you sometimes prefer to work away from campus in spaces such as the National Library of Wales or a café. It’s also worth considering the noise level of your chosen location, for example the working environment in the Food Hall will be drastically different to that of Level F of the Hugh Owen Library.
The Food HallThe Arts CentreNational Library of Wales (www.library.wales)Hugh Owen LibraryThe Arts Centre Café
I’ve always preferred a quieter working environment, and I have always struggled working at home. Therefore, Hugh Owen Library has always been my preferred choice; however, I frequently find that different rooms suit my needs better on different days. While equipment can often decide which space I use, the noise almost always influences my decision.
Making the Most of the Hugh Owen Library 📚
This interactive map of the Hugh Owen Library makes picking a space to work easier and saves you from getting lost, especially as there are numerous options of where to work within the three floors of the library. Spaces like the Iris de Freitas room on Level E are brilliant for group study but can get reasonably loud, especially when busy. If you’re looking for a quieter space to work from then Level F may be better for you, or if want a more private space for individual or group work, the Library also has bookable rooms; you can reserve these and view their availability online.
Hugh Owen LibraryLevel D, Hugh Owen LibraryGroup Study Room, Hugh Owen LibraryIris de Freitas, Hugh Owen LibraryIris de Freitas, Hugh Owen LibraryIris de Freitas, Hugh Owen LibraryLevel F, Hugh Owen LibraryLevel F, Hugh Owen Library
The power of sound 🎧
Music and audio can be powerful tools at your disposal to help you when working if used correctly. Personally, I’ve always found I do my best work when listening to music using services like Spotify. However, members of the Digital Skills Team suggested white noise applications like Noisli, which can be used to play weather patterns and even has its own playlists while offering many customisation options.
Audiobooks are also a popular option and can be accessed using services like Libby or Audible. These are especially useful whilst completing more mundane tasks, especially those requiring much repetition.
Blogpost by Noel Czempik (Student Digital Champion)
Taking charge of your digital identity is now more crucial than ever. Safeguard your privacy, strengthen your security, and unlock potential professional opportunities with the short guide below.
1.Review Your Privacy Settings
Take advantage of tools that allow you to display your content as it’s visible to your audience, customise privacy settings for individual posts or modify what information can be used to search your profile. You can read thisarticle for more information on the privacy settings available on the most popular social media sites.
2.Share Thoughtfully
Don’t solely rely on privacy settings. Think before posting, considering the potential impact on your reputation and safety. Be cautious of content that could be misinterpreted or taken out of context, and don’t share sensitive personal information unnecessarily.
3.Monitor Your Digital Footprint
Regularly search your name online to assess available information. Consider setting up alerts for new mentions or content associated with your name.
4.Curate Your Content
Align shared content with your desired digital image. Remove or update outdated or irrelevant information.
5.Build a Professional Online Presence
Showcase skills and achievements on professional platforms, maintaining a professional tone and image in your communication. For example, you can add certificate of completions for LinkedIn Learning courses on your personal LinkedIn account. For multi-purpose platforms, consider creating separate profiles for personal and professional use. If you are interested in building a LinkedIn profile, a recording of the Careers Services’ LinkedIn session is available here.
For further information about managing your digital identity, you can watch the Careers Services’ session on this topic from the Digital Skills Festival.
Blogpost by Shân Saunders (Digital Capabilities and Skills Development Coordinator)
With the advancement of phones and technology there’s now an app for everything – including reading! As an avid reader I like to challenge myself with yearly goals, discuss books with fellow readers and gain reading stats. With my top three reading apps – all of these are possible!
Goodreads
Goodreads is great for tracking your current reads and staying on track for your reading goals.
Set yourself a yearly reading challenge and Goodreads will tell you whether you’re on track.
Track your current reads to see how far through you are.
Receive a badge if you reach your goal.
View books you’ve read in previous years.
Create reading shelves for your needs like “want to read”.
Scan book covers instead of searching for them.
Discover new books based on your recent reads, new releases and trending books.
Have you ever copied and pasted content from a webpage or another document into a new Word document and found that it completely messes up your formatting? Luckily, there are additional options outside of the basic pasting option (ctrl+v) which can help solve this!
Start by selecting where you want to paste your content and right-click with your cursor. You’ll then find several additional paste options (the options visible will be based on the type of content that you’ve copied).
Here’s a summary of what the most common 4 paste options will do:
Keep Formatting
This keeps the formatting of the text that you’ve just copied (be it from a webpage, another document, or another source).
Merge Formatting
This option changes the formatting of the text so that it matches the formatting of the text that surrounds it.
Use Destination Styles
This option formats the copied text so that it matches the formatting of the text where you’ve pasted your text
Keep Text Only
This option discards any existing formatting AND any non-text elements you have copied (e.g. images or tables).
Have you struggled to write in Welsh on your computer? Used shortcuts or symbols to insert a circumflex and accents for Welsh letters? Struggle no more!
Free on all AU computers from the Company Portal you can now download the To Bach software. For personal computers, To Bach is available to download for free!
Once downloaded, to insert letters with a circumflex all you have to do is select “Alt Gr” and your respective vowel (e.g., â ê î ô û ŵ ŷ).
Do you want to be able to save time using Outlook by running multiple tasks efficiently?
With DigiTip 19, we will be having a look at how to set up your Quick Step recipe. When an email comes through to your inbox, with just one click you can mark it as read, move it to a specific folder, automatically send a reply and many other options.
Emojis have become an essential part of how we communicate, and they can be fantastic for expressing our emotions with just a single character 🥰🤣🙄🤯😴
Most of us will be more familiar with using emojis on our mobile phones 📱, but there will be times when we’ll want to include emojis when using our laptops or computers 💻. Instead of googling for the emoji you need, why not access it directly from your keyboard!?
On both Windows and Mac, you can access your emoji keyboard in seconds by selecting:
Windows – Windows Key + “.” (period button/full stop)
Mac – CommandKey + Control + Spacebar
Watch the video below to see how this shortcut works on a Windows device.
We would like to extend a big thank you to all our speakers and participants who attended Aberystwyth University’s first Digital Skills Festival in November 2023.
With 28 different digital events being held over 5 days, it was fantastic to be able to offer a variety of sessions ranging from an introduction to learning how to code to understanding the importance of our digital wellbeing and digital identity.
From our Digital Skills Festival website, you are now able to access all the recordings and resources from the sessions during the week so please take a look if you would like to refresh your knowledge on what you learnt or if you were unable to attend.
We look forward to seeing you all at the next Digital Skills Festival in 2024!
Are you a planner but struggling to be productive? Do you work better with a to-do list, but you want everything in one place? Introducing Microsoft Teams Task by planner!
You can create your own to-do lists, break these down into daily to-do lists and even view tasks that have been assigned to you in Microsoft Teams channels.
To create your To Do List:
Go to the Apps icon on the left-hand side of MS Teams
Search for and install the Tasks by Planner and To Do app
At the bottom of the planner, select‘+ New list or plan’
Enter any task, select the priority and due date
Once completed select the circle and the task will complete itself
To break down your to-do list to more achievable goals you can add tasks from your to-do list to “my day” which will refresh every day.
Watch the video below for a demo on how to use Microsoft Teams Tasks by planner.
