Mobile Print At Leeds

Mobile print, mobile print, mobile print. I can’t say it enough. No, this isn’t a demented, post-Halloween attempt to have abstract technologies materialise behind me in a mirror. It’s a reiteration of one particular university service that, after chatting with my classmates, not many people seem to know about. 

I want to change that. Let’s talk about mobile print! 

We've all been there; huddled in a busy cluster at the middle of the day, impatiently scanning the rows of computers for that one empty space which just might give you the five minutes you need to print your work. Frustration grows as you monitor student after student sleepily scanning Facebook, and handfuls of long-abandoned workspaces (all of which are logged in and colonised by a mountain of books). The process can become tiresome; what you need to do only takes a few minutes, yet there you are stuck waiting for the golden moment when your chance to do the creepy “I think they are leaving” stalk will come. 

Abandon this procedure altogether; turn to mobile print! 

Despite the posters dotted around in the libraries here and there, not everyone realises that mobile print is an option. I myself only learned of this when asking at the ISS desk if there was a way I could print from my own computer. Being impatient has its rewards; turns out the process is super easy. 

Step 1. Go to https://mobileprint.leeds.ac.uk  
Step 2. Log in with your portal username and password.

Step 3. Upload your desired file with 'Choose File'. 

Step 4. Click 'Next', and after a few seconds, it will say 'Printed' under the status bar. 
Step 5. When you are ready, swipe your student card at your nearest printer (see here for a list of MyPrint devices on campus) and retrieve your documents. Voilà! You can also quickly attach your documents to mobileprint@leeds.ac.uk and then retrieve them in the normal way, but you’ll need to complete a registration process the first time you do this. 

Mobile print supports Office/Open Office/PDF formats and holds documents after printing for 72 hours (a great bonus if you are planning ahead or sending your documents from home, but make sure to collect them in this time before they get deleted). There are limitations, however. 

Firstly, mobile print does not support colour printing; this is quite a big disadvantage for me personally, and I’d love to see this option in the future. 

The second limitation is a minor one, but nonetheless; there is no option for multiple select when uploading documents to MyPrint. When I'm printing things, it’s usually because I've finally gotten around to sitting down and making sure I have everything I need for the week. It would be great not to have to upload things one by one (I know, I know, the digital is making us lazier). It’s a very minor grievance, bordering on being a non-issue, but it’s one that could hopefully be remedied quite easily. 

Lastly, you cannot directly print webpages; however, saving your webpages into PDF format is a simple way to get around this. 

To sum up – if you have a personal computer, you don’t need to use cluster computers for general printing purposes unless you really need to manually fiddle with the size/colour options. I hope this saves you all some time (and some sanity)! Happy printing, everyone!

On Calendar Apps

The time has come; I'm officially a dusty, worn out fourth year, newly adjusting to the freakish amplification of the final year workload. I've waved goodbye to Freshers nights and have instead made the holy, start-of-year vow; be productive, keep up with the reading, and Don't Leave Things To The Last Minute™.  After all, we're about to be churned out into the working world; what better time to start grudgingly accepting responsibility?

The first step towards my "I'm an adult now" utopia involves getting organized. In an attempt to claw myself out of old habits, I made a promise to start scheduling and turned to the internet to achieve this. It did not disappoint.

Google Calendar scores highly in the world of calendar apps. This is a Google Chrome extension which can also be downloaded to your desktop; it has a simple design, is straightforward to modify, offers a toggle between day/week/month view, and has the additional bonus of being accessible in offline mode. It also has the option of scheduling email alerts for your events, so there is no excuse for bypassing upcoming lectures or society socials!

If, for you, organization has usually meant a) a colour coded study timetable laboriously created two weeks before exams, or b) buying the Leeds journal in the first week and abandoning it to a dust-gathering fate in the second, Google Calendar is the perfect upgrade. Leeds University offers so many ways to get involved in student life, and sometimes it's hard to balance this with studies. Apps like Google Calendar are a wonderful way of keeping on top of things and are always there for you when you've misplaced your diary or your pen is buried deeply within your stuffed rucksack.

So go ahead; abandon pen and paper and embrace the app side. I promise you won't regret it!

Introduction

Hello there! You don’t know me, so here’s a quick introduction about myself and the nature of this blog. I hope I can tempt you to stick around!

My name is Rebecca, and I’m a final year psychology undergraduate at the University of Leeds. Over the past few years, I’ve tried my best to integrate myself into the university life that Leeds is so famous for, and can safely say that the past few years, though hard at times, have been an absolute blast.

What’s been interesting during my time at university is witnessing the ever-growing integration of technology and student life; we are in a position now where technology is playing a larger role in the university experience, be it in social networking for graduate opportunities, or simply taking video/audio notes in the classroom, and I think there is a lot to be said about the way in which we use these innovations to drive our lives forward. So when the university IT services team put out a search for student bloggers, I snapped up the chance to apply. And here I am!

I’ll be blogging around two times a month, and the areas I hope to cover include;

• Recommendations for apps, products and services which enhance student life 
• Commentary and observations on what it’s like to be a student at the University of Leeds 
• Details of relevant upcoming events, workshops and experiences which assist with the learning process
• Reviews (both positive and negative!) of the current university IT and related services 

If there is anything in particular you’d like to see covered, leave a comment in the blog, tweet me at @RebeccaLeeds12, or email leedsITandme@gmail.com.