LET'S COMMUNICATE
Agriculture Communication Newsletter
May 2008, No. 149

Contents

Your Choice to Turn Off @ndsuext.nodak.edu E-mail
More on Old E-mail
PowerPoint Design Tip #9: Choose Special Effects Wisely
Write the Right Word
Ag Communication Contacts

Your Choice to Turn Off @ndsuext.nodak.edu E-mail

At some time in the future (yet to be determined), all @ndsuext.nodak.edu e-mail addresses will be shut down. You'll be notified several months in advance before that happens.

Some individuals have switched all legitimate correspondence from their @ndsuext.nodak.edu address to their @ndsu.edu address and have requested that we disable their @ndsuext.nodak.edu address now. If you would like us to disable your @ndsuext.nodak.edu address, please send an e-mail message to roger.egeberg@ndsu.edu with the address(es) you'd like disabled.

Roger Egeberg, (701) 231-7382, roger.egeberg@ndsu.edu

More on Old E-mail

When you changed your e-mail client from @ndsuext.nodak.edu or @ndsu.nodak.edu, did you remember to change the default "reply to" address? Even though you may be sending from @ndsu.edu, people may be trying to reply to an old address. Be sure to go into the outgoing or sending mail option of your e-mail client and make this change. Test by sending a message to yourself. Also, review Web pages to make sure e-mail addresses are up-to-date.

Becky Koch, (701) 231-7875, becky.koch@ndsu.edu

PowerPoint Design Tip #9: Choose Special Effects Wisely

Transitions and special effects are great when they're appropriate.

*   Choose wisely. Don't overdo. You want the audience focused on the information, not on what will fly in next.
*   The easiest transitions and builds are text dropping down from above or text that appears coming in from the left.
*   Transitions are easier for the audience to read when the text comes in  the same way each time.

Remember that not every visual needs these special effects. If overdone, they can slow down the pace of the presentation.

Deb Tanner, (701) 231-7891, deb.tanner@ndsu.edu , and John Grindahl, (701) 231-7898, john.grindahl@ndsu.edu

Write the Right Word

Those of you who have a doctorate worked hard to earn it. You are proud of it and would like to be referred to as Dr. That´s fine in professional journals, but we don´t use the courtesy title Dr. before names in Extension publications and other educational materials or news releases simply to avoid confusing the reader. To most people outside of academia, Dr. refers to someone with a medical degree.

Thus, the best way to identify people in our educational or other material and news releases is by their position title. For example, authors of publications or speakers listed in workshop brochures could be identified this way: Joel Caton, professor, NDSU Animal Sciences Department; Julie Garden- Robinson, food and nutrition specialist, NDSU Extension Service; John Smith, president, XYZ Inc., Fargo. In a news release, you could refer to them as Joel Caton, a professor in NDSU´s Animal Sciences Department, or NDSU Extension Service food and nutrition specialist Julie Garden- Robinson. Their title establishes their qualifications to be the author of the publication, a speaker at a workshop or an authority on the topic of the news release.

If including an academic degree is essential to establishing someone´s credentials, the preferred form is spelling out the degree rather than using an abbreviation. For example, "Janet Knodel, who has a doctorate in entomology, will lead the new project." But if you need to identify several people by degree, such as multiple authors on a publication or several people in a list, then use abbreviations. Some of the common ones are Ph.D., B.A. and M.A. But again, the best way to identify someone is by what they do, not by the degree they have, if at all possible.

Ellen Crawford, (701) 231-5391, ellen.crawford@ndsu.edu

Ag Communication Contacts

With positions still open and changes in responsibilities, here are reminders of who to contact for various services:

Videoconference scheduling -- Mike Miller, 857-7677, mike.miller@ndsu.edu, http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/agcomm/videoconf/videoconferencing.html

Wimba webconferencing -- Bruce Sundeen, 231-7953, bruce.sundeen@ndsu.edu, http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/wimba/ Web page maintenance -- Dave Haasser, 231-8620, david.haasser@ndsu.edu Transition to TYPO3 content management system -- Becky Koch, 231-7875, becky.koch@ndsu.edu Blog or wiki creation -- Roger Egeberg, 231-7382, roger.egeberg@ndsu.edu Listserv creation -- http://listserv.nodak.edu/

Let's Communicate
Past issues and topics from Let's Communicate are at www.ag.ndsu.edu/agcomm/letscomm/letscomm.htm. If you have questions or comments, or would like to submit information or make a suggestion for Let's Communicate, please contact me.