How to get help livermor Tips on how you get quicker and better help with computer problems. Do you often feel like computerised technology doesn't work the way you want it to? You can contact Orakeltjenesten at NTNU if there is something you're not able to solve yourself. This article will give you some tips on what information user support needs to help you swiftly in a good way. That way you will not have to wait forever because they need extra information from you. E-mail, telephone or face-to-face? There are three ways to contact Orakeltjenesten: e-mail, call them or come to their offices at Gløshaugen or Dragvoll during opening hours. What way you choose to contact Orakeltjenesten in is of course situational. If there is a problem with your laptop; it is probably easiest to meet up, if there is a problem on a web page/with your e-mail; an e-mail to the help desk is easier. If you're unable to meet in person, calling is a good alternative. Tips If you have decided to contact Orakeltjenesten with a problem you are unable to solve yourself, it is important that you include as much information as possible. That way they will not have to ask you questions back before they can start solving your problem and thus save a lot of time. This article will focus on written communication, because if you call or meet in person it it is easier to have a dialog while helping you. Explain what you want to do and why Please explain what you want to do and why, just not the problem. If it is a specific program, explain your goal. Also include any information you can about your system. Too little information: HELP! My tables look really stupid Good information: I am trying to create and print tables of my accounting from Microsoft Word 2003 on Windows XP, but they come out looking jumbled-up because resizing cells is difficult. In the second part the user states which system he/she is on, what program he/she is using and what he/she is trying to do. Here user support could inform them about Microsoft Excel which is a spreadsheet system and therefore better when you want to use tables in accounting. Include all error messages If you get any error messages, include them. They may look cryptical and full of superfluous information, but for the user support people it will include the information they need to help you. Too little information: When I try to log onto the computer lab 'vegas' I get a weird error message. Good information: When I try to log onto a computer in the lab 'vegas' with the username 'imsocool', I get an error message which I have included below this. The last time I tried, yesterday around noon (1200), it worked without any problem. Event ID: 1526 Severity: Error Windows did not load your roaming profile and is attempting to log you on with your local profile. Changes to the profile will not be copied to the server when you logoff. Windows did not load your profile because a server copy of the profile folder already exists that does not have the correct security. Either the current user or the Administrator's group must be the owner of the folder. Contact your network administrator. Give as much information as possible Describe your problem comprehensivly, you can never include too much information. Describe any changes you may have done to your system in chronological order since last time it worked - that might be the source of the problem although it seems weird. If you have a problem printing from a laptop with Windows, it might be due to your anti-virus or firewall, so always include everything you know about your system environment. Please use the subject header for all its worth; it is the first thing the help desk sees and the more descriptive it is the easier it is to start working on your problem. Keep it short with keywords. Example: Bad: It won't work! Good: VPN 5.0 on Vista won't connect With the last one, the user support already knows that what system you're on, which program you're having problem with (even the version is included), and what the problem is. Always include your real name and username when contacting Orakeltjenesten. That way it is easier for them to see who you are. Do NOT give anyone your password!. That will result in you being closed from systems at NTNU for a couple of days as it is against the rules. Use clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language. If you write a grammatical correct e-mail with clear language, it is easier to understand than if it contains a lot of slang and un-informative sentences. You might want to skim through it before you send so that you're sure everything is clear to someone not seeing the same screen as you. Also, please do not use HTML when sending an e-mail because most help desks can only read 'plain text' and HTML-tags makes it difficult to read your e-mail. Be polite You are sending an e-mail to a person, not just a machine. Orakeltjenesten wants to help you, and being yelled at for something that isn't their fault isn't so much fun.