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UM Today: Enhancements and Existing Features

Posted on: August 18th, 2016 by Deetra Wiley

UM Today email shown on an iPad

In previous UM Today daily emails, you may have seen the same messages too many times. Maybe, you couldn’t tell what was new.  In the new layout, your daily UMT email will be similar to what you see when you log into UM Today. Here are some new features along with a review of the optional settings.

New Design

The new design is simplified, less cluttered, and accessible to all readers. “The IT Department has worked very hard this year to ensure that as many people as possible can access all of the digital content created,” states Drew Chiles, who performs accessibility reviews for IT. “The new UM Today layout is simpler and consistent across platforms without sacrificing any functionality. By standardizing how articles are linked and how the email is structured, anyone using a screen reader or keyboard to navigate the web should have the same experience as the rest of us.”

In response to feedback from our UMT readers, the design lists all of the new announcements at the top of the page. Each of the announcement titles is a link to full details. The old version showed a separate link, “Full Details,” which added more words to the screen. Some other extraneous information, like the UMT#, date added, etc., has been removed from the daily email. However, this information is still available in the myOleMiss version. UMT events, which were previously noted in a less accessible second column, can be viewed in a single column format by simply scrolling downward. And, as a security measure for guarding against spam mail, the recipient’s name is in the footer, along with one’s title or major. This is information spammers should not know.

Screenshot showing UM Today options menuReview of Settings

Once logged into myOleMiss, you can open the options menu at the top right corner of UM Today. Choose “Preferences” to set your options:

  • Prioritize Essential and Recommended announcements. You have the option to prioritize the message types according to your preferences. This allows you to control the order that messages appear. Note that items in the “recommended” column can be totally suppressed by choosing “Do not show.”
  • Pref1Set Your UM Today Email Format. The default HTML format includes all of the graphics and menus that display best from a computer with a Web browser.  You can switch to text-only with no graphics, or you can disable the daily emails altogether. Urgent announcements (identified in email as UM Today Express) are not affected.

The myOleMiss edition also allows you to delete items from your list by clicking the icon in the top right of each announcement. This will prevent you from seeing the same message day after day.

Questions? Assistance? Feedback?

For assistance or more information about UM Today, please contact the IT Helpdesk at (662) 915-5222 or helpdesk@olemiss.edu. To send feedback, email it@olemiss.edu.

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