Will members ever be able to copy and paste when using the public computers, or right-click on anything, as can be done on virtually any other computer in the world? This is often very frustrating to both members and staff.
Thanks for the question, and thanks -- too -- to John Wood for providing some valuable info. While I can't really add much in the line of detail to John's answer, I can echo the fact that with technology, things are always changing, and there may be things we can do (like updating the public versions of Microsoft Office to 2016) that will enable members and staff alike to better utilize features with which they may familiar.
One question for John -- when do we anticipate rolling out Office 2016 to all libraries? -- Knowing will give folks a better sense of what to tell the members when explaining why it doesn't work as anticipated.
In addition, I should also say that we're planning on implementing (or re-implementing, really) an IT Advisory Panel later this fiscal year that will be charged with providing suggestions -- like enabling "right-click" on public PCs -- and prioritizing them to better assist IT in managing our limited publicly accessible resources. This might also provide an opportunity for IT to explain why some decisions have been made so that all staff can better communicate the rationale to the public. We're not quite ready for it, but it is coming ... Thanks again for the question.
--Tim
- Log in to post comments
Comments
On the newly installed version of office (2016), right-click should work. In general, the "right-click" options were disabled not to prevent copy and paste (which can still be done with hotkeys) but to prevent access to options in the context menu, which are all bundled in together in the group policies. This prevents things such as display options being altered that would affect the next member that sits down at that computer. In any case, things change in how computers are configured and it may be that in certain applications we are able to do things now that we were unable to do in the past. If there is a specific example, we always welcome questions and concerns in IT and will look into what options are available.
I hate to speak for whoever made the original post, but I suspect they were not only referring to right-clicking while using Office. That is definitely a huge improvement, but not every member uses exclusively during their computer time. When I get complaints about right-click, they generally come from members who are using IE and want to copy-paste content from email or websites. I have never heard anyone gripe about not being able to access it from within Office, probably because Office applications have buttons in their menus that make right-click unnecessary. It would be great if members could right-click during browsing sessions--we can teach them to use the keyboard shortcuts, but sometimes it's difficult to highlight only the content they want, necessitating Ctrl+A followed by copy-paste and a lot of deleting. Members get frustrated, and we explain that right-click is disabled for security reasons, but they don't really care about that. They just want it to work like other computers they've used. We all look forward to a time when that's possible.
Jaclyn,
I too realized that the question wasn't purely regarding office; however, I did specifically receive a question regarding right-click in office just a few weeks ago and wanted to speak to that for sure.
In the past, with IE being cooked into Windows, some of the policies for IE were tied into the system policies, again, allowing some changes that would affect the members following the one that made the changes. It is possible that this has changed now. It is also possible that this may not be as much of an issue now with how sessions clear in between users (prior to using PC Reservation, the computers did not reset in the same way). It is simply something that we need to re-visit from time to time to evaluate the consequences and we will certainly do that.
Edit:
I did not see Tim's response and would like to speak to it as well. Office 2016 is available to the public at all 19 of our locations. Staff software installations are still limited because the licensing is done differently and each person who uses it will need their own login, which is something we are still working towards; however, all staff have access to Office 2016 online via the webmail portal.
I look forward to the advisory panel. IT frequently gets requests, but with limited resources, it is difficult to fulfill every one of them in a timely manner. Being able to prioritize requests will ensure that the changes that will give the most positive impact will be implemented first.
Just a quick update from IT. We've been testing on public computers whether enabling right-click is feasible at this time. I'm happy to report that it is possible and we're fairly confident we won't be creating any new security risks by doing so. I'd like to gather some feedback if possible from those who have experience with this issue. Jaclyn, I appreciate your input thus far but I was wondering in addition to enabling right-click in IE, is it also needed within File Explorer, in your opinion? In other words, if a user has a file on the desktop or perhaps in the Download folder and wants to copy that file to a Flash drive, would it be useful to have the ability to right-click for this scenario? I'm asking because in order to accomplish this, I also have to enable right-click on the desktop. While not creating any security issues, it does allow some functionality that could potentially confuse the user. I'd like to avoid that if possible but if staff feel it would add needed functionality, I'm all for enabling everything.
I'd like to get feedback on this from MLS staff across the system that deal with this issue. Please feel free to add your comments here on what you think is best or shoot me an email if that's easier ([email protected]). I would also encourage the original poster to chime in since you started the discussion. If you'd like to remain anonymous - that's fine, use the email option - but I would definitely like to hear your opinion.
We definitely need right-click both in IE, and in File Explorer. We have a lot of users using flash drives, and they want to copy files over after they have saved it to the PC. Right now, I think things are actually more confusing for the user, as what they are used to doing on the other machines that they use, isn't what they can do here.
In addition, a lot of people want to copy and paste images. While we can save them (select all doesn't always seem to work), it requires additional steps that members usually aren't aware of. We're happy to educate, but I think it would be best to make using the machines as intuitive as possible.
Saw Gatlin's post and thought I'd throw my 2 cents out there. I'm for enabling access as much as possible, so I'd like to see us enable the r-click function where feasible. I do think the scenario about copying files to thumb drive is a good example of how this feature could be useful for our members.
In instances where a member might become confused with basic computer functions, I believe we should be roving and assisting our members to grow their computer literacy skills by talking them through these functions so they can utilize technology with more independence in the future. We have so many resources to help us "grow smarter communities one person at a time" by furthering their computer training. In addition to our physical collections, I also like to refer the members to Lynda.com or Learning Express Library when they indicate they want or need to learn more about using computers. They are also excellent resources for staff who want to improve their skills.
Agreed and thank you for the input!