Hong Kha Faculty, Students, The Basics

Microsoft Office Suite – Office 365 is FREE to Students

The Microsoft Office suite is a family of software that delivers almost any tool imaginable to assist users at home and in business. Here, Pepperdine Caruso Law IT helps break down the different applications available.

NOTE: We always recommend that you INSTALL and USE the local copy of MS Word (actually install it on your computer’s hard drive) rather than use the online version (accessed through your web-browser) when working on law school projects or pleadings for court. The features you need for law-specific document creation are not all available to you in the online version of Word.

Students and Faculty can purchase this software at a significant discount through Microsoft’s education store; Office 365 is even available for free.

Click the link below to view the Pepperdine IT Student Discount page: http://community.pepperdine.edu/it/students/newstudents/student-discount.htm

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word may be the most popular application under the Microsoft Office suite. Word is a powerful word processing software that is heavily used in the field of law, specifically for legal document creation and formatting. Click here for some common Microsoft Word tips and tricks for lawyers.

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an all-in-one information manager for personal emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, and notes. It is said to be the second most used Microsoft Office application for lawyer, after Microsoft Word of course. For most interesting information on how to incorporate Outlook’s benefits in a law office, click here.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation software commonly used for meetings, business proposals and industry talks. PowerPoint is known to boost memory retention when it comes to presenting information.

Microsoft Excel

MicrosoftExcel is an incredibly popular spreadsheet software tool. This application may be valuable for analyzing, presenting and sharing data-intensive cases. Many Excel applications exist for case evaluation and management, as well as law firm budgeting.

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a database management system, usually utilized to create business applications from templates or scratch. This is frequently used for lawyer contract tracking and appointment tracking.

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students

Color Printing and Copies the Harnish Law Library

The Harnish Law Library maintains two copiers that will print in either color or black and white.  This service is for Pepperdine users only.

Price per color impression is $0.35.  This means if you print a color document that is duplexed (printed on both sides) you will be charged $0.70 for that piece of paper (if there’s color on both sides).

Note that if you choose to print a document that has some pages that are black and white and some that contain color, each black and white page will be charged at $0.06/impression (side of a page of paper) and the color impressions (sides of a page) will be charged at $0.35 each.  Yep, it’s a kinda smart system.

To access this color copier using your laptop or other device please go to THIS PAGE for detailed instructions.

Shared Account Users: For instructions on how to print documents from a personal computer using a shared account, please review this guide.

Information on School of Law provided print credit to School of Law students is HERE.

To do a quick color (or B&W) print job:

  1. Make sure your document is in PDF format
  2. Make sure you have money on your ID Card (to add or to check go here) — If you don’t have funds on your account (separate from the law school printing account) you can’t print anything.
  3. Using your Chrome browser go to https://print.pepperdine.edu/
  4. You will need to login to this page with you Wavenet credentials
  5. Then click on the Web Print option on the left hand list of options then click on Submit a Job
  6. Follow the prompts (pick FindmeColor or FindmeBW)  Note that the charge for color is $0.35 per impression (but only for the pages with COLOR on them, pages with black and white are charged at $0.06)
  7. Select your number of copies (that’s your only option on this page – at this point this service does not support duplexing, or stapling)
  8. Upload your file — or drag it to the designated area on the screen.
  9. You will need to go to the copier to Release the job
  10. At the copier, login using your Wavenet credentials
  11. Select your print job from the list and release it

To Make a Copy

  1. Make sure you have money on your ID Card (to add or to check go here) — If you don’t have funds on your account (separate from the law school printing account) you can’t copy anything.
  2. At the copier, login using your Wavenet credentials
  3. Select Device Functions
  4. Select Copy
  5. Follow the normal prompts as you make your copies
  6. NOTE: This system absolutely will NOT allow you to go beyond your available funds in your account (see #1 above to check your balance).  For this reason, you may get logged off immediately after you do your first copy job. To learn how to ensure that you don’t get logged off do a “Job Build” to avoid needing to log in for each successive copy job you want to do.

David Dickens About Us, Faculty, Services, Students, The Basics

Print and Copy Services at Caruso Law

To send a print job start here: print.pepperdine.edu

To setup your printing go here for complete instructions.

Color Printing is $0.35 per side of a page 

Black and White Printing is $0.06 per side of a page

Print accounting and print charges are managed by the University.  

Charges go to your Pepperdine ID card’s linked Waves Cash Global account.

You cannot print if you do not have funds on deposit in your Waves Cash Global account.*

*Students at Caruso Law start each term with a print credit.

Pepperdine University has multi-function devices (MFDs) from Sharp (you can still call them copiers but they’re much more).  You will find two such MFDs in the public area of the Harnish Law Library at Caruso Law.  Additionally, there is another MFD in the Career Development Office.

Students, Faculty, and Staff can print, scan, or copy on the MFDs using an account associated with their Pepperdine ID cards.  Students buy copy and print credit here:   https://get.cbord.com/pepperdine/full/prelogin.php 

All enrolled students can print to all Sharp MFDs in public areas at any of the Pepperdine Southern California campuses (click here to learn about print credit for students enrolled at Caruso Law).   Printing in color or black and white is possible and a document with a mix of color and black and white pages will only incur the higher cost for color on the pages where there is color.

Typically, print jobs are sent via the web using a web-browser interface.  In nearly all circumstances, your document that you want to print must be in PDF format.

You transfer/upload your PDF file to the print.pepperdine.edu site and select your parameters (number of copies, etc.).  If you want to print in color, you want to select a “findmecolor” solution (see more information here) or “findmebw” for black and white.

Then once the document is uploaded, you go to the copier nearest you — Caruso Law? go to Harnish Law Library and see the copiers not too far from the Public Services Desk.

“Tap” your ID card or type in your Wavenet credentials (there’s a slide-out keyboard stored under the copier’s screen), select the print job you want to “release” and you have your document!

David Dickens Faculty, Pedagogy Tips, Resources, Services, Students, The Basics

CALI Lessons

CALI Lessons IconCALI [The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction] is a  resource provided by Pepperdine Caruso School of Law for students that includes over 1,000+ interactive online tutorials written by law professors, on 50+ subject areas. This includes, but is not limited to topics such as, 1L-First Year Lessons, 2L-3L Upper Level Lessons, Administrative Law, Tax Law, Constitutional Law, Legal Research, Property Law, Civil Procedure, and Environmental Law. These interactive tutorials are an excellent resource to enhance your studies. You may find that one or more of your professors will require you to use CALI lessons in the course of your studies.

CALI Registration Code: In order to take advantage of the CALI interactive online tutorials, you will need to register with the CALI service.  You will need the institutional registration code to do so. The Caruso Law CALI registration code is available in the Harnish Law Library at the Public Services Desk or you can send an email requesting the registration code to [email protected].

Quick Start:  Once you have your registration completed using the above referenced code, you may find this Quick Start Guide helpful.

CALI also provides additional services including (but not limited to):eLangdell Icon

  • eLangdell: Free eBooks for Legal Education – before purchasing textbooks, consider checking out this resource to see if your textbook is available for free.
  • Classcaster: Free blogging and podcasting tools/network designed for law professors to supplement their course materials and link them to other colleagues around the country.
David Dickens Faculty, Students, The Basics

Caruso Law School Computer/Technology Recommendations

If you are just starting out at Caruso Law, or heading back to school and looking to upgrade your system, please review the below information before purchasing your new laptop!

Nearly all Pepperdine Caruso Law Students use laptops for class, exams, and homework. While laptops are not required, they can be a very valuable tool in law school.  The following recommendations take into account services and applications that are often used in conjunction with Caruso Law classes and other curricular and extra curricular activities.

The Information Services team at Caruso Law provides assistance in configuring your laptop for the network. Please think very carefully before choosing a laptop brand or other hardware/software choice outside the recommended list, as you may be limiting your potential sources of support.

As a law student your laptop computer is a key tool.  Please keep this in mind as you think about how you will use it, the software you install on it, the websites you visit with it, the files/attachments you choose to download and where you store it when you are not using it.  You will want it to be functioning at optimum levels.  Theft, drops, malware, and other untoward variables will detract from your laptop’s ability to help you succeed in law school.

Below are the minimum Computer/Technology Recommendations:

  • Internet: Strongly recommend a rock solid internet connection with a minimum 20 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up.  This exceeds the minimum requirements for synchronous Zoom sessions (the absolute minimum is 600 kbps in both directions while recommended minimum is 1.5 mbps) but note that if you share your internet connection you will need more bandwidth to ensure a reliable, continuous connection.  Also please note that the age of your hardware (router, modem, cabling, computer) will play a significant role in reliability.
  • Manufacturer/Model: Dell Latitude Series/Apple MacBook Pro or MacBook Air
      • NOTE: We strongly discourage the use of Microsoft Surface computers.  Microsoft Surface systems may provide some challenges with ExamSoft software, this software is used by most students to take exams at Caruso Law and is used by the California Board of Bar Examiners for the state bar exam … along with most other state jurisdictions. 
  • Display: Minimum 11” screen – for improved readability, consider 13” or larger
  • Operating System: Windows 10 /Mac OS 11 or better
  • Processor: Intel i5 processor, Apple M1 processor, or greater (Make sure your system is compatible with ExamSoft)
  • RAM: 12GB – 16GB is recommended
  • Solid State Drive (SSD): 120GB or higher
  • Integrated WiFi or WiFi adapter: Newer is often if not always better
  • Media Drives: None necessary, but it’s always good to have a few flash drives handy. Keep in mind that these don’t last forever, don’t rely upon one flash drive to keep your work safe. AND have a backup solution.  LESS DOWN TIME
  • Battery Life: 4-6 hours, much longer is much better.  MORE UP TIME.
  • Spare Laptop Charger: If you plan to bring your laptop with you, keep one for home and one for travel.  If you lose one you have a spare.  NO DOWN TIME.
  • Warranty: 3 year parts/on-site labor. LESS DOWN TIME.
  • Security Lock/Cable: Don’t ever walk away from your laptop if it isn’t secured.  LESS DOWN TIME
  • Malware Protection Software: Make sure you have Anti-Malware installed.  Use the firewall that is build into your computer’s operating system.  MORE UP TIME.
  • Personal Printer: We strongly recommend HP Laser Printers with an extra toner cartridge.  NO DOWN TIME.
  • BACKUP System: There are two ways to do this, traditional backups where a copy of all your files (or just critical files) is made to another storage device either over the web or to an external drive of some kind OR storing your files in the “cloud” to start with where they are backed up by that service provider (think Apple iCloud or Google Drive).  We strongly and urgently recommend a reliable automated backup system AND synchronizing your law school materials on a cloud-based service like Google Drive or iCloud. LESS DOWNTIME

Please visit the Minimum System Requirements page for the ExamSoft/Examplify system requirements to ensure that your system is compliant.

The Dell Latitude series is designed for a professional enterprise user and is not what you will find in a consumer-focused retail store.  We have found these systems to be very reliable and strongly recommend them to both students and faculty for their personal computing needs.  This recommendation is not meant to dissuade you from other manufacturers or even other lines of Dell computers, however, we know this line to be a great fit for a law student who needs a solid, reliable system for three years of challenging work (plus the Bar exam).

NO TABLETS, NO NETBOOKS: We do not recommend tablet-based systems. Nor do we recommend netbooks or Chromebooks.  You are certainly welcome to buy them but we don’t believe they will meet your needs in law school.  In fact, these systems do not work with ExamSoft Examplify at all so that should be a compelling reason to avoid the Chromebook/tablet acquisition unless you already have a serviceable laptop that meets the ExamSoft minimum requirements. Essentially, you can bring any device you want to law school. However, if you want to take exams and keep pace with the challenges of law school, you should purchase a high-quality, business class laptop, not a cheap, or off-brand version found on sale at a big box retailer. Remember, you want a system that is reliable and will last you through completing the BAR EXAM. You don’t want a machine that may crash in the middle of an exam!

MacBook ProThe Pepperdine University Computer Store (an online referral site) offers generous discounts to Pepperdine University students on software (MS Office is no cost to Pepperdine students and employees) and hardware. These discounts are often more than the typical education discounts that you will find online. The Computer Store can be accessed 24/7 online.

For purchasing as an enrolled Pepperdine student, please visit the Pepperdine University IT Department’s discounts for students web page or call Pepperdine University Tech Central at (310) 506-4811.

Please note that using a computer on the University network requires that you agree to the University Computer and Network Usage policy.

David Dickens Classroom Tech, Faculty, Pedagogy Tips, The Law School Classroom

Classroom Computers: Log out when you leave!

Class has just ended and the students are rushing to the front to congratulate you on a BRILLIANT class meeting.

But don’t let this distract you. FIRST, please take a moment and log out/sign out of everything.

Just restarting the computer doesn’t log you out of everything. Just closing the browser doesn’t either. The safest bet is to manually log out of each service you used during class time.

Most faculty will use Courses and Zoom. Some use them separately. A few others also use a Google service.

It’s very important that you intentionally log out of each of these systems to ensure that your data remains secure.

Log out of Google services — email, docs, drive, slides, etc.
Log out of Courses
Log out of Zoom
David Dickens Faculty, Resources, Students

Running out of Room?

Space really is the final frontier... isn’t it?

Clearing out space on your computer’s main storage (hard drive) volume doesn’t need to be scary or difficult.

Most uses of your computer require significant “free” space on the hard drive. When you try to do something that requires some free space, you may run into some errors or worse, you may be blocked from using that software all together.

Here are a couple of sites that may provide you with some help in removing some of the extraneous contents of your computer’s hard drive.

For Windows Users: https://www.maketecheasier.com/recover-free-space-windows-c-drive/

For Mac Users: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

Hong Kha Faculty

Reduce Background Noise in Zoom

This guide will show you how to reduce background noise in Zoom, so that your audio will come through crisp and uninhibited for your audience.

Option 1: In the Meeting

If you are already in the Zoom meeting and notice that you are picking up a lot of background noise, click on the small arrow next to your microphone in the bottom left corner. This will open audio settings. Click on Audio Settings.

Option 2: Before the Meeting

Open the Zoom application on your current computer. Since this setting deals with the audio on the computer you are using, you will need to change this setting for different computers and desktops you use.

Next, click on the gear icon at the top right corner of your application. This will take you into your settings.

Once in Settings: Suppress Background Noise

In the Audio tab, there is an option to suppress background noise. The default is Auto, but you may choose High to suppress even loud noises such as typing and dog barks.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about the content covered in this article, please feel free to contact Information Services at [email protected] or (310) 506-7425.

David Dickens Faculty

Opening Your Door with Your ID PIN Number

Step 1:

Take out your ID card and place it against the black sensor until the light on the lock flashes green (This will still work if your ID card is in your wallet).

Step 2:

Enter your 4 digit PIN number on the keypad after you have tapped your card and the indicator light has flashed green (If you do not know your PIN number please refer to the secondary directions at the bottom of this page).

Step 3:

After scanning the card, seeing the indicator light flash green, and entering your 4 digit PIN number the door should unlock and open normally.

How to Find Your Door Code PIN Number

Step 1:

Log onto WaveNet. From the employee tab on the top menu bar of your screen, select “ID card PIN Lookup” under the “EMPLOYEE RESOURCES” heading.

Step 2:

When prompted, agree to the terms of service in order to continue.

Step 3:

Enter your Network ID and password.

Step 4:

You will be redirected to a page that shows your ID card PIN number.

David Dickens Faculty

Laptop/Travel Preparation – Law Faculty

If you are planning a trip and will bring your university laptop with you, there are a few things you should do before you get too far along in your planning:

  1. Contact the Information Services Team to schedule a pre-trip checkup of your university laptop
  2. If you are going out of the country, you may need to plan for an adapter or other means to plug in and charge the laptop. Here’s a pretty good resource for checking the power plug requirements around the world: https://www.power-plugs-sockets.com/
  3. Consider your internet connectivity options in that location. Pepperdine offers a WiFi service called “EduRoam” that will enable you to use a trusted network at participating locations. The important thing here is to set up your EduRoam account from a trusted network (your office) before you leave.
  4. Make sure you have backups of your important data. Part of the checkup mentioned in #1 above will include a review of your installed auto backup system.
  5. You will also want to ensure that you have your active research and any course materials synchronized to Google Drive. If you need help with that, the Information Services Team will be glad to assist.
  6. Familiarize yourself with Wifi Calling if you are traveling outside of the country and may not be able to make international calls, or if you are traveling to an area where cell service may be limited. Wifi Calling is a great option if you do not wish to pay for international cell service or may only have access to wifi and not strong cell signal.
  7. If you will need to sign into your device with Secure Connect but will not have access to a secondary device, consider generating one time pass codes to take with you so you can still log in. You can generate multiple codes, each of which will last up to 90 days and will allow you to sign into your account once without another connected device.
  8. Consider how you plan to carry your computer with you… will you use a laptop bag or will you check it inside your luggage? If you plan to carry it with you, note that you must remove it from its bag at the TSA screening checkpoint.