Recommended Common Goods Tools
- Kevyn A Barnes
Office 365
All full-time staff have access to Office 365: https://ut.service-now.com/sp/?id=ut_bs_service_detail&sys_id=b9d65c7c4ff9d200f6897bcd0210c77e
- Email (Exchange Online)
- Skype for Business
- Web Applications & Content Management (SharePoint Online)
- Storage (OneDrive)
- Voice/Video/Chat (Skype for Business)
- Collaboration (Teams and Office Online)
- Desktop Applications (Office ProPlus)
Training
Lynda online training
Free for current University faculty and staff. Online training videos for business, IT, web design, marketing, and more. Popular courses:
- Civil engineering tutorials: http://www.lynda.com/Civil-Engineering-training-tutorials/6461-0.html
- "On Camera: Develop Your Video Presence": http://www.lynda.com/Video-Shooting-Video-tutorials/Camera-Develop-Your-Video-Presence/108973-2.html
- Weekly Microsoft Office Workshop: http://www.lynda.com/Excel-tutorials/Weekly-Office-Workshop/165644-2.html
Graphics / Visualizations
- Microsoft Visio is available to faculty & staff : https://ut.service-now.com/sp/?id=kb_article&number=KB0017134
- ArcGIS Pro: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/install-gis-software/arcgis-pro
- ArcMap: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/install-gis-software/arcmap
- QGIS: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/install-gis-software/qgis
- mapwarper.net (free on web):
Productivity
UT Stache 
(Password Management)
UT's Stache service is a highly security cloud service for storing your passwords. It can also securely share passwords with other UT staff (valid UT EID required) if needed for a project or group account. You can designate other people to own, edit, or just view the password in question. Each password you enter is secure to you alone until you share it. More info: /wiki/spaces/ISO/pages/42019202
UT Short Link service (File sharing, web, tracking)
UT's alternative to bit.ly, tiny.cc, and tinyURL services. It allows the original creator to track use of the link over time. The link includes the trusted "utexas.edu" domain. It does not work on all links and can not be customized nor can it be updated once created. http://links.utexas.edu
In this example: http://links.utexas.edu/CRMLVMN directs to a much more complicated URL
UT Box (File sharing)
UT now offers Box Enterprise Service (UTBox) for all students, faculty and staff. UTBox is a cloud hosted data storage service similar to Dropbox so you can share files with specific people or send a link to let anybody have access to view and/or edit files in a specific folder. Unlike the commercial services, UTBox meets the security requirements for UT Category 1 data. Dropbox and others should not be used for UT Cat1 data as they do not meet UT standards.
UT Lists
This service is for UT faculty, staff, and students to create mailing groups for discussions, updates, etc. It can be for work group discussions, alerts to staff, or even buy/sell/trade casual discussions. They can be open to anyone to subscribe or may be more restricted by the list owners. When an email is received from one of these lists, it will have the list name in brackets at the head of the subject line: ** software & design of the subscription interface will be updated March/April 2018
EasyBib plug-in for MS Office
"EasyBib, a Chegg service, is one of the world’s most popular bibliography and citation management tools, used by millions of students worldwide to automatically cite sources in just a few clicks. With the EasyBib Add-in for Office 365, you can: Save time by automatically citing a book, website, or journal article using an ISBN, URL, or source title. Easily create, save, and add citations directly into your paper without ever leaving your document. Save effort by choosing to automatically format your citations in MLA, APA, or Chicago style."
EndNote http://guides.lib.utexas.edu/c.php?g=539686&p=3694904
Citation management software that helps you collect, store, organize and cite sources. The reduced cost desktop version is recommended for large research projects. The free online version is recommended for smaller research projects.
GitHub
https://github-dev.austin.utexas.edu/
Introduction to GitHub: https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/
OpenRefine http://openrefine.org/download.html
OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool for working with messy data: cleaning it; transforming it from one format into another; and extending it with web services and external data. OpenRefine is available in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese (Brazil), German, Japanese, Italian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Filipino, Cebuano, Tagalog.
Accessibility
Visualizations
- Colour Contrast Analyser https://developer.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrastanalyser/
The Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA) helps you determine the legibility of text and the contrast of visual elements, such as graphical controls and visual indicators. - ColorBrewer http://colorbrewer2.org/
Allows you to select color combinations that are accessible to colorblind readers and/or printer safe. - WebAim Color Contrast Checker https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/
Text must be 508 compliant on all documents (WCAG AA). This tool tests whether your text color and background allow for accessibility.
Video Captioning and Transcriptions
https://captioning.lib.utexas.edu/
Surveys
Qualtrics Survey Tool
Create surveys using UT's licensed Qualtrics Survey Tool. This is also useful for event registrations or polls. More info: http://www.utexas.edu/its/survey/
See comment below about Qualtrics accessibility issues (you can't use every option in Qualtrics).
For more complex surveys and data analysis, see Michael's comment below about free consulting from the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences. In addition, part of the UT License includes some support from Qualtrics Research Services including survey design and help targeting specific audiences. Contacts are Megan Anderson <megana@qualtrics.com> and Carter Smith <carters@qualtrics.com>
