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If you don't see the name of the Principal Investigator on the pull-down list
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Recently, we enhanced PINS to restrict the pull-down lists to only those
names which a user had edit or approval permission for (including their
own by default). The good news was that it speeded up the system, since
it didn't need to load thousands of unnecessary names. But it did cause
an occasional problem where an investigator or staff member was trying to
enter a proposal for someone else, and their name didn't show up on the
pull-down.
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To remedy this, we've added the "Expand Investigator List" button, just
under the Principal Investigator field. If you click that button the form
will reload itself, and the PI field will have every name in the database
available.
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Two things to be aware of: you will need to save your proposal before
clicking, if you have begun data entry; and it will take a few moments for
the form to reload, since it will be much bigger than the default.
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Adopt? I have enough trouble with my OWN kids!!
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The "Adopt" function has been added to the approval lists in order to let
SPARCS organize our upcoming paperless proposal processing procedures more
easily. This feature lets the person handling the proposal mark it as
"theirs", letting others know that it's being handled and by whom. Just
clicking the "Adopt" button will mark the record, and list the person's
Unity ID, and the date and time of the adoption. All the other processors
at this level then know that this proposal is being processed, and who
would be able to field questions about it. We use the Unity ID instead of
the full name to save space on the screen. If a proposal is transferred
to someone else for processing, that second person can click "Adopt" and
replace the adoption information with their own Unity ID and the current
date.
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The "adopter" information (Unity ID only, no date) is also shown on the
View Proposals in Process list, which lets others at other points in the
approval process know who is handling the proposal at the time. If the
proposal is pending at more than one unit in a step (two college offices,
for example) you'll see two Unity IDs if someone has adopted the proposal
in each office.
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We developed this feauture to help us organize our work, but we've made it
available to everyone who approves proposals. Offices where there are
more than one or two people handling proposals may find this feature
useful. If you don't use it for internal orgaiization, you can use it to
let people know who to call about a particular proposal.
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The Adopt function doesn't change anything in the way a proposal is routed
or approved--it's completely optional as far as the PINS functions are
concerned. We hope that research administration offices on campus will
find it useful. If you have any questions, please call the PINS Helpline
(5-4267) for more information.
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New Approval Process for College Research Offices
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The approval screen at the College Research Office step has been changed
slightly. Before you approve the proposal, you will be asked to indicate
whether the proposal will be signed in the college office, signed in the
SPARCS office, or signed in SPARCS with rush handling.
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When we move to paperless proposal processing in January, 2005, this
information will help us to determine which proposals will need immediate
attention without a paper copy to act as a prompt. We'll do this by
color-coding our approval lists according to the information entered at
the college approval step.
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Please note that the Rush designation refers only to a request for SPARCS
to rush the proposal while signing it--it does not have to be checked if
the proposal has received rush handling in the college office, but was
signed there and can receive normal handling in SPARCS.
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This change is effective immediately--the system will not accept an
approval unless one of the three options is checked. As always, please do
not hesitate to call the PINS Help Line at 515-4267 if you have any
questions.
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Viewing Your Proposals in Process
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This new main menu item returns a list of proposals that fit three
criteria: first, the routing has been initialized; second, you have the
right to approve it at one or more steps; and third, it has not yet been
approved at Sponsored Programs (the final step).
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For investigators, this means that you have a list of all your proposals
that are still in process, which you can use to track their progress along
the approval path.
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For department heads and center directors, it means that you can get an
early look at proposals before they come to your desk for approval, and
you can track them as the proceed through the college and Sponsored
Programs approval steps.
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For college research offices, you can see what your upcoming workload is
likely to be, and see which proposals still need to be processed at the
final step (the proposals will drop off the list when they are approved at
Sponsored Programs).
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In the near future we will be adding more information to this screen,
including information about which step the proposal has reached in the
approval process, and which individual in Sponsored Programs is handling
the proposal.
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Return to PINS
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Windows XP, Internet Explorer and Popups
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We have received reports of some problems using PINS on machines equipped
with Windows XP, especially in the routines that add work locations to
PINS proposals. Here are some tips that should help your work go more
smoothly.
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First, check to be sure that you don't have a third-party popup blocker
operating. The popular Google toolbar has a popup blocker operating by
default. You can see a message on the toolbat that reads "xx popups
blocked". To allow popups from PINS just click on that message while PINS
is active (it's also a button). The message will change to "Site popups
allowed".
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If you are using Windows XP, Service Pack 2, it has installed a popup
blocker into your copy of Internet Explorer. Again, it's on by default,
and you need to specify which sites you want to allow. To do this, select
Tools/Pop-up Blocker/Pop-up Blocker Settings from the IE menu, type the
name of the site you want to allow in the "Address of Web site to allow"
box, and click Add.
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Access Page
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Advice on Browsers
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We have designed PINS to work on as many browsers as possible. However,
there are a few things you should be aware of.
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First, your browser needs to have Javascript and cookies enabled in order
to use the ACS authentication system (this is usually enabled by default).
You also need to have popup windows allowed, not blocked. If you use a
popup blocker, add the site acspins.acsad.ncsu.edu to
your list of allowed sites. Sometimes a third-party popup blocker can be
added to your system without your knowledge--check your toolbars if you
have trouble accepting popups.
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Our recommended browser for all platforms is Mozilla--it is free, easy to
download and install, and comes in versions for Windows, Macintosh and
UNIX/Linux. We have also tested PINS on Windows using Internet Explorer
(version 6 and later only) and Netscape (version 7 and later only). You
should avoid earlier versions of IE and Netscape, especially Netscape 4.x.
On the Mac both Netscape and Safari work, but Mozilla provided the best
performance in our tests. The latest version of IE for the Mac is too old
to provide reliable performance with PINS. On UNIX/Linux, you should get
good performance with Mozilla--we have not been able to test as thoroughly
and invite feedback from users.
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Remember to take advantage of the typeahead feature when using long
drop-down lists (investigators, sponsors, etc.). When the field is in
focus, just start typing the name you want to see and the selected item
will change to match what you type.
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Handling Documents
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Currently, PINS does not have the capacity to delete uploaded documents.
However, you can overwrite documents by uploading the correct document
using the same file name as the one you want removed. This will replace
the original document with the new one. If you do upload an incorrect
document and can't replace it, please put a note in the "Comments" section
of the proposal asking us to ignore the wrong file.
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If you attach the wrong document type to a document (calling it an
abstract instead of a budget justification, for example), just upload the
document again with the correct type selected. This will replace the old
type with the correct one.
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