What exactly is my Instructional Palette Account?

Every student enrolled in credit classes at GCC has a Palette account. This Palette Account grants access to course-related software, internet browsers, email, a standard suite of tools and a wide range of other resources accessible on campus.

If you're off-campus, you can still access your H: and S: Drives using either the web-based [NetStorage] interface or a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. Please see Working Off Campus for more information regarding [NetStorage] and FTP.

To get started and login to your Palette Account, you will need to obtain your Palette Username and Password.

What resources are available as part of the Instructional Palete Account?

The Windows Standard Suite of Tools includes: Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, [PowerPoint], and Access).

Macintosh computers have Mac OS X and Office X (Word, Excel, [PowerPoint] and Entourage).

Both platforms have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) capabilities, anti-virus software, Internet Browsers, and email clients. To learn more about FTP, please visit the Working Off-[SiteSection].

Can I customize my account settings? And, what is a Roaming Profile?

Yes. If you work on a Windows computer, you can customize many elements of the desktop and Office applications. On both platforms, you can customize many settings in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. These settings will be saved in your Roaming Profile, and stored in your personal storage space on the network. These settings and your documents will be accessible to you when you log in to your Palette Account from any Palette workstation. A few settings will save across platforms.

In most cases, your changes will be saved automatically when you logout of your account. Settings are retained from semester to semester; if you want the latest defaults, restore your account to the default settings.