HELPFUL HINTS AND WORKAROUNDS – RSS
November 2014
RSS SRO SITE:
Do NOT use Internet Explorer to access RSS. Use Firefox, Chrome, or Safari to create your meeting. Firefox works best with RSS.
How to Change the Contact Person on the Staff Tab after Staff Have Been Already Added to a Meeting
a. Delete the person who is the contact person from the meeting.
b. Delete the person who is already on the meeting whom you want to make the contact person.
c. Add the person that you deleted in Step #2, designate a role for the person, and then make them the contact person.
d. Add the person that you deleted in Step #1, and designate a role for that person.
Reviewer Block View Date and Time
The Reviewer Block View Date field works on the Create a Meeting/Edit Meeting pages, but the Reviewer Block View Time is presently disconnected. We are working to get this fixed. If you would like reviewers not to be able to see your meeting after 5:00PM on the Meeting End Date, set the Reviewer Block View Date to be the day after the
Meeting End Date.
Anticipate Any Problems on the Reviewer Site by Putting Yourself on Your Meeting as a Reviewer
Add yourself as a reviewer to your meeting using your home or other non-NIH email address. Create a NIHExt account for it. Make sure that all proposals pdfs for your meeting can be opened and downloaded from the RSS Reviewer Site prior to making any of your potential reviewers, Official Reviewers” for your meeting
When Official Reviewers Are Unable to Open or Download Proposals from RSS
Try the following on the problem proposal pdf:
a. Open the original PDF using Adobe Acrobat (Not acrobat reader you need professional)
b.. Save original PDF as “.ps” file. In Adobe Acrobat go to File/Save as Other/More Option/PostScript
c.. While the file from step 2 is still open go to File/Create PDF From File
d. Save file on step 3 as pdf locally and upload it back to the application/proposal.
If the proposal name has a comma in it, or special character other than an underscore or a hyphen in it, change the name of the proposal name to one without a special character in it, and then re-upload the proposal to RSS.
RSS REVIEWER SITE:
Note about NIH Reviewers
NIH personnel from other institutes who are reviewers on your meeting can log on to your meeting at the link in their RSS Invite email with their NIH username and password. They do not need to create an NIHExt account.
When a Reviewer Cannot Log in Using their Commons Account:
Reviewers whose Commons password has expired will not be able to log-in to RSS. We have found at times that when reviewers are not able to log-in with their Commons username and password that their Commons password has expired. Commons users are able to update their password at: https://public.era.nih.gov/commons. Go to the link, ForgotPassword/Unlock Account?
Please make sure that potential reviewers who log in the first time in RSS use the link that is in their RSS Invitation Email to log in, NIAID’s Reviewer Support Site (RSS). It contains a key behind this link that will sync them with RSS the first time they log-in. They should NOT use the link, https:/rss-sro.niaid.nih.gov/Reviewer, the first time they log on to the system.
Saving Responses on a Web TESS:
In order to save their responses on an RSS web Technical Evaluation Score Sheet (TESS), a reviewer must indicate whether the proposal is acceptable or unacceptable and sign it in the Reviewer’s Signature box before pressing the SAVE button. Otherwise any responses entered by the reviewer will NOT be saved. These validations will not be required for the SAVE button in RSS’ next release. They will only be required for the Submit to SRO button.
FileOpen:
If the reviewer is not able to install FileOpen from the URL, http://plugin.fileopen.com/, the reviewer should go to http://plugin.fileopen.com/all.aspx and then select the appropriate link.
How can reviewers tell if they have FileOpen installed on their computers/laptops? Reviewers can click on Help on the AdobeReader menu bar, and then on About Third-Party Plug-ins. They will then see FileOpen Client when FileOpen has been installed successfully.
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