2011 G5 Q&A and Tips Generated by SPDG Projects

      Section A (Qualitative Narrative): Issues Entering Data  

    The Department has heard from several Project Directors experiencing difficulty entering Performance Measure data into G-5 for their annual continuation reports. We have recommended working offline, and then cutting and pasting your data into the appropriate fields.  Please continue to follow that advice.  But a few Project Directors have reported a new glitch – all of a sudden they are no longer able to enter new data; it is as if the system locks down.

After consulting G-5 HelpDesk staff, the suggested work around is to back out of G-5 and re-enter the system.   This clears the cache, and will allow you to continue entering the data.  G-5 staff are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it.

Section A (Qualitative Narrative): Punctuation / Special Characters Issues

Another tip that several people learned the hard way is the system does not like “special characters” – such as, apostrophes, em dashes, bulleted lists, and quotation marks.  The grantees had written up very nicely formatted reports but the system turned these special characters into squiggles or strange graphics. There are two solutions for addressing this issue.

1. Avoid using apostrophes, bullets, em dashes, or quotation marks altogether. For example, instead of a bulleted list use a hyphen, spaces, paragraph mark for each item. 
2. Leave punctuation as is and copy and paste into G5. Then search and replace all the squiggly graphics that appear with the appropriate punctuation/ special characters. Remember to save after making the changes. Note, there isn’t a formatting feature within G5 to create a bulleted list so you’ll need to use a spaces, hyphen, and paragraph returns for list-making.

Section A: Where do I upload attachments for the Project Objectives / Performance Measures?

Attachments for Section A: Project Objective /Program Measures are uploaded as part of the PDF in Section C, after the ‘Additional Information’ section. Should you have multiple attachments you must combine the PDF files into one PDF document as Section C only allows one upload. In order to combine PDF files, you’ll need a read/write version of Adobe Acrobat.  Alternatively, you may combine all your attachments in MS Word then save the file as a PDF document.

For example, a grantee may upload a 40 page attachment – which includes three separate documents 1) Section C: Additional Information-description of personnel changes (pg. 1);  2) Program Measure 1: SPDG Evidenced-based Professional Development Components Worksheet (pgs. 2-16); 3) Project Objective 5: Coaches Survey Summary Report (pgs. 16-40).  Should you have questions about this, please feel free to contact Audrey at 541.346.0373.

Executive Report, Sections B & C: Issues Viewing Uploaded PDFs 

After uploading a PDF for section C, some individuals have reported difficulty in viewing/printing their uploaded file while using ‘Firefox Mozilla’ browser. Should this occur, try logging into G5 using Internet Explorer to view/print PDF files.

 I was recently appointed the new Principle Investigator/Project Director and I am unable to access G5. What do I do? 

Contact your Project Officer to request your name be loaded into the G5 system. If your name isn’t in the system, you will be unable to access your project forms.