Control + F

One of my daily visits brought me to a growing business today. As I waited to work on one of the employee’s computers, I noticed that she spent a good 10-15 seconds scrolling through a medium size spreadsheet looking for a particular entry. I then asked if I could give her a quick tip on how to search through her spreadsheet faster using Ctrl+F on her keyboard. She said, “sure”. When you push Ctrl+F in a...

How to find your FREE iPhone or iPad User Guide &#...

If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch from Apple, they have provided you a complete and free user guide right on your device. To find it, just launch the Safari web browser, tap the bookmarks icon, then swipe to the bottom of the list to find the guide. Apple also provides a free PDF download version of their device manuals you can save to your computer and print yourself or take to a copy shop and have them print and...

How to print labels the EASY way! – Video Tip

You can learn and start using this tip TODAY to make Christmas card or group mailings a breeze. AND, I’ve included a template for you at the end of the article (below the video). Too many computer users have no idea what a database is, how to use it, and how to merge it with another program to create labels. Since printing mailing labels is only a once per year activity for many of you, learning how to do it again every...

Make reading the web easier than ever – Vide...

Although we now have 19″ and larger monitors on most new desktop computers, the text seems to shrink. Why is that? It has to do with screen resolution (how much information can be displayed). Screen resolutions on today’s monitors are up to 3X that of monitors we used just 6-8 years ago. We can see a lot more information, but often the text is too small to view for some computer users. Never fear. Using this...

How to add new music to iTunes then sync to iPad, ...

Pretty straightforward tip for a client today who wanted to learn how to add music from CDs he owned to his computer so he could then put them on his iPad and iPhone. Here are the...

Apple iPad – Take 2

Last year, I introduced the Grand Valley Computer Users Group to the iPad and discussed what it was, how it worked, and why it might just replace laptops or computers for some computer users. After carrying one around for a year, I am more sold than ever on the utility and easy of use of these little technology jewels. In today’s class/meeting, I again discussed the what and why’s of the iPad (click here to...

How to use keyboard shortcuts with your iPhone or ...

If you own an iPhone or iPad, learning to use keyboard shortcuts to speed up entry of commonly used words, phrases, or names can be a boon to your productivity and your relationship with your iPhone or iPad. Instead of having to always type your full email address in forms, or your full name, or mailing address, or any other phrase or words you have to often use, create a keyboard shortcut for them! Here’s how to use...

Enable dictation for FREE with new Apple OSX Mount...

Since I bought my first computer, I have been borderline obsessed with voice recognition, using your voice to input text instead of the keyboard. With the release of the newest version of the Apple operating system for their computers, dubbed Mountain Lion or Mac OSX 10.87, that function is now a standard feature of the system. It does require an Internet connection because the dictation happens on the Apple servers and then...

2 Quick Tips for iPad or iPhone Users – Vide...

Over the last year or so, I have started answering more and more questions about iPhones and iPads. And like computers, I find that iPhone and iPad owners want to know more about their devices, but most of all want to master the basics that make the device useful. In today’s tip, you will learn about two iPad/iPhone basics that can help you keep your battery running longer, switch between apps faster, and find the apps...

How to find the best apps in Apple’s App Sto...

If you use an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you have access to more than 600,000 apps (at the time of this writing) and growing. Great news right? Yes and no. If you don’t practice a little search narrowing , then finding a good app can be a frustrating and time consuming experience. In this tip, I give you a step-by-step outline on how to quickly and accurately separate the good apps from the mediocre or poor apps. Give...

Adding Photos to an iPad or iPhone using Picasa &#...

This week I worked with a gentleman ironing out how to use Picasa to add photos to his iPad. These are the notes (download PDF version here) I took for him and left with him. The only steps not shown in the notes below are how to create a folder called iPad (or iPhone) then configure that folder in iTunes to sync to your iPad or iPhone. Here’s how to do that (click the screen shot below the steps to see a larger...

Notes from helping a cartoonist

Today’s notes were created for a cartoonist who has a Mac and has already learned how to scan in his cartoons (via my tutelage months ago), but now he wanted to learn how to add his captions using the computer. The goal was to get it done with as few steps as possible and with his existing software. We used Apple Pages and Preview to get the job done. For your convenience, here is a PDF file of the notes...

How to password protect PDF files with Mac OS X &#...

A client today had a need to learn how to password protect PDF files on their iMac and MacBook Air. With OS X, the process is quite easy…here it...

Creating documents in Apple Pages – Notes

Some notes for a client with a new MacBook Air. She wanted to create a Christmas letter with photos and colored text. She was amazed at what could be done with a few keystrokes and mouse clicks in Pages that she already had installed. I did learn that Pages has a cool reduce file size option to shrink large graphics. Works very well. In addition to helping her learn to create rich documents, I taught her how to export her...

Notes from a session with a MacBook user

These notes were created while sitting with a customer who uses a MacBook and was learning how to use his Gmail account. You can find all of these tips in my other Gmail tips, but here’s what I left for him. Here is a PDF Version of Gmail...