If you have multiple File Explorer windows on your screen, the clutter and confusion can get in the way of the task at hand. Here’s the fast and easy way to re-arrange them:
– Right-click the taskbar.
– Choose Show windows stacked or Show windows side by side.
– That’s it!
Sometimes in Windows, when you double click on a file to open it e.g. a file that’s been sent to you, the wrong app can open. Here’s how to make sure you select the right app for your file:
– Right-click your file.
– Choose Open with, then Choose another app.
– Make sure the ‘Always use this app’ box is checked before you pick.
– Scroll down to ‘More apps’ if you can’t see the right one at the top of the list.
If you need to access certain files or folders quickly in Windows, you can help yourself by being able to easily create instant shortcuts to them. Here’s how:
– Go to the folder or file that you’ll need fast access to.
– Hold down Alt then drag it from a File Explorer window to the desktop (or anywhere else on disk).
– Right-click on it.
– Choose Properties to make changes to the new shortcut, e.g. the program it opens up with by default.
If you’re running Windows and you’d like to save some space on your disk, there is a way to quickly pack files into a compressed archive, with no third-party software required. Here’s how:
– Select the files you want to compress.
– Right-click on part of the selection.
– Choose ‘Send to and Compressed’ (zipped) folder.
If you have a number of files in Windows that you want to rename but don’t want to waste time renaming them all one-by-one, here’s a quick way to rename them all at once:
– Select multiple files (with Shift+click or Ctrl+click) in File Explorer.
– Right-click on them and choose ‘Rename’.
– The filename you enter is given to all the selected files, with a different number added on the end.
If your phone has limited memory storage and you regularly use Facebook and Twitter, installing lightweight versions of these apps could help to speed up your phone.
Facebook Lite, for example, works just as well as the full version yet uses a fraction of the resources of the full app. The Facebook Lite app is small and allows you to save space on your phone and use Facebook in 2G conditions. To use it:
– Go to play.google.com
– Locate the app, and install it.
– n.b. Google also has lightweight versions of YouTube
Also, Twitter has a lightweight client which you can find at mobile.twitter.com.
Amazon’s Echo speakers may be used mainly in the home, but putting the listening / privacy fears aside, they can be useful in a business setting, particularly in small business settings / home offices. With this in mind, here are four skills commands that could help you:
Create Reminders – Alexa can act like a personal assistant. For example, you can tell Alexa exactly what you need to remember e.g. business appointments on certain days / times and it will remind you of that task and time. To create a reminder, say the task and its time such as, “Alexa, remind me to review customer accounts 10 a.m. every Monday”.
Create Distinctive Voice Profiles – By setting up voice profiles, Alexa can distinguish who is issuing the command e.g. different people in the office can ask “Alexa, what’s on my calendar?” Ask Alexa for details of how to do it.
ChatBot Skill – By enabling the ChatBot skill, workers can audibly request Alexa to post on their behalf. This can aid productivity. It can be achieved by linking an Amazon account to a Slack account. Users can then post to a specific channel by asking simply Alexa.
Find Your Phone – You can use Alexa to help you find your phone by using your voice. This is a free skill available from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076PHYQD2?ie=UTF8&ref-suffix=ss_rw. The phone should ring even if it is on silent. It may not work if your phone is in Do Not Disturb mode, but you can add multiple people by name to call different phones instead of just one.
If you use Microsoft Outlook and you don’t want an important email that you need to follow up with to get lost among the deluge of each new day’s emails, you can keep track of it by creating a ‘For Follow Up’ folder. Here’s how:
– Click the Folder tab on the top of Outlook: File > New > Search Folder.
– The New Search Dialog Box will pop up.
– Select the ‘Mail Flagged for Follow Up’ option from the ‘Reading Mail’ dropdown list.
– Click ‘Ok’, then right click ‘For Follow Up’ in the Navigation Pane.
– Right click, and then click ‘Show in Favourites’.
– You will now have a ‘For Follow Up’ Folder amongst your other folders.
n.b. If you hover above the time-stamp in the message, you can click the follow up flag to add it to the list, instead of having to choose it from the Follow Up drop-down from the tool bar.
If you’ve struggled to use the keyboard on an iPhone and found it a little unwieldy, or had difficulty reaching across the entirety of the keyboard when you have only one hand free, here’s how to adjust the size and position of the keyboard in iOS 11 so you can use it with just one hand:
– Hold down the emoji / globe icon on the keyboard.
– Three small keyboard icons will appear.
– Selecting the one with an arrow pointing to the right will shift the keyboard to the right, and selecting the one pointing to the left will shift the keyboard to the left.
– To put the keyboard back to normal, tap the arrow in the blank space that’s created by the keyboard shift, or hold down the emoji icon again and select the ‘centre’ icon.
If you want the general added security of not being tracked when you’re browsing without having to switch to full security incognito mode, here’s how to enable ‘Do Not Track’ in Microsoft Edge:
– For Microsoft Edge, click on the three horizontal dots at the top right.
– Click on ‘Settings’ at very bottom.
– Click on ‘View advanced settings’ at the bottom.
– Scroll down to the Privacy and Services section, and toggle the ‘Send Do Not Track’ requests option.
– This should mean that all HTTP and HTTPS requests will include ‘Do Not Track’.