YouTube Slow Motion Effect

YouTube is always updating its service to make it better and sometimes it means adding a useful effect. One I like that has recently been introduced is the slow motion effect. In this week’s tutorial I use a video I have of a helicopter landing and slow it down.

If you don’t have a YouTube account it is easy to set up all you need is an email address of simply set up a Google account. If you have a Gmail account you may be ready to go or almost ready to go.

For more tutorials see my website www.jargonfreehelp.com

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Stopping Facebook Updates from Your Friends

How many of your friends are updating their Facebook so often you actually wonder where they have the time to do anything else. You might find that they fill up your news feed and miss other posts or perhaps the updates are a little boring, like what sandwich they are eating or where they are going.

So you might not want to unfriend them but free up your news feed, in this video I’ll show you how to do it.

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Multitasking Using the Samsung Galaxy S4

If you want to see two apps running at the same time on the Samsung Galaxy S4 then you can do that with multiview. You may want to read emails and keep up to date with Facebook or Twitter. Perhaps you want to have a map open with some landmarks noted in your memo app.

The video below shows you how it works.

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Why Go To Apple When You Have a Broken Screen

Sadly many of us have experienced the disappointment of breaking your screen on your beloved iPhone and immediately start shopping around to find the cheapest option for getting it fixed. However, this is not always a good idea and the best option, although more costly is to go to Apple or an authorised reseller, and here is why (by the way this information is from my own investigations when having to get a screen fixed and Apple have not encouraged me to say any of this).

1. When you drop the iPhone, a common way to end up with a shattered screen, it may have done more damage inside, the phone may continue to work ok but something may be lurking. It could be the SIM card tray which may only be a problem when swapping or removing a SIM card or something else.

2. Apple use genuine Apple parts to replace the screen so you know it fits better. So although the phone is not waterproof there is a better seal if done by Apple to stop little bits of water and dirt from getting in.

Apple replaces your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with a fully refurbished one, so no waiting around for it to be replaced. They will run though a checklist with you and help set it up.

You do need backup your phone before taking it to Apple.

You may not be bothered and willing to take the chance as the bottom line is often the cost and willing to chance that something else may not be broken, but if you are wondering why it costs more at Apple this may have helped.

Posted in iOS6, Iphone | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Word Hyperlinks: Creating Links to Websites, Emails and Files

Adding a link to a website, email address or file in a Word document can be very useful. When you type in a website or email address it automatically creates the link, however, you may want to remove the link as you don’t alway want to automatically have this link created.

Another feature is linking to a file which could be another Word document, an Excel file, PowerPoint presentation, PDF, image or movie.

In this video I show you how to create and managed links in Word documents.

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Voicemail on Samsung Galaxy S4 on O2

I recently had to get another phone, well an additional phone.  I still have the iPhone for personal use but needed something for work so I opted for a Samsung Galaxy S4. Before I get on to the irritating fact I had to set up my voicemail and could not find any instructions to do this, there was nothing wrong with my iPhone.

What was annoying about setting up the voicemail was the lack of information. There was nothing in the quick start guide, handbook or online manual. I Googled it and there were some helpful people who had written about it but nothing obvious from 02.

First up I had to activate the voicemail otherwise callers couldn’t leave a message. All I had to do was call 1750 from the phone and follow the prompts.
Now that was done I set it up so that I could just hold down the 1 on the keypad or access my voicemail from the notifications.

To set it up make sure you are in the phone app.
1. Tap on the menu and select Call settings.
2. Scroll down to Voicemail settings and tap on it.
3. Then tap on Voicemail number.
4. Input the voicemail number, for O2 it is 901. Then tap on OK.
5. Tap the back button until you are back on the screen you want.

That’s it. For other carriers they will probably have a different voicemail number so check with them.

 

Posted in Android, mobile devices, Samsung Galaxy S4 | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Sharing Files and Folders Using Dropbox

Dropbox is an excellent tool for storing files online, in addition it is also really easy to share files and folders with family, friends, clients and colleagues. If they have a Dropbox account then they can share the same folder and you can both save files and download files too from the same folder. This is great for collaborating. If they don’t have a Dropbox account you can still share with them and they can download the files.

In this video I’ll show you how to share files and folders.

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Using Dropbox – What Does It Do?

Dropbox is simply one of my favourite apps and so many people I know use it, however, there are many out there who are not sure about it or don’t know how to use the features like sharing and version histories.

Dropbox makes sharing easy on Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, iPads, iPhones, iPod touchs, Androids, Blackberrys and I’m sure the list will keep growing.

Getting started on Dropbox is free. If you want to sign up to Dropbox it is free and you get 2GB for that which seems to be enough for many people, however, you can get more by fulfilling some criteria such as inviting other people to join Dropbox and them accepting. You an also pay for more space, I do this and pay US$99 per year and get 100GB for that.

For many of us sharing files is useful with friends, family and colleagues. I find this really useful, I create a folder and share it, the individual or group I share it with can also add to that folder. Great for sharing, great for collaborating. If I add photographs they are easily viewable as Dropbox as a nice way to view the photos and by using the arrows move through the folder.

Version history can really get you out of a hole, it is a feature called Packrat in Dropbox and you do have to pay for it. What it allows you to do is recovery, easily, deleted files and you can also restore previous versions of files you have works on. So if you do something to a document you can go back to a previous version you saved. You don’t have to give each one a separate file name it just manages the versions for you. The neat thing about this is if you decide to add this feature it you will have to upgrade from the free version. What is neat is that when you do sign up files that have been changed or deleted in the 30 days leading up to you signing up will be there. Packrat is US$39 per year. I think that is reasonable for such a useful feature. Imagine no more lost files.

Posted in Computing, iPad, Iphone, mobile devices, productivity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Creating Newspaper Style Columns in Word

If you are creating a newsletter or just need to use columns in a Word document then using columns is something that is easy to use and quick to learn.

Here in this video tutorial you will see how to do this in Word using either the Windows or Mac version.

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Excel: 3D Formulas

If you have been creating formulas in Excel then you may have been wondering about what to do if you have a formula that needs to used values from different worksheets or workbooks. This is known as a 3D formula. The same applies to functions too.

You can easily create a formula that uses values from different worksheets, this could be something like different sheets have data for individual month, each month could show a total profit and you want to total all of these up on a summary sheet, this is where you would use a 3D formula. This is not the only occasion you would do this, it could be you have a sheet with currencies on it that you need use on other sheets or even in another workbook, perhaps you also have a value for sales tax on one sheet and need to use it on another. As you can see there are many reasons to use a 3D formula.

In this video you will see how to make a 3D formula.

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