Count Your Words

If you write articles or have to submit your bio for something, they often suggest a limit to how many words you can use. NO, you don’t have to count them by hand. Built into Microsoft Word and Pages is a word count tool.

In Word, click on the Tools menu and choose Word Count

In Pages, click on the Inspector, click on the left icon for information about the document and click on the Info tab.

iPad Tip of the Week

Are You Missing Your Bookmarks Bar?

By default, Safari does NOT show the Bookmarks Bar, but, if you’re like me, it’s where all of your frequently visited website are, and you’d like to be able to access them from your iPad and iPhone too.

To see the Bookmarks Bar in Safari

1. Tap Settings.

2. In the left column tap Safari.

3. In the top section on the right, next to Always Show Bookmarks Bar, slide to On.

4. This is also where you can control whether Safari opens New Tabs in the Background.

5. If you’re not sure what this does, turn it on, open some pages in Safari, and you’ll see that each page stays opened as a tab that you can X to close or tap back onto to reopen.

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4 Ways to Highlight Text

Dragging across a word or a sentence or paragraph is one way to highlight the text so that you can delete it, copy it or cut it.

But here are several alternatives, depending on what you are selecting:

~ To highlight a single word: double click in the word

~ To highlight an entire paragraph, triple click on any word

~ To select a long section of text, click at the beginning of the section, hold down the Shift key and click at the end. Everything between the two clicks will be highlighted

~ In Microsoft Word (not Pages, sorry) you can select two unconnected blocks of text to copy and paste! Highlight one sentence, then hold down the Command key while highlighting the second sentence. Both will be selected. You can copy or cut them and when you paste them, they will appear together, as two separate paragraphs.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Apps to Help You See Better

iMagnifier: iMagnifier is just one of several free apps that magnifies text, making it easier to read menus and other printed materials.

Use the Search feature of the App store to see all of the choices and compare their different features and user ratings.

Combine the magnifier with a free Flashlight app, and you can really see better.

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File Names with Microsoft Office 2011

If you can no longer open documents that were created in a previous version of Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, it’s probably because of the file name. It may be too long or, it contains a slash or other no-longer-acceptable characters.

To change the name of a file:

1. Click once on the item

2. Press the Return key to highlight the file name

3. Type a new name. If you press the left or right arrow key it will move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text

4. Press the Return key when done

Now try opening the file and it will probably work!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

All About Sounds

You can control what sounds play when different things happen. Maybe you don’t like the sound when you unlock your device. Maybe you prefer NOT to hear a sound every time you receive or send an email or when someone sends you a text or leaves a voicemail.

It’s easy to choose which sounds and alerts you want to hear.

1. Click on Settings.
2. Click on Sounds.
3. Scroll through the list, choosing which you want on and which you want off.

This is also where you can choose a different ringtone and make the Vibrate feature silent.

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Important Tips for Gmail Users

If you send and receive your Gmail mail using Apple Mail’s postage stamp, there are a few settings you need to check.

1. In Mail, under the Mail menu, choose Preferences

2. Click on the Accounts Tab

3. Click on the Gmail account in the left column

4. Click on the Account Information tab to determine if this is a POP account or an IMAP account

~ If it’s IMAP account

1. click on the the Mailbox Behaviors tab and

2. Remove the check mark so that:

3. you DO NOT store Drafts on the server

4. you DO NOT store Sent messages on the server

5. you DO NOT store Junk messages on the server

6. you DO NOT store deleted messages on the server

~ If it’s a POP account

1. click on the Advanced tab

2. Put a check mark next to Remove copy from server and choose When moved from Inbox in the pull down menu. This will help minimize the emails that you delete on one device from appearing on other devices if you haven’t recently checked mail on them.

5. Close the Preferences window and Save your changes

6. You might also want to log into your Gmail account via the internet and be sure that you don’t have a large number of old emails in the Trash there… If you do, take the time to delte them all.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Split the Keyboard

If you find the keyboard on the iPad to be too cramped, you can split it, separating it so that it fits your typing hands better. This works in both portrait and landscape modes.

1. From the Home screen, tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll down to Keyboard and tap

4. Turn ON Split Keyboard

To use the split keyboard,

1. Tap any APP that requires typing

2. When the keyboard appears, use two fingers on the keyboard and pinch it open

3. Pinch it closed again to return to the standard keyboard

To move the keyboard around so that it isn’t covering your text

1. Tap and HOLD and drag on the Keyboard Toggle button in the bottom right corner of the keyboard

2. If you hold it too long before dragging, you’ll get the choice to Dock and Merge, meaning put the keyboard back together at the bottom of the screen