You don’t need a tripod or camera stand, just a few books and other bits can do the job. Don’t believe us? See the example set by His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, CC, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester,
There’s a simple and cheap way to expand the view of computer and smartphone cameras. Simple clip-on wide angle lenses can change the narrow view of a iPhone, iPad, smartphone or laptop camera into a wide view. They give you a wider view of a room which is great for
If you have words or longer sections of text that you type frequently and don’t want to have to type in full each time, Word allows you to set your own shortcuts to automatically enter this text in a few keystrokes either AutoCorrect or AutoText. There are two ways to
Google Sheets can be handy for sharing and working on spreadsheet files with other people, but sometimes you just really need that file in Excel. No problem – it’s actually really easy to convert them. All you have to do is download the file and save it as an Excel file. If
Need a webcam for online calls and meeting? No need to buy one because your iPhone, iPad or Android phone can double as a webcam. All you need is the right app. At the moment, it’s hard to even get a webcam. All the good models are sold out or
A lot of misleading talk about the Microsoft 365 change makes it seem a lot bigger and more of an upheaval than it really is. Time for a reality break … breath regular everyone. Headlines like these are all ‘bollocks’ as the British say, nonsense: Office 365 major shakeup Replacing
Zoom has some clever tricks available to make a meeting more efficient and fun. Virtual Backgrounds, sharing screens, files, chatting on the sidelines, raising your (virtual) hand and changing the boss of the meeting (aka Host). Also an important tip for PowerPoint in a Zoom meeting. Here’s some Zoom tricks
Here’s a readable and searchable version of the Microsoft 365 summary table that came with Microsoft’s announcement of the rebranding from Office 365 to Microsoft 365. It shows the differences between ‘free’ Office (with a Microsoft account), Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365 Personal) and Microsoft 365 Family (formerly Office
We’re delighted to announce a timely update to Beating Bots, Spies & Cock-ups All about safely and securely sending files and documents. Keeping your personal and business information private on the Internet. suits Windows and Mac, Office 365, Office 2019, Office 2016 and earlier New! April 2020 The April 2020
Microsoft has dumped a lot of news in a single day. As a result there’s a lot of misunderstanding and, sorry to say, misreporting. Journos not accustomed to Microsoft’s PR tricks have fallen for them. We’ll try to ‘unpack’ what’s been announced into what’s happening now, in the known future
A new grammar and language tool, formerly known as ‘Rewrite’ is now available in Microsoft Word and your browser. Microsoft Editor is an enhanced grammar tool that has been in versions of Word 365 since late last year under the name ‘Rewrite’. Making it available as a browser add-on is
Microsoft is developing a family or home version of their Teams service to allow small groups and families to share information and communicate online. It’s adapted from the existing business version of Teams but will include some useful features for families like shared calendar, assign tasks, chat, voice & video
Microsoft is dropping the Office 365 branding and switching to Microsoft 365 plans for annual ‘subscriptions’ to the Office programs and related services. These changes happen on 21 April 2020 but don’t mean any major change for customers. As we’ll see the new plans are almost the same as the
The Office 365 Business plans are changing name to the new Microsoft 365 branding with a somewhat confusing switch of names. It’s part of the switch from ‘Office 365’ to ‘Microsoft 365’ which happens on 21 April 2020. Goodbye Office 365, Welcome Microsoft 365 Same, same but different As they say
The Excel function EOMONTH() returns the date of last day in a month. With a little extra, it’ll tell you the number of days in any month. EOMONTH() is the Excel equivalent of the little rhyme ‘30 Days has September, April, June and November …’ plus it handles leap years with 29th
Zoom is a good online meeting & conferencing tool but with any collaboration tool comes risks for the unwary. There are options to protect yourself and others from people misusing Zoom. ‘Zoombombing’ is now a thing with people jumping into online meetings/classes then sending porn and other images to all
Some GoPro, camcorder, digital camera or DSLR cameras can be used as a webcam connected to your computer, with a little trickery and the right cables. Many camcorders and digital cameras have a video/audio output option. Look on the camera for a small HDMI socket or other output option. Those
For a different perspective on calling apps, we were delighted to receive this long and detailed message from Michael Joyce who has both the technical experience but regular use of calling apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Viber. Michael is just one reader who has a better experience with WhatsApp than
If someone asks you to Viber with them, here’s how to get ready for Viber and some settings you might like to change from defaults. Viber is a messaging, voice/video calling service similar to WhatsApp and Signal. Screen sharing and file transfers are also possible. Source: Viber We’ve seen Viber
Choose the best online call and conference service to keep in touch with the people in your life. We’ve looked at all the major online voice and video calling/conferencing options and ranked according to ease of use, access to all-comers and reliability across slow Internet connections. Leaving aside privacy considerations,
A simple and cheap way to keep kids amused and give them something to talk to grandparents and others during online calls. Grandma/pa starts with some trivia questions for the kids to research, sent by email. Later in the day there’s an online call when grandma/grandpa can catch up on
Here’s how to call someone using Zoom or answer a call, then some of things you can do in a call. Zoom makes a blurry distinction between a call (between two people) and a meeting (more than two). It’s even possible to start/accept a Zoom call while in a Zoom
Be prepared for the possibility that one mailhost/email address might not work. That’s a risk at any time, not just now. Setup an emergency, backup email account. One way to prepare is having TWO email addresses with different mail hosts. If one stops, you can keep sending messages with another,
A few readers have asked if email services are slowing down. Maybe, but not significantly and not to worry about. There are some things to prepare your email for the worst. We’ve noticed that emails aren’t arriving as quickly as they usually do. An order confirmation email that would normally
