In the last article, I offered a few technology tools that you can try at least to pass time. I also hoped that some may indeed be useful in your daily work. Today, I am going to add a few more.
Keep in Touch
Many years ago, I subscribed to a video phone service called Ojo. It required special equipment, OjoPhones and we purchased several to connect us to Elif who moved to Utah, and my sister Binnaz in Turkey. It was a paid service we used for several years until Ojo discontinued the service and we retired our OjoPhone to the basement where it still rests.
Around that time, Skype was coming into the scene and we learned to use it to chat with family and friends. Since then, Microsoft acquired Skype and it has been transformed into a larger platform. Even today, we are Skype users. It is a free service that only needs the Skype application to be downloaded to your device, computer, tablet, or phone. You can create a free account and start chatting with friends “face-to-face.” I know in Turkey WhatsApp is extremely popular but I decided not to use that software. So, if you want to give Skype a try, visit their site and download the program. You can also find it in the app store of your phone platform.
Give or Get Help, Keep Busy
I get questions from friends and family on how to do something on their computers. Describing what they should see and do on their screen can be a challenge but if you see their screen and even control it remotely, giving help and getting it becomes much easier.
For this purpose, I have been using TeamViewer which has a free version perfectly capable of connecting me to a friend’s computer with his permission and controlling it remotely. It needs a simple download from the company’s site. When you are on the site, click on the “Download for free” button and install the software.
Each user is given a unique ID and a password that is regenerated every time the program is run. Just e-mail that information to the person whom you would like to connect to your computer and remotely help you with what is on hand. Works very well.
Follow the News
There are many, actually far too many news sources on the Internet with their apps to feed it to their audiences. A while back, I tried Microsoft News and enjoyed it both on my computers and my phone.
It is simple to use, has varied news sources I trust, and it is easy to use. On Windows 10 computers, it may be preinstalled and can be put to use quickly. If you don’t have it and would like to install it, just visit the Microsoft Store and search for it by its name, Microsoft News, or use this link. On your phones, visit the platform store and search for it. You may like it, at least it will help you pass some time trying it out!
Microsoft Office is Free Online
If you are used to MS Office and do not have a recent copy or not enough licenses for all your devices, you can use the full Office suite online free of charge. The best part is that you may already have it if you have an e-mail account with one of Microsoft’s free e-mail services like hotmail.com, live.com, or outlook.com. If you don’t have one, you can easily create one free of charge and after you log in to check your e-mail you will see the app launcher on the top left corner looking like a mini chessboard. More on using this feature on the Microsoft help site.
More Free Cloud Storage To Boot
A side benefit of a Microsoft account is the OneDrive cloud storage service which gives the users 5GB space. It is not much but still useful for those documents you may want to work with. Once you discover the app launcher, you will see OneDrive as one of the applications available to you. If you like, you can install a OneDrive application on your desktop and sync the contents between your computer and the cloud storage.
Clipboard History in Windows
Did you know that the Windows clipboard has a history feature that allows you to copy multiple things and let you select what you want to paste into a new document? You need to turn that feature on before going any further. Press the Window key, select Settings, then System. When you see that screen, look for a menu item called Clipboard on the left. Click on that to show the clipboard settings and turn on the Clipboard history by clicking on the switch.
Now, when you select a block of text and copy it to the clipboard it will not replace what may already be there but add to the history. To select from the clipboard history, press Windows key-V which will show you all the items you have in your clipboard. Click on any one of them to paste it where the cursor is. This may be text, image, or anything else that is queued in your clipboard history.
Snip and Sketch for Screen Captures
There are times when we need to capture on the screen in an image file for use on the Internet or send it to a friend. There is the old standby of Shift-PrintScreen which will capture the entire screen and let you paste it into an application.
There is a tool that will make this more selective and easier that is built into Windows 10. It is called Snip & Sketch and you can summon it to help you with a simple keyboard combination Shift-Windows-S. When you press these keys you will notice your screen will turn dark with a tiny toolbar at the top. There are options to snip the entire screen, a window, a rectangular area, even a freehand selection by simply clicking on the desired icon. The selected content will be in the clipboard and can be displayed in its application window for annotating, cropping, and saving.
Keep Busy, Stay Well
To summarize, you may have known all this but if you read it just in case something beneficial may pop up, it helped you pass some more time. If you fount something new and will try, I hope you will keep busy with that for a bit. All said this kept me busy for about an hour this morning. Now it’s time for lunch! Stay well, keep busy, keep your distance.
If you cannot find things to keep you busy, come back here and look at photographs or read articles on photography.
Haluk Atamal
Thanks for the tips, Cemal.
Be reminded, though, that the TeamViewer is not free forever. After a while, it locks, suspecting that you are using it commercially.
If, on the other hand, it does not, then it must be an astonishing software who can detect the nature of the use. To be frank, I got a few locks because I was actually using it commercially. Now I have a paid license and no more worries (not cheap though).
Take care and best regards,
Haluk
A. Cemal Ekin
Hello Haluk,
I have been using TeamViewer for quite a few years now and never locked up on me. Maybe it can detect a corporate connection, that I don’t know. I used to use it to help Binnaz, now help a couple of friends with Lightroom and Photoshop.
I am also very happy that you and Dogan Basak got connected through this site, on days of difficult problems. That was a bright spot.
You might have known about the clipboard related tips, or the MS Office onlin. But, I gave that tip last week to Cem who did not have Office on his laptop. I don’t know if he tried it.
Take care,
Cemal