Category: Technology

Please Elaborate

I have learned that Facebook is not the forum for posting cryptic obscure status updates.

I wrote “Nothing’s broken” because that’s what came into my head to describe this delicious state of everything working and peaceful in my life: no crisis, nothing to fix.  To me it was reminiscent of my mom’s Yiddish-rooted “Nothing hurts me”.

But no, this was not a good idea.  I got worried comments and even a concerned phone call!  For some, this sounded like I had been in an accident, or maybe someone else had.

So I learned to be more careful with what I post.  Or at least less obscure.

 

DCU App Rocks!

I have learned that the Digital Credit Union iPhone app works like a charm for check deposits right from the phone!

It took me a few lessons to get here.  One was that there was a PC deposit function that looked like it worked, but only sometimes.  Then Kat told me about the iPhone/iPad app that was not announced but out there and great for checking balances.

Now it’s come together in this free thing.

Once logged in, click which account, enter check amount, photo of front, photo of back, DONE!  Worked like a charm on the first try.  Wow.

Delete, I say!

I may be the last person on earth to learn this, but hey, these are my lessons and I learned it… from Kat.

If you want to delete something in the search or web (or any) field on the iPhone, just hold the delete button down.  You do not, after all, have to hit delete-delete-delete until you drive the person sitting next to you crazy.

When you do this, it deletes slowly and then very quickly, deleting entire phrases at a time.

Who knew?  Did you?

Way Too Private

I learned that if you send an Outlook invitation and mark it “Private”, then the people they have delegated calendar functions to will not see it.

So if someone has an assistant who accepts all their meetings, this one will not make it to that person.

This could be a feature, but not if your recipient ignores calendar invites, thinking someone else has that covered.

DCU App

Today I learned, from Kat, that the Digital Credit Union has an iPhone/iPod app!  The DCU website needs to learn this from Kat, too, since they still claim to be working on it.  Whoops.

This app has a check deposit function!  Which is great, because even with the hints I have learned and posted here, scanning checks with the DCU desktop thing is just way too obnoxious and time-consuming and plain old broken.  I’ll let you know how it works from the iPhone when I next have a check to deposit.

Skype Hype

I do like Skype.  It’s free and it works very well.  Kat introduced me to it years ago, and we talked for free, with amazing sound quality, when she studied in Bologna years ago.  I use it all day for instant messaging at work, and it works flawlessly for that.

But when it doesn’t work, it’s terrible.  I just participated in a large conference call which the presenter was using Skype for voice.  We couldn’t hear a thing!  Actually, we heard every other word or so, which was almost worse.

The lesson here is to use and enjoy Skype for what it does well, and don’t count on it in settings in which voice quality matters!

Stop Seeking What You Will Not Find

I have learned that it uses up all of your reserves to keep looking and looking for something that you should know is not out there to find.  To conserve your power, you need to stop struggling and stop seeking, in those situations.

I am talking, of course, about the settings on the iPhone.  If you are in an area without wireless, the wireless setting should be off.  If you are in some remote part of Vermont with no cell phone coverage, your phone should be set to the no-call “airplane mode”, or just off.  Otherwise, you’ll run down the battery in record time.

I learned other ways to conserve battery life from this:  http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html

Word Table Tricks

I have probably learned this before (or maybe not), but I learned how to repeat table headings on multiple pages in a Word document:

From the help text:

Repeat a table heading on subsequent pages

When you work with a very long table, it must be divided where a page break occurs. You can make adjustments to the table to make sure than the information appears as you want it to when the table spans multiple pages.

Repeated table headings are visible only in print layout view or when you print the document.

  1. Select the heading row or rows. The selection must include the first row of the table.
  2. On the Table menu, click Heading Rows Repeat.

Note Microsoft Word automatically repeats table headings on new pages that result from automatic page breaks. Word does not repeat a heading if you insert a manual page break within a table.

BUT here’s the catch!  It only works right if you ALSO do this:

Control where a table is divided

When you work with a very long table, it must be divided where a page break occurs. By default, if a page break occurs within a large row, Microsoft Word allows a page break to divide the row between the two pages.

You can make adjustments to the table to make sure that the information appears as you want it to when the table spans multiple pages.

 

  1. Click the table. [note from Jane this means the little icon in the corner of the table]
  2. On the Table menu, click Table Properties, and then click the Row tab.
  3. Clear the Allow row to break across pages check box.