I am Raymond Oglesby, an Information Technology (IT) specialist with 30 years in the field. I have taught Microsoft Applications and troubleshot computers in 15 countries and many States. My career was focused on mainframes and desktops from application development to implementation. I have written hundreds of programs for various architectures. I decided to start a blog to share my knowledge and experiences with you. I plan on updating this blog at least twice a week about smart phone apps to Windows.
Please feel free to leave a Comment or Tweet. I would love to hear from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Are you concerned someone may have access to your Twitter account? Do you know what devices are logged in? What if you moving to a new device; have you logged out of Twitter on the old device?
Your smart device keeps you logged in to such apps as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Messenger, Microsoft and others. Each app has a feature to log out all devices. We want to explore logging out all devices for Twitter. Just follow these steps.
This is for iPhone or iPad and Twitter
Your Profile Screen
Tap your profile photo or swipe left to right. You will see the following image:
Twitter Log Out Profile screenshot
Your Settings Screen
Tap on Settings and privacy. You will see the following screen:
Twitter Log Out Settings screenshot
Your Account Screen
Tap on Account. Following is a screenshot:
Twitter Log Out Account screenshot
Your Sessions Screen
Tap on Apps and sessions. You will see the following screen:
Twitter Log Out Devices screenshot
Your Log Out Screen
Your devices that have access to your account is displayed. Tap on Log out all other sessions. You will see the following screen:
Twitter Log Out All Sessions screenshot
Tap Log out
That’s it. You are done. You now will have to log back in to use Twitter.
Your Two Factor Authentication Screen
To make your Twitter account more secure, you may want to setup Two-factor authentication. This is on the third screen in this post, under the Account option. Just tap on Security and you will see the following screen:
Twitter Log Out Two-Factor Authentication screenshot
Select Two-factor authentication, choose one of three options displayed on your screen and follow its directions.
I recommend setting up Two-factor authentication whenever the option is available.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Drop down lists are used to select specific data, in our example, a list of Salutations. If the user tries to enter a Salutation that is not in the list, Excel rejects the entry.
I am using a simple drop down list in an Excel sheet. This feature is not well known nor initiative.
Salutations was a BIG DEAL for a religious organization that I worked for as a Consultant. The company had a donor base of 25,000+ names/addresses. (Of course, I was using a database, not Excel, to manage the data.) If the Salutation was incorrect on a donor letter, some donors refused to give monies for the company projects. For example, do you address them as Mr. and Mrs. or Dr. and Mrs. or Mr. and Dr.? Some donors wanted no Salutation. I spent a lot time getting the Salutations correct.
This is for Excel for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of Excel will be similar.
Setting Up the Excel Sheet
Enter the headings in Row 1 (Optional)
Create a list of cells E2:E5. Alternatively, you could put the list in another sheet.
Select the empty cell A2. (You can position the drop down list in most any cell or even multiple cells.)
Setting up Excel for a drop down list
Using Data Validation
Select the Data tab
Select Data Validation
Choose List from the Allow options drop down list
Click the Source control and drag to highlight cells E2:E5. Alternatively, you could enter the cell reference $E$2:$E$5 or use a sheet and cell reference if your list is in another sheet.
Ensure that the In Cell dropdown option is checked. If you leave this unchecked, Excel forces users to enter only the list values, but it won’t present a drop down list. The users would have to guess the values; not a good idea!
See the following screenshot:
Entering the Allow and Source option
Click OK
You can add the drop down list to multiple cells. Select the range of data input cells instead of a single cell. Also, you can select noncontinuous cells by holding down the Shift key while you click the appropriate cells.
You can copy and paste this drop down cell to any other cells in your sheet.
Below is a screenshot where Mr. was selected as a Salutation for cell A2:
Excel drop down list selection
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Google Chrome is adding a new feature for controlling media within your Chrome browse on a desktop or laptop. Instead of trying to figure out where the video/sound is coming from, you can hear and/or see it in your Chrome browser. The update is rolling out gradually and is for Chrome version 79+. Instead of waiting for the update you can always go to the flags menu (see below) and manually trigger the new media playback controls.
This is for any device that uses Google Chrome.
Check Chrome Version
First, let’s check what version of Chrome you have; just follow these steps:
Click on the Menu icon in the upper right corner of the screen, the one with 3 dots
Click on Help
Click on About Google Chrome
Your Chrome browser version number is displayed like the example below:
Chrome version screen
Close Chrome
Update Chrome
If you have a lower a version than 79, let’s try to update by doing the following:
Open Chrome
Click on Menu icon in the upper right corner of the screen, the one with the 3 dots
Click UpdateGoogle Chrome. Note! If you don’t see this button, you’re on the latest version.
Close Chrome
Setup Media Control
Open Chrome
Type in chrome://flags as the URL like the screenshot below:
Chrome URL for flags
Type in Global Media Controls as your Search, like the example below:
Click on the Default drop down box and select Enabled
Click the Relaunch button in the lower right of the screen
Type in chrome://flags as the URL
Type in Global Media Controls as your Search
Your screen should show the Global Media Controls Enabled like the screen below:
Close Chrome
After a browser restart, a Play button should show up whenever you have media playing.
If you don’t see the option, head to YouTube and play a video. A Play button should show up next to the address bar. Clicking on it will display the media content like title, source of the content, the play/pause and skip buttons. This feature works for lots of websites to include Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Dailymotion and Microsoft.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Apple has yet to make a big deal about their new operating system. In fact, some of these new features are hidden or have changed from their last update. I am going to discuss four new features; Battery Optimization, Update All, Rearranging Apps and Sharing Photo Location. You may want to check these out.
Apple unveils a new iPhone every year. Along with it comes a new mobile operating system (iOS), in this case iOS 13+. These features work on iPhones back to 6S and SE. If you have a 6 or 5s, you are stuck with iOS 12 variations.
This is for iPhone, iPad and Mac or any other device using iOS 13
Battery Optimization Feature
The first new feature I want to address is “Battery Optimization“. Its best to use for overnight charging. This feature learns how you charge your battery and sets up a routine of charging your phone to 80% until the time right before it knows you will wake up, at which point it will finish charging to 100%.
To set up, go to Settings>Battery>Battery Health and turn on Optimized Battery Charging. Once enabled, the slider control will be lit in green. Below is a screenshot:
Optimized Battery Charging screenshot
Where is the Update All Feature?
The second feature is somewhat tricky. I don’t know why Apple took something so simple in their previous iOS and made this feature difficult. I assume they want you to rely on automatic updates. The feature is “Update All Apps“. In the new iOS, this feature seems to be missing, but we will get it back. This feature is for those who don’t want to wait for automatic updates.
First, lets go ahead and setup “Automatic Downloads“. To setup, go to Settings>iTunes & App Store>Cellular Data. To enable this feature, turn on the Automatic Downloads. The slider control will be lit in green. We are doing this in case you forget to manually update your apps.
Now, lets get the Update All feature back. Go to the App Store app and click on your profile at the top (it should have a small photo of you). Your screen will look like the below screenshot:
Updated Recently screenshot
Your will notice the Updated Recently section followed by your iPhone Apps. To get the Update All feature, swipe down on the screen. Your screen will look as follows:
Update All screenshot
Notice the Update All feature magically appears IF you have pending updates. You can click this link to update all apps or manually update an app by clicking on its Update button.
Rearranging Apps Has Been Modified
The third feature is for Rearranging Apps. When you press and holdan app, a popup menu appears. These popups are different for each app. To get the “wiggles” for dragging an app to a different location or to create a folder by dragging apps on top of each other, continue topress and hold and the wiggles will appear. Even though the app icon may be hidden by the popup menu, just continue to press and hold. Tap Done at the top of the screen when finished.
A New Privacy Option for Photos
The last feature I want to mention is about a privacy option for photos. From the Photo app, select any number of photos you plan to share. Click the Share icon at the bottom. But before you share, click Options at the top; you will get the option to include location data or not. By removing the location data it makes it a lot harder for someone to track the location of the photo(s). Below is a screenshot of including the Location. To turn off, disable the Location slider control (the control will no longer be lit).
Location data for photos screenshot
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry.Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Testimonials
I love you addressed nearly every frustrating feature change I have! Thanks for sharing and educating me.
Are you unable to share a Messenger video on your iPhone to social media, like Facebook? This share feature is not available on the smartphone. But it is possible on your desktop or laptop.
This is for any device using Messenger and Facebook
Messenger on iPhone
On your iPhone, open Messenger and find the video you want to share like the example below:
Messenger video
You can click the Up Arrow rectangle box to send the video to certain friends and/or Create a Group. But we want to share the video to Facebook. Following are the steps:
Messenger on Desktop/Laptop
Open Messenger or Facebook on your desktop/laptop then select Messenger
Move your mouse next to the Up Arrow rectangle box
A Reply and More actions will magically appear
Click on More
Click on Save to Facebook
Your screen will look like the below image:
Saving Messenger video to Facebook
Facebook
Open Facebook on your Desktop/Laptop
Go to Home menu option on Facebook
On the left hand side menu, expand Explore (if necessary) and locate Saved
Click on Saved and you will see the video as shown below:
Saved video on Facebook
Click on the Share button to share on Facebook
Sometimes the author has blocked a video from being shared. If so, the Share button will not be displayed.
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Just how big can a Microsoft Word document be? The short answer, it depends. The amount of text, photos, images and videos content determines the document size. Also, your computer system resources plays a part.
The maximum file size of an “all text” document in Microsoft Word 2007 or later is 32 MB. If you add photos, images or videos, the maximum file size jumps to 512 MB or a half of a gigabyte. Although Word can handle a very large file, it becomes more unmanageable as you approach the 512 MB limit.
Older file formats use the “.doc” file extension while the newer versions, Word 2007 and above, use the “.docx” extension.
This is for Word for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of Word will be similar.
If you are working with the old format, “.doc” extension, you can covert the file to the newer format as follows:
Open Microsoft Word
Locate the file with a “.doc” extension
Click on File>Save As
From the drop down box, select Word Document (*.docx)
Click Save
Check Your Word Document File Size
There are several ways to check the size of your document. One way is as follows:
Open File Explorer
Locate the folder where the document resides
Click on View>Details
You will see the Size column denoting the file size
A second way is very similar.
Open File Explorer
Locate the file
Right click on the file name
Click on Properties
OR
Open File Explorer
Locate the file
Click Home on the main menu
Click Properties
Click Properties from the sub menu
A third way is from the Word document itself as follows:
Either using Word to locate and open the document or using File Explorer to locate the file; then double click to open
From the main menu, click on File>Info
Under Properties is the Size of the document
Your screen should look like the below image:
File Info screenshot
File Info Properties
Document properties, also known as metadata, are details about a file that describe or identify it. They include details such as title, author name, subject and keywords that identify the document’s topic or contents. You can use these keywords for searching Word documents. For example, in Word, you can use the Keywords property (also called Tags) to add the keyword “customers” to your sales documents. You can then search for all sales documents with that keyword.
Some entries can be changed. At the bottom of the File Info screen is the Show All Properties. Click on this to see more detail about your document. The grayed out options are the ones you can update.
Other properties are automatically updated. You can also search for these entries. For example, you can search for all files created after January 1, 2020, or for all files that were last changed yesterday.
A Personal Observation
I have an autobiography Word document that is 356 pages with 375 photos and images. The file size is only 83.6 MB (see above image). You should be able to manage a Word document with 1400 pages and 1400 images/photos and still not reach the 500 MB limit. Currently, I have no videos in the document. If I did, that would drastically increase the file size.
How to Reduce the Size of your Word Document
One way would be to split the document into two Word files. Of course, this would result in two Table of Contents, Bibliographies, etc. This may not be the right choice.
Another way is to compress the size of your images/photos. First, you should covert a “.doc” file extension document into the new “.docx” format as mentioned in this post.
To compress your images/photos, do the following:
Make a backup copy of your original Word document. Although you are using the Save As option to Save the file with a new file name, I prefer working with a backup copy.
Open your backup Word document
Click on File>Save As>More Options at the top of the screen
A screenshot is below:
More Options screenshot
In the Save As dialog box, click Tools>Compress Pictures at the bottom of the screen
In the latest version of Word, you are presented with four Options as shown below:
Photos compression options
For the smallest possible size:
Click “Email (96 ppi) …“
Click OK
Click Save
This option will result in the poorest image quality. All your images/photos will be automatically compressed. Choosing any other option will result in a larger Word document.
Take a look at the results of your compressed document. Do you like the results? If not, then repeat the above steps with another backup copy of your document.
Once you are satisfied, then rename the compressed document back to the original file (overwrite the original file) or rename to a different file name.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Did you recently obtain a new iPhone? Are you concerned about losing the device? Apple owners can find the device with the Find My app for iOS 13 and above or Find My iPhone for older iOS. We are going to use iCloud to tract down your device.
Before your iPhone goes missing, there are a few options to turn on. For iOS 13+, do the following:
Tap on Settings
Tap on <Your Name>
Tap on Find My
Tap on Find My iPhone
Enable all three slider controls by tap and hold, then slide until the option is lit (highlighted in green)
For older iOS, tap on Settings, <Your Name>, iCloud, Find My iPhone and enable all three slider controls
Your screen should look like the image below:
Find My iPhone Screenshot
First, using another device, try calling your number. If that doesn’t work, lets try using your browser to locate your device.
Once again, the following is for iOS 13+. The steps are similar for older iOS.
If you don’t have an iCloud account, you can download iCloud for Windows
Signin using your Apple ID and password
Your screen should look like the below image:
Signin to iCloud
Click the Find iPhone icon
Select the All Devices drop down box at the top of the screen and find your iPhone
Select your iPhone on the map, its a green dot
Your results should look like the below image:
Screenshot of my iPhone location
You now have three options:
Play Sound on your iPhone
Place the iPhone in Lost Mode which locks the iPhone so no one can access it. If someone finds its, the device will display your contact information.
Erase iPhone. Please do not do this unless all hope is gone of recovering the device. Once the iPhone is erased, all personal information is gone. Your device can no longer be tracked through the app.
Locate Other Lost Devices
You may want to find any lost device like Airpods, headphones, Fitbit tracker, Apple Pencil, iPad, Apple Watch and others. As of this post, Wunderfind is a free iPhone app from the Apple Store. It is worth a look. Click here for a preview.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Along with using the program Belarc Adivsor for a software inventory of your PC; there are two programs I recommend for a hardware inventory.
One is the freeware program called PC Audit; a system, hardware and software information tool. It extracts details of all components of the PC, shows installed software with version and product key. The free PC Auditdoes not require installation and can be used as a portable application. It can be run from a removable storage device such as a CD-ROM drive, USB flash drive or flash card.
This professional tool is designed to collect and present the maximum amount of information possible about your computer’s hardware and software which makes them suitable for users searching for driver updates, computer manufacturers, system integrators and technical experts as well.
The program is compatible with: from Windows NT up to Windows 10 and the Mac
Just click here to download PC Audit. Then click the Free Download button. You can either save the executable file to your download folder or just click the executable file (located in the lower left hand corner of your browser) to run. The program will present your machine’s hardware as shown below:
PC Audit Snapshot
In my limited research, I only found a trial network version for a hardware inventory of a Mac. You can check it out here.
The other program is also a free program called Speccy. (Their is a Pro version available for a price.) Speccy is the place to start if you need to know what’s inside your PC. See a quick summary, or dive deeper into every aspect of your PCs hardware so you can make informed upgrade and purchasing decisions.
Speccy gives you detailed information on every piece of hardware in your computer. Save time trawling through your computer for stats like CPU, motherboard, RAM, graphics cards and more. See everything laid out for you in one clean interface.
Speccy allows you to save your scan results directly as a snapshot, XML or text file for easy sharing. Handy for making sure your new computer has the right specs, or if tech support need to diagnose an issue with your computer.
My favorite of these two programs is Speccy. The program is from the same company that makes CCleaner discussed in an earlier post.
System requirements:
Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista and XP. Including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, but not RT tablet editions.
Installation
Click here to download Speccy; then click on the Download Free Version button. The screen will scroll to the bottom. Just click on the Free Download button. Finally, click on the Download button for the free version. They go through all these hoops in an attempt to get you to buy the Pro version.
To install, click on the executable file in the lower left hand of your browser and follow the install instructions. A shortcut will be installed on your desktop. Once installed, click on Run Speccy button as shown below:
Speccy Run screen
Viewing Speccy Results
Below is an actual screenshot of my Dell XPS hardware:
Speccy snapshot of my PC
From the Main Menu, click on File for loading, saving, publishing, etc a snapshot of your results. You can save the results to a XML or text file.
Just click on the various menu options to expand that section. Check on the CPU option to see how “Hot” your PC is running or the RAM option to see what brand and type of memory modules are installed. You may want to upgrade or add more RAM. The items in blue and the little blue arrows are expandable; just click on them to see more or less detail.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment about using these programs. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Many years ago I ran across this funny name program called Belarc Advisor. As an IT consultant, this program helped me a lot in ascertaining what hardware and software was installed on a machine.
The Belarc Advisor program is a free download licensed for personal use at home or work on a standalone machine. (Their is a network version for a price.) The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, local network inventory, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, security benchmarks and displays the results in a Web browser. Sorry, their is no free Mac version but you can find alternatives, just click here.
Belarc Advisor excels at providing those hard to find product keys or serial numbers for your installed programs.
Belarc products are used world wide in over 50 million computers. All of the profile information is kept private on your computer and is not sent to any web server. Some requirements are as follows:
Operating Systems: Runs on Windows 10, 2016, 8.1, 2012 R2, 8, 2012, 7, 2008 R2, Vista, 2008, 2003 SP2, XP SP3. Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows are supported. Their commercial products also run on all other versions of Windows and on the Macintosh OS X, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.
Browsers: Runs on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and many others.
Either save the installer executable file to your download folder and run from there or click the file located in the lower left hand corner to install.
You may get a popup dialog box about Windows is protecting your PC. If so, click on the More Info link then click Run anyway.
Follow the install instructions.
Click Yes to check for new Advisor definitions. When finished, click OK.
Advisor will now build a profile of your machine and check your local network.
A profile will be presented in your browser as noted in below screenshot:
Partial snapshot of my Dell XPS machine using Belarc Advisor
Your Machine Profile Results
In the upper left hand corner is a menu for the sections of the profile. Just click on one or scroll.
Under the section Software Versions and Usage, you can click on the “i” for details.
Your product keys are in the Software Licenses section. These are the ones the program was able to find.
Pay attention to the Virus Protection, Missing Security Updates and Installed Microsoft Hotfixes sections to see if your machine is up-to-date.
Since the profile is presented in your browser, you can right click anywhere and select Print to print the results.
You may be surprised at all the hardware and software installed on your machine.
My next post will deal with a detailed hardware inventory. Belarc Advisor is mainly for a listing of your installed software.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment about using Belarc Advisor. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Starting with the iPhone 6s series, taking a Live Photo is on your device. This tip applies to iPhone and iPad.
This is for iPhone, iPad and Mac or similar devices.\
How to Take a Live Photo
Open the Camera app.
Make sure that your Camera is set to photo mode and that Live Photo is turned on. When it’s on, you see the Live Photo button (3 concentric circles icon) highlighted at the top of your Camera.
Hold your device still
Tap the shutter button
Live Photo is on by default. If you want to take a still image,tap the Live Photo button to turn off Live Photo. You can preserve your Camera settings so that Live Photo is always on or off. Go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings.
Tweet Your Live Photo as a GIF
Open your Twitter app
In the bottom right hand corner, tap on the Compose button. Its icon features a feather encased in a blue circle.
Locate and tap on your Live Photo in the quick-access image bar. You should see the Live icon overlayed on the thumbnail. If you are unable to find the Live Photo, select the Gallery button and then tap on your desired image.
With the Live Photo loaded into the Tweet preview, tap on the “GIF” button found in the lower left hand corner. The Live Photo will be converted into a GIF and will play. You can select the Play button that appears when it stops to see the animation again.
Type a brief message to go along with your GIF and tap the Tweet button.
That’s it. You are done.
How to find and play your Live Photos
Open the Photos app
Go to the Photos tab
Tap the Live Photo
Firmly press the screen and hold
Also, you can Edit or add Effects to your Live Photo by tapping the appropriate option.
What if you want to transform a Live Photo to a static photo?
Instructions are for iOS 13:
Open your Photos app
Select the Live Photo
Tap Edit
Tap the Live Photo icon at bottom of the screen from the available actions
Tap the Live Photo icon at the top of the screen so that it is not enabled
Tap Done
Now, if you press hard on the photo, you won’t see any movement. You can always restore a Live Photo that you’ve edited by following those steps and tapping the icon to highlight it.
I Would Like to Hear from You
Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.
Tech Savvy Life 