How do you learn about other apps on your devices? Attend MacNexus workshops on the first Saturday of the month. Attend Today at Apple sessions in a nearby store. Watch online videos. Read books about the apps.
Free Books from Apple:
Word processing and page layout (a la Microsoft Word and Adobe In-Design)
Presentations (a la Microsoft Powerpoint)
Spreadsheets and Budgeting (a la Microsoft Excel)
Use the Apple Store app to find Today at Apple activities for the week ahead or read about Product Skills sessions online.
YouTube hosts many tutorial videos, use the search option for "apple pages on ipad" for example to see a long list of Apple Pages on iPad tutorials. Modify your search to "apple keynote tutorials on ipad" and see the long list of Keynote tutorials. Change your search again to "apple numbers tutorials on ipad" to see the Numbers tutorials for iPad. Many of these tutorials will tell you what you need to know for iPhone as well. But just modify the search terms and swap out iPad for iPhone or Mac depending on the device you are using. Remember you want to match the tutorial to the version of your operating system and device.
Other free-access video sources exist for tutorials as well, but I found YouTube to be most helpful.
ScreenCasts Online created by Don McCallister is a monthly or annual subscription. There is an offer of 7-days free before you are charged. The video tutorials are downloadable. Consider the $8/month option if you are starting a project and want to brush up on the latest apps.
Video tutorials are a great way to learn. The option to PAUSE the presentation and try the techniques are very helpful. The REWIND feature too. Using a computer to view the tutorial while using your iPad or iPhone is also helpful.
Don't have a computer? You can go the your local public library and watch videos on their computers with audio headphones and use your iPad or iPhone with the techniques presented.
Or, if you are a solo learner, look at the templates for each app and dive right in.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Have you deleted apps?
The apps we are covering in this seminar were provided on your device at time of purchase. These Apple apps are critical and interconnected with each other and the operating system. If you do not want apps cluttering up your Home Screen, then collect them in a folder. If you have deleted these apps, then use the App Store app to download again.
An example of how apps are interconnected: make a Contact card for a friend with phone number, address and email, add a photo of that person using the Camera app. Create a Calendar event "Lunch at Panera Bread on Sunrise and Greenback" and invite your friend to the event using her email address. Because the address is on the event, tap it to open the Maps app to show you driving directions and travel time. See the menu for Panera by reviewing the details shown in Maps and open their web page in Safari. When your friend gets the invitation in Mail, she can create or add your contact info to her Contacts.
Please read the free Apple User Guide for your device, especially the Accessibility chapter.
Books
Calendar
Clock
Contacts
Mail
Maps
Messages
Notes
Reminders
Camera
Photos
Phone
Safari
Music
Weather
Tips
Apple Support
Find My iPhone or Find My
FaceTime
Calculator
Health
Activity
Wallet
Voice Memo
Watch
Productivity apps
Keynote
Pages
Numbers
Shortcuts
Less used apps
iMovie
Podcasts
Stocks
GarageBand
Home
Compass
News
Clips
Measure
Carpenter
An example of how apps are interconnected: make a Contact card for a friend with phone number, address and email, add a photo of that person using the Camera app. Create a Calendar event "Lunch at Panera Bread on Sunrise and Greenback" and invite your friend to the event using her email address. Because the address is on the event, tap it to open the Maps app to show you driving directions and travel time. See the menu for Panera by reviewing the details shown in Maps and open their web page in Safari. When your friend gets the invitation in Mail, she can create or add your contact info to her Contacts.
Please read the free Apple User Guide for your device, especially the Accessibility chapter.
Books
Calendar
Clock
Contacts
Maps
Messages
Notes
Reminders
Camera
Photos
Phone
Safari
Music
Weather
Tips
Apple Support
Find My iPhone or Find My
FaceTime
Calculator
Health
Activity
Wallet
Voice Memo
Watch
Productivity apps
Keynote
Pages
Numbers
Shortcuts
Less used apps
iMovie
Podcasts
Stocks
GarageBand
Home
Compass
News
Clips
Measure
Carpenter
Day #4 Review
Carol covered Notes and Reminders along with other related topics.
Remember the Radio Shack ad? All the items on sale added up to $799 - making our choice of an iPhone a great deal because we have all those features and can purchase additional apps at low cost.
Read the User Guide chapters and then play with these native apps... these overlooked apps.
Our journey with Notes begins with Settings > Notes > Default is iCloud. Settings > Notes > Sort Notes by > Date Editing. Settings > Notes > New Notes Start > Title.
Beware of settings a password on Settings > Notes because there is no backing out. This could be set after you have used the app and are keeping sensitive information there.
Open the Notes app and touch all the buttons. Experiment. Carol showed us her Travel Prep note listing with buttons to turn on off as items are packed. Notes can be organized into folders. If you want to see Notes on both iPad and iPhone, be sure you are saving them under iCloud.
From the Home Screen swipe left to right until you get to the Today View. Information is displayed on this screen view in Widgets. Many new apps you purchase can include a widget. To personalize your Today View, swipe up until you see the Edit button. The top segment of this list has red (-) markers and on the right edge 3-lines indicating you can re-order the list. If you do not want a widget on your screen, touch the red marker to move it to the hidden options. The bottom segment of this list are widgets not yet visible in the normal mode. Touch the green (+) mark to add the widget for your favorite apps. When you finish, tap the Done button at the top edge of your screen to dismiss the edit view.
The Reminders app is a fancy to-do list that is smarter than your average bear. You can set reminders based on time or location. This is a great time to practice with Siri - your personal assistant. You will want to create a Contact card for yourself and add the names (contact cards) for people you want to connect with. Then invoke Siri and say "Remind me to call my sister when I get home." My orange tree would like me to set a reminder to fertilize in February, April and September.
Working with anyone is a matter of appreciating each other's strengths. A little appropriate humor goes along way. Your personal assistant, Siri, is the same - it takes practice. Read what Apple tell you about Siri. Doesn't hurt to search for clues, tips and Siri jokes. Don't confuse Siri with Dictation, although you use voice commands for both services.
Search from Home Screen to find Notes, Pages documents, Mail messages and Calendar items.
You will find that re-reading the User Guide will help you measure what you know, what you've learned and what you want to know about effectively using your iPhone and iPad.
The Control Panel is another way to access a few features or apps. Add the Timer, Flashlight, Magnifier and Voice Memo apps.
Remember to practice gestures and touch controls. Tap, swipe, touch and hold, pinch ... and more.
Remember the Radio Shack ad? All the items on sale added up to $799 - making our choice of an iPhone a great deal because we have all those features and can purchase additional apps at low cost.
Read the User Guide chapters and then play with these native apps... these overlooked apps.
Our journey with Notes begins with Settings > Notes > Default is iCloud. Settings > Notes > Sort Notes by > Date Editing. Settings > Notes > New Notes Start > Title.
Beware of settings a password on Settings > Notes because there is no backing out. This could be set after you have used the app and are keeping sensitive information there.
Open the Notes app and touch all the buttons. Experiment. Carol showed us her Travel Prep note listing with buttons to turn on off as items are packed. Notes can be organized into folders. If you want to see Notes on both iPad and iPhone, be sure you are saving them under iCloud.
From the Home Screen swipe left to right until you get to the Today View. Information is displayed on this screen view in Widgets. Many new apps you purchase can include a widget. To personalize your Today View, swipe up until you see the Edit button. The top segment of this list has red (-) markers and on the right edge 3-lines indicating you can re-order the list. If you do not want a widget on your screen, touch the red marker to move it to the hidden options. The bottom segment of this list are widgets not yet visible in the normal mode. Touch the green (+) mark to add the widget for your favorite apps. When you finish, tap the Done button at the top edge of your screen to dismiss the edit view.
The Reminders app is a fancy to-do list that is smarter than your average bear. You can set reminders based on time or location. This is a great time to practice with Siri - your personal assistant. You will want to create a Contact card for yourself and add the names (contact cards) for people you want to connect with. Then invoke Siri and say "Remind me to call my sister when I get home." My orange tree would like me to set a reminder to fertilize in February, April and September.
Working with anyone is a matter of appreciating each other's strengths. A little appropriate humor goes along way. Your personal assistant, Siri, is the same - it takes practice. Read what Apple tell you about Siri. Doesn't hurt to search for clues, tips and Siri jokes. Don't confuse Siri with Dictation, although you use voice commands for both services.
Search from Home Screen to find Notes, Pages documents, Mail messages and Calendar items.
You will find that re-reading the User Guide will help you measure what you know, what you've learned and what you want to know about effectively using your iPhone and iPad.
The Control Panel is another way to access a few features or apps. Add the Timer, Flashlight, Magnifier and Voice Memo apps.
Remember to practice gestures and touch controls. Tap, swipe, touch and hold, pinch ... and more.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Day #3 Review
Camera and Photos apps.
Turn on the Grid for taking pictures. Open Settings > Camera > Grid > ON.
Now the Grid is visible when using the Camera, align the horizon or straight lines to a grid line. The grid lines will not be recorded with the photo.
A fun thing to do with photos is to set your device Wallpaper for the Lock Screen or Home Screens. In Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper > ... choose from Apple images or from your albums.
Photos can easily take up both device storage space or iCloud storage space. Keep track of both --
Settings > General > About > Capacity and > Available
Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage used GB of subscribed GB storage plan
Review the User Guide chapter on Camera to see what the buttons do. Naw, just press every button to explore the options! If a button color is yellow then that function is active/on. Review your screen to be sure your Flash and Live buttons are white, or turned off. Another button is the Timer, when active it will delay the exposure and take several images as a Burst.
Don't let the camera make the decisions for you! Open the camera, set landscape or portrait orientation then touch the screen to set the focus on your subject. You will see a yellow box appear with a sun icon. Slide your finger up or down the screen to change the exposure. Yea! You are in control.
Another type of image that is soooo helpful in using your iPhone and iPad is taking a Screen Snapshot, a picture of what you see on screen. This varies by device model, but usually entails touching two buttons at the same exact moment, the Wake and Home buttons or on iPhone X the Volume Down and the Wake button. Practice searching the web using Safari and type your question like this "make a screen snapshot on ipad"
After you take a picture it will appear in the Photos app. Again, touch every button to see what they do. Read the Photos chapter in the User Guide. Photos has different views that might take practice to master. A powerful feature in Photos is to Search by location or date or subject. An example of search using Artificial Intelligence is to type "cat" or "dog" in the search field. How about "beach" or "flower" for additional practice.
The Albums view in Photos includes automatic albums and custom albums that you make. There are many things to see here, Swipe from right to left and from bottom to top to see more. Some automatic albums are listed as text (iOS 12 & 13). Look at the number associated with Bursts, Live, Video and Snapshots. Important here is the Recently Deleted album. Photos deleted remain in this album for 30 days and then they disappear forever.
Turn on the Grid for taking pictures. Open Settings > Camera > Grid > ON.
Now the Grid is visible when using the Camera, align the horizon or straight lines to a grid line. The grid lines will not be recorded with the photo.
A fun thing to do with photos is to set your device Wallpaper for the Lock Screen or Home Screens. In Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper > ... choose from Apple images or from your albums.
Photos can easily take up both device storage space or iCloud storage space. Keep track of both --
Settings > General > About > Capacity and > Available
Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage used GB of subscribed GB storage plan
Review the User Guide chapter on Camera to see what the buttons do. Naw, just press every button to explore the options! If a button color is yellow then that function is active/on. Review your screen to be sure your Flash and Live buttons are white, or turned off. Another button is the Timer, when active it will delay the exposure and take several images as a Burst.
Don't let the camera make the decisions for you! Open the camera, set landscape or portrait orientation then touch the screen to set the focus on your subject. You will see a yellow box appear with a sun icon. Slide your finger up or down the screen to change the exposure. Yea! You are in control.
Another type of image that is soooo helpful in using your iPhone and iPad is taking a Screen Snapshot, a picture of what you see on screen. This varies by device model, but usually entails touching two buttons at the same exact moment, the Wake and Home buttons or on iPhone X the Volume Down and the Wake button. Practice searching the web using Safari and type your question like this "make a screen snapshot on ipad"
After you take a picture it will appear in the Photos app. Again, touch every button to see what they do. Read the Photos chapter in the User Guide. Photos has different views that might take practice to master. A powerful feature in Photos is to Search by location or date or subject. An example of search using Artificial Intelligence is to type "cat" or "dog" in the search field. How about "beach" or "flower" for additional practice.
The Albums view in Photos includes automatic albums and custom albums that you make. There are many things to see here, Swipe from right to left and from bottom to top to see more. Some automatic albums are listed as text (iOS 12 & 13). Look at the number associated with Bursts, Live, Video and Snapshots. Important here is the Recently Deleted album. Photos deleted remain in this album for 30 days and then they disappear forever.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Best time NOT to update iOS
Just last week the iPhone OS 13 update was available. Did you update? What lessons can be shared about when is NOT the best time to update your mobile device or computer?
Lessons learned from school of hard knocks:
Just because others you know have updated, doesn't mean right now is the time for you to update. It will always take longer and require user attention from time-to-time.
Lessons learned from school of hard knocks:
- when you have limited time to see the process through
- when you are in the middle of an important project
- when your favorite app will not work on the next iOS
- when you are on public wifi
Just because others you know have updated, doesn't mean right now is the time for you to update. It will always take longer and require user attention from time-to-time.
Day #3 Topic - Camera and Photos apps
We will use the Camera app to take photos, use the Photos app to make basic edits, save photos from email messages and share photos using email or text messages.
Remember, we are not using WiFi at the Library. So your iPhone can send a photo from class, but your iPad might prepare an email with a photo and send once you get back home to your personal wifi.
Why do you take pictures? To remember family get togethers; to document events ... for art.
Remember, we are not using WiFi at the Library. So your iPhone can send a photo from class, but your iPad might prepare an email with a photo and send once you get back home to your personal wifi.
Why do you take pictures? To remember family get togethers; to document events ... for art.
Day #2 Review
Contacts and Calendars were the topics covered. Read the chapters in the User Guide and play with these apps.
Contacts tips:
Add information in designated fields. Use the Company field to keep track of associations --
RS iPhone or book group or potluck and then the Search feature will help you find your connections.
Calendar tips:
On an iPhone, rotate the phone to landscape/sideways to see the Week At A Glance view. Toggle the Holidays calendar off to show fewer events.
Contacts tips:
Add information in designated fields. Use the Company field to keep track of associations --
RS iPhone or book group or potluck and then the Search feature will help you find your connections.
Calendar tips:
On an iPhone, rotate the phone to landscape/sideways to see the Week At A Glance view. Toggle the Holidays calendar off to show fewer events.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Beware Phishing Scams
Apple Support has a Twitter account and recently they posted a short video on Phishing Scams. Check it out! Beware of suspicious emails and texts. Watch our video to learn about phishing and how to avoid these types of scams.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Day 1 Review - Part 1
iOS Basics Class
Seminar leaders are volunteers, not experts
We had a good start for iOS Basics. I just prepared an email that was upbeat and friendly and also informative. But somehow in moving from my laptop to my iPad it vanished! I’m ready to cry. But I have some follow-up information from our first meeting to share. This will be sparse but hopefully helpful.
Our iPhone only participants might feel left out, at least on the first session where I demonstrated all things from my iPad. But there are places you can get additional information and go at your own pace. Here’s my beginning list:
- Apple Support options for both iPhone and iPad
- https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=sm
- Apple Support on YouTube channel
- https://www.youtube.com/applesupport
- Apple Support on Twitter
- https://twitter.com/AppleSupport
- Today at Apple - Roseville Galleria or Arden Fair
- https://www.apple.com/today/
- MacNexus - local Apple User Group, $40/year, attend 2x free
- https://www.macnexus.org
- 4th Wednesday, 7-9 pm & 1st Saturday 9-noon for workshop/triage
One question asked in class was about undoing junk status in email. I wonder how we could make a Google search on this topic question. Open Safari and type in the search field at the top: "how to undo junk mail on ipad"
When looking at search results for iOS questions, here are some websites with good information:
Best answer but old iOS - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202315
Correct false-positives:Filtering out junk mail can block a legitimate email from reaching your inbox. This is called a false-positive. If you feel that a legitimate email message was accidentally filtered, you can mark it as not junk sothat any future messages from the same sender go to your inbox:
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 7or later, open the message in the Junk folder, tapthe folder icon at the bottom, then tap Inbox to move the message.
Again, read the User Guide for your device and version of the operating system
Day 1 Review - part 2
One activity promoted last Monday was to name your device. Do you remember the steps? Can you find the instructions in the User Guide? Can you practice a Google Search for the answer? There is a shorthand for writing step-by-step instructions for iOS. In reading the Google search results I found this quick reference to where you change the name of your device: Settings > General > About > Name
Another question from Monday’s get together, “If I change the name of my iPhone do I need to reconnect to my car radio? “ How might you write a Google search question for that answer? Sometimes you just dive in and try something new to see what happens. So I changed the name of my iPhone, went out to my car and turned on the radio and as usual it played the radio and then it said "Connected to the phone." Success! I did notice that the navigation/radio screen reported that my iPhone name did not change. To me this indicates that the Bluetooth antenna ID is really what connected to the radio, not by the name. My car is a 2013 Honda and it does not have Apple CarPlay but I suspect you would get the same results. Report back if if take the leap to change the name of your phone and if the radio stays connected.
Why change the name of your iOS device? Because of AirDrop! A great way to share via Bluetooth. Read about AirDrop in the User Guide.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Get Ready for Class
Greetings! Welcome to iOS Basics for iPad and iPhone
Do not expect to use wifi in the library meeting room - same advise for on-campus tech seminars too. Why? Because so many devices trying to go online is like leaving the office at 5 pm and waiting at the freeway onramp for all the other cars to clear the intersection for you. (It hurts when I use "Back in the Days When We Worked" metaphors.)
But I have homework for you before class begins that requires using your home wifi.
Please download the User Guide for your devices. Scroll down to see previous posts for direct links.
Two other suggestions with video tutorials:
- When viewing websites in Safari, use the Reader View to wipe away ads and other distractions.
- Save this website to your Home screen. Watch a tutorial on how to use the Share button to create a Home screen shortcut.
TEB. Touch. Every. Button. You can't break your device by touching app icons or the buttons for volume, wake or Home. Explore. Practice gestures like swipe right to left with one finger, swipe down with two fingers, tap an icon, touch and hold an icon. There are so many more! (Watch a child use an iPad or iPhone to see how natural it is for them to touch, tap and swipe.)
Our class will have challenges when so many people attend with so many devices. We anticipate that some participants will come with just an iPad or iPhone, but some will bring both devices. We might ask the audience to sit in groups by the device they are using. That way the class helper is talking to the same users.
One of the best ways to learn tech is to repeat the lesson from today. Repeat it for yourself and find a friend to share your new skills by repeating the lesson.
User Guides - online edition
Just in case you want to view the user guides in Safari instead of downloading then into the Books app, here are the current links:
Remember, we are expecting iOS 13 to be released and FREE TO DOWNLOAD later in September.
Other references from Apple include
Remember, we are expecting iOS 13 to be released and FREE TO DOWNLOAD later in September.
Other references from Apple include
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