Tag: Tip of the Week

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Tip of the Week: Using Your Smartphone More Effectively in Five Ways

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It’s getting to the point where most people have a smartphone, even if they shouldn’t necessarily have one. If you go all-in on a device like this to boost your productivity and efficiency, then you know how difficult it can be at times. We’re here to provide you with some tips to help you better take advantage of your smart device.

Use Your Mobile Wireless Hotspot
Often times you’ll find yourself limited by not having a wireless connection for devices like your laptop or tablet. In instances like this, you can turn your smartphone into a mobile wireless hotspot to “piggyback” off of your cellular data plan, providing Internet access to other devices that may need it.

A Bring Your Own Device strategy can help your organization supply employees with a stipend to cover any costs of using the device as a mobile hotspot. On the other hand, you can simply provide them with company devices that have enough data to fulfill their needs.

Sort Your Home Screen
You don’t have to suffer from a cluttered home screen on your device. In fact, depending on your personal preferences, you can either sort your apps into folders, or distribute them across various screens so that you know where to locate each of them. You don’t want to lose track of your applications when you need them most.

Customize Your Email and Browser Options
If you’re using an iPhone or Android device, chances are that your device will default to a specific web browser or email management application. You don’t necessarily have to use these, though. As long as you can find an app for your preferred email application, or whichever application your organization uses to communicate, you can install it and achieve a comparable level of functionality regardless of your choice.

Of course, you’ll want to work with your IT department to ensure that you’re not downloading any malware-laden versions of applications–particularly email and web browsers, which you will be using often.

Use Your Shortcuts
Your device has a plethora of shortcuts available, so do your best to work with them whenever you can. The more you get used to these shortcuts, you’ll find yourself being more productive. Consider how much time you waste trying to figure out just what you’re doing with your device, and you’ll see the importance of understanding how these shortcuts work.

Of course, depending on the model of your phone, you’ll have different shortcuts at your disposal. This is because the software installed on them is likely to be different, so just play around a little bit to find the best shortcuts available for your device.

Research Insurance Options
What would you do if your mobile device fell out of your pocket or bag and smashed into a thousand pieces on the pavement? What about if you lost it while you were out and about? Whatever ill fortune may present itself, you’ll want to look into insurance to make sure that you’re covered in the event of a disastrous scenario.

What are your best smartphone tips? Do you have any that you think should have been on our list? Let us know in the comments.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: Improving Your Wi-Fi May Have Something To Do With Your Router

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While many may want their Internet to be faster, not many realize that their router may be contributing to the problem. For this week’s tip, we’ll discuss how to configure your router for a faster Internet connection.

Gaining Access to the Administration Console
Of course, before you can make any changes to your router, you need to access the place where those changes can be made. With your router connected to your device (either a wired or wireless connection is fine) access your web browser. In the address bar, enter your router’s IP address, which can be found in the router’s user manual. Alternatively, you can check for your router’s IP address by clicking into the Control Panel and then, under the Network and Internet category, View network status and tasks.

To make this easier, you should use the dropdown menu in the top-right corner of the window to view your options by category.

In the Network and Sharing Center, click into your current network connection. An Ethernet Status window will appear. Once you click on the Details… button, your router’s IP address will display under IPv4 Default Gateway.

Once you have the IP address of your router, enter it into your browser’s address bar. Before you can access your router, you will need to enter your username and password. This could actually be one of the factors causing your problems: if your router’s access credentials have been left to the factory defaults, anyone can access your Internet connection without your knowledge and eat up your bandwidth. This is why it is important to change your access credentials to something more secure.
Once you have secured your access to your router, you should also look for Wireless Settings or Advanced Wireless Settings. This is where the rest of the changes to help speed up your connection will be made.

Checking the Bands
Based on what gigahertz your routers use for their signal, they come in different types–also known as ‘bands.’ Today’s routers will often support multiple bands, identified by the letter at the end of the router’s protocol. Older routers will often have a ‘G’ denoted at the end, while new ones are denoted with an ‘N’ or ‘AC.’ Even newer ones might end their protocol with ‘AD.’

These bands will tell you what devices will play nice with your router, but the multi-band capabilities of many routers will allow a single router to support numerous devices with different protocols.

Selecting a Channel
A connection can also be made slower if the router is set to a channel with higher traffic. If set to the 2.4GHz frequency, for example, your router has to compete with common devices like cordless phones, Bluetooth speakers, and others. Switching to a less busy channel may improve your connection speed and overall quality.

You can check which channels are available to you with some utilities for Windows devices and applications for Android devices. After running your scan and identifying a promising channel, use your Administration Console to switch over and test for any improvements.

Optimizing the Security Settings
As referenced above, it is important that your router is secured for the sake of your network security, but even the way it is secured can influence the speed of your connection. Setting your router to WPA2 with AES should give you fast, yet secure, connection.

If this all seems like a bit much, don’t worry–the IT professionals at COMPANYNAME are ready and willing to help you with your networking. Reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: Seven Extensions to Add to Chrome

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Google Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world, and for good reason. The browser has many useful features, largely due to the user’s ability to install ‘extensions’–applications that add to the browser’s functionality or the user’s experience. Once an extension is added to the browser’s toolbar, it is ready for the user to use whenever they need.

Here are a few examples of Chrome extensions that offer a user a useful function.

Select and Speak (SpeakIt!)
By leveraging the human-quality text-to-speech abilities of iSpeech, Select and Speak (SpeakIt!) can read out any text that has been selected in the browser. The user can select a language from a considerable list and adjust the voice and speed of the program to make the best use of the reader for their needs. However, this extension is clearly annotated as being for personal use, so make sure to contact the developer to obtain a license to use it in any other fashion.

Download Select and Speak (SpeakIt!) here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/select-and-speak-text-to/gfjopfpjmkcfgjpogepmdjmcnihfpokn?hl=en

Readism
It isn’t uncommon for many jobs to require an employee to read articles online. It also isn’t uncommon for a user to suddenly realize that the article they’ve committed to reading is considerably longer than first estimated. Readism takes the guesswork out of the user’s hands by scanning a page for content and delivering an estimated reading time.

Download Readism here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readism-article-reading-t/bmiolhceebkeljaikojgcoeefblcihje

Honey
How often do you do your shopping online? If you’re like many people, it’s fairly frequently. Honey gives you an added bonus as you shop online by providing you with coupon codes for the site you’re browsing. Honey currently supports retail sites in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and India, plus global websites–and more websites are always being added to their databases. For the avid online shopper, Honey helps keep money in your pocket and the balance on your credit card down.

Download Honey here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/honey/bmnlcjabgnpnenekpadlanbbkooimhnj?hl=en-US

Unshorten.Link
Shortened URLs can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they make it more convenient to browse the Internet, but they can also be used to hide URLs that could put you and your system at risk. This extension, as its name states, will un-shorten shortened URLs and check them for malware, giving you a clearer picture of exactly where the link will send you. This extension even removes known tracking cookies from the URL, keeping you that much safer.

Download Unshorten.Link here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unshortenlink/gbobdaaeaihkghbokihkofcbndhmbdpd

ColorZilla
ColorZilla is a comprehensive tool for analyzing the color of web content, giving you the code for the precise shade and hue you find. With a color picker, eyedropper and gradient generator included in the same tool, ColorZilla gives you a clearer view of what you’re looking at, without taking up too many of your resources.

Download ColorZilla here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/colorzilla/bhlhnicpbhignbdhedgjhgdocnmhomnp?hl=en

SessionBuddy
As a session and bookmark manager, SessionBuddy helps to avoid browser clutter and frees up your computer’s memory. By saving open tabs, this extension allows you to restore your tabs after a crash or unexpected shutdown.

Download SessionBuddy here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/session-buddy/edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko?hl=en

MightyText – SMS from PC & Text from Computer
This extension effectively turns your Chrome browser into another means of sending SMS and MMS messages. Any messages and texts you send will still be transmitted using your phone, and therefore, its number. What makes this extension different is the fact that you can still use your smartphone to text as well.

Download MightyText – SMS from PC & Text from Computer here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mightytext-sms-from-pc-te/dkfhfaphfkopdgpbfkebjfcblcafcmpi?hl=en

Google Chrome is constantly improving with each new extension that is added to help its users. Which extensions do you feel are most valuable? Which ones should have made our list? Leave a comment to let us know!

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: Use Google Doc Tables to Organize Your Writing

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Do you use Google Docs for your business’ word processor? It functions in largely the same way as Microsoft Word, and as such, there are various features that carry over between programs. One of these features is the table of contents, which can help you organize and sort your documents into consumable sections.

To use the table of contents, you’ll need to use the preset heading and formatting options that are located in the toolbar next to the font options. Take note that anything formatted as the title won’t be included in the table of contents.

Title Heading

You can use Heading 1 for major divisions of subject matter, including phases, chapters, and sections.

They are set to use a predetermined heading size and font, but you can change that yourself by clicking on the arrow next to the selection in the table of contents dropdown. You just have to select Update Heading to Match.

Heading 1

Once you’ve updated the heading information, you’ll see that the drop-down menu has also updated the heading options for your selection.

 Heading 1 Update 2

Just repeat the two previous steps for your other subheadings.

Header 2

Once you’ve finished changing your settings, you can tell Docs to create a table of contents. You can use Insert > Table of Contents to select a table that fits your specific needs. You can pick an option with page numbers:

Page Numbers

Page Populated

And one with hyperlinks:

Anchor Links

Anchor Links Populated

Once you’ve selected the formatting, you’ll have a simple and easy table of contents in your document.

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Tip of the Week: Give Your Desktop Some TLC

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Maintaining a network of PCs can be a lot of work. We wouldn’t blame you for having trouble keeping your business’ computers up-to-date–especially if you don’t have a dedicated IT department on-site. It doesn’t have to feel impossible, though. With proactive technology maintenance and the following tips, you’ll be sure to stay productive throughout the workday.

Update Your Devices
Microsoft issues updates that are meant to improve the performance and security of its operating systems. It’s recommended that you implement these updates as soon as possible so that they can do what they were designed to do: help your computer’s performance. To check if your device has potential updates, just hit the Windows key and navigate through Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for Updates. If your device needs an update, this page will tell you. Once you’ve done this, all you need to do is restart your computer and complete the installation process.

Restart Your Device
One of the best ways you can improve the performance of your computer is to restart it completely. This gives your computer a moment to catch its breath. It’s just like trying to push your body too hard–sooner or later, you’ll crash and need to take a break. If you don’t, you run the risk of working your technology too hard, which could result in your technology breaking down prematurely. To restart your PC, click on the Start menu or press the Windows key. Next, select Power and click Restart.

Disable Startup Apps
Some programs will start as soon as you power up your computer. A couple examples might be Microsoft Office, antivirus, Spotify, or anything else that is set to do so. If your computer takes too long to start up, you can disable applications so that they don’t run automatically when you turn your computer on. To do this, open your task manager by using the Ctrl+Alt+Delete keyboard shortcut. Select More Details for the option Startup and Disable any programs that you don’t want to initiate on startup. Just be careful of the ones you actually disable, as some of them might be required to keep your computer running properly.

Have these three tips helped out your PC performance? To learn more, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: Closed A Tab On Accident? Here’s How To Restore It

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Have you ever accidentally closed a tab before you were done with it? It’s a classic case of clicking just a little too close to the X. We’ll walk you through how you can open up Google Chrome tabs, not just on your ordinary desktop web browser, but your Android device as well. It’s a lot easier than searching for the same web pages as before!

For the Chrome web browser, it’s as simple as right-clicking in the space that you would ordinarily click if you were to open a brand new tab. You will then click on Reopen Closed Tab. You can also use the keyboard shortcut for Ctrl+Shift+T.

But what if you want to access any recently closed tabs on your Android device? There’s a very simple way to do this, as well. You can start by opening up the Google Chrome app. Next, tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner of your screen. A couple selections down on the menu, you’ll see the option for Recent tabs. From this screen, you’ll be able to see all of the recent tabs that you have closed out of.

The cool thing about this screen is that you can even see the tabs of your other devices that are synced with your mobile device. To restore a closed tab, all you have to do is tap the title of the page you want reopened.

As for other browsers like Mozilla Firefox, you’ll see the option to restore your last browsing session the next time you open the web browser. All you have to do is click the Restore Previous Session. Right-clicking on the tab in Microsoft Edge will also present a similar function compared to Google Chrome.

For more great tips and tricks, visit COMPANYNAME’s blog today.

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Tip of the Week: 3 Useful Microsoft Word Features

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Microsoft Office’s Word is undoubtedly one of the most popular word processing software in the world, perhaps even the most popular. Still, there are many people who use Word on a regular basis without putting the majority of its features to use. Here’s three more Word capabilities that you’ll find very handy.

Change the Case of your Text
HAVE YOU EVER ACCIDENTALLY WRITTEN SOMETHING ENTIRELY IN CAPS? It happens to everyone. However, many people don’t realize that you don’t have to delete everything and rewrite it. Microsoft Word has a handy feature that allows users to change the case of your text. You can choose from: Sentence case. Lowercase. UPPERCASE. Capitalize Each Word. and tOGGLE cASE.

word ib 1

Auto-Update Date & Time
Even though the majority of business correspondences are done digitally, there are still some times when you need to write a good ol’ fashioned direct mail letter. For example, many businesses like to send a welcome message/onboarding letter to new clients. These letters will probably be uniform, with some personalization for each client. Word offers some assistance in making sure the information is updated in the letter. One very handy one when working with templates is the auto-update Date & Time feature.

Under the Insert tab, click the Date & Time button and a pop-up window will appear. Click the date format you want and then be sure to click the “update automatically” box in the bottom right corner. Now the date will automatically be updated every time you open (or print) the document.

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Get Rid of Unwanted Formatting
Most people who use Microsoft Word on a regular basis have had to deal with accidentally pasting text that held the formatting of the document you copied it from. This contagious font will even take over the rest of the document, following the formatting of what was pasted rather than your desired format.

Word has a command that you can use to Clear All Formatting. It can be found in the menu and its icon looks like the letter ‘A’ with a pink eraser. You can also use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Space

word ib 3

For more great information about the software you use every day, visit our blog regularly.

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Tip of the Week: Android Oreo Is Double-Stuffed With Features

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Earlier this year, Android released Oreo, version 8.0 of their popular mobile device operating system. Whether you’ve already updated to the latest version of this OS or are still waiting for your update, it has several new or improved features that you’ll want to consider using. Let’s look at five of our (many) favorite additions to the OS.

Autofill Passwords for Apps – Considering the widespread popularity of using an application over accessing programs within your browser, Google has decided to bring autofill beyond its use in the Chrome browser. The ability to autofill and store passwords for applications are a feature that many people will welcome.

Picture in Picture – Have you ever been in a video conference on your mobile device at the same time you needed to access an email or other information from an application? With Android Oreo, you can continue a video call or view a clip started in Chrome using the picture-in-picture mode by just tapping the home button when the video is playing.

New Emojis – Even though the use of emojis in business correspondence is marginal, they’re still one of the features that users are looking forward to with the Android Oreo release. Luckily, many mobile devices are used for both professional and personal communications, which means that you’ll have plenty of opportunity to use these fun additions to your library of emojis.

Smart Text Select – Anyone who regularly uses a computer likely considers the Select Text, Copy, and Paste functions to be very handy tools. To improve functionality, Oreo has introduced a Smart Text Select feature that is much easier to use than trying to drag and highlight text manually on your smartphone.

Snooze Notifications – Especially when you use a mobile device that for both work and personal uses, you’re probably going to receive notifications that you might not want to deal with immediately – but would like to check out a bit later when you get a chance. With Android Oreo, you can snooze notifications. Simply swipe to the right on the notification until a clock icon pops up. From there, select the amount of time you want to delay the notification by and go back about your regularly scheduled activity.

How do you feel about Android’s latest release? Have you found any other useful features? Or perhaps you still prefer to use iOS, regardless of how many new features Android adds? Sound off in the comments! We’d love to hear your opinion!

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: The Holidays Can Be A Time Of Work And Play, Even While Traveling

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The holidays are approaching, whether we are ready for them or not. With the holidays comes time off, which means that it’s awfully easy to fall behind post-vacation. Another concern is the amount of identity theft and credit card fraud that comes about during this time of year. We’ll discuss some of the many ways that your organization can take advantage of technology this holiday season without putting yourself in harm’s way.

Know Your Wi-Fi Options
You can’t be productive without an Internet connection. This includes either mobile data or Wi-Fi. Chances are you’d rather look for an open wireless network than waste your mobile data, but unsecured networks can put your data at risk. One option you have is to check the reviews on sites like Yelp! and Trip Advisor to see what other guests have to say about Wi-Fi connections. Ideally, you want a VPN to secure your data while it’s in transit.

Bring Along Extra Accessories
You never know when that extra LAN cable or micro-USB cord will come in handy. Furthermore, if you’ve ever done any traveling, you’ll know that buying new equipment from an airport can be more expensive than you’d like.

Carry On Your Devices
If you need to travel for business, be sure to put your devices into your carry-on baggage at any airport. The last thing you need is for a screen to get cracked while your luggage is rolling around the cargo area of a plane. Furthermore, you don’t want your luggage to be either lost or stolen while in-flight. It’s just safer for you to keep anything important in your carry-on luggage.

Be Wary of Free Wi-Fi
You should keep your device from automatically connecting to any open wireless connection that it latches onto. The reasoning for this is that hackers will literally lurk on them, waiting to steal any data that presents itself to them. This can put both your own data and that of customers at risk–all because you checked your email.

Turn Off Your Autofill and Password Management
A password manager keeps you from entering in the same information over and over, but it should be disabled while you’re traveling. What if someone steals your device? They would have access to anything that was auto-filled on it. It’s like leaving the keys to your car in the front seat without locking the door. It’s not impossible to go a few days without auto-populating passwords, and it sure beats the fallout of losing a device.

Use External Drives and USB to Back Up Data
What if you are working on a project while out of the office on vacation, and you misplace your device or it’s damaged beyond repair? All of that progress would be gone. Now, imagine that you have that data backed up to an external hard drive. Now you don’t have to worry about losing data or progress while working out of the office.

There are just a few practices that can keep your organization from succumbing to the dangers of traveling and working at the same time. If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns about using technology while out of the office, reach out to us at PHONENUMBER.

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Casserly Consulting Blog

Tip of the Week: Use Microsoft Word To Create Envelopes For Your Contacts

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Microsoft Office has long been a valuable asset for all types of businesses, but would you be surprised to hear that most organizations don’t take full advantage of it? All of the most recent editions of programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are designed with powerful, user-friendly interfaces that allow your business to do lots of neat things. In fact, you can create a professional envelope for your organization, add a list of contacts from a CSV file or from Outlook, and so much more.

Step 1: Open a New Document
Blank Page

Step 2: Access the Layout Menu
Layout

Step 3: Change the Size of the Page
You want the page to be set to the proper envelope size. If you need to know what size your envelopes are, try checking the box. #10 is generally the traditional letter envelope.
Envelope 10

Step 4: Check the Layout
Before proceeding, make sure that the layout has changed to the proper size.
Envelope 10 Resize

Step 5: Go to the Insert Tab and Select Text Box
Insert Tex Box

Step 6: Use the Simple Text Box Option
This will be used for your return address.
Insert Tex Box2

Step 7: Update the Address and Draft the Text to the Desired Location.
Drag to Position

Step 8: Remove the Border Around the Text Box
You can do this by right-clicking the box and selecting Format Shape. Switch the radial button from Solid Line to No Line.
Remove Border

Step 9: Style and Brand Your Return Address
You can use the Font options to customize the appearance of your return address. Make sure you don’t forget your logo.
BrandingAddress

Step 10: Start Your Mail Merge
First, let’s add another Text Box. You should remove the standing text and leave the cursor right where it is in the box.
Mail Merge 5

Step 11: Load Your Contacts
To do this, access Select Recipients and check the source of your contacts. You’ll need a CSV file for this next step.
Mail Merge 1

Step 12: Select Address Box. This appears in the text box that you created earlier.
Mail Merge 6

Step 13: Follow the Directions to Format Your Address
Mail Merge 4

Step 14: Preview Your Results
Use the Preview Results option to check that the addresses are displaying properly, are simple to read, and fit on the envelope. This might change depending on how many recipients you have. Just scroll through them to ensure that the formatting remains the same throughout them all.
Mail Merge 7

Step 15: Save or Print
That just about wraps it up. You can finish your work or print them out as you see fit.
Mail Merge 8

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