Tekee Tim's Tips

Taking a screenshot of your device

If you want to capture some information that’s displayed on your screen, such as a receipt, it can often be helpful to take a screenshot.

Luckily this is easy on all devices, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

Record your training and motivational videos directly onto your Mac

If you're a Mac user and often record training or motivational messages to post out on social media or on your website, did you know that you can record these videos using the free QuickTime Player app that's included with all Macs?

This can save you buying additional software or recording yourself with a system like Zoom or Teams which can be overkill if you just need to record yourself speaking. You can even trim the start and end off your videos to give them that professional finish.

In this tip, we'll show you how to do this.

Stop your laptops connecting to the wrong WiFi

As you travel around with your laptop, you'll end up connecting to all sorts of WiFi networks and this can cause problems if you're back at home or in the office and there's a WiFi hotspot nearby that your device keeps trying to connect instead of your own connection.

Changing your DNS servers

If you find yourself having intermittent problems with websites loading slowly, email not working and seeing out of date websites, you could be having problems with your DNS servers.

All Internet Providers provide DNS as part of the connection and these convert a website name such as bbc.co.uk into the actual address of the website which is something like 63.194.125.69. Unfortunately the DNS Servers that you get with your Internet connection are usually pretty bad. They can be slow and out of date and we always recommend using better ones.

In this tip, we'll show you have to switch over to using faster and safer DNS on your Mac, Windows PC and your home router.

How can I edit my photos?

If you enjoy taking photos and storing them on your computer or mobile device, you have access to a lot of free software that can help you enhance, resize and otherwise edit your photos. Basic software for doing this is built into Windows, macOS and iOS and we'll show you how to get started with it here.

What to look for when buying a new computer

When you're looking for a new computer, there are a few things you need to bear in mind when making a decision.
In this week's tip, Tekee Tim will help you through the process.

Creating encrypted notes on Mac OS and iOS

Included in Apple's updates for iOS 9.3 and macOS 10.11.4 was the ability to have encrypted notes that you can share between the iPhone/iPad and your Mac. Here we'll show you how to lock and unlock notes on both devices so you can ensure that any confidential information you add into a note is kept safe.

Sending files in the most efficient way

This tip on how to send files using Dropbox is one of our most popular tips as this topic comes up a lot. Sending large files by email is never a good idea as it fills your email account up unnecessarily and can make your email slow to a crawl while it tries to send the file.

We've updated this tip a few times to make sure it fits with the latest versions of Dropbox for your devices.

Get Smart with your filing

If you like to keep your files and emails organised, the Mac has great features to help you do this automatically, with Smart Folders and Smart Mailboxes.

Smart Folders allows you to create a folder on your Mac that looks like a normal folder, but instead of you having to move or copy your files into it, it will ask you for a set of rules and automatically display files that match.

Sharing a folder via iCloud

Included in the latest update for macOS, iOS and iPadOS is the ability to share folders via iCloud to other iCloud users. Ideal for sharing files between different Apple users without having to sign up for a new service like Dropbox or OneDrive.

In this tip, we'll show you how to use this new feature.

Converting an image file in macOS Monterey

One of the new features included in macOS 12 Monterey, is the ability to convert an image file into a different format, as well as changing the size of the file and removing any metadata attached to the file.

In this tip, we'll show you how to do this with just a few clicks,

How can I edit text on my desktop?

Whether you're writing an email or a document on your Mac or Windows PC, you'll often need to correct typos or move words or whole sentences around or add an underline, bold or italic for emphasis.

We’ll show you how to do the essentials below, using Word for Mac and Windows.