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.

Easily transfer to a new iPhone or iPad

If you replace your iPhone or iPad, it's easy to get it back up and running on the new device by using your iCloud backup and we'll show you how to do that here.

Avoiding online scams

Following any large scale cyber incident, such as the recent CrowdStrike issue that took down millions of Windows PC, there's always a surge of scam emails trying to cash in on that event so we thought we'd go into a bit more depth about how to spot and avoid online scams.

How can I control app permissions on my device?

Various apps on your mobile devices and Windows and Mac computers need different permissions in order to operate. Skype for example will need permission to access the camera and microphone. We'll show you here how to check what app is using what permissions, and how to change it.

How can I work faster?

When you're using your computer, you can usually make things faster and easier by using keyboard shortcuts. These allow you to perform many of the functions you usually do with the mouse but without having to move away from what you're doing.

We've listed a few of the most common shortcuts below for Windows, Mac and iPad. On Windows you use the Ctrl key for the shortcuts and on the Mac and iPad, you use the Cmd key.

How to get the best from your WiFi

Having WiFi at home or work can be really convenient when you're using laptops or smartphones/tablets as it means you don't have to be confined to one area when you want to use the Internet, unfortunately just about everything interferes or blocks WiFi to some extent but luckily there are things you can do to try to get the best signal possible.

Switching back to jpeg photos on iPhone and iPad

If you have a modern iPhone or iPad, it will take photos in a newer, more efficient format called HEIF and videos in a new format called HEVC.

If you're using all Apple devices, this shouldn't cause you any problems as they fully support these formats but if you use Windows, this might cause you some compatibility problems so in this tip, we'll show you how to switch back to the more standard formats.

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.

How can I ensure that all my devices are up to date?

Keeping your devices up to date is always very important, software updates allow bugs to be fixed, security issues to be addressed and new features to be added to all your devices. You'll usually get notified if there are any updates for your devices, but here we'll run through the most common machines and how you can check to see if you have any updates waiting to install.

How can I safely recycle my computer?

If you've replaced your PC or Mac and would like to dispose of the old one or sell it, then you need to be careful that you've erased all the data on the disk so that no one else can access any of your files.

Most people store a lot of private and sometimes sensitive documents on their computers and if someone else gets the machine, it's possible that they could recover this information so you do need to take some steps to ensure this doesn't happen and we'll show you some of those steps here.

Saving an email as a PDF on your iPhone or iPad

Lots of information comes in by email these days, payment receipts, holiday bookings, tickets for concerts, flights etc and it can be handy to save these as a PDF so you can file them away and keep them safe. In today's tip, we'll show you how to do that on your iPhone or iPad.

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.