Technology Tips

Plan a Meeting in Outlook

Sara T — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:38:35 +0000

Today’s post is for those of you who use Outlook at work. When used appropriately, Outlook can be a powerful productivity tool. In fact, if you’re not using the Calendar feature to manage your schedule, you’re missing out on a great function that allows you to organize your schedule and coordinate with colleagues. Today we’re going to learn how to set up a meeting with a colleague – without shooting ten emails back and forth that all begin “I’m busy that hour. How about… instead?”

Open Outlook and navigate to the Calendar tab. Click Actions, then Plan a Meeting…

You’ll see this dialog box:

Just type in the name of the person with whom you’d like to meet and Outlook will display both of your schedules. You can tell Outlook to AutoPick the next time you’re both available, or scroll through your schedules to pick a time that works for both of you. Click the Make Meeting button to send an appointment request.

Note that the Plan a Meeting function doesn’t allow your co-workers to view the items on your calendar; it just allows them to see when you’re free and when you have a previous engagement.

Using Google Like a Pro: Part Six

Sara T — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:27:55 +0000

To conclude our Using Google Like a Pro series, I want to share some Google “Easter eggs”. These are fun little secrets that Google employees hide in various services. Here are some of my favorites:

Walking directions from The Shire to Mordor
Navigate to maps.google.com. Click Get directions. Enter The Shire as your starting point and Mordor as your destination, then click the icon for walking directions. Nerds rejoice!

Have you ever played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? I’m not very good at that game, but Google is! Just type an actor’s name and the phrase bacon number and Google makes the Kevin Bacon connection for you.

Google Translate is great for getting quick translations, but did you know you can make it beatbox? Just copy and paste this text into Google Translate, tell it to translate into German, and click Listen:

pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz zk pv pv pv zk pv zk zk pzk pzk pvzkpkzvpvzk kkkkkk bsch

And now, I congratulate you! If you’ve read the six-part Using Google Like a Pro series, you’re now a better Googler than all your friends!

Using Google Like a Pro: Part Five

Sara T — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:12:26 +0000

Are you a political junkie? Diehard Cubs fan? Supporter of a local museum or (ahem) library? If so, you may be interested in hearing all the news about your favorite group and the best way to do that is to set up a Google alert.

When you set up a Google alert, Google will email you when it indexes a webpage that contains your selected phrase. You can choose how often to receive emails, and whether you get every result or the most popular ones. Let’s set up an alert for the library.

Start by navigating to google.com/alerts. Type in your search query (it’s best to type the exact phrase in quotation marks to avoid unrelated results). Choose your preferences from the drop-down menus and type in your email address. When you’re ready, just click CREATE ALERT. You’re done!

Using Google Like a Pro: Part Four

Sara T — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:27:29 +0000

You’ve used Google Images a thousand times. Type a phrase, click Images, and Google searches the internet for images that match your description. But what if you have the image and need the description? I saw an art print at a friend’s house that I really liked, but she couldn’t remember the artist’s name. I snapped a picture of it and decided to do some investigating.

I started with a regular image search. To conduct an image search, I described the image in my own words (nautical poem with anchor black and white) and scrolled through the results:

Uh, not exactly what I was looking for. Instead of telling Google about my picture, I decided to show it. For this technique to work, you’ll need to save your image to your computer.

Navigate to images.google.com and click the camera icon in the right-hand side of the search box to upload your image. Alternatively, drag and drop your saved image into the search box, like this:

Google will search the internet for images that are visually similar to yours and give you its best guess of the image’s origin:

Thanks, Google! Now I can contact the artist to purchase my own print.

Using Google Like a Pro: Part Three

Sara T — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:09:41 +0000

Conversions, calculations, math problems… if you’re not a fan of math, you can use Google to perform basic calculations. Here are some of my favorites:

Converting Celsius to Fahrenheit:

How about cooking conversions?

The jeans you want are $69 and there’s a 35% off sign next to the rack. Is it a good deal?

You’re admiring a painting that a friend brought back from India when she casually mentions that she paid 10,000 rupees for it. What?! How much is that in American money?

Using Google Like a Pro: Part Two

Sara T — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:34:11 +0000

Search engines exist to trawl the internet for our search queries and return relevant answers. Google has always performed that function, but did you know that you can also use Google to get answers to your questions directly? Here’s how it works:

Imagine you want to know the movie times for theaters in our area. Instead of conducting an internet search for websites that offer movie listings, you can type movies Waukegan to get results instantly:

You can also ask Google about the dates of holidays or when daylight savings time begins:

Have friends in a different time zone? Check the time to make sure you don’t wake them up the next time you call:

Check the weather by typing the word weather and a city or ZIP code:

Using Google Like a Pro: Part One

Sara T — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:45:48 +0000

Do you ever wonder how some people always seem to find what they’re searching for online? You can become a searching expert, too! All you need are some neat Googling tricks hidden up your sleeve. Today is the first post in a series about using Google like a pro to get librarian-level search results. The first trick I want to share is domain-specific searching.

Domain-specific searching takes your general keyword search and narrows it to a domain (for instance, waukeganpl.org) or a domain ending (.com, .org, .gov and .edu are examples). This type of search is useful if you have a favorite site for information, or you are working on a homework project and need to find reliable information.

Let’s imagine that you’re interested in buying a book, but you want to know whether it’s ever been reviewed by the New York Times. This is the first search you try:

Your results look like this:

Yikes! Not exactly what you’re looking for. Try this little trick for narrowing your results to just the New York Times website:

This time, Google searched only the New York Times website for the phrase President Kennedy: Profile of Power.

The very first result is a link to the book review. When using the site: function, make sure to type the website address or domain ending directly after site: without any spaces. Happy Googling!

Pinterest: What the Heck Is It and Why Should I Use It?

Sara T — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:40:36 +0000

Pinterest is a social media site that has exploded in popularity this past year. Unlike Facebook, which facilitates social interaction, Pinterest is a place to share ideas. Users find appealing images on websites (or upload their own) and pin them on boards. There’s a category for every interest on Pinterest, from cooking to comic books to tattoos and weddings. Here’s a quick glossary of terms:

Pinner: That’s you. People who use Pinterest are called pinners. You can follow other pinners so that you view the items they pin on your homepage.
Pin: An image on the Pinterest servers. Images are usually linked to websites.
Repin: Pinners can browse a category that appeals to them and repin images that other pinners have found online.
Board: You can imagine your board like the big corkboard in your house where you pin articles, recipes, photos from magazines, and snapshots of your dog.

If you’re looking for home décor inspiration, you’re in a cooking rut, or you want some projects that will keep your kids busy on a rainy day, you’ll find that Pinterest is a fun, useful website. To get started on Pinterest, follow the Library here: www.pinterest.com/WPLreaders. You’ll find lots of reading recommendations, links to cool websites, and library-themed jokes (of course!).

iPhone Tips You’ll Actually Use

Sara T — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:41:11 +0000

When I first bought my iPhone, I asked the salesman about books or classes that would help me learn how to use it. When he told me that I would figure it out if I played with it, he was right — to an extent. While iPhones are designed to be intuitive, there are lots of tricks and shortcuts that will make using your phone easier and more fun.

I’d like to share some useful tips that help me get the most out of using my iPhone. If you’re new to using an iPhone, they’ll help you too. Here we go!

Program your own text shortcuts. I set up my phone so that when I type my initials, the phone auto-corrects to my email address. Big time-saver! To get this feature, navigate to Settings > General > Keyboard. Scroll to the bottom and tap Add New Shortcut.
Kill your apps to preserve battery life. To “kill” your apps, or shut them down completely so they’re not running in the background, double tap the Home button. All your open apps will appear in a window along the bottom of your screen. Press and hold an app until it starts to wiggle, then tap the minus sign in the upper left-hand corner of the app to shut it down. You’ll notice a marked improvement in your battery life.
When you’re playing music and your screen is locked, double-tap the Home button to reveal music controls (volume, skip, rewind).
Even if your iPhone doesn’t have Siri, you can still use Voice Controls to perform some basic functions. Hold down the Home Button until you hear a double-beep, then tell the phone what you want. For instance, you can say “Play songs by Bruce Springsteen” or “Call Mom at home”. Ta-da!
Lock screen orientation. This was a major annoyance for me when I first got my phone! To lock screen orientation, double-tap the Home button then swipe to the left. Tap the image of the padlock to lock your screen. You’re welcome.
Choose domain endings other than .com. The .com shortcut on the keyboard is super-handy, but not all websites end in .com. Next time you open Safari, tap and hold the .com button to see all the domain endings. Now you can navigate to the library’s website (waukeganpl.org) that much faster!

Getting the Most from Firefox

Sara T — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:23:24 +0000

Everyone has a favorite browser, and Firefox is mine. Here are some tricks I use to enhance my Firefox experience:

Ctrl + L: To highlight the URL in the address bar
Shift + Enter: Magically adds www. and .com to the phrase you’ve typed in the address bar. For example, nytimes into the address bar, then Shift + Enter. Your phrase morphs into www.nytimes.com and you’re taken to the site.
Ctrl + F: Performs a keyword search on a webpage. This trick works in most browsers. It will increase your searching speed dramatically!
Ctrl + T: Opens a new tab
Ctrl + Tab: Switches among the tabs you have open
Ctrl + W: Closes your current tab
Shopping for gifts? Or maybe you’re a spy? Use Ctrl + Shift + P to enable private browsing.