u3a Computer Group

The Exmouth and District u3a Computers and New Technology  Group is full at the moment, but if you are a member of Exmouth & District u3a and want to find out more or want to join the waiting list, please go to the Exmouth & District u3a webpage on this at https://u3asites.org.uk/exmouth/page/33415.  We normally meet on the third Tuesday of the month.

It's not a course as such, just an informal gathering of us who meet to sort out any computer and other technical problems or issues that we have. We are a very mixed bunch ranging from absolute beginners to people who have quite a bit of knowledge and experience with computers. We cover iPads and other tablets and smartphones as well as laptops, which we discuss on Zoom meetings and bring along with us at our occasional in-person 'surgeries'.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 18 June 2024 at 2.00 pm when we will meet on Zoom for a computer 'surgery' in the Wings Bar, RAFA Club, Imperial Road, Exmouth. Further details will be sent direct to members of the group a few days before the meeting.

The Exmouth & District u3a Computer Group archive

This is where I have posted information and guidance that I have circulated to members of the Exmouth & District u3a Computer Group in the past. I hope that it will be useful, and if you have any comments or wish to add anything, please let me know.

John Hunt, Group Coordinator

Recycling old mobile phones

Our thanks to Helen for finding out more about recycling old mobile phones. Here is the link to Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert website which gives a lot of useful information - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mobiles/mobile-recycling/ 

Posted September 2022

Printer inks

Our thanks to Bryan for this information about printer inks:

At the recent meeting of the computer group in the discussion about printer inks and good places to buy them from you will recall that I mentioned Stinkyink. I recently received an email with a promotional offer (which is when I buy). Many times I have bought original and compatible inks from Stinkyink and always found them good AND the terms of business/customer support is good to deal with too - https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/


Another company that I deal with and have found good regarding a model of very old printer and to buy inks for is difficult is Premium Compatibles - www.premiumcompatibles.co.uk, tel 020 8449 4877 (for new customers a Coupon Code is PC10 which gives 10% off their first order.)


Could I also remind the group that where XL size cartridges are available, then XL are a better option since whilst the size of an XL Cartridge is the same as the standard size, they are filled with much more ink.

Windows 10

Our thanks to Bryan for this information about Windows 10:

In the edition of Computer Active (631 11 - 24th May 2022) there was an article concerning the important need for some Windows 10 users to update (not upgrade which is what I think I may have sometimes referred this to at our recent Computer Meetings) Windows 10 if their computer is running under the W10 Version 20H2.

In view of the fact that Microsoft support has ended for this 20H2 version (and the vulnerability therefore of loss of security update's protection let alone W10 features), I think this underlines that checking the version of our computer systems is actually very important and needs to be done by a process that whilst easy and straightforward to do, does seem to cause some of our u3a Computer Group members confusion? 

There really is a need now to at least check their system to see what they are using i.e. anything higher than W10 version 20H2, ideally (and the latest) version 21H2 although version 21H1 is OK.  (At the moment I am still stuck on 21H1 and not 21H2 as Windows update has not identified that version for my computer yet!). Hopefully, this can be explained as my computer not yet coming under the rollout programmes "broad deployment".

The article in Computer Active is also useful as it makes clear the importance of the need to be aware of Microsoft's withdrawal of support system's deadlines via their "Lifecycle" page.

Posted in June 2022

Guidance on WhatsApp


How to delete messages


You can delete messages just for yourself or request that messages be deleted for everyone.


Delete messages for everyone

Deleting messages for everyone allows you to delete specific messages you’ve sent to an individual or group chat. This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake.

Messages that are successfully deleted for everyone will be replaced with:

"This message was deleted" 


To delete messages for everyone:

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you want to delete.

2. Tap and hold the message. Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once.

3. Tap Delete > Delete for everyone. 

Note:


Delete messages for yourself

You can delete your copy of messages you've sent or received from your phone. This has no impact on your recipients' chats. Your recipients will still see the messages in their chat screen. 

To delete messages for yourself:

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete.

2. Tap and hold the message. Optionally, tap more messages to delete multiple messages at once.

3. Tap Delete > Delete for me. 


Related resources:

How to delete messages: iPhone | KaiOS

How to clear chats: Android | iPhone


Posted on 10 March 2021, with thanks to Susi


Saving photos and taking screenshots


Save photos & videos in Cloud if using Apple in iCloud and for Android in Google Drive. Means you can access material from any other device - be able to download to any other device.


To forward a photo from Whats App - highlight photo - 3 dots - Share - tap Gmail (or other email icon)


How to take a screen shot:

Mac = Shift + cmd + 3 or 4 for select part of the screen.

From iPhone or iPad - press on/off + one of the volume buttons at same time

Windows 10: press the PrtSC button on the keyboard

Chromebook - Ctrl + Show Windows


Select content to copy = control A to copy All, to copy = control + C, to paste = control + V,  to cut = control + X


Posted on 10 March 2021, with thanks to Susi

Latest on internet security

Useful information about scams and other problems that you may encounter and how to report these is available from the national Action Fraud website at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ (and see especially https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/individual-protection). There is a good booklet called "The Little Book of Big Scams" published by Devon & Cornwall Police which you can read or download at https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/advice/your-money/fraud/little-big-book-of-scams/.  In addition there are some useful links - https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/advice/your-internet-safety/ and https://www.getsafeonline.org/devonandcornwall/. Trading Standards South West have also published a useful Scamwise booklet on this  at https://www.tssw.org.uk/consumers/scamwise-2. 

We have also covered this in some guidance published in an article called  "Think before you click - safe computing for U3Aers" - on our own U3A website at https://u3asites.org.uk/files/e/exmouth/docs/securityarticlefinal.pdf. Also if you are having problems receiving emails, we have posted some guidance which may help in learning how to deal with this, and it's on our Exmouth U3A website at https://u3asites.org.uk/files/e/exmouth/docs/receivingemailsfromu3a170319.pdf.

Exmouth & District U3A held a very useful half-day event on  'How to Safeguard against Cyber-Crime and Scams' in February, and there is an excellent four page report summarising what was said on pages 4 to 7 of the March newsletter - currently at https://u3asites.org.uk/files/e/exmouth/docs/exmouthu3amarch2020newsletter.pdf 

Video calls

This has now developed into a separate section on this website - click or tap here: Videocalls

More learning about online skills

This has now been expanded into a separate webpage on this website - see Computers

Skills for Tomorrow, from British Telecom - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/ 

By coincidence, following on from our topic of the month for October on using computers, laptops and tablets, British Telecom has just launched this major new Skills for Tomorrow  initiative - "Empowering you with the skills you need today, for a better tomorrow". It's intended to benefit all generations and is free to everyone (not just BT customers). BT says it's "a free digital skills programme to help you and 10 million people across the UK go beyond limits and reach their full potential. We've teamed up with amazing partners, like LinkedIn Learning and Google Digital Garage to provide online and face-to-face learning to help you thrive in a digital future." BT has itself produced the material in the section pitched at parents, and the other partners are Learn My  Way (which I had previously recommended in my topic of the month) and iDEA. 

You may find that some of this material may be helpful to you or possibly to other members of your family or others.

The main category is called Navigating your daily life, and this features basic guides about being online and using computers - https://www.bt.com/skillsfortomorrow/daily-life.html. There are five main sections:

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More learning resources

In addition, I have just happened to come across a very useful GSF Global & GSF LearnFree website at https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/subjects/i-want-to/  (with a very short introductory video at https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/).  This offer a wide range of free courses and tutorials which look really good. Main sections of relevance here include:

The courses are free and unlike the offerings via BT, they do not required registration, which makes them very accessible.

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iPads 

One of the best ways of learning about iPads is to download Apple's iPad user guide ebook for your particular version of your iPad operating system via Apple's iBooks store. It free - and comprehensive (over 300 pages for the version I use!). And there are also some other free ebooks available on this subject.

Connect & Learn Group topic: Using computers, laptops and tablets

This was Topic of the Month in October 2019. To look at an updated version of this, click or tap here: Using computers, laptops and tablets

Dictating using Word on Windows 10

I've come across some very useful software which could help those of you who use Microsoft Word on Windows 10 who would like  to dictate instead of typing. It's free Microsoft add-in software created by some geniuses at Microsoft which you can download and install on your computer and which automatically adds a dictation tab on Microsoft Office applications (it needs to be Office 2013 or later). It works brilliantly! The link for more information is https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/profiles/dictate/ and you can download it from here:  https://dictate.ms/. 

Speech-recognition software on Windows 7, 8 and 10

I've done some research to see if there is an easy way of using already installed software on Windows 10 to allow you to use speech recognition to dictate text. I've found something which is set out here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-set-up-speech-to-text-in-windows-10, and you can find the software for this on Windows 10 by typing in "speech recognition". in the search box at the bottom left-hand side of your screen. I've just tried it out on my Windows 10 laptop and it works. But unfortunately what I dictate and what is typed out is vastly different as you have to spend a lot of time "training" the computer to recognise your voice! It's probably worth spending time doing this only if you intend to use this facility a lot. 

You can always purchase some software to do this, but a free option that I would strongly recommend is to do what I sometimes do and dictate using a tablet or smartphone instead as I have found the results of this have been astonishingly accurate without having to do any "training" of the device! You could do this by dictating an email to yourself, then copying and pasting the text into your document on your laptop. A much better idea though is to use Google Drive app on your tablet or smartphone, then select Google Docs (which is similar to Word or Libre in many respects), give the document a title, and then dictate the text. Then on your laptop open up Google Drive and your document will be there automatically straightaway! You can edit if further from there, and you can copy and paste into another document if you want to (but this may not be necessary as you can store and print Google Docs easily). If you want to know more about this, try looking at this: https://zapier.com/apps/google-docs/tutorials/how-to-use-google-docs. And Google Docs are stored automatically in the Cloud, but you can also save them to work on offline - https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6388102?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

Guidance on computer security and email problems

We have posted some guidance on these topics on the Exmouth & District U3A website:

These PDFs also give links for further information about these important topics.

Security

We talked again about security and the importance of having up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware software on your computer, tablet and smartphone. The link to the article relating to the malware we mentioned is https://malwarefixes.com/how-to-remove-maps-360-pro/. Other links which others may find useful are https://www.actionfraud.police.uk and https://www.quad9.net (which prevents going to various fraudulent sites).  And if any of you have Apple products and use an Apple Mac, these links may be helpful: https://www.top10bestantivirus.com/best-antivirus-for-mac?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0tCO4MTr4AIV04TVCh0rMgO1EAAYASAAEgIpKvD_BwE and https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-software/mac-viruses-list-3668354/ [from March 2019]

Gadget Day in Exeter Library

I discovered when I was in Exeter Library recently that they offer a "Gadget Day" between 10.00 am and noon on the first Monday of every month. No need to book, just take your gadget along with you (tablet, smartphone or ebook reader). Further details are https://www.devonlibraries.org.uk/web/arena/exeterlibrary  (and scroll down).

Radio apps

We referred to the launch of Scala, a new national classical music radio station (on DAB and online). You can listen to this via your tablet and your smartphone (as well as from its website on your laptop), and this is best done via an app. which could be Scala's own app, or the app I recommend is Radioplayer (which also brings together the UK's BBC, commercial and community radio stations in one place, and you can save your favourites on this and instantly change stations). Another useful radio app you can use is TuneIn which also covers the UK stations but in addition brings together thousands or radio stations from round the world. Also the BBC Radio apps are very good for just BBC programmes (which can be downloaded for listening offline) and podcasts. It looks as if the BBC iPlayer Radio app is being phased out and replaced by the new BBC Sounds app (which is excellent once you can find the way to navigate your way round it!). All of these apps can be downloaded free from your usual app store (Google Play or Apple).  [from March 2019]

Multi-connection adapter

Some of us got excited about the multi-connection adapter that we saw. After a bit of Google searching I've managed to track this item down, and it can be purchased through Amazon for £14.97. It seems a bit too good to be true (and the customer reviews are not good), and you would not know whether or not it would work on your device until you actually try it out! Further details are at  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00Q2ESOY2/ref=psdc_949408031_t1_B01JOZJQ4M , if anyone is interested. [February 2019]

ebook and emagazine services

We talked about the excellent free ebook and emagazine service offered by Devon libraries. 

You can 'borrow' a wide selection of ebooks and the best way to do this is via an app called Libby, which you can download to your device (tablet or phone) via your app store, plus audiobooks through Libby and also additional audio titles via an app called BorrowBox which you can also download from your app store. Also, you can also download ebooks from Devon Libraries OverDrive to a laptop and then transfer to a non-Kindle ebook reader. More details are at https://www.devonlibraries.org.uk/web/arena/ebooks and https://devon.overdrive.com/.

You can also see and download a big range of magazines through a free app called RBdigital - see https://www.devonlibraries.org.uk/web/arena/emagazines and https://www.rbdigital.com/devon/service/magazines/landing. Once downloaded to your device, you can keep these as long as you wish. [February 2019]

BBC services

Access to BBC TV and radio and podcasts online and the ability to download programmes and podcasts offline (useful to have when out of range of wifi). The links to the websites when using a computer or laptop are:

If you are using a tablet (including iPads) or a smartphone, you can access these services via these links on your web-browser on your device, but much better is to download the BBC TV iPlayer app and the BBC sounds app directly to your device - free from the Google Play app store (or Apple app store if you are using an iPad or iPhone). In addition if you are looking for podcasts to listen to or download, I have found that the easiest app to use is called Castbox (also available free to download from your app store).  [December 2018]

NB I have done a lot more research on this and much  more detail is now in the Topics section on this website. Click or tap on BBC resources

Computer topics

I have recently found some useful resources on a range of computer topics which I thought I would share with you in case some of you may find this useful. It's at  https://www.makeuseof.com/tags/longform-guide/, and you can read them as webpages (or you may be able to download them as PDFs). Topics include: Windows shortcuts, Microsoft Office 2013 unofficial guide, How to use Facebook, Easy guide to Google Chrome, How to use Twitter, Beginner's guide to Gmail, Beginner's guide to digital photography, Android beginner's guide on how to set up your smartphone....and many more! The home page of this website is https://www.makeuseof.com/ if you want to discover yet more.  [October 2018]

emagazines

This is an excellent free service that Devon public libraries offers to anyone who has joined the library (which is also free). There is a really good selection now, and if you take advantage of any of these, it will could save you hundreds of pounds over the commercial subscription rate! The link is https://www.devonlibraries.org.uk/web/arena/emagazines . And on mobile devices such as a tablet (iPad or Android) or even a phone, the best way to read these is via the app which called was Zinio but which has now been taken over by RBdigital - the link is http://www.rbdigital.com/devon/service/magazines/landing or search for the RB Digital app on iTunes or Google Play. [September 2018]

Using dictation instead of typing

This is something I do a lot as it saves a lot of time! If you haven't discovered how to do this yet, here is a guidance note for iPad and iPhone - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208343. And here is guidance for Andoid/Google tablets and phones - https://www.dummies.com/consumer-electronics/smartphones/droid/google-voice-typing-on-your-android-phone/ . It should work on all applications that use a keyboard to type things in, as well as for web-browsing and searching, emails and texting. [August 2018]

VPNs (virtual private networks)

This is a complex topic, but basically if a VPN is installed on your tablet or smart phone it gives added security when using a public wfi system, or using your phone or tablet for financial transactions, or if you are trying to access UK broadcasts from abroad. If you want to know more, there is a short video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFg7TSwVcL4, and an explanation (which is supposed to be a simplified account!) at https://vpnobserver.com/vpn-explained-in-simple-words/ . [July 2018] 

Cloud storage 

Cloud storage  is a network of remote servers hosted on the internet. There's some useful information about this at https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/cloud-storage/article/how-to-choose-the-best-cloud-storage-service. Good advice is to back up any documents, photos and other files that you particularly value in at least two places such as on a memory stick and/or external hard drive and/or cloud storage. The main advantage of cloud storage is that your files are stored safely (as long as the cloud provider continues to exist!) and you can access your files from any computer or any device at any time and from anywhere in the world (providing you have a wifi connection). The disadvantages are that you do need a wifi connection, and if you have a lot to store there could be additional charges.

You can get a certain amount of free cloud storage from certain providers. Google offers up to 15 GB, Apple's iCloud and Microsoft's OneDrive offer up to 5 GB, and Dropbox offers up to 2 GB. In addition your internet service provider may offer cloud storage within your contract at no extra cost (for example I am with BT who offers me up to 500 GB within my contract). I hope that helps. [June 2018]

MOOCs

I gave a short demonstration on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). There is a fantastic number of free courses on a huge range of subjects (usually completely free). There is some very useful information about MOOCs on the national U3A website at https://u3asites.org.uk/advice-on-moocs/welcome . [May 2018]