Tips and tricks

If you've been on the hunt for some nifty iPad tips and tricks to make the most of your phenomenal device then boy oh boy do we have a treat lined up for you! Today we're sharing not one, not 10, but 50 of our favorite best kept secrets that will have your iPad truly working for you and making your life a whole lot easier. Basically, the iPad is just darn brilliant in our minds! But not every user is familiar with the true breadth and depth of what this genius device can do. That's why we've put together this list of hidden gems to help you get the most out of this little beauty. From organizing your apps to making Siri sing, here are 50 of our favorite iPad tips and tricks. (Image credit: Apple) Are your apps sprawled over multiple Home Screens? Organize them into folders for like-minded apps and you can find what you want faster. You can even drag folders to your Dock for fast access to favorites, so for example we have Work and News folders in ours for our most-used apps. (Image credit: Apple) Swipe down from the top right of the Home Screen to show Control Center, which has shortcuts for everyday tasks such as adjusting the brightness and volume, turning Bluetooth on and off, locking the screen orientation and so on. If you have smart home devices you can also control them from here. Control Center is customizable: go to Settings > Control Center and you can add or remove controls. 4. Booby-trap your data Does your iPad store data you don’t want to fall into the wrong ...

• Home • Repurpose • Crafts • Cricut • Kids • Paper • Winter • Holidays • Valentine's Day • Easter • Halloween • Christmas • Fashion • Sewing • Beauty • Hairstyles • Gifts • Baby Shower • Father's Day • Mother's Day • Homemade • Home • Furniture Makeovers • Lifehacks • Decorating • Organization • Parenting • Gardening • Health • Food • Recipes • Knitting & Crocheting • Search Gardening season is upon us and it’s in full swing. Whether you are brand new to gardening or you have a veteran green thumb, you know that gardening is a rewarding way to spend more time outdoors—or make the most of your indoor space! While gardening is fun, it can also be very challenging. It’s a subtle art and science since many plants require delicately balanced conditions in order to thrive. These gardening tips and tricks are easy and affordable, and will help you to get the best results this year! Jump to: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Make a drip feeder using an old soda bottle. Have plants (especially vegetables) that do better if the moisture is delivered at their roots instead of from overhead? One cheap and simple way to make a drip feeder which you can place underground next to your plant is by using an old plastic soda bottle. Just puncture some holes in it (a barbeque skewer works great), and then plant it next to t...

You’re our first priority. Every time. NerdWallet, Inc. is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. Its articles, interactive tools and other content are provided to you for free, as self-help tools and for informational purposes only. They are not intended to provide investment advice. NerdWallet does not and cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information in regard to your individual circumstances. Examples are hypothetical, and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific investment issues. Our estimates are based on past market performance, and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free. So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Dayana is a former NerdWallet authority on investing and retirement. She has written for The Associat...

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen Navigating with indoor Live View (Credit: Google) Some places even support Live view inside: (Opens in a new window) and animated arrows to direct you in malls in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle; and in airports, malls, and transit stations in Tokyo and Zurich. It will soon be available in 1,000 new airports, train stations, and malls in Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, Prague, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, and Taipei. To use the feature, open Maps and click on the camera icon. 3. Plot Multiple Locations on Google Maps (Credit: Google/PCMag) Rarely do car trips consist of going from point A to B; more often, they are something like A-to-café-to-library-to-Joe's-house-to-B. Thankfully, Google makes it possible to anticipate realtrips. To add multiple destinations in the Google Maps mobile app, enter your starting point and your ultimate destination, and then click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner. This prompts a pop-over menu with the option to "Add sto...

Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. 15 Microsoft Word tips and tricks that will help any user work more efficiently • Microsoft Word is filled with little-known tips and tricks that allow for more efficient work. • Some tricks, like "Focus" mode and quick translations, make writing and editing a breeze. • Other features, like a built-in Resume Assistant and a document-signing tool, can aid on professional documents. It's easy to take However, even everyday Word users might not realize how powerful the app is, or how many features it has beyond the simple editing commands we all know. Microsoft Word tips and tricks Taking time to explore Word's more obscure corners can make the program even more useful for you. If you start using these tricks often, you might start to wonder how you ever went without them. Here are 15 of our favorite Microsoft Word tips and tricks, all of which can save you time and energy while you work. Use Microsoft Word's "Show/Hide ¶" button to show all your line breaks If you're formatting something trickier than basic paragraphs, like a resume, the "¶" symbol is your friend. This shows you every line break in your document, which is a fantastic way to make sure all your spa...

PC hardware is nice, but it’s not much use without innovative software. I’ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11. My career has taken me through an eclectic assortment of fields, and connected me with people from all walks of life. This experience includes construction, professional cooking, podcasting, and, of course, writing. I’ve been typing up geeky takes since 2009, ultimately landing a freelancing position at PCMag. This blossomed into a full-time tech analyst position in 2021, where I lend my personal insight on the matters of web hosting, streaming music, mobile apps, and video games. We want you to use Google's mobile OS like a champ, and our list of Android shortcuts and suggestions can help you do just that. These are only some of the ways to use Android; the OS has such a deep feature set that you’ll no doubt find more. Be sure to swing by our comments section to shout out your favorites—we may add them to future updates of this story. (Credit: Google, PCMag) 1. Uninstall Apps You Don’t Need Most Android phones come with a healthy helping of preinstalled apps. Many will be welcomed by nearly everyone—maps, email, browser, and so on—but there ar...

I've been writing about computers, the internet, and technology professionally for 30 years, more than half of that time with PCMag. I run several special projects including the Readers' Choice and Business Choice surveys, and yearly coverage of the Fastest ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs. I work from my home, and did it long before pandemics made it cool. Anyone familiar with the iPhone interface will have little trouble mastering the iPad. But iOS and Apple created a separate OS for the iPad because lots of functions only make sense on a larger screen. Rather than have that code taking up space on iPhones, it exists only on in iPadOS. Read on to learn the secrets that will make Apple's biggest touch screen even more worthwhile in your daily life. (For more, dig into Dare to Dock (Credit: Apple) Another way of sharing access across devices is to have the tabs that are open in the Safari browser on, say, your iPhone, also appear on your iPad or Mac. You do this via iCloud Tabs. On the iPad (or iPhone) go to Settings> [your name] > iCloud, and ensure Safari is switched on. Do the same on the Mac under System Preferences. Now, when you go to Safari on the iPad and tap the Tabs button (it looks like a square box overlapping another square box) on the left navigation, you'll see an entry for iCloud Tabs. Tap to see the list of tabs open on your other devices. (Note: It can take a few minutes for tabs you open on one device to show up on another device; Split the Keyboard for Thumb C...

My pine trees drop cones all summer long, and my old back doesn't like me bending over a lot to pick them all up. I don't have a dog, but a pooper scooper has turned out to be this man's best friend! Gently squeezing the handle opens its jaws, allowing me to pick up pinecones with no back pain. — reader Don Greer Plus: Whenever I have curves to sand, I chuck a sanding drum into my drill press. The only problem is that the sawdust flies everywhere. I wanted to catch the dust with my shop vacuum, so I made a bracket to hold the nozzle. I glued together two 3/4-in.-thick pieces of medium density fiberboard (MDF) and cut out the curved shape with my jigsaw. When I want to use it, I just clamp it to my drill press table. I made the hole just big enough so that the tip of the nozzle fits snugly. — reader Doug Kaczmarek Here are other When I build woodworking projects with curves, I often turn to my trusty homemade curve tracer. It's made from a long, 1/4-in.-thick strip of straight-grained, knot-free wood with a 1/4-in. hole drilled in one end and a narrow V-notch cut into the other end. I tie mason's string to the drilled end and bend the strip to whatever size curve I need, tying a knot in the string that I slide into the V-notch. Then I just hold the bowed wood on top of my workpiece and trace the curve. Leave it unstrung between projects or it'll become permanently bowed. — reader Bruce Philbrook Plus: My dogs and I have an arrangement. They poop; I pick it up. But rather th...

You’re our first priority. Every time. NerdWallet, Inc. is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. Its articles, interactive tools and other content are provided to you for free, as self-help tools and for informational purposes only. They are not intended to provide investment advice. NerdWallet does not and cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information in regard to your individual circumstances. Examples are hypothetical, and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific investment issues. Our estimates are based on past market performance, and past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free. So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Dayana is a former NerdWallet authority on investing and retirement. She has written for The Associat...

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen Navigating with indoor Live View (Credit: Google) Some places even support Live view inside: (Opens in a new window) and animated arrows to direct you in malls in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle; and in airports, malls, and transit stations in Tokyo and Zurich. It will soon be available in 1,000 new airports, train stations, and malls in Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, Prague, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, and Taipei. To use the feature, open Maps and click on the camera icon. 3. Plot Multiple Locations on Google Maps (Credit: Google/PCMag) Rarely do car trips consist of going from point A to B; more often, they are something like A-to-café-to-library-to-Joe's-house-to-B. Thankfully, Google makes it possible to anticipate realtrips. To add multiple destinations in the Google Maps mobile app, enter your starting point and your ultimate destination, and then click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner. This prompts a pop-over menu with the option to "Add sto...