The Latest on: Mouse/Touchpad Settings, Better Webpage Printing, Smartphone Keyboards and Some Browser Tips

In my experience, most computer users (myself included) do not fully utilize their computer’s mouse and/or touchpad capabilities. Since mouse and touchpad settings are usually hidden from view, they often remain unknown and unused (out of sight, out of mind). To help you discover all that your mouse and touchpad has to offer the following resources should be investigated…

If you are a Mac computer user, the following link will take you to a helpful imore.com article titled “How to change mouse settings on your Mac” …www.tinyurl.com/p9kyn9tb

Alternatively, you can find many helpful “how-to” type videos relating to adjusting/configuring a Mac’s mouse/trackpad by doing searches at YouTube.com using keywords such as…mac mouse trackpad settings tutorial. This link leads to a YouTube search results page that includes all the just mentioned search keywords…www.tinyurl.com/32shb9ce

If you are a Windows 10 computer user, the following link will lead you to a page of YouTube search results that includes numerous helpful videos on the topic of using and configuring a PC’s mouse and touchpad settings…www.tinyurl.com/ye43mupa

Tip: Windows 10 computer users should try the following. Press your computer’s Windows keyboard key (or click on the “Start” button) and when the Start menu appears just start typing “mouse” and/or “touchpad” (without the quotes) and that should find and surface a link to your computer’s mouse and touchpad settings.

Need Help Printing Web Pages (Without Ads)?

When you print webpages, the printed page(s) are often unnecessarily long, ad-filled, and poorly formatted. If you can relate to this situation, would you be interested in a possible solution to this problem? If so, please review a post that I found at idownloadblog.com that is titled “How to print pages without ads in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome on Mac.” If you follow the steps offered, the quality of your webpage printing should improve! Here is a link to this helpful article…www.tinyurl.com/jx7att

Alternative Keyboards for Your Smartphone

Not all Smartphone owners are aware that alternative keyboard apps can be installed and used on their device(s). If you have not investigated and tried out any alternative keyboards, there is a good chance you are missing out on some keyboard features and capabilities that you might find to be both helpful and even fun.

If you use a Smartphone that runs the iOS operating system, I encourage you to explore a techrrival.com article titled “12 Best iOS Keyboard Apps for iPhone and iPad.” Here is a link to the article…www.tinyurl.com/ftkrknxu

I encourage Android device owners who would like to review some alternative keyboards to browse through an article titled “Best Keyboard Apps for Android 2021” that is available at androidcentral.com. Here is the link…www.tinyurl.com/7xvcf6ht

Mindset adjustment recommendation: When evaluating alternative keyboards, I would encourage you to not try to find the one best alternative keyboard. Why? Because it is perfectly reasonable to use and switch between different keyboards to help you accomplish different types of tasks more efficiently. (For example, using the Grammarly keyboard might be a good keyboard choice when you want your spelling and grammar to be checked as you are writing. Or you might want to use the LastPass keyboard if you know you will be filling in usernames, passwords, forms, and/or credit card information.)

Tip: Once you have identified some alternative keyboards that interest you, visit YouTube and search for some product reviews, tutorials, etc. that might be able to help you get up and running with your new keyboards more efficiently/effectively.

If you are not familiar with the process of switching between different keyboards, visit YouTube and do a search that includes search keywords such as (“How to” add change switch keyboard iOS 14 iPhone iPad Android) (You can add and remove search keywords to better tailor the search to your needs.)

Note to Android users: The following link will lead you to an app called “Keyboard Switcher”. (It is not a necessary app, but you may find it helpful)…www.tinyurl.com/braa4am8

How to Reopen a Closed Browser Window or Tab

Oops! Somehow you accidentally closed a web browser window or tab that you did not want to close! How can you get it back? At the online-tech-tips.com website, there is an article titled “How to Reopen a Closed Browser Tab in Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox” that takes you step-by-step through the process of recovering a mistakenly closed web browser tab. Knowing how to quickly and easily identify and open recently closed browser tabs/websites can be a time (life) saver! Here is the link…www.tinyurl.com/uky3e7mj

How to Help Prevent Accidental Web Browser Window Closures

I recently came across an unconventional, but simple way to reduce the possibility of accidentally closing a browser window. What is it? Simply visit and bookmark this webpage (https://maki-chan.de/preventcloseads.htm). Then, whenever you want to protect a browser window from accidental closure, just open (in a new browser tab) the just mentioned webpage and click on the page after it loads. That’s it! Once you have done this, should you mistakenly click your browser’s close button, the browser window will not close, and you will instead be presented with a message that offers you the opportunity to keep the window open or close it (if that is what you want to do).

How to Use Your Smartphone as a Webcam

Smartphone cameras/lenses are usually better than those that are built into most computers. With that in mind, you might be interested in knowing that there is a good chance that you can connect and configure your Smartphone so that you can use it as both, a current webcam replacement or as a second camera input. If this topic interest you, the following link leads to a page of YouTube search results on the topic…www.tinyurl.com/hzf4sfnv

If you have a compatible iOS device (think recent iPhones and iPads), I encourage you to evaluate a product/service called “Reincubate Camo” (free, and fee options available). Reincubate Camo has been receiving high praise and positive reviews. Here is a courtesy link to the product support page where you can learn more…www.reincubate.com/support/camo

If you have any comments, suggestions, tips, or questions, you can email John at john@johnvrooman.com.