Teach Parents Tech

If you know a little more about tech than your friends and family, there's a good chance that you are their lifeline when they are in times of dire technological need!  I know that I have spent time on the phone, in my parents' study, at my coworkers' desks, and in crafting emails to answer common techie questions.  Some questions are very specific and need my personal response, but other questions are common to most computer users who are still learning the basics.

Google feels your pain, and has created a new site called Teach Parents Tech that allows you to send your parents (or anyone else) a "tech support care package."

You begin by addressing the letter to your loved one, choosing an intro then selecting the videos (max: 12) that you think your friend or family member will enjoy watching.  There are about 50 videos in all.

After you have chosen your videos and a clever closing, you can preview your email, and off it goes!

Most videos are 30 seconds to 1 minute in length and are very clear and simple to understand.  If you would rather not send an email through their site, you can click View All Videos, click on a video and find the direct link to that video on YouTube.  Then you can send your own email with a more personalized response.

http://www.teachparentstech.org/

Google Translate on the web and on your smart phone

Online translation tools have come a long way in the last several years.  Though they still aren't perfect, they do a much better job than in the past.  My favorite tool for translation is Google Translate and is available online so it can be used on several different platforms...PC, Mac, smart phone, inside email, etc.

Google Translate does a great job of translating for you as you type on their site, and it remembers the last languages you used for translating, in case you frequently translate between the same two languages.

Google suggests downloading their own browser Google Chrome for automatic translation, but I haven't used it yet.  I do use Gmail for my personal email and love the integration of translation into email.  If I open an email that was written in Spanish, Google automatically translates the email to English for me.  And I can switch back and forth between English and Spanish with one button click. 

Google highlights words in both languages as you roll over them with your mouse to better understand which words coordinate in both languages.

Google will even read your translated text to you with a "Listen" link!


Try out Google's free translation tool and let me know what you think, or let me know if you use another online translation tool that I have missed.

http://translate.google.com/

Update: Google Translate now has its own iPhone app.

8 Ways to Use Evernote

Evernote is best friend, technologically speaking.  Each week, I find another way to use Evernote to remember something, keep a list, track items, and so on. Once you start using Evernote, you will most certainly wonder how you ever remembered anything without it!

8 Ways to Use Evernote:

1. Grocery list: I keep my grocery list in Evernote and update it regularly.  I usually have my phone in my pocket, so I can add items while I'm cooking in the kitchen and find that we are out of a certain item.  (I also make lists of items that I want for other places like the library, my Netflix queue, and the hardware store.)
2. Blood pressure stats: High blood pressure runs in my family, so I keep an eye on my blood pressure by checking it occasionally in the pharmacy. I keep a list of my stats including date and time I took my BP.  The complete list is ready to show my doctor at my next checkup.
3. Recipes: I keep all of my favorite recipes in Evernote, so they are always at hand.  If I'm at the grocery store and decide to make my Dad's Chicken Stew, I can quickly pull up the recipe to see if I need to buy any extra items for the stew.  If I'm at a party and a friend asks me for Dad's recipe, I can email it to her with one click right from my phone.
4. Bits of Information: I can't find a better way to explain those little things that you always want to remember when you are out and about. It might be the name of a store I'd like to visit or a TV show that a friend recommended while we were having lunch.  It could be a website that I saw on a billboard or a reminder to myself to check the smoke detectors when I get home.  I have a catch-all list that I update throughout the day then act on the items when I'm in front of the computer later in the day.
5. Pictures of Items: I take pictures with my phone all the time and import them straight into Evernote for quick access later.  Items like...an idea for a birthday present for my nephew, a price tag for a food processor that I'm considering buying this month, the odd-shaped light bulb for my lamp that just burned out, and a book that a friend brought to lunch that I would like to find at the library next week.
6. Journal: I use Evernote to keep my daily journal. Because I type much faster than I write, I can quickly reflect on the day using my computer or my phone.  For a journal to work for me, it needs to be easily accessible, and nothing is easier for me than Evernote!
7. New Year's Resolutions:  This one couldn't be more timely!  I keep my resolutions for the new year on Evernote, so I always have them to look over.  On a monthly basis, I refer again to my resolutions and reflect on my progress so far.
8. Bucket List: My FAVORITE note in Evernote is my personal bucket list -- things I would like to do before I die. I love reading over the list, considering how I might accomplish those items, and on a rare occasion, actually marking an item on the list as "Complete!"

As you can see from the list above, using Evernote from my phone is a critical part of its success. When I'm at work and my phone is tucked away in my desk, I use the web version of Evernote to update my notes as necessary.  I love that everything syncs right after I hit save, so I know I always have the latest and greatest! 

And Evernote is fully searchable, so if I know that I wrote something about roasted vegetables a couple months ago, I can quickly for the terms and find all of my notes that mention "roasted vegetables" in a matter of seconds.

I hope that you will use Evernote to stay organized in the new year and stop by here to tell me about your success!

Evernote is available on PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and in your web browser for web clipping.  You don't have any excuse to get started!

http://www.evernote.com/