Dorchester — Dec 14th 2021

Mick showed various Christmas communications tips including making a card on line using moonpig.com, one of many providers of similar services, which include postage. He then showed how to make a card on a Mac or iPad using two pages A4 in landscape divided into 4 x A5, advising the need to use thick enough paper/card and the how to manage the layout front and back, suggesting a dummy run on ordinary paper to work out the orientation of two sided printing. Having selected new document Mick showed how to covert the default word processing document to Page Layout needed for this application - Document Setup, Document Body unticked.

Despite limited activity for most people this year, they might wish to include a round robin newsletter with they Christmas Card. Apple include many templates for newsletters but to adapt and have text close to imported images, Mick recommend the removal of the image background and showed us how to do this by use of Format>Image>Instant Alpha. Mick concluded by showing how to use the label printing feature of the Contacts App only available on the Mac. Apps are available to achieve this on an iPad, but Mick cautioned to make sure app uses data in Contacts and does not require re entry of data.

Euan showed us the change to safe boot procedure with the M1 macs which is now part of the macOS recovery procedure. Whereas with Intel Mac you shut down and then restart whilst holding down the shift key, on M1 Macs shut down and then hold down the power button until the start up drive and an options menu appear. One of the options is Safe Boot. Other options include reinstall macOS etc.

After mince pies and convivial break, David gave a brief explanation about Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, a feature of the Mail App itself on IOS 15 and Mac OS Monterey, regardless of the email provider(s). It prevents senders to knowing when and to what IP address images including 1 pixel trackers, explained by Mick, have been loaded by the addressee.

We ended the evening in health mode, Ian showing a small ECG device, KardiaMobile which includes a Smart phone App for checking the heart’s rhythm and electrical activity. He had purchased his after overloading his heart and getting erratic readings taken professionally. This had shocked him into taking greater care of his heart and taking regular ECG readings. Ian also has an Apple Watch which now includes a certified ECG app and he showed us comparable and very heathy readings he is getting from both devices. Whilst Apple Watch users can have ECG monitoring, Ian stressed that for a much lower cost people can use the Kardia Mobile with their smartphone.

Comments

Page 1