Tech Tips for the Technologically Challenged

Hyewon Lee '17, Staff Writer

At Marymount, technology is a part of our daily school life. Students often write their homework down on different reminder programs in their laptops. We communicate with teachers through email and create presentations with Keynote or PowerPoint. Even though our laptops are fabulous already, here are some useful laptop tips that can make your daily tech life easier and better:

1. A Whole New World of Copy and Paste

 

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Have you ever had that annoying moment when you copy and paste a quote or a definition for a vocab word and it has a different font and size from the rest of your lovely 12 pt. Cambria or Times New Roman work? You can say goodbye to that problem with “Paste and Match Formatting.” It will match the font and size of the pasted portion to the rest of the document.

2. Gmail Without the Hassle

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With MailTab for Gmail (App Store; free version), you can access your Gmail account straight from your desktop. The little envelope icon at the top turns red when you receive a new email. You can also choose to have sound notifications, as well as banners that pop up on the side, so you will never miss an important email.

3. Just a Little Louder and Brighter

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If you want to fine-tune your volume or brightness, hold down Shift and Option keys while increasing or decreasing. It will increase/decrease in quarters.

4. Creating On-Screen Videos

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If you want to record whatever you are doing on your laptop screen, use QuickTime Player. It’s extremely useful if you want to add video clips into presentations or remember certain actions you performed in different applications on the computer.

5. Defining Words

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When you are reading something online and you just don’t know what a specific word means, tap the trackpad with three fingers on the word. The word will be highlighted in yellow and a definition will pop up. If you don’t have this feature enabled, go to System Preferences>Trackpad>Look Up and check the little box.