Have you ever opened Safari, the web browser on your Apple device, and noticed lots of open tabs? There is a built in feature on iOS devices that allows you to have open tabs automatically close after a certain period of time. Having too many open tabs can sometimes slow down the device.
To see how many tabs you currently have open, tap on the Safari icon, which looks like a blue compass:
On an iPhone, tap on the two squares in either the top or bottom gray bar:
On an iPad, tap on the four squares icon on the top right:
Once you tap either of those icons, you’ll see a screen that shows all of your open tabs and the total number of open tabs. On those screens, you can tap the little X in the corner of each tab preview to close that particular tab. When finished on this screen, tap done to return to the previous screen.
iPhone Display of Open TabsiPad Display of Open Tabs
A long press (holding your finger down on the icon instead of a quick tap) on either of the icons mentioned above will give you more options, including the ability to close that specific tab or close all of your open tabs.
To have your device automatically close any open tabs after a set period of time, tap on Settings and then Safari. Scroll down to the tabs section and then tap on Close Tabs.
You have the option to have Safari automatically close tabs after one day, one week, or one month. A blue check will be next to whatever option is set.
Have you tried out this feature? Let us know in the comments.
If you have a Kindle and use the Libby app, you may have been wondering how to send e-books to your Kindle.
Libby is an app made by OverDrive that allows you to browse for and read and listen to e-books, digital audiobooks, and digital magazines. If you have a Kindle, you also have the option to checkout e-books and read them on your Kindle device.
To get started, open the Libby app on your phone or tablet, which is available on iOS (Apple) and Android devices. If you have a Kindle Fire or another device that does not support the Libby app, you can go to https://libbyapp.com/
Once the app is open, click on the shelf icon on the bottom of the screen.
Next, find the book you want to send to your Kindle and tap or click on Read With.
If this is your first time accessing the book after borrowing it and there is no “Read With” text and it only displays “Open in Libby,” that means that particular e-book is not available in Kindle format. If you have previously opened the book within the Libby app and would like to send it to your Kindle, tap on “Manage Loan” and then tap on “Read With.”
Next, tap on Kindle.
From here, a browser window will pop up prompting you to log in to Amazon if you aren’t already logged in. Once you are logged into Amazon, you’ll see a screen with more info about library loaning as well as a “Get Library Book” button.
If you have more than one Kindle or device with a Kindle app (for example if you have the Kindle app installed on your phone), you will have the option to choose where you’d like to deliver the book.
Above the Get Library Book button, the email address you use to log in to Amazon is displayed. If that is not the email address of the account you used to register your Kindle, click or tap sign out and log in with the correct account.
Also on this page, you will see when your loan period ends. After the loan expires, the title will automatically be returned.
Tap or click “Get Library Book” to send your e-book to your Kindle.
Once you have sent your e-book to your Kindle, you will get a confirmation screen that it was successful. The e-book will automatically be downloaded to your Kindle and it will be displayed in the Your Library section of your Kindle. If you are using a Kindle Fire, open up the Kindle app, which is called either Kindle or Books. If you don’t see the e-book on your Kindle, make sure that it is connected to WiFi.
Here is a step-by-step video showing the process when using the Libby app on an iPad:
Have you used the Libby app to send books to your Kindle? Let us know in the comments!
A new productivity tool seems to pop up every day, but I recently learned about one that could be a game-changer for my meetings. Otter.ai is a tool backed by artificial intelligence that takes notes at your meetings (whether online or in-person) and helps keep everyone you share with on the same page about what happened in the meeting. The free version is fairly robust, but if you use this tool for business, the paid features and additional transcription allotment may make a subscription worthwhile.
Signing Up
When you start to sign up for an account, it makes it look like you need to subscribe to a paid plan, but you don’t. When prompted, pick a meeting platform. When it states you need a subscription, click skip in the upper-right. This will bring you to your free account dashboard, where you are offered a tutorial.
What Can Otter.ai Do for Me?
The free account includes 300 minutes of recording transcription and only 30 minutes per conversation. After conversation transcription processes, you can:
Edit the transcription, add highlights or comments, create action items, and insert images.
Share the finished product with attendees or other stakeholders using a link with embedded view/edit permissions.
Control whether users you have shared with can export your content.
Create folders to organize your conversations.
Export the conversation.
Send direct messages.
Create a group and invite collaborators.
Unfortunately, the scheduling integrations with Zoom and the creation of a workspace (team) require a paid subscription.
The Interface
The home page is clean and simple, with menus at the top and left. The top menu includes options for starting a transcription.
Options for getting started
The left menu can be expanded by clicking the blue arrow that appears when you hover near your first initial (or avatar).
Access your conversations
See what others have shared with you
Manage groups and folders
Direct messages
Click on your account name to access all of the available settings for the tool.
After selecting a conversation from “My Conversations”, you can see the transcript in the main area, with a menu specific to that conversation at the bottom and additional options in the upper right.
Use the edit link in the upper right to correct any transcription errors.
Use the bottom left menu to control recording playback.
Use the bottom right menu to highlight, comment, create an action item, or insert a picture at any point in the conversation.
See additional conversation options, including delete, by clicking the three-dot menu icon next to the blue share button.
Use the blue share button at the top to send view/edit links and control whether the conversation can be exported by others.
Pro Tips
When you use a meeting URL to record the meeting, it appears as a meeting participant. Depending on your meeting permissions, the Otter.ai user may not be admitted if you don’t have control of the waiting room or if meeting links are bespoke per user (as with some paid registrations).
If there is going to be downtime in your meeting, you may want to end the recording so you don’t waste your minutes. You can always name the individual recordings to connect them as part of a larger meeting.
Summary
Otter.ai could be a valuable tool for any individual or group who doesn’t have an assistant or designee to take notes and follow up. Even if you do have a human who is tasked with keeping a record of meetings, having a transcribed recording leaves less room for interpretation or error.
The most important component of any written content is the title, whether it’s an ad or an article. If the title doesn’t spark interest, the reader will move on and the content probably won’t be read. For some, writing titles is an innate skill. For the rest of us, there are tools that can help.
The website I am highlighting today is Headline Analyzer from Monster Insights, but it is far from the only free tool on offer. Coschedule has one, as does Sharethrough. If you are creating content for a WordPress blog, some search engine optimization plugins, like All in One SEO, have a similar feature built-in. Keep in mind, though, that they may not all have the criteria for what makes a great headline. I used Monster Insights to create the headline for this article (of “perfect” length), only to have All in One SEO tell me it was too long by a single character.
Another caveat about these tools is that you can create a high-scoring title that makes no sense, just by using desirable keywords and staying within a certain number of characters. You can also accidentally create a title that people think is simply clickbait (named so because it goes overboard on keywords to generate clicks that lead people to unsatisfying, ad-loaded pages). These days, most people just skip clicking on over-the-top titles, so you’ll want to avoid that.
Analyzing a Headline
When you have a draft headline that you would like to test, type or paste it into the box at https://www.monsterinsights.com/headline-analyzer and click “Analyze.” The score will pop up below the box.
The score for the current title of this article is 73
According to their parameters, this title is good to go. But this wasn’t the first title I tried. This tool tracks your tries to help you remember what configurations you have already used.
A few earlier draft titles
As the screenshot demonstrates, even the order of the words in the title can make a big difference in the score.
Improving a Headline
If your first draft isn’t getting the score you hoped for, the tool will give several suggestions on how to improve the title.
First, the “word balance” area will show you how many words you are using from each category, and how many you should shoot for.
Scrolling farther down, word banks are provided to give you suggestions for words in each category:
Word banks to help you fine-tune your title
Another area points out the tone and type of your headline and offers suggestions.
I could have added “How to” at the beginning of the title, but then it would have been too long. The word I choose to cut may then affect the word balance negatively. Ultimately, the final title is up to what sounds good to you and what fits in with the writing style of your content.
Summary
Creating a great headline is a balance of several factors, and there is no one perfect title for any piece of content. Hopefully, a headline analyzer can provide you with enough guidance to tweak your titles to improve engagement, regardless of which suggestions you take and which you ignore. Do you have a favorite tool to help you write your headlines? Let us know in the comments.
If you have used Facebook, you have seen an ad. There’s no getting around it, and unfortunately, there is no way to completely block ads on the platform. However, you do have some control over your ad settings, including which types of ads you see and what information of yours advertisers can access.
The methods to change your Ad Settings are slightly different based on how you access Facebook.
If you are accessing Facebook via a computer, click on your profile picture in the top right corner and then click on Settings & Privacy, and then Settings. In the app, tap on the three lines in the bottom right corner (iOS) or top right (Android), then swipe down to Settings & Privacy, and then tap on Settings.
Next, on a computer click on Ads on the menu on the left side. On the mobile app, swipe down and tap on Ad preferences. From here, the settings are in similar locations.
On the Advertisers tab, you will have the option to hide ads from advertisers you have seen recently. You can also see advertisers you have hidden and advertisers whose ads you’ve clicked. On the Ad Topics tab, you can select which types of topics advertisers can use to reach you. If you click or tap on a specific category, you can choose to leave the setting as is or see less of that particular topic.
On the Ad Settings tab, you can manage whether or not you receive personalized ads. “Data about your activity from partners” allows you to choose whether Facebook shows you personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram, if you have an Instagram account. If this option is set to yes, Facebook will allow advertisers to use data from your activity on Meta products, which include Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, and other Meta Apps. With any options with a radio yes/no button, gray signifies don’t allow and blue signifies allow.
Under “Categories used to reach you,” you can select whether you would like an advertiser to be able to target you based on the information you have provided in your profile: Employer, Job Title, Education (any schools you have listed), and Relationship Status. You may also have an “Other categories” option depending on how much personal information you have provided in your profile. Each type of profile information (e.g. employer, education) has its own yes or no option.
The “Audience Based Advertising” setting allows you to see to which advertisers have accessed lists that contain certain information from your profile. For example, an advertiser may pay for a list containing everyone who is female, aged 25-35, and lives in the United States. The birth date field is required to join Facebook, and gender and location are in the basic info section of your profile. You can see which companies have used these lists.
If you click on the company name and then click on “they uploaded or used a list to reach you,” you can get the option to allow or not allow advertisers to use this particular list on Facebook to show you ads. You may also have the option to contact that particular company. If you would like that company to not be able to use that particular uploaded list to show you ads, click on don’t allow. If you have already chosen that, you will see an allow button.
The “Ads shown off of Facebook” setting allows you to decide whether you can be shown ads off of Facebook Company Products, such as on non-Facebook websites and apps that use Facebook advertising services.
The “social interactions” setting lets you choose whether or not your friends can see if you have liked a certain page that is being advertised. For example, if you have liked the Hannaford Facebook page, and Hannaford runs an ad, if you allow your friends to see, there will be a message next to the page name on their feed saying that you liked that particular page.
There are several different ways that you can limit what information advertisers can find out about from your Facebook profile. It’s a good idea to access your ad settings to see what information is being shown to advertisers. With any social media, it’s always a good idea not to share too much information. You may think it’s just your friends and family who are seeing it, but often times that same information is being accessed by advertisers.
Have you had the chance to go over your ad settings on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.
