Apple Documentation
If you are looking for product specifications or User Guides on any Apple product, go to:-
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/docs
Windows 11 - Moment 5
You may remember that Microsoft now only releases one major update to Windows 11 each year, usually around October. The current major version update is 23H2 which was released on 31st October 2023. However, Microsoft now release feature updates from time to time which are known as “Moments”. We discussed this for the first time at the Club in June last year and you can refer back to the blog for that meeting here:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2023/06/
And then again the following month:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2023/07/
Moment 5 was released as part of yesterday’s Patch Tuesday. You may have got it earlier if you had checked for updates manually (that means you are a “seeker”) or had Get updates as soon as they are available enabled in Settings - you would have received the Moment 5 updates as part of KB5035942. The main visual change is that the Copilot icon is now at the right of the Taskbar rather than being next to the Start button. You can read more in this Bleeping Computer article:-
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-kb5036893-update-released-with-29-changes-moment-5-features/
AI PCs – Additional Requirement
At last month’s Club in March, I mentioned that you should expect to see “AI PCs” being marketed in the coming months – see the blog at:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2024/03/
As I explained, an AI PC will have an NPU – a Neural Processing Unit – in addition to the usual CPU and GPU. However, this Ghacks article indicates that Microsoft have added an additional requirement for a new PC to be designated as an “AI PC” – it will have to have a Copilot key on the physical keyboard:-
https://www.ghacks.net/2024/03/28/intel-microsoft-ai-pcs-need-a-copilot-key/
Exactly what the Copilot key will do is yet to be determined. As you can already launch Copilot by clicking on the on-screen button (mentioned in the above item on Moment 5), the physical key may do exactly the same (i.e. it will launch the Copilot side-bar on the right-hand side of the screen) or it could have additional functionality. I’m sure more information on this will be released in the coming months
Happy 20th Birthday Gmail!
Google launched it’s free Gmail email service on 1st April 2004. At the time, some thought it was an April Fool’s joke. It now has around 1.8 billion active accounts. Read more in this Associated Press article:-
https://apnews.com/article/google-gmail-anniversary-email-web-application-8ca1601944845282ecbc87ac9c335a6e
Happy 49th Birthday Microsoft
And another birthday this month is Microsoft, which was founded on 4th April 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. This makes the company 49 years old and it is now one of the largest companies in the world. You can read more about Microsoft’s history in this Wikipedia article:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft
At the time of writing this, Microsoft was the largest company globally by market capitalisation according the Companies Marketcap:-
https://companiesmarketcap.com/
Spreadsheets
In response to a question from Tony we had a brief discussion about Excel and spreadsheets in general.
As we have mentioned on many occasions, you can get the full, installed version of Excel as part of Microsoft 365. This costs £60/pa for a single-user or you can get the Family package for £80/pa which gives you 6 users. Each user has 1TB of OneDrive storage.
However, you can use the Microsoft apps for free, with some limitations. The mobile apps (e.g. Word, Excel etc) are completely free on devices with a screen size up to 10.1 inches - above that size, you will need to subscribe to Microsoft 365 to edit/save files.
On any PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) you can use any web browser to go to:-
https://www.office.com/
and sign in with your free Microsoft Account.
This gives you access to online versions of most of the Microsoft apps, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Documents will be automatically saved to your OneDrive - click on the file name near the top left to set the file name and which folder on your OneDrive you want to use. I wrote a document about 6 years ago which covers Office Online - although some of the layout and details have changed, the basic principles remains the same. The document is on my web site and you can access it directly here:-
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oabpayafelqbw15doepqm/Microsoft-Office.pdf?rlkey=3686i0fud7xc58e06kzdtydrq&dl=0
These free versions of Microsoft apps, both mobile and the web apps, don't seem to get the attention they deserve. They would probably meet the needs of many average users without having to purchase a M365 subscription.
Google provide similar free office apps at:-
https://www.google.co.uk/docs/about/
Clicking the 3-bars at the top left allows you to access, for example, Sheets which is a spreadsheet.
If you want to have installed apps on your PC, similar to Microsoft Word and Excel, I would recommend LibreOffice which you can download and use completely free at:-
https://www.libreoffice.org/
Scanning
It can be very handy to scan documents, pictures, etc from time to time, maybe just to retain a digital copy or perhaps to integrate into another document.
Scanning with a PC/Scanner
Although you can purchase a dedicated scanner, most people will probably use a scanner that is integrated into their printer. These all come with scanning software from the manufacturer of the device. However, if you want a free, open source alternative that works on Windows, Mac or Linux and with virtually any scanner, you could try NAPS2 (Not Another PDF Scanner 2). It includes OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and can combine multiple documents into a single PDF document. To download go to:-
https://www.naps2.com/
Click on the Support tab for instructions.
Scanning with a Mobile Phone
If you have the free Google Drive app on your mobile device, you can use it to scan a document and save it to your Google Drive. This Google Support page explains how to do this for both Android and iOS devices:-
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/3145835?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
You can install the free Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens) app on your mobile device. You can use this to scan and store a PDF on your Microsoft OneDrive or to the device. Alternatively, you can launch the OneDrive app and tap the Camera icon (near bottom right) to achieve the same result. These Microsoft Support pages describe how to use Microsoft Lens on iOS and Android respectively:-
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-lens-for-ios-fbdca5f4-1b1b-4391-a931-dc1c2582397b
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-lens-for-android-ec124207-0049-4201-afaf-b5874a8e6f2b
On an iPhone/iPad you can use the Notes app to scan a document. The document you create needs to be in the iCloud Folder for scanning to be available. This Apple Support page explains how:-
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210336
Next Session
Wed 8th May 2024 at 2pm by Zoom
