Blog

Tech Tip - How To Keep ChatGPT Conversations Alive Whilst Switching Between Applications On Your Phone

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know that you can keep ChatGPT conversations running on your device, even if you switch between applications or if you lock your phone. Here is an easy way to keep ChatGPT running in the background:

On your phone, open the ChatGPT application
Tap on the two line menu icon at the top left of the screen
Tap on your account name at the bottom of the screen to access the settings menu
Scroll through the menu until you find the VOICE MODE menu options
Enable the slider to the right of Background Conversations, turning the slider from Grey and to the left, to Green and to the right to show it is enabled
This allows you to continue talking with ChatGPT even when the phone is using a different application or if the phone is locked.
Once you have made this change, tap on the small X at the top of the screen to close the settings

To disable this feature, just go through the steps above but move the slider next to Background Conversations from Green and to the right, to Grey and to the left to turn the feature off.

NOTE: When using background conversation mode, ChatGPT will continue to listen and will offer answers to you, even if it is not what you want. For example if you are using background mode and then stop to have a conversation with someone else, ChatGPT will often offer up answers to chip in to the conversation! So whilst it is GREAT for helping you multitask and access information from ChatGPT whilst you are in other applications or having it in the background with your phone locked, it will always listen and it will offer up information when asked. I even asked ChatGPT what its wakeup phrase was and it told me to use "Hey ChatGPT", however, even without using this wakeup phrase, it was always listening, and kept on asking me if I needed help, like a very needy personal assistant.

So whilst this is a handy feature for multitasking, it is still invasive and never appears to go into a passive state until it is woken up. We found the only way to stop it listening was to turn the feature off after use, or you will have ChatGPT constantly asking if you need help or offering up unsolicited advice!

Tech Tip - How To Access The Start Button Quick Admin Menu

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There is an underused and often overlooked menu built into the Start Button in Windows that allows the computer user to quickly access a lot of admin features, and it is really useful if you have the right admin privileges.

To access the Quick Admin menu either right click the Start Button, or press the Windows key + X

This will bring up a pop-up menu showing options such as:

Power options
Device manager
Network connections
Disk manager
Task manager
Settings
Shutdown or sign out

To name but a few. This is a handy way to access these features, and more, quickly and easily without having to wade through various menu levels or opening applications to get to them. It is great if you want to sign out of the session quickly or if you want to run a command or search for something on the computer.

We would recommend having a look at this hidden menu to see how much it can do for you, and see if it can save you any time or help you become more efficient when using your PC.

Tech Tip - How To Quickly Open A Second Instance Of Any Application In Windows

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you may want to open a second instance of an application, for example, let's say you want to move some files about in your computer, moving them from one folder and filing them into another. Instead of going into the menu system and navigating your way to open up another instance of Windows Explorer, here is a quicker, far simpler way of doing it:

Look for the running application icon on the task bar
Hold down the shift key, then click on the icon of the application
This will launch another instance of that running application!

That's it, it will launch another instance of the application, what's more is that this works on any application in Windows. Give it a try!

Tech Tip - How To Paste A Copied Item But Remove Its Formatting

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is a very quick tech tip this week, but a VERY useful one that can help save a lot of time and headaches and whilst it is exceptionally useful, is not such a well know trick.

Sometimes you want to copy something but when it comes to pasting it, you want to loose all of its associated formatting, so if it is a bit of text, you may want the text, but not the font it is using.

Here is how to do it:

Find the text you want to copy and highlight it in the usual way and copy it, using CTRL+C
To paste the text without keeping its formatting press CTRL + Shift + V
This will paste the text just as plain text, taking on the format of the existing formatting instead of keeping the formatting that it was using

This is really handy if you are cutting and pasting text from one source using one font, text colour and size etc to another location or application where a different font, colour and size are in use, saving a lot of time and hassle, and helping you as you do not need to reformat the text!

This works in most Windows applications, give it a try.

Tech Tip - How To Use These Lesser Known Functions In Microsoft Edge

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There are some lesser known features in Microsoft Edge that can really help boost your productivity, here are some features in Microsoft Edge that we find really help day to day

1. Translate text in a website

If you come across a language in a website that you do not understand, you can use Microsoft Edge to translate the text into English quickly and easily, here is how:

Highlight the text you want to translate
Right click on the text and select "Translate selection to English"
This will automatically translate the highlighted text into English and replace it in the web page

2. Convert a website into an application

Another feature in Microsoft Edge that is not so well known is the ability to convert a website into a stand alone application. This feature will build an application from the content of the website, package it up into its own application window that can be pinned to the start menu or task bar so that you can launch the website quickly just like launching an application. It runs in its own cut down application window and does not look like a web browser. To convert a website into an app:

Browse to the website
Click on the three dots menu at the top right of Edge
From the drop down select Apps then "Install this site as an app"
This will create a stand alone app that you can then pin to the start menu or task bar

3. Put tabs to sleep

Almost all of us are guilty of having too many tabs open at one time in a browser, but did you know that having lots of open tabs can result in your browser and computer slowing down? This is because all of these open tabs use resources, even when they are not being viewed, they are still active, only in the background of the computer. You can configure Edge to put open tabs that have not been looked at for a defined period to sleep. You can decide on how long a tab needs to be idle before it is put to sleep. To do this do the following:

Click on the three dots menu at the top right of Edge
From the menu list, select "Settings"
Then select "System and Performance"
Enable the feature "Save resources with sleeping tabs" by ensuring the switch is on
You can decide how long it is before tabs sleep by selecting the time from the drop down to the right of the "Put inactive tabs to sleep after the specified amount of time:" option. You can pick from 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 6 hours or 12 hours before the tab goes to sleep

4. Let Microsoft Edge read the website to you

Another feature that a lot of people don't know about is that you can get Microsoft Edge to read the text on a website to you. To get Edge to read to you, do the following:

Move to the cursor on the website to where you want Edge to start reading to you from
Right click with the mouse and select "Read aloud from here"
This will start reading the contents of the web page to you and control features will appear at the top of the website, this includes start/stop, fast forward and backward and also pick which voice you want to have read to you, including country of origin (so you can pick someone with an accent similar to yours)

Have a go with these lesser known features and see if you find them useful when using Microsoft Edge

Tech Tip - How To Do Full And Selective Screenshots On A Mac

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Do you know how to do screenshots on a Mac? A Windows computer has the Prt Scr (Print Screen) button that allows you to grab screenshots but what buttons do you press to get a screenshot on a Mac?

With a Mac you have a few options which are:

Screen shot the entire screen - press Command + Shift + 3
Screen shot a specific section of the screen - Press Command + Shift + 4 and use the mouse to drag and select a box around the portion of the screen you want to capture
Screen shot an application window or a menu - Press Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar which changes the cursor to a camera icon, and allows you to highlight the Window or menu to capture by shading it green
Open the screen shot tool - Press Command + Shift + 5 which will allow you to use the tools to capture or record all or part of the screen based on your selection(s). This even allows you to record what you are doing on screen and create a video that you can play back or share
Screen shot the Touch Bar - Press Command + Shift + 6 which will capture the touch bar if your Mac has one

These are really useful keyboard shortcuts for people that need to grab the screen on a Mac.