Hey, listen. If the folks at Apple’s “Genius Bar” can call themselves that, why can’t I? More than once I’ve been able to solve my tech problems while they put me on hold to consult their supervisors. They’d come back with some roundabout answer – if any answer at all, and I would tell them a far simpler solution I discovered by pure dumb luck. Put that in your e-cigs and vape it, Einsteins!

So while I’m not yet to the level of, say, a Steve Jobs, I feel somewhat equipped to pass along to you some fairly basic tech knowledge that I’ve gained along the way. Maybe you have already discovered these helpful nuggets, but for those who’ve ever been stymied with various computer or online tech issues, some of these solutions may come to your rescue, eliciting an “Aha!” at the discovery. Or a forehead-smacking “Doh!” response, since they may be so simple. So obvious. 

So here we go:

Switch browsers: That’s right. Just switching your browser can solve many issues. As when you click on a link and the page won’t load. Or in my case, I was trying to create a hyperlink for a client’s website. The link wouldn’t link! I switched from Safari to Chrome – and voilà! the hyperlink worked. I will say, much as I love my iMac, there may be sites you visit that are not optimized for Safari (Mac’s built-in browser). So it’s always good to download a few different browsers on to your dock. Besides Safari (my default), I have Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Firefox is also a good one. And speaking of Microsoft Edge...

Whole-page screenshots: Say you’ve written a magazine article. For your portfolio, you want to keep a copy as it appears online. If the content was long and necessitated scrolling, I normally would have to take screenshots window by window and then cobble them together within a PDF. Not with Microsoft Edge! You simply 1) go to the three little dots in the upper right corner, 2) go to “Screenshots” and choose “Capture.” 3) Hold your mouse down, drag it horizontally across the article, then scroll down all the way to the end. Once you’ve captured the entire article, let go of the mouse and there it is: your entire content appearing from top to bottom with all the images and masthead that accompanied it – in the popular PNG format. Then click "save." It’s a beautiful thing.  

Leave it to AI: Be it a Microsoft issue, Zoom, HP – or wherever I was looking for technical support, I can’t tell you how many times I’d enter the topic of my concern on their “help” page, and up would pop hundreds of articles – all of which had nothing to do with the what I was looking for. Community forums? Usually they’re filled with lots of “expert” advice that is way more complicated than need be. “Empty your cache!” (I call it the monkey test.) “Trash your operating system and reinstall!” (Gaaaa!) “Whirl a rubber chicken over your head while hopping on one foot!” Ok, maybe not that last one, but just as useless. Often the solution: I simply enter the question or problem in Google along with the name of the software / platform / app, etc. with which I was having trouble. Sure enough, not only will AI come up with the exact and simple answer, but provide the link to where the solution is found on the software’s (platform’s, app’s, etc.) very own support pages! 

Many solutions I’ve found by pure accident. In fact, in doing a bit of research for this article, I JUST discovered something you can do on Safari: In the “File” menu, export an entire online article (or web page, etc.) as a gorgeous PDF (as opposed to doing the screenshot method described above)!!! Sooo streamlined! I’ve checked and you can’t do that on Chrome or Edge. Yay, Safari! 

These are just the tip of the tech tips I’ve serendipitously discovered. I’d like to share more. Perhaps in another article. This sort of thing actually gets me high. Call me a geek. Even better, call me a Genius. But call me especially if you need some help! I promise I won’t ask you to whirl a rubber chicken over your head.

-- Laura Stigler