Scanning receipts

If we are aiming for a paperless office (as I am) then something that will scan and turn screens into pdfs, or receipts into pdfs is a great idea. The Microsoft Office Lens app lets us do just that: to capture and process an image of any receipt, whiteboard, card, screen, note or what-ever-takes-our-fancy on our phone.

The best thing is it is so easy peasy to use. Install "Microsoft Office Lens". The first time you open it, you will be asked to give it permissions over your still images and video recordings. Tick yes, then take an image of your first tiem.

You can save as images, as pdfs, as a ppt, or as OneNote (I don't know yet if I will prefer pdfs or jpgs on my phone, so am saving them both ways at the moment, until I decide).

All you have to do is to point and click, pretty much. You will get a red outline for whatever it is that you are focusing on, so shift the phone around until the border frames your item. Take the pic.

We can modify by pinching the image to zoom in or out; we can crop using the crop icon; rotate; put text on the image too. We can change the file name on the export screen, and save as pretty much anything we like, and once saved, we can share from Office Lens. We can sign into our Microsoft account (one of the reasons why I am thinking that perhaps I may only use images when scanning, is because they will go straight to Google Photos and then I am not signed into Microsoft on my phone).

This is a good wee piece of kit. Give it a try.


Sam

• Reference: Whitney, L. (6 October 2018). How to scan printed documents with the free Microsoft Office Lens app. Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-scan-printed-documents-with-the-free-microsoft-office-lens-app/?ftag=TRE4e2523d&bhid=40778246

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'Peak' smartphone

Statista's predicted global smartphone users by 2020 (2017)

On LinkedIn recently I read a curated news post asking if we had hit 'peak' smartphone, and groaned inwardly. Really? 'Peak' smartphone?

Did we ever wonder whether we would run out of new telephone accounts when everyone in the first world had a landline? No: instead the marketers in telecoms companies simply got smarter and more creative about the bundle of services they delivered to the customer. When growth slowed in one area they were savvy enough to have research and development departments which were alert to new trends and technology.

According to LinkedIn, "half the world has a smartphone" and consumers are not replacing handsets often enough. While this isn't very accurate (2.71b people are predicted to have smartphone by the end of this year, Statista, 2017 out of a population of 8b), if we rolled the clock back thirty years to 1989, more than half the world's population would have had a landline. The world wasn't ending in that year because people didn't upgrade their landline phone every year. Most people kept the same phone handset for decades, never mind annually.

The LinkedIn article cited a Wall Street Journal report saying "the saturation of smartphones in rich countries, along with increasing prices for the most high-end models, and only incremental improvements, have meant plummeting sales of the devices". Apple iPhone sales have recently been reported as falling in China (New York Times, 2 January 2019), but we need to also remember that China has some very large mobile brands - Huawei, Oppo, Lenovo and Vivo (China Whisper, 2017) - and the Chinese will find those brands better suited to Chinese language and culture. They will fit a culture which is growing increasingly comfortable with its own internal creativity than on bolting on that of another nation.

It appears to me that we are overly fixated on growth - which is unsustainable in a closed loop planet - and that our 'news' media is full of drama queens. "Doom, doom, doom: the sky is falling. Peeps aren't replacing their mobiles every year!"

Perhaps this is simply a good reason to not read the 'news'.


Sam

References:

• China Whisper (2017). 10 Chinese Mobile Phone Brands with the Most Global Recognition. Retrieved from http://www.chinawhisper.com/10-chinese-mobile-phone-brands-with-the-most-global-recognition/
• LinkedIn (14 January 2019). Is the smartphone era ending? Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/is-the-smartphone-era-ending-4616556/
• New York Times (2 January 2019). Apple Cuts Revenue Forecast Because of Slow iPhone Sales in China. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/technology/apple-revenue-decline-china.html
• Statista (2017). Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2014 to 2020 (in billions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/
  

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Smartphones & concentration

In March 2018, HBR announced some research from Duke, Ward, Gneezy & Bos (20 March 2018) showing that even simply having our cellphones nearby reduces our ability to concentrate. Using three interventions - phone face down on their desk; phone in pocket; phone in another room - they had 800 participants perform two different cognitive tasks. The results were rather surprising. Despite all phones having sound and vibration off, the best performers were those whose phones were in another room. The next best were those whose phones were in their pockets. By far the worst performers were those whose phones were on the desk beside them.

The takeaway? If your cell is close-by, it is distracting you. It reduces your ability to concentrate. It will affect your focus, your decision-making and your performance.

In September 2018, France passed legislation banning cellphone use at school for those under 15 years of age. Cellphone use - or not - at New Zealand schools will be determined on a school by school basis here, as the Secondary Schools Principal's Association have had a robust discussion about it, and have reached a consensus about what suits our culture. They all began by having a conversation.

In business we too need to think about the work culture that we set out to deliberately create. Thinking through and being explicit about what behaviour we expect in meetings, at events and with clients is a good thing. Then we all know what we are trying to do, and why.

We don't have to be as draconian as the French, but we do need to think about that HBR research. It is clear that we don't concentrate fully if the distraction is close to hand.


Sam

References:

• Duke, K., Ward, A., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. (20 March 2018). Having Your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2-5. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/03/having-your-smartphone-nearby-takes-a-toll-on-your-thinking
• Radio NZ (13 January 2019). Insight: Should NZ Schools Ban Mobile Phones? - Summer Jan 13th. Retrieved from https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018678259/insight-should-nz-schools-ban-mobile-phones-summer-jan-13th
• Rosen, L. (16 March 2018). 5 Ways to Counteract Your Smartphone Addiction. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2-4. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/03/5-ways-to-counteract-your-smartphone-addiction
• Rosen, L. & Samuel, A. (2015). Managing Yourself: Conquering Digital Distraction. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), 110-113. https://educationlibrary.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=102794468&site=eds-live

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Samsung's ever updating apps

I have found that Samsung phones are great: except for two things. One is that their external volume setting is too low (got around that by using a headset) and the other is the constant un-asked for app updates.

This has only become a problem of late as my phone SD expansion card got fried - oh, perhaps that is a third problem! This happens if you don't use a genuine Samsung SD card - so all my photos are over-loading the phone's on-board memory.

When the card first died, I went hunting for bloatware to ditch so I could keep the phone operational while waiting for a new expansion card. Unfortunately, Samsung comes with quite a bit of bloatware preinstsalled, and you can't actually remove it, or even disable it. You can 'force stop' on it, then tap the dropdown menu and 'restore factory settings' which gets rid of the updates. As a result, I have now gone back to factory settings for Evernote, Samsung Music, all the gaming kit and anything else that doesn't seem to stop the phone working.

However, that is not enough. Then you have to go and ensure that none of these will then autoupdate when the next push comes out of Google Playstore. Go in to each piece of kit and tap auto-update to off. Then tap auto-update off altogether. Yes, it will be a pain for the next android update, but it is better than being swamped by bloatware.

You would think that would do it, wouldn't you? But no. When you find that flaming Evernote has yet again added another 200Mb because it has updated, even though everything should be turned off, you will find out that you also have to go into the Galaxy Apps Store and do the same there.

Not the most user-friendly, but at least it stops you undoing updates 15 times (yes, it took me 15 times of experimentation to work out how to stop the updates). At last it seems to have stopped. Possibly.

Watch this space.


Sam

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Newsletter Issue 90, January 2005

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 90, January 2005

Hi guys,

Just how many kids are getting cellphones? You might be surprised in Gimme A Call below.

Do you have a Slow PC? Could be 'Indexing Service'. Learn how to disable it below.

Font Substitution in Word   TLAs for SMEs        Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Gimme A Call...

Want to hear some amazing stats? The number of cellphone users, worldwide, in 2004 is estimated at 1.6 billion, up 23% on base from 1.3 billion in 2003. 320 million of those users - 20% - live in China.

Ovum, in July 2004, predicted that the global number of cellphone owners will rise to 2.1 billion by 2009; but at this current rate of growth, this figure now seems a little cautious.

Here's a new word for you: "tweens" (this is the school age group who haven't reached their legal majority for anything, between 6 and 15 years). While we might expect that close to 100% of all Japanese 14 year olds own a cell phone, you may be surprised to learn that 50% of all tweens living in European nations own a cell phone, with Germany and Sweden at 65% and The Netherlands leading the Euro-race with nearly 100% saturation.

While tweens with cells are only running at 30% in Hong Kong, Australia, Japan (aside from the 14-year old bracket) and Singapore, these countries are expected to be mega-growth markets in the next few years.

The Independent, in the UK, reported recently that a group of teenagers who agreed to go without their phones for two weeks as an experiment (Manning Gottlieb OMD), told researchers that their social lives had fallen apart.

So what sells the cellphone to tweens? Freedom (aka mobility). Our short people are well marketed to and buy into the belief that the cell phone delivers it.

And who wouldn't believe it, when Japanese shoppers can now compare prices on their mobile, 24/7: Amazon.com Japan's new 'Scan Search' enables customers to point their cell phones at barcodes in a bricks-and-mortar shop, then be directed to Amazon.com.jp on their phone screen where they can view that item (at a lower price too, no doubt) and have it sent to them straight away? This is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, with Google getting in on the act as well.

Source: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/MASTERoftheYOUNIVERSE.htm

Slow PC? Could be 'Indexing Service'

In Windows XP there is an Indexing Service function that is a huge RAM hog. If your PC is as speedy as a bus being pushed with flat tyres across a ploughed paddock in winter, then this facility may be turned on.

To check if your PC has this facility 'on' or 'off';

• Go to the desktop
• Click F1 (to bring up help)
• Key "Indexing Service" into the Search For field
• Click on "Indexing Service" in the results list
• Click on "Open Indexing Service" in the detail section
• On the Action Menu, choose All Tasks | Tune Performance
• Ensure "Never Used" is ticked

Good luck!

Font Substitution in Word

When you open a document formatted in a font that's not available on your machine, Word automatically substitutes an equivalent from the installed fonts. Even though the font may look different, Word still displays the name of the missing font in the Font drop-down box in the Formatting toolbar.

To find out which font Word substituted for a missing font, follow these steps:

• Go to Tools | Options
• On the Compatibility tab, click the Font Substitution button
  • If there are no substitutions, Word displays a message telling you that no substitutions are necessary
  • If there are substitutions, Word displays the Font Substitution dialog box, listing each missing font and the font substitution

While Word tries to come as close as possible to the original fonts, in many cases, it may just choose the default font. But you don't need to accept all of Word's substitutions.

To override a font substitution, follow these steps:

1. In the Font Substitution dialog box, click the row containing the missing font you want to change
2. Select the font you want to use from the Substituted Font drop-down list
3. To change the name in the Font drop-down list from the original font to the substituted font, click the Convert Permanently button, and click OK.

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs for you;

• BRB, Be right back. Chatroom short-talk
• BTA, But then again...
• BTDT, Been there, done that

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Short+Hot Keys... and now tips

Over the next few newsletters, we are going to look at all you can do in Outlook. This time we focus on what you can do with the Page up or down keys, Alt, Shift & Ctrl;

• Outlook "Go to the last day of the month when using general keys for moving around in day/week/month view" Alt & Page Down
• Outlook "Go to the first day of the month when using general keys to move around in day/week/month view" Alt & Page Up
• Outlook "Switch to the next tab in an item or dialog box or move to the first card on the next page" Ctrl & Page Down Outlook "Switch to the previous tab in an item or go to the first card on the previous page" Ctrl & Page Up
• Outlook "Go to the item at the bottom of the screen, and then display another page of items when working in a Table or in a Timeline, display the items one screen below the items on the current screen or move to the end of a multi-line field or select the block of time at the bottom of the screen when working in day/week/month view or select the first card on the next page or in day/week/month view, go to the same day of the week in the next week (or 5 weeks ahead if viewing by month) or scroll through pages when working in Print Preview or move from item to item when working in day/week/month view" Page Down
• Outlook "In a Table, go to the item at the top of the screen, or in a Timeline, display the items one screen above the items on current screen or in day/week/month view, select the block of time at the top of the screen or move to the beginning of a multi-line field or select the first card on the current page or in day/week/month view, go to the same day of the week in the previous week (or 5 weeks previous if viewing by month) or scroll through pages when working in Print Preview or move from item to item when working in day/week/month view" Page Up
• Outlook "Extend the selection to the last card on the last page" Shift & Page Down
• Outlook "Extend the selection to the first card on the previous page" Shift & Page Up

Hot Linx

Weird headlines of 2004 can be viewed at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050101/80/f9hlr.html. Let's hope 2005 is somewhat less peculiar!

If you have not heard the term "Biting the hand that feeds IT" before, then you have not been here. Find a great InfoTech site in the Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/

If you ever find yourself without the internet, you will have needed to have checked out Yahoo's "Survival Guide" first at http://promotions.yahoo.com/disconnected/static/survival.html

Terry Pratchett fans out there should check out the review of his September US SFRevu speech at http://www.sfrevu.com/ISSUES/2004/0409/Article.php?asin=0409TPI

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

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