There's an App for That

There’s an App for ThatLEANN SUCHYLSUCHY@GMAIL.COM

TWIN CITIES MEDIA ALLIANCESPONSORED BY MESLA, THE METROPOLITAN LIBRARY SERVICE AGENCY

Class Description

So many apps, so little time. Discover which apps should be loaded on your smartphone or tablet to improve productivity for your business or organization, plus how to use and organize them. Don’t miss this fast-paced and fun-filled session. Bring your smart phone and/or tablet.

Presented by Twin Cities Media Alliance and funded by MELSA.

Twin Cities Media Alliance

Class Outline – 21 apps

Dropbox: Apple / Android

Store and access all your files via Dropbox on computers, tablets, and phones.

Free accounts give 2G of space. Can purchase more.

Click the three dots to organize your files.

Click on a file to open it up.

Click on this icon to share the document.

Click the star to add something as a favorite.

Use these icons to go between files, photos, and favorites. You can also change settings here.

In the settings you can change things like whether or not pictures you take are automatically uploaded into Dropbox.

CloudOn: Apple / Android

Create, review, edit and share Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, spreadsheets and presentations on your tablet or phone.

Must connect a Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, SkyDrive, or Hightail account.

Click the A icon to make a new Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file.

Click on a file to open it up.

Use the cloud icon to access settings and tutorials.

When you open a document, you’ll see the toolbars like you’re used to seeing in regular Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Dragon Dictation: Apple only

Easy-to-use voice recognition software. Just speak and it types what you say. You can copy and paste it in documents or email to yourself.

Use these icons to create a new note, delete a note, or share a note to email and social media. You can also just copy the text to paste somewhere else.

You can also click on the keyboard icon to edit the note after you finish speaking.

Click here to record.

SignNow: Apple / Android

Need to sign a document? Get someone’s signature? Do it with SignNow and forget about printing, scanning, or faxing.

5 free signatures a month. Can pay for more.

Click here to learn how to import documents from many different places. Sometimes you’ll import from here, sometimes it’ll just tell you how from other places.

Click here for access to account info, help, options, etc.

Click here to go through documents in SignNow.

When you have a document in SignNow, tap on it to see all the options available, like opening it to sign it, inviting other signers, emailing it, archiving it, deleting it, etc.

When you open a document, tap your finger in the center of the screen to get the menu where you can sign the document, insert text, insert today’s date, or insert a check mark.

Expensify: Apple / Android

Capture receipts, track time or mileage, and create expense reports easily.

Free for individuals. Business plans available for a fee.

Click the Add Expense button to see the Expense form you can fill out. You can even tap where it asks for the Receipt to attach a receipt to the expense.

Click on the Add Credit Card button to attach your credit card to Expensify so it can monitor your credit card spending.

On the homepage you can click on the icons at the bottom of the screen to see the receipts you have, to make a report, or to change information on your account. There is also a Help button which may help you solve a question.

Road Ninja: Apple / Android

Road Ninja is a great app for road trips. It helps you determine what you’ll find off certain highway exits – restaurants, rest areas, gas stations, and more. Make sure to give Road Ninja access to your current location.

Open up Road Ninja and it will automatically determine the closest highway/interstate near you and nearby gas stations, fast food, hotels, and more.

Click here to search for a certain type of place or a place name.

Click here to see what places you missed on the last exit you passed.

Click here for upcoming exits.

Scroll down to see all the places it found as well as places at upcoming exits.

When you tap on the information for a place, you’ll get a map, directions, phone number, and, if available, street view.

You can also scroll down to see user reviews, add your own, see images, and, if available, get a link to the company website.

Wi-Fi Finder: Apple / Android

Traveling and need wifi? Wi-Fi Finder will locate free wifi from businesses, libraries, and colleges. You can also download information so you can locate wifi when you have no internet access.

Find Public Wi-Fi Near Me – you need wifi access for this to work, but it will find free wifi based on your location.

Search for Wi-Fi Worldwide allows you to search for a location to find free wifi.

Offline Wi-Fi Finder Available allows you to download wifi information so that this tool is available to you when you don’t have wifi.

When you do find wifi near you, you’ll see a map as well as a listing giving you more information. Click on a business to read more about it. It’s not always perfect, it may miss some listings, but you should have enough to find wifi somewhere.

You can also search for other locations and use some of the other icons on the top of the screen to bookmark locations.

Haiku Deck: Apple only (and now available online)

Haiku Deck makes beautiful presentations by finding images for the background of your slides by using the text you have included on the slide.

I recommend you watch the What Is Haiku Deck slideshow that is in your account when you enter.

Then click the + button when you’re reading to create your own presentation.

Type some text on your slide and then click on the Image button. Then select the word that best describes your slide and Haiku Deck will search for images based upon that word.

Select one of the images Haiku Deck finds and it will place it as the background on your slide.

There are other things you can do to your presentation like adding charts, changing the theme, uploading your own images, etc. When you’re reading to finish and share your creation, click this button.

To add more slides, click the + button.

deck: Apple / Android

You give deck the information for your presentation, it makes the presentation animated and interesting.

Click the + Create button to make a new deck.

You may want to view the Sample deck so you can get an idea of what deck can do before you create yours.

deck will then ask you for some text. Click each item to edit the text and add your own.

Click the table of contents icon to rearrange your points.

Click the + button to add more points.

Click the paintbrush to change the theme.

Click the Present button at the top to preview your creation.

Click save button when you’re all done.

Flipboard: Apple / Android

Create your own magazine with information that you want to follow. Follow news, social media, and more.

Add items to Flipboard by either using the search box to search for them or by clicking on the red flag to find items.

Items you add will then have their own box. You click on a box to read the articles from that item.

If you click on the red flag to find items, you can click on a topic, like Business, and see the different publications they suggest.

When you are reading stories in Flipboard, if there is one you want to save, you just click on the + button. It’ll then ask you to “Flip this into…” and that’s when you create a magazine to add it to.

Magazines you create are accessible under the red flag from the Flipboard homepage.

Zite: Apple / Android

Zite is different than Flipboard in that it makes the magazine for you after you tell it the type of things you like. You don’t pick the media; you give keywords.

When you open your Zite app, it’ll ask you for Topic areas that interest you. I believe you have to select four.

You can always delete or add to these topic areas on the Zite homepage by clicking on the Table of Contents icon which is on the top right-hand side of the page.

Zite then chooses the news stories for you, and to read them you just have to click on them.

You can tell Zite what you think about the news story by clicking either thumbs up or thumbs down. The more you tell Zite what you do and don’t like, the better your magazine will be.

If you really dislike a source Zite has chosen to use, you can click this icon to block that source.

Hootsuite: Apple / Android

Hootsuite is for those of you who use a bunch of different social media sites to promote your business. Hootsuite helps you organize and submit content to multiple different sites at once: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, and more.

With Hootsuite, you can see the feeds of multiple different social networks. 5 can be added to free Hootsuite accounts. If you need more, you can upgrade for a fee. OR, if you need many people to use Hootsuite to monitor social networks, you can also upgrade for a fee.

To add different social networks, click on the Settings icon.

To have different feeds from those social networks show up on the screen, click the Home button and then the Edit button.

Swipe to the right to see all the feeds.

What’s great about Hootsuite is that you can post to all your social networks from this app. Just click the compose icon.

You then choose which network the item will show up on. So if you have multiple networks for your business, you can have it show up on all three even though you only wrote it once. It’s a great time saver.

You can also attach images, links, and locations to your posts by using these icons.

Vine: Apple / Android

Create short, looping, 6-second videos and quickly and easily share them via Twitter and Facebook.

When you open Vine, videos of people you follow will automatically start to play. Just tap the center of the screen to stop them.Scroll down to view the newest videos from all the people you follow.

When you open Vine, you’ll be asked to either sign in with Twitter or sign up with email. Since you’ll most likely post to Twitter, signing in with that is a good option.

Click the camera to make your own video.

Also when you click the Home button you’ll see Explore, where you can see the hottest videos on Vine. You can click on Activity which shows your latest activity.

To find people follow, click on the Home icon and then click on Profile. You can then click the + button to try to follow people from your address book, Twitter, or to search for people.

When you’ve recorded at least 2 seconds of video, you’ll see an arrow. Click the arrow when you’re done with your video to save it and share it.

After you click the camera icon to make your own video, to make the video go you have to hold your finger in the center of the screen. To stop the video, take your finger off the center of the screen. You can start and stop as many times as you need.

Audioboo: Apple / Android

Record up to 3 minutes of audio and share easily on the web, Twitter, Facebook, and more.

When you enter Audioboo you’ll see featured Boos. To record your own, click the Record button on the bottom of the page. Then click the Record button again.

When you are recording, you’ll get a countdown. You can also click the Pause button to pause and restart your recording. Click the Publish button when you’re done.

Click the tablet of contents button to find Boos to follow, locate your Boos, change your Settings, and more.

Click on My Boos to locate all your Boos. From there you can find different ways to share them.

On your My Boos page, tap on the arrow to the right of a Boo to see this page. This is the page where you can listen to the Boo and where you can get the options to share it.

Click the Share button to see these options for how you can share the Boo.

LINE Camera: Apple / Android

LINE Camera easily allows you to add text, filters, frames and more to your photographs.

When you enter LINE Camera, it’ll want you to either take a picture or pull in a picture from your camera roll.

Click on the camera button to snap a picture.

Click on the picture icon to pull in a picture from your camera roll.

After you add a photo, you can then change the filter on the photo. Swipe to the right/left to see all the options and click the one you want.

You can then select the frame button or the T (text) button to add a frame around your photo or to add text on top of your photo.

When you’re adding text, you can use the buttons to change the color, the font, undo what you typed, or delete the text.

You can also move the text around the picture. Just put your finger on it and then move it to where you want it.

Click the Save button when you’re finished. It’ll automatically save it to your camera roll, but you’ll also get other options for sharing it.

Google Search: Apple / Android

Google Search app gives you quick access to Google, but also to Google products – Calendar, Drive, Finance, News, and more.

Open the app and you’ll immediately see the Google search where you can enter keywords to find items.

Instead of typing your search into the search box, you can click on this Voice icon to search by what you say.

Click the Apps button for access to all the other Google products – Calendar, Finance, Drive, News, etc.

On the left you’ll see what a search results page looks like, very similar to Google.com.

On the right you’ll see all the different Google products you can get access to through this Google app.

Skype: Apple / Android

Skype allows you to have free video conversations via connections on computers, tablets, and phones.Get more with paid plans.

Square Register: Apple / Android

With Square you can take credit card payments via your tablet or phone. Just download the app, request the free Square reader where you can swipe credit cards, and you’re ready to go.

With Square you can either pay $275/month or 2.75% per transaction.

AppsGoneFree: Apple onlyDroid of the Day: Android only

Use these apps to discover free apps of all varieties. You’ll find apps for documents, photographs, news, games, productivity, and more.

AppsGoneFree shows apps that have gone free for the day.

Droid of the Day highlights the best free apps in the Google Play Store.

Quixey: Android only (also available online)

Quixey is the app search engine. If you want to find an app that does something, type in what you want the app to do and Quixey will find some apps for you.