“How To” collection
Simplify your digital life with comprehensive step-by-step tutorials and instructional guides for modern technology. Learn how to optimize your software configurations, manage cloud services, and master new devices with these easy-to-follow technical walkthroughs.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →March 6, 2015
How To Fix Repeating Black Boxes in a Row in Microsoft Word
How to fix repeating black boxes that appear in a row on Microsoft Word. What causes them and how to stop them from happening.
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December 30, 2014
How to Reset the TeamViewer ID After Cloning a Mac
Recently, I set up a new MacBook Pro for my step-mom where I used Apple’s Migration Assistant to easily copy over all of her data, applications and preferences. One of the applications that I actually use on her machine is TeamViewer which is fanstanstic if you need to provide remote assistance to a Mac or PC (you can actually set up a…
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December 24, 2014
Kids on Cell Phones Too Much? “Lock” Them in a Book #LifeHack
As like many other parents out there, my wife and I constantly battle with our kids about their cell phones and when it is ok to use them. If left to roam freely, I’m sure our kids would be glued to the tiny glowing screens 24/7 with bits of their mushy brain running out of their ear as they turned…
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December 22, 2014
How To Replace a MacBook Pro Keyboard after a Liquid Spill
Liquid and laptop keyboards are not a match made in heaven in any way. In fact, if you don’t act quickly, a liquid spill will fry out the circuitry in your laptop very quickly. I recently received a mid-2012 MacBook Pro (MBP) 15” with Retina display from a family member who spilled some coffee on it. A row of keys…
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November 24, 2014
How to Fix Mac Office 2011 Crashing in Yosemite [UPDATED X3]
Recently, my version of Office for Mac (Office 2011), started crashing on my MacBook Pro. Every time I launched Word, Excel or PowerPoint, the app would crash after a few seconds with an error asking if I wanted to recover my work, reopen the Office app and send the error to Microsoft. It didn’t matter if I opened a document…
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November 22, 2014
10 Tips for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Users
When Apple releases new hardware and software, often times some of the newer features go un-noticed. People are generally used to doing things their own way…which is usually the “old” way. With the introduction of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus recently, new chips and screen sizes have enabled new features for those lucky owners of the new iOS large…
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October 23, 2014
13 Tips to Optimize Your Mac After Yosemite Installation [UPDATED]
As most of us know, Apple's latest operating system Yosemite (10.10), a free upgrade from Apple, is now available. And with it come a lot of nice new features, visuals and enhancements. But, as with any upgrade, there is always the possibility of having issues. While I had been running the Developer Preview on my MacBook Air and had not…
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September 30, 2014
How to Fix iTunes Error 1723 When Syncing iPhone or iPad
I stumbled across an error when I was syncing my Apple iPhone 5S running on Apple's iOS 8 with iTunes on my Mac. It was an iTunes Error 1723. Apple errors are always a bit cryptic and sometimes require you to do some searching to find a solution. So, hopefully you found this article while searching for "how to fix…
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September 18, 2014
The Best Way to Install iOS 8 & Not Delete Apps & Data
Apple's iOS 8 has been released and people are complaining that they have to delete applications and/or data and media in order to install the new mobile operating system. This is true if you do an OTA (Over The Air) update. Sometimes, even connecting to iTunes on your computer and trying to do the upgrade there prevents you from doing…
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September 17, 2014
Direct Download Links for Apple iOS 8 & Prep and Install Tips [UPDATED]
Apple's newest version of their operating system (Apple iOS 8) for iPhones and iPads is now available. There are a few ways that you can update. You can plug your compatible iOS device (iPhone 4S and newer, iPod Touch 5th gen or iPad 2 or newer) into your computer and connect with iTunes and do the upgrade that way, you…
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September 11, 2014
How to Turn Off Facebook’s Auto-Play Videos & Save Data
If you are anything like me, you watch your cell phone's data consumption very closely. And given that I have 4 other people on my family shared plan (3 of them being teens & almost a teen), there are some apps that simply gulp down data. Tweens and teens absolutely LOVE image and video apps (think Instagram, Vine, SnapChat and…
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September 3, 2014
How To Change the Default Browser on Mac with Chrome Canary and Chrome
Google recently released a 64-bit version of its browser, Chrome Canary. If you want what Google calls "the bleeding edge of the web" type of browser, you can download and install Google Chrome Canary for Mac (or Windows). It has the latest features and is targeted towards early adopters, developers and the like. I had been using the beta channel…
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