Make it easier by turning it round…

By | September 16, 2019
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It’s a busy day today.  At 10am this morning, we’re launching our new books about keeping in touch (Making The Miles Fade and Meeting People Online).  So I’ve got a quick and simple tip for you this morning, so I can make sure everything’s ready!

If you have a tablet or smartphone, you probably know that you can hold it either way round.

I don’t mean so you can see the screen or so you can’t – that’s not helpful very often!

I mean you can hold it what they call “portrait” (where it’s taller than it is wide) or “landscape” (where it’s wider than it is tall).

Some people use it one way round all the time.  That’s fine, of course – after all, it’s your tablet or phone, so it’s up to you how you use it.

But it’s worth thinking about whether that’s always the easiest way.  A lot of the time it depends what you’re doing.

Even if you’re browsing the web, it can depend on exactly what web pages you’re looking at.

For example, normally when I’m reading a web page, I prefer to hold it in the “portrait” position, so I have a longer bit of the web page on the screen at once.

But if the text is very small I might change it to landscape so I can see it better.  Or if there are several pictures on the webpage so the text ends up in a narrow column, I might turn it to landscape.

Then if I’m typing a very quick message on my phone I’ll probably still hold it upright… though I’ve never got good at typing on my phone… I tend to use the finger on the other hand rather than being able to do it with my thumbs like lots of people do!

But if I have something longer to type, maybe on a tablet, I’ll always turn it round to the sideways position so it feels more like a real keyboard.

One other thing to know about this: some apps display different options on the screen depending on what way round you have it.  I particularly find that in portrait mode it might only show you the main part of the screen of whatever app it is but in landscape mode it might show you extra menus.

So a really handy tip is if you can’t see an option for what you want to do, turn the screen round and it might appear.

Anyway, as I say, it’s up to you but it’s worth thinking about – you might find you can make your device easier to use just by turning it round every so often.

And before I forget, watch out for my email at 10am, with all the information about the new books, hot off the press…

2 thoughts on “Make it easier by turning it round…

  1. John Lansley

    Thank you Tim…but just for the dinosaurs who have a smart phone, you didn’t say there is an option in “Settings” then “Display” then choose to “When screen is rotated” that you might have to action, or it may be stuck in “Portrait” ??

    Your follower – John Dinosaur

    Reply
    1. Tim Wakeling Post author

      Good point John!
      It does depend on what model of phone you have and how it’s been set up, but if you find turning it round doesn’t work, then follow John’s instructions and it should let it rotate.
      (Or if you find your does turn round but you don’t want it to for some reason, follow the instructions but choose the opposite choice in the last step).
      Thanks
      Tim

      Reply

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