Productivity – eFriend Magazine

Know Names of Keyboard Symbols in Computer Keyboard

efriend — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 06:10:00 +0000

The computer keyboard is essential to enter characters, numbers, and special characters into your computer. We are all familiar with the QWERTY layout of a modern computer keyboard. The QWERTY name comes from the order of the first six keyboard keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard. This layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper editor, printer, and also is the inventor of the first typewriter. In our day to day life, we used different symbols and special characters on our computer keyboard to perform various tasks. But most of us don’t know the keyboard symbols names and meanings of our computer keyboard. There is not much use to remember all the names of keyboard symbols names for our day to day activities. But things may change if you want to explain a technical problem in your keyboard to a technician. Sometimes, you may have to mention the name of keyboard keys in your conversation. Here is the list of common computer keyboard symbols and its meaning in plain English.

Keyboard Symbols Names and Meanings
For programmers, these symbols are essential for their coding purpose. In anyways, for coding purposes, or want to discuss technical problems with an expert, or just want to learn the keyboard symbol names, here is a list of the symbols that commonly available in a computer keyboard.

Symbol	Name
&	ampersand or and
‘	apostrophe or single quote
*	asterisk
@	at
`	back quote
\	backslash
{ }	braces or curly braces
[ ]	brackets
^	carat
}	close brace
]	close bracket
)	close parenthesis
:	colon
,	comma
$	dollar
=	equal
!	exclamation mark
>	greater than
<	less than
–	minus or hyphen
{	open brace
[	open bracket
(	open parenthesis
( )	parenthesis
%	percent
\|	pipe or bar
+	plus
#	pound or number sign or sharp or hash
“	quote
;	semi-colon
/	slash or forward slash
~	tilde
_	underscore
?	Question Mark
.	Period, dot or Full Stop
F1 to F12	Function keys (what are function keys)

Symbols in Keyboard – Explanation and its use

Keys	Name
Esc	Escape Key
Windows logo	Windows Key
Delete	Delete Key
Backspace	Backspace Key
Tab	Tab Key
Caps Lock	Caps Lock Key
Shift	Shift Key
Ctrl	Control Key
Alt	Alternate Key(Windows); Option Key (Mac)
Print Scrn (prt sc)	Print screen
Num lock	Number lock key to enable/disable numeric pad
Scroll Lock	Scroll lock key to stop scrolling of text
Pause/Break	Pause/Break key to temporarily halt
Page Up	Page up Key
Page Down	Page down Key
Insert	Insert Key
Home	Home key to return cursor to the beginning
Enter	Enter Key
End	End key to move the cursor to the end
Command key	Apple Mac computers
Spacebar	Space key for creating empty spaces
Arrows	Up, down, left, right arrow keys

Keyboard Keys explanation and uses

This chart helps you to identify symbols, each keyboard key, and its use. Do you take too much time to complete a task on your computer or on your word processor? To take a screenshot of your desktop you can use the Printscreen button to capture the visible area of your screen. You must learn these essential keyboard shortcuts to use your computer like a pro. You can read keyboard Key Names and Functions of Every Key to know the keyboard key names and its usage. Can you give some other uses of the keyboard symbols?

Amazing Things You Can Learn on YouTube

efriend — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 11:59:48 +0000

Want to learn a new skill for free? Want to learn a new language for free? Do you want to learn cooking or want to repair your gadgets? Do you want to master your gadgets without the help of any experts? The benefit of Youtube is immense; from learning to thinking, from cooking to coding, from creating to watching comedy, Youtube offers contents of all genres.

Learn to Cook / Master of Cooking
If you want to learn to cook YouTube is the best place to start with. There are thousands of videos about cooking in your language. If you want to become a chef or want to deepen your knowledge you can use YouTube videos to get new recipes and cooking tricks from around the world. We are in an age where you can find anything using a simple internet search, all videos are created in equal quality, some may appear good, some may look bad. Here are some most useful YouTube cooking channels that you can subscribe to.

Learn to Draw or Paint
Always wanted to learn to draw or paint but reluctant to join a course, the YouTube is the right platform, to begin with. You can learn the basics and advanced techniques from the comfort of your home. Whether you are interested in watercolor, oil painting, or acrylic painting there are tons of resources available to help you get started. You can also learn digital painting and animations using YouTube tutorials. There are a number of free and open-source graphic editor tools available to create illustrations and 3D animations.

Learn an instrument
A few years back it is very difficult to learn a musical instrument, you must join a class and may purchase your musical equipment to start your lessons. In this generation you don’t even need a musical instrument, there are a number of app-based musical instruments available, to begin with. You can learn at your own pace as the videos are available to you at any time.

Troubleshoot your computer
Most computer users may be stuck at some point to troubleshoot a problem that they faced while doing their office or project work. Thanks to YouTube videos you can correct the problem by yourself or can learn new software or a tool by watching YouTube videos. You can set up your own computer by watching the step by step video guides.

Master your camera
You can take amazing pictures using your DSLR or mobile camera by following the expert advice and tricks that freely available on youtube. Education has changed, you can start with the photography fundamentals and to proceed to more advanced lessons as you improved. There are plenty of photography courses available that focuses on elements of photography, hoe to use gear, and how to improve your photography skill. One of the main advantages of YouTube videos is you can watch the review of the photography equipment before investing in it. You can check the video or photo quality and the feature availability from the YouTube videos. You can also master your existing camera by visiting the appropriate videos.

Fix up your home or garden
You can easily fix up your home or set up a new garden by watching YouTube videos related to house improvements. You can do simple repair to big improvements using the fantastic video tutorials available on YouTube about home repairs and remodeling that saves your money and time. You can find a lot of channels offering how-to-videos, DIY projects, landscaping, and lawn care ideas. You can become a Fix-it master by simply watching related YouTube videos.

Learn life hacks
Want to learn some life hacks that are easy to do that saves your time and money. By tweaking little things in your daily life that makes your life easier and more productive. You can check 5-Minute Crafts, Wengie, Blossom, or Troom Troom to learn some new tricks and tricks.

Learn to Code
You can simply learn a new programming language or an application development platform from video tutorials. Thousands of instructional and educational videos about programming are emerging every day from experts from the industry. The programming and instructional videos are well-established YouTube channels that you can find with millions of subscribers and followers.

Learn to dance
You can easily learn to dance without stepping into a dance studio. You can find a lot of dance tutorials, find an instructor whose style you enjoy learning from. You have to analyze the movements, you have to do the steps and eventually, you will be able to do them. Start to practice in an empty room, and you can use a mirror in your dance training. The mirror provides immediate visual feedback, you can evaluate your movements, correct their placements, that gives a chance for self-correction. There are hundreds of channels offering different types of dance in different languages. You can check 1MILLION Dance Studio, or Official World of Dance to know to learns some dance movements.

Learn Self defense and workout
You don’t have the money for a personal trainer, or you don’t have time for the gym, you can still perform great workouts anywhere using YouTube videos. YouTube workout channels are your new personal trainer. You can learn from aerobics to boxing, from mediation to yoga. You will be able to find something on YouTube to keep your body and soul fit. You can learn yoga, dance workouts, fitness, workouts, and martial arts.

Conclusion
Wondering how to find the popular and best YouTube channels about a topic? In the YouTube search, enter a search term then click Filter, a new dox will be displayed just like the above box. In type select Channel to search all YouTube channels. You can sort the channels by relevance, view count, or rating. In this way, you can easily find the top YouTube channels on each topic.

Essential Gadgets that You Need to Work From Home

efriend — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 16:44:55 +0000

Technology and internet connectivity converts every home to the office. You can also work from home, from train, cafes, hotel rooms, and from parks. Most people use their home environment to use as their home office. But a few gears will change the way of working from home. Regardless of how and where you work, the most important thing is how well you can work. A comfortable chair and desk is a great option, as it provides a comfortable working environment for long time work. A good chair provides a comfortable sitting for long hours and also provides great support for your back. You must choose the right technology that suits your needs and budget.

Computer Laptop or Desktop
Your laptop or desktop is the most essential gadget for working forme home. If you don’t want to move out of your working environment and you need heavy computing resources and storage a desktop is good for you. But if you prefer portability and more power backup, a laptop is the right choice.

High-Speed Internet and Wi-Fi Router
A reliable internet connection is essential to get connected to the internet always. Even though, if you are having a good internet connection, a backup internet connection is necessary to ensure the continuity of the online meetings and workflows. The backup internet connection protects you from stuck while on an urgent video conferencing call or while sending an important file.

Headphones
A decent headphone or earbuds is essential for online meetings. It can be hard to concentrate while working from home, with an active noise cancellation headset that helps you to focus on the task at hand and get more things done. You can launch a team meeting and pick-up or answer a team’s call with a single touch using a dedicated headphone. A speakerphone or a Bluetooth speaker gives you a hands-free calling and great audio for your phone and tablet.

External Webcam
On a laptop, there is an inbuilt camera that you can use for online meetings. The new laptops offer HD quality video and audio using their inbuilt camera and microphone. If the sound and picture quality is not adequate for your need you can purchase an additional webcam.

All in One Printer or Printer and Scanner
If you need to take the print out of the documents or want to scan your documents a printer and scanner are essential. If you don’t have a printer or a scanner and you want to use both of them, an all in one printer is an ideal choice.

Whether using your bedroom, living room, or spandrel, you may need some little extra to sit comfortably, to concentrate on your work, or to privately meet online. So a proper work from the home setup is very important to do it with ease. A comfortable place to sit and work is the key to working from home for long hours. An office chair offers you a comfortable seat for long hours. Ensure to take a break and walk every 50 minutes to let your body relax. A laptop desk acts as a laptop workstation, laptop table for bed, laptop couch table, or as a writing table. If you are running out of space, a wall-mounted laptop computer desk is a nice choice. Check Amazon’s work from home accessories.

The Must-Have Tools For Productive Meetings

efriend — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 16:39:35 +0000

For organizations, meetings are important for communication between their team members. Almost all organizations spend much of their time for arranging meetings, and the senior staffs spend half of their time for meeting with their team members. The unnecessary meetings may kills their productivity. To increase productivity, it i necessary to schedule only the necessary meetings and choose the time to avoid wastage of productive time.

To make a meeting productive you should require some tools to arrange things in order and to run according to the timeline on the agenda. Before arranging a meeting, ensures that whether the meeting is necessary, useful, or not. Another task is to ensure everyone should be able to attend the meeting on time. For that, everyone should aware of the time and know the methods of attending the online meeting. Here are some tools that you can use to organize and arrange meetings.

Video Conferencing Tools
Microsoft Teams
(https://www.microsoft.com/)
Microsoft Teams helps to organize meetings with teams. You can host audio, video and web conference with anyone. Collaborate with your teams using chat, video, voice and healthcare tools.

Google Meet
(https://apps.google.com/meet/)
Google Meet is a video communication app developed by Google. Google Meet allows you to start secure meeting, anyone with a Google Account can create an online meeting with up to 100 participants and meet for up to 60 minutes per meeting. For personal use, if you have a Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube, or another Google product, you can sign in to your existing Google Account to start a meeting. For business user, if you’re already have a G Suite account, you can use your existing G Suite account.

Zoom Meetings
(https://zoom.us/)
Zoom is a popular video conferencing solution with real-time messaging and content sharing feature.

Cisco Webex Meeting
(https://www.webex.com/)
Webex is a video conferencing system from Cisco. You can join a meeting by clicking your link to join the meeting. You can share your screen with others. You can also schedule and join meetings from where you work.

GoToMeeting
(https://www.gotomeeting.com/)
Logmein allows you to join, host or manage a video, audio or web meeting from a conference room, your desk or a remote location using your Mac, PC or mobile device.

Schedule Meetings
Do you face difficulties to organize a meeting? Don’t want to send hundreds of back and forth emails to know the availability of a team member. Don’t want send another ‘When can you meet?’ email to your team members. There are some specific tools to help you to organize a meeting.

Appoint.ly
(https://appoint.ly/)
Appoint.ly allows you to schedule a meeting by providing the meeting name, duration, your availability and other details. You can share your personalized Appoint.ly link with your attendees through message or email.

Calendly
(https://calendly.com/)
Calendly can connect with up to six of your calendars to automatically check availability and help to connect with your best contacts, prospects and clients. It can automatically distribute meetings to your team based on availability, priority or equity.

Doodle.com
(https://doodle.com/)
Doodle allows you to create free polls to find the best meeting time. You can limit the number of votes per participant.

Rallly
(https://rallly.co/)
Rally allows to to create a page for your upcoming event and share it with your friends. You can discuss the details of the event with your friends on the event page and let everyone know which dates best work for you, so that you can find a common date to host your event.

There are a number of online calendar apps offering same features. FreeBusy, Woven, etc. are some of them.

Planning and Note Taking apps
In this computer age, you don’t want to go with a pen, a sheet of paper or a book to write down the notes. There are a number of apps helps you to take clear meeting notes that are ready to share with your team members. Notion, Evernote, Onenote, are some of the popular note taking apps.

Use Note-Taking Apps To Take Notes on the go

efriend — Sat, 16 May 2020 11:53:06 +0000

Do you want to capture what’s on your mind and share those thoughts with friends and family? Do you want to speak a voice memo on the go and have it automatically transcribed? Do you want to grab a photo, a receipt, or a document and organize or find it later in search? Then this article is for you.

Evernote
(https://evernote.com/)
Evernote is a note-taking app for organizing, task management, and archiving. The note editor in Evernote where you can add text, attachments, and other content to your note. You can tag notes with keywords to sort them by category, tags make organizing easier. Find notes by searching for titles, dates, content types, and keywords.

Onenote
(https://www.onenote.com/)
Onenote is a note-taking app from Microsoft for information gathering and multi-user collaboration. We can add notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries in Onenote. In notebooks, you can divide into sections and pages. With easy navigation and search, you can easily find your notes right where you left them. It is easy to revise your notes with type, highlighting, or ink annotations. Teachers can use OneNote to organize lesson plans in searchable digital notebooks, and staff can create a sharable content library.

Google Keep
(https://keep.google.com/)
Google Keep is a note-taking service from Google. You can capture ideas with your voice, add images to notes, check tasks off your to-do list. It is easy to create, share, and collaborate with people on notes and lists.

Apple Notes
(https://www.icloud.com/notes)
It is a notetaking app developed by Apple. Use Notes to capture a quick thought, create checklists, and sketch ideas. You can create a new note directly in the Notes app or you can ask Siri to start one for you.

Simplenote
(https://simplenote.com/)
Simplenote is a light, clean, and free note-taking app. Simplenote is available for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and the web.

Notion
(https://www.notion.so/)
The notion is light, fast, and distraction-free note-taking app. Write, plan, collaborate, and get organized. The wiki allows everyone together in one common space, aligned and informed.

Boost Note
(https://boostnote.io/)
It is an intuitive and stylish markdown open-source note app for developers. You can write or edit your notes on your laptop even if you are offline.

Milanote
(https://milanote.com/)
Milanote is an easy-to-use tool to organize your ideas and projects into visual boards. The text editing and task management make it easy to add your thoughts to aboard. This app also has a storyboard feature, you can create storyboards and plan shooting schedules with this app.

Bear Notes
(https://bear.app/)
Bear notes work on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so you can write wherever inspiration strikes. Bear is good for everything from quick notes to in-depth essays. A focus mode helps you concentrate, and equipped with advanced markup options.

There is a huge list of not taking programs, websites, and apps you can find using a simple search. These are the most popular apps to take notes on the go. If you are not satisfied with those apps you can check Dropbox Paper, ulysses, etc. Each app developer adds its own unique feature to make their app stay top in the app list. So the features may vary from app to app, you can check these apps, as it is free, one by one to find the right app for your need.