One-Man Band: How Apple helps this solo player keep up the rhythm

Although I don't simultaneously use my hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical contraptions to play music, I do like the imagery of a one-man band to help explain how my Apple devices boost my ability to get a lot of stuff done no matter my locale.

First, let me define "stuff," lest you think I spend my time watching videos or playing Angry Birds, which by the way, I still haven't figured out how to do.

My stuff falls into three categories: work related, social media, and personal.

Let's start with the one that pays my bills and allows me to purchase the aforementioned Apples.

Work

Since Apple and Microsoft are rivals, Apple prefers that its users turn to its iWork suite of programs, rather than Office. I'm aware you can use Office for Mac, but if you have "drunk the Koolaid" - a reference to loyalists' adherence to all things Apple -- like me, you'll want to embrace the whole megillah.

If you do, you can draft a news release, feature story or pitch letter (that's my business) using the Pages word processing program on your desktop Mac. Then open iCloud on Safari or Firefox (my favorite browsers) and drag the file onto the iWork website. Miraculously, when you open Pages on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, your draft will appear right there.

The process is even easier on the mobile devices because when you create or edit that piece on your iPad (my preferred mobile), it automatically travels to iCloud; no dragging needed.

Now, before you interrupt to tell me Microsoft Word is demanded by your correspondents, let me put your mind at ease: While in Pages, you have the option to send documents as Word files. And you also can open documents that have been sent to you in Word by converting them to Pages.

So although Apple and Microsoft seem to turn their backs on one another, in truth, they swivel, shake hands, and play nice.

Social Media

While I have many friends who vow they'd never use Facebook and can't fathom why anyone would we interested in what they ate for dinner, those of us faithful to the site, feel otherwise, particularly if you're in Public Relations like I am.

Apple's mobile devices enable me to update Facebook (Twitter and LinkedIn, too) whenever I have a spare moment. Either through it's App or via its page on Safari, I can update or link while I'm waiting for any number of tardy appointments, spouse pickups, or during TV commercials.

Personal

Because I check my email on my iPhone or iPad, I'm alerted to upcoming bills or sales at my favorite shops. I did all of my holiday shopping online (Zappos, J. Crew, Amazon, Harry Potter merchandise) prone on my couch. Believe me, I wanted to do all of this gift buying at local stores, but $10 shipping fees discouraged me. Be assured, if the item is staying in the city, I buy local, small business all the way.

Go for a test drive.

If you're still not persuaded Apple can help you perform like a one-man band, take a test drive at one of their brick-and-mortar stores. Also, sit in on the free workshops offered at all locations. Once equipped with your own rhythm section, play on!

Urge Stakeholders to Climb Aboard Social Media

Every non-profit organization believes it’s the World’s Best Kept Secret. And in many cases, that’s true. You’ve been around for more than a decade, accomplished amazing and beneficial results, and is a blessing in the do-good community. Yet, beyond your stakeholders (staff, board of directors, members, and volunteers), too few in the general public know you exist.

However, many nonprofits neglect a major asset that if tapped, could help spread the word and lift it from shadow to spotlight. Best of all, this asset is close at hand and likely eager to help out -- it’s those stakeholders introduced in the opening paragraph.

We’re all aware print media is becoming an endangered species, with newspapers dropping weight as quickly as a Jenny Craig commercial. And the competition to tell your story on radio or TV gets more difficult with programming budget cuts. Instead of wringing hands at these depressing developments, turn to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (free social media sites) --and your stakeholders -- to bring more attention to your nonprofit. Here are 10 suggestions:

1. Take a survey of your stakeholders to learn how many have accounts on these sites.

2. Encourage those who are not on to sign up.

3. Host a workshop where interested stakeholders can learn tips on getting the most out of social media for themselves and your organization.

4. If your nonprofit doesn’t already have a Fan Page on Facebook, set one up. A techie on board, or a hired consultant, can accomplish this easily.

5. Post relevant information at least once daily to your social media pages, i.e. upcoming events, campaigns, links to your blog, newsworthy items, recent organizational or individual accomplishments.

6. With your stakeholders now in the social media game, urge them to “Like” your Fan page. This relationship will now be published on their Profile pages with a link their friends can explore.

7. Suggest stakeholders invite Facebook friends to “Like” your organization’s page. Also, their friends can “Follow” it on Twitter, and join your LinkedIn network, thus spreading your name further into the social media world.

8. If you’re hosting an event, be sure to create it on your Facebook Fan and LinkedIn pages. Remember to post Save-The-Date updates to all of your social media sites. Your stakeholders can then link to the event alerting their own friends and attracting additional attention and guests.

9. Urge stakeholders to use the private message options in Facebook and LinkedIn to invite their friends to the event.

10. Provide your stakeholders with the name, cell phone number, and e-mail address of your techie. Thus, if frustration or bewilderment arises, the techie can immediately mollify and get your valuable assets back on board.

Spice Up Your Text With Dingbats!

If you're a non-techie, and hear the word "dingbat" you might think of someone who's stupid or eccentric.

But if you’re a geek like me, you know dingbat is also “a typographical device other than a letter or numeral used to signal divisions in text or to replace letters in a euphemistically presented vulgar word.” For example: s@#t.

Another typographical device is an "emoticon," a combination of keyboard symbols used to convey feelings, such as :-) for "smile."

In my mind, dingbats are a bit more interesting than emoticons because they include many more characters than only those that appear above the numbers on a keyboard. For instance, ♠   ✄ ❀ ❁■❄

If you want to spice up your text, here's how you can incorporate dingbats into your next email message, Word document, Facebook or Twitter status update, and iPhone e-mail or text message.

For E-Mail
1. Open your mail program and choose New Message.
2. Place the insertion point where you want the dingbat to appear.
3. From the Mail toolbar, select Edit.
4. From the drop-down menu, choose Special Characters.
5. You’ll see a variety of symbol options; i.e. Math, Arrows, Currency, Parentheses, Punctuation, and Miscellaneous. Dingbats are in the last category.
6. Choose Miscellaneous.
7. Double-click the character or symbol you want to insert into your document, or select the character, then click Insert. The dingbat will appear in your text.

For a Word Document in a Mac or PC.
1. Open your Word document
2. Set your pointer to the spot desired for the dingbat.
3. Click on the Insert menu at the top of the screen.
4. Select Symbol.
5. On the Symbols tab, you have a choice of Symbols, Webdings, or Wingdings or Zapf Dingbats.
6. Pick a symbol or dingbat.
7. Double-click on your selection or click Insert.
8. Your selection will appear on the page.

For Facebook or Twitter
1. Place your insertion point in the status update bar, "What's on your mind?"
2. Select Edit from the browser (Firefox, Safari) toolbar.
3. Choose Special Characters from the drop-down menu.
4. A Characters box will appear with the same symbol options as #5 in Mail.
5. Select, double-click or Insert.
6. Your pick will appear in your status update.

For the iPhone
1. Select an application, such as Notes, Mail, or Text Message where you'd like your dingbat to appear.
2. Open Safari.
3. Go to http://mrgan.com/gb/
4. Tap the + button.
5. Choose Add to Home Screen.
6. On the phone, open the Glyphboard icon.
7. Tap and hold on a symbol.
8. Select Copy.
9. Go back to your application, tap and hold on the text area.
10. Choose Paste to insert the dingbat.

Snip, snip

One would think I would wince at the command: Shorten, given my childhood history with the word. But in tech talk, shortening is something users need to learn if you wish to to comment on certain sites where long Web addresses are cumbersome.

Take this site for example, Never Too Old To Talk Tech is quite a mouthful. Add the rest of the address for a particular post and you'll soon be gagging at its size. But when shortened, my blog becomes quite a tasty tidbit.

While I have no idea how these tailoring sites perform their snipping, or why their tightened titles turn out the way they do, my ignorance is unimportant. All we amateur techies need to know is that they work.

When I first learned the need to shorten, I used a Web site called TINYURL.com But now, I've switched my allegiance to bit.ly because it has a more appealing page and it retains all of the shortening requests I have recently given them. Thus, if I'm doing a repeat, I don't have to go through the entire process over again.

This is how you hem: first you must copy the Web address (also called URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Yuk.) of the site you're interested in. Do that by clicking at the front of the address, before its http beginning, and sweeping the cursor to the right until the address turns blue. Then, click on the Edit column at the very top of your computer screen and from the drop-down menu, select Copy. You won't see where your reserved copy is located, just be assured it's being safely held until you need it.

Now, exit the site, enter bit.ly in the browser address bar. When that page appears, go back to the Edit column, select Paste and plop the long address into the empty space that bit.ly has reserved for you. Click Shorten.

Copy the shortened address in the same manner as you did the long one that was in the browser: start at the beginning and sweep to the right. Once it's blue, do the Copy maneuver again.

Now you're almost ready to use your more desirable shortened address in Websites that prefer that length. When you get to the place where you want want to attach the link that bit.y just altered for you (it could be for Facebook, Twitter, or in an e-mail), select Paste from Edit's drop-down menu, and deposit your cute new petite link.

Once you get the hang of it, it's quite easy. And much less painless than enduring the straight pins, and endless sessions standing atop the Formica kitchen table of my childhood waiting for Mother to finish hemming my ugly skirt.

Advice for the mature or befuddled

It has come to my attention that friends and family run the other way when they see me approach. Certainly, it's not my appearance (I'm short, true, but not gnome-sized), or my odor (freshly-showered, I swear), but the fear I will drag them by the elbow to tout the latest Apple product or reveal my latest technology finding.

So, instead of watching my loved ones cower at my coming, I've decided to do my haranguing on my new blog. This way, you (you know who you are) can take or leave my rantings, while others who may value my wisdom will be grateful.

Although I'm using the dreaded "old" in this blog's title, the info will really be for anyone who feels nervous around smart phones, computers, Facebook and Twitter, and other up-to-the-minute stuff. And, perhaps this niche will attract advertisers, a book deal, Oprah, or at the very least, make me less feared and more loved by those I adore.

FYI: I'll soon be adding favorite blogs and Web sites, and doing other alterations to this site. Suggestions welcome.