Windows Phone 8 Tips - 4

 

1. Translating text

Handily, translating a menu or a road sign that's in another language is possible with Windows Phone 8. It does require you to have a data connection though, as the data is sent off to Microsoft's servers which then respond to your phone. Assuming you are happy with the roaming charges if you're abroad, press the search button at the bottom of your phone (the button on the right of the three). Now hit the button shaped like an eye to make the camera start up, allowing you to scan barcodes, QR codes, and the like. Press "scan text" to take a picture of the text and then hit "translate."

If the phone throws up an error, try taking the image again from straight on. Once it's successfully recognized the text, select a language from the list you wish to translate to, and Windows Phone 8 will do its best to make it comprehensible.

2. Linking e-mail in-boxes

If you like to keep your e-mail in-boxes tied together so that all your mail arrives handily in one place, you can use the "link in-boxes" option. Simply go into one of the e-mail accounts you want to link and hit the bottom ellipsis. Select "link in-boxes" and then choose the two in-boxes you want to link up.

You can easily unlink the in-boxes at a later date in exactly the same way. Choose the e-mail client you want to unlink by selecting it and just hit "unlink." You can also rename in-boxes while in this menu.

3. Editing a photo

Once you've taken or downloaded a photo, navigate to the image you want to edit and then hit the ellipsis symbol in the bottom right-hand corner. You'll then see a number of options, from which you should select "edit." From there you'll have access to a couple of options: crop, rotate and auto-fix, or Creative Studio.

Select the former and again hit the ellipsis (this feature is continually present throughout Windows Phone 8) to reveal "save," "rotate," "crop," and "fix." The rotate tool moves the image 90 degrees each time you hit it. "Crop" brings up a grid you can use to slice and dice your image by moving each of the colored corners. When you're happy with your crop, hit the check mark, or instead just choose from any one of the predetermined aspect ratios.

Finally, hit "auto-fix" to see if it improves your photo quality. When images are dark and/or murky, this can prove useful, but the effect can vary from image to image. All that's left is to save your image, which you'll find under "camera roll" for future access.

4. Kid's corner

To keep younglings and pranksters at bay, Windows Phone 8 includes a feature called Kid's Corner. To activate it, head to settings to find the option (it should be between the "location" and "battery saver" settings if you're struggling), and turn the feature on. You'll then see a number of further options, including games, music, videos, and apps. This is where you select the content you deem suitable for the eyes of others, which you can tick to include when the feature is active.

Once you're happy with your selection, hit "launch kid's corner" to see how it all looks.

Now that Kid's Corner is set up, you can access it by swiping your finger from right to left. Now you should see Kid's Corner and will be able to then swipe from down to up to remove the lock screen. And hey, presto -- you'll have a more child-friendly smartphone, which denies access to the phone, e-mail and any other key functions that you would like to keep off limits.

5. Adjusting text size

Under settings is an option called "ease of access." Here you can slide a bar up to increase or decrease the text size in order to make reading easier. You can also enable "high contrast" to improve legibility, a screen magnifier and turn on TTY/TDD -- the telecommunications system used to assist those with hearing or speech difficulties.

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