Quick Application Switch

Need to switch between Applications or Programs you have open on Windows?  Or you need to get back to the Desktop but don't want to close all your open programs?  While you can use your task bar to see what programs you have open and switch between them it can sometimes be quite difficult to recognise which is what.  It can also be quite fiddly if you are copying and pasting between various applications on a regular basis.

A handy little trick is presing [alt] [tab].
Hold your [alt] key down and press the [tab] key.  This lets you swtich between all open programs.  Programs are listed in order of last used so if you have three programs open you can get back to your previous program you used by one press of [tab].

A Little Bit of Magic

Back when the concept of gesture based input was starting to become popular through Apple's iDevices Steve Jobs was asked a question...

"Would the iMac or MacBook laptop series ever receive a touch screen and utilise gestures?"

Back then the answer was no.  But then again the answer about a smaller iPad was also no, so you never know.....  But what was released was a more cleverly programmed trackpad and the release of two new pointing devices for the Mac.  These were the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad.

Both devices had full gesture capabilities with the trackpad using its entire surface and the Magic Mouse enabling this through a touch sensitive part on the top of the mouse.  Neither had buttons but the whole device would "click" to indicate a mouse click and touch sensitivity was utilised to allow for identification of which "button" you had pressed.

While all in all, it didn't offer anything particularly spectacular it did offer the ability to utilise your accessibility options via gestures on your mouse/trackpad.  But be wary of mice with "touch sensitive" areas, you may find trying to pull the gestures off sees you moving the mouse pointer (or even the mouse itself).

Changing Font Sizes in iOS

iOS goes about enlarging your font in a slightly different way although it generally appears to have larger font use in the menu's to start with, the setting only applies to fonts in your messages (and not the menu's and general usage of the phone).  To change the Font Size in iOS :

1. Open Settings
2. Choose General (on a tablet this is already the default selection)
3. Select Accessibility
4. Select Large Text

This will allow you to select a Font Size up to size 58 points.  On an iPhone this gives you about 5-6 characters wide in an SMS message so you may find it actually harder to read as words have to be split quite regularly.

You can also change the font sizes in WIndows Phone 8.  Click here for more details

Changing Font Sizes in Windows Phone 8

Fonts on your average Phone/Tablet probably border on the botuse when it comes to legibility (in most likelihood you are becoming familiar with the icon in use and not "really" reading the text).

But Windows Phone 8 will let you adjust the system font size to some extent and this is carried through to most applications and settings menu's (including your SMS messages).

To change the Font Size in Windows Phone 8 :
1. Swipe right to get to your Applications List.
2. Scroll down and select Settings.
3. Select Ease of Access
4. At the top of this settings screen is a slider that lets you increase/decrease the font size.

Font Sizes can be changed in iOS as well.  Click here for more details

Read the small print...

 Don't want to spend any money on a magnifier and you have a Smartphone?  Well really you don't even need a free app to do this one.

Simply use your phone's camera functionality and take a photo (this works best with phones that have a flash for close range text reading).

Once you have your photo you can navigate to your photo album.  These days almost all phones have the @Pinch to Zoom@ to feature that Apple introduced on it's first iPhone.  Simply use this feature to zoom in and out of your photo to read anything from far away signs to the small print on a label (good for those pesky Product Keys).  If you're still having problems reading the text you may want to initiate your phone's screen based magnifier for an extra boost.

For long range continual magnification you can activate the Camera in conjunction with the screen magnifier.

Useful related Tips :
Activate the Windows Phone Screen magnifier
Activate the Screen Magnifier in iOS