5 Time-Saving Websites & Apps for the Best Shortcuts

Time is the most precious commodity. We can’t create more time, so the best we can do is to save it. Through shortcuts and hacks, these websites and apps will help save time in many activities, and it all adds up.

Technology is all about speed, isn’t it? It helps us do things faster, or enables shortcuts that get the more done in less time. The internet is here to help you gain information faster by summarizing books or YouTube videos, or level-up your computer usage by learning keyboard shortcuts. It’s all about saving time and making the best use of it.

1. Sipreads (Web): Free Book Summaries by Real People

Don’t have the time to read a full book, but still want to know its best ideas? Sipreads is a free newsletter by two people who read books and summarize their salient points. Basile Samel and Ali Salah send one new book every week, while you can browse some of the previous summaries on the website.

Sipreads focuses on self-learning books, so you won’t find a summary of the latest Dan Brown novel here. Some of the famous titles already covered include Atomic Habits, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, The Start-up of You, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. Nuggets of personal development wisdom in short time is the goal here.

The summaries are usually seven to ten minute reads. Both Basile and Ali have a concise writing style that turns the book’s major points into something like a Medium article, full of sub-headers and bullet points. And if you find that it works for you, then you can go read the full book. But you’re never left out of the conversation when people start discussing the book.

2. Summarize the Internet (Web): Linguistic AI Summarizes Any Online Article

Writers on the internet often drone on and fluff up their writing with unnecessary words to lengthen the material and make it seem more authoritative, like this sentence. Don Patrick wants to cut the fat and give you an instant summary of any article with his AI extension.

Summarize the Internet isn’t the first extension offering this, but it takes a different approach. Patrick, an amateur language programmer with a deep interest in AI, ditched statistical methods and came up with a combination of word choice, sentence weaving, and story flow. As he explains, the target was for the summarizer to extract what the writer found important, minus what the reader finds unimportant (like introductions, examples, speculation, etc.)

After trying a few of these summary-making extensions, I can say Summarize the Internet is better at drawing out important points than others. Typically, a good article reduces to 50%, while a weak article reduces to 30% of its original length. While the extension’s pop-up pane is open, you can skim the main article in the tab too, in case you want to cross-reference.

Download: Summarize the internet for Chrome | Firefox (Free)

3. FizzD (Chrome): Summarize YouTube Videos Into Chapters and Highlights

Someone links you to a long YouTube video. Is it actually interesting or useful? FizzD uses AI to go through the video and summarize it into chapters, highlights, and key concepts, so you can browse a video like it was an article with sub-headers.

Once you install the extension, you’ll see a “Fizz It” button next to the Share and Save buttons under the video. Click it and wait for a minute for FizzD to work its magic. Soon, the video will have a few yellow dots, marking what FizzD thinks are chapters within the long video. Hover over a dot to see the chapter title, and click to jump to it.

In the top-right corner of the video pane, you’ll see two new overlays: Highlights and Key Concepts.

Highlights is a text summary of the main points of the video, but you can’t use them as timestamps. Key Concepts show up as blue dot timestamps, so you can see where one of the main subjects was discussed in different chapters.

FizzD is a fascinating implementation of AI in videos. It doesn’t work with every YouTube video and seems to be at its best in educational videos like TED talks and webinars.

Download: Fizzd for Chrome (Free)

4. Use the Keyboard (Web): Gorgeous Collection of Best Keyboard Shortcuts

Stop reaching for your mouse or trackpad to go from one window to another. Just press Alt+Tab (or Command+Tab) to switch windows. The most amount of time you can save on a computer is by learning keyboard shortcuts like this.

Use the Keyboard (UTK) is a gorgeous collection of keyboard shortcuts for the most-used programs, apps, and websites in 2020. It includes guides for software like Zoom, Slack, Gmail, Notion, Chrome, Netflix, Trello, and a bunch of other offline and online apps that you use on a daily basis.

It’s especially nice that the guide includes web apps because often such keyboard shortcut guides ignore them and you have to rely on browser shortcuts alone.

With one switch, UTK can flip between Windows and macOS shortcuts. You can also check the original reference for any sheet of shortcuts, which usually comes from the developer’s official notes. UTK’s neat and tidy interface is fantastic to look at, and you might want to convert it into PDFs to print.

While UTK serves apps, it doesn’t have shortcuts for operating systems. So make sure you check out our master list of all essential Windows keyboard shortcuts, which you can also download for free.

5. The Skullery and Hurry The Food Up (Web): Quick Recipes Without Fluff

The internet is full of food writers sharing recipes, but there’s always a long preamble, right? The mood they were in, some story about how the recipe was handed down, and all those things you don’t need. These two recipe websites are about cooking quickly without wasting time.

The Skullery simply gives you recipes quickly. No registration, no meandering preambles, it’s all about cooking immediately. Your browser will remember favorites, you can change measures on-the-fly without going to another converter, and you can quickly browse or search for anything. The recipe has step-by-step instructions, which you can cross-off within the browser app too. It just works.

Hurry The Food Up is a vegetarian cooking blog with a time-oriented approach. Speed is key here, with most recipes being under 30 minutes. And yes, that includes both prep time and cook time. Choose your type of diet, time, and meal course to filter the recipes. Hurry The Food Up is also available as an app on Android.

Download: Hurry The Food Up for Android (Free)

Save More Time by Learning to Manage It

These apps are excellent time-saving shortcuts to many of the things you do daily. But technology is only going to go so far in freeing up time for you. If you truly want to squeeze more out of your daily 24 hours, you need to learn time management and set goals.

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Space Basketball

Space Basketball

How to Add Subtitles to a Movie or TV Series

Subtitles are one of those things many people sneer at. But once you start using them to better understand what’s going on, it’s hard to stop using them. And if you’re watching a foreign-language movie, you might have no choice but to use subtitles.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add subtitles to movies or TV series on your computer. It’s quick, easy, and totally free to do.

Reasons to Start Using Subtitles

If you’re hard of hearing. subtitles are a lifesaver. They allow you to follow the plot or a movie or TV show without having the volume turned up to room-shaking levels.

If you’re watching a movie in a foreign language, you need to use translated subtitles to understand the plot. For most people, subtitles are less jarring than dubbed audio because you can enjoy the original performance of the actors without getting distracted by out-of-sync dialog.

But there are good reasons to add subtitles to a movie or TV show even if it’s in your native tongue:

• Inaudible dialog: It’s tough to understand characters with thick accents, even when they’re speaking a language you know. This also happens when actors mumble their lines, making them impossible to hear over other sound effects.
• Narrative comprehension: Sci-fi and fantasy shows include a wealth of made-up proper nouns for names, planets, and technology. When you’re watching complex shows like this, subtitles make it easier to follow what’s going on.

Unfortunately, when you download movies and TV shows to watch offline, they don’t always come with subtitles. This means you need to add them yourself, which is actually a lot easier than you might think.

How to Add Subtitles to Movies or TV Series

Now that you know why you should consider adding subtitles to movies or TV series, we can move onto the process of adding them. Which starts with finding subtitle files.

Where to Download Quality Subtitles

Before you can apply subtitles to a downloaded movie or TV show, you first need to find and download a subtitle file for that particular title. If possible, it’s best to download the subtitles from the same place you got the content. That way they are most likely to sync up with your video file.

However, if there aren’t any subtitles available from the same place, you can use other websites to download subtitles from instead.

We recommend the following two sites:

• Subscene: Unless the movie or TV show you’re trying to watch is rare or decades old, you’re almost guaranteed to find working subtitles on Subscene. Subtitles are categorized by title, language, and closed captions for hearing-impaired people.
• OpenSubtitles: This is a large database with plenty of working subtitles—including some that are missing from Subscene—but it is very heavy on the ads. Downloading subtitles can feel like a game of elimination as you try to figure out which download links are genuine and which ones are spam.

After downloading the subtitles you need—which should be in an SRT or SUB file—there are two methods you can use to add them to your videos: soft and hard.

Soft subtitles allow you to turn them on and off, switching between different languages or no subtitles at all while watching. Whereas hard subtitles merge with the video file itself. You can’t turn them off, but you never need to worry about adding subtitles again.

We’ll explain how to add subtitles, both hard and soft, to a movie or TV series below…

How to Add Soft Subtitle Tracks to a Downloaded Movie

All of the best modern video players support file-based subtitles. This means you can add as many subtitle tracks to a downloaded movie as you like, and switch between them at any time from the subtitle menu.

We’ll demonstrate how to add subtitles using VLC Media Player, which is free, open source, cross platform, and the most widely used video player around. But most other video players operate in much the same way.

Download: VLC Media Player for Windows | macOS | Linux (Free)

Add Subtitles to a Movie Automatically

The easiest way to add subtitles to a movie is to give the subtitle file exactly the same name as the video file (excluding the format extension). Then keep both files in the same folder. When you open the movie in a media player, such as VLC, it automatically loads the subtitles along with the video.

So if your video file is named:

The.Abyss.1989.BluRay.1080p.x264.mp4

Then you need to make sure the subtitle file is named:

The.Abyss.1989.BluRay.1080p.x264.srt

Since it doesn’t allow you to add a specific language to your subtitles file name, this method is best if you only want to add subtitles in a single language.

Add Subtitles to a Movie or TV Show Manually

If you want to use different file names for your video and subtitles files, you need to manually add the subtitles instead. This is the best method to use if you have multiple subtitle tracks you want to add to the same film.

There are two manual methods you can use to add subtitles in VLC.

First, open the video file in VLC, then go to Subtitles > Add Subtitle File from the menu bar and select the subtitle file you want to add.

Alternatively, open the video file in VLC, then click-and-drag the subtitle file from your file manager and drop it into the VLC window.

If you add multiple subtitle tracks, use the Subtitles option in the menu bar to switch between them.

How to Permanently Add Hard Subtitles to a Video

If you want to permanently add subtitles to a movie or television show, you can create a new video file using HandBrake. This isn’t as quick or easy as the methods above. But since HandBrake is free, open source, and cross platform, it’s still a good option if you never want to worry about adding subtitles again.

Download: HandBrake for Windows | macOS | Linux (Free)

To get started, launch Handbrake and select the video file as the Source. Switch to the Subtitles tab, then open the Tracks dropdown box and select Add External Subtitles Track. Select your subtitles file from the browser that appears.

Next to your subtitles track, turn on Burned In to permanently add hard subtitles to your movie. Alternatively, add multiple subtitle tracks, select a Language for each of them and choose one to use as your Default subtitles. This allows you to switch between various subtitles tracks without worrying about different files.

After configuring your settings, click Start to burn the new video file.

Create Your Own Subtitles

You might struggle to find subtitles for niche or independent movies. You also might not find subtitles in a particular language if it isn’t widely spoken across the globe. In either of these circumstances, you should consider creating your own subtitles to add to a movie or TV show instead.

It’s a time-consuming endeavor. But you can follow our instructions detailing how to make your own subtitles, then use the steps above to add them to your movie. If you do a good job, don’t forget to share your subtitles online for other people to use as well!

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5 PC Parts That Tend to Die: How to Extend Their Lifespans

In an ideal world, your PC would last as long as you need it, and the only reason to get a new one would be for the performance boost. Unfortunately, life isn’t fair. PC parts die. Replacements can be expensive—so it makes sense to get the most out of every part you can.

The most important thing you can do is maintain your PC components properly. A long-lasting PC starts and ends with good maintenance habits, especially when you build the PC yourself. To get started, check out these tips on how to extend the lifespan of your PC parts.

1. Motherboards

There are several reasons why you should upgrade your motherboard. However, let’s hope you do so voluntarily instead of being forced into it by a broken motherboard. Motherboard reliability increases with each generation, as you might expect.

Why Do Motherboard’s Die So Quickly?

Even though there are no moving parts, motherboards are very complex and delicate in their designs. As the focal point for everything else on your system, small malfunctions can have catastrophic effects.

Motherboard lifespan is difficult to gauge, too, as accounting for individual user habits and local environments is almost impossible. Still, a 2018 Puget Systems study found that “while motherboards seem to be getting more and more complex,” the overall failure rate was just “2.1% or about 1 out of every 49 motherboards.” Importantly, this figure is “about half what we saw in 2017.”

A 2016 HardWare.fr report returned similar results, with ASRock motherboards coming in at 1.45% and MSI coming in at 2.36%.

The biggest reason for motherboard failure is that the capacitors deteriorate over time and become exhausted. Sometimes the capacitors will even leak, potentially damaging other hardware components. You can replace a capacitor, but it is a non-trivial DIY operation that you may be uncomfortable completing yourself.

Other causes of motherboard failure include heat, static, and moisture.

Tips for Prolonging Motherboard Lifespan

Keep your computer away from environmental hazards like excess moisture or extra-dry air, which can promote static buildup. Excess heat can sometimes cause a motherboard to warp, leading to shorts and broken components.

But the best thing you can do to prevent motherboard failures is never to touch the motherboard. That’s hyperbole—you obviously have to touch it to install or replace parts. But try to limit the motherboard’s exposure outside of the PC case.

When you must touch the motherboard, be sure to ground yourself first, so you don’t accidentally shock and fry the motherboard itself.

2. Data Drives

Data drives come in two main forms: hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). A computer cannot function without one, because that’s where the operating system resides. It’s crucial to your system. If it dies, you’ll need to get a replacement ASAP.

Why Do HDDs and SSDs Die So Quickly?

HDDs and SSDs are both prone to failure, but for different reasons.

HDDs are mechanical—they have moving parts—and will physically break down over time. The platter might get scratched, the head might stop reading, or the parts might become “paralyzed” by a power surge.

SSDs are based on flash memory chips, so they have no moving parts. However, they have unreliable long-term data retention, they are more susceptible to extreme temperatures, and power outages can lead to data corruption.

Tips for Prolonging Data Drive Lifespan

No matter which kind of data drive you have, it’s always a good idea to invest in a good surge protector. Electrical surges can cause a lot of harm to all kinds of devices, not just PC parts.

Avoid extreme temperatures when possible. Refer to your data drive’s manual for safe operating temperatures. This means cleaning dust out of your computer to ensure good air circulation and prevent overheating!

Other than that, it’s mostly about buying a good model from a reputable brand. The next time you’re shopping for a data drive, check out our articles on some things to consider when buying a hard drive or a solid-state drive.

3. RAM

RAM is vital for a pleasant computer experience, and it’s one of the first parts you should upgrade if you want to speed up your PC performance. How much do you need? Well, it depends, but 8GB is the current norm.

Of all of the computer hardware components, RAM has the lowest relative rate of failure. However, depending on the model and brand of RAM you buy, the lifespan of the RAM module can vary. Dead RAM modules do happen!

Why Does RAM Die So Quickly?

Given perfect conditions, RAM actually has a remarkably long lifespan. The same 2016 HardWare.fr study found incredibly low incidences of RAM returns, as low as 0.20% for Kingston and up to 1.08% for Corsair. Given the staggering amount of RAM in use around the world, these figures are extremely low.

But two things can kill a working RAM module in the blink of an eye: temperature and power surges.

Most RAM modules have an operating temperature between 0 and 85 degrees Celsius. If you head outside of those temperature limitations, you could corrupt your RAM. It won’t happen instantly, and it would be disingenuous to suggest otherwise. But prolonged exposure to “extreme” temperatures reduces the lifespan of your RAM.

Power surges from faulty motherboards, bad power supplies, and electrical spikes can also cause failure.

Tips for Prolonging RAM Lifespan

The most important piece of advice is to buy a high-quality module from a reputable manufacturer. Reputable manufacturers include Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill, and Corsair, although other manufacturers are available. Make sure to read the product reviews before buying.

Otherwise, ensure you have adequate surge protection. Check out the best surge protectors you can buy right now.

4. Power Supply Units

A power supply unit (PSU) delivers power to all of the components in your computer. There are a number of considerations to keep in mind when buying the right PSU for your needs, but lifespan is one of the more important ones.

Why Do PSUs Die So Quickly?

Despite the perception, PSUs are only slightly worse than RAM modules in terms of hardware lifespan under perfect conditions. The HardWare.fr indicates failure rates between 0.49% for the best performing PSU (Fortron) and 2.41% at the other end of the scale (Cougar).

Again, the Puget Systems report corroborates the PSU rate of failure, with a “total failure rate of 1.15%.”

Under normal intended use, a PSU should last a long time—at least five years, possibly up to 10 years if you’re lucky. But if you start putting the power supply under high loads over long periods, it can be overstressed.

Tips for Prolonging PSU Lifespan

As always, start with a high-quality model from a reputable brand. Many generic models are overrated and don’t have much tolerance for stress. Poor build quality can also lead to faster aging and early death.

Another thing to consider is that some brands don’t manufacture the PSUs in-house. Instead, some PSUs are sourced from OEMs. This process means that the quality of PSU models can vary, even within the same brand.

The only effective way to prolong your PSU lifespan is to cut back on high-stress activities. For example, cryptocurrency mining is a very strenuous process. Overclocking your CPU or GPU can also place additional stress on your power supply unit, although you can mitigate this using appropriately rated hardware.

If you want a new PSU and don’t know where to start, check out the best PSUs for PC builders.

5. Cooling Fans

You probably haven’t given your PC fans much thought. They spin up when you need them, and they spin down when you don’t. Sometimes, we don’t even notice when one stops working (at least, not straight away!). Fortunately, most case cooling fans are relatively cheap to replace.

The situation changes when you consider CPU cooling fans, which can be more expensive than their case cooling counterparts, and similarly, GPUs.

Why Do Cooling Fans Die So Quickly?

This one’s really simple. Just as with hard disk drives, cooling fans are mechanical—they have moving parts that are susceptible to general wear and tear. Over time, as the fans spin and spin and spin, they’re more likely to break down.

But this process is accelerated by the dust and particles that build up on the fan blades and within the rotating mechanism. When exposed to heat and moisture, the dust can even get caked on and turn into gunk, which could cause more friction and stress.

Tips for Prolonging Cooling Fan Lifespan

The first tip for keeping any type of cooling fan working effectively is cleaning. That means cleaning the excess dust and buildup from fan blades, plus the dust from the PC case that contributes to the issue.

You could also consider the location of your PC in your home. Leaving your PC on a thick carpet, for instance, can cause extra heat and additional dust ingress, in turn causing your fans to work harder to keep your system cool.

So, how often should you clean your cooling fans? If you’ve never cleaned them before, give everything in your case a good clean. Then, head back one month later and see how much dust and buildup are gathering on your cooling fan blades. You can gauge your PC cleaning schedule from there.

If your CPU dies, read our guide to choosing the right Intel Core processor. Alternatively, check out the best gaming CPUs for all budgets.

Stop Your PC Parts Wearing Out

There is no doubt that certain PC parts wear out quicker than others. You can manage the general wear and tear on yours computer using the tips set out in this article. Keeping your system cool, clean, and dust-free will maintain your PC hardware for much longer. Furthermore, looking after your hardware keeps costs down, as you won’t have to replace bits that break.

Of course, if you want to upgrade, do! Just make sure to ask yourself these important questions first.

Image Credit: Michael Wick/Shutterstock

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10 Useful Xbox One Settings You Should Know About

There are a wealth of Xbox One settings worth exploring. Whether you want to unlock more functionality or fix annoying defaults, it’s worth taking a trip into the Xbox One settings menu every once in a while.

Microsoft has added more settings through updates over the years, so you may have missed some of these even if you’ve had the system since launch. Let’s take a look at the settings you should change to make your Xbox One experience even better.

To get to the Xbox One settings menu, press the Xbox button on your controller while on the home screen to open the Guide. Then press RB to navigate to your profile icon and choose Settings.

1. Mute the Xbox One Startup Chime

By default, your Xbox will make a little chirp when you turn it on. This is nice if you need confirmation that you powered it on successfully, but that’s probably not the case most of the time. If you often play at night and want your system to stay quiet, you can disable this chime.

Head to Settings > General > Power mode & startup, then choose Startup chime. You can turn it on or off, or Only with power button or voice.

The last option makes the most sense: when using the power button or voice methods, a quick confirmation that you touched the right spot or that the Xbox heard you are useful. When you want to keep quiet, just turn on the system by holding the Xbox button on your controller.

2. Appear Offline on Xbox Live

Sometimes when playing an online game, you don’t want friends inviting you to a party or another game. For those times, you can (appear to) go offline and play in peace.

To do so, open the Guide, then use RB to scroll to the menu with your profile picture. Select your username and on the resulting menu, choose Appear online and you can change it to Appear offline or use Do not disturb.

Appear offline simply makes it look like you’re away. However, Do not disturb will suppress party invites and other notifications, as well as displaying that status to your friends.

3. Disable Disc Auto-Start

By default, when you insert a disc—whether a game or a movie—your Xbox will immediately start playing it. This is useful if you switch media frequently, but when a disc automatically starts and you don’t want to play it, you have to wait for the game to start just to quit it.

If you want to only start discs when you choose, navigate to Settings > Devices & streaming > Disc and uncheck Play disc automatically. You’ll then have to start discs from the home menu.

4. Remap Xbox Controller Buttons

Most games let you select from a variety of control schemes to suit your needs. For games that don’t offer this flexibility, or if you want to swap a few buttons for a tactical advantage, you can change button mapping natively on your Xbox.

Browse to Settings > Ease of Access > Controller > Button mapping. Here, select a button to remap, then a button to map it to. So if you select A in the first box and B for the second, pressing A will input B, and vice-versa.

If you prefer, you can instead press and hold a button to remap, followed by the button you want to map it to. Repeat this for everything you’d like to remap; the Xbox controller on the right side will update to keep track of your changes.

You can also specify if you’d like to swap the sticks, look inversion, or triggers here. These could be helpful for left-handed people, for instance. To set everything back to how it was, simply select Restore to default.

Remember that this changes the buttons at the system level, so games don’t know you’ve edited the controls. If a game tells you to press LT and you’ve swapped LB and LT, you have to translate that. Button changes remain in effect until you remove them and apply to all games as well as the Xbox menu.

5. Add a Passcode for Sign-In and Purchases

If you have young children or mischievous roommates that you’d prefer to keep out of your Xbox, you can require additional information to sign in.

You’ll find the applicable options at Settings > Account > Sign-in, security & passkey. On the left side of this screen, you’ll see your current level of protection. Select Change my sign-in & security preferences to make adjustments.

You can select from several levels of security here, with a few extra available if you have Kinect.

No barriers is the least secure option and allows anyone to turn on your Xbox, sign into your account, and spend money without any restriction. One level up is Ask for my passkey. With this, your Xbox will ask for a passcode when you try to sign in, change settings, or buy games.

If a passkey isn’t secure enough for you, you can choose Lock it down, which requires your Microsoft account password to make any changes. We don’t recommend this, as a PIN is enough for most people. Furthermore, you may be tempted to make your Microsoft account password weak if you have to type it every time you sign into your Xbox.

To fine-tune these login settings, scroll all the way right and choose Customize. Here, you can select individual options for each sensitive action on your Xbox. Want to require a passkey for purchases, but not for changing settings? You can lock everything down just the way you need it.

6. Stop Certain Xbox Notifications

By default, the Xbox One likes to notify you about every little occurrence on your system. While it’s nice to make sure you don’t miss important events, those popups can get in the way of your gaming and distract you. To turn some off, head to Settings > Preferences > Notifications.

You can turn off all notifications by unchecking the Notification banners on box. To fine-tune them, choose Xbox notifications to change what the system sends you. You can disable popups for Achievements, Clubs, Friends, Activity Feed, and more here.

Click App notifications to turn off notifications from installed apps, if applicable. Default notification position lets you move banners to a place where they won’t get in the way. Finally, choose Notification timing to decide if expired notifications should stay in the Guide and choose how long notifications stay on your screen.

7. Customize Your Home Background

The Xbox One gives you several options to customize your system’s look. Go to Settings > General > Personalization > My color & background, where you can change these to your liking.

The color is self-explanatory; you can change your Background to a solid color with art from recently played games, a screenshot or custom image, or art from Achievements you’ve earned.

This menu also lets you change the transparency of tiles on the home screen so you can see everything more clearly.

8. Adjust the Xbox One Chat Mixer Balance

Sometimes when you’re in a party, you need to hear your friends over the game audio. Other times, the game audio is what’s most important. If you feel like this balance is off, go to Settings > General > Volume & audio output > Chat mixer.

There, you can select how much a game’s audio will drop when you’re in a party. The options are to reduce game audio by 80% or 50%, mute it entirely, or do nothing.

9. Stop Sharing Everything You Do

If you aren’t a social player, you can keep your Xbox from sharing information with others. Head to Settings > Account > Privacy & online safety to find these options.

Choose Xbox Live Privacy to decide what your system shares about most aspects of your playing. It features preset levels for a child, teenager, and adult; click View details & customize to set everything up manually.

You’ll find a wealth of settings to tweak here. They include who can see your real name and profile, if you publish activity about games, whether you can share content to social networks, and more. Have a look here to make everything as private as you like.

To see which apps use your data, select App privacy to turn off permissions for Location, Microphone, and the like. Finally, check the Message safety section to enable filtering for messages you receive.

10. Get a Reminder to Take Breaks

When you’re enjoying a game, it’s easy to play for hours without stepping away. To help with this, your Xbox One includes a feature to remind you to take occasional breaks.

To enable it, visit Settings > Preferences > Break reminder. You can choose to get a reminder at a minimum of every 30 minutes, or a maximum of every two hours. The timer starts when you sign in, but only displays when you’re playing a game.

Scour the Xbox One Settings Menu

The Xbox One settings menu hides a lot of useful tweaks that aren’t obvious at first glance. Hopefully you can get even more out of your console after adjusting these options to your liking!

If you’re running low on space, read our guide to Xbox One external hard drives. And for game recommendations, we have compiled a list of the best Xbox One exclusives.

Image Credit: Barone Firenze and Naschy/Shutterstock

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How to Use the Rule of Thirds in Photography

The rule of thirds is probably the first rule of photography you heard about. And it will be the technique you end up using the most. In a nutshell, it’s a method to frame your photos better and draw the eyes of the viewer to the object of attention.

This technique is used in every visual medium… from the billboards you on the sides of roads to movies you watch in theaters. So, in this article we explain what the rule of thirds is and how to use it. We also explain why it isn’t always the best technique to employ.

What Is the Rule of Thirds?

The rule of thirds has one main purpose for better composition of your photos: balance.

It is photography’s most basic guideline. Imagine your frame divided into three horizontal sections and three vertical sections by two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. For more dynamic photos any interesting element in a scene should be placed along one of these lines, or at one of their intersections.

The best way to imagine it is as a tic-tac pattern on top of your photo.

The rule of thirds works because science says that our eyes are naturally drawn to objects that are slightly off-center rather than the center of the image. The four intersecting points are the most effective off-center points of visual interest.

An interesting point of trivia: The term was first mentioned in John Thomas Smith’s book Remarks on Rural Scenery published in 1797. There are other essential rules of photography that have been borrowed from mathematics and psychology.

How to Use the Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is not a hard rule you always have to stick to. Placing the main subject of your photo away from the center will not always give you a nicer photo.

The rule of thirds can be applied to any subject and it makes you think about your composition before you click the shutter. It can improve your otherwise humdrum shots. And it also can be a quickfire shortcut to take a photo when you don’t have time to think and frame the scene.

Use the Grid in Your Camera

Almost all cameras have the rule of thirds grid on their electronic displays and viewfinders. You might have to enable it. To do so, head into the settings on your camera and find the option to enable grid lines. Some manufacturers will include several different options.

Smartphones also come with grid overlay options which you can enable or disable from the Camera settings.

Grids and Crop Overlays in Photoshop and Lightroom

You can always crop your shots in any editing software and improve them with the rule of thirds. Photoshop and Lightroom have crop guide overlays that include the rule of thirds grid. Use this grid as you crop your image to place the most interesting elements along the intersecting lines.

You can also customize grid settings to create an overlay.

In Photoshop, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + K (Mac: Command + K) to open your Preferences. Click on Guides, Grid & Slices from the list on the left and change the settings for the Grid section as follows:

1. Gridline every 100 percent. Subdivisions 3.
2. Click OK.
3. Press Ctrl + ‘ (Command + ‘) to toggle the grid on a photo every time.

You also get the grid with the most used tool in Photoshop—the Crop tool. When you click on it in the Toolbox (or press C), it instantly puts a rule-of-thirds grid over your image.

In Lightroom, open your photo and…

1. Go to the Develop module.
2. Click on Tools > Crop Guide Overlay > Thirds to display the grid on top of your photo.

The Rule of Thirds in Action

Let’s apply the guides to two common scenarios: Landscapes and Portraits.

Landscapes

It’s often tough to balance landscape shots. You cannot move anything to create a strong focal point. The rule of thirds helps to create visual appeal. For instance, you can align the horizon with one of the intersecting lines. Usually, placing the horizon on the bottom line is best to convey the vastness of the sky and not cut off the sky by placing the horizon at the center.

Other elements in the photo (for instance, a tree or a house) can be placed near one of the four intersecting points.

Portraits

While most portraits keep the subject in the middle of the frame, you can create interest by placing your subject away from the center. Eyes are always interesting points of interest so you should place them along the intersections of the grids.

Also, try to align the axis of a person’s body along one of the vertical grid lines. Use the direction of the glance to place the person on the right or left vertical line.

When Not to Use the Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds taps into the natural movement of our eyes. It can be a default method to go with and you will do just that as you become better at photography. But do remember that the scene should dictate the composition and not the other way round.

These are not hard and fast rules, but there will be many situations when you should avoid using the rule of thirds. Here are just three:

1. When You Want to Fill the Frame

The most common alternative to the rule of thirds is placing the focal point of a photo in the center. Symmetrical photos like portraits, for example, will need an immediate and direct focus on the main subject. In such situations, you can safely fill the frame with your object at the dead center.

Some photos like architecture or one part of a building with a repeating pattern can have more than one point of focus. You can ignore the rule of thirds if some of them lie on the intersecting lines.

2. For Instagram Worthy Square Photos

Centering an interesting element at the dead center of the photo works well for square photos. The element is then equidistant from all the four corners, creating symmetry.

3. In Photos With Busy Backgrounds

You can break the rule of thirds when the background of your photo is busy. For instance, a field of flowers or a crowd at a fair. Use a shallow depth of field and center the main object of attention.

4. When Leading Lines Work Better

Leading lines are another composition technique. In this photo, a track leads the eyes of the viewer towards a distant point from the center of the frame. Your gaze wouldn’t travel with the railway tracks to the distance if you had used the rule of thirds to capture the photo.

Compose a Photo on Its Own Merits

Looking at everything from behind a grid might bake the rule of thirds into your muscle memory. But always try to break out and try different compositions. The idea behind the photo triumphs over everything else. The rule of thirds won’t work if the story in the photo is weak.

It’s difficult to explain in words the choices you will need to make while using (or not using) the rule of thirds. Allow your eye to lead you. The best advice is to take multiple shots from all angles and decide later. These basic photography exercises will help you develop your eye for a scene.

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The Best Free Family Tree Templates for Microsoft Word and Excel

Most of us are familiar with a couple of generations within our families. But we all know that everyone’s family history goes back much further than that.

There are websites available that can help you research your ancestors. So if you’d like to create your own family tree, with the details you already have, that you can build on with your research, these templates are ideal.

Here are several terrific family tree templates for Microsoft Word and Excel for both adults and kids.

Family Tree Templates for Adults

Depending on how many generations you plan or are able to include in your family tree, one of these templates is sure to be a great fit.

Five-Generation Family Tree Chart

Since the templates we’re providing are for Word and Excel, there’s no better place to begin than with one from Microsoft Office.

This five-generation family tree template is available for Excel as a download or for use in Excel Online. It’s a very basic chart with boxes, lines, and nothing fancy, but gets the job done.

Start by adding yourself and then work your way through the generations. There’s plenty of space to include first and last names, titles, and birthdates, or years. So you have the flexibility to include only those details you want.

For other types of chart templates, take a look at these flowchart templates for Microsoft Office.

Three-Generation Family Tree Generator

Another template from Microsoft Office for Excel, this one builds a family tree for you. You’ll begin on the Family Members tab by entering three generations with spouses, parents, and children.

When you finish typing in your details, click the Create Family Tree button. Then hop over to the Family Tree tab to see your creation.

This is a nice template and family tree generator because you can easily change your tree with the click of a button as your family grows.

Six-Generation Family Tree Template

If you want to go back six generations on your family tree, then check out this template from Vertex42. Similar to the first basic template from Microsoft Office, this one is structured the same way and has room to add names, dates, and more. The Example tab includes a neat sample and you’ll see that it also includes the states of residence for each person.

As a bonus, you can add a small photo next to each family member. Although the pictures will appear tiny in the Excel sheet, this is a cool option if you plan to print your family tree.

Four-Generation Family Tree Template

For a neatly structured, landscape view template for Word, this one from Template.net has placeholders ready for four generations of your family members.

Just replace the names, birthdates, and locations with those for your family. And if you need to add more people, you can use the simple editing features in Word to copy and paste the placeholders and connecting lines.

Four-Generation Family Tree Generator

To take this list of templates for adults up a notch, have a look at this next one from Free PowerPoint Templates. The template is for Microsoft Excel (not PowerPoint) and has tons of extras in addition to the family tree generator.

Go through each of the labeled tabs and enter names for both your maternal and paternal family members. Those names will automatically populate to create your family tree in the same named tab.

What makes this family tree template stand out, aside from filling in the names for you, is that each tab contains nicely displayed details. You can add photos, notes, and information about each child.

In addition, you can click the Details buttons on the family tree to head right to that person’s tab. And reversely, you can click the Back to Tree button on a tab to go right to that person’s spot on the tree.

If you’re interested in an attractive family tree template and generator with bonus features, this is it.

Family Tree Templates for Kids

Maybe your child has a school project, or you simply want to do a project together at home. These nifty family tree templates are excellent options for kids. They don’t go back several generations like those for adults, but they offer visually fun ways for your child to view the family tree.

12- and 20-Member Family Trees

TemplateLab has an enormous collection of family tree templates for both adults and children. For little kids specifically, these are two really cute choices for Word.

The apple design gives you 12 spots for family members. With a neat apple for each person, you can type in everyone’s name or use the spaces for photos instead.

The other tree has spots for 20 family members if your clan is a bit bigger. This family tree template is designed more for written names rather than photos.

13-Member Family Tree Templates

Template.net offers almost 20 family tree templates for kids, including these two fun options for children designed for Word.

One template has hand drawn, cartoon-style images of all family members from grandparents to children. You can simply swap out the names for those of your own family.

The other template is ideal for photos. Pop in a picture for each person from your computer or print it out first and then glue them on. You can type or write each family member’s name right beneath their photograph.

For other types of photo templates, take a look at these Squarespace templates for art and photographs.

15-Member Family Tree Template

One more template from TemplateLab that’s great for kids is this 15-member family tree for Microsoft Word.

It has a nice casual but colorful look that an older child might really like. You can easily enter everyone’s name and include extra details like birthdates and locations.

For additional family members, you can add more boxes using Word’s SmartArt Text feature. Just click on the chart and when the window pops open, use the plus sign to add another name box. You can also use the arrows to rearrange the boxes and move family members to the right spots.

Plant Your Family Tree With a Template

From small families to large ones, there’s a family tree template on this list that should be exactly what you need. And since learning more about your heritage can be informative and fun at the same time, this type of project is wonderful for yourself or for you and your child to do together.

If you happen to own a Linux computer, check out these free family tree software options for Linux.

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