SEEING ALL

Every time Joy tests a product on Bob’s computer, something goes out of whack. Recently, she used Windows “recovery options” to restore it. Uh oh.

Suddenly, the bookmarks bar in Chrome was too tiny to read. Initially, Bob tried to enlarge it, simply by holding down the “Ctrl” key and pressing the plus sign. This did not work. Everything got bigger except the bookmarks bar. Then he figured out the fix.

First, right-click the main screen. Choose “display settings.” In the search bar, type “font.” When it comes up, select “make text bigger.” From there, you can drag a slider to increase the size of most text. You can also select “make everything bigger.” We chose 150 percent bigger. When we launched Chrome again, the bookmarks bar looked bigger but so did everything else. To tone down the effect, we held down the “Ctrl” key and hit the minus key. Now the text on the page looked more normal and the bookmarks bar remained large. If you don’t see a bookmarks bar in Chrome, click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner, click “Settings,” then “Appearance” and toggle on the switch for “Show Bookmarks Bar.”

If you have trouble seeing the pointer on your screen, follow these steps: In the search box in Windows, type “Mouse Settings.” Then click “Additional Mouse Options.” When “Mouse Properties” comes up, click the “Pointers” tab. Under “Scheme,” choose “Windows Black Extra Large,” or one of several others.

Internuts

StoryTerrace.com hires a professional writer to interview you in person and write your memoir, printing it in an attractive-looking book. It may be your descendants’ first chance to get to know you. According to the site, 45 percent of Americans learned more about Mom and Dad from stuff they left behind than from actual conversation. Around 40 percent say that the juiciest secrets and gossip come out at Christmas family gatherings. Look at their sample books to decide whether the $1900 fee is worth it. We thought they were well-written.

50 Nifty Hints for Cheapskates.” Search on that phrase to find some good ones. For example, put a sealed envelope in the freezer and it will open up again. Save on potting soil by using empty soda cans mixed in with less soil. They actually improve drainage and aerate the soil.

Getting An Edge

A reader says that the sites he goes to, like Facebook and Yahoo, say they are soon going to stop recognizing his web browser, Internet Explorer. There’s a free fix for this.

Internet Explorer was developed by Microsoft, but they’ve been pushing a substitute, Microsoft Edge, for some time. Anyone still using Internet Explorer isn’t getting the latest security updates and should switch to Edge. Get it for free by searching on the phrase “Get Microsoft Edge.”

Duplicates

A reader asked us if we’d ever tried “Media Monkey,” a free music organizing program from MediaMonkey.com. It found 2000 duplicates in his music list and removed them.

If you want to get rid of duplicate photos there’s “Duplicate File Finder” from Ashisoft.com. When we turned it loose on the pictures folder in our computer, it found 500 duplicates taking up 325 megabytes, just in that one folder. It will show you which ones are duplicates, but if you want them deleted automatically, you have to buy the “pro” version of the program, for $30. Otherwise, you delete them one by one.

Games

In “Offworld Trading Company,” a $20 game available at Stardock.com, it pays to know your elements. For example, water isn’t hard to find on the frozen moon but aluminum is. An extractor turns methane into power.Or you might want to go geothermal. The latest expansion for the game is “The Europa Wager,” available for $15. A video trailer on YouTube shows you what the alien world looks like.

Blanking Out

A reader was frustrated. Every time he tried to follow instructions to pair his iPhone with a device in his car, the screen would go dark before he had a chance to do anything. Here’s how to change the so-called “timeout” setting.

Go to “Settings.” Then tap “Displays & Brightness,” and “Auto-Lock.” Now decide how long you want the screen to stay on before going dark. Choices include 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes, on up to “never.” (If you choose never, your battery will need recharging much more often.) On an Android phone, go to “Settings,” then “Display,” then “Advanced,” and finally “Screen timeout.” Then choose the length of time you want it to stay on when idle.

Making Money From Games

According to OnBuy.com, an online marketplace, there’s serious money to be made playing video games in tournaments.

Brian Dragatto earned a whopping $290,000. Randy Pfohl, earned $125,000. The game of choice for the top American mobile game players is “Turbo Racing League.” “Clash Royal” and “Vainglory” are also popular.

Google’s Free Office

Joy uses Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets more than any other office product, such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel. For one thing, the files are online and can be called up on any machine she happens to be using. If you prefer to work offline, you can click “settings”at Drive.Google.com and put a checkmark next to “create, open and edit offline.”

When you’re creating a document in Google Docs, you’ll see “Tools” as one of the choices at the top. Click it and “Word Count” to see how many words you’ve used. Put a checkmark in the box there to see the word count change as you type. See more tips at Gizmodo.com by searching on the phrase “21 Tips for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.”

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