Tips & tricks

Text to an exact character count

Headline under 60, teaser under 300, column at 3,000. Models count characters unreliably — how to set a hard limit, verify it, and cut without losing facts

In-depth guide · 64 min

How to write an email people answer

A complete guide to writing emails: subject lines, salutations, formal and casual English, ready-made wording for ten hard situations, and prompts for AI.

In-depth guide · 34 min

AI in the newsroom: a journalist's guide

The hub for the whole journalism section: research, public data, writing, graphics, social media, and source protection. Eighteen prompts, one hard line.

In-depth guide · 59 min

A restaurant as a system: one menu that everything else is derived from

A complete guide with 25 prompts: turn your menu into a structured source of truth, then derive the printed menu, a QR menu on your website, social posts, and a staff cheat sheet from it. No more retyping the same soup in four places.

In-depth guide · 57 min

Vetting a business partner with Hlídač státu: a risk profile before you sign

A complete guide with 23 prompts: run a counterparty through the Register of Contracts, the insolvency register, corporate criminal records, subsidies and political party sponsorship via Hlídač státu's MCP server — then save the result as a versioned risk profile you update with a single prompt before the next contract.

In-depth guide · 75 min

An internal CRM with Supabase: a detailed guide from data to deployment

A continuation of Marta the roastery owner’s story: a complete beginner’s guide to turning contacts in your phone and orders in spreadsheets into your own CRM — from explaining what a database even is, through click-by-click Supabase setup and deployment on Vercel, to a cost reckoning with real numbers against off-the-shelf CRMs.

In-depth guide · 58 min

The Freelancer as a One-Person Agency: Brand and Business as a System

A mega guide with 23 prompts: portfolio and CV as data in git, generating a PDF CV, a website on Vercel, and a proposal in twenty minutes, a mini CRM for inquiries in Notion, and invoices through the Stripe MCP — one freelancer, one source of truth.

In-depth guide · 78 min

Your brand as a system: from brand voice through brochure and website to CRM

A complete guide for absolute beginners — with a glossary of terms, step-by-step account setup, and an honest chapter on real-world costs in dollars: turn a brand manual into a lasting Brand Voice document, a print-ready brochure in Affinity through Claude Cowork, a website on Vercel, and a locked-down CRM on Supabase. One company, one continuous story, 19 prompts to copy.

In-depth guide · 37 min

From pencil sketch to computer: what you can actually turn into vectors, CAD, and 3D today

A complete guide with 18 prompts: how to turn a hand sketch, a photo, or an old floor plan into an editable file that CAD, 3D, or layout software can actually work with — including scale calibration, an overview of MCP connectors (official vs. community), and a hard line between reference material and an actual project.

An external drive and File History: a backup that runs itself

Windows and Mac both have automatic backup built in — all they need is a drive. Hourly file versions, and a deleted file back in two clicks.

Shift+F5 in Word: jump to your last edit

Shift+F5

Open a document and Word dumps you at the start. Shift+F5 jumps exactly to where you last stopped writing.

Comparing two versions of a document: see the changes in color

Word and Google Docs can both compare two versions of a file and highlight every difference. No more reading contracts line by line.

Hidden formatting marks: why a document behaves strangely

Ctrl+Shift+8

The ¶ button reveals spaces, tabs, and page breaks. Suddenly you can see exactly why text jumps where it shouldn't — and what to delete.

AutoCorrect as a shortcut dictionary: long names from three letters

Teach Word that “dph” means “value added tax.” AutoCorrect can expand your own custom shortcuts across every Office app.

Alt+drag in Word: a vertical text selection

Hold Alt and drag with the mouse — Word selects a rectangle of text across lines. Perfect for deleting a column of characters that a normal selection can't grab.

Bold, italics, and lists: WhatsApp can format text

Asterisks around a word make it bold, underscores make it italic, a dash makes a bullet. A longer work message suddenly looks like a document.

Shutting down isn't enough: Windows only fully resets on a restart

Because of Fast Startup, shutting down Windows isn't a clean stop — the system tucks part of its state away. When the PC misbehaves, only Restart helps.

Noise suppression: the mower outside your window stays yours alone

Zoom and Teams can filter out barking, keyboard clatter, and next-door drilling. Just switch noise suppression to high in your audio settings.

Android as a Windows webcam: you already own the best camera

A phone's camera puts the built-in webcam in its pocket. Windows 11 can connect it wirelessly as a regular camera for Teams and Meet alike.

Headphones with a mic for meetings: sound matters more than the camera

Colleagues will forgive a grainy picture, but not a booming mic sound from across the room. A mic near your mouth is the cheapest meeting upgrade there is.

Scheduled messages: write it tonight, deliver it in the morning

Slack and Teams can both send a message later — an arrow next to the send button, or a right-click. Write the idea down now, don't disturb your colleague.

Share a window, not the whole screen

Sharing your full desktop shows colleagues your notifications and half-typed messages too. Sharing one window shows only what you meant to show.

Hold Space and talk: a walkie-talkie for Zoom and Teams

Space

Stay muted for the whole meeting. When you want to say something, hold the key, talk, release — and the microphone mutes itself again.

Speed up key repeat: the cursor flies, so does deleting

Holding an arrow key or Backspace repeats at a speed you can configure. Two sliders almost nobody ever touches — and typing instantly feels snappier.

Free trial? Cancel it right away — it runs the full course anyway

For subscriptions through the App Store or Google Play, you can cancel the trial a minute after activating it: it still runs to the end, and nothing gets charged. Elsewhere, a reminder does the job.

One keyboard for two computers: a switch instead of swapping cables

A work laptop and your own computer on one desk doesn't have to mean two keyboards. A USB switch flips between them with a single button.

Pull just a few pages out of a PDF — by printing to PDF

Need to send three pages out of a fifty-page PDF? Print the range “12-14” to PDF and the new file is born. No installing anything.

Merge multiple PDFs into one — without paying for Acrobat

A contract, an attachment, and a scanned addendum, all in one file: Preview handles it on a Mac, free PDF24 on Windows — just don't upload sensitive documents anywhere.

Free PDF comments: mark up documents without paying for Acrobat

Highlighting and annotating a PDF is handled by the free Acrobat Reader, Edge, and Preview on Mac. Feedback belongs in the file, not in a five-paragraph email.

The parking file: unfinished work survives every interruption

Before a meeting or a coworker pulls you away, write one sentence: what you're doing and what the next step is. Coming back then takes seconds, not a quarter hour.