Q and A: Learn how to get emergency weather alerts on your phone

Published: Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 11:02 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 11:02 a.m.


Get emergency alerts on your smartphone

Question: My friends get emergency weather alerts and other alerts on their phones. How do I set that up?

Answer: Piece of cake. Search for “CMAS” or “WEA” in your phone’s messaging settings. You can also dial “##2627##” (minus quotes) on your phone to turn them on. If neither of these do the trick, you might not have a phone that is WEA enabled. That’s OK, though. You can still get emergency weather alerts with weather apps like the Weather Channel app. For other emergency alerts, use ping4alerts or contact your local authorities or nearby colleges. They sometimes have crime and emergency texts and emails that will tell you when something is wrong.

Password-protect a PDF

Question: My company sends PDF files though email. They’re confidential, but we don’t know how to password-protect them. Is there a way to do this?

Answer: There are a few ways, actually. You could zip them up and then password-protect the zip file with a program like 7-Zip. Many programs that encrypt files will work on PDFs, as well. If you want something built for PDFs, try PDFProtect! I like it because it works in seconds and doesn’t even require a download. Just make sure you encrypt the file with low encryption if you use an older PDF reader. High encryption is more secure, but it might not work with outdated versions of some PDF readers.

User-friendly photo editing

Question: Every free photo-editing program I’ve tried is too complicated. Is there something easier I’m missing?

Answer: Web editors can be much easier to understand than downloadable programs. Sites like PicMonkey and Pixlr are great places to start. They offer cropping, retouching and other goodies. They don’t go as deep as programs like GIMP, but they’ll give you what you need for the most part. If you want a simple program you can download, you can check out Photoscape. It goes a little further than Web editors in terms of features. However, it has a smaller learning curve compared to other photo-editing software.

Read e-books on a new e-reader

Question: I just bought a new e-reader. How do I transfer my e-books from my old e-reader?

Answer: If you’re upgrading to an e-reader from the same company, you should be able to transfer your books using the gadget’s built-in tools or the store website. If you’re upgrading from one style of e-reader to another — like from a Kindle to a Nook or vice versa — you’ll need another tool. Calibre is a good place to start. It helps you convert e-book files so they’ll work on whatever gadget you want. It will organize e-books on your computer as well, like a librarian for digital books. For closed formats like Kindle, converting will require some extra work. Check the site for instructions.

Are password-protection programs safe?

Question: I’m thinking about using LastPass to keep track of all my passwords. It seems a little sketchy to give all of my passwords to one program, though. What do you think?

Answer: I understand your concern, but most password managers are safe. Of course, make sure you’re downloading one of the popular ones like LastPass or KeePass. These programs sometimes have doppelganger programs that will steal your password. Other than that, I actually recommend people use password-management programs. That way, you can create strong passwords and don’t have to worry about forgetting them. Just make sure you make your master password something that’s easy to remember but still hard to crack.



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