Microsoft Lumia 640 Tips and Tricks

To get directions to a location, you need to begin from the home screen. Then go to Apps – Maps and select Directions.

Then enter an address or place of interest, like a shop or restaurant and press Go.

Then choose either Walking or Driving. The phone will then calculate a route.

To show real-time traffic information select the More button and select Show Traffic.

In the Maps application, you can share any location with a friend. First you need to find your location. Open Maps, then find your location. Press and hold to drop a Pin on that location. You can drag the Pin to get a more precise location.

Then press the Pin and select Share. Then choose to share via SMS or Email.

To PIN applications to your start menu then scroll across to your Applications list.

Then Press and Hold on an application. Then select Pin to start.

You can then go to your Start screen and Press and Hold to move the App around.

If you are listening to music and want to see the Artist’s album art on your lock screen there is a feature for this. Go to Start – Applications list – Settings – Lock + wallpaper. Then turn on Show artist art when playing music.

To share a website with a friend, then browse to the website you want to share.

Then Press and Hold on a hyperlink, then select Share. You can then choose how to share the site.

A useful feature called Word Flow is now built in to Windows Phone devices.

This is similar to the Swype App which allows you to drag your finger from letter to letter to form a word, rather than typing each one. It does take some getting used to, but many users consider this a quicker way to type.

If the volume of your friends’ posts, comments and tweets becomes too much, you can filter them.

Go to Start, then flick left to the Applications list. Then press Settings – Applications – People. Then select Only show posts from people visible on my contact list.

Alternatively, you can go to Start – People. Then flick to What’s new – All accounts. Then select the account you want to view posts from.

If you would like to join your email inboxes so that all messages appear in the same space, then you can Link them.

First go to one email account you want to link and press the symbol that looks like three full stops. Then select Link inboxes and choose two inboxes you want to link together.

Go to your Pictures tile. Select the Picture you want as the background. Press and Hold on the picture. Then select Change background. You can then adjust the picture by zooming or panning. You can also allow the phone to randomly choose a picture by pressing, holding and selecting ‘Change it for me’

Sometimes while trying to download a game from the Marketplace an error will occur and the download will stop.

To resume the download, open the Marketplace tile and choose Games. Find the game that is having the problem and select ‘Check install’. Then when you’re in the Marketplace downloads screen long-press on the error and choose ‘try again’