Windows Phone 8.1 Tips and Tricks

If you are taking photos where there is a high contrast between light and dark colours or shapes (for example taking a photo of someone with the sun in the background), then there is a function that will improve these photos.

Launch the Camera app and then choose the Gear icon in the bottom right of the screen. Scroll down and select Wide Dynamic Range and change this to On

If you use multiple Windows or Windows Phone device, then Sync My Settings is a great feature.

This can be found by going to Settings – Sync My Settings and can be used to sync Apps, Themes, Passwords and Web Browser settings across multiple devices. For example you may use a phone and a tablet during the day and want to be able to keep websites open in your browser as you move between the devices.

To quickly access your Favourites, simply start typing the name or URL of them in the URL bar. They will then appear there. This can be faster than going into Favourites manually.

If you want to display the Action Centre, which is basically a quick access notifications screen (similar to Android), then simply swipe your finger down from the top of the screen.

This will give you access to Airplane mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Rotation Lock and so on.

You will also see phone notifications which can be discarded by swiping your finger to the left or right.

To change the colour of your tiles, go to Settings – Lock and wallpaper – Theme.

You can then change the colour of your Applications or third-party apps.

If you do not want to be disturbed for a certain period or between certain hours, then you can enable Quiet Hours.

This allows you to divert calls and/or texts to Cortana which is effectively Microsoft’s personal assistant. Just go to Settings – Quiet Hours.

You can set this to be enabled between two time periods, when you have an event in your calendar which is marked as busy or for a certain period.

You can also setup exceptions, or breakthrough rules, so that certain individuals can still reach you even when Quiet Hours is enabled.

If you are browsing a website and read something that you want to find out more about, simply highly the text. Then press the Search / Hardware button. The phone will then search for that highlighted word on Bing. This is much quicker than having to open a new browser Tab and searching manually.

After you have finished typing a sentence, simply double tap the spacebar. This will insert a period (full stop), a space and capitalise the first word of the next sentence

If you are looking at your photos you need to be zoomed out before you can swipe left or right to go to the next photo. If you are zoomed in, swiping left or right will simply pan around the photo

If you are using a Nokia Windows Phone, then Dolby will give you better sound quality for your music files.

First insert your headphones, then go to Settings – Audio. From here you can adjust some predetermined settings or else you can swipe right and press Playback. This will enable Dolby playback which will improve the sound quality measurably.