People
If you use the Mail app, you'll want to use People as well, because that's the app that holds all your contacts -- the two apps are linked. When you're in Mail and you type in the name of a contact to send an email to, the app looks through People for the contact.
The People app holds other information about your contacts as well -- their addresses, phone numbers, website, and so on.
People is simple and straightforward to use. Here are some ways to get the most out of it:
Use contacts from multiple mail accounts
As with Mail and Calendar, you can use People to show all your information from several accounts in a single location. If you've already linked your accounts as described earlier in the article, you don't need to do anything to make this happen -- Windows does it automatically when you link the accounts in Mail or Calendar.
However, if you haven't linked the accounts in Mail or Calendar, you can do it within the People app:
- From the People app, choose Settings -> Add an Account.
- Follow the directions as outlined in the Mail app section of this article.
Filter your contacts
You can use the People app not just for emailing, but also for calling or texting people. If you use People for phoning or texting, you can filter the app's browse list so that only contacts with phone numbers will show up in it. First run the People app. Then:
- Select Settings -> Filter contact list.
- On the screen that appears, move the slider underneath Filter contacts to On. (When you do this, you'll still be able to find contacts without phone numbers when you do a search. Those contacts won't show up when you're browsing your listings, though.)
- Note that on this screen, you can also change which accounts show their contacts in People. Uncheck the boxes next to accounts whose contacts you don't want to show; check the boxes next to accounts whose contacts you do want to show.
IDG You can filter your People list to, say, display only contacts with phone numbers.
Pay attention to the Timeline
One of the People app's more useful features is the Timeline that appears on the right side of any contact you click on. It shows a chronological list of all your communications with that person: emails, phone calls and texts. To see an email, click it, and the message opens in the Mail app. Phone calls and texts show up on the right side of the contact you click on, as do emails. Click them to see the full text or information about the call.
Link contacts
One problem with viewing contacts from multiple accounts in a single app is that you may have more than one copy of some contacts. You might have several listings for Jane Smith, for example, even though they're all for the same person. Each listing comes from a different account. This junks up your contact list.
There's a useful fix for that: You can link those copies. When you have a contact that is linked to others, all the information about the contact shows in a single combined listing, rather than in multiple ones.
- When you're viewing a contact, click the link icon at the top of the screen (it looks like a chain).
- You'll see a list of possibly duplicated contacts in the "Suggested links" area. Click the ones that you want linked to each other. Their names will then show up at the top of the same screen in the Linked profiles area.
- When you're done, click the checkmark at the top of the screen. This will create a single listing for the contact, with all the information included from each account.
If you have duplicates that don't show up in the Suggested links area, you can still link them:
- Click the "Choose a contact to link" button.
- Do a search from the screen that appears, and select the contacts you want to link.
One of the big benefits of linking contacts like this is that you'll be able to see all your communications with a particular contact on all your accounts on the Timeline. Without linking them, when you click a contact, you'll see only the communications that occurred using that specific mail account.
Finally, you can change your mind. Once you've linked a contact, a number will appear above that person's icon showing how many instances of that contact have been linked. If you want to unlink, click the link icon and then click the contact you want to unlink. From the screen that appears, click Unlink.
OneNote
OneNote is a solid note-taking app that many people overlook. The version that comes with Windows 10 (and which is also available as a free download) is similar to the more feature-filled application that ships with Microsoft Office. The latter includes better text-formatting features, spell-check, superior customizability and better organizational tools. But the Windows 10 version is simpler to use, has a more straightforward interface -- and, in fact, should suit most people's needs. (You can, if you want, use both without any problems, since they automatically sync via the cloud.)
IDG The OneNote app is a surprisingly useful note-taking tool.
Using the app is simple and intuitive, so you won't need any advice for creating notes, formatting text, or inserting links and pictures (including pictures you take with your device's camera). But there's more you can do:
Search through your notes
Your OneNote notes are organized in a long scrollable list on the left-hand side of the screen, which doesn't make it easy to quickly find the exact information you need -- for example, those budget projections for next year that you put in a note five months ago. Unfortunately, the search box isn't easy to find:
- Click the hamburger menu at the top left of the screen.
- You can now see the search box. Type in your search term and you'll see a list of the notes that contain the term.
- Click on any item in the list to jump to that note.
Customize your syncing
You can control whether the Windows 10 app version of OneNote syncs with the cloud, and from there to versions of OneNote installed on other devices:
- Click the hamburger menu, scroll to the bottom and click Settings.
- From the screen that appears, choose Options.
- To sync with the cloud, go to the "Sync notebooks automatically" setting and move the slider to On. If you don't want to sync, move the slider to Off.
Capture pages from the web
Sometimes you'll come across web pages you'd like to save. The free OneNote Web Clipper browser add-on makes it easy to save them. It works with a variety of browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.
One you've installed the Web Clipper, when you're on a web page you want to capture, click the OneNote icon in your browser. It will let you choose whether to capture the entire page, a section of the page, or what Web Clipper calls an article, meaning the page's content without ads or multimedia content.
Other apps worth checking out
A few other special-purpose built-in Windows apps are worth using:
Voice recorder
This app does what its name indicates: It records your voice or any other sounds using your device's microphone. Simply click the record button to start recording, then click it again to stop.
Windows Ink
If you've got a touch-screen device and a stylus, check out this note-taking and annotation app. (It's available only with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.)
It's got three components: Sticky Notes, for writing notes and keeping them on your desktop; Sketchpad for making freehand drawings; and Screen Sketch, which takes a screenshot of your current screen, then lets you draw on and annotate it.
3D Builder
Got a 3D printer? Then try out 3D Builder, which lets you create three-dimensional objects for printing. In addition to letting you create them from scratch, it comes with pre-built objects such as rockets, trains, trophies and more.
