Page 12 - March 2018

you need to HOLD DOWN the off/on button until
Device Power Options
By Jim Cerny, Forum Leader, Sarasota Tech-
nology Users Group, Florida
September 2017 issue, Sarasota Monitor
www.thestug.org
jimcerny123 (at) gmail.com
On – Off – Shutdown – Sleep – What are all
these power options? Today our computer de-
vices usually have several choices for “power”,
even the “off/on” switch does more than just turn
your device on or off! Many devices today – es-
pecially devices that use batteries – give us
more choices about how we use the power we
have available. One of the best ways to learn
the options for your device is to use Google –
enter “power options for my iPad” for example.
You will be surprised at what is available. Here
we will look at the usual basic power options
used by most devices (iPads, iPhones, Win-
dows computers, laptops, etc.).
The main power button, the one you use to turn
your device “on” or “off”, is really only putting the
device in or out of “sleep” mode. Sleep mode
uses very little power and allows your device to
keep your recent activity in memory, so you can
easily resume where you left off when you re-
turn (by hitting the same button to turn it back
“on”). This is a good thing for most devices, es-
pecially phones, because you will still get in-
coming calls and messages, etc.
To turn your iPad or iPhone device completely
off (also known as “shutdown” or “power off”)
you need to HOLD DOWN the off/on button until
you see “slide to power off” on the screen. Slide
where indicated and your device will be com-
pletely off. You will use NO battery at all and
you will NOT be able to get a call, text messag-
es, or alarms until you turn it back on. To turn
your iPad or iPhone back on from “power off”
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you see a white apple on the screen. Release
the button and wait for your device to power up.
Other power settings for your iPad or iPhone
are in “Settings” then “battery” or “Display and
Brightness”.
For Windows computers and laptops, touch (or
left-click) on the “Windows” button at the far left
of the taskbar and then touch the power icon
symbol (a circle with a short vertical line at
“noon”) and then select “shut down”. To turn
your Windows computer back on, just hit the
start button. A complete shutdown or power
down is good for your device because when you
power it back up it does a good check of every-
thing to make sure all is working as it should.
Laptops have several more power options. You
can find these options in the control panel or en-
ter “power” in the search box to find “power and
sleep settings”, or ask Google how. Here you
can adjust your settings as to how long
(minutes) your screen stays on with no activity
before going to sleep. But you can also select
power options for when your laptop is running
on the battery or plugged into the power outlet.
You can also select what happens when you
close the lid of your laptop. (When my laptop is
at home it is connected to a large monitor
screen, so when I close the lid of my laptop, I
want it to “do nothing”). The “restart” option will
shut down your Windows computer and then
boot it back up right away.
Other possible options for devices include what
to do when your battery gets low on power, ad-
justing the brightness of your screen, even slow-
ing the speed of your device. There seems to
be an option or setting for just about anything
these days. You need not concern yourself with
most of the power options available unless you
are using your device many hours a day and
frequently see the “low battery” message. An-
other easy solution to being low on power is to
buy and charge up an external power pack.
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