(Surface Pro 3 and newer)
Congrats! You may be the proud owner of a new Surface! You have, quite possibly, one of the best computers ever offered, AND it functions as a tablet! Let’s dive into how you can get the best out of it!
1. The Pen: You have 2 buttons: the top “eraser” button, and another button located at the end of the magnetic strip towards the tip. The eraser button is probably the one you will use the most, and has some tricks:
a. Tap it once to open up OneNote (even if the Surface is asleep)
b. Tap it twice to take a screenshot
c. Tap and hold to activate Cortana, your virtual assistant
The 2nd button is used as a left-click. Touch and hold the pen tip down on the screen to initiate a right-click. The pen does not have a rechargeable battery, so you’ll need to buy a AAAA battery and uncap it at the “pen-clip” end to replace.
2. The “Type Cover” (Keyboard): This the “not free but totally necessary” keyboard that allows your Surface to act as a regular laptop. There is a magnetic strip towards the connector that needs to fasten to the monitor whenever you use the keyboard. This is the tidbit that tells the Surface you want to use the keyboard. If you flip the keyboard around, it will automatically turn the Surface into “Tablet Mode” and disable the keyboard and mouse. It’s handy if you want to take handwritten notes on the screen; not so handy if you would like to type on the keyboard…
3. The Screen: With 1,024 pressure levels (when using the Surface Pen), this screen is pretty sensitive, and reacts according to how much pressure you put on it. With that in mind, there’s no need to stab, jab, punch, or uppercut your screen, especially with the pen. You don’t even have to touch the screen with the pen before it tracks its position over the screen. Just keep it clean and treat it right, and it’ll love you forever.
4. Applications: Did I mention this is a FULLY capable laptop? It is. It may not have a dedicated graphics card, but it’ll hold its own with any application other than hardcore gaming. You can run any desktop application on your Surface that you would run on any other traditional laptop. Having said that, there are a few apps that I cannot live without:
a. Drawboard PDF Editor: This lets me mark up PDFs so I can send my hand-edited PDFs to the other Birds and watch as they try to decipher my chicken scratches and subpar drawings.
b. OneNote Desktop version: The Surface comes with a Surface version of OneNote, but I installed the desktop version because it contains more advanced features. Totally optional, but for me, totally worth it.
c. Evernote: I know what you’re saying: why have TWO notetaking applications? Because I like Evernote better on my phone. OneNote on Android works, but it’s not as mobile-phone-friendly as Evernote is. I usually segregate OneNote for work and Evernote for personal note taking, which keeps my brain happy and cuts down on syncing/conversion issues.
d. Google Drive: This one is a no brainer. I can access any files, photos, ANYTHING across all of my devices. My cloud follows me around like Eeyore.
5. Final Tips:
a. Your Surface is not waterproof. It’s not even water-resistant. It flat out DOES NOT LIKE WATER. Using it as a shower speaker is HIGHLY ill-advised.
b. Speaking of environments, keep your Surface out of any temperatures that you would find uncomfortable. This advice is for your battery; Li-ion batteries degrade in very high and low temps. Keep your battery at room temperature (or a little cooler) as much as possible, and it will last longer.
c. About that battery: a best practice with any Li-ion batteries (your phone, too) is to keep it above a 50% charge when you can. I know in this busy world that’s not always going to be possible, and that’s ok. Just try your best. You can let the battery drain to 5% every couple of months or so to force the device to calibrate remaining power/time-until-empty, but keep that to an ABSOLUTE minimum. Fully draining and recharging a Li-ion battery kills it quickly, and over time, you’ll notice a full charge doesn’t last as long as it used to.
That’s all for Part 1, folks. In Part 2, we’ll dive into more specifics about features and more cool stuff you can do with it!