Samsung Galaxy Tabs For Dummies

by Gookin, Dan

• ISBN13: 9781119466604
• ISBN10: 1119466601
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-01-30
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

Welcome to the Galaxy

Popular for both work and play, Android tablets fill a useful niche between smartphone and computer. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab kicks it up a notch, offering both hardware and software technology beyond its competitors. Samsung enhances the basics—web, email, eReader, navigation, music, video, camera—and offers unique tools such as the Bixby assistant and the high-tech S-Pen. Coupled with an envious design, Galaxy Tab is a formidable contender to other devices, offering features you won’t find anywhere else. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab For Dummies helps you take full advantage of everything this sweet device has to offer. Whether you’re looking to keep in touch with friends and family on social media, want a portable way to stay connected to your work, or desire to read the latest potboiler or catch-up with the latest streaming TV drama, the Galaxy Tab makes it possible—and this book shows you how.  

• Set up and start using your new tablet
• Connect with email, video chat, and explore social media
• Play games, enjoy music, watch movies and streaming TV
• Browse digital magazines and enjoy ebooks 

A whole new galaxy awaits! Get ready to soak it all in! 

Author Biography

Dan Gookin combined his love of writing with his gizmo fascination nearly 30 years ago to produce more than 160 informative, entertaining books demystifying technology. Perhaps his most famous is DOS For Dummies, published in 1991, which became the world's fastest-selling computer book and launched the entire For Dummies franchise.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: A Galaxy at Your Fingertips 5

Chapter 1: Tab Orientation 7

Set Up Your Galaxy Tab 7

Opening the box 8

Charging the battery 9

Know Your Way around the Galaxy 10

Finding things on the tablet 10

Inserting and removing a microSD card 12

Getting optional accessories 14

Where to Keep Your Tab 15

Making a home for the tablet 15

Taking the tablet with you 15

Chapter 2: The On-and-Off Chapter 17

Hello, Tablet 17

Turning on your Galaxy Tab (for the first time) 18

Turning on your tablet 19

Unlocking the tablet 19

Working the Lock screen 21

More Accounts for Your Tab 22

Farewell, Tablet 24

Locking the tablet 24

Turning off your Galaxy Tab 24

Restarting the tablet 25

Chapter 3: Galactic Procedures 27

Basic Operations 27

Touching the touchscreen 27

Changing the orientation 28

Using the navigation icons 30

Setting the volume 30

Behold the Home Screens 31

Touring the Home screen 32

Reviewing notifications 33

Making Quick Settings 34

All About Those Apps 35

Starting an app 35

Quitting an app 35

Working with widgets 36

Visiting the Apps screen 36

Switching between running apps 37

Recognizing common icons 38

Chapter 4: Text to Type and Edit 41

This Is a Keyboard? 41

The Old Hunt-and-Peck 43

Typing one character at a time 44

Accessing special characters 44

Typing quickly by using predictive text 45

Adding keyboard swipe 46

Google Voice Typing 47

Dictating text 47

Uttering s**** words 48

Text Editing 49

Moving the cursor 49

Selecting text 49

Cutting, copying, and pasting 50

Undoing and redoing mistakes 51

Chapter 5: Tab Toys and Peripherals 53

The Samsung Book Cover Keyboard and DeX 53

Connecting to the book cover keyboard 54

Activating DeX manually 55

Exploring DeX 55

Exiting from DeX 57

Disabling DeX 58

S Pen Scribbling 58

Understanding the S Pen 58

Using Air Command 59

Part 2: Tab Communications 61

Chapter 6: All Your Friends in the Galaxy 63

Meet the Tab’s Address Book 63

Using the Contacts app 64

Sorting your contacts 65

Searching contacts 66

Add More Friends 66

Creating a contact from scratch 66

Creating a contact from an email message 67

Grabbing contacts from your social networking sites 68

Importing contacts from a computer 68

Manage Your Friends 69

Editing contact information 69

Taking a picture of a contact 70

Making a favorite 71

Joining identical contacts 71

Separating contacts 72

Removing a contact 72

Chapter 7: Mail of the Electronic Kind 73

Galactic Email 73

Adding more email accounts 74

Creating a signature 75

Removing an email account 76

You’ve Got Email 76

Checking the inbox 77

Reading email 78

Write That Message 79

Message Attachments 80

Dealing with attachments 80

Sending an attachment 81

Chapter 8: Text, Video, and Voice Chat 83

Let’s Hang Out 83

Using Hangouts 84

Typing at your friends 84

Talking and video chat 85

Placing a Hangouts phone call 86

Connect to the World with Skype 87

Getting Skype for your Tab 87

Chatting with another Skype user 87

Seeing on Skype (video call) 88

Placing a Skype phone call 88

Chapter 9: Web Browsing 91

The Web Browser App 92

Mobile Web Browsing 92

Viewing the web 92

Visiting a web page 93

Browsing back and forth 94

Working with bookmarks 94

Managing web pages in multiple tabs 95

Going incognito 96

Finding text on a web page 96

Sharing a web page 97

The Art of Downloading 97

Grabbing an image from a web page 98

Downloading a file 98

Saving a web page 98

Reviewing your downloads 98

Web Browser Controls and Settings 99

Clearing your web history 99

Changing the way the web looks 99

Setting privacy and security options 100

Chapter 10: Social Networking 101

Face-to-Face with Facebook 101

Running Facebook on your tablet 102

Setting your status 103

Uploading a picture to Facebook 104

Going live 105

All A-Twitter 106

Even More Social Networking 107

Part 3: Everything in the Galaxy 109

Chapter 11: From Here to There 111

There’s a Map for That 111

Using the Maps app 112

Adding layers 113

Saving an offline map 114

It Knows Where You Are 115

Finding a location 115

Helping others find your location 116

Find Things 117

Looking for a specific address 117

Finding a business, restaurant, or point of interest 117

Searching for favorite or recent places 119

The Galactic Navigator 119

Getting directions 120

Adding a navigation Home screen widget 121

Chapter 12: It’s a Big, Flat Camera 123

Your Galactic Camera 123

Introducing the Camera app 124

Taking a still image 125

Recording video 125

Doing a selfie 126

Taking in a panorama 126

Deleting something you just shot 127

Capturing the screen 128

Camera Settings and Options 128

Setting the flash 129

Changing still resolution and video quality 129

Activating the location tag 130

Chapter 13: All the Photos in Your Galaxy 131

Your Pictures and Videos 131

Creating an album 133

Starting a slideshow 133

Finding a picture’s location 134

Edit and Manage Images 134

Editing an image 134

Unediting an image 136

Cropping an image 136

Rotating a picture 137

Editing video 138

Deleting images and videos 139

Set Your Pics and Vids Free 139

Posting a video to YouTube 140

Sharing images with other apps 141

Chapter 14: Music Everywhere 143

Your Hit Parade 143

Browsing your music library 144

Playing a tune 145

Queuing up the next song 147

Being the life of the party 148

Organize Your Music 148

Reviewing your playlists 148

Creating your own playlists 149

Saving the song queue as a playlist 150

Removing unwanted music 150

Soap, No Soap, Galaxy Radio 150

Chapter 15: What Else Does It Do? 153

It’s an Alarm Clock 153

It’s a Very Big Calculator 155

It’s a Calendar 155

Browsing your schedule 156

Reviewing appointments 157

Creating an event 158

Adding a task 160

It’s an eBook Reader 160

It’s a Game Machine 163

It’s Your Pal, Google 163

It’s Your Video Entertainment 165

Enjoying YouTube 165

Buying and renting movies 165

Chapter 16: The Google Play Store 167

Welcome to the Store 167

Browsing Google Play 168

Obtaining an item 170

Purchasing something at Google Play 172

Renting or purchasing videos 173

Google Play Tricks 174

Using the wish list 175

Sharing a Google Play item 175

Keeping stuff on the device 175

Part 4: Nuts and Bolts 177

Chapter 17: It’s a Wireless Life 179

Wireless Networking Wizardry 179

Using the mobile data network 180

Understanding Wi-Fi 180

Activating and deactivating Wi-Fi 181

Connecting to a Wi-Fi network 181

Connecting to a hidden Wi-Fi network 183

Connecting to a WPS router 183

The Bluetooth Experience 184

Understanding Bluetooth 184

Activating Bluetooth on the Tab 184

Pairing with a Bluetooth device 185

Chapter 18: Connect, Share, and Store 187

The USB Connection 187

Connecting the tablet to a computer 188

Configuring the USB connection 188

Dealing with the USB connection in Windows 189

Connecting your Tab to a Mac 190

Disconnecting the tablet from a computer 191

Files from Here, Files to There 191

Transferring files by using the USB connection 191

Sharing files in the cloud 193

Sharing the screen 194

Printing 195

Galactic Storage 196

Reviewing storage stats 196

Managing files 198

Chapter 19: Apps and Widgets 199

Apps and Widgets on the Home Screen 199

Adding an app to the Home screen 199

Slapping down widgets 201

Resizing a widget 202

Moving icons and widgets 202

Removing an icon or a widget 203

Building app folders 203

Manage Your Apps 204

Updating apps 205

Uninstalling an app 205

Choosing a default app to open a file 206

Clearing a default app 207

Setting a default app 207

Shutting down an app run amok 208

Organizing the Apps Screen 208

Rearranging apps on the Apps screen 209

Working with Apps screen folders 209

Chapter 20: Customize Your Tab 211

Home Screen Settings 211

Hanging new wallpaper 211

Managing Home screen pages 212

Setting the primary Home screen page 213

Adjusting the screen timeout 214

Lock Screen Configuration 214

Adding Lock screen app shortcuts 215

Displaying FaceWidgets 215

Various Galactic Adjustments 216

Singing a different tune 216

Changing visual settings 216

Chapter 21: Galactic Security 219

Lock Your Tablet 219

Finding the screen locks 219

Removing the screen lock 220

Setting a PIN 220

Assigning a password 221

Creating an unlock pattern 221

Unlocking the tablet with your face 222

Other Tab Security 223

Adding owner info text 223

Hiding Lock screen notifications 224

Find your lost tablet 224

Avoiding Android viruses 225

Performing a factory data reset 226

It’s Everyone’s Tab! 227

Adding another user 227

Switching users 228

Configuring the Tab for a kid’s account 229

Chapter 22: Taking the Tab with You 231

Before You Go 231

Galaxy Tab Travel Tips 232

Into the Wild Blue Yonder 233

The Galaxy Goes Abroad 234

Traveling overseas with the tablet 234

Disabling mobile data and data roaming 235

Chapter 23: Maintenance and Troubleshooting 237

Regular Galactic Maintenance 238

Keeping it clean 238

Backing up your stuff 238

Updating the system 239

Battery Care and Feeding 239

Monitoring the battery 239

Determining what is sucking up power 241

Extending battery life 242

Help and Troubleshooting 242

Fixing random and annoying problems 242

Getting support 244

Valuable Galaxy Tablet Q&A 245

“I can’t turn the tablet on (or off)!” 245

“The touchscreen doesn’t work!” 245

“The battery doesn’t charge!” 245

“The tablet gets so hot that it turns itself off!” 246

“It doesn’t do Landscape mode!” 246

Part 5: The Part of Tens 247

Chapter 24: Ten Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts 249

Make Some Multi Window Magic 250

Snooze with Do Not Disturb Mode 251

Configure Auto Restart 252

Activate the Blue Light Filter 252

Avoid Display Timeouts with Smart Stay 253

Watch the Tablet Dream 254

Add Spice to Dictation 254

Restore the Apps Icon 255

Hide the Navigation Bar 255

Check Your Data Usage 256

Chapter 25: Ten Things to Remember 257

Summon a Recently Opened App 257

Make Quick Settings 258

Use Dictation 258

Lock the Orientation 258

Use Keyboard Suggestions 259

Avoid Things That Consume Lots of Battery Juice 259

Make Phone Calls 260

Keep Up with Your Schedule 260

Snap a Pic of That Contact 260

Enter Location Information for Your Events 261

Index 263