Keep Up to Date with Flipboard
ONE OF THE MAJOR DRAWBACKS of the Internet is the sheer volume of new websites, blogs, and informative videos available. Flipboard is a dedicated app that helps you to make sense of all the material out there. It does this first and foremost through its intuitive search feature, which enables you to look for your favorite topics, then lists relevant articles and users who’ve assembled similar content.
Flipboard also helps you to stay on top of trending information by collating recent articles into a Daily Edition of the latest news and views. Once you’ve found a useful link, you can add it to a virtual smart magazine. There’s no limit to what you can add or the number of magazines you can create.
You can use Flipboard’s dedicated editor to configure and remove articles and magazines. This is a vital feature, because new users can sometimes become Flip happy, adding far more content to smart magazines than they can actually read.
In this guide, you’ll discover how to set up your Flipboard account and choose the topics that interest you most. You’ll also learn how to customize your newsfeed by using the search bar and adding content to magazines. –NATE DRAKE
1
DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL
Open the Microsoft Store and type “Flipboard” into the top-right. Click “Get” to install the application [ Image A], then press “Launch.” Alternatively, you can sign up via the Flipboard website ( https://flipboard.com). The website has more functionality than the app. Any changes you make are reflected both on the site and in the app itself.
2
THE BASICS
When you first enter Flipboard, you are asked to click tiles to reflect which categories you want to see on your home screen. Once you’ve done this, you need to either “Connect with Facebook” or sign up using your email account. Whichever method you use, you can select a unique Flipboard username during setup. The usual welcome email is sent, requesting you to confirm your registration. Once this has been completed, you are ready to start using Flipboard.
>> First link your social media to your Flipboard account. You can do this by clicking on the social media tiles shown on your main screen. Once you are signed in to the main page, just press “+” to begin adding content.
3
ORGANIZE THE HOME CAROUSEL
Your home screen initially only displays the categories you chose during signup. To add more content, click the search bar at the top-right. Enter the subject you want to search for—“Health,” for example. Flipboard now displays a list of relevant content. Click the flag icon in each tile to add to your Home Carousel.
>> Options that appear on your Home Carousel can be changed at any time in the app or through your browser. In the app, click “Settings” at the top-right, then “App Commands.” A pop-up menu appears along the bottom of the screen. From here you can go to your profile, sign out, refresh, or edit. Select “Edit.” Just click the “X” beside any topic to remove it from your feed [ Image B].
4
THE DAILY EDITION
The Daily Edition is a feature that enables you to catch up on all the news on one page. It updates daily at 7 a.m. and can be accessed in the app, but is best viewed via the Flipboard website. To get started, navigate to https://flipboard.com, then click the search bar at the top-right, and select “The Daily Edition.”
>> As well as scrolling through your news for that day, you can share the Daily Edition with others. Click
the “Share Collection” button at the bottom-right of the page [ Image C]. Enter the person’s Flipboard username or email address to share directly, or you can share via social media.
>> Click “The News Desk” in the Daily Edition to access the News Desk main page. You can select “Follow” to include the News Desk on the list of highlights on your Home Carousel.
>> If you prefer to use the app, type “Daily Edition” into the search bar at the top-right of the screen. This then displays varying results for the Daily Edition in different locations.
5
SMART MAGAZINES
Smart Magazines form a core part of Flipboard. This feature blends all your favorite pieces, such as leading opinions, expert pieces, and recommended stories about a particular topic, into a single digital magazine. You choose a topic and select related content with the help of hashtags. All your choices are then collated and presented as a custom-made e-zine you can flip through.
>> On the webpage, go to “What’s your passion” at the top of the screen. Click the topics that interest you most. These are added to the top of your homepage. Each topic you choose populates with the most up-to-date news information for that subject. You can customize it even further by clicking the “(…)” beside the topic name and selecting “Personalize.” You can then choose subtopics to populate this magazine—for example, “World Trade Organization” in “World Economy.”
6
FLIPBOARD EDITOR
The editor is an online web tool where you can create, edit, and manage any or all of the magazines you create. In the app, flick upward to scroll through your page. Each story you click into shows a “+” beside the heading. When you select the “+” a tab slides open from the right-hand side of the screen. It asks you to “Flip this into...” with the option to “Create New Magazine” underneath. You can then enter the name of your magazine, the description, and the category that it falls under. You can also uncheck the box if you don’t want it to be viewed by everyone. You can create as many magazines as you want. Articles can be added to your magazine by clicking “+” then choosing the magazine you wish it to appear in, and finally selecting the check button on the bottomright of the screen.
7
THE SEARCH BUTTON
The search button is your gateway to all things Flipboard. The search feature is available on both the Flipboard website and the app, but the web version has more options.
To get started, select the magnifying glass at the top-right of the webpage. A drop-down menu now appears [ Image D], which displays a “Featured” section, with items such as “Agriculture,” “Politics,” and “#MagsWeLove.” It’s also where you can access the Daily Edition, along with an “Explore” section. When you click “Explore,” topics ranging from “News” to “City Breaks” are displayed.
>> Entering a search term brings up a selection of results, which range from the “Top Result” to “Results of the Day,” magazines covering this suggestion, or people who may be linked to this search topic.