The Tech Wizard
Week two at the Senior Center — finding things, and turning paper into PDFs
Wednesday is session two of six at the Culver City Senior Center. Around it: two private sessions early in the week, and the iPhone Essentials group at my office on Friday.
Monday — a short remote session
One private session on Zoom, late morning. Half an hour, one problem, screen to screen. Not every question needs a whole afternoon.
Tuesday — at a client’s office in Santa Monica
An afternoon one-on-one, in person. One-on-one is where the stubborn things actually get solved — the ones that need somebody sitting next to you looking at your screen, not a class.
Wednesday — Culver City Senior Center, in person
Session two of six, at 4095 Overland Ave. iPhone Basics at 12:30, Advanced iPad at 2:30.
iPhone Basics: search, don’t scroll. There are two kinds of search and that is where people get tangled — the Home Screen search looks across the whole phone, apps and people and settings, while a search inside an app looks only inside that app. Which brings us to the thing that actually unlocks it: everything has a home. Your people live in Contacts. A conversation lives in Messages. A letter lives in Mail. Knowing where a thing lives is most of knowing how to find it.
Advanced iPad: turning paper into a PDF, in Preview. A photo of a document is a picture of your desk — the shadows, the crooked edges. A scan finds the page, straightens it, and makes a PDF. Insurance cards, medical papers, tax receipts, the instructions you will want again next year. Then the part that matters more than the scanning does: Files is the filing cabinet, Preview is the worktable. Saving something is not enough if you cannot find it again. Preview arrived with iPadOS 26 — if your iPad does not have it, Scan Documents in Notes or Files takes almost the same steps.
iPhone Basics is full for this round. I would rather you know that than make the trip for a seat that is not there. The Senior Center holds the list, not me, so they are the ones to ask about the next series — (310) 253-6700.
Advanced iPad is at week two of six now, so this is a report from inside the room rather than an invitation. Registration for the Senior Center classes happens in person there, never through me, and I cannot promise anyone a seat.
I have donated my Wednesdays to the Senior Center since 2013, and week two is usually the one where it starts to click.
Thursday — nothing on the teaching calendar
Which means the week-three handouts, and whatever Wednesday tells me about these two rooms. And my own continuing education — the day I stop being a student is the day I stop being worth much as a teacher.
Friday — iPhone Essentials at my Brentwood office
iPhone Essentials is a private class — three friends who get together to learn their phones. That is the whole group, and it is why it works the way it does: not a slower class, a tailored one. Each of them needs something different out of the same device — work, family, their own personal odds and ends — so we go where they need to go.
If you have two or three friends who would rather learn together than alone, that is a class I can build for you. iPhone, iPad, laptop — whatever you actually use, and whatever you actually do with it.
Want to work together?
Private coaching is the best way to make real progress on whatever is frustrating you — iPhone, iPad or laptop, and the everyday things you do with them. It is usually not the setup that gets people. It is the ordinary stuff nobody ever showed them: you don’t know what you don’t know. And if you would rather not do it alone, gather two or three friends and I will build a small group class around what you each actually need. Email me or call 888.332.2299 to get on my schedule.
Judi Jacobs is The Tech Wizard — tech coach and consultant for people who want technology to feel friendly again.