Emoticons are a fun way to express yourself when sending text messages. The iPhone’s latest operating system, iOS 5, now comes with support for “emoji”.

To activate them, you’ll need to add a new keyboard in your iPhone settings. To do this, go to:

Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Add New Keyboard > Emoji.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to switch between your regular keyboard and the emoji keyboard when sending text messages. All you have to do is tap the globe icon on your keyboard… examples below:

Please note that iPhone emoji won’t show up when sending to friends that don’t have iPhones, or iOS 5. They will only be compatible with other iOS 5 users. Enjoy!

Windows 7 is pretty. By default, your Windows 7 computer comes with all the visual display features turned on.

Did you know that you can opt for better overall performance by turning the visual features off? If you’re someone that’s not bothered by a more basic-looking user interface, this can be a fantastic way to help your computer run more smoothly. Give this a whirl:

Go to the Windows Start button, then Control Panel.

Click on Personalisation.

You’ll then see a screen showing a number of different ‘themes’ you can choose for your Windows 7 look. Click on Windows 7 Basic (or even Windows Classic if you are feeling like some nostalgia). You may need to scroll down to see these themes.

Clicking on them will automatically change your theme, though it may take a few minutes. Once this is done you will notice the change immediately. Many unnecessary visual features will be turned off, making your computer run faster and more efficiently.

I’ve recently been asked by a few friends: How can I give just one page in a Word document a landscape orientation when the rest of the pages are portrait?

It’s not an obvious feature but it can be done. It requires a little bit of tinkering, but it is worth it when you have reports and other documents that require one or two landscape pages. Here’s how to do it.

1. Find the section of your document that you want to be on a landscape-oriented page. Insert your cursor in a space before the section you’ve chosen by clicking there.

2. Click on the Page Layout tab, choose Breaks and then choose ‘New Page’ under Section Breaks. Then, move your cursor to the end of the section you’ve chosen for your landscape page, and insert the same break again.

3. Put your cursor anywhere in the section between the two breaks you’ve just created, by clicking.

4. Return to the Page Layout tab. At the bottom right-hand corner you’ll see a small arrow (pointing down); click it to open the Page Setup dialog box.

5. In the Page Setup box, click on the Margins tab. Select Landscape (under Orientation), then in the “Apply to” dropdown click on this section.

6. Click on OK, and voila!