Some tips for using Tweet Deck part 2

Continuing with the question-and-answer session. If by the end of this, YOU still have questions about Tweet Deck, leave them as a comment or tweet them to me, @janesgrapevine

If I load @ messages on my iPad I don't see them on my laptop

This is one of the negative features of Tweet Deck - you used to be able to set it so that it didn't happen but now once it reckons you've seen your @ messages  it hides them. So when you open it up on another device, they aren't there. If it feels  like it. Like all techie things, it has moods and sometimes might show you the whole blooming lot even after you've cleared the column. But there is one way to guarantee that you'll see them when you switch gadgets, and that is to favourite all the tweets you want to see again. That way you can open a column of favourites and they will be there, however many times you change devices, until you no longer want to see them and unfavourite them. (Having said that, Tweet Deck has just thrown a hissy fit and cleared all my favourites. Nothing's perfect!)

Is there an easy way to add people to a list or do you need to do it one by one?

Removing people from a list on Tweet Deck is very simple - use the "Edit list" feature then simply click on the subtract button at the side of the names you don't want on the list any more. But to add them, just as with normal Twitter,  you need to add them one at a time by either visiting their profile or using the "three dot" menu below one of their tweets.

There used to be an app called Formulists that would help you to make lists, but it has closed down now and the only one I could find is Twitlist which I think would be pretty slow if you have a lot of lists and follow  a lot of people.

Is there a difference between Twitter and Tweet Deck? If I'm using Tweet Deck can I still use Twitter?

Tweet Deck is simply an application to help you to use Twitter, so although they look a lot different they are just different ways of looking at the same thing. You can still use the Twitter web page, in fact you can use it at the same time as Tweet Deck if you want to. I find that useful to do on those annoying occasions when just as I'm clearing a Tweet Deck column a new tweet I would have liked to read comes in. I can just pop over to Twitter and read it there.

Can you quickly access tweets from some time ago, eg several hours earlier, without having to scroll through all the tweets?

No, just as with normal Twitter, you need to scroll back. However the sliding scroll bar at the side of each column makes it a little faster than using Twitter, and if you are looking for a particular tweet you can use the search box in the Edit section at the top of the column to help you find it.

What does "Embed this tweet" mean?

This appears in the three dot menu of Tweet Deck on the web but not on the app version. If you click on it, you will be given a piece of code which you can copy into the HTML of a blog or website which will actually embed that tweet into the site. I did it with the Tweet you can find here and now  I've embedded it in the blog it looks like this:

I've started answering your questions about Tweet Deck - lots of answers and tips here competitiongrapevine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/some-t… more to follow later or tomorrow
— Jane Willis (@janesgrapevine) January 26, 2013
 

How do I give the URL of a tweet when I'm using Tweet Deck?

There are two ways: the first is to click on the time of the tweet at the top right. This will open up a Twitter web page with just that tweet on it and you can copy the URL. The second is to use that three dot menu again and select "link to this tweet".  It will open up a tweet for you with the link in it, preceded  by the word RE. For instance for the tweet above, it says
RE https://twitter.com/janesgrapevine/status/295146773146652672
Ignore the RE bit, copy URL and paste it where you need it.

What do "details" and "conversation" at the bottom of a Tweet mean?

If a tweet is part of a conversation, it will say so and clicking on it will show you the tweets it is a reply to and those in reply to it, which can help you to pick up chat with friends if you log in and think you've missed something.

A tweet that isn't part of a conversation will say details instead, and clicking on that will show you the exact date and time it was posted and will tell you whether it was posted from the Twitter web page, an app like Tweet Deck or Hoot Suite, the Tweet Button of a website or one of the many apps that will post a tweet for you when, for instance, you enter certain competitions or share a news item on a web page.