Productivity Playbook: Tips and Tricks for the Lenovo Yoga 3

Weighing in at 2.62 pounds and nearly as thin as your smart phone, Lenovo's Yoga 3 Pro is the world's thinnest, most striking 2-in-1 Ultrabook yet. The third-generation Yoga is designed to elegantly adapt to your needs, featuring a breakthrough watchband hinge and new responsive software that optimizes performance on the go. The Yoga 3 Pro is an all-in-one device that packs a lot of features into an impressively sleek package; with the tips below you'll learn how to take advantage of all it has to offer.

Choose a Mode for Your Mood (Or Task)

Lenovo pioneered the 360-degree hinge you see in many 2-in-1 devices today, and they continue to push the envelope with their latest iteration of an ultra-stable watchband hinge consisting of 800 moving parts. The hinge allows you to operate the device in four different modes: Laptop, Stand, Tablet, and Tent, with the best mode dictated by the task at hand.

- Laptop mode: Ideal for tasks requiring a keyboard, laptop mode is best utilized for writing email, drafting proposals, developing presentations, spreadsheets, and the like.

- Stand mode: Also known as Theater Mode, this configuration flips the keyboard so that it rests facedown with keys flush to the surface, and it is used to support the screen. While the keyboard is deactivated in this mode, the touch screen remains active, and you can select a movie to watch, start a photo slideshow, or Skype with friends while you sit back and relax. Furthermore, this configuration allows you to watch movies on a plane without the fear on your screen getting crushed, and take full advantage of Harmony's Motion Control feature in presentation mode (more on that later).

- Tablet mode: Flip the keyboard all the way underneath the screen, and you'll have a fully operational tablet with which you can use to read, browse the web, play games, and edit photos.

- Tent mode: Sometimes referred to as Presentation Mode, this is a configuration perfect for tasks requiring stability and some touch, such as presenting, or displaying a recipe while you cook.

Apps in Perfect Harmony

The Yoga 3 is pre-loaded with a variety of apps and software, but perhaps the most interesting of them all is its own adaptive software, Harmony. Designed to compliment Yoga's responsive features, Harmony automatically adjusts your computer's settings based on the app, mode, and environment you're in. For example, while you're reading an e-book Harmony will adjust the screen's brightness and color temperature according to the environmental lighting in the room. It will also intelligently suggest customized settings for apps based on your usage. So far, Harmony is built to optimize the experience of about 50 of the most popular applications.

In addition to its adaptive nature, Harmony provides the opportunity for you to discover new apps by recommending those popular among users with similar usage habits, and it also dynamically suggests the best apps to use in each mode.

To check out Harmony, search or select it from the Start screen. Upon opening the app you'll see a summary of your usage in each of the four modes, a tile list of the apps you use the most in each, as well as the apps trending among users in each mode.

Hands-Free Motion Control

Yoga 3's Motion Control feature is one neat trick to break out during presentations. It allows you to control slideshows, videos, and books on your device without needing to touch the screen. Simply wave your hand to advance a slide or a page in a book, or raise your palm to increase the volume; Yoga's webcam detects the motion and remotely controls the app.

An app will note if it is compatible with Motion Control upon start up. If you miss the note, look for the red Harmony notification in the top right corner of the screen or at the bottom of the screen in the taskbar. Click on it to see if you can enable the feature, and watch the tutorial to learn which motions to use.

Extending Battery Life and Optimizing Performance: OneKey Optimizer

OneKey Optimizer (or OKO), is a preinstalled program designed specifically for system optimization and battery conservation. It monitors your computers performance and initiates system updates, clean up, and suggests ways to prolong your battery's life. You can access OKO via the apps screen on your Yoga 3 Pro, and select the energy conservation mode that suits your performance needs, as well as perform system check ups and maintenance.

In addition to utilizing OKO, you can get the most mileage out of your Yoga's battery by adjusting the screen's brightness, disabling Wifi and Bluetooth when not in use, disconnecting any peripherals not in use, and utilizing the Windows 8.1 power-saving tips here.

Also interesting to note: The Yoga 3 Pro is one of the first laptops to feature a USB 3.0 port that doubles as a charging port. This gets you one more USB port than other 2-in-1s, and if you need to charge another USB device and your Yoga has at least 20% charge, you may disconnect the power cable and hook up any compatible USB device-even while the Yoga 3 is shutdown.

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Use these shortcuts in laptop mode to efficiently navigate your way around your Yoga 3 Pro

- Fn + Backspace: Closes the current window

- Fn + Delete: Enables/disables the touchpad

- Fn + ': Turn on/off LCD backlight display

- Fn + Space: Turn on/off backlit keyboard

- Fn + Up Arrow / Down Arrow: Increase/decrease display brightness

- Fn + Right Arrow / Left Arrow: Increase/decrease sound volume

Touchscreen Tips

Go beyond the quick tap and swipe and become a master of the touch screen with these pointers.

- Press and hold: It's the "Right Click." See detailed information about an item

- Move fingers together or apart: Zoom control

- Swiping from top or bottom edge: Reveals task bar

- With app open, swipe from top edge halfway down screen: Split-screen mode

- With app open: swipe from top edge down to bottom edge: Close app

- Swipe in from left edge: Bring forward an app running in background

- Swipe in from right edge: Displays Charms

Are you new to Windows 8.1? Click here for Tips on Mastering Windows 8.1 on Your 2-in-1 Device.