Cortana: Tips and Tricks (Halo Questions in OP)

[Talderon]

Hey all. I thought I would put some things down here as a "Tips and Tricks" section to help people get started when they FINALLY get their hands on this fantastic Personal Assistant!!

Settings:

On/Off - This pretty much explains itself
[Checkbox] Detect Tracing Info, such and flights in emails on your phone - This is where you enable/disable Cortana's ability to read emails on your phone
Change My Name - Here you can change what she calls you
[Checkbox] Have Cortana call me by name - Pretty much what it says
Facebook - You can either stay disconnected from Facebook or connect
Battery Saver - Decide how you'd like to use Battery Saver with Cortana

Voice Setting - You can choose between Male/Female voices and Speech Language

Search Setting - Standard Search Settings (SafeSearch on/off, Delete History and such)

Interests - This is where you will find things you are interested in, such as News, Weather, Stocks, Flights being tracked and all that. This is how you customize your initial data stream from Cortana's main screen

Remind Me - This is where you can look at all the reminders you have set in Cortana

Quiet Hours - Yup, it's where you set up Quiet Hours...

Inner Circle - This is where you put people that you want to be able to contact you no matter what. If your quiet hours are on, they can still get through and so forth

Places - I will go into more detail about this below

Music Searches - This is where your results from "What is this song that is playing" go. Kinda like Shazam and other apps.

Places

To me, this is one of the most important sections of Cortana and how to have her help you the most.

I have in here the following:

My Home
My Work
Grocery Store I frequent
Kids Schools
My Dr.'s Office
Dads House
Brothers House

and a few other locations

The reason I did this is for the Reminder feature.

"Remind me to ask the Dr. about my eye hurting next time I am there" - Since you put it in your places above (and use the nickname you assigned to it), it know where that is and can remind you when you are there next. Regardless of time-span.

Soooo... You can see where I am going with this?

I was getting ready to leave to head to my dads. "How is the traffic to Dads House?" - Cortana responds with the traffic conditions and gives me an estimated drive time based on this.

Edit 04/03/2014: Admittedly, not all flight carrier emails with confirmation are the same. Sometimes Cortana has a hard time parsing the data (trust me, where she is now is EXTREMELY better than even a few weeks back). To get her to track a missing flight, or a missing leg of a flight, just ask her to "Track Alaska Airlines Flight 2245". She will prompt if more information is needed, but otherwise, you're all set.

[TIP]Did you tell Cortana to take a note? Wondering where that note went? They went to OneNote!

Open One Note, tap Personal Web then look in your Quick Notes.

They will all be there for you to view and manipulate[/TIP]

COMMING SOON: I will put up a list of Halo related questions that Cortana will respond too, however, this is NOT NOT NOT a conclusive list, she has no issue telling you that you do not have the access level needed to know something... :winktongue:

I am sure others can find way more things to do with her than this, but I hope this will help people get started on their journey with Cortana.

Please ask questions below and I will do my best to answer if it is possible.

Thanks!

Edit: 04/12/2014

Wow, I feel back, I COMPLETELY forgot what I PROMISED earlier (look up and the Coming Soon).

Well, time to deliver!!!

Halo Questions

• Do you know what Master Chief is doing?
• What is Master Chief doing?
• I thought you were dead
• Didn't you die?
• Where is master chief?
• What is rampancy?
• Tell me about rampancy
• Tell me about Halo 5?
• Tell me about Dr. Halsey?
• Tell me about Elites
• What do you know about Halo 5?
• Tell me about Catherine Halsey
• What do you know about Dr. Halsey?
• What is Elites?
• Tell me about Grunts
• Are you the cortana from Halo?
• What do you know about Elites
• Are you dating Master Chief?
• What do you know about Grunts
• Tell me about Hunters
• Tell me the story of Halo 5?
• What is Master Chief up to?
• What do you know about Hunters
• Are you in love with Master Chief?
• Are you really Cortana?
• Do you love Master Chief?
• What do you know about Jackals
• Tell me about Jackals
• Who is Catherine Halsey?
• Are you the same Cortana from Halo?
• What do you know about Hunters
• Did you really die?
• Tell me about Prophets
• Who is Dr. Halsey?
• Tell me about Buggers
• Tell me about Brutes
• Tell me about Prometheans
• What is the story of Halo 5?
• What do you know about Buggers
• Tell me about Crawlers
• Tell me about Watchers
• Tell me about the Didact
• What do you know about the didact
• What do you know about Brutes
• Tell me about Guilty Spark
• Tell me about Knights
• Tell me about the Librarian
• What do you know about the Librarian
• What you know about the flood
• What do you know about Guilty Spark
• Which is your favorite Halo?
• What is your favorite Halo?
• What is favorite Halo game?
• Which is your favorite Halo game?
• Tell me about Halo?
• Tell me about beamish
• What do you know about Halo?
• Tell me about hamish beamish
• Tell me about hamish beamish
• Why are you blue in color?
• Aren't you dead?
• Why are you blue?
• Which Halo game do you like the most?
• What do you know about beamish
• Tell me the story of Halo?
• Will you be reborn in Halo 5?
• Will you resurrect in Halo 5?
• What is Master Chief's last name?
• Will you come back in Halo 5?
• Do you Master Chief's last name?
• What is the story of Halo?
• What do you know about hamish
• What do you know about Hamish Beamish
• What do you know about Catherine Halsey?
• Are you in Halo 5?
• Do you know Jen Taylor?

[INFO]User Tips will be found below here[/INFO]

I was in the same boat, I couldn't manually add the location I'm at, but I figured out a way without manually typing in GPS coordinates.

1. Search in Cortana "where am I" if you're near the location or for something else that'll produce a map for the area you want to mark. Note this is not a search in the "Places" part of the notebook, but in Cortana's general search.
2. Click on the map in the search results, opening a full map view.
3. Move the map to wherever you want a new place and hold your finger over that location. A black pin with the general description should show up.
4. Click on the new pin.
5. At the bottom of this page, click the Star+ symbol to add this location to Cortana's places.

When I upgraded to windows phone 8.1 on my Lumia 925 I couldn't wait to try out Cortana, but I was kind of disappointed as it wasn't working well, it came only with bing searches.
But I figured out a solution for this without doing a hard reset as many of you are suggesting.I read it somewhere as a suggestion not sure exactly where but it did work for me so I thought to share this with you, hopefully it will turn out positive for all of us.

1. Turn of Cortana by going to settings->Swipe left to application->Cortana and turn it off.
2. Restart your phone (will ask for it automatically)
3. Then do a bing voice search as usually (The old one).
4. Now navigate to Cortana again and turn it on.
(Open Cortana from her own app in the first)

It should work now, try to make some question like:
Tell me a joke?
Do you have a sister?
Are you pretty?

You also be sure to be connected to wifi because it gets confused with data connection.
If there is any other suggestion please let us know on comments, and also let us know if this helped.

[TIP]Resetting Cortana (Erasing all data and starting over)

In order to reset Cortana and remove all the data she has stored, this is a fairly manual process.
1.Disable Cortana - settings?applications (swipe)?Cortana?Turn off
2.Restart Phone
3.Go to Cortana Settings
4.You should see an option to delete/remove all Cortana data
5.To remove the notes Cortana has taken for you, you will need to go into OneNote (on phone or PC) and look under Personal Web ? Quick Notes
6.Once complete, you can re-enable Cortana and she will be back to a blank slate
[/TIP]

[TIP]FIX FOR CORTANA WI-FI ISSUES!!! Thanks to: Mashnoon Ibtesum

http://forums.windowscentral.com/cortana/277008-fix-cortana-wifi-issue.html[/TIP]

I'm sure this is mentioned elsewhere on these forums but you can pin certain interests to your start screen (and yes these tiles will be transparent). If you go to your interests, items like 'weather near me' and your news headlines have a "pin" option once you go into their individual cortana settings (i.e. open cortana, then settings, then interests, scroll down to weather near me and click on it - next screen should have a pin icon at the bottom).

wish more things would be pinnable.

 

[hopmedic]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

This thread should be a sticky.

 

[anon(7900571)]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

do we have bing smart search if we disable cortana ?

 

[unnatixlr8]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

do we have bing smart search if we disable cortana ?

I was thinking of the same. As not all the countries will initially get Cortana, so I think we would get Smart Search.

 

[Ankit Nawlakha]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

We will be getting Bing Smart Search instead of Cortana Upto 2015..??

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

do we have bing smart search if we disable cortana ?

Yes, but it is a little different. When you search for something, it will give web results first, but if you swipe left or right, you will get options like Local, Images, Video and Phone. Now, Images returns results from Phone and Web, same with Videos. Phone, just gives results for phone.

 

[anon(7900571)]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Yes, but it is a little different. When you search for something, it will give web results first, but if you swipe left or right, you will get options like Local, Images, Video and Phone. Now, Images returns results from Phone and Web, same with Videos. Phone, just gives results for phone.

can you post some screenshots from your emulator :smile:

 

[Oliverspin]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

.

Places

To me, this is one of the most important sections of Cortana and how to have her help you the most.

I have in here the following:

My Home
My Work
Grocery Store I frequent
Kids Schools
My Dr.'s Office
Dads House
Brothers House

and a few other locations

The reason I did this is for the Reminder feature.

"Remind me to ask the Dr. about my eye hurting next time I am there" - Since you put it in your places above (and use the nickname you assigned to it), it know where that is and can remind you when you are there next. Regardless of time-span.

Soooo... You can see where I am going with this?

I was getting ready to leave to head to my dads. "How is the traffic to Dads House?" - Cortana responds with the traffic conditions and gives me an estimated drive time based on this.

I am sure others can find way more things to do with her than this, but I hope this will help people get started on their journey with Cortana.

Please ask questions below and I will do my best to answer if it is possible.

Thanks!

Just to confirm, are you saying that reminders can be activated by your location?

 

[hopmedic]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Just to confirm, are you saying that reminders can be activated by your location?

Yes. That was one of the things Joe said during the keynote yesterday. He created a reminder for when he gets home, cook dinner for his wife. There was a glitch, and it didn't work right, but obviously the functionality is there.

 

[anon(7900571)]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Just to confirm, are you saying that reminders can be activated by your location?

yes geo-fencing is new on windows phone.

 

[Oliverspin]

yes geo-fencing is new on windows phone.

Great! I wasn't sure if that was geofencing or not.

Thanks!

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

can you post some screenshots from your emulator :smile:

I am not running an emulator, I am actually running it on my personal device (Lumia 1520). Unfortunately, I can talk about things, but I am not allowed to post screenshots at this time.

Just to confirm, are you saying that reminders can be activated by your location?

Yes, reminders can be location based as long as Cortana knows the location.

I have to go to Costco today, so I gave her a list of items I needed to remind me when I got there (Costco is in my Places). So far, this feature has never failed me.

 

[leviathan18]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

this are those times when I hate not living in the US

 

[barbaram]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

So when you get to costco, Cortana says "get milk and eggs" but you wander around for a while, by a TV and a pair of shoes, then remember you were supposed to get something, can you ask Cortana to repeat what you were supposed to get? At costco, I would totally wander off somewhere and forget what I came for!!

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

So when you get to costco, Cortana says "get milk and eggs" but you wander around for a while, by a TV and a pair of shoes, then remember you were supposed to get something, can you ask Cortana to repeat what you were supposed to get? At costco, I would totally wander off somewhere and forget what I came for!!

Yeah, I went to get Bread, Milk, Assorted Meats and a couple odds and ends... bought a new laptop while I was at it.

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Another tip:

Cortana, on some queries, can go into an extended conversation mode. Example:

What is the address to the nearest Costco?

Cortana will reply with the address

Navigate there

Cortana will know that you meant to navigate to the address you just looked up and will launch Drive+ and will already have the current location and destination address all set so you just have to hit START and off you go!

 

[Reebs Reebs]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Can Cortana process requests based on other conditions besides time, location, and events? For example, would she understand if I say something like "Let me know if I need an umbrella when I wake up in the morning." Meaning, after my alarm goes off, if the forecast is rainy, Cortana will remind me to take my umbrella. Otherwise, she wouldn't say anything.

Also, saw the quiet response, where she responds via text when you ask via text, can I ask her to "quietly remind me to ask the doctor about my backache when I visit him next time"

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Can Cortana process requests based on other conditions besides time, location, and events? For example, would she understand if I say something like "Let me know if I need an umbrella when I wake up in the morning." Meaning, after my alarm goes off, if the forecast is rainy, Cortana will remind me to take my umbrella. Otherwise, she wouldn't say anything.

Also, saw the quiet response, where she responds via text when you ask via text, can I ask her to "quietly remind me to ask the doctor about my backache when I visit him next time"

Ok, I tried the umbrella part a few different ways and she was not able to understand this (I will file a feature request though). I did ask "Will I need an umbrella tomorrow?" and was given the weather forecast for tomorrow and a response of "I am not sure about that, here is the forecast for tomorrow"

Ok, as for the reminders, they pops those up in the notification center, so she won't blurt it out on your phone when you arrive. You will get a message tone and a toast as well as an option to mark this complete or snooze.

 

[Jonas_H]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

BTW: Cortanas voice is Jen Taylors! Yes, it's true. She confirmed that on Twitter.

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

BTW: Cortanas voice is Jen Taylors! Yes, it's true. She confirmed that on Twitter.

Yes, and SOMEHOW, she is able to say my last name correctly!!! (trust me, it's a unique one)