A host of free “mini-apps” are available to personalize your computer workspace for fun and productivity, and to gather your frequently-used information resources in one spot. In Macintosh OS X, these are called “dashboard widgets”, in Yahoo they are “widgets”, in Windows Vista they are “sidebar gadgets” and in iGoogle they are simply “gadgets”. [...]
Tip #115 – Three Must-Know Podcasting Microphone Tips (Adapted from Andy Williams Affleck, author of Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac)
Many podcasts suffer from poor quality in the audio. The proper use of a microphone can greatly enhance your podcasts. Here are three top tips for maximizing the effectiveness of any microphone:
1. Don’t put [...]
The new docx file format used by Microsoft Word 2007 is not compatible with earlier versions of Word. When a colleague sends you a Word 2007 file, it may be difficult to open that file if you only have Word 2003 on your computer. However, the Zamzar Web site now offers free file conversions from [...]
A lesser-known but highly useful feature of Google is its built-in calculator function.
Need to find out how many miles are in 5 kilometers? Simply type in “miles in 5 kilometers” in Google’s search box, and the answer is calculated for you.
Google will also do quick currency and recipe conversions. Type “50 Euros in dollars” to [...]
PDF (Portable Document Files) are a popular way to share Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and other files because PDF’s can be read by many different operating systems and can easily be posted on a Web site without losing special formatting. Users of the Macintosh OS X operating system have built-in PDF conversion through the Print window.
However, [...]
Millions of videos are now online, but most are only searchable by user-supplied titles or text descriptions in Google Video and others.
Blinkx <http://www.blinkx.com/> the largest video search engine in the world–goes beyond text-based searches by locating audio and video content within videos. Its unique visual analysis and speech recognition capabilities make Blinkx a leader in [...]
A big part of setting up a blog is the selection of a blogging service. That decision will hinge on factors such as: ease of use, intended audience, restricted membership needs, cost, and preferred server hosting. Below is a comparison of three widely-used online blogging services.
Blogger – http://www.blogger.com/home
A free service affiliated with Google; one can [...]
http://www.letterpop.com/
It’s now easy to create free, professional-looking newsletters with attractive graphics and fancy fonts using LetterPop! online. Choose from 24 drag-and-drop template designs and add your own text and photos (free registration required). Just click in the box under Start Here to name and create a sample newsletter. You may email your completed newsletter or [...]
With text wrapping, you can quickly and easily have clip art and text occupy even amounts of space on the page for a more professional look.
1. In your Word document, insert a clip art image by going to the Insert message and selecting Insert – Picture – Clip Art.
2. Next, click on the clip art [...]
Do you often search for the perfect synonym, but don’t have a thesaurus at your desk? Word 2003 has a built-in thesaurus which makes it a snap to locate synonyms.
1. Right-click on the word in your document for which you’d like some synonyms.
2. In the menu which appears, select Synonyms. A list of suggested synonyms [...]
