productivity

Google Docs Templates

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

It’s no secret I love Google Docs…
Well here’s some of the “user favorites” you can use as templates for your own docs:
http://docs.google.com/templates?sort=hottest&view=default&pli=1

Easily Create Your Own Survey

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

If you’re looking for an easy and no-cost way of creating your own survey for your web page, I found the perfect tool for you:
Form Spring
This tool is extremely easy to use and the end product looks great.
There’s a surprising amount of flexibility in the appearance of your form.
The link again is:
Form Spring

Backflip

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

If you need to visit a list of specific websites every day (news sites, blogs, bank sites, forums, etc), here is an easy way to do it.
1. Sign up for a free backflip account.
2. In the “My Daily Routine” section, add the URLs of the sites you want to visit daily.
3. When you go online [...]

My Project Management Saga

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Here’s the latest word on my project management quest…
I decided that Google Sites didn’t quite do it for me. Maybe the app is just not mature enough yet.
I had been looking for something like Activecollab, which was supposed to be open source forever, but which had morphed into a paid model sometime last fall. There [...]

In the market for a laptop?

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

I have purchased several laptops over the years. In fact, I likely will not buy another desktop computer. A mind-range laptop is powerful enough for my needs, and they’re portable!
This site:
http://www.notebookreview.com
Is indispensable for  researching your laptop before you buy it. Click on the “notebook reviews” tab and you’ll surprisingly detailed reviews of many machines. The [...]

3 Print Utilities I Use Nearly Every Day

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

These print utilities make my life easier every day. Each one has a free and paid version, and I use the free versions currently.
Fine Print.
This awesome utility allows you to:

Bring up a print job and view it before you print (similar to print preview)
Delete pages that you don’t want to print
Shrink pages and print multiple [...]

Handwriting in the Digital Age

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

I’ve always admired people with good handwriting. It’s a skill (or talent) that I simply do not possess, and likely never will.
Here’s an article that gives some reasons why good handwriting is still a good thing.

Project Management with Google Apps?

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

There are hordes of free and non-free project management tools available, especially online.
If someone wants a reliable system and doesn’t want to spring for Basecamp or any of the other myriad of systems available, what is he or she to do?
Well, with the addition of Google Sites to the Google Apps suite, we have one [...]

The Canon MX310 Scanner/Copier/Fax Wondermachine!

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

My old Visioneer flatbed scanner recently died…no big loss because I was having trouble getting drivers for it.
It’s hard to find a scanner now without also buying a multifunction machine.
What I ended up with is the Canon MX310. I bought it from Costco for $95.
It’s a great little piece of equipment. It can do:

Flatbed Scanning [...]

Free Camtasia Plus Inexpensive Tutorials

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard about Techsmith’s big giveaway of Camtasia 3.
It’s a fantastic tool for doing full motion screen capture video.
Granted, it’s not the most recent version, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.
If you haven’t grabbed your copy and registration key, do so right away:
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Camtasia Studio download:
http://download.techsmith.com/camtasiastudio/enu/312/camtasiaf.exe
Camtasia Studio Key:
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/pcpls.asp
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Next, do [...]