Collaborative document editing can be a blessing when you are working with team members or family over the internet. Its a lot more simple, easier and efficient then mailing or otherwise sending your documents and then waiting for the edited document to arrive and then the bigger mess of managing all the versions of the documents that accumulates over time. Gobby is a collaborative text editor that helps you achieve real time collaboration on your document.
Download and install Gobby. Gobby is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Linux users can also try the distribution’s package manager to install Gobby.
I can’t count how many CD-Rs and DVD-Rs I’ve used up during my tenure as a geek (not even counting the “coasters” I’ve created). I am very much a packrat, both online and off, but hey, we’re not here to talk about my bad habits.
If you are a packrat like myself, you’ll have likely tapped several services in an effort to store, share, and backup all your digital things and information: Flickr, Picasa, Sandy, Mozy, Delicious, Gmail, G-Reader, G-Anything…I could go on all day.
I guess I got very used to working for the man and the perks that come with it. I have had Adobe Professional on my desktop and laptop for a long time now. When I had to create a quick PDF from a word document on a client’s site - after my laptop suffered from battery drainage I had some issues.
I quickly Googled around looking for a free, easy solution. Lots of places claimed to do what I wanted but the first one that did it EASY and FREE was doPDF.
Do you ever feel limited by traditional microblogging services? I understand that part of their appeal is the 140 character restriction but sometimes a thing needs more than a line or two. Isn’t that what blogs are for? Well, not really. If you want to keep a decent blog, little blurbs about a fleeting thought will eventually wear on your audience. There needs to be a middle ground. I think I might have found it.
It all began with a request from a fellow teacher to teach him how to write a mathematical equation inside his paper. The effort of doing this using ‘normal’ word processor is equal to a session inside the dentist office - painful.
So I started the quest to find more suitable tool to east the pain and find Lyx - available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The definiton on their web page said: “LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM - What You See Is What You Mean), and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get).”
I am a lifelong fan of Adobe PDF files but I am unwilling to pay a minimum $300 for Adobe Acrobat. I would much rather look around for free open-source alternatives and today I found a nice little software tool that allows you to take a PDF file and split it up into lots of little PDF files as well as merge lots of PDF files together. It’s called PDF Split and Merge. Just what I was looking for!
Plus if you’re willing to donate a minimum of $1 to the developer, he’ll throw in the enhanced version of the software which will give you the ability to encrypt your files as well.
Everything that isn’t already online is going online these days. Even our banks, government sectors, health clubs, universities, grocery stores, you name it, have websites.
What’s the one thing they have in common?
They all have downloadable PDF forms.
You want to join the gym? Here’s a PDF form for you to fill and you’re all set to go!
Would you like to study in our university? Fill in this PDF form and send it back to us.
You have to renew your passport? Here’s an application form for you.
KallOut is a very simple, yet very functional, Windows program. For highlighted text in many programs (including Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and Notepad) it puts a small icon next to the highlighted words, which looks like this 
. When you hover your mouse over that icon, it gives you a menu to look up the selected text in many popular services like Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, eBay and many more.
Also with the BestGuess™ feature, KallOut even analyzes the content you’ve selected and suggests the most relevant places to search for that phrase.
I’m a big fan of ebooks and have a huge collection of ebooks on various topics. Although I don’t read them on my cellphone now but later in this year when I plan to travel extensively, I’d definitely like to have the access to my ebooks collection on my phone and read them on the go.
While I was searching for ebook reading softwares online, I came across Mobipocket which is a free ebook reader provided by the Mobipocket.com ebook store. It works only on Windows PC and also works on mobile phones like Smartphones, Blackberry and on devices like PDA.
A large part of the “Web 2.0″ image is social networking. With that is the hopeful ability to make everything accessible in one place. It is somewhat of a “let’s just make it easier for everyone scenario,” but that is what the majority of it is anyway right? Anyway, I have just found a website called Arkiva devoted to exactly what it’s motto says: “All your Digital Files. One Place.”
Arkiva is a mix of social networking and storage to make your life that much easier. The focus of the site is most certainly achieved by the incredible array of options and successful accomplishments that are achieved by simply using the site.
I have been working on the web for a while now, and I have actually found it easier to write every document in HTML format instead of DOC or TXT. If you use Google Docs, you are actually doing the same, since Google Docs has (thankfully) essentially become a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Creating some document templates using HTML and CSS is very easy, can be done by everyone, and if you do it right, it will look the same to everyone.
| While working on a project that requires a lot of writing - like coding, or authoring a book - it is a good idea to make backups or even better, maintain a sort of version control so that you can go back in time to see changes you’ve made to an article.
In Windows you have a few options to do this. If you are writing in Microsoft Word, then you can use “track changes” as a sort of version control. This will give you the ability to look back at the changes you have made to your writing. However this only works for certain kinds of work. |
Want to have identical browser settings on every one of your PCs ? How about keeping documents on your office and home PCs synchronized? For these and several other ways to sync your data read further. Enjoy!
1. Google Browser Sync - Sync Browser Bookmarks, History, Settings, etc. between diff. PCs
Google Browser Sync is a Firefox extension from Google that can auto synchronize your browser bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across multiple computers. It even lets you restore open browser tabs and windows across different machines so you can always pickup from where you left. It’s completely automated, all you need to do is to install it on all computers that you use on a regular basis.
2. SyncToy - Synchronize Files Between PC and USB Thumbdrive
Geeks need to shoot files over to someone all the time - video clips, movies, pictures, games distros, software programs etc. Most of the email providers restict you with a max. 10-20 MB attachments so sending files by email isn’t an option. Additionally, there are so many file sharing tools out there that sending large files as an email attachment became rather outdated.
Here you’ll find 5 file sharing services that standout from the rest and incorporate some unique features in one online application. These can be: extremely easy upload/organize/access features, anonymity, browser integration, etc.
There are literally hundred of new Web 2.0 sites that appear every month and many of them sound interesting, but only a few actually get people excited and anxious to get their hands on the goods! Most of these sites start out in private beta, so only a few select people get to play around with them.
Here’s my list of some of the popular and most anticipated Web 2.0 sites that are still in private beta, but already have a pretty large following!
It’s always a good idea to keep a secure backup copy of your important documents online. Sooner or later your disk will crash, it’s not about if but more like when. So, unless you have an external drive, online backup is a must. Although there are plenty of file storage services out there, only a few offer reliable storage and backup service for sensitive data. So here you go …
Mozy - The easiest online backup solution so far. Just install it on your Mac or PC, specify which files it should backup, and let it do the work. No need to worry, it will automatically keep backup files up-to-date and synchronized. You can also access and download any/all of your backup files from other computers.
Ever since Google shook up the status quo by introducing Google Docs, the number of online word processors seems to be on the rise. Google’s nearest competitor seems to be, from where I’m sitting, Zoho Writer, who announced recently that they were introducing an offline version using, ironically enough, Google Gears.
But Adobe has also entered the bustling online word-processing market by bringing out Buzzword. What makes this different though from all the rest is that :
You may be well familiar with biggies like Youtube, Digg, Wikipedia, and StumbleUpon. They are all big and 100% user-powered websites. However, what about the smaller ones, focused on a single aspect and still able to attract a huge user base. So here you go, six really cool and fast growing communy-powered websites that you should definitely see.
1. Instructables - Extremely useful, entertaining and rather addictive online community where people share what they do and how they do it. Here you can find hundreds of excellent home-made DIY (Do It Yourself) guides detailing how to turn some of the garage junk into cool stuf, like invisible book shelf, hairspray-powered potato cannon or even making a wallet (from an old keyboard). See pic below.
A bunch of really useful email contacts: PDF converter, invisible personal assistant, scanner (for real), quick document sharing, and an excellent group conversation starter.
(1) PDF@koolwire.com
Koolwire is a simple, no-login required PDF conversion service. Simply send the document (DOC, PPT, XLS, JPEG, GIF, RTF, and TXT.) to ‘PDF@koolwire.com’ and shortly after get it back as PDF.
(2) WHATEVER@drop.io
Drop.io lets you create so called drops and use them as private file storage boxes. Drops can be shared with others on a variety of access levels (viewer, contributor, etc.). Best of all, each drop gets its own email address, so everything emailed to that email will be added to the drop.
Once in a while we all need some kind of document, it may be a business plan presentation, rental contract, non-disclosure agreement, or even a name change request form. In most cases, Googling the document may ultimately get you what you need, but it’s both time consuming and frustrating. Below, I want to go through 3 excellent resources that can provide you with any professional document or form template for free.
A list of useful mobile apps that bring excellent features to your phone. Enjoy!
1 UnwiredBuyer - Receive last minute eBay notifications and place bids directly from your mobile. Definitely a must-have for every eBay junkie. (US and Canada). Video Demo.
2. Soonr - Need to access your PC directly from the handset? Enter Soonr, a free mobile client that brings remote PC access to your phone: search files, view documents, check emails, run programs and more. US only. Video Demo.
Recently we have reviewed writely an ‘online word solution’. Now google released Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which is mainly a combination of formerly separate Google services, Writely and Google Spreadsheets. Google Spreadsheets does same things as Writely but for spreadsheet type documents. By using it is possible to create/edit/share spreadsheet documents (ex; Excel documents) online. For more information and features check out Writely review (link above).
Both Writely and Google Spreadsheets websites now redirect to ‘Google Docs & Spreadsheets’. So, it means from now on we have one service that combines both, which I think is a lot more convenient for users.
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