Posts Tagged ‘productivity tools’

20 Most Useful Vista Sidebar Gadgets

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

If you are a Windows Vista user, you’re probably enjoying all the fancy features that are designed for better security and easier use, not to mention the sleek interface, making computer use more enjoyable.

One of its best features is the Windows Sidebar. The Sidebar is a pane on the side of the Microsoft Windows Vista desktop. You can organize your favorite gadgets or applications here, so that they will all be easily available to you anytime.

There are so many gadgets to choose from. If you haven’t fixed up your sidebar, it might be too tasking for you to go through all of it and choose the ones you can benefit from.

To make it easy for you, we have chosen the most useful Vista Gadget Tools from the list.

Here you go…

1. RD Safely

The RD Safely gadget makes it possible to easily disconnect your usb, SATA, eSATA drives.

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2. Minimize
This Vista Gadget allows you to minimize all the windows you’re working on quickly and show just the desktop.

3. Drag & Drop and Print
This vista gadget makes it very simple to print a document. You just have to drag and drop the documents that you wish to print.

4. Recent Items
This vista gadget shows a list of your recently accessed items grouped by location.  The gadget was designed to maximize screen usage. You can also set the number of items it could show.

5. Password generator

Having trouble creating a secure password? This gadget can help generate random passwords and automatically copy it into the clipboard.

6. Clipboard Manager

Images that we copy or paste are usually stored on clipboards. Copy/Paste or image grabbing can be a tedious task. But with this gadget, you can easily manage your clipboard from the Windows Sidebar. The clipboard manager will allow you to see current clipboard content on the clipboard history.

7. Spell Checker gadget
If you normally get stumped in spelling, the Spell Checker gadget would be really handy for you.

8. µTorrent Stats
For those who usually download large files, this sidebar gadget is very helpful. You can start, pause or stop the torrent easily. Also, you can view stats for each torrent separately.

9. Screen Snaper
This Vista Gadget allows you to capture anything on screen. It can capture full screen, windows or selected objects. It can capture by region too. It can automatically copy images to clipboard and save it. In addition, it can save images in 7 formats: BMP/EMF/GIF/JPG/PNG/TIFF/WMF

10. NetGadget 64-bit

This windows vista gadget monitors your network connections and displays a real-time graph. Click on the graph and you can see your internal IP address, MAC IDs, current connections, and other network information. This is also available for the 32-bit machine.

11. Run
This one is a real timesaver. Just type in the name of a program, folder, document or Internet resource you wish to access and this little gadget will instantly open it for you.

12. Countdown to Anything
This can be both useful and fun. It’s so easy to use too.  Just enter the date and the countdown event.

13. The Magic Folder
This is a great organizing tool.  The gadget will help you categorize and move files in an organized manner. When you drag a file to the gadget, it will check the file extension and place it where it should fit. Most extension types come pre-registered.

14. CT Control
This sidebar gadget shows the current Time, Date & Uptime of your computer. You can also use it as a stopwatch, alarm or a countdown clock. Plus, you can put your computer on standby, shut it down, restart it or log off  using this gadget.

15. Digital World Clock
If you need to constantly check for time on different timezones, this gadget is really practical.

16. Adsense

Monitoring your day’s earning has never been easier. You can quickly check clicks and impressions from your adsense campaigns using this gadget.

17. Twadget
With this vista gadget you can easily keep up with your friends’ status on Twitter and update your own status. No need to log in Twitter!

18. Windows Live Writer
The Windows live writer gadget is designed to make it easy for you to build your article throughout the day. You can open a new blog entry, open a previous blog entry or even have it floating and open from anywhere on your desktop.

19. FTP Access
This gadget will instantly connect you to the ftp server once you enter the required information.

20. App Launcher

This gadget enables you to launch your preferred applications from the Windows Vista Sidebar. Just add files or applications that you frequently use on the gadget and a simple click will automatically launch the program or files.

Hope this makes it easier for you to organize your sidebar. If you find any of the other Vista Gadget Tools useful too, please share it with us through the comments section. ☺

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Posted in Business and Marketing, Life Management, Productivity Toolkit, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

5 Powerful Google Services That Can Build Your Business

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

If you’re a freelancer or a small business owner, it is important to know what business-building resources are available to you with little or no budget at all.

If you don’t know where to start, here are some recommendations…

Besides the homepage gadgets, Google offers free services that can help boost your company’s productivity and grow your business.

Here are some free Google services…

1. Google Alerts

If you can’t afford to get your own researcher for the meantime, this is really a convenient service to have.

alert

Google Alerts can help you monitor news, blog articles, videos or any other web published materials about your product, your competitor or your industry.

You can also stay on top of the latest events and keep tabs on your personal interests like sports, celebrity news etc.

Alerts can be sent through your email or posted on your feeds tab in your homepage.

2. Google Analytics

Through this free Google service, you can optimize your website, conduct split tests and boost your sales.
analytics

The service provides advanced segmentation or analytical interpretation of your website’s traffic with an interactive segment builder.

You can also generate custom reports by using the drag and drop interface to view all the information the way you want to.

Simply put, this web analytics solution gives you accurate information on your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

Google Analytics is a really powerful tool that is easy-to-use. Its features can help analyze traffic data in different ways. It can help guide you in creating better-targeted ads to increase your sales and ultimately give you a higher converting website.

3. Gmail

If you haven’t tried Gmail and you’re interested in using Google Analytics or Google Alerts, then you need to sign up for Gmail ☺

You can set up your Gmail to be as functional as your Outlook or whatever email software you use. Here are some cool Gmail features that you can check out.

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• Email management

If you have a Gmail account, you can make use of that account to manage several email accounts. Here’s how…

Click on Settings > Accounts > Get mail from other accounts (then add the email account/s)

Also you can set it up so you’re able to reply to emails using your other accounts. Just follow these steps…

Settings > Account > Send mail as (then add the email account/s)

• Google Calendar

This feature serves the same functions as your email software calendars. You can set up appointments, manage invites and even share your calendar simply by adding emails that would have access to the calendar.

You can sync your Google calendar to your Outlook or if you’re using a Mac, you can sync it to your iCal.

• Google Labs

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Inside Gmail are some really cool features that you can enable on your account.

Just a couple of brilliant tools you can add are text messaging through Gtalk for free (available to US numbers only) and offline access.

4. Google Reader

This service allows you to keep up with your favorite websites by accessing and reading them in one place, making it as easy as checking your email.

reader

You can spend less time browsing for updates; instead you can scan through them on one page and just read through the important stuff.

5. Google Docs

The Documents feature on Gmail is also very handy. When you create documents here, you can:

docs

• Share the documents and do edits simultaneously with other people you have shared the document with. Edits are shown in real time.

• You can also email the document as an attachment.

• And publish it as a webpage

I’m sure you can’t wait to explore these Google services and see how it can help build your business. ☺

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Posted in Business and Marketing, Productivity Toolkit | 1 Comment »

5 Cool iGoogle Gadgets to Maximize Your Homepage Use

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an employee, a business owner, a student or a stay at home parent, life just has too many demands and we all struggle to accomplish as much as we can throughout the day.

When you go online you would want to get as much done in as little time as possible. There are many free online gadgets available that could help.

Personally I’ve been using some cool Google gadgets & services.

You can start being productive the moment you turn on your browser. By customizing your homepage you’ll have instant access to whatever you need.

iGoogle has a wide array of free gadgets that are easy to use and manage.

Here are a few iGoogle Gadgets that I find extremely helpful…

1. To-Do List
You can download this gadget and place it where your eyes can instantly see it once you open your browser. This way when you go online you can start focusing on the task you really need to accomplish for that day. You can also print and email your list.

to-to

2. iReminder
You can set alerts or reminders throughout the day. A real practical gadget especially since we can sometimes lose track of time while working.

ireminder

3. World Clocks
If you need to keep track of several time zones to manage your appointments or meetings, this tool is really handy. You can modify each clock according to the time zones you need to keep track of.

worldclocks

4. Timesheet helper
This is especially helpful for freelancers. This can help track time and schedules.

time

5. Sticky Note
Just like your regular sticky notes, you can use this to jot down ideas or stuff you need to remember. I write on my sticky notes throughout the day. I put links or resources I was able to find or ideas or things I need to add on my next day’s “to-do” list.

sticky

There are several other iGoogle Gadgets that you can choose from and add to your homepage. You can add Date & Time, Facebook gadget and several others that you think would be handy to have there.

In addition, it also helps to customize the news links to your homepage. You can choose only the ones that you find relevant. This eliminates wasting time surfing the Internet for news and information that you regularly need to be updated with.

If you’re using another portal, like Yahoo, MSN, etc. you can check out the tools they offer that will suit your homepage needs.

If you have other great suggestions, let us know by putting in the comments section below.

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Posted in Productivity Toolkit | No Comments »
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