Like over 300,000 other Mac users who downloaded the MacHeist nanoBundle (as covered by Simon), I received WriteRoom as part of the package’s bevy of software. This lightweight word processor promises distraction-free writing. Having read about it and the productivity concepts underlying it in the past (here’s an old WWD post from Leo about distraction-free writing tools, for example), I was interested in giving it a spin to see if it could help me.
By Will Kelly, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 16:00 PST
There’s one thing I can count on having on me at all times, and that’s my iPhone. It stands to reason, then, that in a pinch, my Apple wonder device is what I turn to in order to keep track of stray ideas and thoughts that might otherwise go unrecorded, lost forever to the ether. Imagine where we’d be if the Snuggie inventor hadn’t been able to record that gem.
By Darrell Etherington, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:00 PST
As an amateur photographer, I like to have a nice image as my desktop wallpaper to provide me with some inspiration throughout the day. Thanks to a post on freewaregenius, I just discovered that National Graphic magazine makes a huge selection of inspiring images available for desktop wallpaper use for free.
By Simon Mackie, Monday, November 23, 2009 16:00 PST
Over the weekend, Adobe launched a revamped version of Acrobat.com, its web office and collaboration suite. This is the first major upgrade to the service since it left beta last summer (as covered by Thursday) and provides some much-needed productivity enhancements to this service.
By Will Kelly, Monday, November 23, 2009 07:00 PST
WebWorkerDaily readers are a diverse bunch. Every week, I profile a different reader and ask them to share what they do, how they do it, and some of their favorite hints and tips.
By Simon Mackie, Friday, November 20, 2009 11:00 PST
A flowchart can be crucial for explaining certain tasks or ideas. SlickPlan’s goal is to make sure that you can put together a flowchart quickly, no matter where you are. The web-based application also enables you to put together site maps and interact with your existing designs. It was created with web designers in mind, but anyone can quickly learn to use SlickPlan’s flowcharts.
By Thursday Bram, Friday, November 20, 2009 07:05 PST
280 Slides is a free presentation web app that’s a bit like having a a version of PowerPoint right inside your browser. It makes it super-easy to create and share presentations online. You can also import and export PowerPoint files from within the app. It’s powerful and simple to use, and as it’s based on the Cappuccino web framework, it doesn’t require any browser plug-ins to work.
By Simon Mackie, Thursday, November 19, 2009 13:00 PST
I’ve long been looking for a Windows-based Twitter client that can delight me as much as its native Mac counterparts. Too many clients for Windows depend on Adobe AIR, something which isn’t an ideal arrangement, in my opinion. TweetDeck and Seesmic are both powerful tools, but why can’t someone make a Windows-native app that works just as well?
By Darrell Etherington, Thursday, November 19, 2009 07:00 PST
WorkSnug is a neat augmented reality iPhone app that enables you to find great places to work nearby, from cafes to coworking spaces, complete with reviews. Here’s a short video showing how it works…
By Simon Mackie, Wednesday, November 18, 2009 08:00 PST
Even though most of my work is done entirely online, occasionally there are times when I have to send a letter: invoices for clients who want print copies, official correspondence and even, sometimes, letters to people who I can’t get in touch with online. I don’t always want to drop everything and head off to the post office to send my mail, however, making Snailmailr a surprisingly useful tool.
By Thursday Bram, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 07:00 PST
Perhaps the greatest treasure in the recent MacHeist nanoBundle (which was covered by Simon in a recent post) is ShoveBox. It’s a clippings organizer that lets you capture, view, organize and edit data that is elegant in its simplicity. This very usable application resides in the menubar, making it accessible at all times regardless of what application you are using.
By Will Kelly, Monday, November 16, 2009 16:00 PST
Corporate email is becoming increasingly less effective for project communications in today’s geographically dispersed work teams. It’s gradually being displaced by solutions like Microsoft SharePoint, instant messaging and even social media tools.
By Will Kelly, Friday, November 13, 2009 16:00 PST
The second wave of H1N1 swine flu is here. Vaccine’s in short supply, so we need alternate strategies for coping with the pandemic, the consequences of which could include a lack of Internet bandwidth capacity if large numbers of workers opt for staying home and telecommuting via the web, according to a new report prepared by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
By Charles Moore, Friday, November 13, 2009 09:00 PST
Here in the UK, we use very bulky three-pin earthed electric plugs for our 240V AC system. In normal domestic use, these plugs are satisfyingly chunky and solid, but if you need to go on the road, not only do they take up a much larger amount of space in your bag than European or U.S. plugs (particularly if you have more than one), if not well packed they can end up damaging your precious gadgets.
By Simon Mackie, Thursday, November 12, 2009 08:00 PST
One of the banes of many writers’ existence (including my own!) is inheriting a slew of documents where the people working on them previously haven’t paid much heed to document versioning, leaving you trying to make sense of a mishmash of documents. On more than one occasion, I’ve been left hoping for a tool that would enable me to compare documents in bulk so I can get a mess of a documentation library under control before I can begin the real work on a project.
By Will Kelly, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 13:00 PST
Google Apps is a favorite tool of many web workers, but soon it might be just as well-known to many of our cubicle-bound corporate colleagues. That’s because Google is making great strides into the enterprise, taking on the likes of Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino with the enterprise version of the product.
By Simon Mackie, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:00 PST
Mozilla has made beta 2 of Firefox 3.6 available. If you are already running beta 1, you can use Help->Check for Updates to get the latest version.
By Simon Mackie, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 07:32 PST
I work with a number of nonprofit organizations and associations. A common theme among them is their reliance on fundraising efforts to gather money for their projects.
By Scott Blitstein, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 07:00 PST
One of my favorite and most often-used features in Microsoft Word is Track Changes. For the uninitiated, Track Changes lets the document creator see what changes an editor makes to an original document. Unfortunately, while PowerPoint has a Review tab, it is limited to adding comments — it has no Track Changes feature. So reviewers have to get creative in referencing the original content and then making note of suggested changes using comments.
By Meryl Evans, Tuesday, November 10, 2009 10:00 PST
Twitter lists are a great way to group people into various categories, filter conversations, keep up with experts within a specific field and track a topic without needing to follow all of the relevant users — and can even be used as an RSS reader replacement. Despite being such a new feature, people are already using lists as a measure of influence.
By Dawn Foster, Tuesday, November 10, 2009 07:00 PST
Today marks the start of the fifth birthday celebration of my favorite browser, Mozilla Firefox. I don’t know about you, but I’m having trouble getting my head around the fact that it’s 5 years old — that makes me feel a little old myself!
By Simon Mackie, Monday, November 9, 2009 08:01 PST
Bill On Site offers the ability to manage invoices from your mobile phone. No matter where you are, as long as your phone has a web browser, you can send an invoice to your client immediately — you don’t need to have a computer at hand.
By Thursday Bram, Monday, November 9, 2009 07:00 PST
Yesterday I took part in my first Jelly session — and I’ve got to say it was a fun and productive experience that I will be repeating in the future. Jellies are informal, free coworking events that are open to anyone. There were 10 participants at the Jelly I attended, from a range of different backgrounds although they were mainly freelancers, as you might expect. At times, particularly in the morning, the atmosphere was studious and productive, but there was also some interesting chat and opportunities to make new connections.
By Simon Mackie, Friday, November 6, 2009 11:00 PST
37signals’ Haystack promises to make finding a web designer easy, offering a simplified way to search for clients looking to hire a professional. While it’s a useful tool for someone with a web design project, it can also prove useful for web designers.
By Thursday Bram, Friday, November 6, 2009 07:00 PST
Distraction-free Writing Is Distracting to Me
Broadsheet
War Room
Glenn Greenwald
