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LogMeIn Express: Simple, On-demand Screen Sharing

LogMeIn, a supplier of useful remote control, file-sharing and backup apps that we’ve written about many times previously, this week quietly rolled out a beta of LogMeIn Express, a simple, on-demand service for sharing your screen with up to 100 other people.

To get started, just go to the LogMeIn Express site, and click the “Share” button. You’ll need to download and run a small application (unfortunately, the helper application appears to be Windows-only at the moment). Once the client app is up and running, a small window appears at the top of your screen. It contains a unique 12-digit code that you can send to everyone with which you want to share your screen. Helpfully there’s a “copy to clipboard” button to make it even easier to share the code with others over IM or email. (Note: the first time I tried using the app, it seemed to have trouble acquiring a session code — restarting the app fixed that).

The LogMeIn Express control panel window in the screenshot above shows the window in its expanded state — after a short delay it rolls up to an unobtrusive bar, so it won’t get in the way.

The viewers (the people that you’d like to share your screen with) then just need to go to the LogMeIn Express site and type in the session code that you’ve sent them (unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible to paste the code in the box, which means that they’ll have to type it out by hand). There’s no need for them to download anything — it all runs in the browser via Flash. Here’s a screenshot of my Windows laptop, shared with my MacBook:

LogMeInExpress - sharing on Mac

The presenter and the viewers can communicate via a built-in chat window. The shared screen is clear on the viewer’s browser, but — as with all screen sharing services — there is a little lag and the screens don’t keep completely in sync, especially if lots of stuff is happening. However, as long as you keep movements fairly controlled, the lag isn’t very noticeable.

In addition, the presenter can enable a useful “remote control” mode, whereby the viewers can take control of the mouse pointer on the presenter’s screen (I tested this and it works pretty well), and can also send files to the viewers via the app.

As the downloadable client application is currently Windows-only and I mainly use a Mac, it’s not suitable for me at the moment — I think I’ll stick with Skype for my simple screen sharing needs. However, if you’re looking for a simple and fast way to share your Windows screen, it’s worth checking out.

What do you use when you need to share your screen with other people?

Distraction-free Writing Is Distracting to Me

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.

Capture Ideas On the Go: Idea Organizer for the iPhone

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.

Get Inspiring National Geographic Images to Use as Desktop Wallpaper

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.

Acrobat.com Revamped — Better Interface, New Features

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.

WWD Reader Profile: Bia Kunze, Dentist/Mobile Tech Blogger

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.

SlickPlan: Easy and Free Flowcharts

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.

WWD Screencast: 280 Slides

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.

Seesmic for Windows: An AIR-less Twitter Client

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?

WorkSnug: Find Places to Work With Your iPhone

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…

Snailmailr: Send Mail from the Web

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.

ShoveBox for the Mac and iPhone Helps Keep Your Stuff Organized

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.

Taking Corporate Microblogging Mobile

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.

Practical H1N1 Prevention Strategies for Web Workers

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.

Genius Gadget Lust: Folding UK Three-pin Plug

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.

Compare Multiple Documents With CompareMyDocs.com

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.

Google Apps Moving Into Enterprise and Government

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.

Firefox 3.6b2 Released

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.

Giving Impact Takes Donations Social

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.

Track PowerPoint Changes With Workshare Compare for PowerPoint

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.

My Wish List for Twitter Lists: Collaboration Features

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.

Happy 5th Birthday, Firefox!

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!

Bill On Site: Invoicing From Your Phone

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.

Jelly, Casual Coworking in a City Near You

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.

Haystack: Simplifying the Search for Web Designers

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.

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