Latest Tips from MakeUseOf.com

Cool Websites and Tools [November 3]
3 Simplest DIY Computer Repairs Anyone Can Do
4 Custom Bullet Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Word 2007
3 Great Online Tools to Improve Study Skills and Get Better Grades
Use Geographical Information To Organize Photos in iPhoto [Mac]
3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 05:01 PM PST

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

(1) AllMyApps – This is an online service that lets you quickly build a list of your favorite programs and then install them onto your computer all at once. Comes in handy If you reformat your computer often. Read more: AllMyApps – Install Multiple Programs At Once

(2) ibizaah! – Cool online YouTube video mixer and playlist creator that lets you play and browse YouTube videos at the same time. You can add videos to your playlists and fade sound between songs on the fly. Read more: bizaah! – YouTube Video Mixer & Playlist Creator

(3) CreateAgif – Free online animated GIF creator that lets you select images on your computer and turn them into GIF animations. The animation size and speed can be customized according to your needs. Read more: CreateAgif – Free Online Animated Gif Creator

(4) GlobalStatCounter – Web service which keeps track of the global trends when it comes to web technology and the internet. The homepage consists of a huge trend graph which plots statistics from the previous few months. The data is based on a monthly pageviews (5 billion) collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites. Read more: GlobalStatCounter – Global Web Usage Trends and Stats

(5) Feng-GUI – Online tool which tries to predict what a human mind would look at within 5 seconds of staring at a web page and generates a visual heatmap. This is the perfect way to tell what your readers are watching and what is grabbing their attention. Read more: Feng-GUI – Generates Visual Heatmap For Your Website

Submit Your Web App

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

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3 Simplest DIY Computer Repairs Anyone Can Do

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 02:00 PM PST

You must understand that what I am about to reveal to you puts me in mortal danger. Men in black and white fuel-efficient vehicles may show up at my door and threaten me with terminating screwdrivers. Those are the easy ones to spot. It’s the independent contractor that you never see coming. They could be dressed, or look like, any sort of geek there is. What I’m about to reveal to you is their bread and butter. They’ve kept you in ignorance about how easy it is to do some of the things they do. Let’s keep it between us. Do not Twitter, Digg or Stumble this post on DIY computer repairs if you care at all for my well-being.

The first thing you need to know is basic troubleshooting. Start with the most obvious and work your way backwards. Read and understand the error messages on your screen. They are in plain language – don’t get intimidated. If it says No Video Source Present, check the cord between your computer and monitor. If the power light isn’t on, check the power cable. Many of your problems are likely of this nature. If you have already done all of the troubleshooting steps and are sure what hardware component is causing problems, then we can talk about that now.

Replacing or Re-seating RAM

There was a time when this was a major operation, requiring a soldering iron and steady hands. Now, RAM comes in easy to install and remove sticks and is a very simple DIY computer repair. Keep in mind for this, that static electricity is your enemy and grounding out is your friend. You can get a grounding wrist strap, or you can touch the metal chassis of your computer frequently. I’d recommend the wrist-strap just to be safe.

diy computer repair

Open up the case of your computer. Many cases today don’t even require removing screws so that’s easy. Look inside for a few seconds at your computer. Seems really confusing and high-tech, doesn’t it? Don’t be intimidated. Look for rows of long computer chips that stick out of the board, perpendicular. They’re about an inch high.

diy computer repair

If you suspect that they just need to be reseated, gently push on the center-edge of the RAM, then the top and bottom. If there was any movement, then that was probably the problem. Once you are sure all of the RAM is seated, you can try to restart your computer.

If the RAM is still causing a problem, you can remove it very easily. At either end of the RAM, there are little levers – or retaining tabs. Gently push these levers down, both at the same time. The levers should pop back and the RAM will be raised up. Using only the edges of the RAM, take it out and put it on a non-static surface. If you’re lucky you’ll have an anti-static bag around. They’re usually pink, silver or clear with thick black lines on them. You can usually get these from a computer repair place, just by asking for them. Tell them you want to bring in your bad RAM for a replacement. Hey, it’s an easy sell for them.

home computer repairs

Take the RAM to your local computer store and they’ll help you select the appropriate RAM for your computer. Make sure you know what model of motherboard you have, since this is an ideal time to upgrade your RAM for a faster computer.

Replacing the Power Supply

If you’re certain the issue is your power supply, that’s easy to remove and install too! WARNING: Unplug your computer completely. Let it sit for a few minutes. This ensures that there is no power to the computer so you don’t get shocked. Letting it sit for a few minutes allows any capacitors to discharge so they don’t shock you either.

home computer repairs

Once you feel safe to proceed with this DIY computer repair, take some masking tape and a pen and mark all the connections that your power supply makes to your components. Do that on the component side of the connection. This helps you to know what cables need to plug back in when you get the new power supply. Sometimes a ribbon cable can have a few connectors on it that aren’t used. No sense connecting to those. Disconnect the power supply cables from the components.

Now, on the back of your computer you will see a number of screws around the power supply. Unscrew those and save the screws. Hey, little screws can come in handy someday. The power supply should now slide right out of the back of the computer or inwards into the computer. Don’t force it. If anything is blocking it, carefully remove those things.

Voila! The power supply is in your hands. Take it, and your motherboard information, to your computer store. Now you can get an appropriately sized power supply. They may recommend a more powerful supply and if your motherboard is meant for it, it can be worth a few extra bucks to upsize. This can help the components run closer to their maximum capacity, meaning a faster computer for you. To install the power supply, read the manual that came with it and make all the connections accordingly. Often, these connections are now unique to each component, making it harder to mess up.

Replacing or Reseating a Video/Sound/Network Interface Card

If you are certain that the video or sound or NIC card is causing your problems, those are probably the easiest things to replace. When you open your computer, you’ll see a column of cards inserted horizontally. These are the cards we’re talking about. If you think they might just need to be reseated, do the same technique you used for the RAM. Gently push on the center edge of the card, then the left and right. Again, if there is any movement, this may likely be the problem.

home computer repairs

If you are certain the card needs to be replaced, it is usually a matter of removing one screw from the mounting flange of the card and gently pulling the card out by its edges. Pop it into a static-free bag and take it into the computer shop. Once again, this may be the time to upgrade as well. Usually by the time you’ve had a computer long enough for a component to fail, a better component comes along and costs about the same as the original one. Sometimes it costs even less.

Take the card and gently insert it into the proper slot. Put the retaining screw in and proceed with the User Manual for the card to make sure it has the right drivers installed and the right configuration.

Yes, these instructions sound too easy to be true, and you’re right! These are the basics that apply to almost any make and model of the components we’ve talked about. There will be specific little variations for each new part, however those should all be covered in the user manual that comes with them. Keep all of your original packaging for the new parts as well, just in case they too are faulty. Then you can return them easier.

I hope this article has helped you to overcome any fear of the computer that you might have. Or at least saved you a few bucks in labour costs for repair. All this information comes with no warranty. If you try to repair your own computer and it doesn’t work, or gets worse, I can not accept any responsibility for that. Always research until your are completely comfortable with the work you will do.

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4 Custom Bullet Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Word 2007

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 12:00 PM PST

The two, Word and 'Word Blindness' don't gel together in a single sentence. But for me, it was a fact for quite some time. I was not familiar with some of Microsoft Word's most common features and the way they could be tweaked or extended. It was only after I was forced to stay on the learning curve that I started learning about the various tips and tricks that can be applied to a simple document that's born out of MS Word.

We have covered a lot of MS Word 2007 tips and tricks and how-to’s over the months and we have seen how the Office application can be used to create interesting documents. With decreasing attention spans and more hurried reading, designing documents for easy readability has become very important. People don't read — they glance through. If it's not your grandmother bequeathing you all her worldly possessions, I guess you too would prefer a rapid scan through a document instead of going at it by line.

Bullets are an essential tool for creating concise documents. You can capture the essential gist of a document in a bulleted list (or a numbered list for that matter).

When I was starting out with MS Word, I knew of only those that I got from the toolbar, with a click on Bullets and Numbering. As MS Word graduated to MS Word 2007, one colorful option came in. A few more days spent spraying bullets all over a document and I learned that there's an entire gallery of bullets that can be used for improving the décor of one's document. Not only that, I can use symbols and my own custom pictures too to create my own bullets.

So let's take a look at the different ways in which we can create bullets. Of course, these are common across all MS Office applications.

Define your own bullet with symbols

MS Word makes it real easy to customize our own bullets if we don't like the default ones.

On the Home tab of the Ribbon, go to the Paragraph group where the Bullets command is located. Click the little drop down arrow to access the default bullets in the Bullets Library. Click on Define New Bullets.
Next, click on Symbol and select any character you like to get a new bullet. You can select Wingdings, Wingdings 2 and Webdings from the Fonts dropdown to access a rich variety of typefaces as bullets. You can see a small preview too. Click on OK to set your new choice of bullet.
Just like a font, you can change the color and size of a bullet.

Define your own bullets with pictures

Alternatively, you can click on Picture in the Define New Bullet box to select any from the large gallery. You can also put a check on Include Content from Office Online.
Click on Import to browse to an external file and include it in the collection.
A lot of the picture bullets can be found under – (In Windows XP) C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Media\Office12\Bullets.
In the above location, you will see that the GIF files have average dimensions of 15 pixels. You can make your own customized picture bullets using the same dimensions in any graphic application.

Shortcut bullets with AutoCorrect

The AutoCorrect feature of Word allows you to create fast bullets with some special characters. To see whether AutoCorrect is set for automatically creating bulleted lists, go to: Office – Word Options – Proofing – Click on AutoCorrect Options.
In the AutoFormat as You Type tab, check Automatic Bulleted Lists.
AutoCorrect recognizes any of these characters…
*
o
— (em dash)
–
––
>
–>
=>
…and changes them to bullets on the run when you press Enter. Type in any of these characters, press Spacebar, or a tab to enter the text for that line. Hit Enter to go to the next line as the bulleted list gets created with each press of an Enter.
Creating bulleted lists with AutoCorrect works with all kinds of bullets like symbols and pictures.

Steal bullets from open documents

If you get a document with a bullet you like, you can easily copy it into your collection. Bullets in an open document get added to the bullets collection under the group – Document Bullets. Select the bullet in that group, right click and Add to Library. Now, it's yours' to own and use.
You can remove them by selecting them in the Library group and right clicking on Remove.

Composing bulleted lists is often harped upon these days. Don't you think that attractive bulleted lists will help with more eye-catching points?

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3 Great Online Tools to Improve Study Skills and Get Better Grades

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 10:00 AM PST

While I’m writing this, I should actually be studying for my math exam tomorrow. Still, I wanted to tell you about how the internet can improve your study skills and help you out with your grades.

Most people will advise you to power down your laptop while learning and burying it somewhere in your back yard until you’re finished, or at least under a pile of clothes in a dark corner of your dresser. I disagree.

Although you mustn’t venture off to Facebook, or go writing articles (you’re smarter than that, aren’t you?), the internet can prove invaluable with helping you master the substance. Below are three online applications that’ll perform miracles for your study skills and, hopefully, for your results as well.

Create Flash Cards with FlashcardExchange

Flash cards are nothing new, and you don’t need the internet to make them. But if you want some truly random questioning, or simply hate using a pen (like I do), there’s an online alternative to improve your flash card study skills.

A web app does not only spare you a lot of work (and more importantly, time), but opens a ton of new possibilities as well.

fce

I can call FlashcardExchange the best online flashcard tool without a shadow of a doubt in my mind. You can create flashcards online, using text or images, and store them on your account. Study using the online web interface, export it to one of the popular offline file formats, or waste some ink by printing them out.

Create Mindmaps with Web Seavus Dropmind

With most classes, it pays to create a visual representation of the information at hand. Making schemes and mindmaps is a study skill that will not only make some concept easier to grasp, they will be easier to remember as well. Online mindmaps are easier to adjust (put away that rubber, those times are past), and evidently offer a variety of additional features.

dropmind3

Personally, I use Seavus Dropmind. It’s a retail application if you want to access all features, but you’ve got more than enough possibilities with the free version. The main disadvantage is that you can only work with one mindmap at a time, but because the canvas is infinitely big, that doesn’t matter much.

There’s an extended review on MakeUseOf here for those interested. In the comments of said article, our readers also suggested MindMeister as an alternative.

Create Cheat Sheets with PocketMod

When I’m say cheat sheets, I try to use it as a figure of speach. I advise strongly against trying to cheat during an exam, and between you and me, there are smaller, smarter and more practical alternatives if you’re really planning to do so.

Use cheat sheets to condense your study material into smaller packages. Use it to list calculus and physics formulas, and to gather the most prominent definitions on one page.

PocketMod is an incredibly original project. You can create and lay-out small booklets online, with different page styles, and print them on standard A4 paper. After a few scissor cuts and a bare minimum of folding work, you’ve got yourself a pocket-sized tiny book.

True, this might take a little bit longer than using a plain piece of paper, but what is an exam without at least a tiny bit of procrastination?

Do you know any other good sites to use the internet, or your computer as a learning aid to improve your study skills? Tell us and your fellow MakeUseOf students all about it in the comments section below!

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Use Geographical Information To Organize Photos in iPhoto [Mac]

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 08:00 AM PST

I’ve used iPhoto since the time I used my first Mac – the cute G3 Blueberry iBook. While sometimes I do simple photo editing, most of the time I’ve just transferred my shots from camera to the hard drive and keep them save there. But not until I wrote about using the Faces feature that I realized that managing photos could be so addictive.

I’ve spent most of my free time last week in front of iPhoto. Aside from tagging faces with their names, I also have a lot of fun tagging photos with their location. This iPhoto feature is called Places, and it’s the ability to organize photos based on where they’re taken. Places is a nice example of integrating Google Map to an application.

Let’s go Places

I’m not much of a traveller myself – yet – so I could only imagine how cool this feature will be for those travelling photographers. I don’t own a GPS-enabled camera either, so imagine again, if I did because Places supports geotagged photos.

I could, however, tag my existing photo collection. All I need are some free time and a decent internet connection.

Photos are usually grouped by events, and every photo in each event is usually taken at the same location. So, to start tagging photos with their location, the best place to start is “Events” under the “Library” menu.

Select an event and click the small “i” sign on the bottom right corner of the event box. It will appear when you hover your mouse near the corner. Alternatively, you could select the event and go to “File –> Get Info” or hit “Control + I”.

An info box with some basic information about the event will appear. You could edit the event’s description and location here.

Every time you edit the place, iPhoto will offer you to find that location on a map.

After few seconds of searching, a map will automatically appear. The location that you’ve searched will be pointed with a pin. Click “Assign to event” button and all the photos in the event will be tagged with that location.

If you are not sure whether the pin really pointed to the correct location, you could zoom in the map by double clicking on it or by clicking on the “plus” (+) button on the bottom left of the screen. You could also choose to view the map by Terrain, Satellite, or Hybrid (combination of both).

If there are several locations within one event, you could tag individual photos with different places. All you have to do is select pictures with similar location, and repeat the above process.

Finding the missing places

One of the (dis)advantages of living in an “unknown” part of the world is that, most of the times, the location you’ve entered can not be found by the map search.

If this is the case, you have to locate the places yourself. Rediscovering places in the map is fun. Drag the map to center the position of the approximate location and click “Drop Pin” button.

To place the pin in the exact point, zoom in on the map and drag the head of the pin to the desired position. You could also set the size of the area by sliding the arrows that appear by the sides of the circle.

The final step is writing down the name of that place.

Organizing by Places

After the fun part is done, we can continue with even more fun: enjoying the photos based on the places. Zoom in on the area that you want to explore and click “Show Photos”. All the photos taken within the range of that map will be shown on the screen.

Or, instead of “Map” view, you could also choose “Thumbnail” view where you’re given the option of narrowing down the on the location.

Surely, with a GPS-enabled camera, all the geotagging would be done automatically. And those adventurers who travel a lot will have their map filled with pins. How exciting!

Do you go places and take pictures? Do geotag your photos to organize them? Share your adventures using the comments below.

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3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook

Posted: 03 Nov 2009 06:00 AM PST

Microsoft’s Outlook is the big brother of Outlook Express, which is Window’s default desktop eMail client.

Outlook is part of Microsoft’s Office suite. It comes with a lot of extra features compared to Outlook Express, including time/event management, contact management, and Microsoft Exchange Server support to synchronize and share information.

Arguably, Outlook Express is a good enough tool for those who don’t expect a lot of flexibility from their software. But what if you want more without having to spend money? Which free alternatives to Outlook should you look into?

Thunderbird

What is it?

Thunderbird is Mozilla’s desktop eMail client. As such, it’s an open source application and supports various addons, which enhance its functionality.

Like Outlook, Thunderbird supports POP, IMAP, and SMTP. Using the Account Wizard, you also can subscribe to RSS News & Blogs, hook up to your Newsgroup account, and launch a quick Gmail setup.

What makes it a better alternative to Outlook?

Thunderbird is available not just for Windows, but also for Mac OS X and Linux. Localized versions of Thunderbird exist for dozens of the most common languages.

Thunderbird is much better than Outlook, in case you enjoy to customize your eMail client. There is a vast collection of themes and extensions available. These will also cover up for most features that are not integrated into Thunderbird by default.

MakeUseOf has dozens of articles regarding Thunderbird. Below is a small selection:

Saikat wrote How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails.
Mark explained how to Synchronize Your Google Contacts, Calendar & RSS In Thunderbird.
Kyle showed you how to Update Your Thunderbird Address Book with Address Crawler.
I have written articles explaining How to Set Up Message Filters in Thunderbird, How To Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird, and How To Recover Deleted eMails in Thunderbird.

Gmail

What is it?

Gmail or Google Mail is Google’s free webmail client.

Although it is only an online eMail application, Gmail is a very powerful tool that easily rivals most common desktop clients. Gmail supports POP and IMAP and it is fully integrated with the Google Apps suite.

What makes it better than Outlook?

The clear advantage of an online eMail client is its global availability. Wherever you go, whichever computer you use, your eMail is already there.

Gmail provides a complex selection of settings and features. Gmail tracks conversations and optionally compiles all eMails belonging to one conversation into a single thread. Within settings you can create filters, enable Google Mail Labs experimental features, manage multiple inboxes, and switch themes.

There are tons of Gmail hacks that provide interesting options. MakeUseOf has covered them extensively. Here are some of the highlights:

Mark has compiled a list of Essential Shortcuts to Browse through Gmail faster.
Saikat covered 5 Ways To Create Custom Multiple Signatures in GMail.
David shared 7 Tips to Make Gmail The Best Free Email Service For Productive People.
Sharninder explained How To Access & Use Gmail Offline.
Karl wrote about How To Backup Your Gmail account To YOUR Hard Drive.
Aibek revealed 1 Awesome Gmail tip You Didn’t Know about.

Angelina has written a series of posts on How To Turn Gmail Into a Multitasking Machine. In Part 1 she explains how to best configure Gmail, how to consolidate your eMail, and set up labels. In Part2 she provides tips for eMail filtering. Finally, in Part 3, Angelina explores options for the sidebar and the use of multiple inboxes.

Zimbra Desktop

What is it?

Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop is a desktop eMail client that rivals Gmail, Thunderbird, and Outlook alike. Interestingly, it is powered by Mozilla.

What makes it a better alternative to Outlook?

Much like its Mozilla companion Thunderbird, Zimbra is available in 20 different language versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The design is sleek and Zimbra offers several more theme options. Best of all, it’s easy and intuitive to use with a ton of useful features.

Zimbra supports its own online webmail client Zimbra as well as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Microsoft Live Hotmail, AOL Mail, Microsoft Exchange IMAP, IMAP, and POP.

Zimbra has a built-in calendar, contacts, task manager, documents, and briefcase.

Obviously, language integration is not yet perfect. Although I selected the US English language installation and confirmed this language preference within options, some tabs and menus are still displayed in the language of my operating system: German. This should not be an issue if you select the language of your operating system.

Zimbra synchronizes eMails, contacts, and calendars with Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail.

Like Gmail, Zimbra offers an optional conversation view, i.e. threaded conversations. It also comes with advanced tagging options.

Contacts can be grouped and tagged, you can add photos, and import/export via .csv files is supported.

Zimbra comes with great search features. You can quickly search your mailbox for all or specified item types or use the advanced search to add several search criteria, such as file size, date and time, tag, status, folder, and more. The best is that searches can be saved as virtual folders.