Category: Web

Remove Clutter when Reading on the Web

Remove Clutter when Reading on the Web

1X1Readability is an online tool that allows you to read articles and online literature without all the clutter and advertisements. Follow these simple steps to enable this tool:
  1. Visit:  http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
  2. Choose your preferences:

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  3. Drag the Readability icon into your bookmarks bar

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  4. Whenever you find a worthy online article, just click on the readability button and enjoy the clutter free story

    Here is a video to learn more (Recommend viewing the video in Firefox): http://vimeo.com/8798529

Create Innovative Presentations with Prezi

Create Innovative Presentations with Prezi

When it comes time to make a presentation, many people go straight to the commonly used PowerPoint. While PowerPoint is a reliable tool, you may want to try something new to engage your audience.   Prezi is a flash-based Web application that allows you to create non-linear presentations using text, images and embedded video. Prezi functions similarly to a whiteboard where you can zoom in to emphasize details and zoom out to show the big picture, instead of moving from slide to slide.

There are free public and pro upgraded licenses available; if you are a teacher or student, you can get one of the upgraded memberships for free.  Visit the Prezi website for more details.

Digitally Manage your Notes with Evernote

Digitally Manage your Notes with Evernote

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Writing out notes and keeping track of all of those bits of paper can be a hard task to manage. Evernote has developed a free digital management system for all of your notes. Evernote incorporates the use of your computer, your mobile devices and the Internet to make your information accessible all of the time. If you are at a meeting or a class and you want to quickly remember the information, you can take a picture of the whiteboard and add it to your notes.  Evernote also has a useful feature that can read text in photographs or handwritten notes to make them easily searchable.  Some other ways to add information are through to-do lists, notes, web selections and voice memos.  Once you have many notes, it is easy to organize them into categories and add tags.

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Overall, Evernote is a helpful tool that acts like your own digital file cabinet. If you want to learn more or try it out, visit the Evernote homepage.

Save Web Forms as you Type with Lazarus

Save Web Forms as you Type with Lazarus

If you’ve ever lost your work when typing in an online form, posting content to Blackboard or writing webmail, then you know how frustrating it can be!  Next time you can prevent this inconvenience by installing a very helpful Firefox add-on, Lazarus: Form Recovery. Lazarus automatically saves the text you have entered in a form, blog response or even an email and allows you to easily recover your work.  

After installing Lazarus, all you have to do to recover text in a Web document is return to the Web page and right-click on the field where you lost the data. You will have the option to recover text or to recover a form depending on what you need. After you select an option, the text is automatically re-entered.  You can also keep your data secure by setting Lazarus to require a password to restore your forms.

Customize your Web Print Size

Customize your Web Print Size

1X1When printing from the Web, components of a webpage such as headers, side menus or ads can take up a large portion of the printed page.  In some cases, the text font-size on a webpage may be too small for printing.  With Aardvark, a Firefox add-on, you can easily clean up a webpage for easier viewing and printing.

Once you install the add-on to Firefox, to get started, just right-click on a page and select Start Aardvark. With your mouse, you can select areas and use simple keystrokes such as R – to remove, I – to isolate or W – to widen the area.
For pages with small text,  follow these steps to isolate a portion of a webpage and increase the text-size for printing:

1. Right-click and select Start Aardvark.
2. Use the red rectangle to select an area.

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3. Use the keystroke “I” to isolate the selection.
4. Once you have customized the webpage, make sure to move your cursor off of  the page (so you do not print any red rectangles) then select File > Print Preview.  In Print Preview, adjust the scale to a higher percentage to increase the text size.
5.  Select Print.
Note: Your computer might save the print preview scale setting for future printing. Also, Aardvark is not being supported anymore. If you’re running an old version of Firefox (10 or earlier) it will still work. It is not available for later versions.

News in Pictures

News in Pictures

1X1With the increasing amount of information available on the Internet, means for consuming online resources are constantly evolving and becoming more image driven.  Many sites use images to represent news from around the world. Seeing an interesting picture  may expose you to a topic that you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.

BBC News posts a daily slideshow in the Day in Pictures section.

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Google News offers the option to put the top news stories into an image view.

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Visit the  News in Pictures website to see a comprehensive  listing of websites that feature pictorial news.

Google Wave

Google Wave

Google Wave is a new online tool that provides a platform for real-time collaboration and communication. Google has combined features of instant messaging, wikis, email and word processing so that users can work together to create and edit documents called “waves.”  These waves allow any participant to edit any part of the document and there is an option to add pictures, maps or graphics to the document. This tool could be useful for collaborating on group projects, brainstorming, class notes or even planning an event.

Initially Google Wave only released in a limited preview to a select number of participants, but now you can follow this  link to request an invite from Google. It still may take a few days to get a confirmation email though. For more information about Google Wave visit their website or watch a short video from some of the Google developers.

As of August 2010, Google Wave has been shut down.

Get Organized with Remember the Milk.com

Get Organized with Remember the Milk.com

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Remember the Milk
Remember the Milk

As the fall semester comes to end and the holidays are fast-approaching, keeping track of holiday shopping and long to-do lists seems inevitable. If you still are relying on sticky notes and writing your reminders on bits of paper, you may want to try out the helpful Web task management tool, Rememberthemilk.com. Remember the Milk is a free Web-based application that can help you simplify and organize all of your tasks in one place.  This software allows you to create categorized task lists and send out reminders via text message, email, Twitter or even instant messages.

A few highlights of the Remember the Milk include:

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  • – Locate your task. Easily assign locations to a task to help plan the best way to get things done.
  • – Add tasks from a mobile device. Just send an email with one task per line to your Remember the Milk import email address and it will add the items to your task list.
  • – Print out your weekly check lists.
Technology Videos: In Plain English

Technology Videos: In Plain English

As online tools such as blogs, Twitter and RSS feeds are becoming more widely used to share information, it’s helpful to know about resources that explain how these tools work, while still remaining interesting.  Common Craft’s In Plain English series provides fun and simple tutorials on several areas, including technology, money, society and the environment.  Each video features paper cut-outs and narration; some technology topics include podcasting, RSS and Wikis.  Even though these videos are lighthearted, they are very well-made and informative and definitely worth sharing with colleagues or in the classroom.    

 Video Source:  http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs

Online Photo Editing Made Easy and Fun

Online Photo Editing Made Easy and Fun

1X1Creative Kit in Google+ (formerly known as Picnik and has since joined Google) is a free online photo-editing program that offers an array of professional and fun tools. This application provides numerous creative filters and effects such as cinemascope, focal B&W, vignette and many others. A few highlights of the program include:

  • – Allows you to upload pictures straight from social networking sites such as Flickr, Facebook, Photobucket and more
  • – Access to creative and fun tools such as adding text, stickers and creating collages
  • – Provides options to print straight from your computer, order prints online or order other photo projects like books, posters and wrapping paper

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