Tag: 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:

    readability-settings

  3. Drag the Readability icon into your bookmarks bar

    readability-logo
  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

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.

aardvark_reds_quare1

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.

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:

rtm-gmail

  • – 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.
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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Private Web Browsing

Private Web Browsing

When you surf the Internet, your Web browser stores various information from the websites you visit on your local hard drive. While the storage of Web browsing information may be convenient on your personal computer, if you use a shared computer you may not want to leave a trail of all of the websites you visit. An individual that uses a shared computer after you do may view your browsing history and if you didn’t securely log out of your email, online banking, or a shopping website, a malicious user could potentially access one of your accounts.

If you are using one of the computer labs at Loyola, the browsing history is automatically cleared each time you log out. However, if you are using a shared computer elsewhere on campus or other public locations it is a good idea to get in the habit of clearing your browsing history, especially when you access secure data.  The caveat of relying on clearing your browsing history is that you have to remember to do it.

If you use Firefox (3.5 and later), you have the option to activate a Private Browsing feature before you start surfing the Web.  Private Browsing prevents Firefox from retaining information about the sites you have visited on the computer you are using.  To use Private Browsing in Firefox, click on Start Private Browsing from the Tools menu.  Visit Firefox’s Private Browsing page to learn more.  Safari and Internet Explorer 8 also have similar private browsing options.

Easily Create and Share Diagrams with Webspiration

Easily Create and Share Diagrams with Webspiration

1X1With Webspiration, you can easily create a visual map that will help you organize concepts, plans and ideas. Webspiration is a useful tool for students to brainstorm ideas and make connections between concepts. Faculty and staff can also benefit from creating diagrams to assist with project management and planning. With a free Webspiration account, you can collaborate and share diagrams with anyone by simply sending an invite.

The benefit of using Webspiration is the incredibly user-friendly graphic interface; you can quickly develop and connect your ideas without having to spend a lot of time to get a professional-looking diagram. Also, because your documents are stored online, you can access them anytime, anywhere.

Inspiration

Getting Started

First, you’ll need to set up your free account and login. You’ll initially be taken to the Launch Page, where you can click on the Launch Inspiration button to start a new document. From the Launch Page, you can also access the Help Center for Getting Started documentation and the Learning Library, which contains resources and tips for using Webspiration.

Inspiration Software

Webspiration is also available as desktop application for Mac and PC calledInspiration. With Inspiration, you have the benefit of working from your hard drive, instead of working online. Inspiration is available for purchase and there is also a downloadable free 30-day trial.