LANcom Technology Blog

Soluto is an interesting free download that can help you speed up the time it takes to start up your computer. With Soluto you will be able to easily see which applications are slowing you down and then deal with these applications in an appropriate way.

So how does it work?

Soluto analyses all the applications that start up with your computer and then helps you identify which ones can be removed. To make things super easy Soluto groups all applications in to No-brainer (should be removed), Potentially removable, and Required.

You can then Pause certain applications to stop them from starting up or Delay them to prevent them from starting up until after the initial set of applications is loaded.

If you are unsure whether you should pause or delay an application, Soluto provides you with a graph of what other users have done and also gives you a read more link to additional information on the application.

Other features

Soluto calls itself “Anti-Frustration Software”, and while speeding up your boot time is Soluto’s main feature, you can also use it to speed up you internet browser and to identify the reasons behind application crashes.

Here’s a video of all of Soluto’s features in action.

If you would like to visit the Soluto site and learn more about it, click here.

Hat tip to MakeUseOf for the idea for this post

Do your shoulders feel tense or your arms feel tired after a day of working at a computer? Comcare, an Australian government health organization, has just released a handy PDF showing 12 simple exercises you can do to help avoid eye and muscle strain.

This document includes stretches for your neck, shoulders, wrists, back, legs, and eyes. If you would like to check it out, here’s the link.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post.

Camtasia Studio is an excellent screencasting tool, which allows you to record what is happening on your screen and then edit your recording into a professional looking video. You can use Camtasia for training purposes, recording PowerPoint presentations, or even demonstrating computer software.

Camtasia Studio 7 is the latest version of Camtasia Studio and over the last few weeks I’ve been trying it out. So far I’ve found this version of Camtasia to be easy to use and full of excellent features.

Here’s a quick look at some of the main features in Camtasia Studio 7:

1. Recording the Screen – With Camtasia Studio you can choose to record the whole screen, just a particular window, or a region that you select. You can even create a picture-in-picture recording where the viewer can see your computer screen and webcam footage of you at the same time.
2. Editing the Audio – This version of Camtasia has great audio editing abilities. You can choose to edit the audio you have captured from your microphone independently of the video, and you can also have multiple audio tracks. Camtasia includes a library of free sound effects and music you can use or you can import your own. Another great audio feature is the background noise removal tool that can automatically remove any background noise that was around when you made the recording.
3. Adding effects – There are many different effects you can add to your video. Camtasia has a smart-focus feature, which will automatically add pans and zooms to draw attention to where action is happing on the screen, but you can also add and edit these yourself. You can also add cursor effects, subtitles, transitions, and graphics to your video.
4. Sharing how you want – When you are finished editing your video, you can produce it in the format that best suits how you would like to share it. MP4/FLV/SWF for flash player compatibility, M4V for iPad or iPhone, AVI for CD or DVD, Silverlight, MOV for QuickTime, RM for RealMedia, animated GIF, or MP3 for the audio only.

While there are many screencasting tools available, what really sets Camtasia apart are its editing abilities. If you would like to try out Camtasia Studio 7, you can a download 30 day free trial from here on the Camtasia site.

If you’re interested in a completely free screencasting tool, click here to learn about Screencast-O-Matic.

Looking for some help executing your great ideas? Here are 3 websites which might make things easier.

Action Method
Action Method is a simple online tool which allows you to organise your projects into their most basic elements. This tool has five sections:

1. Action steps – Is where you add all the tasks you need to complete.
2. References – Is where you add notes, links, files, and any other information relating to your project.
3. Back burners – Allows you to list all the ideas you would like to come back to.
4. Discussions – Lets you manage conversations with anyone who is working with you.
5. Events – Helps you coordinate meetings, deadlines, and milestones.
   

To visit the Action Method website click here.

The Big Picture
The Big picture is another free project management tool, but what makes it different is that it’s more of a visual tool. The Big Picture uses a mind map style interface where each project appears as a circle which you can resize and move to anywhere on the screen. You can then add tasks, to dos, and calendar items to each project with an easy to use drag and drop feature.

To visit The Big Picture website and try it out for yourself click here.

99%
If you’re interested in tips for improving your creativity or bringing your ideas to life then you might want to take a look at 99%. This is a website dedicated to helping you make your ideas happen, and is from the same makers as the Action Method site.

At 99% they regularly interview creative professionals known for their high level of productivity and then create articles, tips, and videos based on those interviews. Current featured articles on their site include The Art of Momentum: Why your ideas need speed, and Are you ambitious enough? To visit the 99% site click here.

A few weeks ago I upgraded from Office 2007 to 2010. I haven’t had a chance to use all the new features yet, but here are 3 I have found quite useful so far.

1. Recovering an unsaved document - Have you ever accidentally closed a file without saving it? If you are using Word, Excel, or PowerPoint from Office 2010 you can get that file back. Click here to read how.
2. Inserting a screenshot - Ever want to show someone exactly what you are looking at? The Screenshot feature in Office 2010 allows you to easily capture a static image from any open window on your computer, and then insert that image into your Office document. Click here to find out how.
3. Conversation Clean Up – This new feature allows you to easily eliminate redundant messages from your inbox. Redundant messages occur when you use the reply feature to have a conversation via email. Each new email contains all the previous messages in the conversation, so the older emails sitting in your inbox are not really needed. The Conversation Clean up feature can find and delete these redundant messages for you. Click here to read more about this feature.

If you have recently upgraded to Office 2010 you can find lots of excellent training materials here on the Microsoft website. If you would like to receive weekly emails containing Office 2010 tips, click here to learn about the LANcom Microsoft Office Secrets.

If you’re interesting in finding out how to create a website with WordPress, MakeUseOf.com currently has a great free PDF guide available on their site. This guide is 34 pages long and covers everything you need to know to get your site off the ground.

To visit the MakeUseOf site and get this guide click here.

Here’s a really easy tip from the Sentenc.es website:

Treat all email responses like they are an SMS text message and have a set length that you can’t go over. Since it’s hard to count letters, count sentences instead. For example, you could choose to write all your email responses in three sentences or less.

To read more about this tip click here.

Hat tip to Seth’s blog for the idea for this post.

Looking for a little inspiration or a new perspective? Here are three sites that could help.

1. TED - TED is a non profit organisation devoted to spreading ideas worth spreading. Each year they hold a conference in Long Beach which brings together prominent thinkers and challenges them to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
   The great thing about the TED website is that it has videos from all best talks from their conferences. These talks range from being informative, to funny, to inspiring. So if you would like to hear some ideas worth spreading click here.

    

2. ChangeThis – ChangeThis is a website that publishes manifestoes (a reasoned, rational call to action, supported by logic and facts) as short PDF documents which anyone can download, print, or email to others. ChangeThis is a great way to learn about emerging business ideas and includes manifestoes by many influential business thinkers such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Chris Anderson. To visit ChangeThis click here.

    

3. Seth’s blog – Seth Godin is a best selling author and writes the most popular marketing blog in the world. On Seth’s blog he frequently helps his readers to think about business in new ways. To check out Seth’s Blog click here.

If you’ve got any sites you would like to add to this list please leave them in the comments.

Last week Google released a new feature called Social Search, which was previously only available in Google Labs, to everyone on Google.com. What Social Search allows you to do is easily see content that people within your social circle have posted online regarding what you are searching for.

How does this work?
For example, say you are searching for information about a particular holiday destination. With Social Search you will be able to see any photos or blog posts your friends and family have added to the web to do with that destination in the results. These results will appear under a heading Results from your social circle.

The great thing about Social Search is that it allows you to quickly find information from people you trust.

Here is the video from Google explaining this new feature

 

To read more about Social Search from the Google blog click here.

We know we have a lot of great information on this blog, but we recently came to realise that the categories we were using did not exactly make it easy to find our older content. We really want you to get the most out of this blog so we have updated our categories.

Here are the new categories we have added, if any of these interest you just click on them to view the content we have available on the topic.

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