Copy the Windows installation DVD to a bootable USB key, from within Linux. It only takes a few clicks and works with all Windows Vista and Windows 7 disks thanks to a program called WinUSB.

We’ve shown you how to install Windows 7 from a USB drive, but the process assumes you have access to a Windows computer to begin with. That’s not always the case, particularly if you’re the kind of person who regularly tries out different operating systems. Also, there are more than a few IT professionals who work on Windows computers but primarily use Linux themselves. This tool is perfect for them, and any Linux user who occasionally helps Windows users.

So whether your want to replace Linux on your netbook with Windows or just create a Windows boot disk from your Linux setup, WinUSB is useful to you.

Using WinUSB

Launch this program and you’ll see an interface not unlike UNetBootin, a similar tool for creating Linux bootable USB drives. You’ll need to pick your source and your destination.

Your source can be an actual DVD or an ISO file ripped from your DVD; it doesn’t matter. Your destination should be a flash drive with, ideally, 4GB of space on it. You’re going to want to clear space on the drive before you go through with this, so back up anything on your drive and delete it all from the flash drive.

Once you’re ready, you can start the creation process.

This will take a while, so be patient. Once your disk is done being created you’ve got your installation disk, assuming no errors came up. Using this should be simple, but you will need to enter the boot menu of your device and pick the USB drive.

Once you get that going, you should see the Windows 7 installation tool:

Not bad, eh? You can now install Windows 7 on your optical-free computer. Enjoy!

If you’ve never installed Windows before, don’t panic. It’s much  easier than it used to be. Just follow the prompts and you’ll be fine, but know that deleting your existing partitions means you will lose your operating system entirely.

Get WinUSB

Ready to give this app a spin? You can download WinUSB for Linux here. Or, if you’re using Ubuntu, you can install it from a PPA using these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:colingille/freshlight

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install winusb

The first command adds the PPA; the second command updates your repositories; the third command installs WinUSB.

Conclusion

Not everyone will need this application, of course, but it’s ready for you when you need it. Linux purists would believe that no one ever switches from Linux to Windows, but let’s face it, this happens. I’m glad there are tools out there for making this easy, because there are plenty of great tools for going the other way.

Even if you’re not switching from Linux to Windows, though, this tool is useful. You can use your Linux computer to reinstall Windows for friends, or generally become a better repair wizard.

What will you be using this software for? As always, I’m an extremely curious guy, so please share your ideas in the comments below. Thanks!

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Creative jobseekers are always searching for new ways to distinguish themselves to potential employers. One of the quickest ways to do this is to make your résumé stand out from the crowd. Once you’ve got their attention, they’ll hopefully notice all those great skills you have. In the meantime, you’ve got to turn your résumé into something which looks really interesting. And who’s got the time for that?

Luckily, for those of us with our résumés in LinkedIn, there are services available to do all of the visually creative stuff for you. All you need to do is sync your LinkedIn account and your visual résumé is ready for use.

Here’s two of the best visual résumé creators you can try for free.

Update Your LinkedIn Profile First!

Firstly, since both of these great visual résumé services import your information from your LinkedIn profile, the best approach to creating a great résumé would be to update your details in LinkedIn before you start exploring these options. That, and your LinkedIn profile is more useful when updated regularly, too.

Visualize.me

Visualize.me is a one-click LinkedIn service, meaning you can jump straight into viewing your visual résumé and creating eye-catching content. The content is taken from LinkedIn, but it’s not a two-way sync so nothing will be saved back to LinkedIn after you’ve finished.

There are several great themes to choose from, plus a lot of control over which details are shown in the profile and exactly which colours to use for your style. The resulting infographics are rich and well-designed.

Recommendations from colleagues look especially good in the Visualize.me format, making a feature of your achievements as seen by the people you work with. Don’t forget that word-of-mouth recommendations are the most memorable! Make sure those kind words about you get noticed.

Re.vu

Re.vu gets you to create an account and choose your URL before linking to your LinkedIn account. Then it’s a simple authorisation process with LinkedIn to get your details imported. You can further tweak your details if you wish, or upload a photo and a résumé in document form if you like.

Once you’ve saved the basic information, you’ll be able to choose a theme for your profile and decide exactly how you’d like your information presented. Then, simply promote it as you wish and update the details whenever you need to.

The re.vu themes are eye-catching and stylish, plus they allow you to upload your own background if you want to personalise the page further. The visualisation of your work history is especially good if you’ve worked multiple jobs as it shows clearly how you’ve spent your work time.

Choices

Both of these services provide great profiles for jobseekers. If I were to make comparisons, I’d say Visualize.me had more bells and whistles, while Re.vu was easy enough for the average grandparent to understand. Both profiles looked fantastic and took very little time to create. I’d personally recommend using both – since you can’t have too many résumés out there working to get you a job.

More Reading For Jobseekers

These articles will probably also be of interest to you:

• 3 Ways To Meaningfully Visualize Your LinkedIn Network
• Try Signal & Learn How To REALLY Use LinkedIn
• BranchOut Business Networking Rivals LinkedIn [News]
• Top 3 Websites To Build A Free Resume Online

Has a visual résumé helped you to find work? Would you ever wear your résumé on a t-shirt?  What unique ways have you found work?

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If you’ve ever searched around on YouTube for walkthroughs, tutorials, or video reviews of popular software or Linux distributions, you may find them to be pretty useful.

Such videos are much better than a written guide or review because you can see how something works or where you can find it. You can also hear the person who made the video talk about what he or she is doing, along with any other notes. A video, therefore, is much more effective.

Let’s see how we can construct them ourselves.

How Do You Make Them?

That’s great, but how do they make those videos in the first place? What do you do if you want to make a video yourself? You’ve may have seen some people use their video camera to point to the monitor, but those look very unprofessional when compared to others that show only what the monitor shows, without the monitor acting as a border around the video. Those people use screencasting software.

What Does A Screencasting Software Do?

Screencasting software works much like the PrtSc button on your keyboard, as known as “Print Screen”. In Windows, this button copies the entire screen onto your clipboard which you can simply paste into Paint or any other image editing software. In Linux, the button copies the entire screen and then opens a window to ask you if you want to copy it to the clipboard or save it as a file.

However, screencasting software captures the screen and makes a video out of it instead of an image, and also lets you capture the sound that would usually be coming out of your speakers or whatever is picked up by any attached microphones.

About Kazam

Kazam Screencaster is an easily available free screencasting tool that you can use on Linux to make such videos. There are a couple of other tools out in the wild that you can use, but Kazam seems to be one of the easiest to work with. It seems that Kazam is only officially available for Ubuntu as there are PPAs for it, which is a shame, but I’m sure that someone can take the source code and compile it themselves on other distributions.

Installation

To install it, you’ll need to run this command in the terminal if you use Ubuntu 11.10:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bigwhale/kazam-oneric && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get install kazam

If you use a previous version of Ubuntu, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:and471-kazam-daily-builds && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get install kazam

If it asks you if you want to continue at certain steps, make sure to hit “y” or enter for each request, depending on which button it asks you to hit. Wait for that to complete, and then you can launch Kazam by searching for it in Unity, Gnome Shell, or menus, depending on what desktop environment you’re using.

Usage

From here on, Kazam should be easy to use.

You can immediately start recording a video, with or without sound.

After pressing start, Kazam will do a countdown until the recording starts, and you can stop recording by clicking on its icon in the tray at the top right of your screen.

Once you finish, you can save or edit with the Kazam software for quality and where to export to, including YouTube. That’s all there really is!

Conclusion

Kazam is ridiculously easy for such a fine screencasting tool. For those who don’t need a whole lot of settings and let the dedicated video editor do the editing, Kazam is a great way to make those screencasts.

What’s your favorite screencasting tool? For Windows and Linux? Let us know in the comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrive.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud" />You can’t walk five feet these days without bumping into a cloud storage service. Dropbox, Sugarsync, Box.net, Syncplicity…the list goes on and on.

All of these services are easy to use, but they are true clouds. All of your data is kept in a remote location, which leaves you with limited control over its security and limited storage space. There are only a few cloud solutions that can provide unlimited free storage – and href="http://www.bdrive.com">Bdrive is one of them.

A Personal Cloud?

style="text-align: center;"> href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/personacloud.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95396" title="personacloud" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/personacloud.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud" width="448" height="295" />

There are two basic types of cloud storage service offered to consumers. True cloud services, such as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/dropbox/">Dropbox, actually store your files in remote servers, from which they can be accessed at any time from any computer.  Personal clouds, like Bdrive, rely on your own hardware to keep the cloud active.

A true cloud service has many advantages. Your files are always available (in theory) because the servers are always up and maintained by a professional staff. Files can be accessed from any PC with an Internet connection, even if it’s not one you own. Most such services allow for sharing files with friends, as well. Yet there is one major disadvantage with a true cloud, and that’s cost. Maintaining a database with professional staff striving to ensure zero downtime isn’t free, which is why Dropbox charges once you exceed the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/earn-extra-space-dropbox-zumodrive-sugarsync/">free storage limit.

Personal clouds such as Bdrive don’t use anyone else’s hardware, so you have an unlimited data transfer limit. This is the most important thing to know about Bdrive. If you don’t need to transfer and share much data, you should just stick with Dropbox (or an alternative) and be happy. Otherwise, read on.

Bdrive Basics

A personal cloud like Bdrive is really just a streamlined way of creating a personal Internet network. In fact, the software goes so far as to offer “server” and “client” versions of the software.

How it works is simple. On the computer with files you’d like to share among multiple PCs, you install the server version. You select the folders you’d like to share and start the server. Bdrive will provide you with a BID (which identifies your server) and that’s it.

href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdriveserver.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95397" title="bdriveserver" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdriveserver.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud storage" width="510" height="410" />

Now, install the client on another PC. Enter your server’s BID and presto! You’re connected over the Internet, and you can move as many files about as you’d like. Though I assume there is some limit to the number of connections that can be made to a server but Bdrive doesn’t state what it is, and I didn’t run into it in my testing.

OS Support & Streaming Media

href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivestreaming.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95398" title="bdrivestreaming" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivestreaming.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud storage" width="560" height="296" />

If that’s all Bdrive offered, it’d be just nifty, but the developers have gone further by offering server software for both Windows and Mac and client software for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android. You can share files between platforms as easily as you can with Dropbox.

Bdrive also supports href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/streaming-video/">streaming content from your server to remote devices, such as smartphones. Some users might be interested in this software simply to use it as a remote media server. I found that streaming video was fluid on 4G, but a bit choppy on 3G. This feature also works well on phones connected via WiFi.

Versus Windows Live Mesh

href="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivevswindowslivemesh.jpg?323f2c"> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95399" title="bdrivevswindowslivemesh" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bdrivevswindowslivemesh.jpg?323f2c" alt="personal cloud" width="570" height="428" />

I like the idea of a personal cloud. I have a lot of files that I like to have access to, and I need to access them on both my Windows PC and my Mac. Most cloud services are out of the question because I’d have to pay a monthly fee, and that adds up over time.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sync-files-access-pcs-remotely-windows-live-mesh-2011/">Windows Live Mesh has been my weapon of choice as a result, yet that service is not perfect. It can be confusing to set up syncing between folders, and the sync process can become laborious when working with folders that have thousands of files.

Bdrive is a much easier solution, and I’ll probably start using it instead. Setting up the server took no more than a couple of minutes, and within another minute I had installed the client on my laptop and connected it to my desktop. Within a few more, I had it on my phone.

Better yet, you don’t need to have, or log into, an account with Bdrive. Live Mesh requires a Windows Live account to use.

Conclusion

The main disadvantage to this software is that if your server goes down, you can’t access files from any device. This factor alone makes it a solution targeted more towards power users, organizations and small businesses than your average Joe. Yet this is also an extraordinarily simple piece of software, and for people (like me) who need to access my files across the Internet without paying, it fills exactly the role intended.

Best of all, href="http://www.bdrive.com/download.html">Bdrive is free to download and use. There is mention in the FAQ of “freemium” features that will be coming in the future, but they’re not unveiled yet.

If you decide to install BDrive, let us know in the comments how it went and if you like it.

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-amazons-s3-web-services/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/aws-150x150.png?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="aws" title="aws" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">4 Great Uses For Amazon’s S3 Web Services

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/otixo-access-cloud-accounts-files-place/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/00_otixo-logo-150x150.jpg?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="00_otixo-logo.jpg" title="00_otixo-logo.jpg" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">Otixo: Access All Of Your Cloud Accounts & Files From One Place

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/games-for-change-intro.jpg?323f2c" alt=""/>The impact of video games on children has been debated. It has veered towards both extremes. When you find yourself on the losing side of an argument, you can point towards the social and educational impact of games on children. But why are we dumbing it down, when game playing is as much a part of the adult world.

From education to politics…from business to the environment, games are being tailored to promote awareness of social issues.  Remember the post that showcased href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-free-online-news-games-based-world-affairs-news-events/">7 Free Online News Games That Are Based On World Affairs & News Events? The games there serve to remind us of the potential that exists beyond the blood-spills and Martian colonization’s of games meant solely for fun.

A website that’s doing some work on highlighting the link between social impact and games is href="http://www.gamesforchange.org/">Games For Change.

Supporting games for social good

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/games-for-change-01.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="299" />

The gaming site has existed for quite some time (2004) and its mission statement says it all – Catalyzing Social Impact through Digital Games.

What’s unique is that it is a non-profit organization. It is a community/movement of many creative people who are committed to social issues through the way of gaming. It is not simply a curation site for the best social games that are out there…but a full-fledged organization that is involved in bringing together the best ideas from across the globe, and taking in  the resources to turn those ideas into social games.

Here is an example…

Just to cite one example, href="http://www.halftheskymovement.org/">Half The Sky is a combined multi-million dollar project on the best-selling book by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The project’s theme is the moral challenge of oppression of women around the world, and to give equal rights to them in order to promote economic development and combat fundamentalism – to “hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying.

Games For Change is working with partners like Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), USAID, the Ford Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and ITVS to develop a global Facebook game and mobile games for India and Africa.

You can read more about their global activities here on the href="http://www.gamesforchange.org/services/">Services page of the website.

The Games Arcade – Let’s Play!

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/games-for-change-02.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="343" />

Games For Change has a games arcade where you can play some really cool games and see for yourself the powerful mix of education, social awareness, and entertainment.  Games are curated from many sources but each addresses a social issue. Some are free and some are commercial. You can also recommend social games using the submission form on the site. You can browse games by age and subject (for example – Civics, Conflict, Environment, Human Rights etc.).

Let’s check out three games featured on the site that shows us the potential of these types of gaming tools:

href="http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/codeacademy/">Codeacademy

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/games-for-change-03.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="257" />

The cool programming ‘educator’ and online learning game teaches you the basics of programming without tutorials. It does so by engaging you in an interactive game right from the start. For instance, you can create an account only after completing a few rounds of coding. As you progress, you learn and earn rewards.

Read our full review on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/codecademy-hands-easiest-code/">Codeacademy – Hands Down The Easiest Way To Code.

href="http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/the-curfew/">The Curfew

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/games-for-change-04.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="322" />

The game for the young is based on political themes of our times (Britain 2007). The game challenges the player to them to examine the freedoms he enjoys and the potential consequences if he does not protect them. The game is played over four episodes and involves role-play with four characters.

href="http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/one-ocean-interactive/">One Ocean

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/games-for-change-05.jpg?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="276" />

One Ocean is an environmental game that lets you design your own 3D underwater habitats. You learn not only about the oceans and its creatures, but also about how to save it from this century’s challenges. You have to download the Unity Web Player to play it on your desktop. The game is playable on both Windows and Mac.

I have just scratched the surface of the games arcade here. Browse through the games. Let us know which ones is your favorite. Also, drop an appreciative note if you find the idea of games for social change and the href="http://www.gamesforchange.org/">Games For Change website compelling enough.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefishlogo1.png" alt="create web pages fast"/>Although it has been decades since the first web designer opened up a text editor to create the very first HTML document, the tools of the trade haven’t really changed a whole lot.

Sure, websites are now powered by blog platforms like WordPress, or WYSIWYG editors like Kompozer, but the bottom line is that most hard core web designers will always find it necessary to pop open a text editor to tweak the style a little bit here, or to realign the template a bit more there.

I think that text editors are going to be around in the world of web design for a very long time, at least for those web programmers that are always neck-deep into improving and optimizing professional websites. So, it stands to reason that text editing tools would evolve that are more powerful and smarter; Tools created specifically for the needs of those hard-core web designers and web programmers.

Bluefish – The Text Editor for Programmers

For years, I was very adamant about sticking with Notepad, no matter what everyone else started using. In my opinion, WYSIWYG editors just padding way too much garbage into the code (particularly MS Word’s silly save-as-HTML feature).

I was very tempted to try Notepad++ when I first heard about it. Then, after reading Simon’s article on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sublime-text-the-text-editor-youll-fall-in-love-with/">Sublime Text, I was tempted yet again. I’ve always been hesitant to jump on any bandwagon until a good, solid winner takes root.

This year, I have to confess that I’ve finally found a code editor that I can’t resist – it’s called href="http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html">Bluefish.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;"src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish1.png" alt="create web pages fast" width="503" height="389" />

When you first setup Bluefish, you’ll see the first reason I like it so much – it is designed to handle a huge assortment of programming languages, from straight HTML and PHP to Java, VB and even ASP. The kind of flexibility is a nice thing to have in a code editor, especially if you often have your hands into many different programming languages.

And Bluefish does programming well. But before we get to that, I wanted to just show you how cool this program looks. Up to this point I haven’t found a coder’s editor with this kind of aesthetic coolness on the front end – with the most important, easy-to-find tools and tabs right at your fingertips on the main screen, depending what code you’re focused on at the moment. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish2.png" alt="free web page editor" width="578" height="526" /> /> As you can see, file navigation is right there on the left – no need to flip back and forth between Windows Explorer and your editor. Do all of your file exploring from right within the application itself.

That includes all of the usual things you can do with a file explorer, like moving or renaming folders and files. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish3.png" alt="free web page editor" width="542" height="500" /> /> When you launch a new document from the file menu, if you choose template you’ll see that Bluefish has a few pre-built program templates available. This is especially useful if you write a lot of web pages, for example, and don’t want to recreate the same generic XHTML or PHP structure. Instead, just launch Bluefish’s template and you can immediately get into creating the content. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish3a.png" alt="free web page editor" width="472" height="503" /> /> The pic below is the standard HTML template with the header, title and body tags pre-built for you. As you can see, lines are numbered, and while you’re typing the application has a feature where it will auto-complete tags for you. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish3b.png" alt="web page editor" width="475" height="438" /> /> As you can see in the menu bar, there are also pre-built code snippets available under each program language. For example, HTML has standard code for web forms, and PHP has standard code snippets for how to connect to an ODBC or MySQL database. /> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-89084" style="border-width: 1px; border-color: black; border-style: solid;" title="bluefish4" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish4.png" alt="" width="577" height="361" /> /> This can save a lot of time if you’re the kind of person (like me) that often forgets the exact syntax to do some of the most basic things. To complete the code snippet for you, the program will ask you for the details. In the case of making database connections, it’ll ask you for the data source and the login details. Then it’ll basically write the code for you. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish7.png" alt="web page editor" width="423" height="359" /> /> The same is true for a whole list of HTML tasks – making this app a web designers dream. You can code the same web page in half the time using Bluefish. Just tap the element that you want, provide the dialog box with a few details, and the code gets typed up and inserted for you. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish8.png" alt="web page editor" width="563" height="501" /> /> It isn’t WYSIWYG, but in my opinion it’s ten times better. You know what you want to do in the code, you just don’t have time to keep checking your reference book for the right syntax – so Bluefish lets you cut the headache.

More programming aids are available from the top menu as well. If you have an HTML file open, click the “Tags” menu and you’ll see dozens of quick code functions available to choose from. Create a web form with a fraction of the effort. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish9.png" alt="" width="535" height="420" /> /> As though the programming aids and tools weren’t enough, don’t forget to check out the “Tools” menu where you’ll find the ability to organize your code by joining/splitting lines, indenting, or using a filter to strip all empty lines from your code. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish10.png" alt="create web pages fast" width="580" height="577" /> /> At the bottom of the main window, you’ll also find an output variable area for coding in languages like PHP or C++, useful to see whether your code is really doing what you want it to do.

I think it’s safe to say that Bluefish has won over my heart when it comes to “intelligent coding” rather than just hacking away in Notepad. So, give Bluefish a try and let us know whether it simplified your programming experience at all. what do you like about it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/createweb-pages-faster-bluefish-editor/">Create Web Pages Five Times Faster Using the Bluefish Editor [Cross-Platform] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/0_cardflick.jpg" alt="create business cards" />I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been out at a bar or at some event where I’ve been introduced to a lot of people and failed to bring any business cards to hand out. The problem used to be actually about owning business cards in the first place, but now it seems I never have them with me when I need them.

There are a lot of web-based href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-to-create-a-business-card-20/">business card apps out there, sure, but I can’t seem to stick with any of them; and a lot of the phone apps require that the other user have the same app as me, which is rarely the case. Also, a problem with business cards in general is that the information on them becomes outdated over time. Can’t we fix all of this, please?

In this article, I’m going to show you my new favorite business card app.

What is CardFlick?

href="http://cardflick.co/">CardFlick is a mobile app that lets you create and share digital business cards. It lets you email or “flick” your card to anyone.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/1_cardflick.jpg" alt="create business cards" width="320" height="478" />

Whether you’ve forgotten your business card at home or just want to go paper-free, CardFlick can be a lifesaver for you. You can choose your card from many great designs and send it to anyone, regardless of whether or not they have the app.

Your contacts and data are cloud synced, so you will never lose them and the information attached will always be up to date.

Using CardFlick

To begin the process of ditching your paper business cards, href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cardflick/id436005366">download the CardFlick app and run it on your phone.

When you first start the app you will be asked to sign in through href="http://makeuseof.com/tags/facebook">Facebook. Once you’ve done this, your card will be ready. You can visit the Theme button to change the layout and theme of your card, as well as edit your information on the settings screen.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2_cardflick.jpg" alt="create your own business cards" width="319" height="479" />

After you’ve got your fancy new business card just the way you like it, you can share it easily with others. For those that also have the CardFlick app on their phone, this process is as easy as visiting the Flick tab within the app.

On the Flick screen, you will see your completed card. To share, just swipe your card upward off the top of the screen. Those nearby will receive your card on their screen. Whenever someone receives a card with the app, they simply need to swipe it to the right to keep it in their collection, or to the left to–dare I say–delete it.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/3_cardflick.jpg" alt="create business cards" width="322" height="480" />

You can also share your CardFlick cards with those who don’t use the app, which takes care of all those href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-android/">Android users (Android app coming soon!) and less tech savvy people who are sans smartphone. In that case, just press the email button on the top of the Flick screen. Enter their email address and you’re done.

Once you’ve gathered some cards, you can view them in your contact list. Click on a user and you will see their card along with options for how to get hold of them. And, whenever you or another user updates their information, CardFlick will sync that updated info for everyone who has that card.

Conclusion

I love the fact that CardFlick is simple to use and allows me to store business card information without having to keep the actual business cards. The fact that it syncs updated info has to be the biggest selling point for me as I have yet to see another app implement that option. All in all, this is a very useful app.

What do you think of CardFlick?

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-share-awesome-business-cards-digitally-cardflick-iphone/">Create & Share Awesome Business Cards Digitally With CardFlick [iPhone] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/icon5.png" alt="wolfram alpha password" /> href="http://www.wolframalpha.com">Wolfram Alpha terrifies me, in all honesty. It’s like SkyNet combined with href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google">Google, and we know all about those two things – they will eventually href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-sold-soul-internet/">take over the world. (Yes, one of them may be fictional, but you get what I am saying, I hope.)

However, one of the niftier things that Wolfram Alpha has to offer these days is its ability to generate passwords for all your favorite services. Let’s take a gander at just how this works.

Submit To Your New Internet Overlord

There are a variety of ways to generate a password using href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">Wolfram Alpha. First off, you can jump on the website and simply type in “password” or “generate a password” as your inquiry – easy as pie, right? After that, you’ll be given several randomly generated passwords with an option to change the amount of characters desired. This is fairly easy for basic passwords.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/17.png" alt="wolfram alpha password" width="580" height="330" />

Alternatively, you could also type in something like “9 character password” for your inquiry, and sure enough, Wolfram Alpha will go ahead and generate a password with the requested amount of characters. Granted, there isn’t as much flexibility with this first option as it seems fairly locked onto the amount of characters that you initially request, but at least it’s functional, right?

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/24.png" alt="wolfram alpha" width="580" height="250" />

These first two options are filed under Wolfram Alpha’s “typical password rules”, and they are fairly useful for your typical run-of-the-mill password-protected websites. However, occasionally you’ll run across a service or site run by companies that want very specific types of passwords that require a certain amount of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers (like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/apple">Apple, for instance). That’s fine and all, but you can realize how frustrating that can sometimes be!

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/34.png" alt="wolfram alpha" width="580" height="330" />

Fortunately, Wolfram Alpha knows your pain (and as intelligent as it is, I think that you can take that statement literally). After receiving your results for your password request, you may notice a statement on the page that says “Assuming typical password rules”. Right next to it is another statement that says “Use specific password rules instead”. Click it, and you’ll be treated to an entire menu that allows you to generate passwords that will fall in line with whatever service or website that you happen to be using.

Understand Your Sacrifices

You have to understand that Wolfram Alpha’s website password generation tool is truly random. No longer are you using the family pet’s name for your password, and it definitely won’t be as easy as leaving your router’s account information as “admin” and “password”. It’s great that you will have that added layer of protection, but at the same time, it’s going to be a little hard to remember.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/45.png" alt="wolfram alpha password" width="580" height="237" />

One tool that Wolfram Alpha provides is the phonetic form of each password that it generates. For instance, a password that it is “btZ7GWEK” would be be “bravo tango zulu seven golf whiskey echo kilo”. That’s all good and well, but at the same time it would be very hard for me to remember. Furthermore, some of them are even capital letters, and that is tough to recall.

What I suggest in this case is to either work very hard at remembering the phonetic alphabet or come up with your own memory device for each character. That’s the trouble with randomly generated passwords. Normally, when we create our own passwords, we use verbal elements that would be easy for us to remember because they matter to us in real life. However, that’s not the case with Wolfram Alpha.

The benefit of Wolfram Alpha is the fact that it generates very secure passwords. Unfortunately, the sacrifice is that you may have trouble remembering them. Write it down if you need to, but make sure you keep it safe.

Conclusion

So there you have it! You can now use href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">Wolfram Alpha to come up with passwords that add an extra layer of security to your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook"> Facebook, your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter">Twitter, or even your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-plus">Google accounts. Try it out, and let us know if it was easy enough to work with.

What other methods do you use to come up with passwords? Have you ever used Wolfram Alpha for password generation before reading this article? Has it been useful?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image50.png" alt="personal wiki" />Our story starts with something called href="http://www.tiddlywiki.com/">TiddlyWiki. In a nutshell, TiddlyWiki is a single-file wiki, which makes heavy use of JavaScript. You can download it to your own computer, Dropbox or USB stick, and use it to maintain notes about anything. That’s lovely, but it’s not exactly a website in the common sense of the word. In sweeps href="http://osmosoft.com/">Osmosoft, BT’s open-source research arm. Osmosoft took TiddlyWiki and added server-side functionality and other bells and whistles, ending up with something they call href="http://tiddlyspace.com/">TiddlySpace.

TiddlySpace lets you create, share, link and organize notes online. It’s a personal wiki, but with some interesting twists.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image51.png" alt="personal wiki" width="580" height="359" border="0" />

Okay, that’s a bit busy, at least at first glance. Let’s take a closer look at that Getting Started note, and see what can be easily configured:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image52.png" alt="personal online wiki" width="560" height="552" border="0" />

Anything you want to change about your mini-site, you can change by editing special topics. A topic is called a “tiddler”, which is kind of like a Wiki page. It’s not called a “page” because the entire Wiki is one single page. For example, let’s change the site’s name by editing the appropriate tiddler:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image53.png" alt="personal online wiki" width="578" height="223" border="0" />

Now that I’ve edited and saved the tiddler, the site title is instantly updated:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image54.png" alt="personal online wiki" width="542" height="252" border="0" />

To create a new tiddler (note, topic) on your fledgling site, simply click the new tiddler button:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image55.png" alt="personal online wiki free" width="339" height="362" border="0" />

Now you can just start writing your content, and save it once you’re done:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image56.png" alt="personal online wiki free" width="545" height="441" border="0" />

The end result looks like this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image57.png" alt="personal online wiki free" width="550" height="225" border="0" />

The formatting is done using simple Wiki syntax, so to create a bulleted list, I only needed to start each line with an asterisk. You can also easily create links to other topics, of course (and you shouldn’t take my note too seriously!).

Tiddlers are divided into categories, and you can navigate between them using the menu on the right. There’s a special kind of tiddlers called “Shadows”, which contain configuration information. The SiteTitle tiddler we’ve edited before is a good example for a Shadow tiddler. There are quite a few of these, and some of them don’t even look like wiki pages.

For example, here’s the Advanced Options tiddler:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image58.png" alt="image" width="580" height="584" border="0" />

You don’t necessarily have to share every note you make with the world; each note has a menu with several options, one of which being “make private”, which makes it so only you can read that note:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image59.png" alt="image" width="423" height="283" border="0" />

Each TiddlyWiki hosted by TiddlySpace is called a “space” (big surprise there, I know). Each space contains quite a few configuration options, but what’s most interesting is that you can enable a wide variety of plugins for added functionality.

Here’s a quick peek into the extensive list of plugins:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image60.png" alt="image" width="563" height="467" border="0" />

That’s just the beginning, and there’s definitely a learning curve here. Some plugins are not even documented with a single comment (such as TiddlySpaceCSRF – what is that supposed to mean?), but others are quite clear (and dare I say, cool) such as the ImageMacro plugin, which lets you add SVG images into your “space”.

TiddlySpace In The Wild

This is all a bit theoretical, I admit. Fortunately, TiddlySpace created a href="http://featured.tiddlyspace.com/">featured spaces page, showing a bit of what can be done with this interesting tool. Just two examples: href="http://tiddlypocketbook.tiddlyspace.com/">TiddlyPocketBook shows how TiddlySpace can be used to create a slick cheat sheet:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image61.png" alt="image" width="575" height="554" border="0" />

The other example is called href="http://colmbritton.tiddlyspace.com/">colmbritton, and shows a funky homepage, with lots of social tools in the sidebar:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/image62.png" alt="personal wiki" width="580" height="565" border="0" />

Bottom Line

Is TiddlySpace for everyone? Certainly not. But if you’re looking for an innovative, low-overhead way to get your content out there and let your voice be heard, you really should take it for a spin.

Let us know if you use TiddlySpace or another wiki app.  What do you like about it and why?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Connectify-300x300.png" alt="" /> class="vt-p" href="http://connectify.me/">Connectify is offering free accounts until October 15th to students with .edu addresses, allowing them to set up free Wi-Fi hotspots for their devices. Students can sign up for the service for free and receive their Connectify Pro license class="vt-p" href="http://college.connectify.me/">here by using their .edu email address.

The folks at Connectify know that many colleges only offer one ethernet port per resident and that with mobile devices and Xboxes in the dorm room it’s difficult to co-ordinate Internet access for all of the devices you own. Their Wi-Fi hotspot service makes it easy to set up a hotspot – and with this back-to-school promotion it’s possible to use the service for free!

Connectify works by turning your Windows laptop into a secure Wi-Fi hotspot which you can then use to connect your other Internet-enabled devices.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Connectify-Devices.png" alt="" />

Check out Connectify’s class="vt-p" href="http://youtu.be/lCrUrOQkJSw">introductory video.

width="580" height="465" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lCrUrOQkJSw?version=3&hl=en_US" /> name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> width="580" height="465" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lCrUrOQkJSw?version=3&hl=en_US" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" />

Many workers who are on the road a lot also use Connectify to ensure Internet access for all of their devices in hotel rooms.

Connectify can also be used to create a Wi-Fi hotspot even when there’s no Internet access at all. This means you can still share files between your devices easily.

The free student license lasts until 01/01/12 and Connectify Pro accounts will normally cost $29.99.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Connectify-Pro.png" alt="" />

Non-students can use the class="vt-p" href="https://sites.fastspring.com/connectify/instant/connectifypro30?coupon=EARLYBIRD">EARLYBIRD code to receive $10 off the Connectify Pro license.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Connectify-Earlybird.png" alt="" />

Source: class="vt-p" href="http://college.connectify.me/" rel="nofollow">Connectify

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image126.png" alt="" />Today we’re going to be looking at href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.debaclesoftware.pano">Pano, a camera app that currently goes for $2 on the Android Market. Pano has no built-in effects; it doesn’t have advanced shutter controls or a built-in timer. It doesn’t do Lomo, and you can’t say “cheese” to have it take a picture. It does just one thing, but something no other camera app I reviewed so far can do – it helps you take large, beautiful panoramic images.

How Pano Works

If you have a point-and-shoot camera with a panorama mode, Pano will probably feel familiar. The app guides you through taking a series of pictures – you take the first shot, and then Pano takes a bit of its right edge, and shows it on the left side of the screen, semi-transparent.

This sounds complex, so here’s a screenshot:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image127.png" alt="image" width="300" height="500" border="0" />

The strip you see on the left was on the right of the original image I took. The black part in the screenshot contains the “live view” from the camera (can’t really make screenshots of the live view in most camera apps). You then gently rotate the phone to line up the image you’ve already taken with the new image – jut try to overlay them one on top of the other, as best as you can. Then tap the shutter button. Lather, rinse, repeat. The direction, by the way, is always left-to-right. If you mess up, you can always tap Undo.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image128.png" alt="image" width="300" height="500" border="0" />

Making The Final Image

Once you’re done taking your screenshots, tap the inviting-looking checkmark button, and Pano will set to work crunching your data and making it into a (hopefully) breathtaking vista of natural beauty and awe.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image129.png" alt="image" width="300" height="500" border="0" />

This actually takes a few moments, especially if your panorama contains five or six images.

Pitfalls

Pano works best for taking scenic images of distant views. Here’s what happened when I tried making a panorama of my workspace:

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I do have two 24” monitors, but I can assure you the one on the right does not look that warped in real life. On the other hand, here’s what Pano created when I tested it with the view out of my balcony:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image131.png" alt="image" width="580" height="348" border="0" />

In fact, this screenshot doesn’t the the panorama justice. Here’s the panorama image in full width. You get extra-creepy points if you use it to figure out where I live.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image132.png" alt="image" width="580" height="151" border="0" />

For something that came out of a smartphone, this is very impressive. That is not to say it’s perfect; obviously the shot was handheld, and I was unable to match each image perfectly to the previous one. This results in artifacts like this one:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image133.png" alt="image" width="310" height="227" border="0" />

See that blurry-looking satellite dish in the middle? The one that looks like it has a halo. That’s what happens when Pano can’t stitch the images perfectly together. But other than that artifact, the full-scale version of the image doesn’t show any other noticeable defects. I wouldn’t necessarily make a poster out of it, but it does give a very good sense of what this particular view looks like (scary, and with lots of cranes, yes).

One last thing you should know is that Pano doesn’t export full-resolution images. My panorama was 645px tall, and the phone is capable of taking images that are at least 1400px tall (more than twice as much).

Bottom Line

Pano is not just another camera app. It is very task-specific, and it does what it say on the tin. If you want to preserve a beautiful view, Pano provides one great way to do so.  Let us know if you prefer another Android camera app for taking your panoramic views.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1075.png" alt="create instructional manual" />Next to text editing applications, screen capturing programs are de rigueur for us writers here at MakeUseOf – as you can easily see from reading any of our articles. I have tried and used numerous screenshot tools, from Apple’s default Grab app to popular third-party programs like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-take-a-better-screenshot-image-with-jing-mac/">Jing, and the recently reviewed href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/evernote-acquires-skitch-free-download-news/">Skitch. I typically use at least three different screenshot programs on a regular basis, each including unique features for the type of shots I need to get.

There will never be a shortage of these type of applications, but Blue Mango has produced an app that stands out amongst the rest. Similar to its flagship professional application href="http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/">ScreenSteps, it has released the beta version of an application called href="http://www.bluemangolearning.com/clarify/">Clarify. Clarify is for when you want to produce step-by-step instructional documents that include screenshots and annotations for quick online sharing.

Clarify’s Purpose

Advanced screenshot applications like Jing and Skitch include annotation tools which can be applied after a screenshot is taken. You can see how such tools are used in the screenshot below. Clarify also includes annotation tools, but it goes a step further.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1076.jpg" alt="create instructional manual" width="478" height="538" border="0" />

If you are a writer, developer, on-site computer technician, or the go-to tech person in your family who needs to provide step-by-step instructions for using a piece of software, or to explain a complex website, Clarify helps you develop and communicate your instructions easily and clearly.

Main Features

Clarify is both a screenshot program and a text editor. You create your documents within the application, and then export them via e-mail, PDF, or your free online Clarify account. You start a new topic or subject in Clarify, provide a brief description, and then add a series of screenshots which will help communicate what you’re trying to explain.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1055.png" alt="instructional document design" width="580" height="185" border="0" />

Similar to other screenshot tools, Clarify provides three different ways to initiate a screenshot. The most common method is to use the default keyboard shortcut (which can be changed in its Preferences) or click the camera icon in the toolbar.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1077.png" alt="instructional document design" width="392" height="80" border="0" />

You can also access Clarify from your menu bar, which includes options for delayed screen capture and the ability to automatically upload screenshots to your Clarify account.

In terms of screen capture tools, Jing and Clarify mirror one another. However, if you try to capture say a dropdown menu item, Clarify will automatically hide that action, which means you can can’t capture it. That is one of reasons why I use Jing. The shot below could not be taken with Clarify; I had to use Jing.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1072.png" alt="instructional document design" width="329" height="178" border="0" />

Annotation Tools

Each time you make a screenshot using Clarify, the image file automatically gets added and displayed in your document, saving you the necessary steps of dragging it from your desktop. So essentially, each step in your document can be represented by a corresponding screenshot. The annotation tools in Clarify include shapes and arrows, and text boxes.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1060.png" alt="make instructional manual" width="580" height="399" border="0" />

The annotation toolbar includes features for changing the font style and colors of annotations. Clarify also has a Number Sequence tool that enables you to quickly add bulleted numbers to screenshots in your document. This is ten times faster than creating them in applications like Word.

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Another cool related feature is the ability to add a “Create Lists From Sequence” that you can add in the text part of your document, again another useful timesaver.

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Annotations, screenshots, and entire steps can be moved around, replaced, or cut even after the document is saved.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1067.png" alt="Screenshot1067" width="414" height="89" border="0" />

Exporting Documents

While you could use Clarify to create a multi-page document or guide, the program is geared more towards quickly sharing your instructions via e-mail, Twitter, or anywhere else online. You can also export documents as PDFs.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screenshot1073.png" alt="create instructional manual" width="523" height="99" border="0" />

Clarify contains nearly all of the basic features of the more professional program, ScreenSteps, except Clarify cannot export documents to Word or blog sites. Not everyone needs an advanced screen capture program like Clarify, but if you communicate how-to instructions on a regular basis, you will find this program to be a huge timesaver.

The beta version of Clarify is currently free and available for download for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion. Give it a try, and let us and the developers know what you think.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet.jpg" alt="facebook page welcome tab"/>This always makes me wonder: Why would a social media giant like Facebook give us an optional feature without ever caring about its usability?

It’s nice to have Facebook pages. They let you build more social media visibility for your blog or small business. It’s also nice to have the option to customize your Facebook page to maintain a brand identity.

But why is there no easy way to actually do that? The Internet has moved far beyond the old days of MySpace when the only way to customize your profile was to submit a custom HTML code in hopes it will look OK. Nowadays, one need not necessarily have HTML knowledge to build an online presence.

Anyway, enough for that rant. What Facebook is not offering as default has been implemented by the developers of href="http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=202641663099561&sk=info">Welcome Applet Facebook application (we have previously reviewed href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/welcomeapplet-custom-facebook-welcome-tab/">Welcome Applet for customizing your Facebook profile).

Authorize the App

The first step to using the application is authorizing it for the specific page you want to run it for: choose the page from the drop-down (you’ll need to authorize the app for each of your pages separately).

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet-01.jpg" alt="facebook page welcome tab" width="387" height="194" />

3 Ways to Create a Customized Welcome Page

The welcome Applet gives you three options of creating your own customized “Welcome page” for your Facebook page:

1. Graphical

This one is the quickest method provided you have a ready-made image for your custom welcome tab – then all you need to do here is to upload your graphics and then save and preview the changes.

Note: Your image should not exceed 520 pixels in width and 800 pixels in height:

You can also link this image to your website Facebook landing page:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet-02.jpg" alt="facebook welcome tab" width="469" height="279" />

2. HTML

This method is perfect for a bit more advanced users that seek more freedom and flexibility. Just submit your HTML code here (most standard Web coding HTML, CSS, JavaScript is supported) and click “Save”.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet-03.jpg" alt="facebook welcome tab" width="550" height="365" />

3. Basic

If you don’t have a pretty graphic for your welcome page and don’t want to mess with any coding, try this option. It offers a visual editor for you to submit, format and style your welcome message:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet-04.jpg" alt="facebook welcome tab" width="550" height="336" />

What’s more it lets you customize the background to make it more appealing:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet-05.jpg" alt="facebook welcome page templates" width="550" height="205" />

Tip! You can always go back to the app to introduce any changes from “Manage Your App” link on your Facebook page (to the top-right in the screenshot above).

Here you go!

Create a Fangate Page

One more cool option inside is the ability to create a “fangate”.

A Fangate is a page for people who have not yet “Liked” your Facebook page (which means the main purpose of the fangate is to call to action, i.e. invite to “Like” the page).

Once someone “Likes” your page, the Fangate gets replaced with the Welcome page you set up.

When you turn “ON” Fangate, a new tab appears that allows you to create a Fangate page the same way you would create your Welcome page.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/welcome-applet-07.jpg" alt="facebook page welcome tab" width="434" height="266" />

One thing to keep in mind is that your custom Facebook page Welcome tab will have “powered by GOSO” at the bottom of it (in case you have any problem with that).

I guess it’s a nice and very user-friendly app. I wonder why Facebook doesn’t still have such functionality in place. What do you think?

Don’t miss these two solid tips on customizing your Facebook Page Welcome tab:

• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/customize-facebook-fan-page-welcome-tab/">HOW TO: Customize Your Facebook Fan Page With A Welcome Tab
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/">Easily Build & Customize Facebook Pages With Static HTML WYSIWYG Editor

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-create-custom-tab-facebook-page-applet/">Easily Create A Custom Tab For Your Facebook Page With Welcome Applet is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Icon-c.png?54167"/>Maybe you’ve already tried out href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/twitbacks-free-customized-twitter-backgrounds/">Twitbacks, or perhaps you just don’t like limiting yourself to an app such as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/prettytweet-prettify-twitter-page/">PrettyTweet. You’re ready for the big dogs, and you want to design your own href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter background in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/photoshop/">Photoshop.

Instead of calling your Hot Pocket loving neighbor Jim who says he “might teach you how to do it… for a price,” you’ve come to us, and it’s a good thing you did, because MakeUseOf always delivers with no compensation required.

Setting Up the Main Background

Proper pixel dimensions are key when it comes to designing Twitter backgrounds, so you will need to start off by creating a new Photoshop file that is just the right size. The dimensions that we are going to use for this project will have a width of 2560 pixels and a height of 1600 pixels.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/mn1.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="344" />

The purpose for such a big size is that it provides just enough breathing room for large-screen monitors, so try to keep your design simple. Keep in mind that only part of it is going to show on most of your followers’ screens, so don’t fret too much over making a full-size, Louvre-worthy background image.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shot22.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="397" />

Because my Twitter account uses a black and white theme that matches my personal site, I will be keeping it simple with a plain background. However, if you want to get crazy, I would suggest going old school with a nice radial gradient, or perhaps you could use a hand-drawn picture or photograph.

Preparing the Side Graphic

Twitter doesn’t provide the option of adding a header or banner image to your account, so the next best thing is to have a customized graphic or logo on the side of your stream using the main background itself. In essence, the side graphic is a virtual billboard, for it allows you to add web href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/url/">URLs, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/">Facebook information, and anything else that you want to include that is relevant to your account. Unfortunately, nothing on it is clickable, so just consider it to be eye-candy.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shot3.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="456" />

For example,  href="http://www.twitter.com/makeuseof">MakeUseOf’s graphic takes up the entire side of the page with a nice artistic depiction of the site. To make something like this, you should open a totally new Photoshop file with dimensions that have a width of 235 pixels and a height of 700 pixels.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/side.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="344" />

The sizing of this image is actually pretty variable, but the general idea is to make it as visible as you can without it running into your stream. You have a surprisingly large field to work within, so don’t worry about not having enough room. Based on the upcoming step, I would advise using a totally transparent background layer or one that matches the color of your earlier Photoshop project.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shot51.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="246" />

Putting it All Together

So now that you’ve finished both your main background and your side graphic, it’s time to put them both together. First, go to the project window of your side graphic, select all, and then click “copy merged.” After this, go back to your main background, and paste your side graphic right on top of it, lining it up against the top left corner of the window. Be warned that if you don’t line it up properly, it could be covered by a portion of your stream or run off the page.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shot6.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="282" />

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shot71.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="401" />

Despite how small the side graphic may appear to be right now, it’s going to take up quite a bit of real estate when viewed in a browser. This is exactly why you should keep the artistic focus on your side graphic, for your followers will likely be paying the most attention to it. After you are finished, I would suggest that you finish things off by saving the background as a PNG file.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shot15.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="382" />

As you can tell with my own Twitter account, the side graphic is just to the left of my stream and totally out of the way. You may notice, however, that if the browser window is open in a small size, the side graphic will be mostly covered by your stream. This is normal, so don’t worry about it.

Since the side graphic is part of the background, it is cropped when you resize the window even though the stream content still stays in view. The issue may primarily be noticed by Mac users seeing that Snow Leopard does not allow full-screen viewing unless the window is manually resized.

Conclusion

So now that you are a Twitter background-making fool, you can play around with these guidelines to make something sexier than my own Plain Jane design. All in all, it’s a really nice graphics skill to know, especially if you are in the business of marketing and graphic design. As an endnote, you could probably adapt these same guidelines to something like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/makeuseof-musthave-mac-apps-giveaway-day-10-pixelmator/">Pixelmator or the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/gimp/">GIMP.

We’d love to see your own creations, so follow href="http://www.twitter.com/makeuseof">MakeUseOf on Twitter and give us a shout-out that will direct us to your own Photoshop Frankensteins. Also, since the process is all about customization, do you make your Twitter backgrounds any differently? In what ways did this method help you?

Image Credit:  rel="nofollow" href="http://morguefile.com/archive/display/640298">mzacha

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-twitter-background-photoshop/">How To Create A Twitter Background In Photoshop is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/graphics/" title="graphics" rel="tag">graphics, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/photoshop/" title="photoshop" rel="tag">photoshop, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/photoshop-tips/" title="photoshop tips" rel="tag">photoshop tips, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/" title="Twitter" rel="tag">Twitter, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter-tips/" title="twitter tips" rel="tag">twitter tips />

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/0_songsprite.jpg?54167" alt="" />In an article I wrote back in February entitled,  class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-websites-check-music-releases/">The 4 Best Websites To Check Out New Music Releases First, I pointed out that  class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube/">YouTube is a great place to find new music. Simply put, there are lots of music videos on the site and no matter what you’re into I guarantee they’ve got it.

But do you know what the problem is with YouTube as a music-listening platform? It wasn’t really built for that, and because it wasn’t, it lacks a few key things that a typical music platform would have, like the ability to save music playlists. Okay, so YouTube does technically have a playlist feature for music, but you still have to wait for the video to load in order to listen to your song, and sometimes that can be a pain. I’ve found a simpler way to do things, and it’s called SongSprite.

What Is SongSprite?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/5_songsprite.png?54167" alt="" width="476" height="394" />

class="vt-p" href="http://www.songsprite.com/">SongSprite ( class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/songsprite-create-audio-playlists/">directory app) pulls the audio from YouTube videos and lets you make your favorite tracks into a playable playlist that you can share with others. You simply get the URLs of the YouTube videos you’d like to play or share, paste them into SongSprite and then you will be able to listen to them or send a link to your newly created playlist to whoever you like.

SongSprite allows you to connect, collaborate and share playlists in real time with your friends.

The process of creating a playlist is SongSprite is extremely simple.

How Do I Use SongSprite?

The first place you need to go is YouTube and start browsing for music you would like to add to your new playlist.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1_songsprite.jpg?54167" alt="" width="553" height="510" />

Once you find a song that you like, just go up and copy the URL for it. Shortened links won’t work, so make sure the URL you grab is of normal length. Paste the link into the box on SongSprite and click the Add button to the right. If you’re using class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/chrome/">Google Chrome as your browser, the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-extremely-chrome-extensions-life-easier/">Split Screen extension would be great for this. Check it out.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2_songsprite.png?54167" alt="" width="287" height="200" />

You’ll know you entered the information correctly because it will place the name of the song into your list below. You can keep adding songs in this way until you are happy with the playlist you’ve created.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/3_songsprite.png?54167" alt="" width="307" height="100" />

To share your playlist once it is done, just copy the URL below the player and paste it in an email or IM, or click the Share icon to send the link to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or StumbleUpon.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/4_songsprite.png?54167" alt="" width="328" height="46" />

Conclusion

While having the ability to take content from YouTube and listen to it via a site like SongSprite is extremely convenient for all of us, I doubt that YouTube would really take kindly to this type of “extension”, seeing as none of YouTube’s ads or copyright permissions seem to come with the music you’re getting with the service. Having said that, I do think SongSprite is a great resource and a site that I could see myself using again and again. I invite you all to check it out and let me know what you think.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/songsprite-super-simple-create-share-audio-playlists-youtube/">SongSprite – A SUPER Simple Way to Create & Share Audio Playlists From YouTube is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/audio/" title="audio" rel="tag">audio, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music/" title="music" rel="tag">music, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music-sharing/" title="music sharing" rel="tag">music sharing, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music-videos/" title="music videos" rel="tag">music videos, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/playlist/" title="playlist" rel="tag">playlist, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/playlist-creator/" title="playlist creator" rel="tag">playlist creator, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube/" title="Youtube" rel="tag">Youtube />

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/intro2.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" />Quality, free and above all useful camera apps are often hard to come by on the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ios">iOS platform. Both class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-life-photos-free-instagram-app-iphone/">Instagram and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/snapbucket-fun-mobile-photo-styling-sharing-app-photobucket-ios-android-smartphones/">Snapbucket are great for quickly sharing stylised snaps, but they don’t add any genuinely useful features for everyday shots or video.

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/canopy-camera-tools/id417407454?mt=8">Canopy Camera Tools is an app designed to help you get the most out of your mobile photography, and much like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/frame-frame-free-photography-app-ios-stopmotion-antishake/">Joby’s Frame X Frame it has been created with a specific attachment in mind – the Kapok Canopy Case, with tripod mount. You don’t need a tripod to benefit from this one, as there are plenty of features you can use in your hand. You could always fashion something to hold your device steady (I find Blu-Tack works well without leaving a mess) if you fancy creating a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/chronolapse-desktop-client-create-timelapse-screencasts-ease/">time-lapse sequence.

Getting The Basics Right

The iPhone (or any iOS device) camera isn’t the be-all and end-all of mobile photography. Whilst the iPhone is the most popular and oft-used “camera phone” solution; Apple’s in-built app leaves you wanting a bit more control and a few extra features.

Without being overly complicated, Canopy places 6 main buttons on your viewfinder, which can be toggled on and off with a tap. These are persistent in both Camera and Video modes, which are selected at the bottom of the screen, along with quick access to existing photos and app settings.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" width="580" height="387" />

The left hand side of the screen allows you to choose between front and rear facing cameras, toggle time-lapse mode and the camera timer which is perfect for group shots and also works with video. On the right hand side of the screen there are buttons for controlling flash behaviour, toggling exposure lock and white balance lock.

The lock buttons are especially useful, and add some genuinely useful functionality to your phone. For example, whilst taking a video by default the camera will adjust exposure as light changes. Should you want to maintain exposure throughout the video, exposure lock allows you to do this and your camera won’t re-balance every time you move.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/settingslocked.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

This also goes for white balance, and if you’re really serious you could use a piece of white or grey card to take a perfect white balance reading and lock this for the duration of your video or photo session.

Advanced Features, Better Results

Of course Canopy also includes the aforementioned time-lapse mode, which automatically stitches your photos into a video. It works, though as the handy notification I received pointed out – phone calls will interrupt any sequences you’re working on. The best way around this is to activate Airplane Mode from your device’s Settings.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/timelapse.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

Time-lapse photography takes up a decent wedge of battery (I’ve yet to use an app which is “light” on power for this task) so make sure you’ve got enough battery to complete the sequence and find your way home afterwards. It works well, and doesn’t fill your camera roll with hundreds of images – great news.

The Settings menu afoot the viewfinder is also full of goodies. Much like Frame X Frame there is a spirit level (for that perfectly straight horizon) which – unlike Frame X Frame – does work in landscape mode. There’s also a grid that can be activated for aiding composition.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/settings.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

Saving the best till last, it is also possible to use touch gestures to control the camera and this can be customized in the Settings area. As you can see from the screenshot below, the default configuration is pretty intuitive.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tap_gestures.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" width="580" height="387" />

Conclusion

Canopy Camera Tools is probably the best free camera app I have used on the iOS platform. Features like time-lapse, exposure and white balance lock along with well-implemented touch gestures make it a joy to use, and provide some excellent results. You really don’t need a tripod, Kapok case or Gorillamobile to enjoy Canopy. Grab it now and start taking better pictures!

Have you found any similar great tools we’ve yet to feature? Do you like Canopy Camera Tools? Do you own a tripod/mount for your device? Let us know how you shoot on the go in the comments below. />
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