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CloudMagic – Find What You Need In Gmail, Google Apps & Twitter Quick & Easy

Posted on 26 January 2012. Tags: Apps, CloudMagic, Easy, Find, GMail, Google, Need, Quick, Twitter

Nowadays, we are all signed up for so many different services, it can be hard to keep track of them all. We all have Gmail, Google Apps, Twitter and so many more accounts. When you need to find something specific, it can be a real hassle. CloudMagic is a service that is designed to help you search Google Apps, Gmail and Twitter, all from one convenient place. With one simple search query, you will be able to find results from these services, without having to check each one individually.

CloudMagic is available as an application for Android and iPhone, as well in your web browser via their website, a handy Google Chrome extension and a Firefox add-on. Basically, if you are looking for a way to make searching for stuff easier, there is a one hundred percent chance that CloudMagic offers a way for you to use their service. We all want to make our lives a little easier, and CloudMagic could be just the solution you need.

What Does CloudMagic Do?

CloudMagic allows you to import your Gmail, Google Apps and Twitter account so they can all be searched from one place quickly and easily. With CloudMagic, you can type in a search query, and it will scan all three of the accounts for that term.

Therefore, if you typed in the name “John”, for example, it would find any instances of John appearing in your Google Apps, any emails with the name John and tweets. This makes it much easier to find something that could be on any of the accounts.

Setting Up Cloud Magic

Of course, if you are going to be using the Chrome, Firefox, iOS or Android version of the app, you will need to download and install them. If you are using the browser-based version, you can simply point your browser to cloudmagic.com.

Setting up Cloud Magic is a breeze. Whether using one of their mobile apps or doing it from your browser, the first step is creating a new account. Creating an account only requires an email address and a password. It literally takes about two seconds.

Once you have created an account the next step is to link your account with your Google and Twitter accounts. To do this, you will need to click on “Settings” on the mobile app and “Services” on the browser-based app. From there you will need to click “Add New Service” and log in with whichever service you would like to add.

If you log in with your Google and Twitter accounts on your phone, these accounts will be there when you log in on the computer, and vice versa. This makes it easy to use your mobile app while on the phone and your computer when you are at home.

Using Cloud Magic

Using CloudMagic is a snap. Once you have your accounts synced, simply click the search bar and enter what you are looking for. It will quickly scan all of your accounts to find items matching the term you entered. The search is blazing fast; it is quite impressive.

You can narrow your search to only specific things. If you only wanted to find calendar events that match your query, you can simply click the “Events” button. This way, if you wanted to find a doctor’s appointment without seeing tweets and emails about it, you could do so.

Of course, simply showing you the results would be useless. That is why you can click any result to be quickly directed to the proper application, either from your phone or from your computer.

Conclusion

This is a great application for quickly finding what you need from select services. I hope that they incorporate other services such as Facebook and other email clients (but let us be honest, almost everyone uses Gmail). As it stands, it is a great solution for organizing your Google and Twitter account, and I definitely recommend checking it out on your platform of choice.

Web Link
iTunes Link
Android Link
Chrome Link
Firefox Link

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Two Easy Ways To Create Visual Infographics Of Your Résumé

Posted on 10 January 2012. Tags: Create, Easy, Infographics, Resume, Visual, WAYS

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.

Use ModLoader To Make Installing New Minecraft Mods Very Easy

Posted on 27 December 2011. Tags: Easy, Installing, Minecraft, ModLoader, Mods, Very

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/minecrafthumb.jpg?323f2c" alt="minecraft mods" />To put it simply, you’re really not enjoying the full Minecraft experience if you’re running the client right out of the box. There are way too many user-contributed modifications that can soup up and trick out your Minecraft, causing an array of additional effects, unlocking new features, and just generally making the game a lot more functional and user-friendly than it already is.

Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve already thrown href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-online-communities-enhance-minecraft-game-experience/">nine websites that ought to help enhance your Minecraft at you. This time, I’m here to give you a step-by-step walk-through on how to get ModLoader up and running smoothly.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/minecraft_classic_select_block.jpg?323f2c" alt="minecraft mods" width="580" height="326" />

ModLoader was made by href="http://www.minecraftforum.net/user/39496-risugami/">Risugami with hopes to make the process of installing Minecraft mods much simpler. It achieves just that. After installing ModLoader manually, you’ll only have to save the archived files of each new mod that you want to install in a specific folder. No more annoying editing of minecraft.jar!

Windows

The first step is to go and download ModLoader by href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20629262/Latest/ModLoader.zip">clicking here. Open the archive and do nothing more.

What you’ll want to do next is go to your Windows Start Menu, go to Run, and input “%appdata%”. This should bring up your applications data folder. From there, go to “.minecraft” and then navigate into “bin”.

You then need to open minecraft.jar with WinRAR or 7zip, or whatever other archiving program you use. From there, you want to drag and drop the files from the ModLoader archive into the minecraft.jar archive.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/modloader_win.png?323f2c" alt="mods for minecraft" width="580" height="357" />

You can just drag all of the files from the one archive into another. Make sure not to drag them into a folder, but into the “bin” folder root. A window asking if you want to extract may come up and you’ll want to proceed if it does.

After that, there is a folder called “META-INF” in the root of this archive. Delete that entire folder. This is important and necessary.

Macintosh

1. Go to “Applications” then “Utilities” and open the terminal.

2. Type in the following: /> cd ~ /> mkdir mctmp /> cd mctmp /> jar xf ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar

3. Away from the terminal now, you’ll want to copy all files into the “mctmp” directory

4. Back in the terminal, type the following: /> rm META-INF/MOJANG_C.* /> jar uf ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar ./ /> cd .. /> rm -rf mctmp

Now you’re all done. Instead of having to do a similar procedure every time you want to try out a mod, you now only have to save the mod’s archive in the “mods” folder. This folder is located at “%appdata%/.minecraft/mods”.

Let’s try it out using href="http://ad.cx/reimm_100">Rei’s Minimap mod. Simply download and save the archive in the “mods” directory.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/reimm.png?323f2c" alt="mods for minecraft" width="580" height="118" />

From there, well, you’re done. Start up Minecraft and let’s see what we’ve got.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/reimm2.png?323f2c" alt="minecraft mods" width="452" height="363" />

Surely enough, we’ve managed to install a whole new capability by just saving a file into a certain directory. ModLoader handles all the rest of the work for us.

ModLoader is compatible with almost every single mod out there. There isn’t a complete list, but you can find a good bunch to start with at the href="http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/75440-v100-risugamis-mods-everything-updated/">mod’s official forum thread.

One thing to note is that ModLoader will require reinstallation if you’ve upgraded your Minecraft. What’s awesome is that your mods that have been installed using ModLoader won’t, however. ModLoader is a very useful tool that should make the process of installing mods simple and quick for even the most novice of users.

If you’re just browsing through this post and you’ve yet to pick up Minecraft, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-survive-fight-online-game-minecraft/">here’s why you should. href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-reasons-playing-minecraft-gaming/">Here are even more reasons, as of recent! If you need help finding the perfect multiplayer server to play on, check out href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/find-play-minecraft-multiplayer-server-gaming/">this post.

Drop me a line in the comments and let me know how ModLoader has been working out for you. Leave me any questions or concerns and I’ll be sure to follow up.

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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/asda-story-a-soul-mate-mmorpg/" rel="bookmark"> width="125" height="125" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/12112269_640-150x150.jpg?323f2c" class="with-border wp-post-image" alt="Asda Story – A Soul Mate MMORPG" title="Asda Story – A Soul Mate MMORPG" style="width:125px;height:125px;" /> class="title">Asda Story – A Soul Mate MMORPG

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5 Easy Ways To Download & Convert Online Videos

Posted on 06 December 2011. Tags: Convert, download, Easy, Online, Videos, WAYS

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-28-15h14_15.jpg" alt="download videos from internet" />Streaming video websites are such a big part of our lives, it’s hard to remember a time when they didn’t exist. These websites revolutionized our computer video experience – no longer do we have to download every single video we want to watch – it’s all right there!

But the opposite is also true. Sometimes sending a link or embedding a video is not enough, and we need the actual file, or only its soundtrack. And when that happens, the default FLV file format rarely cuts it. Luckily, there are several downloaders-converters out there that make it easy as pie to download videos and convert them into almost every possible format.

Xenra

href="http://www.xenra.com">Xenra is an easy-to-use web app which both downloads and converts YouTube videos into multiple formats. You can use it to either download whole videos, or extract entire audio tracks from YouTube videos.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-28-12h58_49.jpg" alt="download videos from internet" width="529" height="171" border="0" />

It’s very easy to use. Simply enter a valid YouTube link in the address bar and click the big red shiny “Download Now” button. You can then choose which format you want your video or audio file to be in, choose its quality and control several other aspects of the download.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/xenra-13.jpg" alt="download free videos" width="566" height="334" border="0" />

When you’re done, click “Start Conversion”. Xenra will start by downloading the video to its servers, and then convert it into the requested format. The process is rather swift, depending of course, on the video you chose and the quality you selected.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/xenra-2.jpg" alt="download free videos" width="572" height="383" border="0" />

When it’s done, you can download the file, share it, embed it, and generally have fun with it.

ClipConverter

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-clip-convert-web-videos-clipconverter/">ClipConverter is another excellent web app which can be used with multiple streaming video websites, not just YouTube. It can even convert or extract audio from video files you already have on your computer.

To start, paste the video’s URL or upload the file you wish to convert.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/clipconverter-15.jpg" alt="download free videos" width="581" height="205" border="0" />

Now choose which format you want the downloaded file to be converted into. Here too you can download the entire video or extract only the audio. If you wish to download only part of the video, you can specify start and end times and get only that snippet of the video as the final product. When you’re done, click “Start!”.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/clipconverter-2.jpg" alt="download videos" width="580" height="350" border="0" />

ClipConverter downloads and converts your video – and does so extremely quickly – and presents a download link along with a QR code, for downloading directly to your phone.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/clipconveretr-3.jpg" alt="download videos" width="438" height="343" border="0" />

To speed things up even further, try ClipConverter’s href="http://www.clipconverter.cc/addon/">browser add-ons for Firefox, Chrome and Safari, or use the handy dandy href="http://www.clipconverter.cc/addon/">bookmarklet.

ConvertVideoToAudio

href="http://www.convertvideotoaudio.com/">ConvertVideoToAudio is not as slick as the former two web apps, and not nearly as fast. What it does have going for it, are some unique file formats most other such converters don’t offer.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/convert-video-to-audio.jpg" alt="download videos" width="418" height="429" border="0" />

The website itself is way too cluttered with ads, and there are no settings to choose from except format. Having said that, you may find it useful if you need to quickly download and covert an online video into one of these formats, and while you can’t control the quality, it ends up being surprisingly good.

KeepTube

href="http://keep-tube.com">KeepTube is another download and convert service which you can use in multiple ways, although only with YouTube videos. Similar to other web apps, KeepTube sports the copy & paste option, but another way is to add the word “keep” before the word “youtube” on any YouTube URL you’re currently watching.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/keeptube-2.jpg" alt="keeptube-2" width="440" height="371" border="0" />

Both the copy/paste method and the “keep” method will direct you to the KeepTube website, where you can choose your preferred quality. KeepTube can be used mainly for full video downloads (HD and HQ included), but you can also use it to convert videos into MP3s.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/keeptube-1.jpg" alt="keeptube-1" width="580" height="405" border="0" />

If this is not quick enough, you can download a href="http://keep-tube.com/greasemonkey-plugin.php">plugin for Firefox or Chrome, or use the href="http://keep-tube.com/download-youtube-videos.php">bookmarklet. Note that the web app will attempt to launch a Java applet. If this is not to your liking, you can use the non-Java version of the app.

Freemake [Windows]

If web apps are not your cup of tea, and you like the feel of a good desktop app under your feet, this is the option for you. href="http://www.freemake.com">Freemake is a fantastic video converter for Windows which we’ve href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/freemake-easy-video-converter-windows/">mentioned in the past, which now also offers Freemake’s href="http://www.freemake.com/free_video_downloader/">free video downloader.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/freemake-1.jpg" alt="freemake-1" width="577" height="198" border="0" />

This slick piece of software grabs your video links from the clipboard. Copy the video URL and simply click the “Paste URL” button. The software can be set up in advance with your favorite settings, and will start downloading and converting immediately. When it’s done, you can even play the new file directly from the app.

If you turn off the one-click download option, you can set up the quality, format and location for each file separately. The downloader can also be used to extract audio from videos.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/freemake-23.jpg" alt="download videos from internet" width="566" height="598" border="0" />

Note that the software requires an installation of the latest version of .NET. If you don’t have it yet, it might take a little while to download.

Conclusion

Last time I actually needed to download and convert a YouTube video from the Internet, it proved to be quite a difficult task. But downloading an converting online videos has been getting increasingly easier, and after only a year or two, the Web is teeming with quick and simple options. Now I can’t wait for it to becomes even easier.

Know of some more easy-to-use video downloaders that also convert? Know of an important option we missed? Share in the comments!

Image credit: href="http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/206200/206200,1239563704,10/stock-vector-two-arrow-refresh-symbol-28369810.jpg" rel="nofollow">Shutterstock

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Etsy For Mobile Just Made It Easy For You To Shop Online

Posted on 22 November 2011. Tags: Easy, Etsy, Just, Made, Mobile, Online, Shop

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/0_etsy.jpg" alt="etsy for mobile" />The Holiday href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/shopping/">shopping season is upon us, so you know what that means. Troves of people are going to be flooding stores around the country and (hopefully) giving our economy a little boost with all the sales that they make in the process.

What are you heading out to buy this year? Electronics? Clothes? Depending on who you’re shopping for, maybe you’re looking for something unique or interesting. Well, if you happen to be interested in vintage or one-of-a-kind handmade goods, I think I just may be able to save you a trip to the store.

In this article, I’m going to show you how you can utilize href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/etsy-alternative-ebay-hand-products/">Etsy for your mobile device. Mobile shopping is sure to be a hit this year, so luckily for you, browsing your favorite handmade goods site just got easier.

What Is Etsy?

If you’re unfamiliar with Etsy, href="http://www.etsy.com/">the website, then allow me to take this opportunity to get you up to speed. Or read href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/etsy-alternative-ebay-hand-products/">Ryan’s excellent summary from last year.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/1_etsy.jpg" alt="etsy for mobile" width="336" height="481" />

Etsy is “the world’s handmade marketplace”. It’s an e-commerce site that is focused entirely on handmade or vintage items and art and craft supplies. Items cover a wide range, including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, beauty products, knick-knacks, etc. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old, and range from old boats and ice skates to dresses, hats, and scarves. Sellers also have personal storefronts where they list their goods, not unlike how Amazon or eBay functions.

Whether you’re already a longtime fan of Etsy or I’ve just introduced you to your new favorite shopping site, you should be pleased to know that your experience with this site just got a whole lot easier, because Etsy has gone mobile.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2_etsy.jpg" alt="mobile etsy" width="335" height="483" />

By visiting the mobile site or using the new iPhone app ( href="http://www.etsy.com/mobile">more information on both here) you can now buy directly from independent, creative businesses, and explore over 11 million unique (and I mean unique) items from small businesses all over the world.

Etsy’s iPhone App

The href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/etsy/id477128284?mt=8">Etsy app for iPhone gives you one-touch access to all of the items I’ve mentioned above. Overall, the app integrates well with your cart, favorites, purchase history, and shop, which really gives you most of the functionality you would have if you visited the website.

As a buyer, you can search for handmade/vintage items, browse Treasury Lists, and make purchases right from your mobile device. Etsy’s search function works really well, also. If you search for “dresses”, for instance, you’ll get a lot of listings that you can scroll through and filter by location, price, relevance, or most recent.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/3_etsy.jpg" alt="etsy for mobile" width="335" height="480" />

The app also incorporates social sharing features. You can share items you find via Twitter, Facebook, email, or SMS. The app encourages you to sign in with your Etsy account so that you can favorite items and add them to your cart.

If you’re a seller, you can access your listings and latest orders, as well as use merchant tools to manage your business more easily.

Conclusion

I think coming out with a mobile solution for users just in time for the Holiday shopping season was a really smart move for Etsy, who should definitely see additional sales being made because of the ease of use of this new app. Now users can shop on Etsy from anywhere, even from another store that they also happen to be shopping at. How useful!

What do you think about Etsy’s new app and mobile e-commerce?

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How To Set Up An Apache Web Server In 3 Easy Steps

Posted on 22 October 2011. Tags: Apache, Easy, Server, Steps

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/apache_logo.jpg" alt="apache web server"/>Whatever the reason is, you may at some point want to get a web server going. Whether you want to give yourself remote access to certain pages or services, you want to get a community group going, or anything else, you’ll need to have the right software installed and configured for that to happen. So how exactly can you do that? It’s actually quite simple.

My operating system of choice for this article will be href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-fedora-16-beta-distribution/">Fedora Linux, as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/service/linux">Linux in general is known for getting servers up and running quickly, and easily. In addition, Fedora is well supported by both a community and a corporation, has great security, and offers graphical configuration tools for multiple servers.

Step One: Installation

New Install of Fedora

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_server_installation.jpg" alt="apache web server" width="580" height="363" /> /> If you don’t have Fedora installed on your system yet, you can do so with href="http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-all">the DVD because you can also choose to install Apache at the same time. If you take this route, while installing from the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/dvd/">DVD you’ll be able to choose which packages you want to install with the “Customize Now” switch. Choose it and then under the Servers tab, you can select “Web Server”. Go ahead with the installation until you can boot into your new system. From there, you can install the graphical configuration tool by choosing the package system-config-httpd from your package manager, or run sudo yum install system-config-http.

Fedora Already Installed

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_config_installation.jpg" alt="apache server" width="580" height="310" /> /> If you already have Fedora installed, you can install both the web server and the graphical configuration tool. You can install the httpd and system-config-httpd packages from the package manager, or run sudo yum install httpd system-config-httpd.

Step Two: Configuration

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_config_main.jpg" alt="apache server" width="579" height="506" /> /> You can now start the graphical configuration tool from System Tools –> HTTP. The first tab you’ll see is the Main tab, where you can configure the server name, administrator email address, and under which addresses the server is available under. I recommend that you add an address right now, and choose “All available addresses” on port 80 for simplicity.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_config_virtualhosts.jpg" alt="apache server" width="580" height="518" /> /> The second tab contains the different virtual hosts, or the number of different websites on the same server, that are configured. The server can differentiate what domain name was entered into the browser and therefore choose the correct virtual host when displaying a page.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_config_virtualhost_settings.jpg" alt="apache http server" width="580" height="566" /> /> There are plenty of different settings that you can choose for each virtual host, including the necessary components as well as hard-to-configure ones such as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ssl/">SSL (HTTPS). For a majority of items, the graphical configuration tool should be able to take care of your needs.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_config_performance.jpg" alt="apache http server" width="580" height="524" /> /> The final tab has everything to do with performance and the amount of connections that are allowed. There are no recommended settings as each server has different capabilities, so if you have a larger website you’ll need to play around with these numbers and see what works (provided that you have enough traffic to test out the settings correctly).

Additional Needed Configuration

Before you can actually access your new web server, you’ll need to open your terminal and then run sudo service httpd start to actually start Apache and sudo chkconfig httpd on to make Apache start at every boot.

Step Three: Testing

Step 3 in our process is simply to test out whether you can access your page or not. On the same machine, open up Firefox and type in localhost or 127.0.0.1 to see if you get this test page (provided that you didn’t change the document root):

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fedora_apache_testpage.jpg" alt="apache web server" width="580" height="355" /> /> If not, you may have done something wrong in your configuration or not started Apache yet.

Conclusion

It’s pretty cool to have Apache up and running on your very system, considering that it’s the same technology being used by most of the websites you visit every single day (including MakeUseOf). If you want other machines to have access, you’ll need to go into Fedora’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firewall/">firewall configuration utility (installed by default) and make sure that HTTP (Port 80) is open. Also, if you want to run more complicated web frameworks such as forums or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/wordpress">WordPress, you’ll have to install MySQL and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/php">PHP as well, but I’ll leave that for another article.

How easy do you think this process is? What do you like or not like about Apache? Let us know in the comments!

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-apache-web-server-3-easy-steps/">How To Set Up An Apache Web Server In 3 Easy Steps is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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Adaptable Gimp Makes Using The Gimp Easy [Windows & Linux]

Posted on 29 September 2011. Tags: Adaptable, Easy, Gimp, Linux, Makes, using, Windows

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/agimp-icon.png" alt="" />Do you love using href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/gimp/">the Gimp, but feel lost amongst all the tools and options? Find just the things you need for the job at hand, instantly, with a simple search. With href="http://www.adaptablegimp.org">Adaptable Gimp, you’ll even find step-by-step instructions for accomplishing precisely the thing you want to do. This software, powered by user contributions, makes it easy for just about anyone to use The Gimp. It all revolves around “TaskSets”, a concept so amazingly useful you’ll wonder why it wasn’t in The Gimp all along.

Want to remove red eye from a photo? There’s a TaskSet for that. Same for adding drop shadows to text, cropping and resizing photos and drawing basic shapes. Stop stumbling through controls. Whether you consider it a Gimp training tool or a full-blown replacement for the image editing suite, Adaptable Gimp is something you should check out.

Introducing TaskSets

src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qP8c2R8YEb4?hd=1" frameborder="0" width="580" height="325">

For the most part, Adaptable Gimp looks like The Gimp. The main difference is the left sidebar:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/agimp-default.png" alt="" width="578" height="345" />

As you can see, there is a search bar and a box containing a subset of Gimp tools. Search for a given TaskSet and you’ll quickly find results:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/agimp-search.png" alt="" width="577" height="275" />

I’m constantly cropping and resizing photos for MakeUseOf, so “Crop and Resize” is the TaskSet for me. When I select this TaskSet, this is what I see:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/agimp-toolset.png" alt="" width="578" height="345" />

As you can see, only the tools I need to crop and resize images are here, and nothing else. Even better, they are here in the order that I need them, and there are instructions for using them. This makes my job a lot easier.

Naturally, many of the toolsets are more complicated than this. Are you curious about the kinds of TaskSets that are out there? Find them all on the href="http://adaptablegimp.org/w/Browse_Tasksets">Adaptable Gimp wiki. This wiki isn’t just a fan-created list of all TaskSets: it’s the actual database used by Adaptable Gimp.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/agimp-wiki.png" alt="" width="527" height="293" />

New sets are added constantly, which is really nice. Users of the software keep making it better, meaning you can accomplish more and more with this software as time goes on.

Creating TaskSets

Do you want to help make Adaptable Gimp better yourself? Simple. A built-in TaskSet creation tool makes this easy:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/agimp-newtask.png" alt="" width="580" height="320" />

Just add the tools needed for a given job, then provide instructions. Your TaskSet will be saved to the wiki, making it available to all Adaptable Gimp users. You’ll be sharing your Gimp expertise with the world, and making this software better for everyone. So don’t complain if Adaptable Gimp doesn’t yet do something you want to do. Instead, add your own TaskSet and it will help everyone out.

Download Adaptable Gimp

Ready to start using Adaptable Gimp? href="http://www.adaptablegimp.org/w/Download_AdaptableGIMP">Download it here. You’ll find an installer for Windows, and installation instructions for Linux. Sorry Mac users!

Once you check it out, be sure to let us know what you think of the software. Can you see yourself using it regularly? If not, do you think it’s a useful tool for teaching others? Or do you prefer href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-learn-gimp-photo-editor-online/">websites with instructions for learning The Gimp? Should Photoshop add something similar to Adaptive Gimp? Share these thoughts and more in the comments below.

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Exfm Provides An Incredibly Easy Way To Discover Music While Web Browsing [Web & iPhone]

Posted on 08 July 2011. Tags: Browsing, Discover, Easy, Exfm, Incredibly, iPhone, Music, Provides

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/0_exfm.jpg?54167" alt="music while browsing" />Let me paint a picture for you. You’re browsing the web, looking for class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music/">music to listen to. You know of a few great sites, but none of them has everything you’re looking for so you bounce around the web, listening to your music. Then, you go check your email or some of your social networks for a few hours. Maybe you continue to surf different websites. Afterwards, you start chatting with a friend about an awesome song you listened to earlier. Who was it by? You aren’t sure. You can’t even remember what particular site you heard it on.

Does this sound familiar? It happens to the best of us, but I’ve found a great app that was built with this type of behavior in mind. With exfm, you’ll never find yourself in this situation again.

What Is Exfm?

class="vt-p" href="http://ex.fm/">Exfm is a social music discovery platform that follows you around the web and keeps track of everything you listen to across various websites. Essentially it turns the web into your music library, making it incredibly easy to discover music while browsing, organize that music into a library, and share it with all your friends.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1_exfm.png?54167" alt="music while browsing" width="578" height="279" />

Whenever you browse a site with MP3s, they will automatically be added to your library. This is especially useful if you visit a lot of different sites and constantly have trouble remembering where you heard “that one song”.

Exfm will also go ahead and tag everything for you automatically, making it easier to find in your library once your collection grows. When you find a song you really love, you can “note” it. Noting a song, which is a lot like Liking something on Facebook, will place it into your Noted tab and display it on your public exfm profile page.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2_exfm.jpg?54167" alt="music while browsing iphone" width="580" height="219" />

As exfm is social, you can view all of the great music your friends are sharing as well. You can refer to your activity stream to catch all the latest updates from the people you’re connected with.

Lastly, exfm allows you to connect with your class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/">Facebook, and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/tumblr/">Tumblr accounts to easily find your friends and begin sharing the songs you like with them.

How Do I Get exfm?

Exfm is currently available as a browser extension for class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/chrome/">Google Chrome. If you head over to exfm’s class="vt-p" href="http://ex.fm/">homepage you can click the ‘Install Now‘ button to get started.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/3_exfm.png?54167" alt="music while browsing" width="322" height="482" />

As of recently, exfm is also available as an iPhone app, allowing you to take the app with you wherever you go. With the exfm iPhone app, all of your friends, feeds, music, and sharing options are right there with you, on your phone. Imagine being able to trap songs from the websites you browse and then listen to them once you leave your computer from your mobile device. Amazing.

Conclusion

After playing around with exfm for a while I got really excited about this extension. It had everything I’m looking for from a social perspective and it makes keeping track of the music I find on various sites a breeze. I was impressed with it and I think you will be too. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Do you like using exfm in your browser or on your phone?

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/exfm-incredibly-easy-discover-music-web-browsing-web-iphone/">Exfm Provides An Incredibly Easy Way To Discover Music While Web Browsing [Web & iPhone] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/discover/" title="discover" rel="tag">discover, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/mp3/" title="mp3" rel="tag">mp3, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music/" title="music" rel="tag">music, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music-library/" title="music library" rel="tag">music library, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/music-sharing/" title="music sharing" rel="tag">music sharing, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/songs/" title="songs" rel="tag">songs />

How To Import Your Facebook Contacts Into Gmail The Easy Way

Posted on 15 June 2011. Tags: Contacts, Easy, Facebook, GMail, import, into

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/0_friendstogmail.jpg" alt="import facebook contacts to gmail" /> class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/gmail/">Gmail is where I spend a lot of time during a given day. Whether I’m answering a fresh round of emails or searching through a pile of old ones to find important information I had either forgotten or misplaced, Gmail usually helps me get the job done in a short amount of time. One thing I never find myself doing however, is adding contacts to my address book, because well, that just takes too much time. Besides, I would have to enter all of that information manually. Where would I even find the kind of information that goes along with my contacts’ names and email addresses?

Facebook. Most of the people I know who I would like to include in my Gmail contacts are already friends with me on class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/">Facebook. So if I ever need to know where they currently live or work the chances are good I can just search for it there. But wouldn’t it be great if Facebook and Gmail played nicely together so I could have all of that information in one place? Well, now they do, with a simple little web application called Friends to Gmail.

What Is Friends To Gmail?

class="vt-p" href="http://www.friendstogmail.com/">Friends to Gmail ( class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/friendstogmail-import-facebook-contacts-to-gmail/">directory app) is a web application that you can use to convert your Facebook friends list into a nice, Gmail-compatible CSV file. Once created, you can import this file right into Gmail and all of your friends’ information, like names, locations, birthdays, bios, work history, and hometowns, will be added to your contacts for you. The app asks for permissions to retrieve this type of information from your Facebook account, but since all of the work is done within the browser, Friends to Gmail’s servers never actually “download” anything, which should alleviate any privacy concerns you may have about the app.

One thing to note is that Friends to Gmail does not download email addresses and phone numbers for your friends. This is because Facebook does not currently provide developers with a way to retrieve this type of data, and for good reason. After all, we already have enough class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-unofficial-facebook-privacy-guide/">privacy concerns with Facebook. Friends to Gmail’s developer does claim to be working on a way around this for those of us that would welcome such an option.

As an added benefit, you will be able to add all of your friends’ birthdays to your class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-calendar/">Google Calendar!

How Do I Use Friends To Gmail?

To get started importing your friends, just head over to Friends to Gmail’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.friendstogmail.com/">homepage and click the giant Connect with Facebook button. It will ask for your permission (as detailed above) and you will be able to download your CSV file.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1_friendstogmail.png" alt="import facebook contacts to gmail" width="285" height="354" />

Then head over to your Gmail account and click Contacts.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2_friendstogmail.png" alt="import facebook contacts" width="384" height="101" />

On the Contacts page, click on the More actions drop-down menu and select Import….

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/3_friendstogmail.png" alt="import facebook contacts" width="183" height="249" />

From there, a box will pop up that allows your to select a CSV file to upload. Choose the file that Friends to Gmail generated and you’re all set!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/4_friendstogmail.png" alt="import facebook contacts to gmail" width="467" height="281" />

Conclusion

Personally, I think this app is a lifesaver. It finally gave me a good reason to want to keep my Gmail contact list up to date, which enables me to add friends that I hadn’t previously emailed to my outgoing messages, making Facebook’s information even more useful.

What do you think of Friends to Gmail? Do you find this app useful?

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3 Tips To Help You Create Photo Collages The Easy Way

Posted on 14 June 2011. Tags: Collages, Create, Easy, Help, Photo, Tips

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/intro3.jpg" alt="creating a photo collage" />Creating collages can be a bit time-consuming if you do it yourself in MS Paint or Photoshop. If you don’t feel exactly creative, your work may not even bring you the results you want. I know I’ve been there. I might spend a few hours trying to create collages, without any fancy effects, just lining up images in rows and columns, and the whole thing just doesn’t look as glorious as I imagine it to be.

There are many solutions that will save you the headache, and will instead, produce aesthetically pleasing results with just a few clicks. Read on to see more about these very-easy-to-use tools!

Creating Collages Online

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage12.jpg" border="0" alt="creating a photo collage" width="580" height="571" />

ShapeCollage

class="vt-p" href="http://www.shapecollage.com/">ShapeCollage is a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-an-amazing-collage-on-your-computer-with-shape-collage-windows-nb/">great cross-platform application that helps you create beautiful collages in the shapes that you choose with only a few clicks. ShapeCollage even provides a simplified, web-based version that can produce collages shaped in different forms. All you have to do is paste the URLs of the images you’re interested in (though you can use URLs of Flickr tagged search, Youtube, Google Image Search, and more), choose a shape, type in some text to adorn the whole collage (or leave it blank if you don’t need text), and press the Create button.

Fotonea

class="vt-p" href="http://fotonea.com/">Fotonea is a relatively simple-looking web app that class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/fotonea-making-eyecatching-collages-online/">creates eye-catching collages. You can upload up to 6 pictures of 2 MB or smaller, select a background, a frame, and then create a beautiful collage.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0px initial initial;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage23.jpg" border="0" alt="photo collage ideas" width="464" height="389" />

The cool thing about Fotonea is that you can manually rearrange the size and layout of each photo, and you can also add extra items on your collage, such as text, sticky notes, speech bubbles, etc.

Hockneyizer

class="vt-p" href="http://bighugelabs.com/hockney.php">Big Huge Labs’ Hockneyizer is another interesting class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/hockneyizer-photo-collage-generator/">collage maker of sorts that creates a cool polaroid effect out of a single image that you upload, or get from your Facebook or Flickr account. You can choose how many polaroids will show up on your collage (you can have anywhere from 1 to 20). The resulting effect adds a refreshing twist to regular photos. Here’s one I made with 10 polaroids. If you like this kind of effect, you should also check out class="vt-p" href="http://ipiccy.com/editor">iPiccy, which is class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/ipiccy-photo-editing-web-application/">surprisingly powerful and offers a lot more options in effects after you complete this look.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage34.jpg" border="0" alt="photo collage ideas" width="580" height="363" />

Creating Collages With Desktop Software

Instead of loading up Photoshop, GIMP, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-facial-recognition-technology-in-picasa-web-albums/">Picasa to spend a while creating a collage, you can use the open-source and cross-platform class="vt-p" href="http://code.google.com/p/fotowall/">Fotowall to easily create photo collections.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0px initial initial;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage41.jpg" border="0" alt="photo collage ideas" width="441" height="466" />

It hasn’t been updated for about a year, but it still allows you to create nice collages with a few clicks, and customize effects for individual pictures, as well as manipulate sizes, layouts and frames. What’s cool is that you can pull graphics from online image searches (Flickr and Google Image Search). With Fotowall, you don’t have to be enormously creative to come up with nice-looking collages!

Creating Collages With Software You Already Have

You can use a variety of specific collage-making software like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-an-amazing-collage-on-your-computer-with-shape-collage-windows-nb/">ShapeCollage and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-stunning-photo-mosaics-in-minutes/">AndreaMosaic (which creates those stunning photo mosaics you see in commercials with hundreds of tiny pictures that make up a larger photograph), or you can also use programs you already may have like Microsoft Word and Windows Live Writer to make cool image galleries. In Windows Live Writer, for example, you can create galleries of many forms when you add several pictures to a blog post.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage5.png" border="0" alt="make a photo collage" width="452" height="417" />

After you select at least 3 images and choose photo album instead of inline pictures, you’ll be presented with a few collage-friendly layouts.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0px initial initial;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage6.jpg" border="0" alt="make a photo collage" width="464" height="445" />

I’ve personally made at least a couple of introductory images from Windows Live Writer for the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/photoshop-15-amazing-logos-portraits-open-source-tools/">No Photoshop: 15 Open-Source Generated Logos & Portraits article and the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/15-awesome-dualmonitor-wallpapers/">15 Dual-Monitor Wallpapers post.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/collage7.jpg" border="0" alt="creating a photo collage" width="580" height="291" />

Let’s hear from you now. What do you use to create collages? Let us know in the comments!

Image credit: class="vt-p" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=75447187">Shutterstock – Zurijeta

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9 Easy Ways To Never Get A Virus

Posted on 05 June 2011. Tags: Easy, Never, Virus, WAYS

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/computer-condom.jpg" alt="how to never get a virus"/>In 20 odd years of using computers, I can safely say that I’ve never been a victim of any computer virus, and yet I’ve also never run anti-virus software. It’s a curious fact that the people who are most worried about viruses get them more often. With a little basic training you can completely avoid the problem of viruses and malware, so you can calm down and enjoy the internet!

1. Beware of Fake Download / Play Buttons:

Usually these are targeted on torrent sites or anything with a download keyword on it, so users are fooled into clicking it and downloading something completely unrelated. It’s a dirty trick, and the only way to defeat them is to be careful and think twice before hitting the download button. It helps if you already know the site in question, because you should be able to realize the location of the download button has changed – but what about new users?

Check the status bar. Though this can be faked with JavaScript, I’ve noticed these ads in particular don’t usually do that. If the domain in the status is different to the site you’re on, it’s probably a malicious advert.

Another method is to use logic. If you have download some software for example, and it’s showing a PLAY NOW button, you should know instantly that’s completely unrelated. The visual style is a giveaway too.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/fake-download.jpg" alt="how to never get a virus" width="550" height="450" />

2. Don’t use Internet Explorer:

In every hacking convention so far, Internet Explorer has always been the first to fall. It has been claimed that a fresh install of XP with IE6 will be infected within minutes of browsing the internet. While the latest IE9 may have toughened up a little, the fact is that IE is specifically targeted by hackers on a daily basis, precisely because the number of people who don’t even consider switching browsers makes it a profitable target. Go href="http://www.google.com/chrome/">download Chrome.

3. Hang Up on Cold-Calling Indian Technical Support Agents:

In the UK at least, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of scam telephone calls from supposed Windows technical support agents. Here’s how it starts: /> A: Hi there, I’m from (indecipherable) and we’ve registered an error from your Windows – have you been experiencing any issues with it lately?

At this point, 90% of people will be thinking their Windows is broken and yes, of course they have been experiencing issues, because who doesn’t have Windows problems? You’ll then be walked through how to give this called complete remote control access to your PC, where they perform some BS technical checks and try to get you to purchase a support contract. Check out this video so you know what to expect.

width="560" height="349"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rn5sBDwmZ5s?fs=1&hl=en_US" /> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rn5sBDwmZ5s?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

4. Ignore Pop-Ups That Have Anything To Do With Security or Viruses:

These are difficult if you are actually running anti-virus software, because they pop up and fool you into thinking your AV software has found something.

For a start, ignore anything originating from your browser – which you can check by completely closing it down. As a general rule of thumb, ignore any and all security related messages if you didn’t initiate them youself – by clicking on your AV software’s SCAN button, for example. If you get a message from an AV app on windows you never installed, it’s likely you’ve already been infected.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/fake-antivirus.jpg" alt="never get a virus again" width="580" height="490" />

5. Avoid Public Torrent Sites Like The Plague:

Most public torrent sites are teething with malware and fake torrents. I don’t care what you download, but make sure you do it from a private tracker. They’re a few exceptions to the rule, some of which href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-bit-torrent-search-engines/">we’ve covered in the best new torrent sites.

href="http://www.torrentbutler.eu">torrentbutler.eu - because if the film is here, it’s been checked already. /> href="http://thepiratebay.org">piratebay.org – with millions of users, the comment system is usually full of reports of fake files or viruses – but stick to uploads from trusted power users (ones with a little pink or green skull and crossbones next to them).

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/reliable-torrents.jpg" alt="never get a virus again" width="580" height="102" />

Private trackers are only open to members, so it’s sometimes hard to find some that are accepting new registrations. We wrote before about href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/three-ways-to-find-open-registration-on-private-torrent-sites-2/">how to find trackers that are open. Be warned though, private trackers don’t take kindly to leeching, and if your ratio drops you can get banned.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/fake-torrents.jpg" alt="never get a virus again" width="580" height="435" />

6. Fake Torrents That Need a Specific Video Player:

If you’ve ignored my advice and downloaded some movie from a public torrent site, there’s a very good chance it’s a fake. These are difficult to detect because the file is usually padded to be about the right size, but upon playing them you’ll see a message that you need to download a new video player because it’s encoded specially or words to that effect.

Don’t download movies from public sites, and use VLC player to check a file. VLC player has every codec under the sun built-in, so if it doesn’t play correctly in that, it’s not a real movie.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/video-player-scam.jpg" alt="how to never get a virus" width="580" height="316" />

7. Don’t Open Anything Forwarded To You:

While you can be as careful as you like, your friends might not. If you have the kind of friends who forward you fun little flash games packaged up in .exe files, or anything other than a simple picture, just delete them.

8. Don’t search for common utilities in Google:

We covered this a little while ago – the worrying trend of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/downloading-open-source-software-watch-crapware-news/">malware ridden sites ranking highly in Google for various common utilities. Thinking you are downloading the best video player around, you actually get a virus infected copy instead from a dodgy third-party site. The solution – Have no fear, we have an extensive list of the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-windows-software">BEST software for Windows ( href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-linux-software">and now Linux, with Mac OSx one in the works – not that osx or linux users need to worry about viruses…) with verified links that you can trust. If you’re unsure of a particular app – where to download it officially or if it’s worth it – you can always ask around on our href="http://www.makeuseof.com/answers">helpful tech questions community.

9. Create a non-admin account for general use and family members:

If you allow yourself and members of your family to use the administration account, you are asking for trouble. Creating a limited privileges user account protects you somewhat by preventing anything run by that user (malicious or not) from doing any permanent damage. You can find out more about user accounts and everything else href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-7-guide-newbies-pros-free-pdf/">Windows 7 related in our fantastic free ebook.

The internet can be a dangerous place, but not if you follow these simple rules. Got some other useful tips? Do share, please! Let’s put an end to the madness of anti-virus now! />
/> href="http://flashvideodownloader.org/fvd-suite/track/s/makeuseof">Download videos from the sites like YouTube, Break.com etc. Convert videos to almost any format. /> href="http://flashvideodownloader.org/fvd-suite/track/s/makeuseof"> src="http://flashvideodownloader.org/fvd-suite/banners/aban3.gif">

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6 Easy Ways To Tweak Your Mac Desktop’s Appearance

Posted on 23 May 2011. Tags: Appearance, Desktop’s, Easy, TWEAK, WAYS

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mac.jpg" alt="tweak mac desktop"/>We’ve already given you a few tips and tricks on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-apps-which-will-definitely-spice-up-your-desktop-mac-only/">how to spice up your Mac desktop with apps like Pic-a-POD, Vladstudio Companion, Desktoptopia and DeskLickr. There are a few other ways you can adjust your desktop’s appearance depending on your needs.

From any easy way to change sidebar icons to automatically changing your wallpaper image, these apps make it more than easy to get it just the way you want, practically at the click of a button. Also be sure to check out the in-depth review of the popular, cross-platform wallpaper rotation app, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wally-an-incredible-cross-platform-wallpaper-rotation-app/">Wally.

Refinery

href="http://www.ezasoft.com/refinery/">Refinery gives you instant access to tons of tiny little tweaks and changes to your Mac’s appearance.

You can tweak the dock’s appearance or positioning and control window minimization. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RefineryDock.png" alt="tweak mac desktop" width="580" height="245" /> /> You can also easily change your dock by drag and drop icons, dividers, indicators and more to get your dock just the way you want. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RefineryAppearance1.jpg" alt="changing mac desktop" width="580" height="396" /> /> You can also download ready made docks to import from href="http://www.leoparddocks.com/index.php">Leopard Docks. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RefineryDock2.png" alt="changing mac desktop" width="579" height="78" /> /> With Refinery you can also easily tweak the Desktop icons size, font size, window title style, show hidden files, and more. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RefineryFinder.jpg" alt="changing mac desktop" width="580" height="316" /> /> Other Finder options include changing the Sidebar icons and Toolbar icons, by dragging and dropping them onto the app. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RefineryFinderAppearance.jpg" alt="mac desktop changes" width="580" height="339" /> /> You can also change the login window background, and system alert icons, also using the drag and drop method. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RefinerySystem.jpg" border="0" alt="mac desktop changes" width="580" height="445" /> /> Any changes that you make can be easily reverted with the click of a button. Refinery is donationware, meaning you can use it for free for as long as you like, but if you find the app handy, you can also show your appreciation with a small donation to the developer.

Wallpaper Wizard Lite

href="http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/wallpaper-wizard-lite/id421274812?mt=12">Wallpaper Wizard Lite [App Store link] is available as a free download from the Mac App Store. The free version of the app does come with its limitations – namely you only have access to 100 of the available images. That said, the sets that are available are pretty impressive, divided into the four categories, animals, exotic, cars and nature. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/WPWSelect.jpg" alt="mac desktop changes" width="580" height="308" /> /> There are several ways you can change your wallpaper using Wallpaper Wizard Lite. There is a mini-wizard where you can randomly shuffle between the available wallpapers, or even automatically change your wallpaper at specific intervals. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/WPWShuffle.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="376" /> /> Alternatively, you can open up the main window of the program to select the wallpaper yourself. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/WPWChoose.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="286" /> /> Upgrading to the paid version gives you the ability to upload your own images, turning Wallpaper Wizard into the ultimate wallpaper manager.

Loginox

href="http://www.loginox.branox.com/">Loginox is a great little free app which makes it extremely easy to change the image you see when you’re logging in to your Mac. If you’re bored with the default Leopard Aurora image, you can choose any photo of your liking by dragging onto the Loginox app and hitting Set new login image. If you decide you want to go back to default image, simply select, Reset to default image. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Loginox.png" alt="" width="580" height="244" />

Desktop Calendar

href="http://d-lit.com/macosx/desktop_calendar/index.php">Desktop Calendar isn’t so much a wallpaper manager, as much as it gives you a quick and easy way to place a calendar over your wallpaper. The app is far from feature rich, but it gets the job done.

After downloading and launching the app, it displays a calendar on your desktop. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DC1.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="404" /> /> To move or alter the size of the calendar, hit the Desktop Calendar menu in the status bar and select Enter Layout Mode or use the shortcut Command-M. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DC2.png" alt="" width="242" height="236" />

Wlppr

href="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/wlppr.html">Wlppr harnesses the power of href="http://wlppr.com/">Wlppr.com, a wallpaper repository updated on a daily basis. Sitting quietly in your status bar, upon launching, you can set the app to launch at startup and automatically change your wallpaper for you on a daily basis. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wlppr.png" alt="" width="485" height="538" />

Desktopple Basic

While not as robust as the pro version of the app, href="http://foggynoggin.com/desktopple/basic">Desktopple Basic is definitely a useful app if you want a quick and easy way to clear your desktop. Unlike href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-free-mac-gems-app-store/">Desktoday, rather than physically move the icons into an folder, Desktopple Basic temporarily hides them much like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-tips-tools-clean-simplistic-desktop-mac/">Camouflage.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Desktopple.png" alt="tweak mac desktop" width="359" height="450" />

One drawback we noticed to using Desktopple is that if you use a gesture shortcut to show the desktop, Desktopple has no effect. Desktopple Basic is donationware, meaning like Refinery, you can show your appreciation with a small donation.

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to tweak your Mac’s desktop appearance for free? Let us know in the comments. />
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3 Easy & Fun Ways To Switch Between Search Plugins In Firefox

Posted on 01 May 2011. Tags: Between, Easy, Firefox, Plugins, Search, Switch, WAYS

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins.jpg" alt="select search plugin" />We’ve been featuring Firefox search bar tips and tricks quite a lot. Here are href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/2-great-addons-improve-firefoxs-search-bar/">two addons to improve Firefox’s search bar and here are href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-firefox-search-plugins-support-search-suggestions/">10 Firefox search plugins that support search suggestions. I’ve said many times why I love the simplistic yet functional search bar so much and why I like playing with it. I can clearly understand why many href="http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/firefoxie-search-bar-find-websites/">people prefer it over using the address bar to find any particular website.

If you love the search bar as much as I do, you’ll find the following three tips just awesome – they will let you quickly switch between search plugins.

1. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

The Firefox search bar has a number of really handy keyboard shortcuts built in by default. Chances are, if you get yourself familiar with these shortcuts, you’ll need no other tricks to switch between the search plugins.

CTRL+K changes the focus to the search bar box, so you can instantly type your search term or change the search plugin.

Note: Firefox used to also support the CTRL+E shortcut to do the same thing but it isn’t working in Firefox 4. You can use href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/change-search-shortcut/">this addon to set your own shortcut as well.

When your focus is in the search bar you can use the ALT+down arrow key to:

Select your preferred search engine;
Hit the first letter of the preferred search engine to instantly jump down to it.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-05.png" alt="select search plugin" width="280" height="158" />

2. Scroll Search Engines

Heavy mouse users will find this addon very useful. href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scroll-search-engines/">Scroll Search Engines lets you change an active search engine by scrolling the mouse over the search bar or search context menu (i.e. when you’ve highlighted a word on the page and right-clicked to search the web for it). Thus it saves you two mouse clicks: you don’t have to click the search bar, and then click the engine you want to use.

The add-on also supports the following keyboard shortcuts: CTRL+K and CTRL+SHIFT+K to switch between the search engines. Optionally you can also set to scroll search plugins in a loop by configuring it in the addon options.

3. Click: Quick Search Bar

If you (like myself) seldom use a mouse (and are rather a touchpad addict), you may want to try this addon - href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quick-search-bar/">Quick Search Bar. It places the search engine buttons inside the search bar instead of the drop down menu. Thus it saves you one click: with it, you don’t have to click the search bar to access the list of search engines in the drop-down.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-01.png" alt="search plugin firefox" width="279" height="64" />

As you can see, if you have more search engines than can be placed in your search bar, the rest will be available after a click:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-02.png" alt="select search plugin" width="295" height="75" />

You may want to organize your search plugins for the most important ones to be on top of the list (and thus available before the click). It can also be set to use the mouse to scroll through the search plugin icons:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-03.png" alt="Quick Search Bar" width="437" height="272" />

The icons are also placed inside your right-click context menu:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-04.png" alt="Quick Search Bar" width="296" height="244" />

Do you love using the Firefox search bar? What are your favorite tips to make more fun with it? />
/>Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on href="http://www.makeuseof.dev/answers/" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf Answers!

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More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox/" title="firefox" rel="tag">firefox, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox-addons/" title="firefox addons" rel="tag">firefox addons, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox-tips/" title="firefox tips" rel="tag">firefox tips, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/fun/" title="fun" rel="tag">fun, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/plugin/" title="plugin" rel="tag">plugin, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/search/" title="search" rel="tag">search, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/search-tips/" title="search tips" rel="tag">search tips />

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3 Easy & Fun Ways To Switch Between Search Plugins In Firefox

Posted on 01 May 2011. Tags: Between, Easy, Firefox, Plugins, Search, Switch, WAYS

If you love the search bar as much as I do, you’ll find the following three tips just awesome – they will let you quickly switch between search plugins.

1. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL+K changes the focus to the search bar box, so you can instantly type your search term or change the search plugin.

When your focus is in the search bar you can use the ALT+down arrow key to:

Select your preferred search engine;
Hit the first letter of the preferred search engine to instantly jump down to it.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-05.png" alt="select search plugin" width="280" height="158" />

2. Scroll Search Engines

3. Click: Quick Search Bar

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-01.png" alt="search plugin firefox" width="279" height="64" />

As you can see, if you have more search engines than can be placed in your search bar, the rest will be available after a click:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-02.png" alt="select search plugin" width="295" height="75" />

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-03.png" alt="Quick Search Bar" width="437" height="272" />

The icons are also placed inside your right-click context menu:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/switch-search-plugins-04.png" alt="Quick Search Bar" width="296" height="244" />

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Three Other Easy Ways To Resize Your Photos On A Mac

Posted on 19 March 2011. Tags: Easy, Photos, Resize, three, WAYS

Resizeit 1 1 In a recent article (Note: Pending) I showed you how to use iPhoto 11 to resize photos. iPhoto 11 is the best way for Mac users to manage, edit, and share photos, but some Mac users may not take enough photos to warrant purchasing or bothering with the program. In addition, you may simply need to quickly resize images without bothering to open iPhoto, which sometimes can mean opening a huge library of thousands of images.

For more streamlined purposes, Apple’s default OS X applications, Preview and Mail, and a free lite version of a third party application called ResizeIt may suffice. If you, on the other hand, need to do batch resizing of images, check out my article on using Automator for this purpose.

Resizing In Preview

By default, when you double-click on an image on your Mac, Preview is the application that opens it up. What you may not know is that it’s also a good application for resizing images. To do so, open an image into Preview, and click Tools > Adjust Size in the menu bar.

Originalzise

The drop-down window will provide you information about the dimension and resolution size of the image. For images you’re going to post for viewing on a website, the resolution size 72-150 pixels is adequate. For printing purposes, 240 to 300 pixels should be used. You should manually type in the dimension for resizing your image.

Preview

Or you can use one of the presets provided in Preview. It used to be that 640 x 480 pixels was the standard size for posting images on the web, but with many people viewing the web on widescreen monitors and small mobile phones, you might need to consider other sizes, such as 800 x 600 or the smaller 320 x 240. Unfortunately, Preview doesn’t allow you to save custom sizes as a preset. If you have a custom size you need to regularly use, create an Automator workflow or use ResizeIt described below.

Caution: when you resize images in Preview it will not give you the option to save the original of your image. So you need to either make a duplicate copy of the photo before resizing, or select Save As to make sure you’re saving the resized image as a separate file.

Resizing In Mail

If you want a super fast way to resize an image(s), simply drop it into your Apple Mail application and mail it. Done. Mail even provides you with options for resizing.

Mailsize

At the bottom of the composition box, Mail will tell you the dimensions of the resized photo before you mail it. You can change it to Small, Large, or Actual Size, provided the recipient of your email has a fast enough Internet speed to download a large size image file.

The great thing about using Mail to resize an image is that it doesn’t resize your original. It makes a copy and then resizes it. However, if you try to drag the image out of your drafted email, it will not be the resized version.

Resizing In ResizeIt

If you don’t want to haul out iPhoto or Photoshop to resize an image, and if you need to do some quick batch resizing of images, a small free application, ResizeIt available in the Apple Mac Store, may do the trick. Now I must say, ResizeIt could use some work, although it does what it says it will do.

Resizeit

The best way to use ResizeIt is to select, then drag and drop one or more photos onto the ResizeIt icon in your Dock. From there you will be presented with a dialog box in which you configure the settings you need. Be sure to leave the Overwrite Files box unchecked if you don’t want to resize your original image(s). If you leave the “Choose the folder to save images” unchecked, ResizeIt will resize, save, and put your images into a folder for you.

You can also save various sizes as presets. The application worked OK for me. I do think however that the pixel boxes should start with “W” and then “H”, for that’s typically how dimensions are set in image applications. The first number is usually the width and the second is height. But ResizeIt is a free application, so not much to complain about. It’s a useful program for quick batch resizing.

Applescript

Finally, if you click on Script > Generate Droplet, ResizeIt will produce an AppleScript script that you can save as a droplet application. It‘s sort of like creating an Automator application for resizing images. So for example, if you regularly need to resize photos to a particular size, like 800 x 600, then you simply create the preset in ResizeIt, and then have the application create a droplet for that size. The code will open up in AppleScript and you can save it as an application that you can keep in your Dock. From there, you just drop your images onto the droplet and, viola, they get automatically resized. That‘s the way computers should work.

The key to resizing images is to have as many options to do so. No one wants to receive or view an oversized image. Let us know if you have any other strategies for resizing images. For Windows users, check out Simon‘s article on resizing photos.

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3 Free and Easy Ways to Watermark Your Images Offline

Posted on 20 February 2011. Tags: Easy, Free, Images, Offline, Watermark, WAYS

style="border: 0px none;margin-left:20px;float:right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/copyright.jpg" alt="watermark your images"/>We’ve already explained several different ways that users can protect and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermark-images-photoshop/">watermark their images using Photoshop, and discussed the advantages to using offline methods for watermarking. But Photoshop isn’t exactly the most economical choice and if you don’t already own a copy, you won’t buy it simply to watermark your images. There are several free alternatives that will allow you to protect your images, and won’t cost you a cent.

There are free apps to watermark your images on the go using your iOS device, as well as more robust apps that allow you to batch watermark your images using your Windows or Mac computers, one of which includes many other features aside from just watermarking.

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WatermarQue

The free Mac/Windows app href="http://www.mhvt.net/quicktime/eng/watermarque.php">WatermarQue, allows you to select the font, size, angle, colour and formatting of the watermark that you will use. Once you have settled on the appearance of your watermark, which you can see previewed in the program, you can select a target folder on your computer where the watermarked images will be saved. Supported formats include BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PSD and TIFF. Exported images can be saved as one of four formats, JPEG, PNG, BMP or PICT.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/WM1.jpg" border="0" alt="watermark your images" width="580" height="463" />

Drag and drop the images you want to watermark onto the blue box labeled, ‘Drop here’, if you want to preview the image with the watermark before applying it.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/drophere.png" border="0" alt="watermark your images free" width="145" height="143" />

Dragging and dropping is also used to add images to the list of files to be watermarked.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/list.png" border="0" alt="watermark your images free" width="580" height="125" />

Select the folder that you want the watermarked images to be saved in, and once you’re ready, click the “MarQue it” button.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/marque.png" border="0" alt="watermark your images free" width="318" height="133" />

WatermarQue is convenient to use because of its user friendly interface and because it makes it easy to batch watermark images. The distinct disadvantage to using WatermarQue is there seems to be no way to alter the opacity of the watermark, so if you’re looking to create a subtle watermark, this app is not for you.

Impression

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users can benefit from the free app, href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/impression/id364597384?mt=8">Impression [iTunes link], which allows you to watermark images saved on your device.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/imp1.png" border="0" alt="imp1.PNG" width="580" height="435" />

Select the image you want to watermark from your saved photos or photo library.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Imp2.png" border="0" alt="Imp2.PNG" width="580" height="435" />

Enter the text you want to use as your watermark.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Imp3.png" border="0" alt="Imp3.PNG" width="580" height="435" />

Determine the opacity and increase or decrease the size of the watermark using the pinch and pull method, after which you can drag the watermark to your chosen position.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Imp4.png" border="0" alt="Imp4.PNG" width="580" height="435" />

Unfortunately, watermarking using Impression is done one by one, with no batch feature, and watermarked images are saved as a new file in your photos.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Imp5.png" border="0" alt="Imp5.PNG" width="580" height="435" />

href="http://bluecrowbar.com/impressionapp/">Impression is also available for iPhoto and Aperture, but unlike the iOS app, they are not free.

JetPhoto Studio

href="http://www.jetphotosoft.com/">JetPhoto Studio is a great free Mac/Windows app that allows you to do more than just watermark your images. It allows you to create albums, publish your images to the web, offers some image editing options and much more.

As far as watermarking is concerned, it offers a slightly different method to the other programs listed here. Rather than use text to watermark your images, JetPhoto Studio allows you to use a PNG, TIF or BMP file to watermark your images.

The first step is to create a new album, determining the album’s physical location on your computer.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Album.png" border="0" alt="how to watermark your image" width="577" height="288" />

Go to the Thumbnail tab and drag and drop the images you want included in the album into the window.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/thumbnail.png" border="0" alt="how to watermark your image" width="580" height="491" />

Next, go to the Actions tab and select Web Ready.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/webready.jpg" border="0" alt="how to watermark your image" width="580" height="494" />

This will open a window in which you can determine your watermark and its position, and then batch watermark images, as well as resize them if need be. The watermarked images will be exported to the location you selected when you first created the album.

style="text-align: center;"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/watermark.jpg" border="0" alt="watermark your images" width="580" height="583" />

If you’re looking for more free methods to watermark your images, whether online or offline, take a look at these articles:

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/jouba-images-converter-batch-watermark-images/">How to Batch Watermark Images with Jouba Converter
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermarks-marking-your-image-territory/">4 Ways to Watermark Your Images Online

How do you watermark your images? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-51521113/stock-vector-red-grunge-rubber-stamp-with-the-text-copyright-all-rights-reserved-written-inside-the-stamp.html">Shutterstock />
/>Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to target="_blank" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-share-share-spread-word/">share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.

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