class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/4882451370_b50f1d4fed.jpg" alt="manage personal finances" />Fall semester is about to start for a lot of college students, which is a great time to decide where we can make some changes to our habits from the past academic year. One of my goals is to actually start tracking my expenses. I’ve tried class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mint-budget-spending-online">Mint and even trusted it with my bank information, but I never actually logged on the website much to get an overview of my transactions. At this point, I feel like it’s better to keep it simple when it comes to managing my own finances, and to develop a simple system to make me like the process of money management.

In my search for a simple and free program to keep my finances on track, I found this tiny program, class="vt-p" href="http://www.metalogicsw.com/financeexplorer/index.html">Metalogic Finance Explorer, that seems easy enough for me to learn and even recommend to others.

Getting Started

class="vt-p" href="http://www.metalogicsw.com/financeexplorer/index.html">Finance Explorer is an easy-to-use portable application that can help you manage your financial information. It’s not only portable, but also very small in file size, taking up about 1MB of space. You can download the program from class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/five-more-useful-portable-apps-for-your-usb-stick/">PortableApps class="vt-p" href="http://portableapps.com/apps/office/finance_explorer_portable">here. The installation is pretty straightforward so just follow the instructions.

The first thing you notice when you launch the program is that it sports a user interface reminiscent of Windows Explorer, which means it’s minimalistic and familiar-looking.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-09_113919.png" alt="manage personal finances" width="580" height="336" />

You can get started by setting up your accounts and adding your bank account information. Finance Explorer doesn’t actually connect to your online bank account. You just need to add your bank account information, and start entering your starting balance.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/SelectAccount.png" alt="manage finances" width="320" height="239" />

If your bank allows you to download your transaction history in Quicken or Microsoft Money file formats, then it’s your lucky day. Finance Explorer is compatible with those two programs so you can easily import your transactions files (which will also add your bank account information), avoid entering erroneous data when typing it all manually and save a lot of time.

Setting Up A Budget

To make the most out of your finances, you’ll want to start recording your expenses and general transactions, classifying them into groups or categories so you can total your transactions and get an overview of your finances.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Budget.png" alt="manage finances" width="544" height="466" />

The class="vt-p" href="http://www.metalogicsw.com/financeexplorer/tutorial/">tutorial from the developer’s site provides thorough examples of how you can use the program to keep a budget for each category and see how you’ll end up balancing your income and expenses.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/TransactionEntry1.png" alt="manage finances" width="580" height="290" />

Tracking Your Investments & Stocks

You can easily make use of this program to track investments such as retirement accounts, tuition savings, and stocks. Create an account under Investment, e.g. Retirement account, and add details like description and amount. Press Enter and you’ll see your newly created account under Investment.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-09_124427.png" alt="financial management application" width="565" height="288" />

Now click on the account you just created and enter a symbol in the appropriate column, as well as other details in the quantity and purchase price. Press Enter once you’re done.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-09_124206.png" alt="financial management application" width="580" height="244" />

To get updates on your quotes, go to Tools > Update Quotes. The information will then be retrieved and reflected on your grid.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-08-09_125043.png" alt="manage personal finances" width="570" height="238" />

I haven’t used Quicken or Microsoft Money so I don’t know if those programs use PINs to allow access, but I feel like it’d be nice if Finance Explorer enabled users to password-protect their information on launch. Other than that, Finance Explorer is a handy program to keep track of all your finances on your computer. If you’re concerned about online services having access to your financial information, give this program a go.

What do you use to keep track of your finances? Let us know of your preferred programs or services in the comments!

Image credits: class="vt-p" href="http://www.metalogicsw.com/">Metalogic, class="vt-p" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmgimages/4882451370/">RambergMediaImages

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/font-icon.png" alt="manage linux fonts"/>Browse and manage your Linux fonts using a simple GUI. Font Manager is a program that allows you to browse, compare, manage and even add fonts on your Linux system; a must-have tool for designers on any platform.

Windows users can manage fonts from the control panel; OS X users have the robust href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/manage-fonts-fonts-panel-font-book-mac/">Font Book. Many Linux distros, including href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ubuntu/">Ubuntu, don’t come with a similar tool for the job.

Enter Font Manager. Available in the repositories of most Linux distros, Font Manager can give you a quick look at your installed fonts and allows you install new ones quickly.

Let’s take a look.

Browsing Your Fonts

Fire up Font Manager and you’ll soon see the main window. The list of fonts and the preview panel are self-explanatory:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/font-main.png" alt="manage linux fonts" width="580" height="264" />

This is a great way to review the fonts on your system. If you’re working on a project, you can use this tool to quickly find the ideal font for said project. You can even adjust the size of the preview panel, allowing you to see how well the font can scale.

Clicking the browse button changes things a bit:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/font-browse.png" alt="linux fonts" width="386" height="259" />

The list of fonts are there, but now every font name is displayed in said font. You can even see all the versions of a particular font. Very nice.

You might, however, want to see how a certain combination of fonts looks next to each other. This can be done under “Compare”, and can be quite useful:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/font-compare.png" alt="linux fonts" width="410" height="195" />

As you can tell, this tool is well thought out for designers on the hunt for the perfect font. This is handy for me when I’m designing covers for our href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/">MakeUseOf Guides.

Installing New Fonts In Linux

Want to install a new font? Sadly the button to do this isn’t as obvious as I’d like, but it does exist. Behold:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/font-add.png" alt="linux fonts" width="239" height="116" />

That’s right; click the gear to install fonts. This will bring up the standard file browser, which you can use to find multiple fonts for installation.

Alternatively, you can set Font Manager to scan particular directories at start-up:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/font-directory.png" alt="manage linux fonts" width="470" height="263" />

Find this under the settings. Any fonts in the folders you add using this tool will automatically be installed to your system. I like this myself, but some people with font collections in the thousand may not like the surprise.

Adam Saveran had this to say in the Ubuntu Software Center comments:

“…when you add directories to [Font Manager] you’re actually installing all of the fonts in the chosen directory. Could cause serious, though temporary, problems with your system as hundreds or thousands of fonts attempt to load. (Happened to me.)”

Adam, as well as every other commenter, had nothing bad to say about the program (the words “excellent” and “should be installed by default” came up more than once), but this is something to be aware of.

Get Font Manager

Ready to install Font Manager? Depending on which version of Linux you’re using you should be able to find the program in your package manager, under the name “font-manager”. If not you can href="http://code.google.com/p/font-manager/downloads/list">download the font manager source code here, if you’re an advanced user.

Ubuntu users can simply href="apt:font-manager">click here to install Font Manager using Software Center.

Conclusion

I’m happy to finally have found a decent font manager for my Linux computers. In many ways I actually prefer this program to Font Book on my Mac, which until now I thought was the best font manager out there.

Of course, I’m sure you readers can name some better software for me. List it in the comments below, along with some links to your favorite free fonts!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/choqok_logo.jpg" alt="manage twitter account" />For people who are really tweet-o-holics, constant access to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter">Twitter (or class="vt-p" href="http://www.identi.ca">Identi.ca, an open source clone of Twitter) is as much a necessity as food and water. At varying levels, this may also be true for those who are fans of Twitter but not necessarily tweet-o-holics.

One possible choice is to have Twitter up and running in the browser most of the time. While this is a feasible solution, you’ll start missing out when the browser is minimized. Also, a browser isn’t exactly lightweight on system resources. Therefore, your best bet would be to use a well-built Twitter desktop client.

About Choqok

class="vt-p" href="http://choqok.gnufolks.org">Choqok is a slim Twitter and Identi.ca client made to integrate well with the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/kde">KDE desktop environment. As far as social media clients go, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gwibber-the-everything-client/">Gwibber may be a more well known piece of software, but it’s best suited to run under a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/gnome">GNOME desktop. You’re always welcome to try Gwibber with KDE, but I’ve always preferred software native to the desktop environment you’re using. With Choqok, you can quickly and easily reach your Twitter stream at any time and get notifications that appear right on your desktop.

Installation & Getting Started

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/choqok_addaccount.jpg" alt="manage twitter account" width="580" height="476" />

To get Choqok installed, all you need to do is search for its package with the same name in your package manager and install it along with any dependencies. Once installation is complete, you can launch Choqok from the Internet category in your menu.

Choqok will appear with a splash screen and ask you to add an account. Go ahead and click yes, then move around the options window to the Accounts section. On the left side, there should be an add button, where you can add an account to the appropriate service. Remember that Identi.ca falls under “ class="vt-p" href="http://status.net/">StatusNet“. Follow it’s instructions until it says you are authenticated.

Layout

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/choqok_main.jpg" alt="multiple twitter accounts" width="580" height="499" />

The main window of the program is kept simple and organized. At the top you have your menus (as always), along with a custom “More” menu which lets you choose from a few more options that work with Twitter, and a “Mark all as read” button. The empty box between that and your timelines is for your status updates. Anything you send here (by using the Enter key on your keyboard as there is no send button) will be sent to whatever account you have currently selected.

To send something to multiple accounts at once you can choose Quick Post from the File menu and choose which account (or all) you want to send a notice/tweet to.

Timelines

The timelines themselves are nicely organized into little tabs. You have a tab for each category Twitter offers on its site as well - Home, Replies, and Inbox (for direct messages). You can click on them and manipulate them as you wish.

Options

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/choqok_options.jpg" alt="manage twitter account" width="580" height="345" />

Choqok also has a decent amount of behavioral options, which may be important to some as it includes the ability to change the URL shortening service that it uses.

Conclusion

Choqok is a great little program that easily lets you stay in the loop when it comes to Twitter. Its ease of use and overall speed can be well-appreciated by those who use it. Choqok works well with multiple accounts, so managing multiple streams should be no problem at all. Try it out. I promise it’ll be better than your browser.

How do you feel about Twitter desktop clients? What client (both desktop and web) do you use? Let us know in the comments.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/courteously-icon.png" alt="email expectations etiquette" />Have more emails than you can answer? Let your contacts know. It’s only courteous.

class="vt-p" href="http://courteous.ly/">Courteous.ly, a new service provided by the University of Georgia, gives you a link you can add to your email signature. Anyone who clicks this link will be told, in brief, how heavy your current email load is. The idea is that people will understand if you don’t respond to an email instantly.

For many, email is central to workflow. In some ways this makes people more productive, but an overflowing inbox can frequently feel like a burden. Web apps like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/email-game-fun-earn-points-emptying-inbox-real/">The Email Game can help make responding to emails more fun, but unless you actually use it regularly people will still be waiting for you to get back to them.

Courteous.ly won’t get back to them for you, but it just might help some people understand why your responses aren’t automatic. It works with class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/gmail/">Gmail accounts, including class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-google-free-email-domain">Google Apps.

What It’s For

This video sums up Courteous.ly quite well:

width="580" height="430"> name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=22321131&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=22321131&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

As depicted in the video, people perceive you as busy if your desk is messy. A full email box is another sign of business, but other people cannot tell how full your inbox is.

For example, writing for MakeUseOf means that dozens of comments show up in my inbox every day, usually while I’m sleeping. Combine this with my other job and personal emails and I’ve typically got about 30 emails to respond to every morning when I wake up.

But not everyone knows about my email volume. Courteous.ly gives me an opportunity to share that information, so people can get a rough idea of whether they can expect a message soon.

How To Use It

Getting started with this service is very easy. Just head over to class="vt-p" href="http://courteous.ly/">courteous.ly to begin what may be the simplest sign-up for a service ever:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/courteous-signup.png" alt="email expectations etiquette" width="578" height="223" />

Once you’ve done that you’ll have to tell Gmail to authorize the service, ideally after you’ve read the class="vt-p" href="http://courteous.ly/consent">consent form. This being a research project, anonymous information will be utilized for academic purposes, but the privacy promises are solid.

All signed up? You’ll be given your link, which you should place in your email signature. People who click this link will see your current email load described:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/courteous-message.png" alt="email expectations" width="580" height="207" />

Note that no personal information whatsoever is shared, so your contacts have nothing to worry about. You can change the rationale for this message however, in the settings:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/courteous-settings.png" alt="email expectations etiquette" width="578" height="292" />

An optional message, alerting people to the kinds of emails you’re likely to respond to quickly, can also be added. This is good, because it can teach people proper email etiquette: basically, be brief and to the point if you expect a quick response.

People can even use a simple subject tag, “[whenever]“, to have messages only reach you once your email load is back to normal.

Rationale

As previously mentioned: this project is part of academic research. The purpose is, in essence, to see if increased information about the way email works can reduce frustration. To quote the project’s stated rationale:

The purpose of this study is to understand if exposing hidden aspects of social media makes the media better. We also want to investigate whether courteous.ly makes an impact on the overall amount of email participants receive. We will enroll as many people as come to our site in this study.

Eric Gilbert, Ph.D, is on to something here, I think. I cannot wait to see the results of his study, and hope he shares it with his users. I also hope this service continues to work after the research is done, because there’s something brilliant about it.

But what do you think? Let me know how useful you think this is in the comments below, along with any recommendations for alternative services.

Read comments: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/courteously-manage-email-expectations-inform-people-expect-reply/#disqus_thread">Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here …

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/00-Photo-Memories.jpg" alt="zoner photo studio"/>Nobody can turn back time. That’s why memories are so precious. Along the centuries, humans have invented various ways to capture the moments and preserve those memories; from stories, poems, paintings to photos and videos. In the digital era, it’s only natural that we manage our “captured memories” digitally. For most people, photo and video are the more popular choices because they are quick and easy to produce. But in terms of size, photos have an advantage over videos. That’s why there is more photo management software available out there.

If you still looking for the perfect photo manager, maybe you should try href="http://free.zoner.com/">Zoner Photo Studio. This one will help you to manage, edit, and share your photos.

id="more-66882">

A Quick Start

Zoner Photo Studio is available to download for free. But please note that the free version is not the latest version of the software, because it’s based on v. 12, while the latest version is v. 13. Still, this is a very capable photo manager. After the installation process, there’s the First Run Wizard that will take you through a lengthy configuration process.