Thursday, April 3, 2008
Work in Full-Screen Mode in Microsoft Office Apps
11:55PM Kevin Purdy | Dennis O’Reilly digs into the full-screen mode in Microsoft Office apps and shows how you can still keep your most-used options and tools close at hand, despite the lack of menus and toolbars. The two basic suggestions are to learn the Alt+letter shortcuts to your oft-used functions, or use Office’s custom toolbar creator to compile your must-haves into one side-mounted toolbar. O’Reilly’s a bit stuck on Office 2007, however, which doesn’t offer the same menu access from its full-screen mode—but maybe some of our uber-productive users have their own methods for getting the most from full screen. If so, share your tips in the comments, or head to the Workers’ Edge link for more tips on navigating and working inside full-screen mode. Broaden your view in Word, Excel, other Office apps [CNET blogs] More »
Cook Better with Your Microwave than Your Stove
1:00PM Adam Pash | New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman used to look down on the microwave for any sort of cooking beyond reheating leftovers or softening ice cream. But after a couple of conversations with microwave cooking experts and a few experiments of his own, it turns out that the microwave is a more valuable tool in the kitchen than some of us give it credit for. For any vegetable you would parboil or steam, the microwave works as well or better, and is faster. Put the vegetable in a bowl with a tiny bit of water (or sometimes none), cover and zap. Asparagus: two minutes; artichokes (a revelation): six; cauliflower (try my cauliflower with tomatoes and pimentón): five; potatoes or beets: four; spinach: one or two; eggplant: we’ll get to that. More »Ask MetaFilter Roundup
12:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | Best alternatives for cola/sodas to save money, bottles, and empty calories? How do I reconcile within myself that I’m not a failure if I give up on my career and go get just a plain old job? How do you handle living with someone who can be really negative a lot of the time? How can I be faster…at everything? Where’s a good place to find what new DVDs are coming out that week, particularly in the foreign film and documentary categories? More »
Install Mail, Notes, Maps and other iPhone Apps on Your iPod Touch
11:00AM Adam Pash | The Simplehelp weblog details how to save $20 and roll a DIY install of the once iPhone-only applications Mail, Google Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes on your iPod touch. The method itself is completely painless. First, you’ll need a jailbroken iPod touch (don’t worry, it’ll only take 45 seconds). Then you just add a new source to the Installer.app repositories and proceed to install any of the iPhone or pre-1.1.2 iPod touch apps your heart desires. If some of that went over your head, don’t worry—Simplehelp’s guide is detailed and well illustrated. How to install the iPhone applications Mail, Notes, Stocks, Weather, and Maps on your iPod Touch [Simplehelp] More »How Some of History’s Greats Worked
10:00AM Gina Trapani | Beethoven, Foucault and Churchill all worked in the morning and took most of their afternoons off. Gandhi spent time staring at the horizon. Nietzsche scribbled notes during frequent walks. The LifeDev blog lists ways some of the greats got things done, mostly by taking breaks early and often. Instead of working frantic 12 hour days, they took time to reflect, eat, nap, and socialize. We’d do well to do the same. 10 Ways History’s Finest Kept Their Focus at Work [LifeDev] More »
Automatically Run Downloads Rather than Saving with OpenDownload
9:00AM Adam Pash | Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): If you’ve switched to Firefox from Internet Explorer, you’re probably used to a simple option to either save or run a download before the download begins. When you choose Run, the file is saved to a temporary directory and run with the default application as soon as the download completes (and the file is eventually deleted). This feature is missing from Firefox, presumably to increase security. However, if you’re confident in your safe downloading skills and you’d prefer to have that IE functionality back, the OpenDownload Firefox extension tweaks the download process to incorporate the classic Run or Save dialog of Internet Explorer. OpenDownload is free, works wherever Firefox does. We’ve mentioned this extension once before, but it’s improved its look and feel a lot since 2006. More »
Record YouTube Music Videos to MP3
8:00AM Gina Trapani | Readers are submitting their best life hack for a chance to win an autographed copy of our new book, Upgrade Your Life. Here’s our latest winner. Reader Matt grabs songs from YouTube videos the way we used to hit the cassette deck record button while listening to the radio back in the 80’s. Well, not really. Matt does it by downloading the YouTube clip .FLV file and converting it to MP3. After the jump, get the steps and tools you need to do it yourself. More »Lifehacker in Canberra
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | I’m off to our nation’s capital today to attend the Foundations of Open event which Senator Kate Lundy is hosting. I’ve refreshed my memory on how to hack the best airline seat, and made a note of where to find free Wi-Fi at the airport, so I’m all set. Have a nice Thursday, I’ll see you tomorrow! More »Three simple steps to hack your travel expense claim
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | If you have a wallet (and a briefcase, and a suitcase) brimming with unclaimed travel receipts, then you may need to consider this simple three step hack for keeping on top of your travel expenses.The Corporate Hack blog recommends that you start your trip with a letter sized envelope tucked into one of the bags you keep with you at all times (like your purse or briefcase, *not* the suitcase which will be sitting in your hotel room). Next, ensure that every claimable receipt from your trip goes into this envelope, as soon as you get it. If it’s not clear what the receipt is for, make a note on the back of the receipt to save yourself the pain of trying to identify a bunch of mysterious receipts at the end of your trip.Finally, put aside half an hour the day you get back to fill out your expense form. This way the trip is still fresh in your mind, you get the paperwork out of the way, and you’ll get your expenses paid ASAP.
Hack your expense reports while traveling [The Corporate Hack] More » Six ways to make use of downtime at work
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | If you’re a freelancer, or you work on project-based environment, you know what it’s like to have downtime between projects. Often when you deliver a project or meet a deadline there’s a temptation to reward your hard work by slacking off before your next project kicks in, but the Urban Muse blog offers up six ways to make good use of that downtime for networking and bringing in more business for yourself.
Take a good look at your website and see what you can update. Can you refresh some of the copy, add new client testimonials or new content to your portfolio?
Update your profile on social networking sites – the professional ones like Facebook and Linkedin, not the fun ones!
Catch up on your blog reading – commenting is a great way to extend your network.
Email your favourite clients – to catch up, share a link to an article they might like, and let them know you’re scouting around for a new assignment.
Take a class to improve your skills – perhaps in an area that will let you extend your current business. ie a writer could take a photography class, to be able to sell photos to accompany their stories.
Pitch, pitch, pitch! The more pitches you write for new business, the better you’ll get. Especially if you ask your clients for feedback on both successful and unsuccessful pitches.
Six Ways to Network Between Projects [Urban Muse]
More » 