This month, let's look at some websites which can actively help us out in our daily business activities. There are some things which are always needed in any industry, and we'll try and cover some here.
Backing up Contacts
Cardscan@yourservice is a utility where you can back up all your Outlook contacts. This means that anywhere in the world, from any computer, anytime, you will have access to your contacts. This is tremendously helpful if you’re a person who travels frequently and has a lot of contacts to be in touch with, but may not always have your own laptop where all your data is stored.
You’ll need to register (free) and download & install a tool on your computer that has your Outlook contacts. This utility will regularly back up all contact updates made, on the web. It’s confidential and private; synchronization ensures that the latest (within 24 hours) data is available online; and it’s a must-have if you change companies, to retain all your contacts and update your new details.
Sending Large Files
Have you ever needed to send a very large file(s), immediately, and with no time to burn a CD and courier? Your IT department can’t set up a FTP in time? Just use an online file transfer service like www.yousendit.com (100 MB, free), www.mailbigfile.com (100 MB, free), www.youswap.com (1 GB, free), or www.dropsend.com (1 GB, needs free registration). All of these will upload your large files, and generate a link, which you can send to the receiver that allows them to download, or an automatic email to the receiver with download instructions. Uploaded files expire after a fixed time for greater security.
Sharing Diagrams
Flowcharts, organization charts, floor plans, user interface design, networks… anything which requires sharing and discussion of diagrams, this is it. A simple interface that allows you to draw the basics, save it online, share it privately, or publish it as a web URL for public access. Add images from the net or your own computer too!
Sharing Images
Need to send or share photographs of events, conferences, work done, etc? Use Picasa. It’s a free app from Google, which you need to download once; just set the folder in which you store your photos, and it keeps track of all photos added from there on. It also allows you to correct minor flaws in the images like straightening, cropping to the right size, adding special effects, making collages, etc… but the best feature of Picasa is the ability to publish web albums. You can select all those photos you want to publish, and they get hosted on www.picasaweb.com. After publishing, you get a URL which you can use to share the images. Privacy options are available, and it even has a feature allowing you to publish selected photos or albums to your blog. It’s all free, and you just need a Gmail account.
Download the Picasa setup from www.google.com, by clicking the ‘more’ option above the toolbar and scrolling down to ‘Picasa’.
Publishing PDF documents
You’ll often need to create PDF documents of your work. This is specially needed in case of contracts, agreements, etc or other documents where you don’t want people to change the content, or present a much more polished and professional image (in case of important reports), or create downloadable brochures. PDFonline allows you to create word docs, excel sheets, powerpoint slides, and even images and text documents, and uploads them onto the site. It then creates a PDF file, and mails it to the email address specified by you in minutes.
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