Drawing Added to Google Docs

Google Docs just keeps getting better and better. The latest new feature, drawing, allows you to "create and insert rich, colorful drawings into documents, presentations and spreadsheets".

The drawing feature is quite comprehensive letting you draw

using lines, free hand scribbles, text labels and a large choice of shapes that you can move, resize, rotate and adjust. Group, order, align and distribute and other features are available when you select objects you've drawn. You can also customize a range of shape properties, from line widths to fill color, and from arrowheads to font size, and much more. If you change your mind, there is undo and redo.

You can, also, collaborate with a friend or colleague on the drawing. Drawing even works in Google Apps. Happy Days!!

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Technorati Tags: google apps, google docs

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Free iTunes Manual

Thanks to Pat, I learnt about the Big Book of iTunes from Makeuseof.com.

The Big Book of iTunes is a great little manual which introduces iTunes to beginners and provides basic information and instructions about performing various tasks when using iTunes (for both Mac and Windows).

The manual also explains how iTunes can actually be more than just a music player and it introduces some interesting software to complement and extend the functionality of iTunes.

The Big Book of iTunes also covers some more advanced topics such as integrating Last.fm and using Applescripts.

With the great iTunes U freely available, there really is no excuse for not being able to use iTunes!!

Makeuseof.com have also produced some other useful free pdf books:
* The Idiot’s Ultimate Guide To Building Your Own Computer
* The Laptop Buying Guide For 2009
* PSP Downgrading and Upgrading Guide

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Technorati Tags: itunes, makeuseof

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Create Stunning Presentations

Prezi lets you "create maps of texts, images, videos, PDFs, drawings and present in a nonlinear way". Prezi is a great tool for creating stunning presentations, performing completely differently to OpenOffice Impress and PowerPoint.

Just have a look at the two examples to see what I mean! You can click on the second button from the left to view the presentation in full screen. Follow the order of the presentation by using the direction arrows or simply click and drag to move about the presentation screen and zoom in and out as you choose.

1) Book Quiz - See if you can spot the name and author of each of these books!
from the HappyHippy



2) Learning with Technology at SAS - A presentation about how we use technology across the curriculum at Shanghai American School.
from U Tech Tips



Obviously, Prezi is a great tool for creating controlled presentations that will impress an audience. I think, perhaps, it also has potential as a self-directed learning tool.

Prezi is still in Beta development, but inspired by these great examples, I have now signed up and am in the middle of creating my very own first Prezi due for release shortly.

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Technorati Tags: presentations, prezi

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Interactive Flickr Slideshow

flickrSLiDR allows you to easily embed flickr slideshows on your website or blog. All you need to do is enter the flickr URL address of the user, photo set or group.

flickrSLiDR also allows you to interact with the slideshow in three ways:
* hover over the top of the slideshow to reveal a control panel, where you can play/pause, move backwards/forwards and change the speed of the slideshow.
* hover over the bottom of the slideshow to reveal a selection of the slides, where you can select any slide directly.
* click on any slide to reveal the details that were entered by the person who uploaded the photo to flickr.

This is the flickrSLiDR slideshow for the 'Bird Watching' group with over 50,000 photos!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

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Technorati Tags: flickr, flickrslidr
 

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Gmail Backup Utility

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Just completed a backup of our exams email account using Gmail Backup. Very easy to use and a great way of downloading copies of all the emails and, more importantly, the attachments!!

As this account is used to 'collect' exam work from our students, Gmail Backup provides a nice way to obtain a local copy of the files without having to download each one individually.

The work is, initially, uploaded to the email account using the Backup to Email software reviewed in a previous post.

It can be a little tedious identifying the individual emails, especially if you have lots, but each email is labelled with a code and the original date. A text file indexing the codes is also provided. Overall, Gmail Backup is a handy little utility.

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Technorati Tags: gmail, gmail backup

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Loving this Live Mesh

Have just been using Live Mesh to connect to one of my computers at college and it works a treat :-)

Live Mesh is great for technicians and teachers responsible for looking after school machines. No need to dash across town when something goes wrong with a 'critical' machine. Simply access it from home. Love it!!!

Also, you don't have to worry about disturbing a class, during normal timetabled hours, in order to access a troublesome computer.  Simply connect with Live Mesh from another room.

Live Mesh ensures that the screen on the remote computer is blacked out and the machine effectively disabled so that no one can see what you are doing on the machine.

Not only can you access the remote machine's files but you can run any of the programs on that computer, even if they are not installed on your local computer. It is as if you are sitting right in front of the machine itself!

You can also sync and share folders with Live Mesh. Even connect your web-enabled mobile phone and upload photos directly to your 'mesh' folders. 5GB of online storage is allocated for the Live Desktop area.

All you need to start your 'mesh' is a Windows Live ID. Then, simply sign in, download and install the Live Mesh software on each of the computers that you want connected. Finally, add each device to your 'mesh' and you are ready for action.

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Technorati Tags: live mesh

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Easy Backup and Synchronize Tool

Microsoft's SyncToy is a very useful utility. Use SyncToy to make regular backups of your important data or to synchronise your data held on different devices (computer, external hard drive, usb key etc).

With SyncToy available, there is no excuse for not keeping an up to date backup of all your important files and folders.

It really is straight forward to use:
* simply select the original folder (left folder) and the destination folder (right folder)
* choose one of the 3 methods of synchronising (synchronise, echo or contribute)
* set the synchronise options
* hit the run button

NB: Synchronise copies the new and updated files saved in either folder to the other. Echo is similar except the new and updated files are copied in one direction only (left to right). Contribute is the same as Echo except that file deletions are not replicated.

Feeling happy that I have just completed a full backup of all my work files - 41GB worth :-)

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Technorati Tags: backup, synchronise, synctoy

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