Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Five basic tool sets for internet practitioner
As an internet practitioner, I need many network tools such as desktop computer and so on, to do my daily job. It is delightful that none of my counterparts in IT field has ever told me which tools should be selected, and which should not, which gives me flexibility to try all the network tools in the world, to find out the tools which can really improve my working efficiency and performance. Of cause, I don't want to list all the tools here, because I don't expect a debate initiated by requesting free and public source code from the providers which only give private and chargeable source code. After further investigation, it is clear that actually there're at least 10 appropriate applications for every single task of the real life. Based on the fact, you will soon realize that we're discussing millions of tools. So let's focus on the five basic tools package. Personally, I believe every internet worker need to think about each of the five packages and make a fixed, powerful tool sets. The tool sets include convenient website, application software and solution, so you really need to consider it no matter what kinds of project you're working on.
Writing and Editing
The most important thing you need to remember when discussing internet work or remote office staff is that your writing skills will soon become the supply of your telephone cards, products, advices, stores and sales plans etc. How to do it? At least you must master generic writing skills. Now Blogs are coming to be a huge platform for showing and exhibition. After the quantity of Blogs has greatly increased, we can find all kinds of person (from designer to network sales) have their own Blogs. The times of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint has passed. Now there're plenty of replacements which can be implemented to copy, write or edit a wonderful Blog. Google Docs and Zoho Docs are very powerful online tools, which can help you to finish a few writing tasks. Most Blogs have their own editor, but Windows Live Writer based on Windows and Ecto based on Mac may feels easy to use, especially for people who enjoy the replacement of desktop computer. Dark Room is the right one for you if you love contracted writing. Of cause, most writers are used to Microsoft office and Open office.
Before writing and editing, you may need to investigate and collect related materials. It can be done effectively with the support of EverNote which has Stand-alone edition and online edition. With its’ network-cut function, you can even capture texts and pictures. To edit pictures, you can select some simple tools such as Irfanview(stand-alone edition)and Picnik(Online edition), but if you really need a powerful picture editor, Photo shop is the best.
The final step is proofread. Proofread is not only for spelling, but some grammar skills we mentioned as well.
Backup and Synchronization
Every day you need to deal with the data. It is obvious that data maintenance is very important. Your computer is a machine which may be damaged just like other one. Computer will not warn you before system halted, as a result, You would lost some important data if they were not made a backup, which may even impact your business. It is sensible that backup the data with a removable disk. I'm using a removable disk of Western Digital Mybook with size of 500MB. So far, everything is working well. However, there're a lot of similar products on the market, you can choose the one that fit you better. If you want to go further, you can backup your backup again. My suggestion is register an online backup service account, for example, Mozy system. By this means, even if your removable disk is unavailable for some reason (stolen), you can still sit back and relax because you know you have an online backup. There're quite a few tools for backup and synchronization, which will make backup process very smooth. Regarding to Windows system, Ace Backup is the right software, and it's free. If you need more powerful tools, here's list for you to index.
Synchronization may be required for the conflict of different data source, for instance, your computer and removable disk. If you use Windows operation system, you can choose Microsoft Synctoy which is free. If some Mac users are reading this article, I’d like to know their opinion and their favorite tools for backup and synchronization.
Organization
It is important for an internet practitioner to accomplish the assignments of your organization. It’s pretty good if you can track the schedule well with a simple mole-skin notebook. However, if you prefer to a working environment without any paper, there’re some easily used online tools such as Essential PIM and Google Calendar (or Remember the Milk), which will be very helpful.
There’re lots of tools which can be used to record schedule, one of them is excellent and free, and it can implement programmed tracking for your project, making your arrangement more reasonable.
Communication
Regarding to communication, except basic phone call, it is deserved to talk about Email and Skype. Obviously, Gmail is the best Email tools, which is powerful and convenient, so it soon becomes the favorite of network worker. Some of us would like to select simple computer tools to easily send/receive email. People can conveniently setup Gmail IMAP function combined with Outlook and Thunderbird, to send and receive email.
Invoice
If you don’t provide invoice to your customer, you can not get the payment. Certainly, if is painful if you do this manually. I’m using Paypal internal tools to create invoice. By this means, I can not only get a flexible invoice creating, but also save the template for the future. FreshBooks and Zoho Invoice are other two tools for Invoice generation and payment management.
As an internet practitioner, I really want to know what kind of tools you’re using, and how it improves your efficiency in your daily job.
Cheers.
Abhijeet
Writing and Editing
The most important thing you need to remember when discussing internet work or remote office staff is that your writing skills will soon become the supply of your telephone cards, products, advices, stores and sales plans etc. How to do it? At least you must master generic writing skills. Now Blogs are coming to be a huge platform for showing and exhibition. After the quantity of Blogs has greatly increased, we can find all kinds of person (from designer to network sales) have their own Blogs. The times of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint has passed. Now there're plenty of replacements which can be implemented to copy, write or edit a wonderful Blog. Google Docs and Zoho Docs are very powerful online tools, which can help you to finish a few writing tasks. Most Blogs have their own editor, but Windows Live Writer based on Windows and Ecto based on Mac may feels easy to use, especially for people who enjoy the replacement of desktop computer. Dark Room is the right one for you if you love contracted writing. Of cause, most writers are used to Microsoft office and Open office.
Before writing and editing, you may need to investigate and collect related materials. It can be done effectively with the support of EverNote which has Stand-alone edition and online edition. With its’ network-cut function, you can even capture texts and pictures. To edit pictures, you can select some simple tools such as Irfanview(stand-alone edition)and Picnik(Online edition), but if you really need a powerful picture editor, Photo shop is the best.
The final step is proofread. Proofread is not only for spelling, but some grammar skills we mentioned as well.
Backup and Synchronization
Every day you need to deal with the data. It is obvious that data maintenance is very important. Your computer is a machine which may be damaged just like other one. Computer will not warn you before system halted, as a result, You would lost some important data if they were not made a backup, which may even impact your business. It is sensible that backup the data with a removable disk. I'm using a removable disk of Western Digital Mybook with size of 500MB. So far, everything is working well. However, there're a lot of similar products on the market, you can choose the one that fit you better. If you want to go further, you can backup your backup again. My suggestion is register an online backup service account, for example, Mozy system. By this means, even if your removable disk is unavailable for some reason (stolen), you can still sit back and relax because you know you have an online backup. There're quite a few tools for backup and synchronization, which will make backup process very smooth. Regarding to Windows system, Ace Backup is the right software, and it's free. If you need more powerful tools, here's list for you to index.
Synchronization may be required for the conflict of different data source, for instance, your computer and removable disk. If you use Windows operation system, you can choose Microsoft Synctoy which is free. If some Mac users are reading this article, I’d like to know their opinion and their favorite tools for backup and synchronization.
Organization
It is important for an internet practitioner to accomplish the assignments of your organization. It’s pretty good if you can track the schedule well with a simple mole-skin notebook. However, if you prefer to a working environment without any paper, there’re some easily used online tools such as Essential PIM and Google Calendar (or Remember the Milk), which will be very helpful.
There’re lots of tools which can be used to record schedule, one of them is excellent and free, and it can implement programmed tracking for your project, making your arrangement more reasonable.
Communication
Regarding to communication, except basic phone call, it is deserved to talk about Email and Skype. Obviously, Gmail is the best Email tools, which is powerful and convenient, so it soon becomes the favorite of network worker. Some of us would like to select simple computer tools to easily send/receive email. People can conveniently setup Gmail IMAP function combined with Outlook and Thunderbird, to send and receive email.
Invoice
If you don’t provide invoice to your customer, you can not get the payment. Certainly, if is painful if you do this manually. I’m using Paypal internal tools to create invoice. By this means, I can not only get a flexible invoice creating, but also save the template for the future. FreshBooks and Zoho Invoice are other two tools for Invoice generation and payment management.
As an internet practitioner, I really want to know what kind of tools you’re using, and how it improves your efficiency in your daily job.
Cheers.
Abhijeet
