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Working From Your Home Office - The Top 3 Ways To Make Your Admin Run Smoothly

No homeworker has the same method or style when they conduct their business. They will all use different types of software to get their job done. A write may depend on word processing software for the majority of his work in the day, whilst an accountant will be heavily dependant on book-keeping software such as Sage. But there are certain tool and techniques which make it easier for all people who work at home to work smarter.
Calendar. This may sound obvious to many, but having a calendar to diaries events in your day is crucial to your success. Electronic calendars have a big advantage over the printed one. The electronic variation can sound an alarm when a task is due, or overdue. If you have s smartphone then you can synchronise it with you PC or Mac. You can then add any new appointments or task to your calendar when you are out and about. If you have Microsoft Outlook Express as part of the Microsoft Office package then you have the excellent calendar which comes as aprt of the package. With the Apple Mac you have the excellent iCal program which also provides an excellent calendar. The iCal program is free with every Mac where Microsoft Office is a paid program. There are free calendar software applications available, most notably from Yahoo.
PDF viewer. Adobe's PDF format has become the leading way to publish documents digitally. Government departments to schools and computer companies publish their material in this way. On PC's you have Adobe's Reader for free, whereas on the Apple Mac it has stand alone support for PDF's. If you get any documents from business colleagues or groups that your business is part of then nine times out of ten they will send it you in a PDF format. This is a necessity for your working day.
Zip utility. The majority of downloads you do from the internet or from any business colleagues who have emailed you would have as a rule sent it you in a zipped format. This means that the intended file has been compressed in order to reduce the overall file size. Do not think though that this is just for compressing files to send to people or to unzip a files someone sends you. You can archive documents, emails - in fact most software applications. This way you can free up a lot of hard disk space on your computer, saving you the task of purchasing an external hard disk or to keep putting files on flash card and DVD's. There are paid and free zip programs for both PC and Mac. If you have a PC you can go for Camunzip or Winrar; on the Mac the most popular is Stuffit Expander.

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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Working-From-Your-Home-Office---The-Top-3-Ways-To-M...] Working From Your Home Office - The Top 3 Ways To Make Your Admin Run Smoothly

PC Versus Apple Mac - Which Is Best For Your New Home Office?

This has been one of the oldest arguments in technology history, which is better PC or Mac? Apple Mac users do tend to look down their nose a bit at PC users as they think the Max is a more superior machine, conversely PC users laugh at Mac users as they think they have got far more value for their money with a PC.

So what are the differences between a Mac and a PC? Are there many? Well yes there are, but not as many as their used to be. For instance you could not get a Mac under fifteen hundred dollars, now you can pick up a Mac Mini for under eight hundred dollars. The big change that the Mac has gone from using different processors from PC's to using the same intel chips. The big difference that people split hairs over though is the operating system that they run on. PC's use Windows and the Apple Mac uses the operating system called OS X. The issue here is compatibility, the two cannot run the other way round. Luckily now though there are many programs that can be used for both platforms.

You can now purchase virtual PC software which can in effect get windows to function on a Mac b essentially creating a 'fake' PC inside your computer, the issue is it runs very slow and it also means you will have to purchase a copy of windows. So you have to ask yourself is it even worth it?

A lot of hardware though even now is only compatible still with PC's, such as printers, plug-in cards and fax machines. You have to ask yourself what you are most likely to use in your new home office. If your actual business is mainly dealing with graphic design for instance, then you may be happier with a Mac as they are known in the computer world in being more geared towards graphic design and video. But if your business is more likely to be dealing with word-processing, internet usage and phone calls then a PC could be suited.

It all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day; it's like when you get people who will always drive a Ford, but your dad will always drive a Toyota, people have their favourites and they tend to always stick with them. There is not always a good reason for it, people like what they like. So above all go for the one that you feel most comfortable with and will be able to use comfortably for many years to come.

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Review: 1Password for Mac OS X

This is the twenty-first century, for Pete's sake! Wouldn't you expect the chore of having to remember dozens of passwords to be a thing of the past? After all, isn't that the whole purpose of the computer, to manage our information for us?

Instead, the Internet has created a huge number of additional passwords that we need to remember. Every shopping site requires its own password. So does every social bookmarking site. And every forum. And every social networking site. And, and, and...

And yet, built-in computer tools don't do a very good job of managing our passwords.

That's why I recommend a browser add-on/standalone software combination called 1Password ($40) from Agile Web Solutions.

Why use a password manager? Doesn't the Mac keep track of passwords with its keychain? I can give the answer in one word: Firefox.

Firefox is the 800 pound gorilla of web browsers, at least as far as web marketers are concerned. This is because Firefox supports all kinds of plug-ins that are useful to Web marketers, as described in the previous section. Firefox uses its own password scheme for remembering your logins. That means sites that you register for in Firefox won't be accessible in Safari.

1Password does require an additional investment of $40 and, yes, it is another software program that you will need to learn how to use, so normally I might not bother with it, but, as Internet marketers, we have to deal with the huge number of websites. Not only the websites we create, but social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, the blogs we comment on, the blogs we create guest posts on, and so on. So the additional investment required for a program like 1Password is definitely worth it.

Personally, I was tired of the erratic behavior of Apple's keychain. I don't know whether it is some kind of corruption on my Mac or a bug in the software, but Safari would fill in the password for a website some times but not others. On OnlyWire, for example, Safari filled in the password when I visited the site for several days in a row and then suddenly stopped doing so. Much to my annoyance, I found the site wasn't even listed in the keychain(?).

Enter 1Password. Of special usefulness to Web marketers is 1Password's ability to store separate logins for the same website. So, if you're promoting several different unrelated websites on, say, Twitter, you can create separate identities that correspond to each site you promote. This way you can keep your tweets relevant to each identity.

1Password also has a password generation feature for the creation of totally random passwords so you aren't tempted to use something like your birth date or the same login for every website. Since 1Password keeps track of your passwords, you don't have to worry about making them memorable. 1Password also has a "Strength" meter to tell you how "unguessable" your password is (but this is just based on the length of the password, not whether it contains letters, numbers and symbols, so it is just a rough guide).

If your Mac is not 100% secure (for example, if you use a laptop) you can use 1Password to store your private data, such as Social Security number, credit card numbers, and even software serial numbers. 1Password is secured with a master password and uses 128 bit AES encryption.

In addition to your desktop Mac and laptop, 1Password can run on your Windows PC, iPad and iPhone or iPod touch, so you can share passwords among devices.

You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business from a Mac here: http://internetmacmarketing.com/optin/10toolsoptin.html

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Review: IWeb for Mac Internet Marketers

A website and (most likely) a blog will be the foundation of your Internet marketing strategy. To create the former, you will need a website editor. This is a software program that allows you to create webpages, most often without needing to know how to write HTML. They do this with a word processor-like interface which automatically and behind the scenes creates the HTML code that describes the webpage to browsers.

The Mac has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to website or HTML editors. There are dozens-so many that I couldn't begin to describe them all here. So I will have to limit myself to the ones you are most likely to come across.

Most likely, if your Mac was manufactured within the past few years, you already have a good website creation tool installed on your hard drive. That is Apple's own template driven iWeb.

iWeb is based on themes. When you first launch the program, you are immediately presented with a template picker from which you can choose a number of Apple-designed "looks" for your website. Each theme comes with an assortment of page templates built in: a welcome page, and about me page, photos, blog, podcast and so on. Choose a template and it appears in the Main window, with placeholder pictures and text to give you an idea of what your finished site will look like.

Of course, the software is well-integrated with the other Apple iLife products. If you want to add an image, you can click on the Media button in the toolbar to call up the Media Browser (from here you can also access GarageBand to insert one of your podcasts or iMovie to add one of your videos). You add pages simply by clicking the plus (+) button on the left sidebar.

You click the Publish button to upload the site to your server. The original version of iWeb could publish only to MobileMe accounts, although third-party add-ons allowed users to publish anywhere. Now the ability to choose your own web host is built into the software.

Unlike with traditional HTML editors, you needn't ever look at the generated site pages on your hard drive. If you want to make changes to a page on your site, you merely open the site from within iWeb and re-save your work and the changes are automatically written to your hard drive, ready for uploading to your server.

Although all this makes Web publishing simple, it also means that you cannot make changes to your site from outside of iWeb. After all, any changes you make to the site in a third-party program will be overwritten the next time you save the site from within iWeb. Using the services of a web developer will be difficult unless the developer also uses iWeb.

Unfortunately for online marketers, iWeb's HTML is not exactly SEO optimized; the title tag can have only text on the page, the pages it generates have no heading, meta or alt tags, and its menus are JavaScript-based so search engines can't index them.

Another problem with the software is that it creates rather large, slow-loading websites. The software is set up so that you can easily make edits to the photos you place on your page at any time, re-cropping them as you desire. This is because the original, uncropped photo is saved by the software. It also means, however, that your website will be rather large. Fast loading websites are important to marketers to avoid losing potential visitors. More and more people have broadband but there are still a fair number of dial-up users out there.

You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business from a Mac here: http://internetmacmarketing.com/optin/10toolsoptin.html

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Review:-IWeb-for-Mac-Internet-Marketers&id=5227511] Review: IWeb for Mac Internet Marketers

Review: RapidWeaver for Mac-Using Internet Marketers

RapidWeaver, is an extremely popular website editor and, like iWeb, is a template-based website creation tool (In fact, RapidWeaver may have been the source of not a small amount of inspiration to Apple for its own website editor).

Like iWeb, RapidWeaver creates sites that you never need to look at on your hard drive. Any changes you make to them you make directly within RapidWeaver. Simply save your site and all the appropriate files are rewritten on your hard drive, and you can upload your site directly from within the software as well.

As with iWeb, there is a disadvantage to this approach: you will not want to make changes to the site from outside of the software in any third-party HTML editor, and any web designer you work with should also use and be familiar with RapidWeaver.

Unlike iWeb, RapidWeaver is modal; that is, you do your editing in one mode (edit) and get an idea of what your site will look like to the visitor in another mode (preview). Edit mode shows only the styled text and graphics on your webpage; that is, you see all the font sizes and styles, boldface, italic and so on, as well as the pictures you have inserted into your page in a simple word processor-style interface, but none of the decoration added to the site by the theme you have chosen. Some users will hate this interface while others will love it because it allows them to focus on their writing.

One advantage of RapidWeaver's template-driven approach is that you can change your mind about which theme you want to use very easily. Just click a button and your site will have a new look based upon the theme that you choosel, although I suspect this is something you only want to do in the original planning stages of your site. Once you have chosen a theme you will probably want to stay with it.

RapidWeaver is an interesting piece of software. It can be either extremely simple or exceedingly complex, depending on how you want to use it. At its most basic level, it is one of the simplest ways to create a website available. However, that simplicity may also seem constraining to many users.

For example, themes included with the software all consist of a single-column layout. If you want multiple columns, you will need to purchase a theme from a third-party provider. In fact, if you want to do practically anything beyond a basic website you will need to look into obtaining third-party add-ons.

There are such add-ons available to allow you to do almost anything with RapidWeaver, but each add-on will have its own learning curve apart from that of RapidWeaver itself.

Creating a new site with RapidWeaver can be a bit intimidating. Aside from decoration provided with the theme, you are presented with a blank page. Adding text, graphics and links is simple. Adding anything else, such as sidebars, ads, multiple columns, etc, will take some study (and possibly the purchase of third-party themes).

As for limitations, there are a few, and, judging from the "showcase" on the RapidWeaver website, the software is not generally used for extremely busy or complex websites (for example, news sites) with lots of sidebars, widgets and so forth.

Fortunately, there is an extremely active message board for RapidWeaver frequented by extremely passionate (dare I even say rabid) fans of the software who will help you find out how you can do almost anything with the software. These passionate users are also the ones who create the huge number of add-ons available for the software. As of last count, there were over 400 add-ons available for RapidWeaver, including plug-ins, themes, snippets, styles, and utilities.

Some of these add-ons are templates to give your site a new look and new capabilities, although I wish that on the RapidWeaver site, the listing of themes included a small thumbnail instead of just a RapidWeaver icon (you have to click on the "More Info" button to see a preview of the theme).

The difference between the interfaces of RapidWeaver and iWeb are like the differences between a text editor and a page layout program. Photos added to RapidWeaver are inline; they move up and down as you add or remove text. In iWeb, you place text in boxes, either visible or invisible. Photos stay put and text flows around them.

You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business from a Mac here: http://internetmacmarketing.com/optin/10toolsoptin.html

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Review:-RapidWeaver-for-Mac-Using-Internet-Marketers&id=5227498] Review: RapidWeaver for Mac-Using Internet Marketers

Review: Adobe Dreamweaver for Mac-Using Internet Marketers

What can be said about Adobe Dreamweaver? It is the king, the 800 pound gorilla of website creation software, used by some of the top web developers around the world, and with a price commensurate with its capabilities. And it's made by Adobe, so what more need be said?

Dreamweaver is the choice for professional web designers. Many of the top sites on the Web are created with Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver has the capability of creating the most sophisticated websites. No matter what bells and whistles a website may have, Dreamweaver can work with it.

Dreamweaver is not just an HTML editor or website creation tool, it is a complete web development application. Originally created by Macromedia, it was acquired by Adobe in 2005. It is a cross-platform tool which offers support for such technologies as CSS, JavaScript and various server-side scripting languages including ASP, ColdFusion and PHP.

If all this leaves your head spinning, it is for good reason. Dreamweaver is a high-end, professional quality web development application designed to meet the needs of professional website creators.

Although the complexity of Dreamweaver can seem intimidating at first, the important thing to remember is that you don't have to learn all the features of the software right away (or ever). You can work at the most basic level in the software and create a presentable website, especially if you start with a template.

The software starts with a basic WYSIWYG HTML editor-the days when website creators had to hand code everything in HTML are long gone. At its most basic, Dreamweaver is like a word processor. You simply type away and do a little formatting, and all the HTML code that makes the page look pretty on the Web is created for you in the background. You can add images by dragging and dropping. Tables are similarly a snap to insert and to resize by dragging the edges.

You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business from a Mac here: http://internetmacmarketing.com/optin/10toolsoptin.html

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Review:-Adobe-Dreamweaver-for-Mac-Using-Internet-Marketers&id=5227485] Review: Adobe Dreamweaver for Mac-Using Internet Marketers

Review: KompoZer--A Capable Web Editor for Mac

KompoZer is an open-source program based on the old Netscape Composer. Open-Source means the programming work is done by volunteers and it's totally free (although donations are accepted).

You might see some references on Mac websites to an HTML editor called NVU (pronounced N-view). You might even see some references to an editor called Sea Monkey. These are all based on the Composer component of the Mozilla Application Suite and Gecko 1.7 (and they all have a Mac version).

What's the difference between them? KompoZer is the most actively updated and most bug free. I have tried all three, and while the interface of the three programs is very similar, KompoZer works best in my experience. (In fact, Nvu has now been discontinued.)

The situation around KompoZer is something like that of NeoOffice, which is an updated version of OpenOffice (recently renamed LibreOffice). OpenOffice came first, and NeoOffice was spun off of it by other volunteers. Unlike NeoOffice however, which is exclusively for the Mac, KompoZer is cross-platform and runs on both Macs and PCs.

If all this seems confusing, that's because it is! All you have to remember, however, is that for open-source office applications for the Mac, NeoOffice is the way you want to go, and for open-source HTML editors for the Mac, the best choice is definitely KompoZer.

KompoZer is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor, which means that you create your page in a word processor-like interface, and the HTML coding is done automatically in the background by the software. You can view and edit the HTML code if, for example, you need to add Google Analytics code or another piece of code that adds extra features to your website, by clicking on the HTML Tags tab at the bottom of the KompoZer window.

KompoZer is remarkably capable (but not perfect) at reading HTML and interpreting it correctly. You can open virtually any webpage you may find in KompoZer and it will look pretty much the same as it does in your web browser.

In fact, KompoZer even has an "Open Web Location" command under the File menu that allows you to type in the URL of a web page, and the program will download and open it in its own window, ready for editing. This means that you can work with sophisticated templates you find online with no problem.

The feature is good but not perfect. For example, open Apple's homepage in KompoZer and it will look fairly good in preview mode but the formatting will get messed up when you switch to editing mode. On the other hand, KompoZer is standards compliant and doesn't add strange tags to the HTML it creates, unlike older HTML editors you may be familiar with if you've been around webpage creation for a while.

Just because you can open a complex template, however, does not mean that you will be able to edit it to your liking. A novice may find it impossible to figure out how to add and remove columns, sidebars or other elements without destroying the overall formatting of the page. If you want to start your website from a template, you would be well advised to test it thoroughly first to make sure you can make the changes to it over time that you will need to.

The KompoZer interface is somewhat Windows-like but not overly unintuitive. I found the online support for the software to be generally good. There is an active message boards staffed by passionate volunteers available for you to get your questions answered.

KompoZer can open multiple tabs at the same time, so you can work on different webpages (for example, to copy and paste elements from one page to another) without having a gaggle of separate windows open and cluttering your screen. It has unlimited undos, the ability to add tables and forms, and boasts support for cascading style sheets (CSS).

CSS is a standard that allows web designers to set various style elements such as fonts, colors, indentation and other formatting without having to add individual HTML tags. Similar to the style sheets in your word processor, you could set a heading to be boldfaced and a certain size and then you can apply this formatting to all relevant parts of your webpage for consistent results. If you change your mind about the characteristics of the style, you could edit the style sheet, and all instances of that style that you have defined on your webpage will be changed accordingly.

Although KompoZer is definitely an improvement on NVU and SeaMonkey, in addition to the problems opening some webpages, a fair number of bugs still mar the interface. For example, the amount of space it adds between lines on the page is often inconsistent and can require quite a bit of struggling to get the page to look like what is wanted. After closing all windows, it sometimes refuses to open another, unless you quit and relaunch the program. Sometimes applying a headline style to selected text does nothing, and sometimes some keyboard commands stop working until a relaunch.

KompoZer also lacks features such as the ability to create image maps, and the software doesn't give you much help in selecting fonts which are cross-platform, or available on most computers. However, you can't beat the price, and if you want an HTML editor that allows you to easily inspect and edit the underlying code for the greatest flexibility, KompoZer is your best free choice.

KompoZer also has a site management feature, but don't let the name fool you. This is just a built-in FTP program. If you're looking for a feature like the one found in Adobe Dreamweaver that allows you to change your site's organization and move pages around between various folders on your Mac without breaking any of the internal links (often useful for working with templates), you won't find it here.

And as far as FTP goes, I prefer to pay a little extra money and just use the commercial program Transmit, one of the best FTP programs available for the Mac (Panic software - $34). Transmit features an intuitive two-panel window that makes it easy for you to upload your website and perform other FTP operations. On the left side of the interface is a panel that works much like a Mac Finder window, and on the left side is a panel that represents your FTP space. Uploading or synchronizing your site is a simple drag-and-drop operation from the Mac side of the interface to the FTP side, or by clicking the Sync button. A bookmarks feature lets you store the login details for all of your websites, so that the login process is as easy as clicking a button.

You might get the impression that the Mac is the forgotten stepchild of the Internet marketing industry. But did you know that some of the top names in Internet Marketing use Macs? Get a FREE 75-page ebook that covers everything you need to know about running your Internet business from a Mac here: http://internetmacmarketing.com/optin/10toolsoptin.html

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Review:-KompoZer--A-Capable-Web-Editor-for-Mac&id=5227472] Review: KompoZer--A Capable Web Editor for Mac

Simple Ways to Change MAC Address

The term MAC address stands for Media Access Control address, which is primarily a unique identifier usually assigned to network interface cards (NICs) or network adapters in the field of computer networking. This address is important because it aids Internet service providers (ISPs) identify with the different computers connected to the network. At some point, one may need to alter the physical address when connecting to another network. Be able to perform this task by learning the simple ways to change MAC address.

Steps to Change MAC Address

Before anyone can change MAC address, a computer must first have a network card with physical address. This moderately easy task begins by clicking the Start menu option and then proceeding to the Control Panel. Inside this folder, try to locate and click the Network and Internet Connections button. Choose the network connection that you wish to change the physical address and then right-click it. Click the Properties button.

After clicking the Properties button, proceed to the General tab and then choose Configure. Proceed by clicking the Advanced tab. Click the property button and then choose either the Network Address or the Locally Administered Address option. Alter the radio button by selecting Value. Key in the new physical address and then select OK.

Once the new physical address is typed in, you may restart the computer in order for the changes to take place. You can check if the MAC address was successfully changed by proceeding to the Command Prompt. For this, click on the Start menu button, select Run and then type in the letters cmd before clicking the OK button. After these steps, key in ipconfig/all.

Additional Tips and Other Relevant Information

In case you want to return the physical address to its default value, adjust the radial button to the Not Present option instead of selecting the Value option in the previous steps. In case you are unable to alter the MAC address after performing the various steps mentioned above, it is still possible to change the address from the registry of the computer. However, it is important to know and become more familiar with the registry settings before modifying the details of the computer's registry. Be sure not to make the wrong changes because they can damage your computer permanently.

Some of the known technologies that use the MAC-48 identifier format are the Bluetooth, the 802.11 wireless networks and the Ethernet. Furthermore, the same format is used for the Serial Attached SCSI, the Fibre Channel and the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).

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