It’s been over a year since I posted my list of must have tools. Each time I get a new computer I have to install these immediately or I can’t breathe.
Here they are:
Evernote – This is my ultimate favorite, most needed application.
- It’s a place to keep notes, passwords, etc. Items can be tagged & searched for.
- Drag in URLS and images – perfect for noting sites/blog posts for future reference
- It’s installed on each of my computer but synchs with my account in the cloud
- SO all of my info is available on every computer I have it installed on!
- It has BlackBerry functionality, so now there’s the option to record voice notes (I may need a larger memory card)
LiveWriter (only for PC’s – sorry) – My most favorite tool for blogging!
- I write all of my blog posts in it. (note to Joe Cheng & team at MS – I would like this in the cloud & synching with my other PC’s too please?).
- I blog to all of my blogs from it – here, Alterian’s Engaging Times blog
- What I love about it is that it’s so userfriendly.
- The best thing is that it plays nicely with Joomla (which is what the rest of my site is built on and I can update it without going into the backside!).
Snag It – The TechSmith folks have such a great product here.
- I use it all the time to grab screenshots & toss them into LiveWriter or email.
- So easy to use & add mark ups – LOVE it & couldn’t live without it
- Betsy Weber is the most amazing community person at TechSmith!!
Digsby – A chat aggregator that puts everyone in one spot no matter their choice of IM.
- aggregates Facebook chat. I wish that it did so with Skype too.
Skype – A great way to stay connected with everyone around the world.
- This has become a must have ever since the geographical boundaries no longer mattered.
All of them are free except SnagIt.
What tools make your life easier in this digital world?
I never got into Evernote despite popular opinion.
Why do you like Snag It over something like Fireshot (a Firefox addon that seems to do the same thing as that web link you shared — see https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648)?
Sounds like Digsby is like something I used to use called Trillian (http://www.trillian.im/), no?
… and why no checkbox below to subscribe to followup comments?
Thanks.
Hi Ari,
Those are some good points! I should make the list in terms of generic tools. But people like recommendations.
Thanks for the FF tip. I should browse the add-on’s periodically.
And I’ll mention the subscribe to comments option to my sister. I think I’ll also remove the Seesmic option.
thanks for the ideas!
Hi,
Great list. Though I haven’t tried Digsby, I would like to one day. I use pidging for IM & tweetdeck for twitter & facebook. I almost use everything on your list except Digsby & snagit.
I like Evernote very much, the ultimate note taking application.
Without Livewriter it would be very difficult to manage different blogs – love this one. Check out my post on livewriter on my blog on intranet.
Instead of snagit, I use Jing same from Techsmith, but it is free a standalone application – http://www.jingproject.com/
For firefox – fireshot is the ultimate one.
I would like to include ccleaner on this list its a good tool for cleaning unwanted files from the system. – http://www.ccleaner.com/
Some more from my list:
Keepass – good password manager
Truecrypt – disk encryption software
Notepad++ – good replacement for notepad
7zip – file archiver