Wait… What are Ribbons?

I notice some of you might not know what I’m talking about, so here’s the run-down. A ribbon is a part of the window that allows you to access certain options without having to navigate through menus. It often appears as a wide toolbar at the top, much like the one in MSPaint. Allow me to show you what I mean:

The red arrow points to the ribbon in MSPaint. Just remember that this is a screenshot of MSPaint from Windows 7. Also note that Windows 8 wants to include a toolbar similar to this one on the top of every explorer window. The idea itself, though, originally came from one of Microsoft’s most popular products: Microsoft Office 2007.

What’s the Big Deal?

Microsoft right now is in a hurry to thwart Apple’s conquest over the general public and enhance its interface in a way that would level the playing field back the way it was. So, it decided to throw in a few gizmos that people might find handy. Most computer novices don’t know how to copy and paste something without right-clicking an element and clicking “Copy,” and so forth, meaning that they don’t know that you could simply press “Ctrl+C/V” to do the same thing in less time. Microsoft asked itself, “So, what if we include copy and paste buttons (big ones) on the top of Explorer?” Indeed, this would help the helpless novices save a little time while transferring data, and the entire ribbon itself has a data-driven interface that would ease the experience even for expert users. Let’s have a look at the ribbon, shall we?

The options included, I think, are phenomenal for those who are just beginning to learn to use Windows. Microsoft’s goal here was clear: Create a new interface that will allow people to find the functions they use the most in an easier fashion.

Some criticism exists, like the fact that certain buttons in that screen will have a near-zero-percent usage among end-users. Windows 8′s explorer window, in my own personal opinion, could still use a touch of improvement before it can call itself “competitive” against what Apple has to offer. Linux itself has many interesting features in its interfaces also, making it a worthy competitor. If Microsoft wants to pull this off, it has to better analyze where it is now and where it must go to achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Leave your comments below and tell us what your opinion is regarding this matter!

Installing new extension

Before we start. let’s first touch on the method to install an extension in your Gnome Shell.

1. First, go to the Gnome Shell extension page. Search for the extension that you want to install.

2. Click the “Off” button at the left of the extension title. The slider will now move to “On”.

3. A popup will appear to ask if you want to download and install the extension. Click “Install”.

That’s it.

10 of the best Gnome Shell extensions

1. Frippery Applications Menu

Personally, I feel that the Activities button at the screen top left corner is useless. It serves the same purpose as the Super button (on your keyboard) and moving your mouse cursor to the top left corner, and it has never been utilized. What the Frippery Applications Menu does is to replace the Activities button with the old Gnome 2.x Application Menu. Click on it and it will show all your applications arranged in their respective categories.

It is definitely more useful than the Activities button.

2. Desktop Scroller

If you like to use different workspace to manage your applications and windows, you will find that switching to another workspace is a very troublesome task. You need to go to the Activities overview (either move your mouse to the screen top left corner, or press the Super button) before you can select the workspace.

The Desktop Scroller is a handy extension where you can move your cursor to the right edge of the screen and scroll up/down to switch workspace. This is one useful way to improve your productivity.

3. gTile

Do you like to work with several applications concurrently? If yes, I am sure you will face the issue of arranging your application windows properly to make them viewable. The gTile extension allows you to quickly arrange your windows in tile. The default setting comes with grids of 2×2, 3×2, 4×4, and 6×6, but you can configure the ‘extension.js’ and add your own grid layout.

4. Jump Lists

The Ubuntu Unity comes with a feature where you can edit the jump list items and behavior for each application launcher. In Gnome Shell, you can achieve the same effect with the Jump Lists extension.

The Jump Lists items are based on the recent files that you have opened. It will requires Zeitgeist to be installed.

5. Music Integration

Ubuntu comes with Banshee media player pre-installed and there is an appindicator where you can control the playback of your music. But what if you are not using Banshee? What about Clementine, Rhythmbox or even the Nuvola Player? This Music Integration extension will unite them all. Making use of the MPRIS2, it will integrate all those supported Music Player into your Gnome Shell automatically.

One thing to note, if you install this extension via the Gnome extension, it will not activate the Music Preferences by default. Here is how you can activate it.

Open a terminal and type the following lines:

cd ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/music-integration@brianrobles204
sudo cp org.gnome.shell.extensions.musicintegration.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

6. Overlay Icons

This extension adds a big application icon to each application on the Activities overview page. This makes it easier for you to locate the application window that you are looking for.

Seriously, I think this should be part of the Gnome Shell feature, rather than having to install an extension to enable it.

7. Places Status Indicator

This is a simple extension that add a systems status menu for quickly navigating places in the system. Simple, yet useful.

8. Calculator

Instead of opening the calculator app every time you need to do a quick maths, this extension allows you to do calculation on the search overview. Simply go to the Activities overview page and type your maths in the search field. The result will instantly appear at the center of the screen.

9. Coverflow Alt-Tab

Are you bored of the default Alt + Tab windows switching behavior? This extension adds a coverflow animation so you can switch your windows in style.

10. Mint Gnome Shell Extension (MGSE)

The Linux Mint MGSE contains few of the best extensions that are not found in the Gnome Shell Extension library. The Bottom Panel and Windows List extension make Gnome Shell a much better, and usable desktop manager.

Conclusion

Here you are – 10 of the best Gnome Shell extensions. I am sure to have missed out a few, do tell us about your favorite extension in the comments.

How to use it?

First of all, get the AirDroid app from the Android market. You do not need to install anything on your computer. Once you have installed it on your phone, go to the app. On the main screen of the app, you will have few options, namely, a web address (with port number), a password and a start/stop button.

All you have to do is open any web browser (like Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer) and type the displayed web address (192.168.40.54:8888) in your browser’s address bar and press enter. You will find yourself with a welcome screen asking for password like this:

Type the password which is shown on your smartphone and you are connected to your phone. Your phone notifies you when you connect to the computer. It will show you the memory used, the files you have on your Android, messages, contacts, battery status, installed apps, basically everything. You will see a screen like this:

What are the things I can do with AirDroid?

This awesome apps frees you from the likes of a dedicated suite application. All you need is your Android phone and a computer with a web browser in it. You can then do all the stuff you want to. Here are a lists of thing which you can do with it:

• Import/Export pictures
• Import/Export music
• Import/Export all types of files
• See Messages and Call logs
• Send new messages by using your computer keyboard (my favorite)
• Check memory status of your device
• See Installed apps, delete them
• See and edit contacts

Conclusion:

Despite using the WiFi interface, it is not noticeably slow. It works flawlessly with any operating system and with all the major web browsers. It gives options enough to make it one of the best free app available in the Android market. My verdict, you won’t regret downloading this app.

What are your views on AirDroid? Do you use some other app/suite to manage and transfer data between your Android phone and computer? Do share your ideas with us. Cheers.

In addition to being all web-based, uploading is drag and drop making it that much easier. Below, is how to upload, what browsers Hopper works with and how the search feature works. Take a look-see and let us know what you think in the comments.

Getting started with Hopper

The signup is one of the simplest of any app I have signed up for. It only asks for an email address and a password. That’s it… no, really, that’s is.

Uploading files to Hopper

When you are logged in, you are ready to start uploading. There is a square on the screen. If you are using Chrome or Firefox, drag the file you’d like to upload into this square.

Searching for a file on Hopper

There is a text bar at the top of the page. When you enter part of the file name, the date of the upload or file type a list of matching files will pull up. As you are typing, the files start to filter out all of the possibilities.

Downloading Files from Hopper

Downloading a file is almost as simple as uploading one. To the left of the file names, there is a spot where you click to download. In the screen grab, you can also see the short URL if you want to share the file with someone else. When they click on the link, the file is downloaded to their machine.

When you click on a text file, Hopper has a built in text reader so the file is opened and readable right on the screen. You can’t edit the document in Hopper, you need to download it then upload it again.

How Hopper different than the other cloud storage option

I think Hopper sets itself apart from the rest with its simplicity. They didn’t try to add in a lot of features. Hopper is simple to upload and simple to search for your files.

Easy sharing of files via a short link is great for anytime you need to send a file to anyone. Copy the link and send it how ever works best for you. Other services offer this too, but with some cloud storage web-apps, it is more difficult to share files this way. They want the person receiving the file to be a user too.

Conclusion

I found Hopper to work better in Firefox than with Chrome. I didn’t see any extensions that would interfere, but for some reason in Chrome, the short links didn’t show up. Other than that one thing, Hopper worked great for me. I like how easy it is to upload and share files with other people. This is a feature I use a lot with Dropbox from my android, but seems to be lacking from the web version of Dropbox.

What cloud storage service do you use and why?

Installation

The current version of AdaptableGimp is based on Gimp 2.6.10. If you are using Gimp 2.6.11 (the default in Ubuntu repsitory), or the latest 2.6.12, you will have to first uninstall your version of Gimp and downgrade to the older version.

For Windows, you can simply download the .exe file and install in your system. For Linux, if you are using 32bit Debian/Ubuntu-based distro, you can download the deb files. For other distro or 64-bit Linux system, you will have to compile and install from source.

On a 32-bit Ubuntu/Debian system, first install the libgimp2.0_2.6.10-0ubuntu0_i386.deb, followed by gimp-data_2.6.10-0ubuntu0_all.deb, and lastly adaptablegimp_2.6.10-0ubuntu0_i386.deb.

Usage

To run AdaptableGimp, press “Alt + F2″ and type “adaptablegimp“. You should see Gimp start loading. Once it is loaded up, it will prompt you to login to an AdaptableGimp account. This will link you to the AdaptableGimp wiki and you will be given recognition for the taskset that you have created. If however, you don’t wish to login to any account, you can simply select the “Start without an AdaptableGimp account” option.

The interface is almost identical to Gimp except for the toolbar. Instead of a list of tool icons, it now shows a search box allowing you to search for taskset.

To perform tasks, you just perform a search in the search field and it will retrieve the relevant instructions. For example, when I search for “Selective colorization”, it retrieve the taskset from the wiki and display them in the toolbar: Do a Fuzzy Select, Feather, Invert, Channel Mixer, Free Select, Rectangle Select. Seldom is the instruction more than 6 steps as that is usually the average to complete a task.

For more detail instructions, you can even click the “i” beside the step to open up the wiki.

Creating your own taskset

With such a useful tool available, you might also want to create your own tasksets, either to share with others, or just to keep a record of the various steps you have done to accomplish a complicated task. To create a new taskset, you just have to click the dropdown on the toolbar and select the “Create New Taskset” option.

You can then add the required tools to the taskset command and the description. Once you have completed, click the Save Changes button and your taskset will be saved to the AdaptableGimp wiki.

Conclusion

If you are already an expert Gimp user, you won’t really have much use for AdaptableGimp. However, for those who wish to master Gimp, and don’t mind using an older version of Gimp, AdaptableGimp is one useful tool that can help you out. It is also a good thing that AdaptableGimp works in an open community environment where users can manage existing tasksets and submit new one. The more tasksets it has in its library, the more powerful and useful it is.

What do you think? Is AdaptableGimp a useful tool for you?

I started a search in the App Store to find an app to help me out with this process. The first two apps failed to deliver the results I needed. I then tried iLoader for Facebook HD and finally found a way to add those photos in one simple step, even when adding them in a batch.

It just couldn’t get much simpler and easier than this. There are other apps that are this simple, but again, this is the one that delivers. Upon opening the app, it has the dial buttons in the upper left where you can add, organize, and upload photos. But before doing anything with that, I knew I had to sign in to my Facebook account using the link in the upper right.

Once you click the link to connect you to Facebook, it opens up the Settings, which are also available at any time in the menu bar at the bottom. Along with the sign-in information and normal settings, it also includes a listing of the latest updates to the app, which is always useful to know. This is a nice little plus.

Moving back into the main window, you can start the process of adding your photos. Once you click the dial to choose the photos, it allows you to add as many as you want from your Photo Album. Before you upload them you can organize them in the order you want, as well as add captions and tag people right from this screen. This is where I was hooked.

Uploading the photo or photos gives you the choice of whether you want it to add the photos to your main account or one of your groups or pages. It offers you that complete control. Once they are fully uploaded, the app gives you options to alert your Facebook friends that you have added photos or share them on Twitter.

Videos can be added this same way. Simply choose the video you would like to add, title it, and add a description. With videos, you can also choose who sees them, whether it’s just yourself, a certain group of friends, everyone, etc. You can also view your own videos, as well as all those of your friends within this app by choosing the appropriate option in the menu bar at the bottom.

iLoader for Facebook HD allows you the full control of adding media to your Facebook account. Reading the reviews, it mentioned a recent update causing the app to crash, but in all I did here, it never crashed on me once, proving its dependability. The app is available on iTunes for $2.99. A free Lite version is also available, and versions for the iPhone and iPod Touch are available as well.

iLoader for Facebook HD

Setting Up Remote Gmail Access

To setup access to Gmail from within Kmail, follow these steps:

1. Login to your Gmail account

2. In the top right corner, click the settings gear icon and then click “Mail Settings”.

3. Click “Forwarding and POP/IMAP”.

4. To enable POP, select either “enable POP for all mail” or “enable POP for mail that arrives from now on”.

5. Choose an option for “when messages are accessed with POP”.

6. To enable IMAP, select “Enable IMAP”. Other settings are optional.

Now, you will need to configure your Kmail client:

1. Start Kmail and go to “Settings -> Configure Kmail”

2. Click the “Accounts” button

3. In the Receiving tab, click “Add…”

4. At this point, you will need to decide whether you want to use IMAP or POP (This example will assume you chose POP).

5. In the “General” tab, enter a name you will use to recognize this account.

6. For “Incoming mail server” type: pop.gmail.com (for IMAP, choose imap.gmail.com)

7. For “Username” enter your complete email address: soandso@maketecheasier.com

8. Enter your password.

9. Click the “Advanced” tab and select “Leave fetched messages on the server”.

10. In the “Connection Settings” section, select “SSL/TLS” encryption.

11. Click “OK”

Now click the “Sending” tab and follow these steps:

1. Click “Add…”

2. Select “SMTP” and click “Create and Configure”

3. For “Outgoing mail server” type smtp.gmail.com

4. Check the box next to “Server requires authentication”.

5. For “Login” type your full email address

6. Enter your password

7. If you want, select “store SMTP password” so that you do not have to enter it each time before you send.

Disclaimer: If you use IMAP or have selected to download all of your previous Gmail messages with POP (perhaps as a backup measure), please be advised that it will download everything. That means if you have been in the habit of not deleting any Gmail message, you could spend the next few hours downloading your thousands of emails.

Simplicity and Security

Kmail offers many email features, such as complex templates, that Gmail cannot. Moreover, you can access your messages offline and have full integration with other KDE apps. By keeping your message on your Gmail account as well, you can have the best of both worlds, accessing your Gmail through Kmail on your computer and still using web-based Gmail when you go mobile.

The Q&A

NOTE: Some of the questions will be rephrased and will not appear exactly as they were written in MTE’s inbox, for the sake of simplifying the query and giving as much space as possible to the answer. If you believe your answer was not adequately answered, go ahead and leave a comment at the bottom. We’ll get to you ASAP.

Q: How can I run anti-malware and anti-virus tools when my PC’s infected with something that just won’t allow any of these tools to run?

A: That’s a very good question, especially since there’s been a ton of malware recently that disables your antivirus solutions and leaves you shooting bullets in the dark. Here’s the trick, though: Most viruses and malware that enter your computer assume you use a mainstream antivirus solution, like ESET NOD32 or BitDefender. Try something like Malwarebytes and you’ll notice a difference. The program is subtle enough and doesn’t tell viruses: “Hey, I’m coming after you!” Instead, it just silently goes through your computer and plucks out anything screwing it up. Download Malwarebytes here. Hopefully, this will help you combat your issue. Best of luck!

Q: What are the best free hard drive backup/imaging utilities?

A: It’s great that you asked! I personally think everyone who has sensitive data must back it up at least once a month. Windows 7 already contains integrated backup solutions and disaster recovery, but if you don’t have a taste for what MS has to offer, you can always use other third-party solutions like Paragon Backup & Recovery. EaseUS has a free backup program as well, and it’s coming up from under the woodwork lately. Give both a try and see which one accommodates your needs better.

Q: What screen resolution do I need to see everything on web pages? In a lot of the web pages I see everything, except for certain elements (like “Send Payment”).

A: The vast majority of websites on the web evolve along with the computers that visit them. As technology has evolved, so has the “standard minimum resolution” of computers. Newer websites take advantage of higher screen resolutions on computers. If you are using an older rig, you’re probably not going to see a complete page without zooming out or scrolling left and right. As of 2012, the minimum standard resolution a computer should use to see the web well is 1280×1024. You can probably still get away with 1024×768, but I highly recommend going higher in the spectrum. If your computer isn’t compatible with either of these resolutions, or you still have problems viewing the full page after you changed the resolution, try holding “Ctrl” on your keyboard and pressing “-” to zoom out. Alternatively, you can hold “Ctrl” and rotate your mouse wheel to zoom out or in.

Q: How do I sort my “All Programs” submenu in my “Start” menu alphabetically?

A: Windows 7 does this by default already, so I’m going to assume you’re using an older version of MS Windows. In XP, try right-clicking on any folder in your programs menu and click “Sort by Name.” That’s it! In Vista, you can configure this through your Control Panel. Just follow this path:

Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Taskbar and Start Menu -> Customize the Start Menu -> Sort “All Programs” Menu by Name.

You might notice you can’t do this in Windows XP, but there’s a simple registry hack to do this. Just go to this path in your registry: 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder

Once there, delete the “MenuOrder” key. If you don’t know how to do this, I suggest you read the TTG registry tutorial. It will teach you everything you need to know. Don’t forget to back up the registry before you start!

Q: I just switched to Windows Live Mail and noticed that I can’t send a page in an email. How do I do this? I’m using Windows 7.

A: I’m assuming you are attempting to send the page through Internet Explorer. The lack of this option is due to the fact you haven’t selected a default mail provider through IE. Once you place WLM as the default email provider through IE, you’ll have the option back.

To do this, click your “Start” menu and click “Default Programs.” Once in that window, click “Set program access and computer defaults.” Select “Custom” and click “Choose a default email program.”  Choose “Windows Live Mail.” Once finished, make sure that you select “Internet Explorer” when clicking “Choose a default web browser.” Once you’re done, click “OK.”

Open up Internet Explorer, navigate to a page and try the “send page by mail” option again. This usually does the trick and fixes any issue. Remember to do this every time you switch to a new email program. The “send link by mail” option should also work after these fixes. If it doesn’t, let me know through the comments section and I’ll work with you to solve the problem.

Why Wasn’t My Question Answered?

If you asked a question and it wasn’t answered here, it could be one of three reasons:

• Relevance: Your question needs to be totally relevant to the Windows operating system.
• Detail: Try to include as much detail as you can, such as the Windows version + service pack you’re using.
• Other Reasons: For some unfortunate reason, we couldn’t include your question in this edition. We’ll try our best effort to include the question in the next edition.

Want to Ask a Question?

If you have questions you think might fit well with MTE’s next edition of “Ask a Windows Expert,” send us an email at windows-help [at] maketecheasier.com. Leave comments only to discuss the questions presented here. If you want to ask a question, use the aforementioned email address.

Out for the Night

Your partner has decided that for this year, they want to go out to dinner. You think, “perfect, relieves me from having to find the perfect dish to cook”. However, you are now presented with a new problem. You want to make sure that they get the best restaurant in town, but you may be a little pressed on money or maybe the dream restaurant has somewhat of a waiting list.

OpenTable

Those situations are no problem with the OpenTable application. It is the perfect app to help in this situation. If you know the exact restaurant that you are interested in, perfect, just search it in the app. If not, you still have many options. If you want to search for restaurants maybe closer to the city center or near home, you can search based on proximity. If your loved one is feeling Italian or Japanese, OpenTable allows you to search based on cuisine. No worries on price, the application has your back with the ability to search based on price. You can search the restaurant’s reviews to see what the patrons have to say. Once you find the right place, you can reserve a seat right from the application. This will be your inside friend when scheduling dinner plans for Valentine’s Day.

Forgot A Gift!

It happens to the best of us. We are preoccupied with the Superbowl the week before and other things in between, that once we are the day before Valentine’s Day, we find ourselves remembering to go find that perfect gift. We are now presented with two options. Either go to the mall and find a decent gift or use our iPhones to do some research on the best gift we can find in our current situation.

Zappos Mobile

The best application that can help with last minute gifts is Zappos Mobile. We all know the famed Zappos.com, a website that is popular for those interested in finding new shoes. However, you may not have known this, but Zappos has a great selection of other clothing and accessory items at reasonable prices. What makes it perfect for the last minute shopper? Zappos is well known for their shipping. It’s standard to have second day shipping, but many times, the website automatically bumps it up to next business day shipping well…just because. That’s how nice they are. That’s also why I recommend Zappos Mobile for anything from bags to clothing and everything in between.

Loved from Afar

There are many situations when loved ones just can’t be together during Valentine’s Day. From being in the military to having to go on a business trip, you might be away from each other once the calendar hits February 14th. This doesn’t mean you can’t get your favorite someone the classic Valentine’s Day gifts.

Cards for iPhone

First, let’s look at the card. Apple has a new application known as Cards for iPhone. This allows you to prepare amazing quality cards right from your card and send it off to be received in about a week. You can add personal messages and choose from various high quality designs. You can even add photos to finish off the personal touch. The cards are free, all you pay is postage, which is $2.99 in the US and $4.99 to anywhere international. You get a notification once the card is shipped and received, giving you peace of mind.

California Blooms for iPhone

But what’s Valentine’s Day without flowers. They are essential to finish off your gift on the big day. 36% of Americans say they will purchase flowers with their gifts for this year. You can be apart of that 36% with the California Blooms application for iPhone. The application allows you to choose from various variations of flowers that you can order and ship right on your iPhone. If you are like me and know almost nothing about flowers, no problem. California Blooms offers clear, professional photos of each photo they sell along with care instructions that you can pass on to the recipient. This will keep the flowers alive just a bit longer.

What other ideas do you have for Valentine’s Day? Share it with us in the comments.

Image credit: Valentine by Big Stock Photo.

Ready From Start Up

iBooks Author is available for download in the Mac App Store. After downloading the free application, you have the average agreements shown that you must agree to, then you are shown the Template Chooser, as shown above. This page is what you see every time you start up. You have a choice of six templates, all with an educational theme. Less emphasis is put on your previous projects, all confined to a drop down menu at the bottom left of the window. If you have an old iBooks Author project, for example a finished one, you can access it by going to Open an Existing File, and search for the book from there.

iBooks Author’s Interface

The application’s interface gives me many memories of other applications I have used on the Mac. iBooks Author just has that classic Mac app look that we know. This also means that navigation is easy to catch on. You have the top left area that allows you to add a page or section. You can then change the page orientation at the top, edit text, add graphics and graphs, add widgets, and even preview and publish the book by clicking one of the selections at the top. The far right section is where you can access more intricate editing, add photos and other media, as well as customize color and font.

The left side is where you can see the cover, add an introduction photo, and view Table of Contents. This is the point when things get a little confusing. Instead of seeing the Table of Contents of the whole book, you see it for the section. You also have a section for a glossary, showing the application’s emphasis on education. The bottom half of this side allows you to see the full layout of the book, per chapter and section. When focusing on interface, we notice that it’s quite easy to understand. Everything is based on drag and drop. There isn’t a loading time, for example, when I dragged a six minute long video. When you drag multiple photos, the application has blue alignment lines that allow you to align all photos together.

Additional Features

iBooks Author allows you to add widgets into your book. The widgets include photo galleries, videos, the ability to add interactive tests, a Keynote powerpoint, interactive and 3D images, as well as a custom widget through HTML. The widgets section is the feature that allows you to add components that distinguish classic paper textbooks from digital ones. There are many possibilities with using widgets. For example, photo galleries can make the text in your book come alive. Videos can offer a better way of showing the content than what text and even photos can. Interactive tests allow the reader to know if they correctly or incorrectly answered a question, in real time. You also can see interactive images as great for showing off a globe or maybe the anatomy of a body, where the reader can click certain sections and learn more. The possibilities are endless.

The Finished Product

After completing the book, you may want to preview the book on an iPad. Simply connect your iPad, launch the iBooks app, click Preview in the iBooks Author Mac app, select your device, and preview from there. Once done, you have three exporting options. The first option allows you to publish your book on iBookstore. This is where your book is available for mass download/purchase. You then have the ability to export through PDF. Lastly, the whole book can be saved in a text file.

Each option has their benefits and drawbacks. The benefits with iBookStore is that you can publish and sell your books quickly and started making money. The export to PDF option has your book available in a widely shareable format. On the other hand, publishing to the iBookstore means that your content is now partially in the hands of Apple, who get a cut in profits. This also means your book is under their regulations. The PDF option is nice, but you have an iBooks Author tag on each page. The text option is convenient, but interactive content won’t show up.

Our Conclusion

We all want or at least wanted as a child to be an author. iBooks Author has made it incredibly easy to do so. The ease of use will allow Apple to be the gateway for many aspiring authors, creating a new batch of educational content for all to enjoy. However, this ease does come with some drawbacks for the author. If you have read the user agreements (I bet you don’t), it stated clearly that you cannot make money from your book on any other site. This prevents you greatly. Very few well published books stay on just one site. Many are on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other sites. This won’t be possible through iBooks Author. However, if iBookstore is sufficient for you, then you will greatly enjoy the application’s ease of use and accessibility. Why aren’t these eTextbooks available on iPhone? Beyond me, maybe the extra screen real estate, however it won’t be far fetched to see this change soon.

iBooks Author for Mac: Download Link

Toggle Time Tracker is a great web based time tracker app that allows you to track the time spent on projects. It is cross-platform compatible and comes with desktop client for the different OS (Mac, Linux, Windows, iOS and Android).

The PRO account allows you to add tasks, track billable rates and you can integrate with Basecamp, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, and many other third party software. The best thing is you can share reports with your clients so they can have a real-time overview of the time you spent on the projects.

Update: Contest Closed.

Here’s what you need to do to win:

Tweet to Enter

All you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, 10th February 2012 at 2359hrs Pacific Time. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email.

Share and enjoy!

Toggl Time Tracker

MakeTechEasier would like to thank Toggl for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interested in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us.

1. Search

This simple tool allows you to search Google’s image database safely and easily as thumbnails or full size images, with download ready links so you don’t have to open the source site to retrieve it.  Just right click on the image for easy storing and saving. The simple and clear layout of the images displayed, enables you to pick the perfect image for your needs.

2. Settings

For those of us that guard our eyes and the eyes of the young ones around us, the tool bar allows you to browse images in “Safe Mode” to avoid any inappropriate pictures from being displayed.

You can also customize the size the images are displayed, by selecting from Large, Medium, or Icon.

The last setting in the toolbar allows you to decide if the URL of the image should be displayed.  Even if you decide to display it, you don’t have to open it to retrieve the image but It’s an option if you wanted to view the source site.

3. Viewing

As you see above, you can view the images in several different sizes but you can also view full size pictures in a slide show mode. To do this, click on the image you would like to see in full size and either use your arrow keys to see the rest of the images or click the “Next” button.

Of course, there are a few image galleries like Flickr and Photbucket  that are gaining in popularity, but you need to sign up for an account and sign in every time you want to search the database. Again, wasted time. If you need something quick, easy and safe to use on a daily basis, Google Image Ripper is a great option. If you like Google Image Ripper but don’t have good luck with it due to your Internet speed, a Firefox plugin called Greasemonkey provides more of an image selection and faster download times for Google Image Ripper.

Which image gallery is your favorite?

1: Open Folders in a New Process

If you understand processes, you might realize how this is a monumental feature for you. If you don’t understand how processes work, let’s just say that every single folder you open adds up to “explorer.exe” and doesn’t open a new instance of the application. That means that everything you’ve opened is governed by that same “explorer.exe” application. What if “explorer.exe” crashes? This would mean that everything you ever opened will have to be closed, including the taskbar, within the task manager application included in Windows. Believe me when I say that it’s an enormous hassle. So, what do you do?

While holding the “Shift” key, right-click “Computer” within your “Start” menu. Now, click “Open in new process” and you’re done! You should have the following result:

As in the image above, you should see two processes named “explorer.exe.” If you didn’t, re-read the instructions. Perhaps you missed something. Don’t forget to hold “Shift” while right-clicking “Computer.”

2: Reduce Volume of Other Applications When You Get a Call

This one comes handy when you’re an office user and you depend on Skype or other applications to complete calls in your daily life. Instead of lowering the sound volume manually for each other application you use, you can easily configure Windows to reduce the volume of everything else to give you better call quality. You can even mute everything else if you want complete silence – something handy when you’re conducting interviews. The whole shebang is in the “Communications” tab of your “Sounds” menu. For those of you who don’t know how to get there, just right-click the speaker icon in the bottom right corner of your screen and click “Sounds.” It takes you to a window like this:

In the above window, the “Communications” tab has already been selected. Notice how you have the option to either reduce the volume of other sounds by 80% or 50%, or even the option to mute everything else currently playing on your PC/Laptop/doohickey. Once you click “OK,” the settings will apply automatically.

3: Problem Steps Recorder

Have you ever had a problem that you would like to explain to someone with screenshots and concise steps? There are some things so complex that you can’t really explain them only in a couple of phrases, so you’re left with a really difficult choice: Either you bring your PC over to a technician, or you just sit there and try to put two and two together without any guidance. Fortunately, Windows 7 takes care of this issue with a little application known as the Problem Steps Recorder. The program automatically records everything you do on your computer, including keystrokes, after you press the record button, and saves a file to a place of your choosing containing all the information necessary for someone to see what’s wrong.

Just click your “Start” menu, type “PSR,” and press “Enter.” This will open this window:

It’s that simple! Be warned: Once you hit “Start Record,” everything you do will be recorded on your computer. And, by everything I mean everything. Make sure you don’t have anything private on your computer that you would not like someone else to see. There will be screenshots of every event. Make sure you take advantage of the “Add Comment” button to help make things easier for the person who’s helping you take care of the problem. Once you click “Stop Record,” the application will ask you where you want to save a ZIP file of your recording. If you open the ZIP  file and then open the recording within it, you’ll see something like this:

4: Switch Display Modes (And Calibrate Each Display)

Let’s face it: Tons of computer users nowadays need more than just one display to work efficiently. Microsoft implemented some juicy features for power users who have multiple displays that allows you to work with them quickly without moving your mouse all over the place and clicking through a labyrinth of menus. What’s wrong with indulging in the sweet, sweet taste of Windows shortcuts? That’s why you switched over from XP, right?

In order to quickly switch display modes, you only need to press the Windows key and the “P” key on your keyboard. That wasn’t so hard, was it? If you’re doing it right, this comes up:

As for screen calibration, Windows has a tool known as the “Display Color Calibration Wizard.” This can be found in the personalization menu when you right-click somewhere on your desktop, but who wants to waste time and click through a ton of stuff? There’s a simpler solution: Click your “Start” menu, type “dccw,” and press “Enter.” You’re in!

Mind you, but I think that guy looks creepy! Anyway, that’s part of the calibration process.

5: Minimize All Windows With a Wiggle

There’s nothing more frustrating when you have a bunch of windows open than, well, seeing a bunch of windows open. Sometimes, you just want to see your desktop and catch a breath of fresh air. There are three ways to do this without going through a lot of trouble minimizing each window manually. The first way is by pressing “Win + D.” That’s an easy, straightforward way, but perhaps you’re someone who’s more comfortable with the mouse.

Your second way of minimizing all windows, using the mouse, is by clicking a bar on the lower right corner of the screen. Still, you need precision and you might not be nimble enough to do this without wasting a bit of time. Here’s the bar, if you didn’t notice it:

Both of the options will get you where you want, but none of them let you explore your inner child and have a little fun. Restore a maximized window, right now, and wiggle it around a bit. Try a little more intensity. Did your computer just go nuts? Nope! It just minimized everything and led you straight to your desktop.

Let us know below in the comments section what you think about these top-secret Windows 7 features!

Sure, you can put a lock on on your device, but if you do end up loaning it out for someone to make a quick call or watch a quick video, the device is already opened up, meaning they could be privy to everything on your device. This app helps keep keep the most private things private.

This app opens up to a picture of a lock on a safe, because that’s exactly what it is. It’s a safe for your most private items on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. While it looks like a folder on your device, it’s really an app hiding all these secret items. When you first open the app it allows you to set a secret code, one you will use every other time you open the app.

Among the internal apps that this app holds is a photo locker. Sometimes there are pictures you just don’t want everyone privy to. You can add photos to this app from your regular photo albums, or can take photos from within the app and have them stored here, in multiple different photo albums if you wish. It’s important to mention that if the photo was originally stored in your normal photo album, it will be in your photo stream, and while you can delete it from your camera roll, it will stay in your photo stream. However, if you snap the photo from within this app, it won’t appear in your photo stream or the camera roll, and will only be stored within this app.

Notes can be kept just as private. While this operates much like the Notes app, it’s information you can jot down and keep private, seen only by your own eyes. While you can transfer this information using a simple copy and paste, you can  also head to the settings in the app and export it into File Sharing in iTunes. Documents can be imported this same way as well.

Yet perhaps the most useful internal app with My Secret App is the browser. You can set it to behave like either Safari or Firefox, as well as utilize different search engines. It opens in tabs, and can keep bookmarks and a history. But you’re the only one that will ever know. Your browsed sites will stay hidden safely within this app, as well as anything you download.

There is no need to worry about someone trying secretly to unlock this app. You’ll have a record every time someone tries to break in. With each attempt to open the app, whether successful or unsuccessful, you can set it to snap a picture of whoever is trying to open it using the front end camera. Along with the picture will be a map of where this person was located when they tried opening your private information. It’s something that can definitiely make you breathe much easier.

That’s what this app is designed to do, make you breathe much easier. It’s doubtful someone will figure out a four-digit code to enter the app, but if they do, you will know. The only secrets this app keeps are yours.

The short explanation of the Facebook Cover Art is this: when you are out someplace and you take a really great picture, you can create a new Cover picture and upload it right to your Facebook Timeline. Below is the specifics of how it works.

Using Facebook Cover Art for Android

When you open the application, you will be prompted to grant access to your Facebook account. This is important to do because if you don’t grant access, you can’t upload the new Cover art.

Once you have granted access, you are ready to get to making your first Cover picture. To start, you will want to find a picture you have taken. There are a few places you can look for a picture. You can choose from images on your phone, in your Facebook news feed or pictures you have already uploaded in your Facebook albums. These choices are listed across the top of the application’s main screen.

When you have found a picture on your phone that you want to use, press Use Photo in the bottom right of that screen. You will be asked to choose what you want to do with the picture: use it as a profile picture, as cover art or seamless mode.

Using pinch to zoom, you will need to resize and move the picture so it fills the area and looks the way you’d like it to.

When you have the picture the way you want it to be, you will have a preview of how it should look. If all is well, then click on Upload and Share. You should see a popup telling you to head over to m.Facebook.com and select the new picture as your new Cover art.

Other options for Cover art

There is a bunch of pre-made Cover art packaged into Facebook Cover Art for Android. If you don’t have any interesting pictures to use, try one of these.

What works well and what didn’t

The process was pretty easy to figure out and complete but there were a couple things I couldn’t get to work. These issues may have been related to my device specifically so do not let these hinder you from trying out Facebook Cover Art for Android.

When choosing pictures from my device, there were a few pictures that didn’t want to work. I believe they were pictures from a home screen wallpaper application I previously used. The other problem I had was, the end result of the Cover I created was not 100% the same as the end result. It took a little playing around to get the picture in the preview (before uploading) to be centered and look the same as the end result on Facebook.

Conclusion

I really like this application. It makes using your pictures for a Cover really easy. For people who are on the go more than at a computer, this is a great way to change up your profile on the fly.

Share your tips for using Facebook while mobile in the comments below.

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The usage is simple. Create an account with Toggl. The basic account is free and allows up to 5 users. Beyond that, it will cost $5 per user/month. Once you are logged in to Toggl, you will see an input field “What are you working on?” and the Start button. To get started, simply enter a description for your task and click the “Start” button. How difficult can that be?

For more detail, you can also setup Projects, define your own start and end time and add tags.

For those who prefer a desktop version, you can also go to its widget page

This is how it look like for a desktop app.

They might be simple, but they are very usable.

Of course, it would be useless if you are not able to view or export the reports. In Toggl, you can view reports according to projects, user (for multi-users account), weekly or time entries. The export format it currently supported is pdf and csv.

For PRO accounts, you can also integrate with BaseCamp, Freshbooks, ActiveCollab, QuickBooks etc.

In short, Toggl is a simple, yet useful web based Time Tracker that you can use. If you are using multiple OSes and need to access your data at all time, Toggl is definitely one app that I would recommend.

Where’d The Product Key Go?

Up until Windows XP, the product key was always stored in the registry, within the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key, under the “ProductID” key in “Windows” under “SOFTWARE”, making the path something like: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Windows\ProductID. Unfortunately, that’s not the case since Windows Vista. It seems that Microsoft wanted to make it difficult for you to find your product key, so that you end up buying another license when you lose one. You don’t have to do this if you use Magic JellyBean KeyFinder. Although it sounds like something fishy, it is a legitimate application that scans your Windows installation for your product key.

Oh, and here’s the other thing: The Windows “ProductID” doesn’t show the key anymore, but shows a special ID to help Microsoft identify and distinguish between one Windows installation and another. This is used to prevent two Windows installations from using Windows Update, since it’s against the company’s policy to use one Windows installation on more than one computer.

Using KeyFinder

First of all, download KeyFinder’s ZIP file from this link. Open the ZIP file and extract it to a folder named in a way that you’ll remember in your local drive or on your desktop. Within the folder, you’ll find a file called “KeyFinder.exe”. Double-click it and you’ll find a screen that looks like this:

As you can see, you can also recover other product keys for anything else you install on your computer, depending on whether they have a key or whether they store their keys in a central location. Some applications store their keys in a file within their respective directories. For this, you’d have to do a little more investigation.

Conclusion

If manual searching doesn’t work, you can always find your product key with handy little applications like the Magic JellyBean Keyfinder. The alternative, in case Keyfinder doesn’t do anything for you, is Belarc Advisor, an application that gives you a full audit of your computer but also includes the product key. If everything else fails, you could always try your luck with Microsoft and give them a phone call for a replacement product key. It’s probably going to take a long time, but with luck, you’ll resolve your problem as quickly as possible.

As a habit, it is always good to backup your license keys when you first got your hand on the CD/DVD. You can easily take a photo of the license key with your mobile phone and upload the pic to your Dropbox, or Google+ account, so that when you need it, you know where to look for it.

Let us know what experiences you’ve had with the application and don’t hesitate to ask questions below. We’ll be more than happy to answer them!

That is about to change. We are coming up with a new FAQ section where you can email us your problems and we will answer them on a weekly column.

For a start, we are going to focus on Windows first. Here’s what you need to do:

Send your question(s) (please provide as many detail as possible) to windows-help [at] maketecheasier.com or send us a tweet @maketecheasier.

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Image credit: Colin_K

catdoc (in C)

The first command line tool we are going to talk about is catdoc. The tool is written in C by V.B. Vagner.

1.1 How to install it:

Download the tool from here.  Go to your downloads directory and untar it. You can use the following commands (in case you are facing problem):

gunzip catdoc-0.94.2.tar.gz tar xvf catdoc-0.94.2.tar

Now we have a catdoc-0.94.2 directory. Go inside this directory and run the following commands to install it:

./configure 
make 
make install

The installation is an easy process and you should not face any problem here.

1.2 How to use it:

There are several option to run the command. I’ll tell the options that works best for the Microsoft Excel conversion:

xls2csv -x "Path_of_Your_XLS_File" -s cp1252 -d 8859-1 > "Path_of_Your_CSV_File"

Note the option “-s” and “-d” (stands for source and destination). These options are used to specify which character encoding is used in the source file and what would be the character encoding for the destination file. Here I have used cpl1252 which is Microsoft character encoding and 8859-1 which is used for Western European character encoding. You can use what other options are available by using the help command.

xls2csv --help

1.3 Pros and Cons:

Pros: Straight forward installation

Cons: No selective conversion in multiple sheet scenario, it coverts all the sheets present in the xls file (one workaround would be to explicitly specify a footer in each sheet and then use option -b in the command), problems with few European characters, problem with date fields (the date fields are messed up big times), messes with quotes.

xls2csv (in Perl)

The second tool we are going to talk about is a Perl script xls2csv written by Ken Prows in Perl.

2.1 How to install it:

Download the script here. Gunzip and tar it like we did in previous section and go the extracted directory and use the following commands to install it:

perl Makefile.PL 
make 
make test 
make install

Remember this Perl script uses a number of other Perl modules:

Locale::Recode Unicode::Map Spreadsheet::ParseExcel Text::CSV_XS

While installing xls2csv, it will give error that the mentioned perl modules have not been installed. It will ask you to download the modules. Download and install these modules when asked. All these module installation requires root privileges. If you do not have root access, then you should follow the instruction given here to install a Perl module.

2.2 How to use it:

The following command can be used to convert Microsoft excel to csv:

xls2csv -x "Path_of_Your_XLS_File" -b cp1252 -w WorkSheetName -c "Path_of_Your_CSV_File" -a 8859-1

Option x and c (means xls and csv) are used to specify the input and output files where as b and a (means before and after) are used to specify the respective character encoding. We have use the same character encoding as in previous tool.

2.3 Pros and cons:

Pros: Good with western European character conversion and date fields, supports selective multiple sheet conversion,

Cons: Several Perl modules need to be installed, first cell should not be empty (otherwise it skips the whole row), messes with quotes

There are couple of other ways as well. Some scripts in Python and Java are also available to use but they are not as good as these two discussed here. I hope the article solves your problem. Question and suggestions are always welcomed. Cheers :)