Track Time with Klok

Feb 12, 2009 GMT

If you are looking for an excuse to install and test Adobe AIR, here is one -- Klok, a sleek and easy to use time tracking tool designed for freelancers and small businesses. Despite being a lightweight application, Klok is packed with useful features that can help you to track the time you spend on your projects with utmost efficiency. Obviously, to make Klok work on your system, you have to install Adobe AIR first. Fortunately, this can be done in a few simple steps. Go to the Adobe AIR download page, grab the Linux version of the installer and save it in your home directory. Run the installer in the terminal using the ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin command. Download the latest version of...

Shutter (aka GScrot): Screenshot Utility on Steroids

Feb 06, 2009 GMT

Writing computer-related tutorials, documentation, articles, etc., is virtually impossible without a good utility for taking screenshots -- and Shutter (formerly known as GScrot) has all the features you could possible need.   For starters, Shutter sports a tabbed interface, so you can work with several screenshots at the same time. Like any screenshot utility worth its salt, Shutter allows you to grab a selected area, a window section, and a full window. Besides that, Shutter has a rather nifty feature that allows you to take a screenshot of an entire Web page. To do this, press the Web button in Shutter's main toolbar, enter the URL of the page you want to grab, and press Execute....

Extension Watch: Track Your Writing Progress with EuroOffice My Progress

Feb 04, 2009 GMT

For those who write for a living, a tool for keeping track of writing progress can come in rather handy in many situations. If you are a freelancer, knowing how much time you spent on a specific document can help you to bill your customers. And the ability to identify productivity peaks provides an invaluable tool for more efficient writing. All of this and much more is possible thanks to the EuroOffice My Progress (EOMP) extension for OpenOffice.org.   Once installed, the extension adds two items to the Tools menu: Track My Progress and Display My Progress. The former enables tracking for the currently opened document, while the latter generates a detailed report based on the...

Managing Tasks with Avant Window Navigator

Jan 30, 2009 GMT

Avant Window Navigator (AWN) isn't just a pretty launch bar: add a couple of applets and you can use AWN to read RSS feeds, monitor system resources, and even manage tasks and to-dos. The latter is possible thanks to two applets: Remember The Milk (RTM) and To-Do List.   As you might have guessed, the RTM applet provides a simple interface to Remember The Milk -- probably the most popular and innovative Web-based task manager out there. Using the applet, you can view and edit existing tasks as well as add new tasks right from AWN.   If you prefer to keep tabs on your to-dos using a standalone utility, the To-Do List (TDL) applet is for you. While it won't rival a dedicated task...

Extend Gedit with Plugins

Jan 29, 2009 GMT

While Gedit is not the most advanced text editor out there, you can expand its basic functionality using plugins. Not sure which plugins to install? The 13 Plugins to Make Gedit a More Useful Text Editor article provides an overview of the best Gedit plugins, including my personal favorites Align and Auto Complete.

Five Applications for Netbook Bliss

Jan 24, 2009 GMT

Want to beef up the software bundle that comes with your Linux-based Netbook? Here are five nifty applications and tools that are worth a closer look. Day Planner When you are on the move, you probably don't need a fancy do-it-all PIM application. In many cases, a no-frills utility which can help you to keep track of your daily activities is really all you need. If this is what you need, then Day Planner is for you. Day Planner's interface is refreshingly simple, and you can start adding events right away. The application supports three types of events: Normal, All day, and Birthday. The agenda pane below the calendar displays a list of upcoming events, so you can keep track of future...

Extension Watch: Tag Toolbar for Thunderbird

Jan 21, 2009 GMT

As the name suggests, the Tag Toolbar extension adds a dedicated toolbar to the Mozilla Thunderbird email client which you can use to easily tag email messages. While this is not exactly a mind-blowing functionality, Tag Toolbar offers a few other nifty features that improve on the default Tags feature. For starters, you can group all your tags into categories using tag folders. For example, you can create a tag folder called "Web" and put all Web-related tags (i.e., "ReadLater", "HowTo", "UsefulLink", etc.) in it.   The toolbar itself can be set to show tags as text labels or as color markers. Instead of tags, you can also set the toolbar to...