I’m always looking for useful tools to help my clients. It is even better when it’s free! Here’s a list of some of my favorites:
This is one of the best tools around. You can create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, surveys, etc online and then share it with your co-workers and friends. Let’s say you have created a spreadsheet which several of your team members need to work on. Instead of emailing an edited one back and forth, thus creating multiple copies of the same document, you can just let your co-workers access the document online and make whatever changes they want. Then everybody has access to it and can see what’s been done without having to download and save multiple copies. Simple! Take a tour to see how this works or watch a video to see what Google Docs is about: Using Google Docs In Plain English.
Want to make free calls anywhere in the US and Canada? Well, here it is with just one click of the mouse. You can also get a free phone number in your area code. This is especially useful if you do not want to give out your home or cell number to just anyone. Once you get this new Google number, you can program give this number out to your friends, family, business colleagues, clients, etc. You can then program this number to be forwarded to your cell phone or home phone or however many phones you want your calls forwarded to. Not only that, but you can actually program individual voicemail greetings for each group of contacts.
Another wonderful and free application from Google. Just download this into your computer, it will index everything that’s in your computer including all your files, emails, photos, etc. When you want to find anything, be it documents, emails, etc, you just type in the keywords you’re looking for and hey presto! the document/email, etc you’re looking for pops up.
Here are some more free stuff from Google:
Google Advanced Search Shortcuts
Showing you how to do more subject specific searches without getting a bunch of stuff that you don’t want.
List of things you didn’t know Google could do
You know what they tell you about always backing your files up. Be honest – how many of us do religiously back up their files? I bet not many of you do that. Well, here’s a very easy way to do it practically automatically because it is right there on your desktop. You just have to download this free online software, and you can start dragging files you want to back up and just drop it into this icon. And since this dropbox resides online, you can retrieve your documents anytime and anywhere in the world. All you need is a computer. This tool is so useful especially when you have an important meeting and discover that you’ve left your presentation at home or at the office. Instead, if you have dropped it into your Dropbox, you can just simply pull it up online. Simple and hassle free!
Another alternative to using Dropbox is if you want to access files on your computer back home or in the office, you can sign up for a free access to your PC anywhere in the world. It will be just like you’re sitting in front of your own computer except that you’re accessing it from somewhere else. This is exactly like GoToMyPC.com, but unlike GoToMyPC, you don’t have to pay for access to it after the free 30-days trial. LogMeIn is completely free. They do offer a paid Pro version, but you’re not required to buy that if you don’t want to.
Let’s say you’re surfing the web and come across an article that you want to read but don’t have time to read it right then. Instapaper will give you a Read Later bookmark which you can then download the article later to your Kindle, Nook, PC, iPhone, iPad and so on.
