Have you ever noticed that when you create an Office document, it’s immediately branded with your name, the date and time it was created and other data that you don’t necessarily want the recipient to know? They can sometimes even contain comments and revision data that you’d rather keep confidential.

Normally, having such meta data attached to your documents is no big deal and indeed, sometimes extremely useful for other users to know. However, what happens if you publish that document on the internet? Do you really want others knowing your personal credentials and document history? If not, then did you know that Microsoft have a special Office 2003 plugin called Remove Hidden Data which allows you to select which data you want attached to your documents. If you’ve got anything higher than Office 2007, then you won’t need to worry about this function because it’s already built in but if you haven’t upgraded from 2003, this plugin is your only option.

The plugin allows you to permanently remove hidden and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from Word 2003/XP, Excel 2003/XP, and PowerPoint 2003/XP files. You can run the Remove Hidden Data add-in on individual files from within your Office XP or Office 2003 application. Or, you can run Remove Hidden Data on multiple files at once from the command line. In either case, to run the tool you must have the application installed in which the document was created.

Creating presentations in PowerPoint or Google Docs is great for getting your point across in meetings or conferences. But what happens if you want to reach a wider community? Sharing presentations online used to be a rather painstaking process and would involve using all manner of conversion applications, server-side scripting and embedding tools. These days though, it’s a breeze thanks to the rise of presentation sites.

The Daddy of them all is SlideShare, which has been described as the YouTube of the presentation world. The site lets you spread the word about your ideas, business propositions and plans with the minimum of hassle. The design is very YouTube-esque with Spotlights, Featured presentations and Most downloaded sections. There’s also a Groups area where you can hook up with people or companies with common interests. Besides just uploading your PowerPoint files or PDFs to the site there’s plenty more you can do with SlideShare, such as embedding slideshows into your blog or web site, syncing audio to your shows, and creating events from your presentations.

Myplick is another popular presentation-sharing tool. The free service supports a range of formats, including Powerpoint, PDF, OpenOffice, and, like SlideShare, Myplick lets you add audio too. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support PowerPoint animations at present though. One of the great things about the service is that you can choose who you want to share with, either by making your screencast public, or inviting specific friends to view it. This can be very useful for getting your presentation out to your whole company if you’re spread across different offices.

An alternative to these portal-like presentation sharing sites is to use an all-in-one creation and sharing too, such as Zoho Show or 280 Slides. These online apps contain the tools you need to build presentations using the various pre-built themes, clipart and shapes, in a dummy-friendly drag-and-drop interface. Once you’re done you can upload the finished show to a sharing space, or embed it into your own site or blog using a wizard-based tool. These kind of services only have very basic public sharing spaces though, so if you’re looking to reach a wider audience it’s best to go with the more widely-viewed SlideShare or Myplick.

Windows: If you’d like to create your own 3D animations but it seems too difficult for you, Houdini Apprentice is the tool you’re looking for. This application lets you design and create professional-looking animation, thanks to its wide array of tools and effects.

Mac: Are you a big fan of the GTD management method? EasyTask Manager allows you to handle your tasks and projects the GTD way. The application offers a clear interface and all the GTD terminology so you can collect, process, organize, review and do what you need to do in the shortest time possible. Beware though, once you get into GTD, you’ll start to see the world as tasks!

Phones: Everyone’s favorite mobile phone game is back, yet this time packed with more features. CrazySoft Snake Deluxe serves up great graphics, new enemies and more levels that you could ever wish for. If you want to compete with other users, there’s even an online mode available. A classic, and well worth having on your phone.

When launching the long-awaited Firefox 3, the guys over at Mozilla decided to try to achieve a Guinness World Record. The idea would work not only as a very original marketing campaign to promote the latest version of the popular browser among Internet users, but would also set Firefox 3 as the most downloaded piece of software in the world in only 24 hours.

A few weeks later, after in-depth reviews, video analysis and some opposing voices, Mozilla has made it official: Firefox 3 is now the proud holder of a Guinness World Record as the most downloaded software in 24 hours. The numbers are pretty self-explanatory:  on June 17th 2008, the day when Firefox 3 was officially launched, 8,002,530 people dowloaded it from the Mozilla servers (no wonder they were on the verge of crashing). The counter is still working on their site and currently shows more than 28 million downloads. Way to go!

Again, Mozilla wants to thank all users who helped Firefox 3 to achieve the Guinness World Record. So if you did your bit and downloaded your copy last June 17th, show off your contribution by printing your very own personalized certificate.

Mac: In times of crisis like these, managing your personal finances well is crucial. Luckily the Mac offers a wealth of excellent personal finance managers like MoneyWell. Organize your income and expenses in buckets and create multiple amounts to which you can allocate precise amounts of money. MoneyWell also displays clear charts to always have an eye on your finances.

Windows: If you ever need to create PDF documents there’s no need to use expensive paid-for software tools. Simply download doPDF and turn any standard Windows application into a PDF creation tool - as long as it supports printing. The program’s latest version has improved some of its functions and is now even easier to use.

Pocket PC:  If you fancy yourself as the next Bruce Lee then you can now put your skills to the test while you’re sat on the bus, thanks to Kung-Fu Master. Your mission is to rescue your kidnapped girlfriend by fighting off the bevy of bad guys that are intent on stopping you. Also available for Windows Mobile Smartphones.

When it comes to protecting folders with passwords, there are many handy software tools you can use. But what if you don’t want to install another program on your already crammed disk just for that? Don’t worry, there’s also a way to protect folders in Windows XP without having to use third-party applications.

Right click on the folder you want to protect and select Properties in the context menu. Then click on the Sharing tab and enable the “Make this folder private” option.

The folder will be automatically protected with your Windows username password. If you don’t have one, the system will show a message asking you to create one right away. Read on…

There are many creative ways to bring attention to a certain area in your photos (a face, for example) in Photoshop. One of them is applying a depth of field effect, which keeps only a specific portion of the image in focus while slightly blurring out the rest of it. If you want to give a try, follow these easy steps.

1. Open the image you’re going to use and duplicate the background layer with Ctrl+J

2. Make a rough selection of the area you want to keep in focus with the Polygonal Lasso tool or any other selection tool. Don’t spend too much time here, as we’ll soften those edges later on. After your selection is done, switch to Quick Mask mode by pressing Q. Read on…

Having a dictionary about your person is always useful, but it’s not always practical to carry a hefty tome around with you all day. Instead, you could simply install a dictionary application onto your mobile phone and never get stuck for words again. Whether you’re using it to help you compose emails at work, taking it into an exam, or simply topping up your vocabulary on the bus, mobile-based dictionaries are a quicker and easier way. There are loads of different applications out there for every kind of device. Here’s some recommended reading:

• Oxford English Minidictionary (UIQ) -  Ideal quick reference of core vocabulary
• Pocket Oxford English Dictionary (Blackberry) - RIM edition of the word guide
• SlovoEd (Blackberry) - Dictionary in five different European languages
• Concise Oxford Thesaurus (Windows Mobile) - Pinpoint the exact word you need
• Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (S60) - More than 170,000 words!

There are many tools out there that can help if the worst happens - i.e. you lose or delete an important file accidentally. However, most of them require you to restore the files before you can see exactly what you’ve deleted. This is not only time consuming but it’s also dangerous because you may end up restoring files that can do damage to your PC.

One way to avoid this is with UnDeleteMyFiles because it has a built in preview function which allows you to see what you’ve deleted before you restore it. It works by only restoring files to a temporary directory so that you can see exactly what’s been deleted but posing no risk to your system and reducing precious restoration time.

In addition, it can also be tailored to the type of deleted files you are dealing with depending on what mode it is in - File Recovery, Media Recovery and Mail Recovery. The names are pretty self explanatory but Media Recovery helps you to undelete media files while Mail Recovery can rescue deleted emails. File Recovery is for absolutely everything else you might need to preview.

Normally in Windows, the only option you’ve got in accidental deletion cases is the System Restore function which restores your system to a previous state. However, it takes absolutely ages for Windows to perform this and you’ll save time and put your system at less risk my using UnDeleteMyFiles. Best of all, it’s entirely free!

Sometimes you may have a file on your computer but you don’t have the necessary application to open it, or Windows doesn’t know which one to use. These “unknown” files are easily noticeable as they don’t display any recognizable icon, but use a generic symbol instead.

The trick to open this sort of file is really simple: double click on it as if you were going to launch it and Windows will display a message to ask you for  the appropriate application to open the file. Choose the “Select the program from a list” option and click on OK. On the next Window, move along the list of available apps or click on the “Browse” button to find the program you want to open this file with. Once the program’s name is highlighted on the list, make sure the “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” option is enabled and click on OK. Windows will automatically recognize the file type, and will use the application you’ve chosen to open it from now on.

One last tip: if you ever want to change any current file association, right click on the file while holding the Shift key, and select “Open with…” in the context menu. This will bring up the program selection dialog again, enabling you to select another program with which to open those files from that moment on.

Imagine if you could harness all the new music released on networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo under one program. Well that’s the idea behind an innovative new project called Qbox and its Qplayer.

Qplayer brings together all the major social networking sites where bands and fans post music to - especially sites such as MySpace on which it seems every band, big or small, now has a page. It trawls the sites for music and then allows you to search, play and interact with other listeners via the Qplayer interface. It’s especially useful for indie fans hoping to discover the next big thing or find music related to their favourite bands. That said, when I first surfed into the site to download Qplayer, the first band on show was Coldplay so it caters for more mainstream tastes too.

Potentially, it’s a very exciting project. The developers estimate that 75% of MySpace visitors use MySpace to find music and according to one survey, 52% of respondents stream music from social networks such as MySpace, Bebo, and Hi5. Currently, it claims to have access to over 21 million songs and the repository is certainly impressive - there are few searches which return without results. The player itself however is very heavy graphically producing album art and pictures of the band you are listening to which makes it rather heavy on RAM and not exactly lightweight.

However, if you can’t be bothered visiting the various networks to discover new music, it’s a great way to get an overview of the latest bands and fan postings being made to them. You can have an instant look at the music that’s currently being shared by going to the Qbox site here.

One of the things I especially like about Firefox is the way search tools are implemented to make them more accessible to the user. Press Ctrl+F, for example, and you’ll be able to search the web page you’re currently visiting from the bottom tab. Or you can press Ctrl+K to activate the built-in Google search field on the top right corner – a search field that can be easily customized with other search engines. Another trick is one that Cyril taught us a while ago: using keywords to quickly search any website from the browser’s address bar.

Now with the all-new Firefox 3 you can also use these keywords to manage the built-in search engines. You only have to click on the little arrow to the right of the G icon in the search field, and select “Manage search engines”.

Then select the search engine you want to assign a keyword to and click on the “Edit keyword” button. That will open a new window where you can enter the keyword that will be linked to that specific search engine. Read on…

You know that you can see all the different drives and devices connected to your Mac either on the desktop or by opening up the Finder. Wouldn’t it be nice to have them in the Dock too? You could then rearrange them in one of the multiple ways that Leopard now offers, like in a list, fan, grid or automatic. It looks cleaner and gives you right away an idea of which drives and devices are connected too.

So here’s the trick: open Finder and press Shift+Command+G. Type /Volumes in the new window and press Go.You’ll now see a ‘Volumes’ folder hidden at the root of your hard drive. Simply drag it to the Dock to have any connected volumes and devices appear there.

The trouble with this display is that you won’t be able to eject them from the Dock. What you’ll have to do is open up the Volumes folder and eject the selected volumes one by one. It’s probably easier to  just drag them from your desktop to the trash.

If you’re the kind of person that keeps many drives and devices connected to your Mac, I’d urge you to install Semulov. This little application displays all your connected drives in your menu bar. You’ll see them divided by type, such as disc, external and internal drives and devices. The application also allows you to eject them individually or all at once. Another useful tool to work with mounted volumes is Do Something When. This application allows you to launch actions every time a volume is mounted onto your Mac. Saves you some time, so that for example, iTunes is launched as soon as your music drive is connected, or iPhoto opens when you connect your external drive which has all your digital photos.

Try these tips out and make better use of mounted volumes on your Mac!

[Via: CyberNet]

MP3 is by far the most widely used audio format for most PC users. Whether it’s CDs that you’ve ripped to your hard drive or podcasts that you’ve downloaded, chances are that the files are in MP3 format. The problem is, sometimes you may stream audio from the radio or listen to audio via YouTube that’s not in MP3 format.

Since it’s useful to have all of your audio in the same format for cataloging (not to mention space saving) purposes, it’s a good idea to have a tool that can convert and format files to MP3. One of the fastest and easiest I’ve used is Easy MP3 Recorder. Now, it’s not a particularly flexible tool in terms of formats because it can only grab and record MP3 and WAV files. However, for 99% of the purposes you’ll need it for, your audio files will be in this format anyway so it’s no big deal. It’s an excellent option for those that want to record online radio, CD’s and music played on major audio players such as Windows Media Player, Winamp and iTunes. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a very stripped down interface which requires no real instructions. Simply browse to the feed for the file that you want to capture and Easy MP3 Recorder captures and converts the audio on the fly. This means that there’s no annoying conversion pauses or external application needed to convert audio in WAV format to MP3.

There’s not much more on offer however except an ID3 tag editor (so you can label your tracks) and a basic audio editor to edit recorded files. The only other options you can change are the bitrate that the file is recorded from and a timer which puts a limit on the amount of time you want a particular recording to be recorded for. However, for anyone that wants to record any sound or audio coming through their speakers, it doesn’t get much easier than this.

If you’ve got a lot of big files such as video clips that you want to access anywhere you’ve got three options. You either transfer it to an external device and carry it around with you which is cumbersome. You can upload it to a server but that will cost you. Or, you can upload it to a free storage site such as Humyo who are offering 30GB of space absolutely free.

There’s one catch though - 25GB of the 30GB must be music and video files although for most people, this is exactly what they’ll need it for anyway so it’s no major drawback. You’ll first need to download the Desktop Client which allows you to use Humyo like any other virtual hard drive attached to your computer. Humyo then automatically reads meta tags so it neatly organises your files into video, music and even photos. Note that the Desktop Client works across both Mac and Windows platforms.

Now I know what you are thinking. “Hang on, this sounds a bit dodgy - why would they want me to just upload my media and audio files. So they can send round the MPAA/RIAA to sue my ass?” Well, there’s no guarantee that Humyo is not just a front for some kind of copyright sting but it’s unlikely. One theory is that they’ve used this policy to stop businesses hogging it rather than home users. However, the most likely reason is that Humyo wants to create a video, music and photo file sharing community because one of the other catches is that your uploaded photos are “branded” with a small Humyo logo on them. Similarly, audio and video is only shareable by playing it in Humyo’s own audiovisual player.

That said, it’s still a great backup solution if you have no other way of saving or taking video, photo and music files with you on the move.