3 Remote Technology Tools
As most of us are now working from home, we might have quickly realized how important technology and remote technology tools are in our everyday lives.
Whether it is connecting to a family member, your boss, a co-worker, or simply just trying to get through the day, technology has become essential to our efficiency and productivity. It has become a crucial part of our livelihood. How would you like to go to your boss and present some new technology tools that can take some frustration out of your day – maybe even make it a bit more fun?
I have three technology tools for you that will add efficiency to those mundane tasks, and you can even jazz them up to suit your needs.
1. FastStone Capture
Most of us have used Microsoft’s Snipping Tool for years to capture screenshots, highlight text, and maybe get really creative by changing colors on your pen. It does the job, right? Let me introduce you to FastStone Capture. FastStone is jammed packed with screen-capture features in a simple and small floating task bar. Some of the various types of screen captures include: active window, object, rectangle, freehand, full screen, scrolling window, and for video capture, a screen recorder (it even gives you keyboard shortcuts).
Did you ever notice how hard it is to capture a particular menu item with the Snipping Tool? After capturing the screen, the fun really begins! An editor box appears where you can draw, paint, add various effects, write captions, and add numbered instructions. The cost for a lifetime license is $19.95.
2. OneNote
Most of us already know about OneNote as part of Microsoft’s Office package. Some of you might already be using it. For me, it’s like a virtual version of my Levenger Circa notebook or one of the other brands that are out there with disks binding the pages instead of the old-fashioned coil binding. But you may not be aware of all the cool features OneNote can di,
Top 5 features
- Did you know you can do math within a page? Simply type an equation like “2 + 9 =” and press the space bar. OneNote magically provides the answer. You can also do more advanced equations by clicking Insert – Equation. I will be sticking to the basic math functions myself.
- There are more choices of types of paper in OneNote than you can image, so taking notes suddenly becomes a little less boring when you can look at relaxing bamboo or a colorful rainbow. There are also ruled versions of paper, colors, to-do lists, agendas, and arrays of other pre-built layouts to get you started. Click on Insert – Page Templates to check out all of the options.
- Create a Notebook in Teams for easier collaboration. Did you know you can add a Notebook, share a notebook and/or a page(s) in Microsoft Teams? Just click to add a tab and search for OneNote to add as a channel. One idea is to use OneNote in Teams as a reference book for policies and procedures. Check out this short video on how to add a OneNote channel in Teams.
4. Take handwritten notes on your tablet, and OneNote will convert them to text. This on-the-go, mobile function obviously isn’t so interesting right now when we are all sitting in front of our computers with full keyboards, but just image.
5. You can add notes without opening OneNote. Press Windows+N, and a small OneNote screen will appear that creates a “Quick Notes” tab in your Notebook. There is also a utility in your taskbar that you can add a note from or take a screen shot. You may also click on Insert – Screen Clipping from within OneNote.
NOTE- You can even take a photo from your OneNote app, choose the “whiteboard” option, and OneNote will auto correct the shape to square it up! So when we are all back at conferences, you can take photos of those session slides and add them to your Notebook.
3. Zoho Vault password keeper
Ok, no judgement here, but how many of you are still keeping important passwords in an Excel or Word document? Or, worse yet, on a post-it note! I won’t say anything, but now is one of the best times to make an update. With an influx of cyber crime due to the increase of online activity, your passwords are even more vulnerable to getting hacked. You can now securely store, share, and manage your precious passwords anywhere using a service like Zoho Vault. Actually, one of my favorite features of Zoho Vault is the ability to search your passwords. Another cool feature for the more technically inclined folks is the password generator. You get to define a password policy and have Vault generate a stronger, more secure password for you.
For a minimal fee for the professional version ($3.60/month), and free for personal use, Vault offers AES-256 encryption, unlimited password storage, document attachment, groups, role-based permissions, and a number of other features. The Enterprise version integrates with Windows Active Directory.