Inventoria Named Top Inventory Software

Any business that has an inventory, including retail stores large and small, distributors and manufacturers, can benefit from using inventory software. As TopTenReviews points out in their recent review of inventory software, Inventoria inventory management software can not only help better organize your business, but the added efficiency, tools and reports it gives you access to can help you improve your bottom line. With all that said, we are thrilled that Inventoria has earned the Silver Award for TopTenReviews� newly added inventory software category.

"The versatility of Inventoria inventory management software is an excellent reason to purchase this product. It offers numerous helpful features such as the ability to add notes and photographs to each item in your inventory. In addition, you have the opportunity to allow more users to access your inventory management program, which can increase productivity and ultimately enhance your bottom line."

� TopTenReviews

You can read the complete review of Inventoria inventory software on the TopTenReviews website. Or, as is the case with all our software, download a free 14-day trial from our website to see firsthand what Inventoria can do for your business.

Become a DJ: Learning the Software is Half the Battle

Zulu Virtual DJ Software is an easy-to-use dj software program for mixing track after track during live performances, or you can simply let Zulu be the DJ for you.

To make getting started even easier, we put together this introduction to Zulu DJ Software video tutorial to help aspiring DJs learn their way around the Zulu interface. The video covers the music list, auto play, using the deck, setting the beats per minute (BPM) and using auto-sync, the pitch slider and speed controls for smooth transitions between tracks. It also covers setting cue points, looping, applying effects, and using the headphone output.

Once you've learned some of the basics covered in this video, then all that's really left is picking out the songs to play and keep things moving at your next party.

Software You Didn't Even Know You Needed

Technology has become a huge part of our daily lives, and I am sure you could pretty easily come up with a list of devices or applications that you simply couldn't live without. But with so much technology out there, I'll bet there are programs out there that can make your life easier or more efficient that you never even thought to go searching for. The software surprises listed below will quickly climb to you must have list once you give them a try.

Shorthand Text Expander Software

Ever find yourself typing the same words, phrases or paragraphs repeatedly? Stop typing things over and over again with text expansion software. You might not think much about what you type out all the time, but if you really stop to think about it, I'm sure you could find multiple ways to use keyboard shortcuts that would save you time. Anything from inserting signatures in emails, filling out online forms, and writing long responses to customer questions don't need to be more than a few keystrokes away, instantly improving your typing speed and productivity.

Invoicing Software

Managing invoices is a never-ending process, and if you're doing them all by hand or in Excel you might be spending more time on invoicing than you need to. Invoicing software like Express Invoice allows you to set up automatically recurring invoices, where invoices can be automatically generated and sent as e-mails or faxes from the program. Express Invoice has other time saving features including mobile access, reminders for payments past due and storing item information to eliminate repeat data entry.

Timesheet Software

Another way to make invoicing easier for freelancers and other businesses that charge by the hour is using timesheet software to not only create a timesheet but track the amount of time spent on individual projects or clients.

Automatic FTP Uploading Client

Every web designer already knows that an FTP client is a must, but not all FTP clients are created equal. I personally couldn't live without Fling Automatic FTP Software, which can be used to automatically detect and upload changed files to keep files synchronized. Fling can also be used to upload files from your right click menu, so you can upload a change live without needing to open and browse through your files in the FTP client separately.

File Converter Software

If you've ever had trouble opening up an audio or video file, then you already know how helpful it can be to have a file converter on hand. With Switch Audio Converter, you can convert and compress sound files within minutes of downloading. For video files there is Prism Video Converter, plus Pixillion Image Converter, for images and Doxillion Document Converter to convert document types. Combined these software converters can help you get out of just about any file format compatibility problem.

KeyBlaze a Trail to Finesse (and Fitness)*

Here's a fun fact: The average WPM (words per minute) typed by the average American computer user is 19.  19!  To put that into perspective, the last sentence you just read had 19 words and would've taken the average computer user a full 60 seconds to type. More and more, typing has becoming a commonplace part of the daily grind, whether you're typing an email or chatting with friends and knowing not just how to type, but how to type correctly, can help you succeed in more places than than the workplace - it might also help you work off those love handles!

Wait...what?

We all realize that sitting in front of a computer all day isn't an optimal position to be in for 8-12 hours straight. This gets a lot of flak from the health community in particular, having brainwashed us all into believing that we're all typing and clicking our way to inactivity and poor posture. But did you know that typing for 8 hours can burn over 800 calories? That's over 100 calories an hour and, depending on your size, age and BMI, may be a good chunk of your daily calorie intake! While you push papers for the man, you may already be working toward to a slimmer, sexier you!

Now, I'm not seriously suggesting you include typing as part of your daily exercise routine, and the catch concerning the aforementioned 800 number is that only the fastest typists can hit such a high mark. But like we've already covered, most people peck at keyboards, bastardizing what is already an archaic input method. The good news is whether you're 18 or 80, it's never too late to turn over a new leaf and learn the subtle nuances of typing correctly. If you're ready to accept the inevitable importance of learning to type, KeyBlaze typing tutor from NCH Software can help you improve typing accuracy and speed. It's straight-forward, easy-to-understand and best of all, free! You may even turn your typing into an art form and resolve to become a typist for a living in which case, we have software for that, too!

*Typing is not a viable source of daily activity. Please practice proper exercise and diet routines to experience real weight loss and health benefits.

Adding Text to Your Videos

Every now and then, you might find the ocassion to add text to your video. There are only certain times you'll want to add text�afterall, a video should speak for itself�but text can appear as titles, subtitles, captions, overlays, as credits, or a watermark on your video. Adding text is easy to do, you just need a user-friendly video editor like VideoPad Video Editing Software.

Part One: captions, title screens and credits

Text can be added to your videos as captions to describe scenes or to provide commentary to the current action. You can also insert a title screen at the beginning of your movie, and credits at the end.

To add a caption or overlay text to any clip, first select the clip in the sequence, then click the green plus button on the Overlay Track. Make sure the Text option is selected, then type the text for the clip in the text field and click Add when you are done. The text will be added at the 'In Point' position, and you'll see a 3-second-long box added to the Overlay Track on the sequence. You can move this box anywhere in the movie along the overlay track, and you can change its duration by dragging out the left and right edges of the box. Select the text overlay to view it in the Clip Preview panel, where you can change the size, opacity, font, color, and more, as shown below.


Creating a title screen is very similar, but first you have to add a blank clip to the movie. Click the 'Insert Blank' icon in the toolbar and choose to add the clip to the beginning of the movie. Next, add a new overlay by clicking the green plus sign on the Overlay Track and type the title into the text field. Select the overlay on the sequence to view it in the Clip Preview panel, where you can position the text in the middle of the screen using the Alignment buttons, and adjust the size using the Size Slider.

To add credits at the end, add another blank clip to the end of your movie. Create a new Text overlay by clicking the plus sign on the Overlay Track. Then type the credits into the text box, placing each name on its own line, and click OK when you are done. Select the text overlay on the sequence to make it appear in the Clip Preview panel. From the panel, select Bottom to Top from the Scroll drop menu. Preview the credits. If they go by too quickly, increase the duration of the text overlay. If they stop in the middle, you need to increase the duration of the blank clip so the credits have enough time to scroll off the page.

For visual demonstrations of all the text-tips discussed in this blog, you can view the video tutorial VideoPad Video Editor Tutorial - Part 2 and watch the beginning sections on working with text. Part two will talk about working with subtitles in VideoPad.

Express Scribe Transcription Using Voice Recognition

We stumbled upon a great article this week by Ryan Dube on makeuseof.com teaching readers how to use Express Scribe with voice recognition to optimize dictation.

In order to use this feature, you'll need to begin by turning speech recognition on both in Express Scribe and in your PC's control panel. To do this, begin by clicking on the Ease of Access button in your control panel and then select Speech Recognition. From there you can start the speech recognition engine and begin to familiarize your computer with your voice. Note that it can take time to train your computer to the ranges and pitches in your voice, so you may need to do this multiple times, being sure to speak clearly.

After that, open up Express Scribe and go to the Options menu and click on the Speech to Text tab. The default speech profile should show up in the drop-down menu, select this and click the Add button to begin using it.

To make a live recording, plug in your microphone and click Dock and choose the Audio Cable option. There will be a screen that appears titled Dock (Audio Cable). This shows you your microphone's audio levels � you can now begin dictating.

You can also do the same thing with a recording of your voice. Just follow the same steps, but instead of connecting your microphone you'll connect your recording device to the microphone input.

Learn more about Express Scribe Transcription Software and our other Dictation software. You can also check out Dube's full article How To Use Voice To Text Dictation With Express Scribe and we'll keep our eyes open for more new and interesting ways to our software to share with you in the future.

Web Designers: Why You Don�t Need DreamWeaver

DreamWeaver is supposed to be a one-stop shop for web design. The package offer is very tempting to the beginning web designer in search of web-design training wheels, or even the small business owner who is comfortable working with HTML but needs help with everything else. But unless you can get DreamWeaver as part of a larger Adobe Suite, buying it alone is hardly worth it. Here, we break down the stages of designing a basic website and show how to avoid paying hundreds of dollars for something you really don�t need.

Concept Design

Obviously, the first place to start is with a paper and pencil. If you�re putting a site together for a client, ask as many questions about their design aesthetic as you can think of. If the site is for you or your business, make sure you cover all the functionality you need. Jot down the structure of the website as a chart or on separate pages. Plan everything out before you go to the computer.

Cost of Concept Design: $0

Graphic Layout

Not only is it nice to see what the site will look like before you do all the hard work, but a good digital mockup of your site will be easy to slice up for the images you�ll put in the code. Many designers use PhotoShop, but if your site doesn�t need to do back-flips and speak Martian, you can easily get away with using a more basic image editor.

PhotoPad Image Editor allows you to work with digital pictures, resize, and edit as you need for your website, then save in a web-friendly format. You can also add text and get a good feel for the layout you�ll be building into the site.

Cost of Graphic Layout: $0

To the Trenches: the Text Editor

This is where I geek out, so there�s no way I want a program that is going to do the coding for me! And the sooner you can wean yourself off the idea that web design can happen like any WYSIWYG word processor, the better. Plain and simple, you will have to know HTML and CSS to build a website. Once you�re comfortable with these two peas in a pod, any text editor will do. You want a fancy one, you say? Sure! Get one that color codes your tags for easy readability. Go big, but be sure to go free. There are several free, quality text editors out there that are more than qualified for this job.

Cost of Text Editor: $0

Test, Test, Test

Testing is a matter of opening your .html files in a browser and making sure they don�t look funny. And last time I checked, browser downloads are free.

Cost of Browsers for Testing: $0

FTP to Your Web Host

Your website is ready for the big time, finally! But how to get it off your local machine, and out into the World Wide Web? FTP, of course. You�ll do yourself a favor to find one that is easy to use, reliable, and can guide you through the initial setup with your web host.

Classic FTP is all of these. It has an intuitive interface that doesn�t get in the way of the functionality, and it stores your connection settings so that making updates to your site later on is absolutely painless.

Cost of FTP Software: about $45

There you have it. Web design without DreamWeaver, for a highly reasonable price. Try it. You�ll probably like saving money and getting just as much accomplished in the meantime.