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EtherPad – Really, Real-time Document Collaboration

There are times in life (and more frequently in business) where you need to work together as a team. In business there may be a presentation or press release that needs to be created and everyone’s input is required to make the final document really stand out.

EtherPad

EtherPad allows a group of people to share and collaborate in real-time on a single document to put everything together that’s needed to get all the details and points put together to get your message across.

With the ability to see each user’s edits display as you type your own ideas, you can quickly feed of each other’s ideas and comments. Each user’s input is color-coded and highlighted to clearly identify additions and changes from each user.

You can get started for free and there’s no logon required. EtherPad also offers a premium version with additional features that includes the ability to install the service on your own servers for extended usage.

Uncover real-time document collaboration with EtherPad

Image: Snagit of EtherPad website homepage

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Generate Random Paragraphs and Sentences in Microsoft Word

Here's a tip that I'm sure will come in handy for many of you that work on document newsletters and brochures and are using Microsoft Word to accomplish those tasks. Sometimes while creating a document, you may need to get an idea for how text is going to flow around in the design, but you don't have the final copy written yet for the document.

Random Word Text

Many people are probably familiar with using Lorem ipsum text to place some dummy text into a document, but did you know that Microsoft Word has a built in function to generate any amount of text you may need?

All you have to do is type =rand(P#,S#) into your document. Replace "P#" with the number of paragraphs of dummy text you need and "S#" with the number of sentences you want in each paragraph. Then just hit enter and voila! Filler text to your heart's content.

Source: Microsoft Tips & Tricks website

Update: I also was just informed about a site called DummyText.com that will let you insert snippets of code as you're building websites to dynamically insert textual content. It looks pretty cool as well, and can be fully removed with a simple search/replace routine in your code when you're ready.

DummyText.com

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30+ Tips to Improve Your Vacation Photography

Summer vacation is now in full swing for most people. Visiting family, amusement parks, other cities or just hanging out in the yard with your family, cameras are sure to be getting pulled out and photos snapped away to keep those memories alive.

microsoft-at-home-photo-tips

If you’re going to be making some photographic memories, visit the Microsoft at Home website and read through their tips for super vacation snapshots. They say 8, but that’s actually 8 different categories of tips, with more little tweaks and hints you can take advantage of while you’re there.

The benefit of these tips and resources provided by Microsoft is that they can be used with just about any digital camera you may be using these days. These are tips on how to compose and make the most of your camera and the situation around you to take some great photos.