Remove OneNote 2010’s Icon From Your System Tray

By Matthew Guay on January 27, 2011 in Quick Tips

If there’s one thing I really hate on PCs, it’s having a dozen icons clogging up your system tray. It’s a bit more manageable on Windows 7 since all tray icons are hidden by default, but still, I don’t want so many icons in it even if they’re hidden. OneNote 2010 by default adds an icon to your system tray that automatically loads whenever you start your computer. Here’s how to get rid of it.

Just open OneNote, click the File tab in the top left, then select Options.

Now, select the Display tab, and uncheck the first box which should read Place OneNote icon in the notification area of the taskbar. Voilà, you’re finished!

Alternately, if you use OneNote all the time, you might find it handy to keep the icon around. Since it’s running in the background, you can use the OneNote screenclipper anytime. You can also start recording audio or open OneNote from the tray icon. Ideally, you’d be able to do all of this from OneNote’s Jumplist, but this is just another occasion where even Microsoft doesn’t take advantage of the new features and OS integrations added with Windows 7.

The only other Office app that adds a tray icon is Outlook 2010, but unfortunately there’s no way to turn off its icon. You’ll have to put up with just hiding it. Or, just switch to using webmail only like so many do today!

So which do you prefer: tray icon or no tray icon? It’s useful to keep some icons in the tray, such as windroplr or FluffyApp, but for the most part, I personally want to keep my system tray empty!

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Email and Facebook and Texts, oh my!

By Matthew Guay on January 26, 2011 in Featured, Quick Tips

For many around the world, Facebook has become the main way we communicate with friends, family, and even people we don’t know so well. In fact, it’s often hard to contact people at their personal email addresses, since they hardly check them anymore. Email is for business, Facebook is for personal communication and chat for many. And when you need to tell someone something quickly, why call? Most people just text anyhow, right?

Facebook has decided to do something about these gaps. They are currently in the process of updating Facebook Messages to let them be your single source for emails, texts, chats, and Facebook messages. If you already use Facebook for the majority of your messages, you’ll find it handy to now have a central dashboard for all of your communications, no matter what media you’re using. My personal Facebook account has recently been updated to the new Messages account, so let’s take a look at the new features and see if Facebook can replace Gmail and Outlook, too.

Getting Your New Messages Account

Facebook will eventually roll out the new Messages by default to all accounts, but for now it’s a beta option. You can signup to get on the beta list at http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/. Once you’re accepted, you’ll be prompted to upgrade your account when you login to Facebook. Click the Upgrade Now button to get started.

Facebook will send you to your Messages page, where you’ll see a popup listing your new Facebook email address. This will be the same as your public username; if you’ve never set one, you’ll have to set it before you can get your new Messages account. There’s no way to edit the address, so just click Activate Email … there’s really nothing else to do. Your new Facebook email will now be your_username@facebook.com.

As you may have noticed in this shot, your Facebook Messages will continue to have two main sections: Messages and Other. The Other page contains messages from companies you’re a fan of on Facebook, as well as emails you’ve received from people you’re not currently friends with. This way, the main Messages page is the mail you’re most likely to want to read since it’s from those you actually know, and should help cut down on

The new Facebook Messages incorporates email, traditional Facebook messages, chats, and even text messages. If you’d like your friends to be able to send you text messages via Facebook Messages, and have not already enabled text messaging on your Facebook account, you’ll be prompted to add this additionally once you’ve activated your email. You don’t have to enable text messaging; I personally left it off. If your friends have enabled text messaging, though, you can still send them texts through Facebook Messages even if you don’t enable it.

Using the New Facebook Messages

Ready to email a normal email address from your Facebook account? Just create a new message as normal, except this time, type in the recipient’s email address instead of selecting their name from your friend list. You can add pictures and attachments to emails. All of these new features are included in traditional Facebook Messages too, plus you can send the message as a text to friends who’ve enabled it. One major difference between sending an email from Facebook versus other email apps is that you can’t use rich text formatting in Facebook Messages.

Emails you send from Facebook will look just like emails sent from any other email client. They’ll show that they came from your Facebook email address. Any attachments or pictures you added will be ready for previewing or downloading as normal. If they reply to your message, it’ll go to your Facebook mailbox directly, even if they’re not a Facebook user. Also, of course, your friends can email you directly to your your_username@facebook.com address.

Back in your Facebook, you’ll see replies in conversation view, and can still access the attachments you added to messages. Reply at the bottom as you normally would in Facebook. There’s a new box on the bottom right, too: check it, and you can reply by just hitting enter. This is useful if you normally send short messages, but otherwise, it might be more annoying than helpful!

Then, from the top of the page, you can archive, delete, block messages as spam, or even forward messages. Yes, the one thing that Facebook almost killed has been brought back: the dreaded Forward.

Facebook now also includes a more advanced message search that works fairly good. It doesn’t accept advanced search operators, though, but you can restrict your search to archived messages, sent mail, and more. For casual email purposes, it’s generally enough for what most people would need.

Conclusion

So that’s it. Facebook now includes a nearly full-featured email client in Messages. To me, the best part of it is that chats are now saved in Messages, so you can look back over them or continue a conversation even if your friend is offline. Plus, many people now use Facebook as their primary place to communicate, so including email too makes sense. Since you can include attachments and pictures, and could even collaborate on Office documents with Docs.com, it really might be a better email solution for anyone that usually finds email too confusing. For everyone with more advanced needs, though, you’ll likely want to keep using Google Apps, Outlook, or your other current email solution.

Do you think you’ll be using Facebook for normal emails now? Or are you tired of using Facebook for all of your communications? If you’re still using Facebook daily, don’t forget to fan Techinch.com on Facebook so you can keep up with all the new tips, tricks, and reviews posted here!

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Turn iPad into a Perfect Writing Machine with iA Writer

By Matthew Guay on January 25, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, Reviews

Sometimes, the simplest tool can be the best for a job. iA Writer is an elegant text editor for iPad that proves this. With a monospaced font and no configurable options, it’d seem like it wouldn’t be the most useful app. The rave reviews it’s received from writers, bloggers, and more would make you think otherwise. It turns out, iA Writer’s developers paid attention to all the things that make writing fun and focused, and left out everything else. We’re going to dive in and see what iA Writer offers, and whether it truly does make writing easier. Best of all, iA Writer is on sale for just $0.99 today only (Edit: The original sale is over, but it’s still on an extended sale for $1.99 until a desktop version of iA Writer is released!), so it’s a great chance to check it out.

Simple, Redefined

When you first launch iA Writer, you’ll see a document open describing how the app works and the inspiration behind it. The app includes a very clean interface with several nice touches. On the top right, you’ll see a timer with an estimate of how long it would take to read the document, while underneath it you’ll see a word count. Swipe up or down to scroll as normal, but if you swipe on the far sides of the document, it won’t scroll. This makes it easier to read without accidentally losing your place.

Tap anywhere in the text to start editing. You’ll immediately notice that the keyboard includes an extra row of keys, each of which are a pleasant addition to the iOS keyboard. The |word buttons take you to the beginning or end of the next or last word, respectively, while the arrow keys let you switch to the previous or next character as you’d expect. Sure, you could just tap on the screen to change where you are, but the buttons make it much quicker and keep you focused on your writing. The extra key row also includes other common symbols that are slow to find on the iOS keyboard, and once you’re used to it, you’ll likely find that it makes it quicker for you to write.

Best of all, iA Writer includes a focus mode that forces you to focus on your text and nothing else. Tap the padlock icon in the corner to activate it, and your toolbars will disappear, leaving you with your text and the keyboard. The text other than the three lines near the one you’re editing will be greyed out, and autocorrect and spelling check are disabled as well. You can’t even drag the text to scroll, though you can go back with the arrow buttons on the keyboard.

When you really want to be productive, though, and don’t want anything to distract you, it’s surprising how powerful the focus mode can be. It turns your über-modern slate of metal and glass into a 21^stcentury typewriter. For many things, that’s not actually a bad thing! Distractions can break your train of thought too easily, so the focus mode forces you to concentrate and really get your writing done.

Files and Syncing

iA Writer doesn’t limit you to one file, though. From the top right corner, you can create a new document from the plus button, or open other files you’ve saved in it from the folder button. You can also make sure you’ll be able to locate what you’re writing easily later by changing the title of your document. To do this, tap the title and just type in what you want. Finally, you can email a copy of your text, or just copy and past the text into any app you want. iA Writer’s a great too to get your writing finished, and then copy it over to another more busy app to finish your letter, post, or anything else you’re writing.

Want to backup your documents, or access them from your computer or other devices? Just link your Dropbox account from the Documents menu, and everything you’ve written in iA Writer will be synced to a /Writer folder in your Dropbox. Do note that iA Writer doesn’t currently sync automatically, so you’ll need to remember to tap the sync button whenever you need your content elsewhere.

The only thing really missing here is support for folders and an option to choose your iA Writer sync folder. The developers have, however, promised that folder support will come in a future update, as well as automatic sync so you won’t have to remember to hit the sync button.

Conclusion

Obviously, everyone won’t have the same needs from a writing app. That’s why I think iA Writer is the perfect companion app for using along with Pages, WordPress for iOS, or other Office apps. iA Writer lets you focus on your writing, and then when you need to add more formatting and get documents or blog posts ready to share, you can copy and paste your text into other apps.

iA Writer isn’t the only focused and elegant text editor on iOS. I’m still split between it and PlainText, my current favorite for writing notes and plain text. Even Pages makes a really nice writing environment, especially when you minimize the toolbar. For iA Writer to tempt me at all is amazing, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much the extra buttons and the focus mode made writing nicer. It was easy to see why iA Writer has been so highly reviewed; it really does make writing simpler. And it’s even a nice way to read plain text eBooks; the monospaced Nitti Light font and clean interface makes easy on your eyes. At today’s special price, it’s a great chance to grab it and see if iA Writer makes writing and reading more pleasurable on the iPad for you, too.

Our Rating: 8/10

Download iA Writer for iPad from the App Store | $1.99 (current special price – normally $4.99)

iA Writer’s Official Site

Have more questions about iA Writer? Check out the FAQ

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Setup Google Cloud Print on Your PC

By Matthew Guay on January 25, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

If there’s one major problem traditionally with mobile devices, it’s printing. For the most part, you can’t print data from your smartphone without copying it to your computer and then printing it there. iOS 4.2 has made it much simpler with AirPrint, but it still only works with specific printers or special software on your computer. Plus, printing from Gmail or Google Docs on your iPhone will still look odd as the iOS printout will include your mobile web interface.

Today Google launched a new beta service, Cloud Print, that aims to make mobile printing simpler. Once you set it up on your home computer, you can print from Gmail Mobile or Google Docs on your smartphone, tablet, or Chrome OS netbook. Let’s see how to setup Cloud Print so you can print emails and more on the go.

Need Some Chrome?

First, you need to be running the current beta version of Google Chrome for Windows, which should be version 9.0.587 or greater. Cloud Print currently doesn’t work on OS X or Linux, though Google promises support for them in the near future. If you’re using another browser or the current release of Chrome, you’ll need to download and install the beta version which you can get from the Cloud Print site.

Setup will only take a few minutes, and if you were already using the standard version of Chrome, all of your settings, bookmarks, and more will still be there after you upgrade. If you were using Chrome to download the new beta, you’ll need to exit and reopen it before the changes will appear.

Add Cloud Print to Your Google Account

Got the latest beta installed? Now you’re ready to activate Cloud Print. Click the gear button and select Options to enable Cloud Print.

Select the Under the Hood tab, then scroll down to the bottom and click Sign in to Google Cloud Print.

Login with your standard Google account, and make sure to use the one you normally use with Gmail and Google Docs. You’ll only be able to share your printers with one account, so for now you’ll have to choose which account is most important to you if you have multiple accounts. Also, do note that Cloud Print is not yet enabled on Google Apps for Domains accounts.

Seconds later, you should see a Success! message letting you know that your printers have been enabled with Cloud Print. If you’d like to make sure everything works, click Print a test page or browse to the Google Cloud Print test site to test it directly from your PC.

Click the Print a test page button, then select your printer from the list and click print. You should see every printer that’s installed on your computer, including network printers and virtual printers such as the software Fax printer and PDF printers. After a few moments, you should see your document printing out (or the virtual printer dialog opening on your computer if you selected a PDF or other virtual printer).

Amazingly enough, you can even select from a number of printer options in Cloud Print. Select the printer you want to use, the click Advanced options to see all of the extra settings.

If it doesn’t work, or you can’t see your printers listed, wait a few moments to make sure Google’s had time to authenticate your account and display your printers. Otherwise, you may need to add an exception for Chrome to your firewall so it can access your printers; it shouldn’t be necessary, but was the only way I could enable it on one computer. There have been some reports of Cloud Print not working, and it took several minutes to work the first time I tried it. Please share your experiences with Cloud Print in the comments, and hopefully we’ll all be able to help each other get Cloud Printing running smoothly on everyone’s computers.

Printing From Your Mobile Device

Ready to print from Gmail or Google Docs mobile? Just open a message or document on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android browser as normal. You can’t print with Cloud Print directly from any apps at the moment, so you’ll have to use the online Gmail interface in your mobile browser. Now tap the arrow at the top to open the menu in Gmail or Docs, then select the new Print option.

If you’re using an iPad or Android tablet, you’ll be able to print from the Gmail touch interface, too. And, if your message includes a .doc or .pdf attachment you’d like to print, you can select and print it as well.

Now just select your printer as you did from your PC with the test page. Seconds later, you’ll see a notification that your print job has been sent to your printer. If your computer is turned off when you print from your mobile device, don’t worry … Google will just cache the print job and automatically print it the next time you turn on your computer.

Checkup on What You’ve Printed

Google keeps a record of your print jobs and printers on your Google account. If you ever want to see what has been printed or documents that are pending to print, you can login to your account at Google.com/cloudprint. If you don’t want to see a printer or completed print job listed, or want to delete a print job before it prints, just over over the entry, click the Actions link, then select Delete.

For now, Cloud Print is only very useful if you find yourself needing to print emails and docs from Gmail and Google Docs often. In the near future, though, Cloud Print will be incorporated deeper with Chrome OS and will likely be made a native part of Android. It’d be very neat if Google opens up an API so developers can add Cloud Print to any app. If and when that happens, well, I guess the “sky’s the limit” for mobile printing, too!

Get stuck and need help with Cloud Print? Check out Google’s Cloud Print Help Site, or leave a question in the comments here!

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Redirect Your WordPress.com Blog to Your Self-hosted Blog Easier Than Ever

By Matthew Guay on January 21, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

WordPress.com is a great place to get started blogging. You can get a free blog with all of WordPress’ great features, themes, and support without having to deal with hosting and the frustrations of keeping your own site secure and updated. However, if your blog grows and you decide to take it to the next level, you’ll likely want to move on to running your own site self-hosted on your own hosting account or servers. If you were blogging at WordPress.com with your own domain (yourname.com), then it’s very easy to move: just import your export file from WordPress.com, redirect your domain, and you’re all set.

However, if you were blogging with a WordPress.com domain (yourname.WordPress.com), it’s a bit trickier to move. You can still just import all of your old posts, but any links to your blog will be dead and you’ll lose much of the traffic you previously had. If you don’t want this to happen, you’ll need to redirect your WordPress.com links to your new blog. Used to, this was very difficult. You had to add your domain to WordPress.com, which itself was a difficult task, then go change your CNAME records back to your new hosting account. With the delays in DNS propagation, it could often mean your site was more or less offline for a full day. That’s no fun!

The New, Easy WordPress.com Redirect

This past year, WordPress.com added a brand new Offsite Redirect upgrade option that makes it much easier than before to redirect all of your old WordPress.com traffic to your new self-hosted blog. Your site won’t be offline at all during any of the process, and it’ll actually take less than 5 minutes to get it redirected. Plus, your old links will be HTTP 301 redirected, which will make search engines pick up on your new links and not keep your old site’s links around.

Ready to get started? To redirect your blog, just login to your WordPress.com dashboard and open the Upgrades page from the left-hand menu.

You’ll find the Site Redirect upgrade option near the bottom of the page. You can read more about the upgrade, or just click Buy Now to get started redirecting your WordPress.com blog to your new domain.

Enter the domain name you want to redirect your site to, then confirm that you entered the site correctly.

Now, just select whether you want to pay directly with your credit card or through your PayPal account.

Enter your payment info or login to your PayPal account, and then authorize and complete the transaction.

As soon as your payment goes through, you’ll see your new domain listed on your Domains page. Unlike the old domain redirect hack, this method will actually show that this domain is for a site redirect. If for some reason you decide to switch to a different domain, you can change the redirect domain from this page as well. You can also enable Auto Renew so you won’t have to remember to authorize the payment again every year.

Now, just try visiting your old WordPress.com domain. It should immediately redirect to the new domain you added. It’s that easy!

Adding the New Redirect After Using the Old Redirect

If you had previously setup your WordPress.com blog to redirect by manually adding your domain and then changing the CNAME records, you could just keep paying for your Domain Mapping upgrade every year, and it’ll continue working the same. However, it’s the same price to redirect, so I decided to switch my site to the new redirect. There’s only one problem: you can’t add a redirect to a domain you already have mapped to your account. If you try to add one, you’ll see an error like the one below.

If your domain mapping is almost ready for renewal, you could go ahead and remove the old mapping, then add the new site redirect. Just scroll down on the Domains page, choose your old yourname.wordpress.com domain as the primary one, then delete your domain mapping. Once this is done, you can add your new Domain Forwarding as above.

Conclusion

WordPress is one of the most versatile blogging and CMS systems, and I’m certain that the free WordPress.com blogs have gotten many people (such as myself!) started using WordPress over other similar tools. Now that it’s so easy to redirect your old blogs, there’s really no major difficulty to moving your blog to a self-hosted setup if you wish. And, hey, if you ever decide that managing your own hosting is too difficult, you could go back to WordPress.com just as easily and add your domain there. The choice is yours, and that’s how it ought to be!

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