The iPad is often referred to as a consumption device, and it is great for reading and watching videos. But your iPad can be a serious productivity tool, too, and I use mine all the time for writing. We recently looked at iA Writer, which is still one of the best apps for writing plain text in a distraction free environment. Sometimes, though, you might want to be able to add more features to your text without having to resort to a full word processor like Pages.
Until recently, there were no rich text editors in the App Store that made it easy to just write rich text without a full Office program. The new Essay App cures this problem. It’s a rich text editor that’s already been featured by Apple in the App Store even though it’s only been out for little over a month. We were excited to get the chance to review Essay for iPad, so let’s take a look and see what’s so great about Essay to get this much attention!
Rich Text Editing Made Simple
Essay App serves a simple purpose: it makes it easy to create and edit rich text on your iPad. There are tons of plain text editing apps, and then there are Office apps like Pages and QuickOffice. Essay sits right in the middle; it gives you a way to create beautifully formatted text without creating a new Office document. Best of all, Essay is both simple and elegant. When you launch the app, the following splash screen appears for a moment.
The editor interface then slides in, and you’ll see a new Welcome document ready for you to read. As you can see, the document includes headings, italics, and bold text; this is just a sample of what you can do with the app. The left pane stores all the documents you create, while the middle is the main editor interface, and the right holds the editing tools. The interface is very smooth and delightful to use; the panes slide into position, and when you open a new file, it slides in on top of your previous file. It’s little touches like this that go a long ways towards making an otherwise boring task exciting.
All files you create are saved in HTML format, and can be printed or emailed directly from the app. You can also save them to your Dropbox account so you can access them from anywhere. Just press the settings gear icon and link your Dropbox folder. By default, your files will be synced to a /Essay folder on the top of your Dropbox, but you can change this if you wish. If you want an easy way to publish formatted basic HTML documents from your iPad, you could even set your Public folder as your linked folder. Then, just open the Dropbox app and copy the link, and you’ll have an essay ready to share with the world!
Writing in Essay
Writing a new document in Essay works just as you’d expect from many text editor apps. Press the plus button on the left to add a new file, then enter your title at the top. Then, just press Done or tap in the white editor area to start typing.
As you’re writing, you can maximize your editing space by pinching to zoom out. This closes the left and right panes, letting you edit in full screen mode. Alternately, swipe in from the right to open the editor pallet. Here you can choose to make your selected text bold, italicized, underlined, striked out, or highlighted with the ! button. If you have an external keyboard, you can also enter press Alt+Space and then use standard function keys such as b and I to change text to bold or italics just like you would on a PC. This is a nice touch that most apps don’t include.
Alternately, choose Section or Subsection for H1 or H2 headlines in Helvetica, or Paragraph for standard paragraph formatted Georgia text. You can also insert a blockquote that will be indented and italicized. This covers almost everything you’ll need to create beautifully formatted text, and you might even start writing your homework essays in Essay! Plus, the developer plans to add support for bulleted lists, links, and more in future updates.
If the fonts feel too small for you, just tap the A button under the printer to choose from three font sizes. The highlighted A shows the current size choice. The largest size makes Essay app a nice reading app, too!
As mentioned before, you can print or email your documents right from Essay App. Mail on iPad doesn’t include any text formatting options, so this is a great way to create more formatted emails than you could otherwise. And the included font choices look great in print, too.
Conclusion
After using plain text editors for so long, you can get used to living without rich formatting for standard note taking and writing on iPad. Essay proves how useful the basic formatting options can be, and brings them to iPad in an elegant yet simple interface. It’s no wonder Essay has already gotten so much recognition! Whether you need to write real essays on your iPad, are looking for a better way to jot your thought down and keep them formatted, or want to email fully formatted messages, Essay is a great app to cover all this and more. Plus, it’s just getting started; with future updates, it’ll be even more useful for writing rich text wherever you are!
Would you like to make a customized theme for your Tumblr site, or create new Tumblr themes to sell? While there are many reasons a WordPress blog is more versatile and powerful, Tumblr is still one of the easiest blogging systems to use. If you just want an easy way to publish your pictures, videos, thoughts, and more, Tumblr makes it easy to do. Best of all, it’s much easier to create new themes for.
That’s where the Rockable Press eBook Theme Tumblr Like a Pro comes in. This 138 page eBook, along with around 3 hours of included tutorial videos, takes you though everything you need to learn to start designing themes for Tumblr. You can learn to create beautiful themes for your own use, or to sell to the more than 14 million Tumblr users that have blogs online today! Even major theme developers like WooThemes have created themes for Tumblr, and there's over 30 different Tumblr themes for sell today on ThemeForest by freelancers and small businesses. There’s a huge opportunity to create and sell new themes on marketplaces like ThemeForest, and this eBook will teach what it takes to go from zero to hero.
What’s Included?
The book first teaches about Tumblr’s origins, and the basics of designing themes for the service. It then progresses through the different types of posts in Tumblr, and how to customize your theme for each of them. Next, you’ll be able to take your theme knowledge to creating static pages, as well as adding customization options so your customers can tweak the font’s colors, fonts, and more. Finally, it progresses to more advanced topics, including how to create AJAX enabled themes, utalize the Tumblr API, and much more.
Throughout the text, you’ll see blocks of code to help you understand what’s being explained, as well as images of what the result should look like on your site.
As you’re reading, you’ll see markers that let you know when you should switch to the video. Just like a self-study course, you’ll be immersed in learning to theme Tumblr blogs with both the detailed text and the accompanying videos.
The videos themselves are very informative; you’ll see the most important parts explained directly, and then see the code in action on Tumblr. All together, Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is more like a mini-course on creating Tumblr themes than a traditional eBook. It takes the best of both worlds, and really makes coding a theme seem simpler than you might have thought.
Conclusion
Tumblr is actually amazingly simple to create themes for, and if you’ve found it daunting to create WordPress themes then you’ll be refreshed by Tumblr’s simplicity. Even though it’s simple, you’ll still need to learn the ropes before you can dive in and start creating world-class themes. Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is a great book to get you started. Far from simply teaching the basics, it’ll help you create advanced, dynamic themes. In fact, after reading it, I’m thinking that I should try creating a Tumblr theme even though I don’t use Tumblr myself anymore. I could always sell it on ThemeForest… :)
Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is available from Rockable Press for $29. For this, you’ll get the eBook in PDF format, as well as the sample theme with the source code and PSD files. You’ll also get around 3 hours of tutorial videos. All together, you’ll be fully equipped to learn everything you need to start coding themes. It’d be best if you knew at least some HTML and CSS before getting started. With everything included, it’s definitely a reasonable price, and if you can go sell new Tumblr themes when you’re done, all the better!
Don’t forget … if you do make a new Tumblr theme after reading this book, be sure to leave a comment here and let us see the results!
Would you like to move your Tumblr blog to WordPress, but think it’d be to hard to get everything moved over? Not any more! We ran an article a couple months ago about How to Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress, but it was still rather complicated. You had to export your site, import it into WordPress, then manually change each of your posts to the new WooTumblog post formats to keep everything working the same as before. If your Tumblr blog had many posts, it could be a daunting task!
Thanks to WooThemes, it’s now incredibly simple to move your Tumblr blog to WordPress. They’ve recently created the Tumblr2WordPress exporter that will export your entire Tumblr site into format that will work great with any Tumblog WooTheme such as Canvas, Crisp, or the new Auld theme. It’ll also work great with any theme customized with the WooTumblog plugin. Here’s what you’ll need to do.
Get Your WordPress Site Ready
First, you’ll need a website with WordPress and a WooTumblog compatible theme setup to import your site. Check out our details on the original post for more info. If you’ve already had the site setup for some time, you’ll need to upgrade your WooTheme to work with the new post formats. Check this support article from WooThemes for more info on upgrading your theme. Once it’s upgraded, you’ll be able to use the new WordPress 3.1 Post Formats for your Tumblog.
Export Your Tumblr Site With Tumblr2WP
Now, head over to the new Tumblr2WordPress site to get your Tumblr blog exported. Enter your Tumblr blog address; even if you’ve added a custom domain, make sure you use the original yourblog.tumblr.com address. Then, choose your settings; the defaults usually should be fine. Click Export when you’re finished, and save your export file to your computer.
Finally, go back to your WordPress blog and import your posts as your would from any other blog. After a few moments, your Tumblr posts should all be in your WordPress blog, with the correct post formats and all of your content, just as your Tumblr blog was before.
That’s a ton easier than the other method! Thanks to WooThemes, you can now move your Tumblr blog to WordPress much easier than before. So why wait? Move over today and take advantage of all of WordPress’ advantages without losing any of your content you’ve added to Tumblr!
Want to get the most popular mobile game on your PC? Angry Birds has taken the iPhone and Android world by storm, and it was recently released on the new Mac App Store. Windows doesn’t include an App Store by default, so for the most part you have to manually find, purchase, and install new programs you want. That is now changing with Intel’s AppUp Store. The AppUp store is designed to bring new applications to Windows XP and 7 based netbook, but it works fine on normal Windows desktops and laptops as well. Best of all, Angry Birds is now available for $4.99 on the AppUp Store and runs great on any Windows computer.
Note: Angry Birds is now available for all Windows Computers directly from Rovio, so you can now get it without the Intel AppUp store. Just go to http://download.angrybirds.com/, and you can download trial and paid versions of all the editions of Angry Birds!
Install the AppUp Store
First, though, you’ll need to install the Intel AppUp application on your PC. Download and install it as normal on your computer. This should only take a few minutes, and once it’s installed, you’ll have quick access to tons of great, new free and premium apps for your Windows PC.
[box type="info"]Note: While the AppUp Center works great on both Windows 7 and Windows XP computers, it is not working at all on Windows Vista in our tests. If you try it on Vista and get it to work, please let us know in the comments below!
In the mean time, you’ll need to register for an AppUp account. Head over to the AppUp registration site, and enter your personal and credit card info so you’ll be ready to purchase new apps like Angry Birds.
As soon as the install is finished, the AppUp Center should automatically open. If it doesn’t, you’ll find it in your Start menu or on your desktop. You can now browse the store and see the different games and apps that are included. Apps are organized into categories, with featured apps front and center similar to the way the iOS App Store looks in iTunes. Only difference is, this time, the programs are designed for your PC.
Getting Angry Birds
Ok, enough talk. Let’s get the game everyone wants: Angry Birds. It’s currently a featured app, so you could just click Buy App right from the front page. Alternately, click its link or search for it via the top search bar to see more info. Once you’re sure you want to buy it, click Buy App.
When prompted, sign in with the account you made previously, then confirm that you want to purchase the app. The AppUp Center gives you a 24 hour free trial, so you can return the app within 24 hours if you decide you don’t want it.
Angry Birds will now start downloading, and will automatically install once its downloaded. It still uses a standard Windows Installer, and you may have to click an UAC prompt during the installation, but overall it’s quicker and easier than traditional Windows program installs. It’s not as easy as installing apps from the Mac App Store, but it’s not that bad either. And, if you have multiple PCs, you can install the same app on up to 4 computers with the same account for no additional charge!
Smash Those Pigs!
Once its installed, you can launch the game straight from the AppUp center, or from the Angry Birds link in your Start menu. Seconds later, you’ll be playing the world’s favorite touch screen game … on your PC with a mouse! I’d say it’d be rather fun on an HP Touchsmart or other PC with a touchscreen, though I don’t have a touchscreen PC to try it on. If you’ve got a touchscreen PC, let us know how it works on it!
Angry Birds worked great on my main PC, which is a Windows 7 desktop with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 processor … definitely not a netbook! It also works great on netbooks, of course. The only computer I couldn’t get it to work on was a Vista desktop with an Intel processor; hopefully they’ll support Vista in the near future, but for now, the App Center only runs on Windows 7 and XP.
Angry Birds for PC includes everything you love about Angry Birds, including all of the standard levels. The only problem is, you can’t import your score from your iPhone or Android phone, so you’ll have to go beat all the levels all over again! Or, if you haven’t gotten to experience Angry Birds because you don’t have a modern smartphone, it’ll be all new to you.
Since most PCs don’t have touchscreens, you’ll have to drag the screens with your mouse to pan and see the whole level. Then, just click and drag your bird back, aim, and release your mouse to set your bird sailing through the air to the birds.
Oddly, the only major problem I had with Angry Birds for PC was with taking screenshots. It interferes with almost every screenshot program, so the only way I could get shots is to press Alt-tab and then hover over the Angry Birds icon in my taskbar. Camtasia Studio couldn’t take a video screencast of it, either; it just recorded my desktop with my mouse going back and forth and the Angry Birds sounds in the background. But hey, you don’t usually need to take screenshots while playing a game, so this shouldn’t be a problem!
Returning AppUp Center Apps
Of course, Angry Birds isn’t the only interesting app in the AppUp center, so feel free to check out other apps in the store. There’s plenty of free and for-pay options, and you just might find a fun, new app that you’ve never come across before. Best of all, you can try out any app, even paid ones, for free for 24 hours. If you decide you don’t want the app, just open the AppUp Center and click the My Apps tab on the left. Select Transaction History, then click the Options button on the app you want to return. Click Cancel Purchase before your 24 hour timeframe is up to return it. You’ll be asked to tell why you’re returning the app, and then it will automatically uninstall from your computer. That’s tons easier than most ways of trying out new programs!
Conclusion
It’s exciting as a Windows PC user to see new apps coming out for PCs again. Recently it’s seemed like all the developer focus is on mobile and Mac apps, but Intel’s AppUp Center just might turn things around again. In fact, some developers are finding it easier to get their new apps out for PCs than on Apple’s App Stores. TinyGrab, a great freemium screenshot utility for Macs, Windows, and iOS, has recently found Apple’s restrictions on the App Store too restrictive for their app, while at the same time they’ve found it easy to work with Intel on getting their app on the AppUp Center.
Hopefully Intel will continue to improve the AppUp Center and make it fully supported on computers other than netbooks. And, of course, hopefully Microsoft will make their own App Store for Windows and make it easier to get apps on all modern versions of Windows. For now, though, all the apps I tried work great on Windows 7 and XP. And hey, who would have thought that Angry Birds would finally be available for PCs?
Finding a good hosting service and domain name can be two of the hardest things about starting a new site. Once you’ve got a solid hosting service, you can usually use it to host multiple sites. Case in point, both Techinch.com and Maybring.com both run on my same DreamHost account. Once you’ve got a good hosting service that’s running your sites stable, it’s usually quite simple to add another site.
But sometimes, your hosting service may not be the cheapest place to register domain names. Plus, if your hosting service did go bad, it’s a lot easier to move your data than your domain name. For these reasons and more, many people choose to register their domains from a domain registrars and host their sites at another hosting service. You can use this to take advantage of specials as well; Media Temple, for example, currently offers $5 .com domain name registrations to new customers, which is about half price of standard domain registration price.
So how do you get your domains working with your hosting service if you’re keeping everything separate? Here I’ll show you how to add your domain from Media Temple to a DreamHost account, and the steps should be very similar with other registrars and hosting services.
Change Your Domain’s Nameservers
First, you’ll need to change the nameservers on your domain. Login to your account at your registrar where you purchased your domain, and open your domain tools. Here you should find an option to edit the nameservers listed for your domain. This will let you point your domain to your existing hosting account so you can do something useful with your domain name.
[box type="info"]Want to learn more about nameservers? This Wikipedia article should help you out.
In your options to edit nameservers, you should find listings to enter 2-3 nameserver names. By default, these will be the nameservers for your registrar’s hosting, but you want to change them to your hosting account’s nameservers. So, in another tab or window, go to you hosting company’s site and find their nameservers, which should be listed under your account’s domain settings. If you can’t find their nameservers, contact their support team. Once you’ve got the name servers, enter them in the nameserver fields on your domain registrar. Below you can see my settings for DreamHost’s default nameservers.
[box type="info"]It can take up to 24-48 hours for your DNS nameservers settings to propagate, though often today it only takes a couple hours.
Add Your Domain to Your Hosting Service
Ok, so now your domain is pointing to your hosting service, so it’s time to add it to your account. Head over to your hosting service, and open your domain management panel. If you're using DreamHost, you'll see a Manage Domains link on the top left side of your hosting dashboard. From the domain page, select Add New Domain. Don't worry; you won't have to pull out your credit card. This is just to claim the domain that you've pointed to your hosting service and add it to your account.
Now, on the Add New Domain page, you'll have a number of options. If you're wanting to start a new site from this new domain, then enter it in the top field under Fully Hosted. You'll have the option to set which folder your site's data will be saved in, specify which user has access to the domain, and whether or not you want to add Google Apps to your domain.
Alternately, if you just want to redirect your new domain to a site you already have, scroll down and enter your domain under Redirect, then enter the domain you want to redirect the new address to. That's what I've currently done with my new domain below, until I have a new site started for it.
That’s all! Now your domain should be running on your new fully hosted site on your existing hosting account, or redirecting to your site. Either way, you’ll be able to keep your domains registered wherever works best for you, while taking advantage of hosting you already have. For me, it enabled me to get 2 domains cheaper than Dreamhost’s default registration cost and add them to my account without much hassle at all.
As far as the best hosting or domain registration service, I’m afraid I can’t give you any absolute recommendation. Media Temple is highly regarded among designers and bloggers, and I’ve seriously considered using them to host Techinch.com. They offer many more advanced hosting offerings than most hosting companies, so if your site is going Pro, they’re definitely an option to consider. Plus, their current special on $5 new .com registrations is a great deal if you’re got a new domain you’d like to snag. Then, DreamHost offers great shared hosting at a very reasonable price, with an amazingly responsive and actually helpful help team. Techinch.com has been hosted on Dreamhost for over half a year now, and has had around 98% uptime which is not too bad. At the end of the day, though, you’ll get different reports from everyone about different hosting companies. The great thing is, your domains can always be moved to the hosting provider you want even without transferring them!
I've been looking for ways to make it easier to write and blog from my iPad, trying to make it my one-stop computing solution as much as possible. For the most part, there are tons of ways to accomplish most of the tasks we've traditionally used a PC for right from iPad. If there's one thing I've found less than intuitive, though, it's screenshot editing. I use iPad in landscape mode most of the time, but if you take a screenshot in landscape mode, iOS saves it in portrait mode. So, if I'm reviewing an app or writing a tutorial with screenshots, I have to take screenshots, rotate each one, and then insert each shot into my post. If you rotate each shot individually, it would take forever.
Why Batch Edit Images?
But it's not just a problem for reviewing apps. If you use your iPad for organizing or editing pictures from the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, or draw tons of pictures in apps like Adobe Ideas, then you'll likely want a way to bulk edit images. Wouldn't it br nicer to crop or rotate them all at once, then upload the entire batch to Dropbox without any extra steps? Good thing is, there's a way you can do this from iPad.
Meet OneEdit
After a search on the App Store, I was pleased to discover OneEdit for iPad, a simple and fairly powerful batch image editing too for iOS. No, it's not the most powerful batch image editor in the world, but for iPad, it's a huge improvement on other basic image editors if you want to tweak tons of pictures at ones. And if you'd like to batch edit images from your iPhone or iPod Touch, OneEdit for iPhone has you covered there, too.
Batch Editing in Action
Here's how it works:
First, tap the plus in the left column to add pictures to OneEdit. Make sure to allow OneEdit to access location data so it'll be able to access and edit metadata on images
Now select the images you want from your photo library. If your folder has more than 50 images, you'll be asked to select which group of 50 images to choose from. Then just tap the images that you want to bulk edit and import them. One nice feature, especially for my needs, is the ability select just landscape or portrait images. If you need pictures from multiple sources, just import from the first folder then come back and add more images.
You're now ready to add bulk editing tasks to your images. Tap the plus in the middle column, then select from the available editing options. You can resize, rotate, crop, add text, border, logo, shadow, timestamp, color effects, or convert your image to greyscale. Then you can choose the task specific options for mosts of the tasks.
Some of the options offer a number of settings, such as the Add Text and Color Effects, while the shadow and border options are less full-featured. There's still plenty to explore here for everyone. For the rotation settings, which was the feature I wanted most, you can rotate an image left or right, flip it upside down (curiously labeled Rotate Down). Best of all, you can choose to have OneEdit only rotate Portrait or Landscape orientated images! Yes!
Did you say you wanted to do more than one thing to an image? Don't worry; OneEdit lets you add as many tasks as you want to your batch editing. Here, I've got it ready to rotate my screenshots, resize them to 640 px width, and add text to the bottom of the images. You can change the order of the tasks from the Edit button on the bottom. Finally, choose which format you want to save your pictures in; you can choose from PNG, JPG (with the quality you want), or PDF. When you're ready to start editing your pictures, press the blue Execute button on the bottom of the middle column and then confirm it in the popup.
Hold tight, and after a few moments you'll see thumbnails of your freshly tweaked pictures on the right column. All edits are done non-destructively, so your original shots are still safe in your pictures library. To get your new edited pictures out of OneEdit, tap Export on the top right and select to save the pictures to your iOS Photo Library, upload to Dropbox or Facebook, or transfer them to your computer.
If you choose to upload the pictures to Dropbox, you'll need to link your account, and then you'll be able to upload all of the pictures at once to any folder you want in your Dropbox account. Talk about easy; that shaves off so much time you would have spent otherwise uploading them individually from the Dropbox app! Alternately, if you want to just copy them directly to your computer, you'll get a unique IP address to enter in your computer's browser address bar. Either way, seconds later you'll have your pictures saved and ready to be used however you want!
That's all there is; OneEdit is quick and simple to use, and makes it a breeze to bulk edit images, screenshots, and more from your iPad or iPhone. I'm very impressed with it, and think the investment was already worthwhile. If you find yourself editing pictures or uploading them to Dropbox regurally, you should definitely give OneEdit a try. It's sure to make your photo editing workflow flow much better on iPad!
Oh, and if you were wondering, all of the screenshots in this review were rotated, resized, and uploaded to Dropbox with OneEdit. ;)
After recently teaching in a classroom that had an old manual typewriter with upraised rows of keys, I marveled at how much typing has changed over the past century. We went from typing in QWERTY to keep from jamming keys on original typewriters to pounding out text messages with our thumbs on small slates of metal and glass. How times change! Back then, typing was a purely manual exercise. Today, however, we're usually typing on smart devices, younger cousins of IBM Watson. Seems like it should be easier and quicker to type today than it was back then, doesn't it?
Turns out, there is a way to put the computing power of your device to work. TextExpander is a great app that lets your device remember the things you need to type the most so you won’t have to manually type them every time. Instead, you can just enter a short snippet of text, such as aadr, and your full text, such as your address, will be entered automatically. And once you’ve got it installed, you can use this power in many of your favorite apps, including many we’ve reviewed here at Techinch.com. Sound good? Let’s take a closer look at what TextExpander offers.
Getting Started
TextExpander Touch is one of the more interesting apps available in the App Store for several reasons. First, its one of the few ways that you can truly speed up your typing on iOS. Second, it integrates seamlessly with so many other apps, it seems like it should just be an included tool in iOS itself. To get started, just purchase and install the universal app from the App Store. Seconds later, you’ll be ready to create and edit Snippets, use these snippets to create quick notes, and find more apps to work with TextExpander Touch.
The Snippets section is the most important. Here you can create and edit snippets, which include a short abbreviation as well as the long content you want the abbreviation to expand into. There are several popular ones included in the app by default, so you can just edit the content on these to include your own personal signature, address, telephone number, and more. You can also create new ones quickly. Just make sure that your abbreviation isn’t a standard word, or you won’t be able to just enter that word in a TextExpander enabled app without it expanding to include your content. I’ve found it best to make abbreviations start with a period, such as .lorem which I use to expand into a full paragraph of lorem ipsum filler text. The sky’s the limit on what you can use snippets for; from complicated to type words to text you have to enter all the time like your address to long paragraphs you commonly include in emails, you can make tons of typing tasks faster with snippets that work best for you.
One of the best features is the wide arrange of snippets that you can add to TextExpander without typing them all in. Tap the plus button on the Snippet Groups page to add snippets from the TextExpander server. These include common misspelled words for AutoCorrect, standard HTML and CSS code snippets, and accented words that take longer to type correctly. This is an easily overlooked feature that can be a true timesaver once you’re using TextExpander all the time. Also, if you’ve been using TextExpander for Mac, you can also sync your existing snippets from your Mac to your iOS devices.
Putting TextExpander to Work
Now that you’ve got snippets of your most important info and frequently used text saved, it’s time to put it to use. You can use TextExpander as a notebook to create emails and plain text notes using TextExpander snippets. That’s what the Notes feature is for. Here you can type in full text notes like you might in SimpleNote or PlainText; this time though, you’re able to type faster thanks to the TextExpander snippets you’ve added. Just type your snippet, and it will automatically expand to the full text you’ve saved. I can now enter sig1, for example, and my full standard signature will be added to the end of an email. Once you’re finished, you can copy all of the text to your clipboard and paste it into another app, or send the message as an email or tweet immediately.
Integrating TextExpander with Other Apps
While TextExpander is useful on its own, the biggest reason to use it is because it integrates with dozens of apps you likely already use. From Twitter for iOS to the excellent Express for WordPress to PlainText, my favorite app for jotting down plain text notes, you'll discover more places to use TextExpander than you'd ever imagine. First, though, open the Settings menu in TextExpander and turn on snippet sharing to make all of your snippets available to other apps that integrate with TextExpander.
Now you're ready to add it to your favorite apps. Check put the link below to see all the apps that integrate with TextExpander, then check your apps settings to make sure your TextExpander support is enabled. Once it is, you can enter your TextExpander snippets and they'll automatically expand just like they did in the TextExpander app.
If you need more help, you can browse the TextExpander online help file right inside the app. Unfortunately, the help files aren’t available offline, so you’ll have to get buy with the example snippets if you don’t have an internet connection.
The only bad thing is, none of Apple's apps, including the iPad iWork apps, work with TextExpander. Also, it doesn’t work with WordPress for iOS, so if you want to use TextExpander to make it easier to blog from your iOS device, you’ll need to type your posts up in another app that works with it and then past it into the WordPress app.
Conclusion
Whether you'd like to make less spelling mistakes when texting from your iPhone or want to pound out essays and emails from your iPad quicker than ever, TextExpander is one of the few apps that can really help you do it. Not only does it do a great job at creating and expanding snippets, but it's already integrated into so many apps that it will make the apps you already love and use even better. Typing on a glass screen isn't nearly as bad as many would have guessed years ago, but it is still slower than a traditional keyboard. Once you get used to typing with TextExpander, you just might be able to increase your typing speed again. And, since it’s a universal app, you can use it on any iOS device you own.
I personally use my iPad for writing most of the time, and am now trying to integrate TextExpander snippets even further into my typing routine. If you've already used it, or if you try it out after this, let us know how you like it in the comments below!
Want to enable OpenDNS or Google DNS on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Apple TV?
Every time you type a domain name like google.com into your browser, your device has to connect with a DNS service, find the IP address for that site, then request the page you wanted to see. That can be slow, especially with most default ISP DNS servers. You can both speed up your connection—and help make your connection more secure, especially on public free WiFi—by switching to alternative DNS services like OpenDNS or Google DNS.
Note: Unfortunately, you can’t change DNS settings on cellular internet connections in iOS.
First, enable WiFi on your device—either tap the WiFi icon in Control Center to connect to a network you've used before, or open the Settings app's Wi-Fi menu and connect to the WiFi network you want to use. Then, tap the blue i button on the right side of the network name to tweak its settings.
It used to take a few more steps, but today it's easy to set the DNS server you want. Near the bottom of the settings, tap Configure DNS—and there you'll already see if you're using the Automatic DNS service set by your WiFi, or a custom DNS service you entered yourself.
Now, tap Manual to switch DNS services, then tap the red - button to remove any existing DNS services. You can then enter the DNS you want use—all you need is the IP addresses the DNS resolution system you want to use. There are several common ones, including OpenDNS and Google DNS, along with a couple lesser known ones such as Norton DNS, Comodo Secure DNS, or even paid DNS services that can allow access to blocked sites or let you control content on your network. I’d personally recommend using OpenDNS or Google DNS if you just want fast DNS resolution.
Here’s the addresses you should use for these—add the primary IP first, then add another DNS server in your settings and enter the second IP address:
Once you’ve added the settings, you’ll be ready to browse the internet using your new DNS service without any extra changes. Enjoy!
Do note that you have to set your DNS settings on each network, so do note that you’ll need to change this the next time you connect to a new network. The good thing is, your device will remember your recently used networks, so you shouldn’t have to change the settings once you’ve got them set for your favorite networks. To make it easier, you could save a note in your favorite note app with the DNS settings you prefer so you can copy and past them to new networks easily.
Originally published February 4, 2011; updated for latest iOS versions.
Would you like to add more features to your blog posts without having to hand code them in HTML? All WordPress themes from WooThemes include shortcodes to make it easier for you to add quotes, buttons, download links and more to your blog posts. The only problem is, you’ll still have to remember all of the codes to add the shortcode features to your posts.
That’s all now changed as WooThemes has now incorporated a great visual shortcode generator into their theme framework. This was first created as a third party WordPress plugin by developer Rico Gundermann, but now it’s been baked into the latest WooFramework. All you’ll have to do is update your theme and you’ll be ready to start adding features from shortcodes in two clicks. Here’s how to do it.
Add Shortcodes the Easy Way
First, make sure your site is running a WooTheme with the latest version of the WooFramework. You can check this from the Update Framework button under your theme settings in your WordPress dashboard. If it’s out of date, click Update and seconds later, you’ll have the latest features.
Now, head over to your post editor to start writing a new post. You’ll notice a new Woo button on the visual editor toolbar. This opens a menu with options for all the different shortcodes you can use to add buttons, icons, multiple columns in your text, quotes, social media buttons, and more. Select the one you want to get started.
A box will now open with the options for that shortcode. Enter any text that will be included, choose your styles, and preview the whole thing on the right. Click Insert when you’re finished, and you’ll be able to see the actually shortcode used along with any modifications. Even if you prefer to simply enter raw code, this is a great way to discover your theme’s shortcode features.
You’ll likely find features you didn’t know your theme had. Below is a preview of the WooThemes tabbed box with a quote inside, all made with shortcodes on my secondary, WooThemes powered site http://maybring.com/.
Want to try out the Shortcode Generator without having a WooTheme installed on your site? Just head over to the WooThemes Playground where you can try out all of the WooThemes features without having to purchase and install a new theme on your site. Here’s more info about the WooThemes Playground: http://techinch.com/2010/10/08/testdrive-woothemes-for-free/
Conclusion
Shortcodes aren’t unique to WooThemes; in fact, most professional WordPress themes include them nowadays. ElegantThemes have actually included shortcode buttons in the post editor for a while now. The only problem is, they end up making the editor too wide for small screens, and there’s no easy way to remove the buttons from the editor. WooTheme’s integration just works better than any other I’ve tried previously, and having everything in a menu makes it very easy to use. Plus, since the original plugin is opensource, hopefully other developers can use it to add great shortcode integration for their themes as well!
Does your favorite WordPress theme include shortcodes, and do you find yourself using them often?
Last year, it looked like the HTML5 video codec war was over. All major browsers other than Firefox had announced or added support for h.264/MPEG video playback. This was a great win for users, and many websites began switching from Flash powered videos to h.264 videos with the HTML5 <video> tag. Whether you’re using Safari on a Mac, Chrome on a Windows computer or Chrome netbook, or an Apple iPhone or iPad, h.264 videos would playback the same without requiring frustrating, CPU intensive plugins like Adobe Flash Player.
That’s all changed now, as Google announced that they will be dropping support for h.264 encoded videos in favor of their own WebM format. The problem is, WebM formatted videos would only playback right now in Firefox 4 beta and Chrome. Google has announced that they will make WebM plugins for Safari and Internet Explorer, but the facts remain that many sites already are either using h.264 videos in HTML5 or are simply using Flash Player to decode the videos.
So, what can you do if you want to playback h.264 encoded videos in your browser, but still want to use Chrome? If you’re using Windows 7, Microsoft’s already got a solution for you. Media Player in Windows 7 already includes a licensed h.264 playback codec, so they made a Chrome extension that will let you playback h.264 videos in webpages using the codec already on your computer.
To make sure you’ll always be able to playback h.264 videos in Chrome, just head to the Microsoft Interoperability Bridges site to download the free Windows Media Player HTML5 Extension for Chrome. Install the extension as usual. Now, once Google actually drops h.264 support from Chrome, you’ll never notice the difference!
Then, when Google releases the WebM extension for IE and Safari, you could install it in those browsers to make sure you’ll be able to see any video on any site. Flash is being used less and less, though unfortunately, that doesn’t mean you’ll quit having to install extensions and plugins to view everything online. Maybe someday…
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, or draw tons of pictures in apps like 
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