The second type of document is an image based document.  This includes formats like .TIF, .JPG, .PNG, .GIF, etc.  These documents just represent a bunch of pixels.  The computer can’t edit the words themselves other than by deleting pixels and putting new pixels down.  You can’t copy a sentence and paste it into another program if you are using this format.

The advantage of the text-based formats is the fact that they can be searched.  If the document contains the word “Smith Contract,” a search on your computer for those words should show the document in the results.  With image-based documents you don’t have that luxury.  If you want to be able to find it, you had better name it using the keywords you might use for your search, put it in a directory with the name you will search for, or associate meta information with the document containing all the keywords you might use.

The advantage of image-based documents is the way they preserve the layout and non-text elements.  If you have to go to court to show someone signed a contract, you are going to want to have an image-based document with their signature. (There are some ways to do things with digital PKI signatures that will stand up in court, but that gets quite a bit more complicated.)

Of course, the problem is, you may have a hard time locating the particular contract unless you were particularly careful about where and how you saved it.

The PDF format solves many of these issues.  PDFs allow you to store a document as an image AND as text.  Think of it as two layers: you have a text layer that contains the words in a computer-readable format and you have the image layer that contains a picture of the document–including any pictures, annotations, etc.  So if you want to search for a keyword, it acts as a text-based document.  If you need to print out a copy of the document, it acts as an image-based document.

When you scan your document, you want to make sure both types of information are recorded.  To get text information from a scanned document, you need to use some type of optical character recognition.  Usually your scanner will come with some type of OCR software.  Many scanning programs will automatically add the text layer into a PDF.  The newer versions of Acrobat have OCR capabilities built in so you can take image-based documents and add the text layer with a few clicks.

In my work-flow, my scanner sends the image of each document directly to a program that  performs some optimizations, does OCR and then saves the results as a PDF in my document repository.

If you are looking at setting up a paperless office, you will need to consider how the character recognition takes place.  The more you are able to automate the process, the easier it will be to work with.

Note: If you are creating a PDF directly from your computer, there is a way to skip the image layer while still preserving the layout of the page.  If you start adding signatures and markups, it will create an image layer to put those items in.

Originally published January 17, 2008.

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Here is an example: when someone buys something from the online store, that information has to be manually entered into the accounting software. The customer information must be manually entered into the customer relationship management system. If a customer gets a refund, the accountant handles the refund, but then the information must manually be entered in the online store to adjust the inventory levels.

While all of their software is considered “best of breed,” none of it talks with the other parts of the process. When it comes to their productivity, they would be better off with fewer features and better integration.

Your Integrated Solution

When you design your personal work flow, make sure that integration is your top priority. For example, when you add a personal contact to your address book, does it automatically show up on your cell phone? If your spouse adds an appointment to the calendar on her computer, does it automatically show up in your PDA?

If you choose your solutions based on integration instead of features, you’ll increase your productivity–even if you have to sacrifice some features. If you choose your solutions based on features and ignore the integration aspect, the time savings benefits will be greatly reduced.

When you are looking for ways to increase your productivity, look for the right process–not the right tools. The best time management software/gadget/planner in the world is only as good as the process it enables. A well-designed integrated process with average tools is much more productive than the best tools, but no integrated process.

Originally published June 25, 2007. Oh and this client is now using a fully integrated system that doesn’t have any of the duplicate entry issues described above.

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This word processor was developed by SourceGear Corporation as an alternative to other office software. However, SourceGear stopped developing the software, and a group of open source developers took over creating the later versions of the product.

AbiWord is unique in that it can be run on a myriad of different operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows
• Mac OS X (10.2 or later, Intel and PowerPC)
• Linux
• React OS
• BeOS
• Solaris
• etc.

System requirements for AbiWord seem to be pretty reasonable, overall, and it seems to work much like its non-open source counterparts. One final, useful thing about AbiWord is that the developers offer real time support through chat and also provide a user manual.

Bean

In today’s fast-paced world, the technology and software that we use has become  a reflection of the way we try to multitask. Instead of focusing on doing one thing well, software has become bulky and, at times, a bit inefficient for the task at hand. Sometimes it just makes more sense to simplify. Bean is a simplified word processor that allows the writer to focus better. Fewer distractions = more focused writing.

This word processor runs only on Mac OSX 10.4 through 10.6. However, it will run on both PowerPC  and Intel Macs. One thing that potential users should note is that Bean is only partially compatible with Word. That being said, as the developer says, Bean is not intended to be a replacement for Microsoft Word. It is geared toward convenience and efficiency, and because of this fact, does not have some of the features of Word.

So, if you are frustrated with a clunky word processor and own a Mac, Bean might be worth a look.

LyX

LyX is an interesting piece of software with a unique set of capabilities. According to Wikipedia, the software is becoming popular among social scientists and other researchers for its ability to manage multiple files. LyX is also excellent for those that need to type a lot of mathematical formulas. For chemistry and math teachers, the advanced abilities of this software could help make their work much more productive. Traditional word processors, such as Microsoft Word, aren’t primarily designed to create documents filled with formulas.

LyX runs on several operating systems, including the following platforms:

• Linux/Unix
• Microsoft Windows
• Mac OS X

Potential users should be aware that LyX is not a traditional WYSIWYG editor. It does, however, offer a “preview” option so that the user can see what the document will look like in its printed form. Those making a transition from a traditional word processor may want to take some time to adjust to using LyX for producing documents, rather than just leaping directly from a traditional word processor to LyX for all their work.

This guide for using LyX offers some really good information on using the processor as well as an overview of what the software is intended to do, how the focus of the product differs from a traditional word processor, and other various helpful facts.

IBM Lotus Symphony

Lotus Symphony is most likely the closest thing you can get (in the free software realm) to Microsoft Office without actually purchasing Office. Symphony supports most file types commonly used in today’s business world, includes equivalents to Powerpoint, Word, and Excel (Presentations, Documents and Spreadsheets, respectively) and runs on the following operating systems:

• Mac OS X
• Microsoft Windows Vista with Service Pack 1, XP with Service Pack 3
• Some Linux platforms (SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP2, RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.2, Ubuntu 8.04)

For a more in-depth look at Symphony, see our article entitled “Lotus Symphony Review.”

Open Office.org

Open Office is, perhaps, the most venerable and reliable alternative to Microsoft Office that is in existence, today. Developed and maintained by Sun Microsystems, the software has been around for 9 years. According to the website, Open Office reads files from most common software packages. The Open Office developers have even had reports of the product opening files that the “original software package had said to be corrupt and unusable.” Open Office runs on many different platforms, including the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows
• Mac OS X
• GNU/Linux
• Sun Solaris

Because Solaris has been under development for quite some time, the software is quite stable. The fact that the software is also open source allows anyone and everyone to send in reports of any bugs, which are then considered by developers and used to improve the software. Another neat thing about Open Office is that there are no licensing fees, so you may make copies of the software and give it to friends, family and others that may need it.

Neo Office

Neo Office is a Mac only word processor that is basically a modified version of Open Office. According to the site, the modifications are the addition of “extremely stable Mac OS X code that has been in daily use by hundreds of thousands of NeoOffice users since 2003″ and “significant speed improvements to the OpenOffice.org code.”

For those who would like a more stable and efficient version of Open Office for Mac, Neo Office might be worth a look.

Yeah Write

Yeah Write is a Windows only word processor that takes a rather unconventional approach to information in put. This processor uses a Q&A type interface in order to put the necessary information into a document template. Yeah Write is free, but in order to get the version that contains more templates, the user must pay about $20.00. The product is compatible with Windows 98 through Vista, so it should be a viable option for just about any Windows user.

Jarte

A slogan for this word processor located on its website is “Does your word processor handle like an ocean liner?” While this is amusing, some of us may find it all too true. Jarte was formulated as a lightweight alternative to powerful, but unwieldy word processors such as MS Word.

Jarte runs solely on Windows, is based on Microsoft Word Pad (making it quite stable), and can open the file extensions RTF, DOC and DOCX. According to the website, this processor would be particularly useful to students. It contains adequate features for the person that simply wants to write, but does not have too many features for the user to sort through when making editing decisions. Another plus for cash-strapped students is that the price is right.

KWord

KWord is a word processor that was developed with a unique purpose, in mind. KWord is designed to be more content friendly than the average word processor. In this program, text is designed to wrap around the images in the document being created, even after images have been manipulated. KWord runs on the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows
• Mac OS X
• Linux/Unix Systems

JDarkRoom

JDarkRoom is a minimalist word processor that allows for distraction-free writing. For those that want a simple, fast and focused program, this might be a good choice. However, JDarkRoom does have some useful features you wouldn’t expect to be on a minimalist word processor, such as word count.

This processor runs on the following operating systems:

• Windows
• Mac OS
• Linux

Google Docs

While the other word processors on this list are desktop software, Google Docs is an online word processor. It has the neat perk that the user can edit documents from any computer. All documents are stored online, therefore they can be accessed from any computer that has internet capabilities.

Since Google docs runs within a web browser, it should be compatible with all platforms. The document sharing capabilities of Google Docs would be very useful to anyone that works on documents for collaborative projects.

Did we miss your favorite free word-processor?  Please let us know about it in the comments.

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So why spend the time on this?  As we switch to doing more business over the internet, secure communications are going to become much more important.  Even if you don’t have a use for encryption right now, you probably will over the next 3 to 5 years (if not before).  There is a lot of value in understanding why encrypted emails are secure–even if you don’t understand all the complicated math behind it.

I find it frustrating that so few people and businesses use encryption on their emails.  If businesses would use encrypted emails, they could just send me a PDF of my bill instead of requiring me to login and download my bill from their website. Many of the processes that currently require printing on dead trees and then using dead dinosaurs to transport sheets of paper through the mail could be done electronically if more people would use encryption.  This article is me doing my little part to help raise awareness of how encryption works. If you want to help save paper and think this article is useful, please pass it on to someone else.

Encrypting a Document

Digital signatures are used to do two things.  First, they are used to encrypt files and emails so that they can only be read by the person they are intended for.  Second, they can be used to “sign” a document to guarantee that it arrives in the same state it was originally sent and no one has added or changed things.

A digital signature consists of a public and private key.  Your public key is shared with everyone.  Your private key is kept private.  These keys are text documents full of what appears to be random numbers and letters, but with the proper algorithm, these numbers and letters have a very unique property.

If you take a document and run it through an algorithm with your public key, you get back an encrypted document.

Once it is encrypted, the public key can’t be used to decrypt the document. The process is one way so it doesn’t matter if other people have the public key, they can’t read the document.

To decrypt the document you must have the private key.  If you give the encrypted document to an algorithm with the private key, you will get back the original document.

An Example

Lets start with Tom and Suzie.  They want to communicate securely to keep Hitler from reading their messages.

First Tom, sends Suzie his public key.  This usually happens automatically when Tom sends Suzie a normal email message.  Their email programs handle sending Tom’s key and recording it on Suzie’s side of things. When Suzie sends Tom a regular message, Tom gets her key as well.

Suzie takes Tom’s public key and uses it to encrypt an important message.  Then she emails the encrypted message to Tom.

But wait! Hitler intercepts the message by infiltrating Suzie’s ISP and breaking into her email.  He now has the encrypted message that Suzie sent to Tom.  Hitler also has Tom’s public key that Tom sent to Suzie.  However, no matter what Hitler does with the public key, he can’t decrypt the message.  The only thing that can decrypt the message is the private key that Tom keeps safe.

When Tom gets the message from Suzy, he takes his private key and uses that to decrypt the message.  He can now read Suzie’s email.  It doesn’t matter who else gets a copy of the email that Suzie sent. Tom is the only one who can unlock it as long has he doesn’t share his private key.  If he wants to reply to Suzie, he simply uses her public key to encrypt his reply and sends it back to her.

Signing a Document

With an understanding of how documents can be encrypted, we can look at how to “sign” a document.  An encrypted document does three things.

1. It guarantees that the document was actually sent by the sender.
2. It guarantees that the document wasn’t modified in route.
3. It guarantees that no one else can read the document.

For a lot of communication, item three isn’t necessary or even desired.  For example, if I want to send a message out to 25 people, chances are pretty high that it isn’t extremely confidential.  In fact, sending a separate message to each person encrypted with their public key might be quite a burden for me.  However, I still may want each recipient to be guaranteed that the document came from me and that it wasn’t modified in transit.

Outside of email, I may want to post a message on a website that can be read by the world where anyone can check to make sure that the message hasn’t been changed from when I wrote it and confirm that it was truly written by me.  A slightly different example of this is when a company posts a piece of software or a patch for existing software.  The people who will download it  want some way to know that they are getting a legitimate file and not a virus that was posted by hackers to trick people.

This is where signing a document (or file) comes into play. Signing a document guarantees the first two items on the list, but does it in a way that allows anyone to read it.

This can be difficult to explain, so I am going to simplify the math a bit.  My version won’t be quite as secure as what is actually used, but it will give you a good general idea of how it operates.

Checksums

First, let’s talk about checksums.  A checksum is a simple way to send an extra piece of information along with some data that can be used to make sure that the data is the same on both sides.  In human terms, this is kind of like asking someone to repeat a number back to you over the phone.  While repeating information back works fine for short numbers, it could be a bit troubling if you have large amounts of data.  So we create a short cut.  Let’s say that, for some reason, I’m trying to give you the values of 100 checks over the phone.  I’m reading them from Excel and you are typing them into Excel.  In the end, we want to make sure that we didn’t miss anything.  I could have you repeat all the numbers back to me, but that would take a long time.  Instead, I might ask you to give me the total.  If your total matches my total, then one of two things happened:

1. We successfully transferred the numbers verbally.
2. We made some mistakes that perfectly canceled each other out.

Since option two is pretty unlikely when dealing with a large list of numbers, we can assume (with a reasonable degree of certainty) that we didn’t make a mistake.

Computers use checksums in a similar way.  Back in the days of modems, computers would send an 8 bit byte where the last bit was a checksum.  So, the computer might send a binary message that looked like this:

01101010

The first 7 bits contained the data: 0110101.  The last bit is the checksum was used to tell if there were an even or odd numbers of ones present in the data.  In this case we are using a 0 to say that there are an even number of ones.  If the receiving computer got a byte where the number of even bits and the checksum bit disagreed, it would ask for that data to be sent again.

This type of approach reduces accidental errors.  However, it does nothing toward preventing someone from intentionally changing the data.  If you wanted to change the data en route, it would be simple to flip the checksum bits to match whatever you wanted to send in the data.  We need a way of generating a checksum type value that is hard to fake.

Hashes

In simple form, a hash is an algorithm (or set of steps) that you can run a piece of data through (text, a file, etc.) and get out a number that represents the original. You can’t recreate the original from the number, but for most practical purposes you can use that number to represent the input.  In other words, it will be very difficult to find another input file (or text) that will produce the same output.

Let’s construct a simple hash of the following text:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy hound.

Our hash is going to be created by multiplying the number of letters by the number of words.

38 letters
9 words
38 x 9 = 342

So now if I send you this message, I can include the number 342.  You can do the math on the message you receive and it will give you a pretty good idea if the message is the same as what was sent.

Obviously, this type of solution will only protect against unintentional changes in the data.  If someone  changes the email in route, they could just as easily change the number “342″ to match whatever the hash is for their modified message.

If we want to protect against this, I can send the hash value through a different channel.  For example, I could send you the message via email and then call you on a secure phone line and say, “the hash value is 342″.  That way if someone wanted to modify the message, they could only change it to something that produced a hash value of 342.  (In our very simple hash algorithm, this would be hard, but doable. With the complex hash algorithms that are actually used, it would be impossible, for all practical purposes.)

Obviously, it is inefficient if I have to call you up on the phone. We need some way to put a secure channel in the email.  If I try to encrypt the hash number with your public key, the message is only readable by you–I might as well just encrypt the whole message.  If I encrypt it with my public key, then I’m the only one who can read it–not particularly useful either.

But look what happens when I encrypt it with my private key.

We now have the value 342 encrypted in a way that can be opened by anyone with my public key. Since my public key is the only thing that can decrypt that value, it guarantees them that I was the one who originally encrypted the number 342.

If someone wants to change the message and change the hash value, they would have to be able to encrypt it with my private key.

So, when you send a signed message, the hash value guarantees that the message hasn’t been changed.  Encrypting the hash value with your public key guarantees that the hash value, itself, hasn’t been changed.  This is normally handled automatically by your software, and it will give you a warning if you get a message where decrypting the hash value produces a different number.  The encrypted hash value is added as a small attachment or added to the bottom of the email.

Conclusion

And there you have it.  You now understand encryption better than 99% of the population.  If you are interested in starting to use encryption for email, I recommend getting  a free set of certificates from Thawte or Comodo. (Thawte may be canceling their free program, so Comodo may be the better choice.) The setup process is fairly simple and they have instructions on how to get various email clients configured.

As I said before, this article is me trying to do my part to help society move from paper to digital.  If you want to help, please take a few minutes to share this with someone else.

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1. Put Your Entire Message In The Subject

Just because you can see the entire subject as you type it, doesn’t mean it will show up for your recipient the same way. Depending on their email program, it might even truncate it.

2. CC A Bunch Of Unrelated Recipients

If you need to send something out to a large number of people who don’t already know each other, don’t put them in the CC field. That broadcasts their email address to each other. There was a case a few years ago where a real estate agent did this to a group of people who were all looking for apartments in New York. People who received it were able to sell the email to other agents for thousands of dollars because it contained the email addresses of qualified leads.

You can use the BCC field if you need to send messages out to a bunch of people. Put your own email address in the TO field. That way recipients can’t see each other’s email addresses and no matter what they hit, any response will come back to only you.

3. Hit Reply All Instead Of Reply

I don’t really know how you could do this accidentally, but I’ve seen it happen many times. I’m guessing that some people have mail programs where the Reply and Reply All buttons are very close together. Other times, I think people are just being lazy and hit Reply All (to 100 people) instead of taking the time to add the three people who need to see their reply.

4. Send A Message To A Superset Of People Who Need It

Lets say you have a group called “Administration” that contains the CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, CSO, and all the other “C” executives. Don’t send a message to the group when it really only needs to go to a smaller number of people in the group.

Sometimes people are too lazy (or don’t know how) to figure out who is in the group they are using. With Outlook, you can click on the + by the group name to show a list of everyone in the group.

5. Leave Out Punctuation

writing in all lowercase with no punctuation doesnt make you look intelligent take the time to use correct punctuation it will make your message easier to understand

Arghh. That was painful to write. Email is often considered informal, but punctuation rules are there for a reason. They really do make it easier for people to understand what you are saying. In some cases, leaving out punctuation can give your sentences an entirely different meaning.

6. Leave Out Paragraphs

Similar to leaving out punctuation, writing one big blob of text does not make your email easy to read. In fact, many people will skip over long messages that they can’t easily scan–especially if they happen to get your message on a cell phone or Blackberry.

Okay, there are my six suggestions of things to avoid in email. If you have any suggestions to add, please leave them in the comments.

Originally published January 31, 2008.

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The hackers then did everything they could to embarrass the victims by posting things online.  This ranged from making a minister look like he was having an affair to creating a panic that someone was going to commit suicide.

I’ve previously talked about how it is a good idea to use different passwords, if not for every site, at least for every type of site.  (You don’t want to use the same password on a site run by some kid you don’t know as what you use on your banking accounts.)  After this incident, I would recommend doing your best to create a unique password for every site you need to log into.

There are programs that help with this.  I use 1Password because it keeps things very simple, works on multiple browsers and will automatically log in for you (once you supply the master password).  I have over 300 passwords for various websites, so the money on the app is well worth it, for me.  A free manual approach would be to use something like password chart.

Regardless of how you manage your passwords, make sure you aren’t betting your security on someone else to follow good security practices in the way they encrypt and store  your password.

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I took off running downstairs for the fire extinguisher in the kitchen.  My mom (who happened to be in the room) calmly walked over and put the fire out by stepping on it. It turns out that the fan had been wired together by my 11 year old brother, who had hooked a 12 volt automotive fan into a regular household wiring cord with an automotive switch, shorting the connection between the two wires.

Anyway, the point is that, while my mom’s shoe was definitely not the perfect fire fighting tool, it was the best thing for the job.  By the time I had gotten the fire extinguishers and then figured out how to turn it on, the fire would have spread on the carpet and done quite a bit more damage.

There are times where the best tool to use is the one that lets you accomplish the task immediately–even if it is slightly awkward to use.

Originally published March 15, 2007.

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In my experience people either have extremely secure passwords like J!*xurQ1# that are so difficult to remember that they have to write them down (which defeats the security of a password) or extremely unsecure to start with, like Jonny (the name of their spouse). The goal of this post is to give you some ideas on how to generate secure passwords. The tips start out with some simple ways to come up with terms and end with ideas of how to combine these terms into secure passwords.

It should be obvious that you shouldn’t directly use any of the examples shown here. However, some of these ideas should be useful in generating your own secure passwords.

Here are a collection of tips for creating useful passwords.

1. Use Different Character Classes - Many systems require that your password be from a variety of character classes. The letters a to z are one character class, A to Z is another, 0 to 9 is another, and the symbols are a fourth. In general the more character classes you use in your password, the more secure it is. So “guitar” is less secure than GuiTar which is less secure than Gu1T&r. One simple way to add different character classes is to capitalize all vowels or consonants.
2. Use Letters from a Phrase – Use the first letter from each word in a phrase, line from a song, etc. “There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea.” could become Tahitbots.
3. Numbers From Word - Use your phone keypad to convert a word to its numerical equivalent to use as part of your password.
4. Keyboard Patterns – Creating terms from rows of adjacent keys. 12345 is not very good, but \][po combined in the ways specified below can make for a secure password that would be very difficult to guess and is fast to type.
5. Use More Than One Word - Single word passwords are easy to break. If a hacker runs a program to try a bunch of words from the dictionary they shouldn’t be able to figure out your password. Choose words that you will remember, but that someone else won’t be able to guess. So a password like shinynail or flyingrock or tallwater are more secure than single word passwords.
6. Ideas for Passwords – Sometimes coming up with a password can be pretty difficult. Keep in mind you need to choose terms that you won’t often talk about. Here are a list of ideas to help come up with words:
   • Choose two objects from a picture that you’ll always remember. For example: a drawing at your grandparents house, the illustration from a children’s book, a painting at an art museum, etc.
   • Choose two terms from a memorable purchase. For example: bluev6 (first car), thinibm (first computer), gold3crt (engagement ring), 7ftgrand (piano), pinedoor (first house), sunshore (honeymoon destination).
   • Look through a catalog and choose terms based on something you see.
   • Look up a random article on Wikipedia and choose a word found or related to a word you find in the article.
7. Separate Your Two Words With Symbols and Numbers- For example: pine&1&door, kit!2!cat, etc.
8. Modify the Password For Each Site- In theory, the most secure password strategy is to use a completely different password for each system. In practice, this means you’ll have to write them down. By choosing a secure password and modifying it based on where it will be used, you can keep from having to write passwords down, but still have a slightly higher level of security. Here are some examples showing how they were created
   • blue.Mv6 for Amazon.com – blue and v6 from first car. M from the second letter in site name.
   • blue.Av6 for SAP logon – same as above.
   • thin!5!ibm for Amazon.com – thin and ibm from first computer. 5 from the number of letters in the site name.
9. Multiple Passwords for Different Types of Sites – Another option to keep from using the same password on every site is to use two or three passwords based on how secure the site is. For example, your banking sites might all use derivations of the bluev6 password. Ecommerce sites might all use a derivation of a different password and community type sites might use a third. The goal is to make sure that a rogue administrator at a forum you frequent isn’t able to get to your 401k.
10. Date Based Component – Some systems require you to change your password every 180, 90, or 60 days. (One client had set up their system to require a password change every 30 days!) If you are familiar with the cycle, you can add a date based component to your password and change it each time it is required. For example J10 could be added when you need to change your password in June of 2010.

Originally published June 18, 2007.

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• Check List for Email

Evidently, (thanks to Moore’s Law) eight years makes a huge difference. I have honestly been blown away at how accurate the software is. In fact, after using it for only 30 minutes, 99% of the errors I encountered were because I skipped reading the manual and was simply trying to guess what the “control” words were. By control words, I mean the commands that tell the software to capitalize something, select your last sentence, move around the document and handle punctuation. For example, saying “quotation mark” makes the words “quotation mark” to appear on your screen. With a little experimenting, I discovered that saying “open quote” and “close quote” gave the desired punctuation.

The actual errors (where I say one thing and it types something else) don’t seem any more frequent than the errors I make while typing normally.  However, until you get used to the editing commands, it can take a lot longer to correct something by voice than using the keyboard commands.  If you want to really get the most out of it, you need to spend some time learning the editing commands.

MacSpeech Dictate is actually pretty smart about understanding what you mean based on your pauses. For example, in the previous paragraph, I was able to type “open quote” simply by saying the words close together for the punctuation and with a slight pause for the actual words.

Using voice recognition software is quite a bit different than simply recording what you want to say and turning it over to an assistant to type it up. The software can’t figure out where you want to end your sentences or put punctuation. A real-life person will have no trouble figuring out these types of things. Software isn’t quite as smart. It can’t understand the meaning behind your words. However, MacSpeech Dictate does a very good job of understanding context.

Context

MacSpeech Dictate attempts to figure out what word you want based on the words that come before and after. This seems to work surprisingly well. The software makes it very easy to do “phrase training,” where you teach it not only how you pronounce a particular word, but the context in which that word is used.  Video of phrase training.

Microphone

I was impressed that the software came with its own USB mic. I have a Plantronics microphone that seems to work just fine with the system. You will need a quality microphone to get good results. You need something that isn’t going to pick up all the ambient noise in the room. Even with a good microphone I noticed quite a drop in accuracy after switching on a small (but noisy) fan.

If you don’t like the included microphone, I would still suggest getting some sort of headset mic. You want the pick up to be near your mouth to get the most accurate transcription. MacSpeech sells an interesting looking Bluetooth microphone on their website. You can use as a handheld or plug in a cell phone style microphone and earpiece.

Thinking

What I found to be most interesting about dictating instead of typing is how you must think differently. I am so much in the habit of typing out what I’m thinking that trying to say it seems unnatural and requires a great deal of thought. Part of this might be due to the fact that I’m more aware of how my sentences sound when speaking and watching them appear on the screen. This is probably a good thing and may make my writing a bit more natural. I would also assume that some of my mental slowness just comes from the awkwardness of using a new tool for the first time.

The above paragraph was written when I first started using Dictate.  After using it a bit longer, I have a different theory.  I don’t think that voice recognition is making me think more slowly.  I think that I normally think slowly because I have to wait to type what I’m thinking.  I type pretty fast–around  60 to 70 wpm, so I have always thought that I was typing about as fast as I could think up what I wanted to write.  Now I’m not so sure.  I think it feels slower to use Dictate because I notice how often the computer is waiting on me to decide what I want to say next.  When I’m typing I feel like I’m thinking quickly because the bottleneck is my ability to type.  When I’m using Dictate, I feel like I’m thinking slowly because the bottleneck is my ability to think of the next sentence.

On the downside, looking over what I’ve written so far, I think I tend to be much more wordy when speaking than typing. Who knows? Using this for a while may make my speech more succinct.

The part of your brain that is active when typing on a computer is different than the part that is active when writing with a pen.  I would guess that writing by voice uses still different areas.  This might not make a huge difference, but it might help you if you ever get writer’s block and want to switch to a different method just to change things up a bit.

Other programs

MacSpeech seems to work pretty much anywhere you can put your cursor. It ties into Apple’s assistive technology framework, so it is pretty well integrated into the operating system. This means that in addition to using MacSpeech Dictate’s Notepad program, you can type directly into WordPress to post on your blog, iChat for instant messaging or even try reading numbers into Excel. (Although I’m not sure I’d recommend that.)

Minor Issues

Dictate comes with a word-processor that they recommend for doing dictation.  (Dictate also works with other programs like Word, Mail, web pages, etc.)  The word-processor seems to slow down a lot if you leave it open too long.  Shutting it down and starting it back up seems to solve the problem.  I also had trouble opening items in the Open Recent list.  For some reason, they wouldn’t launch no matter how many times I clicked on them.  I was able to open documents using the Open command so I’m not sure what was happening there.

I was surprised that I couldn’t find a way to import an audio file.  There doesn’t appear to be a way to talk on a portable device and import it for transcription, later.  You might be able to play it back in real time through your microphone port, but it seems like that would be less accurate. Previous versions of iListen (the predecessor to Dictate) had an import capability, so it seems odd that it isn’t in Dictate.

I once found an issue where Dictate wanted to add a capital letter A or S at the end of the line whenever I said PERIOD.  This happened when I was typing into a wiki and I couldn’t seem to get it to do it again later.  I’m not sure if this was an issue with Dictate or something funny happening with my operating system.  Regarless, it was only a minor inconvenience and went away the next time I tried it.

Tips for speech recognition

1. Make sure you have a good quality microphone. Speech recognition does not work very well if the computer can’t hear what you are saying.
2. Reduce the ambient noise by closing your office door or turning off noisy equipment. In particular, you don’t want to have a bunch of people talking while you are trying to do dictation.
3. Read the instructions. In particular, make sure you understand the control words. If you have to jump back and forth to the keyboard in order to create punctuation, edit (video of editing)or navigate, it will slow you down drastically.  You also need to make sure you understand how to “train” the system so you can quickly correct anything it doesn’t understand out of the box.
4. Give it some time. Speech recognition will take a little while to get used to. This isn’t so much because of the technology, but it requires you to think in a different way than when you are typing.
5. Proof your work.  If you are talking away and not watching the screen, little things can slip through.  Of course, if you are typing anything important you should be proofing that as well.  The biggest mistake I ran into was when the computer heard me say “can” and I meant to say “can’t”.

Interesting Uses

1. While I think it would be terrible to use speech recognition software as an excuse for not learning to type, it is a great option for people who do not have the physical ability to type.
2. Some people are using MacSpeech Dictate to transcribe written diaries into text. Optical character recognition software can’t read most handwriting  — at least not very accurately. A human reading handwritten text into good speech recognition software can be pretty accurate and efficient.
3. People with repetitive stress injury, Parkinson’s disease and arthritis are using speech recognition software to reduce the amount of time they have to spend with their hands on a keyboard.

Pricing, Version and Mics.

MacSpeech sells their standard version of Dictate for $199. Nuance also sells it along with the Windows based Dragon software..  It is available on Amazon for about $50 less. This includes a microphone with an adapter to plug into the USB port.  For testing, I used a Plantronics MX-500i microphone because I prefer the smaller size.

MacSpeech also sells legal and medical versions available for an additional cost.

If you use a PC, you might want to check out Dragon Naturally Speaking from Nuance. It is a different program, but it shares the same speech recognition engine that MacSpeech Dictate uses. Nuance is the company that owns the recognition engine and licenses it to MacSpeech.  The Dragon Naturally Speaking software has some additional features.  Depending on what version you have it will do things like:

• Save an audio copy of what was said so you can go back if there are any questions.
• Automatically transcribe an audio file once it gets placed in a specified folder.
• Use Text to Speech to read things back to you. (OS X has this feature built in to the operating system.)
• Can be used with a handheld digital recorder.
• Natural punctuation. (This will automatically put in periods and commas.)

Conclusion

Dictate is amazing.  I am very impressed with how well it does at transcribing audio with very little training.  If you type fast, tried voice recognition 5 or 6 years ago and gave up because it didn’t save you any time, you may find that the improved accuracy makes it worthwhile (especially if you’ve developed carpal tunnel over the last 5 years).  If you type slowly, the software could pay for itself very quickly.

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Related Articles at Productivity501:

• Making Sense and Dictation Software

Benefits of a Scanned Signature and Handwriting

Having your signature as a font has some big advantages over having it as a .PNG or .GIF file.  Fonts are mathematical representations of the shapes they contain.  This means you don’t get jagged edges, no matter how big you make it.  .PNG or .GIF files work ok if you are making them smaller, but you will start to see artifacts and jagged lines if you make them bigger than they were intended to be.  Jagged lines are a big deal for most applications.  Using a font of your signature gives you some flexibility that you don’t have with a graphic file because you can use your word processor to embed your signature just like you would with any other text.

Having your handwriting in a font gives you some very interesting capabilities as well.  You can type out a note and avail yourself of all the modern wonders of technology like spell check and editing while still giving your communications a very personal feel.  This can be particularly adventageous if you are trying to address a bunch of envelopes or send out notes to more people than you can realistically sit down and write by hand.  Most people’s handwriting is going to degrade significantly after 30 minutes of writing.

A font of your handwriting gives you a degree of consistency that will help make your correspondence look neater.  When I write (especially when I’m tired or in a hurry) my hand writing tends to have a wide degree of variance and that is what makes it look sloppy.

vLetter

Creating a font from your handwriting isn’t something most people are going to be able to do on their own.  There are quite a few companies out there that can convert your handwriting into a font.  We contacted vLetter because their process was quite a bit more involved than some of the other companies we looked at.

Many companies have you write out the alphabet A through Z in upper and lower case and then create the font from that.  While this works well at producing a font, most of us write significantly differently when we are writing a single letter than when we are writing words.  Another downside of this approach is that it doesn’t work with cursive. vLetter has you write a page of words and letter combination.  Not only does this create a more natural writing experience, it also allows them to create full cursive fonts that handle the fact that the cursive letter a is shaped differently when preceded by the letter w than when preceded by the letter n.  Below is an example using vLetter’s reproduction of Abraham Lincoln’s cursive script for the words way and nan.

Even if you print, this has some advantages. Most people who print tend to run some of their letters together like they would in cursive.  Bringing in these small variations helps keep the handwriting looking natural and avoid looking like someone has just stamped out a bunch of letters.

The Process

The way vLetter gets the information necessary to create this font is by having you write a series of words on a single page.  Some of the words are familiar like cyclops, grocery and forgiven while others are words invented specifically to get all the right combinations (kagvels and yachteque).

The sheet also has a place for you to sign your name, as well as a set of symbols and letter combinations.  If you make a mistake, the instructions say to redo it on another sheet, cut out the corrected version and tape it over the offending word.  I filled out three of the forms, took the best one and used Photoshop to paste over any errors with corrected versions.

The scanned sheet is then emailed to vLetter and they take about two weeks to convert it. If you don’t have a high quality scanner, you can send them the sheets via overnight mail. What you get back depends on your operating system.  For OS X, they emailed me a link to a .zip file. In the zip file is an Easy Install program that takes care of installing the font along with the program used to convert your text to natural looking handwriting.

Files from vLetter .zip

When you run the installer, it installs the font.  Here is an image from FontBook showing my handwriting font.

My Handwriting Font in FontBook

With most fonts, each letter has one representation.  If you type the letter “A,” you always get the glyph for “A”.   vLetter needs to use different letters depending on where they are within the word.  If you look at the entire font, you’ll see that some letters are repeated more than once.  For example, there are at least 5 different versions of the letter “M”.

Entire font. Click for a larger view.

If you simply select the font in your word processor, it will work, but the letters won’t be different depending on the context.  In order to make it look like real handwriting. vLetter accomplishes this with a little program that takes text and turns it into your handwriting using different letters, depending on the context.

vLetter Handwriter Software

The basic process for using the font is to write your text in a normal font in Word or another word processor.  vLetter recommends you do this in a standard font.  Before you convert it, do all the spell checking and grammar checking because the conversion process makes it unspellcheckable. (Note: the work unspellcheckable is unspellcheckable itself.) So here we have a wonderful message using the default font in Word.

Text In Default Word Font

Now we select the text and hit the Convert to Handwriting button in the vLetter Handwriter software.

After converting to vLetter handwritten font.

See the red squiggly lines saying that the text needs spell checked? This is because it is using different versions of letters to make it look like natural handwriting.  For example, the first “T”, isn’t the same as what you would get if you were to type the letter “T” with the font.  This is because I write the letter “T” slightly different in “Th” than I do in other situations.  For comparision, lets look at how text looks if I simply type it out using the font.

Typing using the font directly

This isn’t bad, but it doesn’t look as natural.  Notice the difference in the word “hound.”  The first version is much more like my real handwriting than the second.  If you are writing in cursive, this difference is going to be even more noticeable because the letters connect together.

Once you’ve done the conversion, you really don’t want to edit the text directly.  It will work, but you’ll use lose the context sensitive aspect of the letter selection.  The vLetter software will let you transfer it back into a normal font if you need to do editing.

The vLetter Handwriter software also gives you an easy way to put your scanned signature into a document. Signatures are stored in several different parts.  For example, mine is stored as:

1. M
2. ark
3. W
4. Shead

This lets you do combinations like:

• M Shead
• Mark Shead
• Mark W Shead
• M W Shead

It would be nice if they included one more part so you could sign your initials.  If you don’t use a middle initial, this would probably work.

Here is an example note using the font and signature:

Here are some of the benefits of using this type of scanned signature and font:

1. You can do mail merges and send out a lot of very personal looking messages very easily.
2. Your assistant can send out messages in your own handwriting.
3. If your handwriting is hard to read, the font will (usually) help make it more consistent so you can keep the personal touch but still be legible.
4. If you need to send out a great quantity of notes, this can really help reduce strain on your wrist.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the way the font works.  vLetter has done a great job of making it easy to use while still capturing many of the nuances of written text.

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Related Articles at Productivity501:

• Dealing with Signatures and Email
• How to Create a Scanned Digital Signature
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• On Scanning Your Signature
• Using Acrobat to Sign Documents

Are there areas where you have decided it works better to go low tech? (3593)

Personally, I have found that I prefer a mechanical watch.  I think there is something about having to set it and make sure it is wound that makes me more aware of time and how I spend it.

An old-fashion book is still better than an MP3 or a PDF. There’s just something inexplainable about holding a good, hard-cover book in your hand. It feels more important. It feels like there’s actual knowledge contained within.

And it’s easier on the eyes too.

Michael Morton from Marketing Monster (rss)

I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I like the e-ink readers, but I still love a library of real old fashioned books.

I still use paper for a lot of things. My daily planning sheet is irreplacable. I also use a card based walleteer and desktop flowchart for planning tasks. You can download a lot of free paper based resources on my blog.

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

I think there is something very helpful about actually writing your goals down with a pen on a real piece of paper.

My experience with daily planners and forms is that paper forms, all things considered, are better than a bunch of software that we’re prone to fiddle with.  The focus and tangibility of paper planners is a powerful productivity enhancer.  For instance, the resistance to erase a planned activity and move it to another day makes it such that I’m more likely to plan fewer things – and actually accomplish them – than to have a digital list of twenty things I can’t do.

Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)

I find that the software based planners are good when I have hundreds of things I’m trying to track.  Paper works much better when I have fewer (but probably more important) tasks to manage.

Absolutely!  I use a paper calendar.  I just could not give up being able to see everything at a glance!

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)

I wouldn’t want to give up my ability to sync my calendar with my Blackberry and my wife’s computer, but if I didn’t need that I’d agree with Ariane.  I used a Franklin planner for years and it is amazing how well you can organize your life with paper as long as you have a decent system and process.

I’m paper-centric—for portability and ease of use, there’s nothing better. For a shopping list, an index card suffices. For planning, a pocket notebook. My higher tech is often low too—when I’m writing on the computer, I like TextWrangler or WriteRoom. Writing, as I tell my students, is not word-processing.

Michael Leddy from Orange Crate Art (rss)

Sometimes the low tech software can help you be much more productive. (See the Paradox of Powerful Tools for a story about this.)

Note taking is my favorite low tech solution. Palms and tablet PC’s still do not compete with the good old notepad in this realm. I carry a pocket notepad just incase, and use a full size notepad and clipboard when prepared. Just remember to scan or transcribe important notes. It is also much less expensive to lose a notepad.

Ryan Cole from Practical Productivity (rss)

I haven’t found any computer program that can really give you the immersible experience of mind mapping as a way of taking notes.

I think that capturing thoughts and ideas, especially on the go, is quickest and easiest with paper. I have found that having some device I need to turn on, dial, wake from sleep, or otherwise manipulate gets in the way of what is most important. That is, getting that thought, idea, must do item out of my head and captured quickly, before it is gone.

Patrick Rhone from Patrick Rhone’s Journal (rss)

Even though I can type faster than I can write, I agree with Patrick that it is hard to beat paper for this.

My To Do List! I’ve tried numerous online apps as well as the usual Outlook/Note functions but what has always worked best for me is a simple spiral bound notebook in which I can write my to do lists, then tear them out when I’m done or need to re-write one.

Plus I can carry it everywhere easily and it takes 2 seconds to open up and scribble something in, instead of the time it takes to power up the laptop.

Lea Woodward from Location Independent Living (rss)

My most effective to-do list is a single sheet of paper in the middle of my desk with a short list of things I want to accomplish for the day.

Note-taking.

I have tried just about every electronic method of taking notes including trying a dozen different desktop programs as well as features for my Treo.  In the end, there is nothing more conducive to learning for me than writing something down on a pad of paper.

It’s also an incredible tool for creativity - just take a pen, a pad of legal paper and do a brain dump on whatever problem you’re working on.

Jared Degnan from Vanderbilt OwenBloggers (rss)

The only thing I’ve found that works better than paper note taking is collaborative note taking with something like SubEthaEdit–where multiple people can type on the same document at the same time.  But that only works in specific situations.

In general I’d agree with Jared.  I find it much easier to think with paper when taking notes or brain storming.

I don’t have a PDA.  I just use a notebook.  I had a PDA once, but lost it.  The notebook is helpful because it forces me to look over my notes/contacts after an event to enter them into my computer.  Doing so helps me to remember whom I met and what I need to do next.  Also, if I lose it, I’m only out 69 cents!

Anne from Writers Cabal Blog (rss)

I’m not a big fan of double entry because I don’t feel it really helps me remember the material any better.  However, I’ve heard a lot of people say that this helps them, so it must work for some people.

There is still something to be said for a personal connection in your personal and business relationships. We often forget that business is really about people. We tend to do business with people we trust and trust is best gained by getting to know someone personally. So don’t forget to connect with people in person and over the phone as well as through email and other forms of digital communication.

John from Fiscal Musings (rss)

Good point.  I would add postal mail to the list as well.  Maybe I’m old fashioned, but there is something special about a physical letter coming in the mail.

If you’re talking about life in general, I use tech for all my work, so for anything that’s not work, I try to avoid using technology. I do read books from my PDA, so ‘try to’ is operative. Television is for people who haven’t got a clue what they’re living for.

If you just mean work, no – not really. I find that pretty much everything I do throughout the workday can be augmented and improved by technology.

http://www.joelfalconer.com from Joel Falconer (rss)

I tried to get away from reading so much on the computer by subscribing to some newspapers.  I was amazed at how much paper accumulates in just a week.

Fountain pens.

Brendon Connelly from BikeHacks
(rss)

I love fountain pens, but I’ve finally settled for a nice gel pen.  It is a bit more airplane and Kansas heat friendly.

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Cable Modem

Cable modems have the capacity to offer extremely high speeds.  Usually this is limited by the cable company.  In most places, you can get 1Mbps to 10Mbps downloads with .5Mbps to 2Mbps upload speed.  Cable modems share the bandwidth with other people on the same cable, so your speeds may be at least partially dependent on what your neighbors are doing.  Usually this isn’t too much of a problem, but it can become an issue if you need every last kilobit of bandwidth for something right at the point that your neighbor gets an overwhelming desire to download the entire Internet.

At my home office, I have a cable connection from SuddenLink that I primarily use as a backup for my AT&T DSL connection.  It only gives me about 2 Mbps down and .3 Mbps up, but it is adequate for most of my normal work.

DSL

DSL is offered by telephone companies and has less theoretical bandwidth than cable modems.  In actual practice, it is common to have bandwidth in the 6Mbps down and .75 Mbps range. Your speeds have a lot to do with how far you are from the central office (CO). DSL generally doesn’t work beyond about 14,000 feet of wire and even at that distance you probably won’t get the higher speed offerings.

On the plus side, DSL doesn’t share bandwidth with your neighbors–everyone has their own set of wires running back to the central office.

My primary Internet connection in my home office is DSL through AT&T. I have the DSL only option (also known as dry dsl or naked DSL) which means I don’t have to pay for a regular phone line. This works very well because between cell phones, Skype, Vonage, Grand Central and Ring Central, I really don’t need another phone number to deal with.

Satellite

There are two ways satellite Internet is set up.  One way uses a satellite dish for receiving data and a traditional dial-up phone line and modem for sending data.  For many people, this works out fine because normal web browsing requires very little outgoing data to request web pages.  The second type of satellite system uses satellite for both sending and receiving data so you don’t need to tie up the phone line.

The biggest problem with satellite is the latency.  With the bi-directional systems, a single click sends a message up 21,000 miles, down 21,ooo miles, to the server, back up 21,000 miles, down 21,000 miles and then to your screen.  This process takes some time and it is common to have delays of around 1.5 seconds just for a packet of data to make it out and back.  This doesn’t have anything to do with your bandwidth–you get the same delay no matter what.  With the modem/satellite combo sytems, the delay is supposed to be a little less.

Regardless of what system you use, the delay makes it nearly impossible to use satellite for things like VoIP or video conferencing. ( I once had a friend try using Vonage on a satellite connection and he was getting a delay of 5 to 8 seconds from when he would say something into the Vonage phone until he heard it on his cell phone.)

Still, in some areas of the country, Satellite may be the only available option. It works well for email and other services that aren’t directly interactive over the network.

For a while I had a satellite system (Wild Blue) setup for my parents who live in a rural area.  It was always a pain to use, but still better than the dedicated dialup line they had for years.  We moved them over to EVDO which has been a significantly better experience.

EVDO/HSDPA

EVDO is currently offered by Sprint and Verizon.  HSDPA is offered by AT&T.  As you can probably guess, these technologies work over the cell phone network.  EVDO speeds are around 1.5 Mbps down and .5 Mbps up.  HSDPA is supposed to be quite a bit faster, but from the people I’ve talked with, it sounds like it isn’t much faster in actual practice. Speeds are very dependent on your signal strength.  (AT&T is supposed to be upgrading their HSDPA infrastructure to HSDPA+ which will offer significantly faster speeds.)

Aside from the slower speeds, other drawbacks include the cap on usage and high price.  Most companies cap the usage at 5 Gigs per month.  If you just use it occasionally, this isn’t too bad, but it makes it difficult to use as your primary connection if you are a heavy Internet user.  The cost is usually around $70 per month with a two year contract.

It is also possible to use your phone as a modem to connect to EVDO or HSDPA.  In some cases, those data plans are less expensive.

I use a Sprint EVDO card for when I’m traveling or working from a rural area where I don’t have any other option.  I also have the ability to use my Blackberry as a bluetooth modem on my Mac, but I usually don’t.  I also have a router that allows you to plug in a card and a phone in order to balance your traffic over both of them at the same time.  This doesn’t work quite as well as it sounds, but it can be helpful if you have several computers all running at the same time.

Dial Up

Dial up is one of the slower options.  You are looking at speeds in the .02 Mbps to .05 Mbps range. For years, my parents used a dialup connection for internet on our family’s farm.  I put in an older Apple Airport with a modem and it was hooked to a dedicated phone line and would automatically dial out to the ISP whenever someone tried to use the Internet.  It was very slow, but it worked well for checking email.

Of course, by the time you pay for an extra phone line and the ISP, you start getting into the range of what a satellite connection will cost.

Wireless

Many parts of the country have wireless internet service providers (Wisps).  They use technology similar to the Wifi networking you use in your house but with a longer range.  Often these types of systems will require an antenna on the outside of your house with line of site access to the tower.

Speeds are very dependent upon the company and the technology they are using.  I have used systems with 7Mbps both ways, but most of the wisps in my current area offer speeds that are more in line with an EVDO or slow DSL connection.

WiMAX

WiMAX is fairly new technology that is just starting to be deployed. It is seen as the successor to EVDO.  Right now Baltimore is one of the few places I’m aware of that has it.  I’ve heard of people getting speeds as high as 7 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up.  Most users seem to get about half of that with a good signal.

WiMAX sounds like it will have a much lower price point than EVDO without the bandwidth caps and will be marketed as a replacement for a home connection–not just something to use on the road.

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1. Connectivity

Does the phone connect well with your computer and other devices?  Some phones have bluetooth and can keep your address book synchronized every time you come near your computer.  Others require a USB connection.  Some only have synchronization software that works with particular operating systems.  Make sure you know that the device will connect with the things that are important to you before you buy it.

2. Email

People are using their phones for email more and more.  Make sure you understand not only what the device is capable of, but also what type of data plan you will need to get it to work.  The ideal setup is having full syncing for contacts, calendars and email over the wireless network.  If this is set up right, you should be able to add a contact to your desktop computer and pull it up on your phone within a few minutes without needing to do anything else.

3. Battery Life

My Blackberry will last two or three days on a single charge.  Many phones will only last 12 to 18 hours.  Make sure you get a phone that has battery life that is compatible with your usage patterns.  A phone is only useful if it has power, and if you may only have a chance to charge it every other day, make sure you get a phone that isn’t going to be constantly going dead on you.

4. Network and Bands

Different areas use different types of cellular technology that aren’t always compatible.  For example, it used to be very difficult to get GSM coverage in rural America.  This has gotten a lot better over the last few years, but it is still a big issue if you travel internationally.  There are many areas where CDMA just won’t work.  Some phones are designed to work on many different systems (more on this later).

5. International Usage

If you plan to use a phone internationally, make sure you understand where it will work, where it won’t and what types of plans are available.  If you do extensive traveling, it might be cost effective to get a SIM card at your destination.  Make sure your phone supports using a SIM card from a different cell phone company.  Some of the international phones will let you add a SIM card (GSM technology) even though they are sold from a CDMA carrier in the US.

Be sure you understand how the data plans work internationally.  I’ve heard many horror stories about people coming back with thousands of dollars in cell phone charges because they checked their email overseas.  In my experience, Blackberry is one of the few phones where you can get a flat rate on international data usage.

6. Keyboard

If you plan to use your phone for responding to email or typing SMS messages, make sure they keyboard is easy to use.  I’ve tried a number of different keyboards and have given up on using anything other than a full QWERTY layout.  I know there are people who can type 40 WPM using a regular numeric pad, so you may be fine with a different type of keyboard.  Just make sure the keyboard supports the way you want to use your phone.

7. Airplane Mode

If you spend a lot of time in a plane, it might be worth getting a phone that you can use with the wireless turned off.  This is useful on planes so you can answer emails, play games, look up contacts, etc. in an “offline” mode.

8. Software

It is worth considering the software that is available for your phone.  The iPhone has a very extensive app store with all kinds of different programs.  Blackberry has recently released an app store as well. It may be worth browsing some of the offerings before deciding on a phone so you’ll have an idea of what third party programs might be useful to you.

9. Standard Charger

It is much easier to keep your phone charged if it uses the same charger as some of your other devices.  The standard seems to be converging on a USB connection.  However, some phones use a standard USB connection, but will only work with specific brand chargers.  The Razr V3 is like this.  If you try to charge it from a standard USB cable, it won’t work. (There is some software for the Mac that works around this, but it is still a pain.)

10. Additional Memory

If you may want to expand the memory on your phone, make sure you know what it is capable of.  For example, just because a 4 GB card will fit in your phone, doesn’t mean that the phone’s operating system is capable of utilizing all that space.

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Describe your computer system setup and tell what parts you feel are most important for your productivity. (679)

I was surprised at how many Mac users we had.  Obviously everyone’s setup is based around their particular needs, but there are some great tips in here.

OS X itself is great for my productivity. In the year and a half I’ve been using a Mac, I’ve had only a few trivial computer problems, all easily solved.

The two programs that most add to my Mac productivity are Quicksilver and TextExpander. To my mind, Quicksilver’s versatility alone is a good reason to use a Mac. TextExpander, like the Windows programs AllChars and AutoHotkey, cuts down on all sorts of repetitive typing.

Michael Leddy from Orange Crate Art (rss)

I’ve had significantly more issues with my Mac, but I’m pretty hard on computers and I still prefer it to my windows machines.

My system is an iBook G4 on an iCurve laptop stand, a wireless keyboard, a wireless mouse, a Lacie external hard drive, a powered USB hub, JBL Creature II speakers, a Samsung 22″ monitor and a generic printer.

The most important parts are my second monitor and my speakers.  Having a dual-monitor set up is an incredible time saver.  You don’t really realize how much time you waste switching between windows and programs on a single monitor until you can spread out your work between two.  Being able to have research side-by-side with my word processor, and not have to scroll around to see everything, is awesome.

Also, I am a very auditory person.  I need music to get things done.  When I’m having a hard time concentrating, turning on some soft music really helps me to shut out my environment and get focused on the task at hand.  If I have to do something relatively mindless and repetitive, it helps to turn on some upbeat and exciting music.  I wouldn’t be nearly as productive if I didn’t have my beloved speakers.

Sam from Sam I Am (rss)

Personally, I find music distracting while I try to work, but I do have a set of M-Audio speakers that work very nicely when I do need to listen to something.  Up until about a year ago, I would have voted for a dual monitor setup.  Now I have a 30 inch screen and have found a prefer it to having multiple monitors.  Of course, I haven’t tried dual 30 inch displays….I might like that even better.

As far as hardware is concerned: I have a very regular Windows setup, with a 22″ TFT widescreen monitor (my biggest asset really).

I tried a lot of programs for my GTD setup, but none of them survived (it’s on paper now). Applications I use:

• Firefox with a bunch of plugins
• Gmail as my email productivity epicenter, everything gets handled from there.
• Google Reader for my feeds.
• WordPress. My blogging platform, I love it!
• Crimson Editor for writing code (tabs and colors).
• Joe’s Goals for my daily check-in on goals and habit changes.

I have tried writing blog posts with full screen text editors like Darkroom, but they only added an additional layer between me and the end result.

To summarize, I look for (preferably online) applications that perform the action I need as direct as possible, and have easy to use interfaces.

Lodewijk van den Broek from How to be an Original (rss)

I’m impressed with how much Lodewijk is able to do with online tools.  I generally try to get real applications because the internet isn’t particularly fast in this part of the country and I sometimes am trying to work from places with very poor connectivity.

MacBook Pro. 250GB hard drive, 4GB RAM, 17″ high def screen that has the equivalent pixels of a 24″ monitor.

I don’t stay in one place all the time, so I need a machine that can do it all, wherever I am.

OSX allows me to save a ton of time with menial tasks. Between Quicksilver, Automator, and TextExpander, I save thousands of keystrokes.

Additionally, the built-in iSight camera is very excellent for video conferencing with staff in other cities and states.

Brendon Connelly from BikeHacks (rss)

This is similar to the laptop I use.  The HD display is very nice although most of the time I’m using an external monitor.

I do all of my work on a laptop, even though it is several years old.  I have a much *better* desktop, but I use that mostly for photos/music, since I have no desire to be moving stuff back and forth, and potentially forgetting something important.

Some things that make me more productive: multiple monitors (3 total), using software like SlickRun, Launchy, AutoHotkey to get things going faster.  For example, I have a gazillion date formats input into AutoHotkey, so whatever program I’m in, I can immediate enter a date in the right format.  And not just today’s date, but yesterday, tomorrow, x days from now (x < 7), x weeks from now (x < 4), etc.  I’m lost without that script.  Plus my favourite note-taking-life-organizing software – EverNote 2.2 (avoid the new beta – it’s not powerful enough!).

GTD Wannabe from GTD Wannabe (rss)

Three monitors.  I’d like to see a snapshot of his/her desk.

I actually work with two computer systems.

In the office I have a Windows PC with Outlook 2007 as my productivity dashboard. To process e-mail I right-click-drag the message to the tasks folder to convert them into tasks. After processing my e-mail I switch to the calendar (with the to-do bar visible) so I won’t be distracted by incoming messages. I have created my own views in Outlook to show me only the information I actually need. Another important tool is ActiveWords, for which I have created several scripts in order to create tasks and notes with just a few keystrokes. Besides e-mail, I receive a lot of action items through IM, which I simply highlight and convert into tasks via an ActiveWords script.

At home I have a macbook, and my productivity dashboard on that system is the combination of iCal and OmniFocus. Also here it is important to be able to generate tasks and appointments as fast as possible, in this case aided by QuickSilver (I still have to dive into AppleScript). Lately I have started using Spaces in order to keep my screen
less cluttered.

I have automated the communication between those two systems through e-mail messages. With a single AW keystroke I can bring up a pop-up window on my office PC, type in a message, after which it will generate a specially formatted e-mail message to my home address, where it will be automatically imported into OmniFocus.

Jeroen Sangers from El Canasto (rss)

This is an interesting setup.  I’ve used ActiveWord on the PC before and it is a pretty nifty little application.

Having a laptop is most important to my productivity. I’m not bound to my desk to get work done. If I get a case of cabin fever, I take to the forest behind my house or a nearby coffee shop if I need wireless access. I can work anywhere.

Erin Doland from Unclutterer (rss)

Most of the time my laptop sits on a shelf under my desk hooked into my external monitor, but it is very nice to be able to quickly packup and head somewhere else to work.  Before our daughter was born, I’d do a lot of work while traveling in the car.  It is a bit more difficult to concentrate with a two year old wanting to show you things out the window.

I have two different setups depending on the type of work I’m doing.  The first of the two is just a MacBook and the second is that MacBook with the external 20″ monitor, keyboard, and Mighty Mouse.  For all work besides that that’s going to have a lot of data copying, manipulation, and  graphics work, I prefer the lone MacBook, as it makes me focus on one task at a time and I have found that I get a lot more done without feeling like I’m working, since I can do it on the couch or other places that I find comfortable.

I write almost everything in Textmate, with a large document that has the working draft on the left and a smaller document to the right that has the basic structure of what I’m writing.  The minimalism of Textmate, combined with features that allow me to access needed functions without leaving the keyboard or program, have really helped me get my writing done, and having the structure of what I’m writing quickly accessible keeps me focused.

So, the most important part of the MacBook setup relevant to productivity is that it makes me focus, it makes almost any work I do more enjoyable, and, combined with Textmate, I have all of the features I need without having to juggle multiple programs.

Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)

This is an interesting perspective.  Sometimes cutting down on your screen real estate can help you focus a lot better.

My setup at work and home is pretty similar but I’ll use my work setup as I use it more often!

I have a PC (single monitor) and a G5 Mac (Dual Monitor). I have to say that I work probably twice as fast on the Mac thanks to the dual monitors, there’s little need to tab between applications which speeds everything up considerably.

My Mac also has a 24″ as one of the monitors and this large screen size really helps too.

Katy Whitton from Flipping Heck! Productivity, Project Management & Motivation Blog (rss)

Nice dual computer setup.  I have my MacBook Pro and a Linux desktop computer both hooked to my monitor and keyboard through a KVM.  There is a little button on my desk that I can hit to toggle back and forth.  It is fast and lets me get more out of my investment in a large monitor.

My computer system is very basic, but the big change I recently made was to get a second computer monitor. It has changed my life — I’m sorry to say!

I’ve been surprised by how much faster the extra monitor has allowed me to work.

Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project

I once read about someone who had added another monitor.   They said it helped their productivity until they realized they could watch movies on one monitor while working on the other.

I’ve got a Mac mini, an iBook G4 and a PDA phone (iPaq, I think). All these devices sync with each other so my most essential information is backed up and with me all the time.

The Cloud is also an essential part of my computer system setup, though a less physical component of it. The Cloud facilitates not only most of my information synchronization, but gives me assurance that I can access anything I need to without my devices (especially in the event of theft, damage or loss).

You can be productive on basic, consumer-level equipment, though I suggest maxing out your RAM – it’s cheaper than upgrading computers every two years.

http://www.joelfalconer.com from Joel Falconer (rss)

Getting devices to sync together is something a lot of people overlook.  I’ve got a reasonable system setup, but it still isn’t the full synchronization I’d like.

My system pretty much revolves around the Omni Group’s OmniFocus – it holds all of my to-do lists, reminders, and the like.  I try as much as possible to use my smartphone as my capture device, from which I’ll either send myself an email or use Jott, depending on the circumstances.

The phone also keeps my calendar and lets me know when I’m due somewhere soon.

I’ve also recently started using my little point-and-shoot camera to record meeting notes from the whiteboard at the end of team meetings.  Rather than take the time to write stuff down after the meeting, or have someone do it during the meeting, I just take a few pictures of what’s on the board and then type up notes as soon as I can.   

Sam Kale from Vanderbilt OwenBloggers (rss)

Using the camera to record whiteboards is a great idea!

I use a Vista computer at home with two monitors. At work I have a desktop and laptop that I use at the same time. Having two screens is a big help when writing or trying to use multiple programs at once.

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

I’ve been surprised just how often you can use two computers simultaneously.  I’m not sure how efficient it is, but having two computers on my desk, I do find I jump back and forth a lot.  I think I’d do it even more if they weren’t sharing the same monitor.

I use a Sony Vaio with WinXP. The most important piece is my Sprint Card.  With that, I get the WWW (Whatever, Whenever, WiFi or not) all the time

Mike Sansone from ConverStations (rss)

I’ve been pretty impressed with my Sprint card as well.  It lets me work from some places where the only other option is dialup or satellite.

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So you are paying an extra $7200 to save $369 per year. It will take nearly 20 years before you end up saving money with the car. Even if you consider that the government will give you something like an extra $2,100 off your taxes for buying the hybrid, it will still take nearly 14 years before you break even. Also consider that if you do manage to drive the car for a very long time, in 10 years it is probably going to need its batteries replaced making it even less valuable than the gasoline model.

But take some time to talk to anyone who purchased a hybrid and almost every one of them will tell you that they are saving money. Why? Because people are not good at actually evaluating cost vs. benefit.

The same thing happens with the way people manage their time. Pretty much anything you do to be more organized has a cost and a benefit. You have the up front cost of creating an organizational system, the cost of maintaining it, and the benefits in terms of productivity.

This past week I was working with some clients who had decided to reshuffle their laptops in order to be more efficient. However, the amount of time they lost in the transition negated any productivity gains they are likely to see for at least the next 36 months.

If a new tool will save you 5 minutes per day that is a gain of 30 hours per year. However, if it takes a total of 16 hours to learn, 8 hours to set up and 4 minutes each day to maintain, it is unlikely that it will ever really save you time in the long run.

Wireless email devices are a good example of this. Blackberrys and the like are incredibly powerful tools. But often they get used in ways that eliminate any benefit in productivity. For example, I can type 50 to 70 words per minute on my laptop. On my Blackberry, I’m lucky to do 15 to 20 wpm. So if I have to write 10 emails of 250 words each, the best I can hope for on my Blackberry is 125 minutes. The worst I can hope for on my laptop is 50 minutes. That means that even under the best conditions, using the Blackberry for answering a small number of normal emails costs me an extra 1.25 hours. Don’t get me wrong. A Blackberry is very useful–especially for reading email and sending short replies, but I see far too many people trying to use it for emails that should be done on a computer, not a thumb keyboard.

The point is, make sure you really understand when you are really being productive. Don’t let marketing spin make you feel like you are operating efficiently when you really aren’t. Don’t assume that a particular tool or process is a time saver just because other people are using it.

Back to the car example, it doesn’t matter if you feel like you are saving money. Feelings is what marketing is about. What really matters is if you are saving money. The same is true of your organizational and productivity methods and tools. Recognize that how you feel about something is probably a poor indication of its actual benefit.

(By the way, I hope there are some people who are saving money with hybrid vehicles. I have yet to meet anyone who is saving money, but there may be some specific situations where hybrids make sense. I haven’t done the math for someone who goes drives 30,000 per year, so perhaps it makes sense in that mileage range. Also, I am sure there are some people who buy hybrids from an environmental standpoint, so the cost vs. benefit isn’t their primary motivation.)

Originally published April 23, 2007.

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