10 Weeks of Free Tools Every VA Must Have – Week 3

Posted on August 21, 2007 
Filed Under Our Favorite Products, Tips & Tricks, Virtual Assistance

Last week we discussed a variety of tools that Google has to offer virtual assistants, or anyone else who finds them useful. Now on to…

Week 3: Just Plain Handy Tools for Virtual Assistants

Sometimes you come across something so handy that it’s hard to believe you didn’t think of it yourself. I wish I had thought of the following handy-dandy little tools myself, but either way, they have made my life simpler. They may not shed hours off my week, but I cannot live without them.

Lorem IpsumLorem Ipsum Generator: If you design newsletters, websites, templates, or any other type of collateral for your clients, then you’ve probably entered some filler text in the designs to give your clients an idea of how things would look once you began adding the content. You’ve probably used something like “Your text here. Your text here. Your text here…” to simulate paragraphs. Well, the ultimate dummy-text generator, Lorem Ipsum, offers a much smarter way of doing this.

There isn’t any guessing with the Lorem Ipsum Generator. Simply tell it how many paragraphs, words, bytes, or lists you want. It then generates the text, you just copy and paste, and you’re done!

FavIcon by PicsFavIcon from Pics: Have you ever wondered how to create your own favicon that would show up in your visitors’ address bars when they visit or bookmark your site? Well, using FavIcon from Pics, it’s easier than you think! FavIcon from Pics will create a still or an animated favicon from regular images, such as a picture, a logo, or a symbol. The images can be any size and any resolution. The program will provide you with a nice little image file to upload to your web server, along with full instructions. Back in 2006, I wrote a blog article about how to do it. You can check it out here.

PlaxoPlaxo: Plaxo has come a long way, baby! It has recently undergone a facelift and now offers a lot more features. Plaxo is the only online address book and calendar that syncs with Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Macintosh, Thunderbird, and mobile phones! Simply import your existing address book, and Plaxo will keep you up to date. Basically, each time you update your information or your friends update theirs, it will automatically synchronize your address book—all without emailing your entire list to tell them that your email, phone number, or address has changed. Plaxo also comes with a De-Duper, which finds and fixes duplicate contacts and events so you don’t have to. Plaxo will remind you of your contacts’ birthdays, and you’ll receive an alert whenever your contacts change their information.

But Plaxo doesn’t stop there. You can download several toolbars that work with your existing software (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Internet Explorer, Mac OS X, and AOL Instant Messenger) to make it even easier. You can sync with your LinkedIn account as well. You can also sync your tasks and calendar, add notes, and manage your Pulse. What’s Pulse? Pulse is a new feature that brings all your contacts’ online activities to you, from Flickr photos to blogs to Amazon wish lists and more.

If it isn’t enough to keep your contacts up to date, you’ll be amazed by the best feature—Plaxo Online—which can be accessed from anywhere. Have you ever left for vacation without your address book, and then you realized that you forgot to ask your neighbor to pick up your mail, feed your cat, or just keep an eye on the house? With Plaxo, it’s no problem, as long as you have an Internet connection. Just sign in and look up your neighbor’s phone number. You can also check your calendar and read your notes, all online.

Microsoft Office OnlineMicrosoft Office Templates: Whether you’re in need of a budget worksheet, planner, expense report, memo, form, or even a babysitter checklist, Microsoft offers templates for everything under the sun. Once you find what you need, simply download the templates to your computer and you’re in business—all without the fuss of creating a document from scratch. Have you created a really nice template that you want to show off? You can upload your own templates to share with others!

Let me know if these tools help lessen the burden of your day. Please leave a comment with your own must-have handy tools, and don’t forget to check back next week for more free tools!

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Visual ThesaurusOK, I do have to share one of my favorite paid tools because I just love this site. If you ever find yourself at a loss for words or you are just looking for that one word that will make your article a masterpiece, I highly recommend the Visual Thesaurus. This isn’t anything like your hard copy thesaurus or the one in your word processing program; it is way beyond the realm of normal word association. Hear words pronounced, personalize your experience, and filter by content—all for only $19.95 per year. Visual Thesaurus has a 14-day risk-free trial, and there is no software to install.

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