Snapshot to Screen Capture Tool

Mentioning two useful tools for capturing screen . Wanted to post both so that starters can use the more basic of the two.

DeskScan (http://paehl.de/home.htm) is a very simple to use utility for the basic screen capture and save it in different image formats. Also provides twain support. Quite easy to use. Scroll down and select the DeskScan option to download the tool.
The site, http://paehl.de/ by Dirk contains some real useful tools. Dirk has created some real pieces of gem which can be of real value for all. Trying my hands at few more of the tools by Dirk and would write about them soon. Thanks Dirk !!

QlipBoard (www.qlipmedia.com) is another useful tool for screen capture. Some of the features includes recording one's voice, drawing, typing, importing external images, etc. Very easy to use interface. The output is saved in .wmv format. QlipBoard provides a timeline at the bottom to manipulate with the screenshots, etc.
The post about Photobucket was because QlipBoard allows one to upload directly to Photobucket, Youtube, etc.
Latest is that QlipBoard is now available online as well.

Online Photo Sharing and Editing

Hi, Quite liked this tool/site, Photobucket. The site offers a good range of options and compatibiility with many other web platforms/ sites (http://photobucket.com/m). Haven't tried too many online photo sharing sites but this one impressed me because of the simple, intuitive interface. A single place for quite a lot of things one can do with images, photos, pictures.






Mentioning some of the features i explored

• slideshows creation
• multiple albums
• remixing
• creating your own avatar
• account settings where you can make your collection public or private.
• embedding options to share your collection.
• editing feature to edit your image online.
• support for a wide range of video formats - avi, mov, mpeg, mp4 and 3gp.

Not really a heavy photo sharer myself but somewhat liked this tool/ site. Hope you enjoy it too !!

Visual Tool for Geography

Hi, stumbled upon Visual Geography, www.visualgeography.com, a nice site featuring information and details about various countries of the world. Lots many images and data. Two good features are 'Comparison', where one can make a comparison of the selected country against other and 'Quiz', where one can attempt Quiz on the selected continent. The site provides lots many details about the countries like culture, lifestyle, language, people ,etc.

A good site to use !

Minimising Powerpoint Presentation

Not very keen to post about this but a good tool to work with existing Powerpoint resource.

PPT Minimizer is a useful tool to reduce the size of Powerpoint Presentation and could be downloaded from (www.pptminimizer.com).

Though allows only 12 presentations to optimize but worth a try and use. The best part is it saves the optimized presentation in the .ppt format only. Personally, have been able to reduce the size upto 85%.

Online Visual Dictionary

Hi, another worthy online dictionary tool at http://visual.merriam-webster.com/.
The search is detailed nicely. Though the themes/ categories are limited but still a good resource to try and use.

Another good feature that the site offers is the facility to embed the visuals in Blogs. Quite a useful feature for teacher bloggers.

Overall, a good resource !!

Interesting online dictionary resource - Onelook

Just chanced upon this extremely useful online resource for english words. The resource is Onelook (www.onelook.com), an online dictionary, reverse dictionary, thesarus, and much more. A very simple and intuitive interface that really invites visitors to use it. Whether you are looking for definitions, translations, synonyms, onelook (www.onelook.com) is the site for it.

Onelook offers a lot of intersting options like Reverse dictionary, wildcard search and a very powerful 'all dictionaries'. The 'Search all dictionaries' would present a category of dictionaries like General, Arts, Science, Religion, etc. Then there is the 'Customize' option which allows one to change the settings for onelook and mould it as per personal preferrences.

A must must try. Enjoy the resource !

Free Mind Map Tools

Mind Mapping is a technique developed by Tony Buzan, www.buzanworld.com . Mind map is a graphical representation of ideas, thoughts, etc. It is a useful technique to express ideas visually, brainstorm, teach, etc.

2 very useful mind mapping tools that i have explored are
FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download)
and Mindomo (www.mindomo.com).

FreeMind is an Open Source software and allows one to create mind maps and save them in various formats. A simple to use interface with all the basis formatting tools to create mind maps. The detailed documentation available at the website makes it easy to understand and use. FreeMind is created using Java and so requires JRE ( Java Runtime Environment) to be existing on the machine. JRE could be downloaded from SUN site (www.sun.com). The FreeMind download site also provides a link for downloading the JRE. When installing FreeMind, please ensure that JRE is installed prior to installing the FreeMind software. A very useful software to create mind maps and integrate it into blogs, wikis, etc. The latest version 0.9.0 has been released.


Mindomo is an excellent online mind map creation site. A nicely laid interface with lot many features enables one to create good, useful mind maps. It surely offers lot many features and options to make it a must try. The toolbar has sufficient tools to churn out beautiful mind maps. This online definitely scores over the offline one mentioned above. After creating, you may put your mind map in Public folder to share it with others and enable them to use it or else put it in Private folder.

Tried my hands at both to create some real basic mind maps as pasted below

Using Mindomo



Using FreeMind

VoiceThread - Free Online Photo/ Picture Sharing Tool

VoiceThread(http://voicethread.com ) is an excellent online photo/ picture sharing tool offering some really unique and exciting features. The basic idea behind the tool is to allow for sharing (photo/ picture) and building collaboration on those. The viewers can post their comments in so many ways like text, doodling, audio, through webcam, etc. A very comprehensive tool for those interested or inclined towards photosharing, slideshows, etc. Personally, would suggest you to go through the Help section and read the FAQs and Tutorials. The Help section is very well brought out and gives proper and complete details.

Enjoy the experience of creating slideshows and then adding multiple media to it.

Have Fun !!

Free GIF Animation tools

I mention two tools from the GIF Animation category. The tools are UnFREEz (http://whitsoftdev.com/ ) and Pivot Stickfigure (www.snapfiles.com/get/stickfigure.html). Pivot Stickfigure could be downloaded from other download sites as well.
Very simple and easy to use tools.

• Steps to create animation in UnFREEz are
  UnFREEz works in a drag and drop way where you simply drop in the GIF images in the UnFREEz interface
• Once the GIF images have been dropped in the sequence required, give some frame delay
• Click on 'Make Animated GIF' and save the final file
• Click on the saved file to view the animation

UnFREEz could be used with Paintbrush also

Pivot Stickfigure is very interesting software with some basic figure types provided. More figure types could also be created.

Steps to create animation in Pivot Stickfigure are

• Go to File---> New to open a new file and click on Next Frame or simply click on Next Frame
• Alter the figure by the hinges and again click on Next Frame
• Keep altering the figure by the hinges and then clicking on Next Frame
• Provide as many intermediate frames as you can to create a smooth animation
• Drag the scroll near the Play button
• Select 'Repeat' to put the animation in loop
• Click on 'Save Animation' and save the file as a GIF extension

Website Authoring Tool - EClass.Builder

EClass.Builder (http://www.eclass.net/ ) is a tool for website authoring. My first impression about this tool was that here is something similar to eXe but it is not so. Both eXe and EClass.Builder serve different purposes and different audience as well. EClass.Builder helps create tutorial website, manual website, etc. It provides an easy interface to add images, video, etc. but not an exclusive tool for educators. One major feature liking in EClass.Builder is the option to save it offline. Still a useful tool if used with the purpose/ aim of creating some manual/ tutorial, etc.