Alan Stuart design blog

Time and Money

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:02:00 +0000

As freelancers we are all required to keep track of how much we charge and how long we work.
This is often much easier said than done. I was recently suprise when I used this great little application called Time edition.
As the manafacturers put it "

time management made easy

timeEdition is targeted at all users in a computer workplace who value detailed documentation of their working hours, whether they use it for customer billing or for monitoring the duration of individual projects.

Concept

timeEdition focuses on simple usability and a thoroughly clear overview for day-to-day use. What does this mean in detail?

Firstly, that users initially see only those functions that they need to record their daily working times.
These are: a function to stop and start recording, a display showing the recording period and customer, project and activity selections.

All other functions, such as creating and maintaining master data, export functions etc. can be easily accessed via dialog boxes opened from the menu.

Platform independent

The package includes program versions for Mac OS X and Windows as well as a Mac Widget".

So now we know how to track our time we NEED to know exactly what our time is worth.
This rate calculator will help you to work out what you need to make a profit and also what you need to earn just to break even.
Good luck.

Screen recorder

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:29:00 +0000

I have recently been in a position that required me to produce some insrtuctional screencasts.
After much searching online I found this. It is an open source recorder called camstudiothis is what the developers say.
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

* You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
* Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?
* You can create video tutorials for school or college class
* You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
* You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell
* You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them
CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased (no jagged edges) screen captions to your recordings in seconds and with the unique Video Annotation feature you can even personalise your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself "picture-in-picture" over your desktop.

And if all that wasn't enough, CamStudio also comes with its own Lossless Codec that produces crystal clear results with a much smaller filesize compared with other more popular codecs, like Microsoft Video 1.

You have total control over the output of your video: you can choose to use custom cursors, to record the whole screen or just a section of it and can reduce or increase the quality of the recording depending on if you want smaller videos (for emailing to people, for instance) or you can have "best quality" ones for burning onto CD/DVD.

But all of these features would be worthless if CamStudio wasn't easy to use ... fortunately that's not the case. CamStudio can be learned in a matter of minutes and comes with a comprehensive built-in helpfile, so if you do manage to get stuck, you can simply hit "Help" and get the answers you need.
So now you know go and give it a try. feel free to let me know how you got on.

Password manager

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:03:00 +0000

Hi here I know I promised to try and post more regulaly but as we all know things have a habit of popping up and making demands upon our time.
Anyway a new year an a new start.
My first orrering of this new year is an increadably useful tool that can be run from a pen drive and thus be carried anywhere. If like me you are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with all the passwords and usernames for various blogs, web mails, amazon, facebook etc then this will be a major help in you day to day life.
I looked at many password managers and this was the best, free and simplest to use.
First pay a visit to keepass and download the most recent version for use on your pen drive.
Now the best thing to do is vist this tutorial which is a short video that tells you how to set up and run this incredably usefull piece of software.
I have been using this for about two weeks now and have managed to rid myself of dozens of scraps of paper with various user names scibbled on them. try it out I am sure you will enjoy it.

Free Html editor

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:46:00 +0000

Hi in this post I want to introduce you to an open source web editor called KompoZer.
According to the developers " KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding."
KompoZer is based on Gecko, the layout engine inside Mozilla so it has an impressive pedigree.
To anyone who has used Dreamweaver this will not present a huge learning curve and will yield predictable results.
To those who wish to get involved in the web industry this may be be a good starting point and as it is free it is within the reach of everybody.
KompoZer allows design view as well as code view so it is very easy to see what is going on during your design progect.

Those who are familiar with the DreamWeaver interface will feel right at home with KompoZer:

WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor.
Integrated file management via FTP. Simply login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages on the fly, directly from your site.
Reliable HTML code creation that will work with all of today's most popular browsers.
Jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using tabs.
Tabbed editing to make working on multiple pages a snap.
Powerful support for forms, tables, and templates.
The easiest-to-use, most powerful Web Authoring System available for Desktop Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users.

So if you are just wanting to get started in web design or you are a company who wishes to start developing thier own inhouse web web site or intranet KompoZer may be for you.

Mind Maps for design workflow

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:37:00 +0000

I have recently discovered this invaluable piece of software by Edrawsoft called mind map.
This outstanding piece of software allws the user to create mind maps which are in their simplest form a graphical expression of a thought process.
This is particulaly useful when brainstorming with clients and also for explaining how a work process flows and the stages which must be put in place.
One of the main strengths of this bit of software is that data can easily be moved around as ideas change and blocks can be assigned different shapes or colours according to their priority.
I have used mind map a lot since i discovered it and it is very effective for outlining stratergies and decision processes to clients.
Whats more it is absolutly free. Go ahead and try it and feel free to give me your feedback.

Using colour schemes

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:03:00 +0000

As designers we all use colour on a daily basis and we often take it for granted that we can choose the perfect colour scheme.
What happens when a creative block occures? or when we cant find that ideal pallette?
Well there is help at hand.
Firstly there is office slayer an online offering that helps us to choose an ideal pallette from a base colour we can define. We choose a hex value for our base colour and office slayer presents a colour pallette based around this selection.
It will create 10 shades of the base colour at varying shades of opacity. The top row emulates opacity over a white background, the bottom over black (or colors of your choosing as of v1.4). The opacity values are 100% opaque, 75%, 50%, 25% and 10% on the top row. The bottom row begins at 85% rather than 100% and continues on as the first.

If you require somethin a little more sophisticated then there is Adobe Kuler pronounced colour this is also a free online application for selecting colour pallettes. However Adobe has a huge range of pre ordered pallettes for us to choose from we can also search for particular pallettes by tag or even upload a picture to act as the basis for our colour pallette.
Adobe Kuler is without doubt a fantastic resource as it also has a forum with many helpful members and an ever growing community of like minded members.

Fantastic file sharing

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:53:00 +0000

Sorry for my recent absence I have had many domestic duties to perform. However I am now back and hoping to be posting every week.

I have just been sent a link to a new piece of software called Get Dropbox whilst still in it's beta stage it is available for sign up.

Get dropbox is a free application which allows the user to place files in a particular folder and be able to retrieve theses files from a remote login via a web browser. Not only this but it also allows you to share files either with others subscribed to dropbox and assigned shareing privilages by you or by sending out a link to particular files within get drop box.
I thouroughly recomend this bit of kit so head over to Get dropbox for their tour and sign up today.

Data recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Sorry I have not been posting recently but I have been very busy and just could not find the time.
With that said I would like to introduce you to something I have just found VERY useful.
As I am sure you have all experienced at sometime or another DATA LOSS. Well it was my daughters last day of school and she took in her digital camera to record the event and spent the whole day happily taking pictures of her class mates for posterity.
Last nigh she tells me that ALL the pictures have gone both she and I were in a bit of a panic so I will share the recovery process with you to save you the many hours it took me to solve this problem.
First of all don't take any more pictures as this can cause problems writing data over the original source.
Secondly I downloaded a bit of software called Pandora recovery and installed it on my system.
The next step is to connect your camera or other media device and run the software.
You will see the file being recovered now all you have to do is copy and paste them to a safe location on your computer.
And thats it done.
Good luck.

Getting Started

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:12:00 +0000

So we have set up our computer and created our office environment and have some image editing tools at the ready, now what?
Well we can start to create our own stationary and logo for a start. This is where some DTP ( desk top publishing) software come into play.
Fortunately we have some choice here not only in terms of which application but also the following DTP applications are available for PC or MACs.
The good people at Amaya which is a free open source editor hosted by W3C. Features include: CSS and XML editing, scripting, built in validator, WYSIWYG and color coded XHTML editing. Amaya is written in C and is available for Windows, Unix platforms and MacOS X.

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats.

Scribus is a free open-source program that brings professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

So there we are you can now start making some exciting new stationary to get you started.

Partitioning Your Hard Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:46:00 +0000

I have mentioned in previous posts about partitioning your hard drive and I feel I need to perhaps explain some of the merits.
I partition my own HDD and I have divided it up into different sizes according to the data to be stored. For example "data" where I store all my paperwork is 15GB "applications" where my software is stored is 20GB my "image store" where I keep all my photographs is 60GB and my "C drive" where my Windows operating system is stored is 43GB etc.
The reasoning behind this process is that by storing all your data in separate parts of your hard drive you are preserving them from misfortune.
If I have a problem with my computer and I do from time to time I can very easily format my "C drive" with windows on then install a fresh copy of windows and ALL my other data including my e mail (see first post) is still safe and available to me.
The process to do this appears a little daunting at first but it really is very easy, simply follow the instructions provided.
The good people at partition logic have provided an excellent piece of freeware to allow you to do this in the words of their manufacturer.
Partition Logic is a free hard disk partitioning and data management tool. It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes. It can copy entire hard disks from one to another.
Some say that partitioning will slow your machine down and deteriorate its performance but I have not noticed this to be true and have been a firm advocate of this procedure for many years.

Free Image and Photo editors

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:37:00 +0000

In this post I will be introducing you to image and photo editors.
Not every body has deep pockets and with Photoshop CS3 currently retailing at £569.88 for the full version and £163.32 for the upgrade they do need to be deep.
However do not despair if you need an image editor then there are other options.
Firstly there is the Gimp which is a popular open source image editor often hailed as the free photoshop.
Secondly there is Serif photo plus which offers the usual range of features one has come to expect in an image editor. Not as powerful as Photoshop but an ideal tool for beginners or anyone who wants to test the water before committing any money to the world of image manipulation.
In addition to this there are some fun tools which are free to use at flickr and some of these can be found here.
I hope this post has been helpful please feel free to contact me if there is anything you would like to have featured in this section.

Complete free office software

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:38:00 +0000

For my second offering in the world of free software I can do no better than recoment the excellent OPEN OFFICE.
Open office is a REAL alternative to Microsoft office.
I have been using it for a couple of years now and can't see myself returning to the Microsoft counterpart.This realy is an essential piece of kit and will provide you with a fully functioning office suite for FREE.

WRITER
Is an invaluable & easy to use word processor offering many familiar functions & tools that helps improve the writing process
Calc
Is a unique spread sheet program that differentiates itself by providing a number of time-saving features not available in other software.
Impress
Is an innovative multimedia presentation program that enhances the creative process. Your presentations will impress with its special features.
Draw
Is an effective, expressive and versatile tool to help draw plans, graphics or diagrams
Base
Effortlessly creates and handles databases for forms, reports and other entries while providing easy access to all entries.
Math
Builds and edits mathematical formulas that can easily be anchored inside your documents.

And as if that wasn't enough, to save you even more money you can enjoy Free digital post it notes on your computer screen.
Stickies are virtual post it note that can be configure to any colour and even have alarms set to them and much much more I use them all the time to remind me of things and a great feature is that they do not dissapear when you turn off your PC as soon as you reboot they reappear.

Easy e mail solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Stuart) — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:52:00 +0000

Hi I would like to start off my first ever blog post with a fantastic time saving tip.
In reality there is a little work to be done before you reap the rewards but believe me it is worth it.
I have just had to reformat my hard drive and once upon a time this would have involved a lot of stress involving trying to back up my e mail and then trying to reinstall it later on. That is a thing of the past.
Down to business.

Firstly you need to partition your hard drive. This effectively divides your hard drive into two or more virtual sections to do this I use a piece of software called partition magic.
Partition magic takes all the stress out of partitioning your drive.
So now you have partitioned your drive you should have at least two partitions your C drive and your newly created drives the one we will be dealing with should be your D drive.
Now we are going to install our new FREE e mail client called Thunderbird Portable.
We will install this on our D drive the beauty of this is that we can literally drag this mail client onto a memory stick and take it anywhere we wish and access our e mail as though we were at home.
So now we have our e mail sorted we might want to add a calender and task list so that it is more like MS Outlook we can easily do this by downloading and installing the FREE extension Lightning.

So there you have it a Free mail client you can drag and drop anywhere and when you have to format your hard drive you only format the C drive leaving all you mail safe and sound.