Google Docs does have notification feature but it’s supported only in spreadsheets. But what when you want this feature in a Google Document, Slides, Form or Drawing?

You can use add-ons/extensions to monitor file changes but they are browser restricted and you should be physically available before the system to get notified of changes. Privacy is another big concern. How about creating our very own solution with Google Script?

How To Get Email Notification When Any Google Document is Modified?

Meet Google Doc Monitor script which will help you monitor literally any file in your Google Drive account and send automatic email notifications to any recipients you want whenever it’s edited or updated.

Let’s get started.

1. Finding ID of File you Want to Monitor

• Log in to your Google Doc account.
• Open the file you wish to track for updates.
• From address bar note down the unique ID of the file.

Example URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GE8N1Jv-eDquicjb5DrnO91SkNVY-Or1M0DKb_UZQtc/edit
File ID: 1GE8N1Jv-eDquicjb5DrnO91SkNVY-Or1M0DKb_UZQtc

2. Installing the Script

• Click here to open Google Doc Monitor Script (Version 2). Next select File-> Make a copy
• Select Tools-> Script Editor. Then Resources-> Advanced Google Services. Scroll down and toggle Drive API to on. Click on the Google Developers Console link on the bottom. Select Drive API under Google Apps APIs. Press Enable API. Close the page. Finally click OK from the previous pop-up.



• Now configurations are all done. Go back to the sheet and select Google Doc Monitor menu-> Authorize. Click continue and then Accept. This is an one time activity.
• Copy, paste the File ID which you noted down previously in cell C6.
• Enter email id of recipients to whom update notifications should be sent in cell C8. You can enter multiple id’s separated by comma.

Note: By default alerts will be sent to all editors of the documents. If you don’t want to send to any additional people other than editors just leave the cell C6 blank.

Bonus Tip: How to Monitor for Folder Changes in Google Drive?



• Select Google Doc Monitor menu-> Initialize
• Finally select Google Doc Monitor menu-> Start Monitoring

That’s it. Here on the concerned file will be monitored for any changes or updates and notifications will be sent as and when it happens. Polling is done once per hour.

Note: You can close the sheet once setup is done, monitoring will be done behind the scenes.

So did it work for you? Drop in if you have any queries or feedback’s.

Consider a scenario:

You are working in a group along with your team constantly accessing and modifying certain file. You always want others to have the latest version of the file with updated content. What if you find out that the changes you made are not synced? Google Drive application does not provide an option to trigger a manual file sync instead it does it automatically.

If you find that your files were outdated by days, what would you do to sync them or always have them in sync. Here is an app that I came up with to address this issue.

Force Google Drive to Sync Files and Keep them Updated

Meet Google Drive Force Sync, a tiny app which helps you keep your Drive content always in sync by forcing manual updates periodically.

How it Works?

As of now Google Drive app doesn’t have any option to force file sync manually. But there is one behavior of the app which we can use it to our advantage. Each time drive application is opened it scans for new files it has missed out to sync. So our app will be automating this, it will be restarting gDrive application every 5 minutes and hence triggering file sync and keeping contents as fresh as possible.

How to Install and Use the App?

1. Download and rename file extension(Press F2) from .abc to .exe. Then run Google Drive Force Sync.exe

2. That’s it. Now on, every five minute Google Drive app will be restarted automatically.

3. To terminate this app, right click it from task bar and click exit.

Note: Google Drive application should be installed only in default location under Program Files for this to work. Otherwise you will get an invalid path error message.

Tips and Suggestions:

1. Pausing and resuming sync sometime helps in forcing updates.
2. If there are files which are still not synced at all, you can right click on Google Drive icon on task bar-> select view unsyncable files and then click retry all.

So did it work for you? Have better suggestions? Feel free to share it with us!

Credits: This app is inspired by tip from binarybum

Recently Skype for iPhone got a huge revamp under version 5.0 release. It was remastered for iPhone to give a very slick, rich user experience.

Yes, interface looks good and easy on eyes, with flat minimal design being used it was made to look similar to Windows phone counterparts. It was made to be faster and smoother. But give all this still there was quiet a drop in average user rating in App Store after this version was released.

The reason is that many of the features from old version have gone missing in latest version. Users are literally outraged expressing their anger in official forum. Some features like receiving voice mail have gone missing but many other old features are still on, it’s just that they are hidden and not straight forward to use. This article discusses how to get back some of your old favorite features like deleting chat history, editing messages and many more.

Skype 5.1 for iPhone: Get Back Missing Features

1. How to Delete Chat History and Conversations:

This is one of the most requested feature by many users in various forums. You will be surprised that it’s already available it’s about where to find it. All you need to do is go to recent tab-> click and hold the conversation you want to delete. Now there will be pop up menu from the bottom from which you must select delete chat.

2. How to Edit/Delete a Sent Message:

Accidentally sent out a wrong message or with typo error? Click and hold the appropriate message now a menu will pop-out from which you can edit, delete or copy it.

3. How to Add Contact Name to Phone Number:

This is a tricky one. You can import contact from dial screen by clicking on phone book at top right. But the problem is that iPhone contact name does not get assigned inside Skype. Randomly for some contacts it shows up and for some it doesn’t. There is no option to add/edit name in the app, so we will use a workaround for this.

– Download Skype on your computer.
– Install it.
– Login using your Skype credentials.
– Select Contacts -> Add Contact-> Save a Phone Number.
– Give a name and type mobile number and click Add number.
– Wait for few seconds, log out of Skype in iPhone and login again you should be seeing name instead of just number.

4. How to Delete a Contact:

As before you can always use desktop version to delete, just right click on contact and select Remove from Contacts. In-App workaround is as follows: Click on the contact from people tab-> tap on the menu at right bottom(three dots)-> block-> block and remove.

Note: It will not just remove the contact but blocks as well so you must unblock to add them again.

Update: In Skype 5.2 it’s more easier, tap contact from people tab-> click three dots at right bottom-> profile-> again click dots at bottom-> remove contact-> remove

5. How to Set Mood Message/Status:

Let others know what mood you are in. Click on your profile photo at top right corner. There will be place holder stating “Enter mood Message“, tap on it and enter what you want and then click done.

6. How to See People Who are Online:

Go to people tab and click on the down arrow just below the search bar then from the menu, select online.

7. How to See Time stamp of Individual messages:

By default, just start time of the conversation is shown but if wish to see at what time a particular message was sent you should touch, hold the screen and swipe left. Now you should notice time across each texts on the right.

8. How To Send Photo/Video Attachments:

Click on the Skype contact to whom you want to send the file from people tab. Then tap on the pin icon at the bottom left. Click photo to send pictures and video message to make a live recording.

New Features Introduced in Skype 5.2:

[Update: July-08-2014]

9. Send and Receive Voice Messages:

Finally you can now send as well as receive voice messages. This should make many users happy. Make sure you have enabled it. Go to your profile-> My account-> Under Manage features select Voice messages-> Slide the switch to green and click Save changes.

10. View Profile of Contacts:

Click the contact from people list then tap three dots at left bottom-> profile. This should display you profile information about the contact or you can directly tap contact name on the top to see profile.

So did you like the tips? Have any features to suggest? Feel free to drop in.

He uses a standard folder template/hierarchy for his weekly report and wants to duplicate this folder structure every week. So he tries to make a copy of the folder in Google Drive but he’s unable to do it. Why because that feature is currently not supported.

All he can do is manually recreate entire structure which is a monotonous task or use desktop app. Have you faced a similar situation? Want an easier solution which works online from any browser? Here’s how.

Copy Folder Structure and Contents in Google Drive with Google Script

Meet GDrive Copy Folder script which lets you make copy of any Google Drive folder, duplicating the structure along with the contents in it. Below are the steps to get started.

1. Finding ID of the Folder You Want to Copy

• Login into your Google Drive account.
• Click on the folder you want to make copy of.
• From browser address bar note down the unique ID which comes after folder/.

  Example URL: https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#folders/0B6y7rBwoHlSvaXBzdjk0OC1tN0k
  Folder ID: 0B6y7rBwoHlSvaXBzdjk0OC1tN0k

2. Installing/Using the Script

• Click here to make a copy of the project (Version 2). Next click Yes, make a copy link
• Click GDrive: Copy Folder menu next to help. And select Authorize. Click OK then Accept. This is a one time activity.
• In B5 cell copy, paste the folder ID which you noted down in previous step.
• Finally select Make a Copy option from the menu.



Also see: How to Auto Save your Gmail Drafts to Google Drive for Backup
• Wait for few seconds. When the process has completed you will receive a success message.
• Now check your Google Drive account, a new folder would have been created with _copy in it’s name. Example: ABC Project_copy. If you wish to, rename it by right clicking.

You can easily extend this script even to schedule/automate this process so that copy of a particular folder is created at regular intervals. Please do drop in your comment if you want to know how.

Google off-late has been experimenting with new user interfaces in many of its products to give better user experience. Some of them are well received by the audience but few has brought outrage.

One such change was that of Google search result page redesign. If you are a regular user you would have noticed big differences which includes larger font size and hyperlinks without underlines.

Like many other users, I wasn’t comfortable with this change in-fact was experiencing headache whenever I looked into the result and was unable to distinguish one result from another.

Initially few users had thought it was their browser/system that was causing this problem and tried system restore, uninstalling add-ons, clearing cache but in vain. None of this is going to help since it’s an official design change made by Google.

Google Old Search UI – Bookmarklet

 
There are already some workarounds to fix this by installing add-ons. But if you want a simpler solution which works regardless of any browser, meet Google Old Search bookmarklet which lets you get back underlines to links & smaller font size in Google search result page which are ease on eyes.

Installation and Usage Instruction:

1. Drag, drop below bookmark(big blue button) to your favorite browser’s bookmark bar.

Google Old Search UI

2. Type-in your query and search as usual.

3. In results page click on the bookmark you just made and wait for few seconds. You will notice change to look and feel which you were previously used to and comfortable with.

Did it work for you? Wish to add any more customizations to the bookmarklet? Feel free to share your views.

Seemingly small length video can eat up large amount of your data without your knowledge. Videos could very well be the culprit behind exceeding data usage.

My broadband connection has been down for a while but to stay connected with the web am using 3G data connection from my mobile. 3G transfer rates are fast but pricey. So I try to be conscious about how my data is being used. When using YouTube I wanted to know the size of the video that I was about to watch. But could not find any tool on the web to show me this detail. Hence wrote a small bookmarklet to help us with this.

YouTube Video Size Finder – Bookmarklet

 
Meet YouTube Video Size bookmarklet that will help you find file size of any YouTube videos. No crazy calculations, with a click you can know the size. You can view videos of any resolution and bookmarklet will automatically recalculate size for you when resolution has been changed.

How to Install and Use Bookmarklet:

1. Drag, drop below bookmark(red button) to your browser bookmark bar. It can be installed on any browser.

YouTube Video Size

2. Open any YouTube video and click on the bookmarklet you just installed.

3. Size of the video will be shown just above the title.

You can also change the resolution of the video and wait for a while, size will be auto updated. To hide the message click on the X at right corner. Click bookmarklet again or toggle resolutions to show the size alert again.

Note: This bookmarklet might not work properly for HTML5 based videos on Chrome browser.

Video Demo:

Did it work for you? Helped you plan your data usage better? Do share your views.

Scribd is one of the biggest digital library featuring over 100,000 books from various publishers. As guest user you are allowed to view and read books online but with constraint of ability to see only limited pages.

Previous we wrote an article on how to download files from Scribd for free without an account which got a great response from readers but since then Scribd has changed its business model and beefed up their system and have become more stringent and all method listed were patched up. But you can still use our latest upload method to free download documents without registering/logging in.

Currently you have to pay $8.99/month to get unlimited access to books, download rights. Though you can try suggestions listed in our old article it was bit tricky for non-techie users. So in this article will share easier tips on how to get free Scribd trial account with extended subscription period without paying money.

Get Free Scribd Trial Account and Extended Subscription

 Use the below suggestions to save some cash.

1. Using One Month Free Trial Offer:

By default Scribd offers you one month free trial which you can opt for. It gives you privileged rights like unlimited access to books, ability to download member contributed files as PDF.

Credit card details are required to register but will not be charged. You should cancel the free subscription just in time(32 days) to avoid being billed hence you can enjoy one month of access without being charged.

2. Extending Free Subscription via Referrals:

• Register a Scribd account.
• Log-in to your account.
• Click profile settings on top right corner.
• Select Free Subscription!.
You might like: Download Author Disabled Files from SlideShare



• Now you will be seeing screen as below. You have various options to earn free subscription. For example sharing/liking on social networks gives you 1 week for each of your actions.
• Select Invite button and enter email ID of your friends. For each invite you get 1 day extra.
• Once you have piled up enough days start your free trial.

• When inviting, you can use dummy email ID’s they are considered valid!
• When your friend signs up(requires credit card details but not charged) via the invite you make he gets 2 months for free trial for just $8.99 and you get one month of extra bonus added to your account from referring him. Hence total saving of $17.98.
• Instead of inviting your friend you can even send invite to your secondary email ID and sign up via that referral link.
• Note: The key is to cancel the free subscription on time and make the most of what’s available.

Did you like above suggested tips? Have better suggestions/tricks to share with us? Feel free to write in.

Few main reasons for growing trend toward online shopping:

• Busy schedule and work timing makes it all that difficult to step out.
• Lower prices compared to that you get in physical stores.
• More, better product options to chose from.

Gone are those days when we were afraid to use our bank details online for shopping. Be it pillow, mobile, furniture , jewellery and what not is there to be bought just few clicks away.

One of the key driving force that makes us choose online purchase is the price factor. A product which you buy in traditional shops could very well be bought online with huge saving. Concepts like coupon, giveaways and cash on delivery makes it all that favorable to us.

Having said all this there are also few things which we need to consider. One of the most common compliments that many shoppers make about e-commerce websites is their habit of hiking and lowering price of products then and now.

In the name of offers, product prices are shot up and then discounts are provided against the same product giving an illusion to us as if we are making big savings.

As a shopper we always wish to get the best price. A smart customer does keep eye on the pricing of the item he is interested in, grabbing it at the right moment when the best deal is available.

To do this there are lots of price monitoring services which alerts you when best cost is available. Especially for Amazon there are lots of tools. But when I searched online there are very few, almost none for tracking product prices on Indian e-commerce websites. So why not create one for ourself?

Introducing Indian Online Shopping Price Tracker:

Price tracker which allows to track price of products on Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong, Myntra and Yebhi and instantly get alerts as and when its price goes down below the threshold which you set.

Track Product Price Drops in Top Indian E-commerce Sites with Google Docs

1. Installing the Application

• Login to your Google Docs account.
• Click here to make a copy of the Indian online shopping price tracker project. Click Yes, make a copy.
• Wait for sometime for the menu Shopping Price Tracker to appear next to help menu.
• Select Authorize App from the menu. Now click OK in the popup and then Accept button.

2. How to Use the Price Tracker Application

• There are two separate set of rows for each of the five supported company. I.e., Currently you can track price of two products per company.
• Enter the full URLs(including http) of the product you want to track on column B. Just go to the product details page instead of search result page and copy, paste the URL from browser’s address bar. Example: WD My Passport 1 TB External Hard Disk – http://www.flipkart.com/wd-my-passport-1-tb-external-hard-disk/p/itmdbefzmqcgzzgh?pid=ACCDBEF57FVN4CFT
• Now enter threshold price on column C. I.e., You will get alerts when price is equal or below the threshold.
• Enter valid email ID in B2 cell.
• Once all data entry is made its time to start the tracker. Select Shopping Price Tracker-> Start Monitoring Price and you can close the sheet.
• Similary if you want to stop alerts select Stop Monitoring Price.

That’s it from here on all listed products will constantly be monitored and alerts(like below) will be sent to your email ID as and when there are drop in prices.

Notes and Tips:

• Prices are checked and monitored every half an hour.
• To avoid receiving duplicate alerts about the same product remove(empty the cell) them from the sheet once you get an email alert about that item’s price dip.
• Create a filter and assign labels to better organize these alert emails.

Thanks Amit Agarwal for the inspiration.

So, was it useful? Were you to able to save some cash on your favorite products? Have suggestion/queries? Please feel free to drop in your comment. Do share this with your friends and family and help them save some bucks too

Many filmmakers, celebrities and lot of startups seem to prefer using Vimeo to promote their products.

Lets get straight into the topic about the issue I was facing in Vimeo site. For a while I have been having this problem of videos on Vimeo being unplayable when using Firefox browser [Browser version: 24.0; OS: Windows XP].

But the very same videos plays flawlessly on other browsers. When using Firefox all I see is the first frame of the video without any player controls thus making it impossible to play. Even embedded Vimeo videos don’t seem to play on Firefox.

Simple search on the web shows that I am not the only one who is facing such a problem. Many people seem to have raised this concern on official Vimeo forums. Here are some suggestions given by the staffs.

1. Disabling add-ons and starting Firefox browser in safe mode.

2. Clearing all cookies and restarting the browser.

None of the above suggestions helped me fix the problem, I even tried via private browsing. So if you are in the same situation go ahead and read on.

Why Vimeo Videos Does Not Play on Firefox?

Some Insights:

In Chrome, Vimeo serves video via HTML5 instead of using Flash but in Firefox it is served using Flash since H.264 video format is not supported in it currently.

Firefox since version 3 started using an approach to isolate certain plugins from the browser process so that crashing of those plugin will not impact the entire process. It’s called out-of-process plugins(OOPP) crash protection.

In our case the culprit seems to be Real Player plugin. Disabling crash protection of it seems to fix the issue.

How to Resolve this Problem?

1. Type about:config in address bar and hit enter.

2. Click ‘I’ll be careful, I promise!’ button.

3. Type dom.ipc.plugins.enabled

4. If it’s already set to true leave it as it is else double click on it to toggle the value.

5. Now right click, select New->Boolean then in preference name enter dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nppl3260.dll and click OK then select false as value and press OK again.

6. Close all windows and restart the browser.

7. Go to the concerned video. You should be seeing all player controls and will be able to play the videos unlike before.

So did the fix work for you? Are you to able to see Vimeo videos again on Firefox? Confused with the instruction or stuck in some step? Please feel free to drop in your queries.

[Hat Tip: JJ333]

Disclaimer: This article is purely for educational purpose. I cannot be held responsible if you are violating the terms and conditions of AuthorStream.

AuthorStream is web based PowerPoint sharing website where users can upload their files and share it with others.

The uploaded files get converted into Flash format so that the content can easily be viewed via browser. This site seems to have good collection of useful resources contributed by various users. Next time if you are in search of presentations this is one place you should not miss out.

As usual presenter/author of the document have control over the file, whether it should be allowed to be downloaded or not. My personal opinion is that if it has been put to be viewed on the internet, it should be allowed to be downloaded too unless it’s paid version.

So when the author has opted not to, you will see that download option is disabled and faded out. Only option left to you is to personally request the uploader and wait for his response but if you are in urgent need you could probably not settle with that option. In this article lets see how you can get the presentations from authorStream website though presenter has disabled the download option.

How to Download Presentations from authorSTREAM when Presenter has Disabled it?

As you might know it’s not the only presentation sharing site that puts in such restrictions. We have already discussed on how to download documents from Scribd and SlideShare when the uploader has disabled download option. Lets get started with the instructions.

1. Sign up for an account on authorStream.

2. Once it’s completed. Log-in to your account.

3. Go to the concerned document you wish to download.

4. Manipulate the URL in the browser address bar as follows and hit enter:

5. Now you will be taken to the mobile version of the site.

6. Presentation will be displayed as series of images. You can just right click on each on the image and select Save Images As. Select some location on your disk and save it. Navigate through the entire slide via controls at the bottom and save all images.

7. Open your Microsoft Office PowerPoint and create a new empty presentation.

8. Create new slides and start inserting images you downloaded, Insert-> Picture-> From File then select your image and click insert.

9. Do this for all images and save your presentation.

Were you able to download presentation you wanted? Have any other better solutions? Do share with us.