Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is coming. This is a good time to continue my Take 5 Series by focusing on five free tools and plugins for which I’m thankful, because they make life easier.
1. WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin
WordPress as a blogging and CMS platform updates often, some say too often. The latest upgrade fixed a few critical bugs and a security issue. The updates were minor, but the time to upgrade the software can be time-consuming. Alas, I’ve learned to rely upon my trusty plugin - WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Updating to WordPress 2.6.5 took 5 minutes instead of 30 minutes or more. This is one plugin to which I’ve donated in support of their efforts. Here’s why:
- The process of uploading to new versions of WordPress software are almost automatic.
- WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin also backs up your WordPress files!
- It automatically puts your site into maintenance mode, downloads the latest version of WordPress, copies the files over to your server, makes the site live again, and then cleans up all your old files. Whallah!
2. All-in-One SEO Plugin
Every time I create a new post, I’m thankful for “out-of-the-box SEO” provided by the All-in-One SEO Plugin. WordPress is not search-engine-friendly by default. WordPress page names contain question marks without keywords. Each WordPress post shows on the home page, category and archive pages. Content that is shown in multiple places like this presents duplicate content issues, which is bad for search engines. Such issues are not a concern when you use this plugin.
Of course, All-in-One SEO plugin DOES NOT do keyword research for you, or write content that is keyword-rich or get incoming links for you. But it does “fix” the structure of WordPress so your site is “friendly” for the search engines to find your keywords and content. It’s a great plugin for those who are not technical. It’s also worth giving the developer a donation!
3. Notepad++
I use Notepad++ daily. This free software is great for taking more than notes. It’s a text editor that rocks for programmers as well. I often use it to jot down initial blog ideas during moments of inspiration. Because it’s a text editor, it’s a great place to “cut and paste” content to remove unwanted formatting code from Word or from a Web page. If you want clean HTML, you have it with Notepad++.
Open Notepad++ files are presented in a clean tabbed interface. I learned this week that you can right click on a tab to delete a file from your hard drive. Cool! It’s one of the highest rated text editors available. You can’t beat that for free!
Download Notepad ++ and try it for yourself. You’ll be thankful, too!
4. Picasa
Picasa from Google is another free tool I use often. I own Adobe Photoshop as well as Fireworks. They are super and not free. Why am I so thankful for this free photo editing software? Picasa indexes (catalogs) all your photos. You can preview them and batch edit. When I have a set of photos I want to quickly edit, Picasa is my choice tool. I open a library of images and quickly work through each image to brighten, sharpen and remove red-eye!
Their tagline says it well:
The easy way to find, edit, and share your photos
I don’t use their “share” feature when uploading to Yahoo!’s Flickr <cough>. This is one Google property for which I’m very thankful!
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Okay, #5…I’m now challenged. Since I sat down with a spirit of thankfulness about my free tools, I realized how thankful I am for many tools. If I think “FREE,” my choices are narrowed. hmmm… I’ll have to continue this approach with a separate post. Since I’m an information junkie, my final choice today relates to incoming streams of information – RSS. (No, I’m not going to talk about Twitter.)
5. Netvibes
Netvibes wins as one of my top five tools I use daily. I recently added Netvibes to my information quiver. It’s an RSS reader that absolutely rocks your socks off!
I’m almost “over” Google Reader, which feels like removing a once favorite food from your diet. The current challenge is to clean out my Google Reader pantry, to determine which RSS feeds I don’t consume anymore, and throw them away. The sites I include as a regular part of my information diet are added to my Netvibes home page. I’m still learning the possible recipes for using Netvibes. I’d like to spend a day in the information kitchen and play with various RSS ingredients and options. It’s a tasty RSS reader for creating your own home page to digest news, blogs, delicious and more.
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Take 5 minutes to be thankful for the tools you use each day. This time of year is a good time to be thankful for tools, plugins and software and how technology has enhanced our lives. For Christmas, consider what tools you can “wrap and share” with your friends and family.
Tags: All-in-One SEO Plugin, Netvibes, Notepad++, Picasa, WordPress Automatic Backup Plugin