5

free IT tools to deal with Information Overload.

dubaifreelancers@gmail.com

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Dedication: Dedicated to fellow EHSians.

Premise: If you are like me, you spend at least 6 hours in front of the computer, at your workplace and/or at home. Apart from the obvious health issues, that this presents, we also have to process hundreds of emails, word documents, presentations, complicated excel sheets and deal with various information systems, shortcuts, usernames & passwords etc In short, it is very easy to get bogged down by information overload, in very short time. This is true even if you are working in a small to medium sized organization and have only a handful of personal files at home. Probably, we are trying to do many things in parallel aka multi-task, and need to refer to the past conversions/documents frequently*. Today, I would like to discuss about the later (information overload), and 5 free IT tools which should reduce the effort for daily mundane tasks and help you focus on things which are really important. Assumptions: I assume that Microsoft Windows (any version) is your primary operating system and that you use Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, Power point ). For my Mac and Linux buddies out there, you would have counterparts of the tools mentioned below in your world. I would love to hear about the tools you use to deal with these problems.

Thanks: My sincere thanks to the developers of the free software mentioned here.

Copy Left notice Use and share for everyones benefit.

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 3 5 Common Information Overload problems ................................................................... 4 5 free IT tools to deal with these problems! ...................................................................... 5 Problem #1: Quick File Search. ...................................................................................... 5 Free Tool #1: Everything ............................................................................................... 5 Problem #2: Email Search .............................................................................................. 8 Free Tool #2: Windows Desktop Search ........................................................................ 8 Problem #3: Repetitive Text ......................................................................................... 10 Free Tool #3: Texter .................................................................................................... 10 Problem #4: Quick Program Launch ............................................................................ 12 Free Tool #4: Launchy .................................................................................................. 12 Problem #5: Repetitive Actions .................................................................................... 13 Free Tool #5: Auto Hot Key ......................................................................................... 13 Feedback & Suggestions ................................................................................................... 14

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5 Common Information Overload problems

Lets take a look at some of the common information overload problems. 1) I have tons of documents on my PC. I dont remember where I kept them. I am tired of organizing them into folders and sub-folders. Windows search seems to take forever! Issue: File Search 2) I send and receive at least 30 emails a day! My archive PST files are huge. Microsoft Outlook search for email is dumb and slow! Issue: Email Search 3) I am worried I will hurt my fingers by typing Please find attached / Could you please look into this? over and over again. Is there any way to reduce the typing in outlook, word, excel Issue: Repetitive text 4) I have many programs on my PC. Is there any better way to launch the program, than clicking on Start button > All Programs > Program Folder > Program exe. E.g. Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Word. Thats 4 clicks for a program! Issue: Quick Program Launch without cluttering desktop or quick launch bar. 5) There is a repeated task, say Open Internet explorer, launch an application, login, and click on a link to see my assigned tasks. Is there a way to automate this? Issue: Repetitive Actions.

PS: If you cannot run these programs on your workplace PC, due to restrictions, you can at least use them at home, or share the knowledge with privileged friends who have the rights to run them at workplace

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5 free IT tools to deal with these problems!

Problem #1: Quick File Search.

Free Tool #1: Everything

Yes, thats the name of the tool Everything. Search as you type! No Search button Pre-requisites: You should have admin rights on your PC / Laptop. Contact your friendly neighborhood IT guy to check if you have admin rights. How to install? Get it from here http://www.voidtools.com/ Two ways 1) Either double click the setup file and continue setup OR 2) Extract the contents of the zip file (no need of installing) and run Everything.exe How to Configure? Practically, no configuration required. I have done the following additional configuration on my pc. You may set according to your preference. 1) Assigned short cut key WIN S, to show the search window. How? a. b. c. d. Right click Everything in the task bar. Click on Options. Select Win in New Window Hotkey Modifier. Select S in New Window Hotkey Key.

2) Disabled multiple windows. Only one search window at a time please. a. Right click Everything in task bar. b. Click on Options c. Untick Allow multiple Windows. 3) Told Everything to index my C and D drives. a. Right click Everything in task bar.

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b. Click on Options c. Select Volumes tab. d. Select the drives required. E.g. D. Then tick Check Media, Enable USN Journal Logging. By default C drive is indexed. How to Run? If you have configured a short cut key, press the key combination. Say WIN S. OR Double click on the Everything icon in the right bottom corner of your screen Windows Task bar. You will get a search window.

Type and the search results are reflected immediately.

Advantages: 1) Starts up in seconds with an index of hundreds of thousands of files on your PC. 2) Search as you type.

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3) Search by any part of the file name. E.g. if your file name is Budget Finance 2009-2010 version 2.10. Typing in any part of the file name say 2.10 will list this file. 4) Very low memory foot print and CPU usage. Unlike other search tools, this is an extremely light search tool. 5) Real time search! Keep the search window open. Type a non-existent filename into the search box e.g. Atrxy.txt. The search window shows no result. Create a dummy file Atrxy.txt on your desktop. Now look at the search window. The file is listed there! Disadvantages: 1) Cannot search contents of file. How does it work? What makes it so fast? For those familiar with technical jargon, Everything scans your partition table header. It works only on NTFS file system. For the non-technical lot, your hard disk is like a book. Everything merely searches Table of contents for the filenames, instead of scanning through the entire book.

Why not this other tool? 1) Why not Google Desktop Search? Yes, it offers file content search. But its a heavy weight application. It will eat your system resources and make it slow. Your whole hard drive is scanned and even the contents of your file scanned. Everything on the other hand needs only file names and hence reads this directly from Partition header. No need of continuous scanning! 2) Why not Windows Desktop Search? Same reason as above, and yes Everything is faster than Windows Desktop Search. In WDS, you still have to click Search and wait, Everything is search as you type!

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Problem #2: Email Search Free Tool #2: Windows Desktop Search
Pre-requisites: Requires admin rights to install. Contact your friendly neighborhood IT guy. This is a Microsoft tool. Hence, he shouldnt object How to install: Download from here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/default.mspx How to Configure? Practically no configuration required. However you can optimize by configuring that it need to index ONLY PST files (your outlook local files) and not other documents. If you let it to index all the files, it could consume considerable system resources.

How to Run? After the installation, it would usually take (depending on what you chose to index) a few hours for the search tool to index your files. You will see a search box added to your windows task bar. See the box below with Desktop in it.

Type in either subject of email, name of person who sent it or you sent to, an attachment name, anything. E.g. type john into the search box and click enter.

Now click Search Desktop In a matter of seconds, Windows Desktop will show you all documents, emails with the word john in it. To filter search to Email only click Email.

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Advantages: Faster than Microsoft Outlook Search Can be configured to search whole hard drive for documents and document contents. However, doing so slows down your pc. Disadvantages: Cannot search within emails that are archived into Enterprise Vault or any third party plugin.

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Problem #3: Repetitive Text Free Tool #3: Texter

Pre-requisites: None How to install: Download from http://lifehacker.com/assets/resources/2007/11/Texter%20Installer%200.6.exe User Guide available at http://lifehacker.com/software/texter/lifehacker-code-texter-windows-238306.php How to Configure? You should see the icon lh in your system tray.

Double click the icon , to launch the management window

Lets create a short form for Please find attached. Click on the + icon.

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In the popup window, in Hotstring area type pfa In Text area type Please find attached Tick Tab as the trigger. Now open Notepad or Word or Outlook, just about any place. Type PFA Press TAB Voila! Its replaced as Please find attached Now put your brain to work, and come up with ways to make use of this. I use it in many places. 1) Short forms for commonly used phrases, like the one mentioned above. 2) Short forms for boring and lengthy web addresses. 3) Short forms for letter templates! 4) Short forms for dummy data to be filled in while testing. 5) Short forms for current date, time, dynamic text!*advanced tip! How to Run? No special steps required to run. Replaces text automatically as you type wherever you are, based on keywords and trigger action (TAB / SPACE / ENTER) defined. Advantages: Your fingers will thank you!! 4 key press (PFA <TAB>) instead of 20 (Please find attached)! Disadvantages: None I can think of! PS: Do not create short forms for your username / passwords. All the short forms are stored in plain text. i.e., there is no encryption. Why not this other tool? Why not Microsoft Outlook Spelling correction? Yeah, you can hack Microsoft office to automatically correct PFA and please find attached. But, it would work ONLY in outlook right? Texter works in ANY application!

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Problem #4: Quick Program Launch Free Tool #4: Launchy

Pre-requisites: None How to install: Download from here http://www.launchy.net/#download How to Configure? Practically no configuration required. The default short cut key is ALT SPACE. You can change this by right clicking Launchy icon in the task bar. How to Run? Press ALT SPACE Type word, it will show you Microsoft word. Press ENTER!
This is much better than START > ALL PROGRAMS > MICROSOFT OFFICE > MICROSOFT WORD .. right ?

The key is that you use your keyboard for launching any installed program. No need of the mouse. Try typing <ALT> <SPACE> Paint <ALT> <SPACE> Word <ALT> <SPACE> Excel <ALT> <SPACE> Notepad To hide the launchy search box, press ESC Advanced Tip! Launchy can do Google search, Calculations, Web dictionary definitions.. all with plugins Advantages: Launch any EXE from your keyboard, without using the mouse and searching where the executable is! Disadvantages: None, I can think of. Why not this other tool? Why not use Everything tool and search for the exe? Yes, you can do that. I wont stop you. However everything will list all file types. Launchy will only list executable programs

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Problem #5: Repetitive Actions Free Tool #5: Auto Hot Key
Pre-requisites: Note: Usage of this tool definitely requires some background in programming. Take the help of your friendly neighborhood IT guy or the forums and discuss what repetitive action you need to automate! How to install: Download from here http://www.autohotkey.com/download/ Quick Tutorial available here http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm How to Configure? Practically No configuration required. How to Run? Use the AutoHotKey Script recorder to record your action. E.g. open internet explorer. Type www.google.com, wait till site is launced. Type a word. Click search! Save the script generated as test.ahk Double click the test.ahk file and you can see the recorded action perform automatically!! It is also possible to assign a shortcut key to this action. Advantages: Automate any action! You can also program full fledged applications with auto hot key, with user interface etc See the online documentation, and actions which people have already automated! 1) Run the calculator and add up two numbers. 2) Go to a website, login and click a link. 3) Open an excel , add some values, update an excel, connect to a database etc 4) And many more Disadvantages: Requires programming skills to configure. May not be possible to automate all actions. Is sometimes buggy/unstable. Why not this other tool? There are other tools. But this one is free and most easy to record actions as script and run again Page 13 of 14

Feedback & Suggestions

Have these tools helped you? Do send in you feedbacks and suggestions , bouqets and brick bats to dubaifreelancers@gmail.com

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