MailStore

This first one is probably the most useful of the four. I found out about MailStore over at MakeUseOf. Because of my recent switch to Gmail IMAP, all of my e-mails are stored in one location and I have thousands of e-mails that I view from Thunderbird, but can’t be sure that they are all downloaded in full.

MailStore allows me to backup all of my e-mails and search through them. I can also still use them from where ever I backup from. Taken from the site, it archives mail from:

• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft Outlook Express
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Mozilla SeaMonkey
• AVM KEN! Server
• IMAP and POP3
• e.g. Google Mail and AOL Mail
• PST, EML and other files

MailStore also provides you with a way to backup to a CD. This is the first thing I am doing after archiving all of my e-mails. Please note, if you have a lot of e-mails, archiving can take a lot of time. You can customize which folders you want archived and if you want MailStore to delete e-mails after archiving.

There have been so many times I’ve lost e-mail due to data corruption or a client not importing correctly and so the e-mail is lost. Once MailStore archives my e-mails, I can read them directly from MailStore.

Windows Live Writer

This one can be useful if you don’t always have access to the Internet. I usually take for granted that I have an Internet connection that is always there and available, except when the power goes out or for maintenance. Lately, I’ve been thinking about this and realized that if I wanted to write a post and had no Internet connection, I’d probably have to use Notepad or Word, which neither of them would be really that great.

I had tried using Windows Live Writer before, but wasn’t able to really get into it because all of my drafts were stored on my blog and Writer doesn’t import them. Since it’s been so long since I’ve gone through those drafts, I will just start fresh with Writer.

I like some of the features it provides for inserting images. Adding borders to images can sometimes make images look nicer; for example, a drop shadow. It also allows me to change the dimensions of the image, instead of opening Photoshop and deciding what the dimensions should be and then having to go back into Photoshop again because it didn’t look right.

Because I have the newest post set to show an image on the home page, I can’t really use Windows Live Writer to publish. I would have to save as a draft on the blog and then go to the blog and publish from there after adding the finishing touches to the post. This is where “Post Draft and Edit Online” comes in under File in the menu. I learned about that through Chris Kasten from Solo Technology.

Check out these tips for image formatting at TechnoSpot. My favorite is the one for centering images. For whatever reason, you can’t center just an image, you need text as well. So, if you center the image with some text, then you can select just the text and align it to the left. It’s one extra step that is time consuming, but it works. Note: When using the “Post Draft and Edit Online” feature, the images are not centered when editing in WordPress.

Prism

I’ve talked about Prism here before and my love for it. I still use it, especially for opening up Gmail. Prism will help keep online apps from becoming just another bookmark in a browser. Because it allows you to create shortcuts and opens a separate instance of Prism for each one, it makes it possible for you to just close it out and come back to it later when you need it. No need to keep online apps stored in tabs.

One feature I’d like to see with Prism is the ability to use an online app’s favicon or allow you to add a custom one. This would help distinguish shortcuts from each other and allow you to find one quickly without having to read the name. Because Prism is missing this feature, every shortcut is saved with a blue globe. So, storing each one in Quick Launch would not be very efficient.

Prism isn’t a complete browser in that some things may not work correctly. I’ve run into videos without sound (they used to work). Using the Rich Editor in Gmail prevents you from tabbing into the message field to type out an e-mail message.

If you are interested in more of what I’ve said about Prism, read my post: 13 Uses for Prism.

eBay Desktop

I don’t use eBay very often unless I’m looking to save money. I try to use eBay as a last resort only because of the risk of not receiving an item that is paid for. Almost had that happen one time.

eBay Desktop looks like a great way to search and bid for items without leaving the desktop. No longer do you need to refresh either. After searching, on the right side of each result is the time remaining in real time. It counts down until it reaches 0 and displays “Ended”.

When you click on the item you want to look at, the results shrinks to the left side of the window and on the right side is where the information is displayed. This includes the price, time remaining, seller, payment information and the description of the item. eBay Desktop gives a much friendlier way for bidding on items. And, because you don’t need to refresh, you can make sure you make your last bid before time runs out.

This is one application that will stay installed until I no longer use eBay. I do think it could look a little better. Some of the text is hard to read because of the font that is used. It’s still beta, so maybe there will be improvements in a future version.

Please leave comment if there is a useful tool you use to get things done.