Tip: Fix Gmail IMAP Inbox

For the past couple weeks, I have had an error appear anytime I go to the inbox. It would just prevent me from downloading any new e-mails in the inbox. I didn’t know why it was happening, just figured Gmail was having some problems. After I heard from people that Gmail was working fine for them, I thought it was probably my profile in Thunderbird.

I didn’t get around to cleaning up my profile and just today thought I would look at my Inbox properties. In the General Information tab, there is a button that says Rebuild Index. I’ve never known what this button does, but thought I would just click on it and see what happens.

Do you know what happened? All of my e-mails in my inbox were downloaded from Gmail!

So, if you ever have problems with your inbox (or other folders), try rebuilding the index to repair whatever is broken.

Convert Documents with Universal Document Converter

With some of the work I do, I sometimes have to look at long Word and PDF documents and then have to pull out images. It can sometimes take a while to find the images I need if I don’t know what pages in the document they are located on. If I could view thumbnails of each page, then I could easily find out which pages they are on without opening up Word! I hate looking through PowerPoint slides just to find images, too. If I could just save them as image files, my job could go faster!

There are other reasons for converting documents into other file formats. For example, when exchanging documents, sometimes you may run into people unable to open a file because they don’t have the right software. Solution? Convert to a PDF. Most usually already have Adobe Reader on their computers and if not, it can be downloaded for free.

Another example could be if you wanted to share documents, but don’t want someone to easily copy/paste the text somewhere else.

I tried out Universal Document Converter and it worked very well. It’s very easy to use. It’s not like using new software and then having to learn how to use it. If you know how to print, you already know how to use Universal Document Converter. Read the steps below and/or watch the video tutorial.

Just five easy steps:

1. Open a document.
2. Select File > Print. (depending on the application being used)
3. Select Universal Document Converter in the printer drop-down list.
4. Select Properties to select what file format you want to convert to. Then press OK.
5. Press Print.

This will allow you to save to the file format you had selected in the Properties. It will not print to a printer. It works just like the Microsoft XPS Document Writer does, just saves to a file. (Please note, the Microsoft XPS Document Writer is not a converter!)

After it is done converting, just open up the folder on your desktop labeled UDC Output Files to view your file(s). I was a little worried at first, but it lets you change the default output folder to another location if you choose. There is a readme file in that folder that explains more.

Universal Document Converter can export to eight file formats: TIFF, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, DCX, PCX and PDF. It also exports in high resolution.

Universal Document Converter is one of those must-have tools!

How to Create a Wish List on iTunes

I use iTunes to find new movies or music, but I have found that I have to add them to the Shopping Cart if I want to go back to them later. That’s probably not actually a good idea, but it worked.

After not hearing from anyone on Twitter about creating a wish list on iTunes, I ended up doing some research and found the solution on the Apple website. It doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t create a built-in wish list though, but this workaround is better than nothing!

First, create a new Playlist in the sidebar of iTunes. If you don’t know how to do this, follow these steps:

1. File > New Playlist (or CTRL + N)
2. Enter in a name for your wish list (example: Wish List)

Now you have a Wish List using the Playlist feature which allows you to play previews of songs or movies from the iTunes Store.

Go into the iTunes Store and search for that awesome movie or song in the iTunes Store that you want to purchase at a later date. As far as I know, the only way this works is if you have a list appear below the Store. If you find a movie or song you like, just enter it in the search box and a list will appear with all the results. Find the one you are looking for.

After you’ve selected the one you want, just drag it over to your Wish List Playlist in the sidebar and then let go. Then if you click on your Wish List Playlist, you should see what you’ve added to it.

This is not the best solution and I think Apple should add a Wish List feature. But until that day comes, this works.

If you have a better way for adding movies or songs to a Wish List for iTunes, please leave a comment!

UPDATE: I forgot to add one other step. When you’re ready to purchase a song or movie in your Wish List, drag it from your Wish List to your Shopping Cart and it will be ready for you to purchase.

Tekzilla: Word Search on a Webpage Tip

On Episode 155, Web Browsers: Word Search on a Webpage, Veronica Belmont has a great tip that allows you to quickly find a word or phrase on a webpage so you don’t have to read the entire page to find what you’re looking for. Although this tip is very helpful, I wanted to add to it.

In the video, she says you can press CTRL + F (or CMD + F on a Mac) whether you’re using Firefox, Safari, Opera or Internet Explorer and a search bar or window will appear and then you can enter in what you’re looking for and the word will be highlighted in the browser. Then, press the previous or next buttons to find more instances of that word. I find that to be a little slow and prefer another way (at least when using Firefox).

In Firefox, make sure Search for text when I start typing is enabled. To enable this feature:

1. Go to Tools > Options in the menu.
2. Then select Advanced.
3. In the General tab, select the checkbox next to Search for text when I start typing.
4. Click OK.

Now when you start typing a word, each part of it will automatically be selected on the webpage where ever the first instance appears. There is no need to press CTRL + F (or CMD + F on a Mac) to start searching.

If you want to find another instance of the word or phrase you’re searching for on the webpage, just press F3. F3 will go through every instance on the webpage as many times that you press it. Want to go back to a previous word or phrase? Press Shift + F3.

Managing Time With FruitfulTime TaskManager

As a lot of you may have noticed, I haven’t written a post in about a month. This is because I’ve been so busy! I apologize and will try to stay on top of things, if I can! (One way to help me out would be if you have a suggestion for a topic, please contact me and let me know.)

I was recently notified about FruitfulTime TaskManager at a perfect time and decided to give it a try because of how many tasks I needed to get done (on time). I figured this would be a great way to share my experience and opinions of this software with all of you and get a new post out at the same time!

FruitfulTime TaskManager actually looks better than a lot of other task management applications and allows you to easily see what your progress is for any tasks. It’s also small in size and performs very quickly. Another feature that has been tempting me to buy a new thumb drive is that it is portable as well. This means it can be installed on a thumb drive so you can take it wherever!

Being that I work on projects that also involve other people, it’s helpful to see who is assigned to what, so if you have a task that is dependent on another task which is assigned to someone else, you’ll know by viewing who it is assigned to and be able to contact that person regarding the status because of the Contact Manager built-in.

I do have a few annoyances/suggestions that I want to point out, that I hope could be considered in a future version:

1. Subtasks not grouped with tasks. Instead of separating the subtasks below the task listing, I would rather see a tree listing with the subtasks below each task, so I don’t have to click on a task just to see the subtask. This would save me time.
2. Deleting subtasks. Several times I have made the mistake of clicking on a subtask to delete, only to end up clicking on ‘Delete Task’, which shouldn’t appear when a subtask is selected. If the parent task was selected, then ‘Delete Task’ should appear. I just become confused when I’m so busy and not paying attention.
3. Setting task options, like Priority, Status, Progress, etc. When changing them, I have to triple-click! I wish I only had to single-click like I do for editing the name of the task, but would even settle for double-click. But triple-clicking is going a little too far and wastes time.
4. Setting the progress of a subtask does not automatically update its task. For example, if I set a subtask to 50% (say there is only one subtask), shouldn’t the task’s progress become 50%? I don’t really want to manually set it to 50%, because again, it takes time.

Features I really like:

• Adding notes to tasks.
• Adding references to any relevant websites or files. Very useful option for me especially since the company I work for has MANY websites that I need to be able to login for QA. A lot of the time, I also need to be able to review a document, so this can save me time from having to go back through lots of files to find the document I need.
• Adding reminders. Reminders can be set to go off before the Start Date or the Due Date. For me, setting reminders before a Start Date is helpful, because sometimes I like to start projects early, rather than waiting until I actually need to start it.

Overall, I do like FruitfulTime TaskManager and will probably continue using it since I’m tired of Outlook 2007 running so slow on Vista because I have a lot of e-mails and tasks to add. I like how Outlook manages tasks, but when I have to wait forever for Outlook to load, it’s not worth my time.

If you would like to see a demo of FruitfulTime TaskManager in action, there is video on the website. Interested in trying out this wonderful (very affordable) application? Go download it!

I would really like to hear if anyone else has given FruitfulTime TaskManager a try, and what you think of it. Please leave a comment below.