My Top 5 Tools of 2011

by patrick

Happy New Year!

2011 was a particularly busy (but good) year for me. I finished a WordPress ebook (and then wrote a second edition this month), started and registered an online training company called Novo Learning LLC, and started a new video tutorial project that should be complete sometime in 2012. And through all of this, I managed to juggle 23 websites.

Since most of my work in 2011 was around website development and video production, I thought I’d share my Top 5 Tools of 2011. Here they are in no particular order:

1. WordPress

My inclusion of WordPress will not come as any surprise to those of you who have been coming here for any amount of time. I have moved all of my web development to the WordPress platform. As a result, I have not only streamlined my design and development process, but I have also delivered some great SEO and autonomy to my clients.

I am so impressed with the added features and improvements that come to WordPress with each new update. WordPress 3.3 is better than ever. And no commercial alternative can beat the development and support of the WordPress community.

2. Coda

I’ve been using Coda now for almost 3 years. I don’t know how I ever did website development without it!

The folks at Panic software call Coda “One-window web development”. This is a great way to describe what this software does. If you do any kind of web development work, you need to take a look at this software. In one tool you have a code editor, file transfer utility, source control system, terminal (SSH), website preview, and a resource library for HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP.

Check out this post for a complete review of Coda.

3. Firebug

Firebug is a Firefox browser add-on that allows you to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and Javascript live in any web page, right from your Firefox browser. This is really a must-have tool for any web developer.

Although Firebug is designed for the Firefox browser, they also make Firebug Lite for other browsers.

4. Kodak Zi8

This compact little video camera shoots 1080p video with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It can hold up to 32GB of memory (SD/SDHC), has an external microphone jack that records in stereo, and takes 5 MP still pictures. It also has a built in USB arm that lets you upload and charge without a USB cable.

This little camera is a gem, especially if you plan to incorporate video into your online marketing, promotional or educational strategy. I recommend purchasing an additional battery, and two 8GB SD/SDHC memory cards.

5. ScreenFlow

I love this software! Although I do my high-end video editing in FinalCut Pro, most of my online video is edited with ScreenFlow.

Screenflow has an intuitive interface and supports several QuickTime formats and Flash, and also allows for direct publishing to YouTube and Vimeo. In addition to being great video editing software, Screenflow also allows you to create screencasts.

I should also mention Camtasia, which is an excellent video editing and creation software, and has versions for both the Mac and PC platform. Read this review on Camtasia.

SEO Focus in 2012

I will continue using these tools in 2012 and will write about any additional tools I come across in the future. The world of SEO is one area that I will be giving more attention. I just recently came across Google’s Correlate Tool and find it fascinating. I’m still playing with it, but will surely write about it when I understand it better.

In the meantime, have a great new year!

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Using The iPad as a Recordable, Wireless Whiteboard

by patrick

One of Apple’s great improvements of the iPad2 was the ability to project almost everything done on it, including browsing. This went a long way to making the iPad2 more of an instructional tool. If only there was a way to make annotations during instruction and then maybe record that so students could review later…

Well, I’m glad you asked. You can do this now in a relatively inexpensive way.

There are a few approaches to getting this done, but for this posting, I’ll go over the easiest and least expensive way. An iPad app called Air Sketch allows you create a wireless whiteboard using your iPad, computer, and projection system. And, if you combine this with the latest (free) QuickTime player’s ability to record the Mac screen and audio, then you can record a movie of your demonstration for playback at another time.

Air Sketch comes in a free version (black and white annotation only), and a $9 version which adds multiple colors, pens, access to photo library for overlays, and zoom/pan capability. The setup couldn’t be easier.

The Wireless Whiteboard

Once you’ve installed Air Sketch, open it, and click on the icon in the lower left of the screen to see the IP address it has created on your network for connection. By default, it uses the 8080 port (so not to interfere with any existing web server that may be running on port 80). This port can be changed if necessary.

airSketch IP Using The iPad as a Recordable, Wireless Whiteboard

Air Sketch assigns an IP for connection.

Next, open a browser on your computer and enter the IP address with port number assigned by Air Sketch. (In the example below: http://192.168.1.67:8081) This will produce a blank webpage with the Air Sketch logo in the lower right. (I’ve already written “Hello!” in the example below.)

browser Using The iPad as a Recordable, Wireless Whiteboard

This is what you'll see on your connected browser.

Now, as you write on your iPad, your sketching will be duplicated in realtime on the browser of your computer. If your computer is connected to a projector, then you may roam the classroom freely with iPad in hand and adding annotations to your instruction.

newScreenRecord Using The iPad as a Recordable, Wireless Whiteboard

New Screen Recording in QuickTime

Recording The Session

Should you want to record the session for playback in the future, QuickTime (OS X 10.6 or later) has you covered. Open QuickTime and select New Screen Recording under the File menu.

This brings up a window that allows you to make microphone input and quality settings.

Recording Settings

Once these settings are made, you’re ready to click on the red record button and begin your session.

The following video is a quick session I made using this same setup:

While you can use your finger to make these annotations, I recommend purchasing a stylus (about $10) to give you finer control.

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Building and Managing A WordPress Website

by patrick

Here’s a quick promo video I’ve created for the ebook guide I’ve written on building and managing a WordPress website. The guide is geared towards small businesses, but is useful for anyone considering building or redesigning a website.