In the past three weeks or so I have tested and then incorporated into my blogging/twitter routine three programs that reside either on the side, in the tool bar or in the background.  Each, in  a very short time, have become tools of the trade.

The most senior of the three is Jens Muller’s JC&MB Quicknote Ver. 5.4. 

There is a few pixels high and wide line sitting on the left side of the screen.  When I tap it, a customized note-pad materializes.  I write my note and tap outside the box and it disappears.   It has a password protected capability as well as almost unlimited room for expansion.  It has replaced my bringing up Notepad to take quick notes.

The second in seniority on my system is Read it Later from the Idea Shower.  I am a very fast reader.  Having to constantly stop and take notes as I scanned the hundreds of feeds in my RSS Reader slowed me considerably.  Once I installed Read it Later into Firefox, all I had to do was either tap the toolbar icon or right click and choose Read it later.  Then, once the feed has been milked, I can go back and peruse that which I was able to effortlessly glean.

The third and junior of the bunch is Texter.  There was another program I had loaded.  It was recommended as a must-have program for efficient writing.  I was convinced and installed the trial version.  It was okay.  Not spectacular.  In support I went to the home site to register a copy for home use. 

The price was OVER $50.00. It is being offered by a man with whom we found much in common.  We were ready to fork over payment when an added fee of $3.00 for use of PayPal popped up.  In pure emotional reaction, I canceled the order and scraped all vestiges of the program from the system.

Then Texter came to our attention while Twittering.  It does all that the other program did for me but is simpler to use.  It doesn’t wave itself around constantly reminding us of its existence.  It just helps create the script that cuts typing speed in half.

The tiny spell utility has been added to my laptop.  I already have two spell checkers, but I figure, could it hurt to have another?  Will they counter act each other, or show each other support. I am writing in Q10 now.

New boxes are popping up when I type words that are not in the tinySpell dictionary.

Will this be a war of spell-checkers or will it be peace and harmony on the writing screen.  Stay tune.
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