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Back to School: Writing tools, part II
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings. Continuing the Back-to-School "sub-mini-series" on writing tools, this second post covers some great tools for compiling all of your thoughts, ideas and research into cohesive, structured documents. If you've never explored this category of applications, you might be surprised what the available options can do to improve your writing efficiency and lower the general anxiety involved with writing 10-page reports or lengthy creative writing assignments. I'll highlight a few cool ways to get those notes and floating thoughts from your notepad and your brain onto papers with large A's on them. Read on ...
Back to School: Writing tools, part I
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. This is the last installment in a mini-series highlighting some research and writing software of interest to students, especially those in college. We've covered research tools, as well as note taking and information organization tools. Now, let's take a look at some great tools for writing. Whether you're hammering out a research paper or penning a story for Advanced Lit., there are plenty of applications available to make life easier, if not a little bit more fun. We're going to look at three basic categories: general word processors, structured writing tools, and utilities. Covering such a broad range of applications ended up getting a bit lengthy, so I'll be breaking it up into three posts; a sub-mini-series, if you will. This first post will offer you, our discerning readers, a few word-processing applications for your consideration. Read on ... and who knows, you might discover something new.
Back to School: iPhone applications to help you make the grade
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings. With students heading back to school around the country today, many are heading back with an iPhone (possibly a iPhone 3G, no doubt). In this post, I'm going to suggest a few iPhone applications that you can use to stay on task, and, of course, "make the grade." Most of these applications are free, considering that most students are low on money (especially college students). Assignments (iTunes Link)Assignments is an application that, as the name implies, allows you to keep track of your assignments and classes. This is perfect for both teachers and students that need to keep track of assignments in each class. Not only can you add an assignment with a due date/time and importance, but you can also add recordings. Being able to make a voice recording of your assignment is a quick way to make a reminder, etc. The "Overview" tab allows you to see anything upcoming or due. You can sort by "All" or "Due Soon." You can also search through your assignments. In the "Assignments" tab, you can view all assignments sorted by class. The "Notes" section allows you to quickly jot a note, add a title, and add a date/time. Overall, this application performs smoothly and works well when adding/deleting assignments and classes. You can view screenshots of Assignments.app in our gallery. Assignments sells for $5.99 (US) at the iTunes App Store. VoiceNotes (iTunes Link) VoiceNotes is a plain and simple way to quickly record a quick note, or even a lecture (just make sure you have enough space on your iPhone). Tapping on "Quick Voice Note" will start recording immediately, but is limited as to the length of the recording. If you tap on the + button at the top, you will be given more recording length. VoiceNotes allows you to sync notes back to your computer using some additional software provided by the developer. Overall, this is a solid app and can definitely be used for the quick "remember to bring these books to class tomorrow" voice notes. You can download VoiceNotes for free from the iTunes App Store.To Do (iTunes Link)One of our fellow TUAW-ers developed this application, and we can't get over its ease of use and flexibility in creating a simple to-do list. With To Do, you can quickly and easily add a to-do, set priority (and order), and even add a note.To Do will even allow you to see how many tasks have yet to be completed, right from the home screen. With To Do, you will never forget about that writing assignment for English class. Best of all, this application is on a college student's budget: It's absolutely free!Camera.app (Built-in)Never underestimate the power of the built-in camera on your iPhone. If you find that your instructor erases the board way too fast, or if you need to capture a photo of the current slide on the screen, then just get out your iPhone. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... clicks and you're done! A picture saved in memory, and you didn't even have to write anything. You can also combine Camera with Evernote (iTunes link) to create more structured notes or geocoding around your photos -- great for architecture students or for budding meteorologists.Did we miss something? Do you have another application that you like/use, but didn't on the list? The party doesn't stop with the post, it continues in the comments below. Be sure to share your favorite iPhone applications to help students "make the grade."
Curio Back to School special
If you're looking for a creative application to collect and organize notes, ideas and more, check out Curio. Curio provides a free-form interface for collecting pages which can contain notes, images, links to files, mind maps, sketches -- just about anything you'd need to get ideas and notes out of your head and into your computer. Zengobi, the makers of Curio, are celebrating the "Back to School" season with TUAW and offering 20% off the academic price of the software. The Pro version retails at $149USD, but it's only $69USD in the academic store. With the discount, students can pick up a great app for about $55USD. Enter TUAWBTS at the academic store to take advantage of the offer, and hurry, it's only good for today (August 27th).
Back to School: An Apple for the teacher
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September.Going back to school isn't all about the students; the educators are often just as excited or stressed out as the kids about the beginning of a new school year. What can make life easier on the poor teacher? Great Mac software! Read on for information on a grab bag of Mac and web apps to help out your favorite educator.
Back to School: Papers updated for the new term
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for a timely app update useful for students. PDF management app Papers has been bumped to version 1.8.5, bringing what the developers claim are 100 improvements. Top on the list is a new sharing feature called Papers Archives, which lets you share a PDF file and its associated metadata with a colleague. Papers isn't for everyone. Instead, it's specifically designed for students and academics, particularly those who deal with a lot of scientific periodicals in the course of their research. It lets you search them, sort them (manually or using Smart Folders), find them on any one of 14 different online repositories, rate them, browse your library in tabs, and much more. Papers costs $42 for a single-user license, but students qualify for a 40 per cent discount.
Win a bunch of games from Freeverse
Rounding out the last of our back to school giveaways, we'd like to give you a shot at wasting time. School can't be all about studying and learning, can it? Of course, if you happen to be in school for game design this could actually be homework... Plus, if you don't win, there's always Jared and SimStapler. The point: we want you to have fun.Big thanks to Freeverse for the prize package, which includes your choice of a Freeverse iPhone game (Wingnuts Moto Racer and Sudoku iPhone are currently available), plus the following games: Hordes of Orcs, Kill Monty, Neon Tango and Big Brain Games. That should give your Xbox 360 a break.To enter, tell us your favorite non-videogame game from your childhood (like chess, Parcheesi, Risk, etc.). The other rules (same as always) are below. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, leave a comment telling us your favorite game (not a video game) from childhood. The comment must be left before August 24, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing. Prizes: One iPhone game (up to $10), Hordes of Orcs ($24.95), Kill Monty ($19.95), Neon Tango ($24.95), Big Brain Games ($29.95) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Back to School: Securing your Mac for public use
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September.It's time once again to head back to school. Some are entering high school, while others are going to college for the first time. If you're taking your Mac with you, you need to learn some security basics. In this post, I will show you how to secure your operating system and hardware. Operating System (Software)Mac OS X makes a great operating system for students and businesses because of its inherent security. However, any computer without a strong password or other means of security is an accident waiting to happen.The first thing you need to do is set a login password. To do this, go into Accounts in the System Preferences pane. Once there you will be able to set your password for logging in. While in Accounts, you might want to disable automatic login. This forces your computer to ask for a password upon startup and makes it harder for someone to walk up to your computer and use it (or steal it and use it).Turning off Sharing services is another way to protect someone from remotely connecting to your Mac. Go to System Preferences > Sharing. Once there, un-check all sharing services that you don't use. Disabling File Sharing, Remote Login, Screen Sharing, and other services such as these can save your Mac from being "hijacked." If you must have these services turned on, then make sure you have a secure password set. HardwareSecuring Mac OS X isn't the only thing you need to do. If you live in a dorm, or in a shared apartment, then you may want to consider securing your hardware. No matter what security measures you put into place, they can always be circumvented by someone just stealing the machine. Most Macs have a standard security port to connect a lock. This is a great way to protect notebooks as well as desktops and even printers and other peripherals. The locks are fairly inexpensive (around $40 US) and can save your expensive hardware from being stolen. You can find them at most big-box computer retailers and even online from companies like Kensington.More on security...If you want more information on Security and your Mac/iPhone, then visit TUAW's Security category. You can also get more TUAW Back to School goodness by visiting our Back to School page.
Win a Dymo DiscPaint from TUAW
Despite the notion that one day optical media will seem "quaint," in the current world we deal with a lot of physical discs. So why not label those discs with something a little better than a permanent marker? The Dymo DiscPainter is a rather large but impressive printer for one thing only: optical media. Pop in a disc with the appropriate coating, set up the print job and boom: a nicely-printed disc for all that soon-to-be-obsolete media you're carting around.We've got our shiny review unit ready to send to the lucky commenter who is randomly selected via the comments. Maybe not great for the dorm room, as the Dymo is pretty big, but you could always use it to prop open your dorm door. To enter, simply tell us what was the last CD or DVD you burned (keep 'em clean folks!). Be sure to check out Steve's review of the DiscPainter. And stay tuned the rest of this week as we've got more goodies to come! Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment telling us what was the last disc you burned. The comment must be left before August 21, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: Dymo DiscPainter ($250) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Win a copy of Bento from FileMaker and TUAW
We've covered the personal database app, Bento, a few times in the past, and Brett mentions it in his "Collecting and Organizing Information" post, but our friends at venerable FileMaker want to give you a chance to try it yourself. So we're giving away three boxed copies of Bento today! Use it to store your school data, search and organize that data and link to documents elsewhere. It integrates with Address Book and iCal, for you savvy folks.To enter, just tell us what you'd pack in a real, physical bento (yes, food, but what kind of food?). Leave your comment and you're entered, with the usual restrictions applying (see below). Good luck! Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, leave a comment telling us what you would put in a bento. The comment must be left before August 20, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter only once. Three (3) winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: One copy of Bento from FileMaker ($49) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Back to School: StoryMill is $20 off today
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for a deal for high school & college English students.More from the bargain bin, for those aspiring authors of fiction (or simply those who have chosen to take a course in the subject): Mariner Software's StoryMill is $20US off today (8/18) only, taking it from the usual price of $49.95 down to $29.95. Owners of the older Avenir app can upgrade for $14.95.StoryMill offers features designed to ease the creative process of novel-writing past the "stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead" stage; character and scene tracking tools, a 30,000-foot overview mode, and 'distraction free' writing view (like WriteRoom) are all in the kit bag. You can download a demo version from Mariner's site.
Back to School: RadTech backpacks and cases 20% off
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for nifty supplies for any student. Today only, RadTech is offering 20 percent off regularly-priced backpacks, cases, laptop bags and sleeves, including bags with photovoltaic cells to help charge your electronic devices. Solar panels on the bag can provide up to four watts of power for your iPod or phone. Make sure to use the promo code SCHOOL88 when you check out to take advantage of the offer.
Back to School: Malkinware Reference Tracker 1.0 for Mac OS X
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for college-level help.If you're a college researcher, grad student, or undergrad, Malkinware's new Reference Tracker 1.0 for Mac OS X might be just the tool to help you with your academic research. Just in time for Back to School, Malkinware is even offering a 35% discount off of the $44.95 list price through September 30, 2008.Reference Tracker creates documents that store citations and references used in books, research projects, or essays, and creates Harvard or APA formatted reference lists on demand. You can also: Create Full References in a single step Reference Web Pages and Emails with a single click Easily import existing Reference Lists Integration with Microsoft Word and Apple's Pages Easily Organize References Export formatted lists to anywhere Add Sticky Notes to References There's no need to type out the details of a referenced book. You type in the book's ISBN, and Reference Tracker gathers the details from the internet automatically. When creating Web page or email references, Reference Tracker can pull the details from Safari, Firefox, or Mail with one click.A fully-functional 21-day trial is available from the Malkinware Web site. For info about other Mac research tools, read Brett's excellent Back to School post.
Back to School: collecting and organizing information
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for high school & college-level help. I covered a few good research tools for students in my last post. Before I dive into some of the excellent writing tools and packages available, we're going to take a look at some methods and applications for putting thoughts, notes and references together in a format that makes the actual writing part much easier. Whether you're taking notes as you research, collecting documents or actually mapping out the first draft, these tools can be vital for organizing research, overcoming writer's block and making sure that things flow smoothly once writing begins.
Searchlight giveaway ends tonight, more prizes to come
A reminder that our Searchlight giveaway (we've got 10 copies for you) ends tonight, just before midnight on the East coast (US). But don't fret, every day this week we'll be giving away a bunch of goodies, from iPhone cases to games. Just in time for back to school festivities.
Back to School: new iLearn ezine on using Macs in education
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Reader Kelly T wrote in to give us a heads up about iLearn, a new ezine devoted to using Mac technology in the classroom. The first issue, which you can find here, is free but future issues will cost $1US each and be available at the main site. Topics in the first issue range from Leopard in the classroom to iPods in education. The first issue is full of great content. There's a full lesson plan on empathy that includes the standards met, tech skills addressed, and necessary materials. Finally, Kelly explains just how to use PhotoBooth and Pages to complete the lesson and assess the students' participation. Our favorite article is the Ten Technology Time Savers, including document naming standards (which is huge on a shared computer) and set your daily apps to launch at startup. Good job, Kelly! We're looking forward to future editions.
Back to School: Academic software
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for tips on saving money on software. At the start of every school year, students, teachers and parents have a seemingly-endless list of "to-buy" items. It gets expensive, and software is often the last place people want to plunk down money. Fortunately, the world of academic software discounts can easily save students (and their parents) and teachers enormous sums of money. Academic software is exactly the same as the "regular" software, but the box says "Academic License" and the price can be significantly, noticeably less. How much less? Well, in the case of Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium 3.3, the academic version goes for $594.95 (you can save an additional $200 if you buy the package with a new Mac at the Apple Higher Education Store), and the full version clocks in at a whopping $1799US. $600 vs. $1800 is a pretty big difference, especially for students. Depending on the software title, you might have to be a college student or faculty member to take advantage of some of the best discounts, but more and more publishers are opening up the discounts to K-12 students and teachers. Please note: While academic discounts are available in other countries, this guide is primarily aimed at US and Canadian students. All prices are in USD. I've been buying academic software since I was in high school, and here are some of the tips/best practices I've picked up over the years ...
Back to School: Canvastic v3.5
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on cool software for K-8 classrooms.Canvastic LLC has announced a new version of the Canvastic graphics, writing, and publishing tool. Canvastic is designed to be used in K-8 classrooms, and is fun and productive for students.Canvastic 3.5 is designed for use on both PPC and Intel Macs (which is great, as many American schools still use older Macs). The student publishing tool includes drawing, text and presentation tools, plus an Audio Tool for voice recording, insertion of sounds and integration with iTunes. Audio tracks can be played in documents or presentations. Other new features include: Transparency and color tones in graphics and text Teachers can enable or disable spell checking, and also keep students from "customizing" the dictionary New brush shapes The ability to import digital photographs Additional templates, backgrounds, and art As before, Canvastic presents a customized user interface depending on the grade level of the student. Canvastic 3.5 is a free upgrade for all registered users, and those with free site licenses can upgrade for 50% of the posted educational prices. Pricing ranges from US$39 for one user to US$949 for an unlimited school building license. Schools can do an unlimited pilot of Canvastic for up to 60 days, and many school districts qualify for a free site license for half of their schools.Click here to download the free trial.
Back to School: ProfCast half off today
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for help for professors and instructors. Humble Daisy is offering 50 percent off its ProfCast software, which helps educators (or anyone else who presents via PowerPoint or Keynote) record slide-based lectures as podcasts, and share them via iTunes U and iWeb. The promotion is only available today, August 14. Academic users will receive an additional 25% off over the 50% discount. Purchasing today also allows you to upgrade to the next version for free. The software is $30 today only (normally $60). For Academic customers, ProfCast is $15 $22.50. Volume discounts are also available. ProfCast is a universal binary, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. You can check out a 15-day demo, too. Update: My mistake, folks: the $15 price was based on a faulty calculation I did -- commenters are reporting that the Academic price is $22.50. A thousand apologies for that.
Back To School: Mac research tools
TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for high school & college-level help. At any level of schooling, you eventually have to do a little research. There are probably those who caution against doing any of that research on the web, but if you're aware that faulty (and downright false) information exists and take the extra steps to ensure that what you're citing is verifiable, the net can be a treasure trove of information. Hyperlinks and full-text search of a massive amount of information make the electronic frontier an ideal research tool. But you've heard all of that before, so read on as we look at some research tools specifically for Mac users (and we'll try to stay within a typical student's budget).
