Gadgets Galore

Design . . . Layout . . . Add a Gadget

Those three simple clicks will change your blog. You can create a poll or just add a picture or even add music to your blog with a gadget. Perhaps you'd like to link to your favorite web pages. There is a gadget for that. Want everyone to know your favorite books or movies? Put them in a list gadget. A follow by email gadget makes it easy for visitors to subscribe to email delivery when you publish a new post.

gapingvoid.com. Web. 26 Apr 2016.

And yes, you could possibly add a gadget and make some money. Wouldn't that be sweet!

Can you tell the difference?

In Gimp, an image manipulation program, one can edit photographs with a variety of different tools. Maybe you just need to switch the head on one family member to make your family portrait perfect. Gimp can help you with that. Perhaps, you'd like to blur the background on a picture. Yes, Gimp can make that happen too. Or possibly, you just want to trick your friends and shake up a picture. Well, if so, Gimp can do it for free. 

Can you find 5 things I changed from the original photograph? All of them were done with the help of Gimp. 

So, what is different in the picture? Here is the list:

                The middle window of the second row is different.

                The right window of the second row is different.

                The trees on the right of the building are shorter.

                The fence post on the right is shortened.

                Grass is covering the sidewalk on the left of the building.

Did you find them all?

Planning a family reunion?

If so, have you heard of Google Forms. Look at this form I created in a matter of minutes:






Google forms offers a template, and all you have to do is type in the questions and pick if you want fill-in the blank, multiple choice, or check boxes. Your family can fill it out and hit submit. Google will calculate the number of t-shirts and sizes for you. Now if they'd only help you get along with your family. Need more help? Huffington Post offers 6 tips on how to plan your next family reunion.

Making a how-to video

One can find a variety of how-to-videos on the internet. If you want to fix a washing machine or learn to crochet a hat, google "how-to" and help is on the way - well, video help. After making a how-to-video, I have a new appreciation for just how time consuming this can be. I made a video of how to make a subway art design in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Recording my computer screen was easy, but recording the instructions was a little more challenging. Audacity made it a little easier. Try this recording and editing program if you want to make a video recording. I made mistake after mistake and just edited them out. Go me!

A slideshow from PowerPoint

Do you want to put a slideshow on your blog? Not a problem. Create your slideshow in OneDrive, click share, and embed. Paste the code on your blog and let others watch your slideshow. This is a slideshow I created about photo editing. Enjoy!






And by the way, if you created your slideshow in PowerPoint on your computer, you can always upload it to OneDrive. It's quite simple to share your work.

Plan your vacation on Google Maps

Google maps is not just for finding directions, but one can also plan a vacation. One of my favorite destinations is St. George, Utah. It has beautiful scenery, adventurous hiking trails, and yummy frozen custard. I made a custom map on Google Maps. Just click on the red "Create a New Map" button and begin by adding layers, creating driving directions, and points of interest. If you're not sure if you want to go there, Google has images to help you decide. Check out my map below. Also, if you don't want to use your data for map searches, this video shows you how to download maps for offline use.

Android Central "How to download Google Maps data for offline use" Online video clip. YouTube 6 Jul 2011. Web 16 Feb 2016. 

What's for dinner?

Google Images

Planning a party? Wondering about food choices? Or perhaps, you want to arrange meals for an ill neighbor. Google Docs and Forms can help. Yes, Google can help you improve communications. Last week, I received an email with a link to a Google Spreadsheet. My friend and neighbor, Julie, is battling cancer, and her sister set up a spreadsheet for neighbors, friends, and family to sign-up for meals and times to take care of Julie. I thought Julie's sister a genius. We all know who is helping when, and what was brought for dinner the night before, and therefore, Julie's family won't be eating lasagna two nights in a row.

So, if you are in need of helping a neighbor, planning a party, or just want to send out a survey, it can easily be done. Google Forms allows one to seek answers from anyone who will fill out your survey. Are you curious about what pizza toppings people like? I was too. I sent a from with questions about food choices to my classmates, and ten responded. It was then possible to put these answers in a Google spreadsheet and create the following charts. After putting the information in a spreadsheet, highlight the information you would like in a chart, and then go to Insert and then Chart. Columns, pies, and lines are just some of the choices to create a chart. I picked a pie - you know, pizza pie. It just seemed fitting. You can also customize the font, colors, and headings.

And to add a chart to a blog, under File, click Save as a Web Page. Then just copy the embed code and place it under a new posting in the HTML tab.

Give it a try. It just might improve your communications. Once you get all of that down, you might just try some of these tricks from Lifehack.