Translate Website Content into a Different Language

The world wide web has made interacting with other cultures so much easier. Even so, many websites are in languages that I don’t speak. And I know that English isn’t the first language of many people who visit my sites. But there is help. Babel Fish from Yahoo can translate a bit of text or an entire web page for you.

If you’re on a website written in a language you don’t know, you can visit Babel Fish and type in the URL of the page you want to translate and the ‘from’ and ‘to’ language. Here is a screen shot of Better Living On the Web from English to French.

Better Living On the Web Translated into French

If you own a website and would like to make it easy for people to translate it into their native language, you can add the Babel Fish translation service to your site. You can test it using the one here at Better Living on the Web (scroll down the right side navigation to find it).

The translation may not be perfect, but hopefully it will be enough to get the meaning of the website.

Entrepreneur Assist Offers FREE Tools for Your Business

When I first started my business, I paid a fortune in tools and services to get it up and running. MS Office Suite cost hundreds of dollars. Then there were the planners, form templates and a host of other tools and services each with a fairly hefty fee.

Today the Internet offers many of these tools and services at an affordable price. Entrepreneur offers most of them for free. Entrepreneur Assist is a one-stop virtual officer where you can:

• Create text documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
• Customize and use business form templates.
• Hold live online meetings with customers and colleagues.
• Schedule events and reminders.
• Build your business plan.

You can even read and save articles from Entrepreneur.com as well as read free business related books.

The templates menu is vast including samples of accounting forms, starting a business checklists, sales receipts, business plans and more. The book selection is small but offers resources in retirement planning, project planning, marketing and more.

The appeal of Entrepreneur Assist is the ability to have a variety of office tools and service all in one spot. In a single sitting you can print out an invoice, write a letter, read and save an article, create your schedule and host an online meeting all from one site.

To learn more or sign up, visit Entrepreneur Assist.

Can’t Afford MS Office? Get OpenOffice for Free!

Microsoft Word and Excel are the most common document creation software used by home based workers. But at several hundred dollars a pop, it can price you right out of working at home. Not to worry. OpenOffice.org offers free wordprocessing and spreadsheet software. It doesn’t have all the features found in Word (has anyone used ALL the features in Word?), but it offers good document creation with the ability to be shared and modified by Word users as well. And did I mention its free?

Learn more and download OpenOffice.org here.

5 Must Haves for Success

You can read any success or motivational book and most will tell you that same things such as set goals, read everyday, have passion… etc. The problem is that sometimes its hard to find the time or to put what you’re learning into practice or make it a habit. Fortunately there are some great web and tech-based gadgets that can help.

1) 43Things.com: This is a social network for goal setting. It doesn’t have the nitty gritty details that goals require such as action plans, but it does allow you to make a list, set a date, and get it done. You can even post updates on your progress. Even better though is that you can have others cheering you on. You can even meet people who have similar goals. Sometimes by sharing a goal with others, you put a little extra pressure on yourself to get it done because people will be asking you about it and you don’t want to admit it wasn’t done or that you quit.

2) Consolidate email: I use Gmail to manage all but one of my email accounts. This allows me to use just one application to read, send, and organize email. Further Gmail uses tags as opposed to folders to organize email thus allowing you to give emails more than one “place” and easier to find.

3) MP3 Player: If you can afford it, spring for one that plays video, not so you can watch your favorite movies or t.v. shows (although you can if you want to), but because there are so many great video podcasts and tutorials online. If you can’t afford a video player, just get a regular one that can allow you to download podcasts and other great audio that you can use to educate and inspire you while on the go.

4) News reader: Istead of typing in the URL of every news and blog site or even using a bookmarking system, sign up for a feedreader service that will go out and grab all the latest posts from your favorite sites and have them ready for you in one place. I use Google’s reader but there are many others such as Yahoo, NewsGator and more.

5) Mastermind group or mentor: While it can be an adventure to pave your own path, if somebody has paved it before you, it can be faster to take their road instead of forging on your own. Having a mentor, coach or mastermind group can give you support, feedback, training, and more the avoid pitfalls and thereby reach your goals much faster.  You don’t even have to leave your home. With a phone, computer and internet connection, you can have access to the successful people who’ve achieved the goals you’re shooting for.

View 2 docs or screens at once

Recently I was having to modify a Word document into a new format. This required me to switch between the old document and the new one which was a hassle. Fortunately I was able to set both docs up side by side so that I could work on them simultanesouly. You can set up other screens to view side by side or one over the other very easily.

Word Documents: If you use MS Word and need to view two word docs at the same time:

1. Open both documents.
2. Click on “View”
3. Click on “View Side by Side”

To view any other combination of screens whether its a document and spreadsheet, or a document and website:

1. Open the document or application you need.
2. Highlight the two applications you want to view by holding down the CTRL button and clicking on the application tabs.
3. Right click your mouse button and select “Show windows side by side” in Vista or “Tile Horizontally” in XP. YOu can choose to “Show windows Stacked” or “Tile vertically” as well.

You can also select to have three or documents on the screen but if your computer screen is small, it may not be worth the effort as the screens will be narrow particularly if side-by-side.