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.

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.

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.

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.

I really like Web 2.0. As a work-at-home mom, sitting in a quiet house can be great for productivity but lonely too. Web 2.0 gives me the camraderie as well as support, encouragement and even recognition I need. But Web 2.0 applications can do much more. They offer ways to market your business, network with others, get advice, find resources and much more.

The problem of course is that its too easy to get swept up in Web 2.0 overload and end up wasting time. Part of the problem is that so many applications are “recommended”,  others are just cool, some are designed to support others … and so on and so on until you belong to more programs than you can effectively use.

To be honest, I’m still trying to find Web 2.0 balance. Right now I belong to MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, WorkItMom, and Self Growth (I also have a Ryze acccount but I don’t use it and can’t seem to get it cancelled). I visit MySpace every week day to post the blog there. I don’t visit Facebook daily, but much of what I do online (blog, Twit, etc) shows up there through its feed service and FriendFeed. The other three, I don’t visit very much at all and end up feeling guilty about it. I also use Twitter to which my blog and Squidoo lens send updates. I use Del.icio.us to save sites I want to view later, but I also have ClipMarks and LaterThis accounts both of which allow me to share information that I save, but I don’t use them for that. I use them for productivity not socializing.

Even though I’m overwhelmed with Web 2.0, I’m easily enticed to check out more applications. I visit Biznik today and although I decided to pass on it for now, it does look like an interesting site. Then there is YouTube, Flickr and many more.

Here are some tips and tricks that I’m using that do seem to help in managing my Web 2.0 life:

1) Don’t overdo the social networks. Most people recommend the main three (Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn), but if none of them fit your goals, then its a waste of time. Choose social networks that are in your niche, focus on your goals (ie networking, finding a job, etc), and have the audience you want to reach or get to know.

2) Automate what you can. FriendFeed will gather all the posts and feeds from your Web 2.0 efforts into one place. I use it on Facebook. My Facebook is updated several times a day even though I don’t go to Facebook hardly at all. (Of course, by not visiting my page I miss on what others are doing…sort of the point to social networking). I use a Twitter plug-in on my blog and Squidoo page that automatically sends a Tweet to my Twitter account. I even make it easy for people to Tweet about my blog posts with a plug-in called “Twit This”. Anytime you can make multiple posts with a single entry can save you time and keep your Web 2.0 projects fresh and current.

3) Make sure your settings are set to send you an email whenever someone does something on your network sites. If someone wants to be a friend, sent you a private message, or posted a comment, you want to know about it so you can respond to it in a timely manner.

4) Set up time each day or week to focus on your Web 2.0. Most people who blog have a schedule for posting, but not usually for when they visit their social networks to make friends and network. Its easy to forget to do it AND its easy to waste too much time doing it. So schedule it in. That way it will get done, but you’ll have a time limit.

It is possible to much of your grocery shopping online. But if you don’t live in a delivery area for one of the grocery stores that deliver, you still need to go to the market to get fresh items.

I hate grocery shopping. The very worst part is the unloading and putting the items away. But I also don’t like the actual shopping. I can’t find thing I need and almost always forget something.

Dave Cheong had a similar problem and he found a way to fix it. He created at the grocery shopping helper which is an online program that can help you organize your shopping trip by providing you with a list of all the items you buy sorted by the isles they are found in. No more back tracking or hunting. Simply take the list, mark the items you want to buy, and head straight to the store and isle.

You do need to do a little leg work before using the program by creating the list of items and visiting the store to find out what isle they are in. But once done, it could save you loads of time in the grocery store.

Check out the Grocery Shopping Helper here.

If you have been thinking about the freedom and flexibility (and the gas savings) that comes from working at home, consider adding the Work-At-Home Success Job gadget to your iGoogle start page. Work-At-Home Success has been providing telecommuting and home business information online since 1998. It posts work-at-home jobs each day on its blog and now feeds them to iGoogle.

To add the Work-At-Home Success Job gadget to your start page:

1) You need an iGoogle account which is free. If you’re already a registered Google user (ie gmail), you can log in and add iGoogle from the list of applications. If you’re not a registered Google user, you can visit iGoogle and sign up.

2) Once you have an iGoogle account, visit Work-At-Home Success’ gadget page and click on the Add To Google Button.

Each weekday when you visit your iGoogle homepage, you find new jobs.

I’ve been slow to move to an online calendar system because they didn’t offer all the features that I had loved about Agendus. In particular, I like to have my to-do list on the daily calendar as opposed to being off to the side. Since moving towards a web-based management system, I was on the hunt for a calendar/planner system that worked the way I did. The answer came from adding Remember The Milk to Google Calendar.

Remember the Milk is a to-list management system that lets you list and prioritize your to-dos. You can send your self reminders via email, text or instant message. It also offers plug ins for iGoogle, Google Calendar, Netvibes, and a host of other services including mobile access, Jott, and more. Signing up is free and easy.

You can add Remember the Milk to iGoogle and/or Google Calendar here or you can add and learn about other ways to use Remember the Milk in the Service section.

What I like about Remember the Milk versus other to-do plug-in options is that it can be listed on my daily calendar. At the top of each day that you have a Remember The Milk task you’ll find a check mark. Click on the check mark and drop down box shows you your list of to-dos. If you add your calender to your iGoogle start page, you can see your to-dos as well.

My book, The Work At Home Success Bible is on Amazon and available for pre-sale. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to see the book actually coming to life.

I originally pitched a book about telecommuting because there were no books in print that focused on how and where to find legitimate work-at-home jobs. Adams Media wanted a “Bible” for working at home instead. Before taking the project on, I talked to the editor and indicated that if I did a “Bible” it would have to include everything (regardless of book length) that I felt people needed to know. I wanted to write the book that I wish I’d had when I started out. The editor agreed.

The book covers everything from determining the best work-at-home option for you, convincing your boss to let you work at home, conducting a work-at-home job search, starting a business, eBay, affiliate programs, marketing, managing life and work under one roof and more. Plus it has tons of resources for finding jobs, and starting and running a business.

The book is due out December 1, 2008 but you can check it out and pre-order it now.