Toolkit
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The Atlantic covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more, through its articles, podcasts, videos, and flagship magazine.
Whenever I go to send a new email at work, I'm distracted by any messages that have come in since I last opened my client. Responding to messages as they come in can be terribly distracting; it would be much more efficient if I could answer several notes at once. There must be a better way of handling email in the workplace.
Thankfully, I haven't lost one of my smartphones or had one stolen -- yet. But I worry that I might: They're not cheap, of course, and I've been hearing from more and more friends and acquaintances who are misplacing them and can't get them back. What sort of precautions should I take?
I was shocked to discover that CTRL+F could be used to search through any document or Web page. Of course, you now have me wondering what other universal shortcuts exist that I haven't learned about during my years surfing the Internet.
I send a lot of URLs to my friends over email, IM, Twitter and other platforms. Copy/pasting one Web address isn't a problem, but what are you supposed to do when you want to share more than one site? Am I stuck copying one URL at a time?
I started using Instagram right after the service debuted and I've built up quite a collection of photographs on my account since then. They're great. One problem: I can't figure out how to download them to my computer so that I can use them elsewhere. Am I stuck sending myself one image at a time?
I use my Twitter account a lot. Sometimes I worry that I'm sending too many tweets at once, spamming the feeds of my followers and pushing them away. Is there a better way to space things out without having to sign in to my account several times an hour?
I use a Google Calendar and a to-do list attached to my email client, but I think I spend more time trying to keep track of all the things I need to get done than I spend actually completing them. There has to be an easier way. Right?
I always have several tabs open, oftentimes in several windows. What's really irritating is when one of those tabs starts making noise and I have to stop what I'm doing to click through them all, one by one, to find the offender. How can I get around this?
Instagram, Flickr, Twitpic, Facebook, Google+ -- my photographs are spread all over the Internet and it's difficult to remember what I uploaded and where. Is there an easy way to collect and organize all of these photos in one place?
I found the launch of Google's new social network to be more stressful than anything else. It just reminded me of how many different networks and accounts I'm already juggling. I need some pointers on tying these sites together.
I have a profile set up on Google+, but I'm looking to make updating it as easy as possible so that it doesn't feel like I'm just building another version of a social network I already have. Can I automatically push out my Instagram photos, for example?
I finally have my own page set up on Google's new social network, but now I'm overwhelmed; I feel like I have to rebuild entire profiles. Is there a way to copy some of what I already have on Facebook over to Google+?
I have a profile set up on Google+, but I'm looking for an easy way to combine what some of my favorite people are producing there with my other reading. As far as I can tell, it isn't possible (yet) to subscribe by RSS to a Google+ user.
I spend way too much time alone with my inbox, sorting through notes and responding to email. There has to be a better way to cut back the amount of effort I expend in my messaging client so that I can focus elsewhere.
I want to share my Google+ profile with friends and clients by including a link in my email signature, but the current extension is a long string of random numbers. Is there any way to shorten this URL or personalize it?
I finally have access to Google+, but I can't test out the service until more of my friends have profiles. Inviting them to join has been made more difficult by Google's decision to leave out an option for importing Facebook friends. What can I do?
Sitting in the office all day, I sometimes get the urge to just spend a minute or two checking my Facebook. But it feels unprofessional, and I'd be mortified if the boss -- or even one of my coworkers -- called me out for it. What can I do?
Sometimes I'm afraid to buy a new laptop or phone because of how quickly technology is changing. If I don't purchase something the day it comes out, I fear a new one is just around the corner. How can I avoid this?
I need my Facebook fix. You know, just for a few minutes every day. The problem is that, while I'm at work, I feel awkward signing in to my profile to check on my friends, even if only briefly. I don't want my supervisor to catch me.
Whenever I come across a website that won't load properly, I always wonder if there's a problem on my end, with my computer or browser. Is there a way to confirm that isn't the case so I can stop worrying?