Free and Bargain Fax and Phone Tools

Copyright © 2011 Beth Ziesenis

ISBN 978-1-934302-95-8 (softback) ISBN 978-1-936603-04-6 (ebook) All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form. Requests for such permissions should be addressed to:

TSTC Publishing Texas State Technical College Waco 3801 Campus Drive Waco, Texas 76705 http://publishing.tstc.edu/

Publisher: Mark Long Art director: Stacie Buterbaugh Marketing manager: Sheila Boggess Sales manager: Wes Lowe Editor: Bethany Salminen and Ana Wraight Book design: SoroDesign Indexing: Michelle Graye ([email protected]) Printing production: Data Reproductions Corporation

Manufactured in the United States of America First edition

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication(Provided by Quality Books, Inc.)

Ziesenis, Beth.

Upgrade to free : the best free & low-cost online tools & apps / Beth Ziesenis. -- 1st ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-1-934302-95-8 (softback) ISBN-10: 1-934302-95-3 (softback) ISBN-13: 978-1-936603-04-6 (ebook) ISBN-10: 1-936603-04-7 (ebook)

1. Free computer software. 2. Shareware (Computer software) I. Title.

QA76.76.F75Z54 2011 005.3 QBI11-600066

5

If you bought this book, chances are you spend too much time on your computer.

This book is dedicated to you, with hopes that you’ll discover free and low-cost tools to increase

your e!ciency and make your computer time more productive.

And then you can take the free time you’ve discovered and the money you’ve saved and step out for a cupcake.

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6

UPGRADE TO FREE · Beth Ziesenis

In Lieu of an Intro: Top 10 (Actually 12) Questions You Should Ask Before ReadingPage 10

Email Blast Services and SurveysPage 35

Tools for E!ciency at Home and on the RoadPage 16

Meeting Planning ToolsPage 44

Personal Organization ToolsPage 271

324

& 2 1 7 �( 1 7 6

7

Small Business ToolsPage 94

Picture Editing from Easy to Everything Else Page 51

Screencapture ToolsPage 64

MultimediaPage 85

Photo and Font ToolsPage 73

Website and Blogging ToolsPage 107

579

6810

& 2 1 7 �( 1 7 6

CONTENTS

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Taking Care of YouPage 157

O!ce Suites and Other Software PackagesPage 140

Project Management ToolsPage 121

IT ToolsPage 162

To-Do Lists and RemindersPage 130

Back-Up Tools and Online HostingPage 14913

15

111416

Security ToolsPage 168

PDF and File Conversion ToolsPage 17517 18

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197

� ,1�7+,6�&+$37(5�

page198eFax Free

page199 FaxZero

page199 GotFreeFax.

com

page199 FaxOrama

page200 Google Voice

page201 Vonage

page202 magicJack

page203 Skype

page205 Logitech Vid

page205 ooVoo

page206 Free

Conference Call.com

page206 Powwownow

page206 Instant

Conference

20 · Fax and Phone Tools


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eFax Freewww.efax.com/efax-free

GET YOUR (FREE) FAX RIGHT HERE!

eFax will provide you with a free phone number so you can receive faxes electronically. Just give the number out as you would a real fax number, and the faxes you receive will come to you via email as an attachment. You have to download their software to be able to read the attachment, of course, but it’s a small price to pay if you don’t want to buy an actual fax machine (or figure out how to hook up your all-in-one, which has been sitting in a box in your garage for two years.)

Note – you cannot send faxes with eFax Free. eFax Plus starts at $14.13 a month if you pay for a year. When you get the Plus edition, you can get a fax number with your area code and send faxes through email.

FREEeFax Free is indeed free, but you’re limited on the

number of free faxes you can receive in a month.

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FaxZerowww.faxzero.com

FREE INTERNET FAXING

I was so happy when I discovered FaxZero. What a cool thing. You upload a document or PDF to fax to anyone for free (maximum three pages, two free faxes a day). The cover page will contain an ad – not a problem for most faxes I need to send. But if I need something more professional, I can pay $1.99 and fax up to 15 pages with an ad-free cover sheet.

With FaxZero, you can send a fax for free to any fax machine in the US or Canada, or internationally for a small one-time charge.

; PRIVACY CHECK: The full privacy policy is available on the host company’s site, but the FAQs state, “We hate junk email and junk faxes, and will absolutely not send any unsolicited email or faxes.” You can sign up for the mailing list for updates that may include ads. Further, “Your name, company name, email address and fax number will appear in the ‘Sender Information’ area of the faxes that you send. FaxZero will not share your information, nor information about the people you send faxes to, with marketers or anyone else, unless compelled to do so by court order.”

$/62�&+(&.�287GotFreeFax.com (www.gotfreefax.com): No ads, even on the free version, and you can send a rich text document. Up to two free faxes per day of up to three pages each.

FaxOrama (www.faxorama.com): Another free outgoing fax serv-ice. Up to two faxes a day, five pages per fax.

FREEWith ads or $1.99 without.


200

Google Voicewww.google.com/voice

NOT A PHONE LINE, BUT DEFINITELY A PHONE SERVICE

Google Voice is a Google toy, and I’m excited to play with it. If you use Google Voice with your existing phone number, the system will transcribe your voicemail messages and send them to you via text or email. You’ll also be able to search the text of the voicemails. It’s not exactly a phone service, but you can initiate calls from within the application, and your phone will ring to establish a connection between you and your contact.

If you sign up to get a number from Google Voice, you can program your phones to ring when that number is called – all your other phones, or just the one you choose.

Says one of my readers, “It’s the only number I give anyone. Great service that’s a huge benefit to telecommuters and travelers. Instead of asking clients or colleagues to call a few di!erent phone number to find you, Google Voice takes care of it.”

FREEFor the service as well as

domestic calls. International calls are a small charge

per minute.

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Vonagewww.vonage.com

VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP) PHONE LINE

When Internet phone lines first came out, we were all pretty skeptical of this whole “voice over Internet protocol” business. About six years ago my former company wanted to save a few bucks and converted the whole o"ce phone system to VoIP, and it was a complete disaster: dropped calls, garbled sound, frustrated customers. We switched back in a hurry.

But today, VoIP can be a high-quality communication tool that can save money, provide new venues to communicate and make your phone numbers more portable. When I moved into my new o"ce (the one with the view of the Pacific Ocean and easy access to cupcake joints – could I be much happier?), AT&T said they wouldn’t let me keep my landline phone number, so I took a deep breath and switched to Vonage, taking my number with me.

I was afraid I’d see a decrease in quality, but except for a few little snarls every once in a while, it sounds just like a landline. I decreased my monthly phone bill, and I increased the portability of the number as well as the features. For example, when I get a voicemail, Vonage transcribes it for me and sends it via email. Pretty cool.

They have more expensive and less expensive packages. Includes unlimited calling to 60+ countries.

PriceBasic plan is

$25.99 a month.


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$/62�&+(&.�287magicJack (www.magicjack.com): I was insanely skeptical about this service, which allows you to plug a device into your computer (with high-speed Internet) and make as many calls as you want on a regular phone for 20 bucks a year. But one of my friends has it, and he says it’s just like a regular phone. The device costs $39.95 and includes the first year’s service.

PC Magazine gives magicJack mixed reviews for both customer service and quality of calls. Another big drawback is that your computer has to be on and not in a hibernation mode for magic-Jack to work, otherwise the calls go to voicemail.

203

Skypewww.skype.com

TALK FOR FREE ONLINE AND CHEAPLY VIA PHONE

In the world of online calling and VoIP, Skype is royalty. The name came from a mash of “sky” and “peer-to-peer conversations.” Skype is a free download that allows you to chat via text or talk directly to another Skype viewer using a microphone and/or webcam.

Skype also allows people to quickly share files and collaborate. Many businesses (including my former company) conduct regular meetings via Skype, or just use it to pop o! quick questions to colleagues across the hall.

In addition to the communication to other Skype users, Skype allows you to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. The company told me, “Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling,” but I know many people who rely on it for their main phone line. And I love news shows and celebrities like Oprah Winfrey use Skype to interview people remotely.

In addition to the basic functionality of Skype, you’ll find a kabillion integrations with all sorts of free and low-cost tools to increase productivity, enhance communication and generally make you a more e"cient professional, student or regular old computer user.

When I asked Ann Handley, chief content o"cer of MarketingProfs (www.marketingprofs.com), for her favorite free tools, Skype was at the top of the list:

Skype is software application that allows its user to make voice calls over the Internet. It also allows users to IM and send files. This is a great tool for virtual companies like mine because it connects all of us in a kind of “network.” We can also shoot files back and forth, or share links, or discuss things in group chats. I can talk to contributors and co-workers around the world. Did I mention it’s totally free?

FREEDownload, plug-ins and

smartphone apps are free, and packages for calling

landlines and mobile phones start at $2.95 a month.


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SMARTPHONE APPS:

¨ BlackBerry

¨ iPhone

¨ Android

¨ HTC

Readers love it:

“Skype has a fair amount of worldwide accessibility, making it a great way to connect with people you did not converse with as easily before online tools like Skype existed.”

Bonnie Koenig, international development and strategic thinking consultant for Going International, www.goinginternational.com

“Free international calls! I use it for consulting, interviews and calling home while at conferences.”

Chris Garrett, new media consultant and co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, www.chrisg.com

“It’s free, and an easy way to communicate with friends and family. After downloading and installing Skype, all you have to do is add other users to your contact list, and click the call button!”

Courtney Moltzen, cognitive science major at the University of California, San Diego

“As a telecommuter, Skype keeps me connected with my co-workers. We use it every day to ask quick questions of each other and just to touch base. You can find out an answers to something in about 10 seconds as opposed to having to wait for an email to go through.”

Meg Tully, nonprofit consultant for Nonprofit Know How, www.npfknowhow.com

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$/62�&+(&.�287Logitech Vid (sn.im/logitech_vid): Webcam maker Logitech created a free, easy-to-use video call program to let people use their new webcams. It’s a little hard to find on their site, so I created a shortened URL to the download site.

ooVoo (www.oovoo.com): High-definition video conferencing for up to six, plus desktop sharing capabilities. Free for 3-way calls with no desktop sharing. More capabilities and 5-way video calls start at $9.95 a month.

Yahoo, Google and several other providers also integrate voice and video into their instant message chats.

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)UHH�7HOHFRQIHUHQFLQJ In addition to new less expensive telephone communication options, a number of services these days o!er free phone conferencing. Phone conference lines used to cost quite a bit. You had to have a 1-800 number for everyone to call, and it would cost the host several cents per minute per participant.

But these days you can find quite a few free conference call companies that provide you a run-of-the-mill phone number (not toll free) and a pass code, and all your participants dial the number to get into the call. Each participant has to pay regular long-distance charges for the call, but many of us have unlimited calling plans, so the call doesn’t really cost us anything. And most companies will also record your calls for free, so these services are great when you’re doing a training session.

Here are a few of my favorites:

FreeConferenceCall.com (www.freeconferencecall.com)

Powwownow (www.powwownow.com)

InstantConference (www.instantconference.com)

Documents

Free and Bargain Fax and Phone Tools