telecommute

On Friday, June 6, 2008 episode of ABC’s The View, a segment on scanning business receipts came on that I thought would be useful to some of you telecommuters out there.

As telecommuters, we can oftentimes take tax deductions for home office expenses. (Of course, check with your accountant first).Things like computers, ink, printer, fax, paper, postage, computer supplies, and others. Well, there is a neat little device and program, aptly called Neat Receipts, that will help you maintain and analyze your receipts virtually without having to keep all that PAPER!

The device was demonstrated on The View and it seemed really simple. One thing I liked about it was that it was very small and seemed portable. It seemed like it would be useful for the business traveler that has to fill out those dredged expense reports.

The feature I really liked about it was that it comes with software that allows you to organize and analyze your receipts. You can export statements to Excel, Turbo Tax, Quicken, and QuickBooks. You can also scan business cards.

I really like what this product claims to do. In honor of their segment on ABC’s The View, they are offering a $20 discount using the coupon code found on their site. How cool is that?

The price listed today on NeatReceipts.com was $199.95 but you can also purchase Neat Receipts at Staples, Amazon, Costco, Target, Buy.com, Office Max, Best Buy, Sky Mall, Office Depot and a couple of other places.

You can read more about it here.

I stumbled across this free download to create free PDF’s. PDF’s stands for Portable Document Format. I use PDFs a lot so I was happy to see this free version. PDF’s are secure documents that are widely used to distribute reliable and quality documents throughout the web.

The program actually installs itself as printer and works with any program that has a “print” menu option.

So what is the program called and where can I get it? The free program is called Cute PDF writer. It’s the free version of the popular commercial Adobe PDF.

It’s an easy download, easy to install, and easy to use. Once you have created your document, simply click PRINT. You will be prompted to choose the printer you want to use. Choose Cute PDF Writer. Make sure you save the document with the PDF File option.

You can download the program at cutepdf.com or at cnet.com.

If so, you may be interested to know there is now a virtual equivalent of those yellow “sticky” notes to add to your addiction. The manufacturer of this ever popular office staple, 3M, now has a virtual version of the post-it notes to use on your PC’s desktop. And best of all, it is free!

The virtual post-it note freeware is aptly named Post-it Software Notes Lite. It mimics the famous classic sticky pad notes. You can link an alarm to a note, change font size and color, but you stuck with the classic yellow color of the notes. You can even add pictures to the notes and print the notes as well.

The small program sits in your system tray. To pull up a new sticky note, just hover you mouse over the icon and use your mouse to peel off the new sticky note. It even mimics the actual sound of peeling a real post-it note.

Keep in mind this is a very basic software program. There are other programs out there that offer more extensive functionality and features but come with a price tag or monthly subscription fee. However, if you are just looking for a free basic “virtual” version of the classic post-it notes, then this free tool may be for you.

To download this freeware program, head on over to Cnet.com and search for Post-it Software Notes Lite. As of the date of this writing, there has been 1,703,538 downloads.

Obtaining a work at home or telecommute position can be difficult. Competition is fierce for these jobs. Oftentimes, the hiring manager or recruiter gets substantially more resumes for a telecommuting/work at home/remote/virtual position, that he or she gets for a traditional outside of the home job.

So, what can you do to help you stand out from the crowd? Brainbench is there to help. There are about 20 free certifications that you can get including MS Excel 2007, MS PowerPoint, 2007, MS Word 2007, MS Windows Vista Desktop, Java 2 Fundamentals, and many others. A lot of the free certifications are in the IT area. There are about 600 other Certification Tests, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe PageMaker, Internet Research Techniques and Resources, QuickBooks, Quicken, and many, many more. Most of the fee based certifications come with a $49.95 fee.

Besides the individual skill certifications, Brainbench offers Job Role Certifications. I
saw quite a few that were relevant to the telecommuting world. Positions such as Editor, Financial Analyst, Market Research Analyst, Web Administrator, Web Designer, Legal Secretary, IT Manager, Human Resources Professional, Technical Writer, and the list goes on.

So, if you want to stand out from the crowd, a Brainbench certification, may just help to give you a leg up on your competition.

Has this happened to you one time or the other when working at home on your computer? You’re humming along just fine working away through your company’s system, website, or intranet. Then suddenly you get an error message or the system’s output changes. I know it has happened to me once or twice (ok more than that – but who’s counting, right?).

So, you email your boss and he or she tells you to email him/her a screen shot. Yes, the tech people need that to help figure out the problem. Oh, ok, you think to yourself. How in the heck do I do that? Well, have no fear as I will tell you how here. It’s quite simply really.

To capture your entire computer screen, locate the Print Screen button on your keyboard. It can be in various places depending on your keyboard, but most keyboards have this button in the upper right hand corner of the keyboard.

Hit that Print Screen button.

Next, open up your imaging software. Paint works just fine. You will find the Paint program by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint.

Open up the Paint program and select Paste - Ctrl + V or choose the Edit, then Paste menu in Paint. This will paste the entire image of the computer screen into the Paint software. You can then use the Paint’s cropping features to alter the image is needed.

Next, just again Paste this image into an email or Word document and you are all set.

Suppose you only want to capture the current window you are working in. You can do this by holding down the ALT button while simultaneously holding down the Print Screen button.

So now you know how to capture a screen shot! Try it out, it’s actually quite neat!