Top 10 Cool Alternative Uses of Microsoft Word That You Don't Know About

10. Font Tester

If you happen to be a professional font designer who is about to submit a typeface to a major corporation, then you might want to thoroughly check it's functionality. Type some lorem ipsum and make sure that you have covered all of the symbols you want to cover ("Insert... Symbol") gives you a long list of different ones.

9. Abstract Art Drawing Tool

Hey, you've seen that Autoshape feature in Microsoft Word. Sure, it doesn't have the most shapes in the world and does not produce the highest quality artwork but putting a few shapes and colours together could make something quite good.

8. Photo Editor

Again, Microsoft Word does not offer the best tools for this but for amateur photographers who don't want to waste $80.00 on an Adobe Photoshop that won't be of any use to them can alter brightness, colour type, contrast, transparency and other aspects of images right in Word with the picture toolbar.

7. Account Log

You can't remember every username and password and security question for every account you register for online. Just make a log of them here with these and possibly other things. Plus, you can use the Permissions feature to restrict others' access to this document.

6. Back-up

If you're the type that publishes a lot of stuff online, you're also the type that should be worried about losing content when a site crashes or is taken down. Thus, you can copy and paste all of your writing or possibly codes into a Word document for safekeeping.

5. Research Tool

If you just need a quick definition, synonym or a few succinct facts and you already have Microsoft Word open, then you might choose this software to give you these. You can access the Encarta dictionary, thesaurus and translation service as well as Live Search, Highbeam Research and MSN Money Stock Quotes from Word.

4. Agenda

If you just want a simple sheet of paper to remind you what to do instead of using a Blackberry, you could log all of your tasks in Microsoft Word, then print them out for your reference. You can easily detail time, location, importance and other things with the tools present.

3. Journal/Diary

Instead of reserving an amount of time every day to manually write in your diary, just casually make a few entries while doing something else on the computer. It's quicker and easier and can be just as private with the permissions feature. You may even want to employ the speech recognition program that comes with Word so you can say what's on your mind.

2. Thought Organizer/Notebook

You don't have to buy an expensive mind map software just for this purpose. Simply put your ideas and thoughts down with bulleting or numbering. To act as the different branches in mind maps, you could have different symbols as bullets at different indentations.

1. Blog

Now, you don't have to wait for your browser to load every time you want to make a blog post on Blogger. You can install
"Blogger for Word", a free Microsoft Word add-in and you'll be able to publish to your blog, save drafts and edit posts from Word. The great part about this is that you can apply all the things that can be done in Word to every blog post to really enhance your blog.

Free Logo Design Contests: 99designs

We live in a society where aesthetic appeal and design rules all. This is the first rule of marketing; it must be visually appealing. This is the first thing people see when they step into a store. This is one thing companies can't get wrong.
That's the principle, which 99designs, a host of hundreds of user-created design contests, runs on. Finally, you can put your $80.00 Adobe Photoshop to work at something productive.
99designs is the premier website for corporations, ranging from small businesses to multi-national institutions, to launch their design contests. Companies all across the globe are looking for web page designs, logo designs, icon designs, clothing designs, stationary designs, ad designs and other graphic works. You can have a little fun helping them by making such designs and earning thousands of dollars doing it.
And this isn't some scam either; 99designs offers legitimate contests that can earn you cash. The one thing you have to keep in mind though is that you'd better be good. That's your job but the site will take care of pretty much everything else for you.
To begin with, you can easily find a contest that's just right for you, sorting them by the date created, how much time is left to make a design, the number of entries and of course the amoutn of prize money. In addition, there is a search bar where you can filter contests by end date, prize amount and prize guarantee. To supplement, the competitions are all neatly categorized into various areas of design so it'll be hard not to find something you can do.
Moreover, if you're ever confused about something, 99designs maintains a comprehensive help section that covers pretty much everything you need to know about the site.

Naturally, with the design contests that you can enter, you can also launch your own contests. A nice new logo or web design can really put a spark into any company and paying a few hundred dollars for a professional-looking design is definitely worth it. If you don't believe me, check out some of the designs for other contests and you'll see what 99designs users are made of.
The process is quick and easy and within about a week, an average of 35 designs will be in for your judging. Merely, choose a contest type (e.g. t-shirt, logo, print etc.), write a description of what you want, decide on a prize and you'll be off and running.
With all these useful features, you're sure to find something you like at 99designs.

One Rule You Can't Afford Not to Follow: Avoid Online Get-Rich-Quick Scams

In your life of web browsing, you probably have come across many "paid online surveys", "paid surfing", "paid to test products" and "paid to complete offers" sites and so have I. I had thought that one day, one of these get-rich-quick scams would actually work. But now I know better as my email inbox is being flooded with spam from these websites to the point where I get over 100 spam messages within a week.
Plus, I've wasted hundreds of hours looking these up and then trying them out to come to nothing. In fact, I haven't earned a single cent for my efforts, each time finding out in the end that it was all a huge scam. And it's quite disappointing when you've spent a whole afternoon completing offers only to find out that nothing really happens; it can ruin your entire day.
However, I haven't gotten to the point where I'm paying for these opportunities. And trust me, I've seen my fair share of these types of sites. They're the ones with half the page in caps and highlighted in yellow. There's multi-colored text and even a few videos "proving" that the system the site is promoting works. And then of course, at the end there are a few made-up testimonials and finally they ask for the bill. But this isn't where it stops: When you've made up your mind that you don't want to throw your money out of the window, and decide that you want to close your browser, there'll be an alert that pops up and asks you if you're sure you want to leave. Perhaps, accidentally, you press cancel. Then, they'll take you to an extremely irritating robot chat window.
I know though, that if I did give my credit card information to these guys, they not only wouldn't give me anything in return, they would likely steal my identity and begin charging my credit card. I've heard the truly sad stories of this happening.
Slowly, I've trained my eye to recognize these types of pages and immediately close them when I arrive. Here are a few criteria:

1. Pictures of models holding wads of cash
2. Testimonials of any kind (they're usually fake)
3. A profuse amount of emphasis (e.g. coloured words, highlighted words, all caps, bolded words)
4. Impossibly large figures (There isn't the slightest chance that you'll make $2,000 per week taking surveys)
5. Attempts at professional-looking web design
6. Made-up terms ("Constant-profit"? Doesn't that just sound fishy?)

So whenever you see something of this sort, make sure to consult your common sense before making any decisions that could just about ruin your life.

The Ultimate Social Network of Entertainment: Share Your Music, Photos, Videos and More on Bebo

On the web, there are literally hundreds of social networks and communities, all begging you to join and start posting. However, not many of these are actually worth your while and most of them, you'll find pretty useless. But there are definitely one or two that you have joined and are finding quite fun to play with. Bebo is one that you absolutely might want to give a try.
The basic concept of Bebo is not to center around the boring stuff but to venture into the world of entertainment. With an array of people joining every day, Bebo is becoming a real competitor in the internet market, hosting really the same things as the Facebooks and the Myspaces but with a different twist. Bebo still has the normal profiles, friends, groups and apps as well as a messaging system and blog platform but it really isn't the same.
As I mentioned before, Bebo looks to project the entertainment side of people with many band profiles as well as the ability to upload music yourself, popular videos that are posted by famous people and organizations which again, you can upload yourself, and various types of books (you can register your self-published ones to get international exposure). Even the skins (graphical customizations of your profile) and groups have a lot to do with entertainment, whether it be the web, music, movies or photos.
Still, this social network does not at all lack in the personal factor. In fact, you can create widgets, polls, quizzes, notes, drawings and comment on others' profiles as well.
So take a few minutes to check out the emerging social network of entertainment, Bebo.