Five Random Handy Online Tools
Every once in awhile, I run across an online web app that works really well. These apps are powerfuly, yet easy to use. And of course, free.
Today, I'd like to share five that I use often, and have nothing but good experiences with.
Snapito
Provided as a free tool by shrinktheweb.com, Snapito allows anyone to take screenshots of any website. The process is simple. All you do is enter the URL in the field, click the Snap button, and presto! you've got a screenshot. The screen shots are quick to generate, and are of reasonable JPEG quality.
Optionally, you can click the down arrow on the Snap button, and choose to ping the screenshot to Pinterest, convert a URL to PDF, or generate a short link for the screenshot. The only problem I have with the tool is with the PDF generator. When sending to PDF, it seems to use a mobile browser version, and the generated PDF file appears as if being viewed on a mobile phone.
Other than that, great tool!
Google URL Shortener
There are tons of URL shorteners out there. Some are better than others. Heck, this web site even had a URL shortener for awhile. I've been using goo.gl lately. The interface is simple, quick, and to the point. It also gives you a history of URLs that you have shortened on the same screen, just in case you want to go back and grab a URL that you've shortened previously.
Unfurlr
On the flip side of the URL shortener, there is the un-shortener, or unfurlr. This tool allows you to peek behind a shortened URL to see where it leads. For example, if someone sends you a link like:
http://tinyurl.com/ya8x23vp
and you want to make sure it is not going to some nefarious web site, you could copy that URL to your clipboard, and paste it in to unfurlr.com. Unfurlr gives you a ton of information about the web site that the cloaked URL leads to, plus gives you the opportunity to report the website as malware of phishing to the Google Safe Browsing program.
WeConvertPDF
Need to save something to PDF, but don't want to pay for an expensive PDF writing program? Try this free tool that allows you to convert several document types to PDF. Supported operations are:
- PDF to JPG
- JPG to PDF
- MS Word to PDF
- MS Excel to PDF
- PDF to MS Word
- PDF to MS Excel
- Merge PDF
- Split PDF
Uploading from Dropbox or Google Drive is support, as well as simply giving it a link.
Cool Letters
This is more of a inspiration generation type site for web designers. Fun and easy to use Cool Letters allows you to enter a short string of text, then choose a "base" design from a list of many. After picking your basic design, you then get the opportunity to tweak many different aspects of it, resulting in a unique appearance. When you are satisfied with the design, you can easily download the results to your local machine. All in all, a fun little tool that is actually useful.
In Closing ...
There you go. Five random, yet handy tools that I have found useful, and you may want to try out. Got a tool that you find indispensible, and think others will too? Let us know in the comments below.
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