TeamViewer is another application that I find highly valuable, especially if you are on the go.  Basically it lets you share your screen with others and allows you to access your pc remotely.  TeamViewer is a little different than some of the other products that are out there.  For example, GoToMypc is a pay service with a monthly fee that also allows you to access your pc remotely.  In contrast, team viewer is free.  We have a winner!  But that’s not the only difference.  I have spent time at client locations and when behind their firewall, GoToMypc was blocked.  Huge hassle.

There are other free products available that you could also try, such as RealVNC or UltraVNC.  Great tools, a little more technical knowledge needed though.  Another issues is that I have NEVER been able to get UltraVNC to work when a wireless router is used on the pc you are trying to access.

TeamViewer makes the decision easy.  It’s free, it works behind firewalls and with routers.  It’s easy to set up and you can have the person you are trying to connect to download a small file that will allow you temporary access.  This tool can be a life saver to have on your main pc, and to assist others who may need your help when you are in a distant location.

If you’re anything like me, the amount of information in your life is a constant challenge to manage and recall.  Especially when you need it.  I’ve tried filing systems, email folder structures, lists, but nothing seemed to be the answer.  I have steady stream of bills, receipts, notes, passwords, Excel files, PDFs, papers, mail, photos, videos, sound recordings and more that I need at the tip of my fingers at a moments notice.  My ultimate solution, Evernote.

Evernote was not the first poduct that I tried out, but it is the winner in my book.  As far as note taking applications go, Evernote has most of what I need.  It is an application that you can load to the pc or Mac, and type your notes right in.  But is much more.  You can access your notes on multiple machines and multiple platforms.  Lets say you have a Mac at home and pc at work.  You could load the Evernote application on both machines and access your notes from either location.  Have an iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry or other mobile device?  There’s an Evernote app that will let you access your notes right from your mobile device.  But it gets even better.

Not only can you type in notes from today’s important meetings, but you can also clip from the web.  You can take screen shots of anything on your computer.  The is a setting that allow you to write or draw freehand (which I never use).  You can take pictures from your mobile device and add them to Evernote.  You can add pictures from anywhere and Evernotes text identification engine will make those images searchable.  Lets say after an intense meeting, the whiteboard is loaded with info and it would take forever to jot it all down.  Snap a pic with your phone and send it to Evernote.  Soon much of that text will be recognizable and searchable.

Maybe you’re at a client location and don’t have your laptop handy.  You can access all of your data by going to Evernote.com and logging in.  All of your info is sync’d up anywhere you use it.  Did I mention this is all FREE?  If you are a power user, like myself, there is a very affordable paid version that gives you plenty of space and allows you to save and launch files from Evernote as if they were saved on your hard drive.  You can attach Excel files, videos, audio, PDFs and virtually any type of file.

I took this a step further and added the Fujitsu S300 scanner.  This allows me to dump all of my hand written notes (which is also index thanks to the text recognition) and receipts, mail, miscellaneous paperwork, etc. right into Evernote.  I have separate notebooks setup for business, personal, receipts, photos and more.  But you don’t even need to do that if you take advantage of the “tag” feature which allows you to assign multiple tags to any document.

Clearly I have a lot to say about Evernote, but I’ll cut myself off here.  I want to mention that I am in no way affiliated with the makers of this product, I just really love it.  As I mentioned, this wasn’t the first note taking app I tried out.  Maybe I will provide a future post about some of the other products and why I ended up moving on to Evernote.