It’s all about working smarter, not harder. The Internet is a magic place and there are tools out there to help you. Write by dictation, translate like a native, calculate fast and create efficiently.
I explored the best that the internet offers and made a list below. Improve your processes and work smarter. Here’s my little treasure I am sharing with you.
A before word is to always be cautions with the information you enter online. Be aware of only typing information you would public, anyway. Never type confidential information or passwords. This is available for all the tools out there. I am saying this because sometimes tools are made by hackers to gather passwords and confidential information. You need to keep the same caution about payments online.
Now it’s time to explore the online free tools I find the best in their category.
Time saving
Speechnotes.co
Write much faster and effortlessly by dictating. Supports lots of languages, including English, and the quality is simply brilliant. A little treasure on the internet. Got long interviews and audio conversations to transcribe? Their premium penny-a-minute service will save you a lot of time.
DeepL
Thought Google Translate was the only and best machine translator? DeepL also considers context. It is created by a software engineering company in Germany.
It has been rated much better than Google Translate and has very good reviews. I did tests with native Polish and German speakers and they confirmed that it is much better than Google Translate.
Whether you need to translate an email or send a postcard to a friend or clients abroad, this site will make you look like a native speaker.
Grammarly or ProWritingAid
The autocorrect period is over. These new editing aids also consider the feeling generated by the words you use, the context, the ideas, the words you put together, and give you suggestions to get your message across more effectively and clearly in your writing. They both have free services and have great reviews.
convertcase.net
A platform that plays with capital letters. Turn a text from uppercase to lowercase and let this platform automatically process it so that everything looks perfect.
IFTTT
It’s a platform that helps your apps collaborate with each other. For example, automatically turning on the driveway lights when and only when the pizza boy comes; automatically generating a report in Google Docs of your out-of-hours time at work; voicemail picking up your calls when you’re at the hairdresser; disconnecting all your appliances from the power supply when you leave home.
Collaboration
Hemingway Editor
Write on point, clear and bold with this online editor giving you feedback. This editor will highlight where your writing is too dense so you manage to craft a powerful message.
New Text Document .com
A clean text editor online. It’s like your Notepad but online. I like it for the clean look. I turn my browser into full screen mode and I enjoy writing without distractions.
Whiteboard.com by Miro and the Microsoft Whiteboard online or the one you can find on Microsoft App Store.
With a cool design and a feel of using real pens, I liked these most out of all of them out there.
Mind Map by Miro .com
Mind Maps are the new thing now. It really helped me. Start planning and laying down your thoughts in a cool visual and engaging way.
Communication
Google Voice
With Google Voice you can make free calls to numbers in the US and Canada. It offers a free US phone number. You can call most of the world at rates from 15 cents to one cent. Refills start at $10.
Skype
You can also call phone numbers all over the world for a little more than Google Voice. The minimum top-up amount is €5 and there are options.
From Skype you can request a landline number in Romania to use for your online ads, for sale or as a local number where relatives can contact you abroad at national rates.
faxZero
Send a fax from online, free of charge to the US and Canada. You can also send faxes from other countries.
LaPoste of France
Upload your document and send it as a letter. The rate is around 3 dollars for most destinations.
Deutsche Post
Send your documents online as paper letters from Germany. It’s around one dollar per letter.
Productivity
Sejda
Helps you edit your PDF files online without having an account. Offers a wide range of options. Whether you want to delete pages, password or copy text, this platform is efficient and could save you with your PDF tasks; free for files up to 200 pages. You can edit three documents per hour.
Sensory Timers on online-stopwatch
Sensory timers are timers that help you visualize how time goes by. This can make you keep a better track of the time you spend. Choose a design you like -from arch style timers to ones resembling fuel gauges!
Bitly.com, tiny.cc, tinyurl.com
Shrink long links into short and even customized ones. Get traffic statistics and see how many people clicked, from which devices and from which regions. Free.
Wordle
A tool that shows you in clouds which words you have used most often in a text. Useful for those who write articles and make sure they are search engine friendly.
Percentage calculator .net
It shows you the percentages and figures you need. What percentage is this difference in values?
Random number generator by Google
Want to roll the dice or need to generate a random number to pick a winner for your contest? Ask Google to generate a random number for you.
Script Timer
Find out how long it takes to read the article you have written or want to read.
Visualization and Practical tools
Prezi
Powerpoint has been a thing of the past for some time. Impress your clients, colleagues and boss with it. With Prezi you create dynamic visual presentations that grab attention. The online version is free.
Yumpu, Issuu, IMag
These platforms will help you give your documents the visual appearance of sheets of paper. Publish reports, brochures or books with this effect. Yumpu is free.
VisualPing
Be informed by email of any visual changes, new features of the site you choose.
AirStory
Take notes, parts, information from the internet and quote them in whatever you write online. This is a browser extension and installs in Chrome and Firefox.
Password checker by Kaspersky
Check how strong your password is on the Kaspersky website. Don’t include your real password but a similar one that has the same structure.
Password Manager by Google
Manage your passwords with Google Password manager.
Scr.im
When you post your email address on websites you are likely to start receiving various spam emails or have your address collected by people or programs that make lists of email addresses (which they then sell).
This site generates a link to a page that will display your real email address. The display is only done after checks to make sure it is taken by a real person.
qClock
Hold the mouse over a place on the map and see what the local time is there.
If you are always working with colleagues who are in a different time zone, you can add a second clock in Windows by clicking on Time, then Change time and settings and from the Additional Clocks tab you can add a new clock with the desired time zone.
Natural Readers
Read an article while doing something else. Let a Reader do that for you and you just listen. You’ll be surprised how naturally some platforms can reproduce text by voice. Natural readers includes many languages. Also the reader in the Microsoft Edge browser is absolutely wonderful and supports multiple languages.
Comfort
F.lux
Blue light from monitors is scientifically proven to contribute to sleep problems and Alzheimer’s. This app, which also works on phones, gives your screen light a red tint. This turns cold light into warm light, perfect after sunset or before bedtime.
One of a kind
Plagiarism Checker by Grammarly
Have you received a document or are you a teacher checking student work and want to check how original it is? Or are you tempted to see what other politicians have plagiarized from our country? This tool checks the text you enter against multiple academic and online sources.
Voice Recorder on online voice recorder
A site where you can record sound and then cut, edit and download the file. I tested it and found it to be better quality than the default computer sound recorder. The company brags that nothing is saved on their servers.
Teleprompter online on scriptslide
Are you recording a video and have a script you need to follow? There are sites that behave like a teleprompter. Play it naturally while you’re filming and you won’t forget a single idea.
Just go into scroll down mode and maintain the speed at which you feel comfortable reading. Another one is this. Take care that what you write doesn’t somehow get saved publicly.
Language Virus and also Total Virus
No more writing inspiration? This site gives you randomly generated ideas and challenges, character names, games to get you inspired and more.
Create My Books on createmybooks.com
You can publish your own book even if you only want one copy. Prices from eight to nine euros.
10-minute mail
Do you have to enter your email address again to download that guide? Do you only get that discount if you subscribe to the newsletter? Here you can generate an email address that self-destructs in 10 minutes.
Final thoughts
I hope you found at least one useful tool for yourself. They can help you optimize your work and speed up your personal projects.
A good thing to know is that when using online tools, it is very important to keep in mind the privacy of your data and the trustworthiness of the site you are going to use. Every site, even if it is free, has a purpose: to generate a profit in some form or another, or marketing at least. You need to consider what information you process in these online tools. If you have a confidential work document or personal client data, it may not be such a good idea to upload it somewhere online, at least not before anonymizing it.
Depending on your field of work, you may find several useful tools specific to your business.
Good luck exploring!
