Date calculator & time zone meeting planner

If you like helpful, easy, and free, then this video is for you because I'm sharing with you seven free websites that you probably didn't even know existed. So, let's dive in. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And the very first website on our list is something that I've mentioned before, but I'm sharing with you again because I use it just so often.

And that is timeanddate.com. Now there is so much more than just finding out a time zone, or what time is it somewhere else in the world. So let me show you some of the features that I use most often.

Down here, we have a section called calculators and timers. And the date to date calculator is one of the tools that I use very, very frequently. So for example, I want to know how many days or weeks are between now, today, and perhaps an upcoming birthday.

I don't know, maybe it's a friend of mine. I'm going to say calculate duration, and I can find out that it's exactly 65 days

between today and that special day. And alternatively, it gives me several other time units including minutes, hours, weeks, and days, and even the percentage of the current year. Another date calculator that I use quite often is the one where we can add or subtract from a particular date.

So for example, again, I'm going to select today, but you can select any date that you want. And how many days is exactly 100 days from right now? Well instantly, I can see that it is October 13th.

That would take me a lot more work to try and figure out on my own. So whether I'm dealing with negotiations, whether I'm dealing with giving someone a project plan, I can confidently tell them and share those numbers with others all by using the date calculator.

The other feature that I use quite often is the online meeting planner.

And this is most useful when you're setting up meetings for people around the world,

or not within your chosen time zone. So let's say for example, I am planning a meeting for next week. So I'm going to select that date. That may be important because remember some countries, some time zones, do recognize daylight savings.

Others do not, and even if they do, they may be on a different schedule. So I've got my location listed here, and let's go and search for a few others. So I'm going to say that one of the people I'm meeting with is in London, I'm going to select that.

And then let's say that the other person that I'm meeting with is in Boston. So I'm going to select that as well. Now you can add many more than just three locations. But at this stage, I'm going to select show timetable.

And what I love about this is it gives me something very, very colorful, so I can see what times are outright and won't work, but also the times that are most suitable. So for example, I'm certainly available at three

or 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon, but that's midnight for my friend in London.

And that's later in the evening for my colleague in Boston. If I look up a little bit earlier, if we meet at eight or 9:00 a.m. my time, that's probably quite reasonable for the people that I'm trying to meet.

So that's perhaps the time that I'm going to suggest first. So it takes out a lot of the busy work. You don't have to do the math yourself, let timeanddate.com do it for you.

Quick & easy whiteboard

The next free website on our list is called Witeboard. Or is it Witeboard? I'm not exactly sure. All you need to remember is to remove or ignore the H, W-I-T-E board. And if you go to witeboard.com, you can immediately start to draw your diagrams.

You can add text, you can add shapes. I especially like this feature. You can see that I certainly cannot draw a perfect circle, but whiteboard.com will make it into a perfect circle with me.

I can add lines if I want to make connections or maybe make some straight edges, I can add text as well. And maybe I want to change that text, I want to have that text in blue, so you can ask me a question down below.

Witeboard is absolutely free, and you can even share it for free as well. So you don't need to sign up for an account.

The only need to sign up for an account is if you want to save your witeboard, if you want to go back and use it again in the future. witeboard.com is especially useful if you want to quickly and easily share your thoughts visually, and don't need to or want to sign into another account.

Temporary email address

The next free website on our list is all about using a temporary email address.

Something that you probably didn't even know might be helpful to you. How often have you gone to a website and you want to have access to their content, or you want to download their free guide, or whatever the case may be, but you just have a feeling that you're going to be inundated with so much spam and unwanted marketing emails?

Or maybe you're worried that they may sell your personal email to other organizations. Well with tempmail.org, you can receive a temporary email address, an email address which will be good for roughly 10 minutes in duration.

Just enough time for you to gain access to that information or access to that service. So in this case, I have this temporary email address given to me, and I'm going to copy it to my clipboard.

What I'm going to do now is I'm going to go over to Harvard Business Review, and I'm going to register for an account. So let me just put in some dummy information here. My name is going to be Hammersmith at this point in time.

I'm going to paste that email address, remember that's my temporary email address.

And then I'm going to have to add a password here, with some special characters.

I am not a robot, and I'm going to select register. What is going to happen is I should be receiving information from the Harvard Business Review. All I need to do is go back to tempmail.org. And down below, you can see I've received my welcome email.

I'm going to click on this arrow to view it, and I'm going to get all of the same information that I would expect from a regular email. I can see who it's from, I have the date. And I have all of this information that they would've sent to my personal email address.

But the great thing is, is that now I can access this information or get that unique code or that unique link without having to share my actual personal email address. Keep in mind that this temporary email address will only be applicable for roughly 10 to 15 minutes.m So I could repurpose it, I could reuse it.

And maybe HBR is going to send me some other information in the next 10 minutes, that's going to show up here in my temporary inbox as well. But if you need something in a pinch and you don't want to give up your own email address, TempMail may be the solution for you.

Now despite all of your efforts, it can be rather difficult to reduce the amount of spam and unwanted email you receive. But there's a reason why I only have eight messages here

in my inbox, and not 152 like I did just a few days ago. And that's because I'm using SaneBox, the easy and simple way to better manage your email inbox. With Sanebox, SaneBox gives you some very customizable folders that actually learn from your behavior.

So rather than just adding a new label, like I would typically do here within Gmail, SaneBox has actually added some customizable folders which have some pretty special powers with them. So for example, there's a lot of email that I don't want to start here in my inbox. Rather than creating a number of individual filters,

what I can do is train Sanebox to send certain messages to these SaneLater folder, where I can come and review these messages whenever I need to. And if something ends up here in my inbox that I want to see in the SaneLater folder going forward,

all I need to do is drag it over and it will learn from my behavior. But there's so many other great features as well, including the ability to snooze your emails into one of these three categories.

SaneTomorrow, Sane NextWeek, or SaneNextMonth, and let it do the work for you. So rather than having too many emails staring back at me here, I can take some selected ones and perhaps move them to NextWeek.

And then when it's time for me to engage with them, they will automatically appear right here in my inbox. Now I've got a special offer just for Simpletivity viewers.

You can get started with SaneBox, whether you use Google, Office 365, or Apple Mail, right away. But if you decide you like the service and sign up for SaneBox, my friends will give you a $25 credit towards your subscription.

That's like getting 50% off of their initial plan for the entire year. So be sure to head over to sanebox.com/simpletivity, or click the link in the description below.

Profile picture creator

Next on our list, we have a free website, which is going to make you look good no matter where you put your profile picture. Sometimes it can be difficult to stand out,

whether we are on social media or if we just need to upload a great looking headshot to maybe the number of project management, or video conferencing services that we use on a regular basis. But Profile Pic Maker makes this so much easier.

To get started, all we need to do is hit that big green button in the middle of the screen. And I have an image, I have a fairly simple one, I want to start with. Here is a headshot of myself.

Now you can select any picture that you like, but what Profile Pic Maker will do is actually remove the background as a part of the process. And in just a few seconds, it will generate a number of both professional, but also creative ideas for us to select with our profile picture.

Because remember, there might be a big difference between your Instagram profile and something that you want to put on LinkedIn. So here is that image where it's automatically removed that background, and given me a lot of, some a little more crazier, a little more maybe outlandish for me.

But there's some others that I really like, I kind of like this simple border with that color in the background. You can see at the very top, we can go between more creative ideas and maybe some that are a little more professional.

Now earlier when I was playing around, I really sort of liked this idea of just a very simple sort of color change, just sort of this simple round border. But there's some additional features which are amazing here, and it's all for free.

Number one, if I click on this little eyeball icon, I can actually download a matching background which will go with the profile picture which I've just selected. Now that particular one perhaps makes me feel

a little dizzy, but I like something like that. It's the same color, it's the same shading.

It's something that I can add to the back of my LinkedIn profile or Facebook page, or something like that. You can either choose to download a square image or a round image, and you're ready to go. In just a matter of seconds, you've got a fantastic looking profile picture where you can use anywhere on the web

Color palette from picture

or in other applications. Now sticking with colors for just a moment, the next free website is going to allow us to pull out the key colors from any image that you find online. Here we are at Color Palette Generator. And as you can see in this example here, it's pulled out the different hues of pink and green from this image of a flower.

I came across this image not too long ago, and I like sort of the fiery reds and yellows.

I like the mix, I like the feeling that's going on in this image. And maybe I'd like to apply it to my own website. Or maybe a social media campaign, for example. Well all I need to do is right click and copy the image address, and come back to my Color Palette Generator. And I'm going to paste in that URL and say, Color-Palette-ify it,

that's the term that it uses there for that button. Now I've got some of those key colors

from these images and their hex codes. So I can copy and paste and bring these directly into the editor or to whatever I'm using, where I can input that information.

Now it may not grab every single color from the image, but these are definitely fits with the theme of the image on the left. It'll even give you a mix of both duller

and more vibrant colors, so you can choose between the two. But simply double click and copy these hex codes. And you can paste them in Adobe or any other editor of your choice.

Clear recipe instructions

Now the next free website on our list is all about food, which you might find surprising because I don't talk an awful lot about baking and cooking in the kitchen. But I'll tell you one thing that I get frustrated by, and that is when I am searching for a recipe online.

Now don't get me wrong, there are so many wonderful recipes. But when I click on a recipe, I often end up on some type of blog, which is so incredibly lengthy.

Look at the search bar here in the right hand corner. This page is so long, it is full of many different pictures and stories and what this person felt like when her grandmother made these waffles. And yeah, I get it.

I understand how dry ingredients get mixed first. I just want the goods, I just want the ingredients. I want the recipe. Well rather than having to scan all the way to the bottom of this screen, all I need to do is go up and copy the URL of any recipe page. Come back to justtherecipe.com,

and paste in that URL here and say, get recipe. And immediately, everything else is shed away. And now I just have the recipe. The ingredients here on the left, the directions here on the right, and I can get to making these delicious Belgian waffles.

One step further, we can click the edit button if we want to make adjustments\ to any of these ingredients over here. Maybe we try it one time and we say, actually we need maybe 3/4 teaspoon of salt. And maybe we need to bake it in our waffle iron

for a specific amount of time. We can do that here and edit anything as we like. I even like that the format with Just the Recipe is actually a lot better than most of these bloggers' pages. If I keep going down to the actual recipe, here it is, that's what the actual recipe looks like. I've got a huge ad in here, I've got other things that are sort of distracting me and taking me away. This is so much easier for me to read,

whether I'm doing this on my iPad or a tablet, or even on my phone. Now everything is absolutely free. You can even save your recipes if you want, but you will need to sign into an account. So if you're frustrated with all the noise of blog recipes,

justtherecipe.com may be the site for you.

Honest software reviews

And when it comes to websites that provide me with an immense amount of value, and I sometimes can't even believe that it's free, g2.com would be near the top of that list. g2.com is all about software reviews.

And whether you're looking for a simple to-do list manager for yourself, or a complete CRM system for your business, I recommend you head to g2.com first. Here you can see some of the more popular categories, including video conferencing, eCommerce, marketing, and online backups.

And on the right hand side, we can see some popular tools which you're probably already familiar with. Now you can use the handy search bar to type in, well, literally any software that you can think of.

Or you can click on one of the images here on the right to see a deeper dive. So for example, when it comes to Trello, they have over 12,000 reviews from real users. And you can read their testimonials, but better yet, it's going to give you a summary of both Trello pricing and what people like the most about using this software.

I also like that it'll provide a helpful comparison tool, here on the right hand side. So if you are comparing a piece of software to something else, or you just want other ideas, you can do a side by side comparison. So here, I can see the pricing side by side.

I can see the ratings from members. I can see what people like more in one piece of software, and what they like more in the software that I'm evaluating as well. So before you install or start paying for that next piece of software, I encourage you to check out g2.com.

Now if you enjoyed this video, you are going to love my seven extremely useful websites video, which is on the screen right now.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Dashcards

You're not really a Trello user if you're not taking advantage of Power-Ups. So in this video, I'm going to share with you seven of the most helpful Power-Ups so that you can get the most out of all of your Trello boards. So let's dive in.

As we take a look at my sample board here, you can notice on the far left that I have a couple of cards that look very, very different from traditional Trello cards. Now, no, I haven't just added a fancy cover graphic here. These are actually dynamic cards called Dashcards

and they're showing me some very valuable information. This first one here is telling me that I have three cards on this board that are due this week.

So rather than having to scan all of my cards to see what is coming up soon, or having to use the filter option and then put in my specific requirements, this card can tell me right away. And best of all, its dynamic.

The one down below is perhaps even more powerful because it's giving me information not just about this board, but about all of the boards on this workspace.

It's telling me that I have 12 cards that are assigned to me, not just on this board, but within all of the boards as a part of this workspace.

And for example, if I need to add myself to a couple of new cards, in just a few seconds, you will see that this Dashcard on the left will update now to 14, because now there are two more cards in which I am assigned to.

Once the Dashcard Power-Up is installed, you will see a button at the top of your board called Track.

When we select that option, it will get us started with a number of different defaults,

a number of different templates to get us started. And here you can see the assigned to me and due this week, which I've already enabled. But you can not only customize any of the ones that you see here, you can also start from scratch and really apply any filter or criteria that you like.

So for example, maybe I want to create a Dashcard

which is called Stale. I want to identify the cards that haven't been modified in a while. I'm going to come down here and select more filters. I'm going to say last modified, and then I get to choose the timeframe.

So I could say, is there anything this week, this month? What if I want to be even more specific? I'm going to say last modified later than let's say maybe 10 days ago, and immediately it's going to update that Dashcard here as well. 26, there are 26 cards amongst all of my boards,

which have not been changed in the last 10 days. And you can just see how granular we can get. I can include just some specific boards if I want, I can include specific labels or assignees and start to layer out this Dashcard.

And I can even add the background if I want to change it to a specific color, or I can search for some specific photos. So in this case, I'm going to type in the word stale. Would it be great if I had some maybe moldy bread or something like that to show us that something is stale?

Hey, I like that a lot. That's going to stand out. I'm going to say start tracking. Now, this particular Dashcard is going to be added and I can move it around wherever I want.

If I want to have it at the top of another list, I can do so. But it gets even better if I click on one of these Dashcards. Let's go on this due cards this week. I can actually see those specific cards. So down below, I can see which of those cards are due this week. And if I want to click on one of them, I can go directly to that card as well.

So beyond just seeing those powerful numbers on the front of your card, you can go directly to those cards as well.

Show Attachments

Now, the next Power-Up on our list makes finding and viewing attachments that much easier. Here, on the right hand side, you will notice that I have a card here that has some very specific, or shall we say interesting looking labels? Well, in fact, they're not even labels at all.

They are showing me the specific attachments which are attached to this card. You're probably already familiar with the little paperclip icon,

letting us know that there is at least one attachment, and then the number beside it. In this case, it's showing me that there are two attachments, but depending on how you use Trello, you may have several different attachments, and just the number isn't very helpful.

You want to know exactly what is attached to that particular card.

So with the Show Attachments Power-Up installed, we can do that. Now, if I want to access those attachments, I will still need to have to open up the card and then access or edit them from within the card.

If I click on power-Ups and go into my show attachment settings, you can see that I can select a variety of different criteria. So for example, maybe I don't want to see the paperclip icon, maybe I don't care about the name, but I do want to see the number of attachments.

Maybe I'm already using an orange label for something else, and instead of being confused with that, I can change it to another color or just make it transparent altogether.

But I think it's these next two that are perhaps the most powerful options here. So for example, maybe I only want to see the specific attachments on cards that are assigned to myself.

If other people have attachments assigned to their cards, maybe I don't care so much about seeing them, but I would like to see them for myself. The other option we have here is to filter out just specific attachments.

So in this case, you can see that I have a YouTube link video and then I have a JPEG image. Maybe I don't care to see about the video attachment, so I'm going to select this option and hit Save.

And now that other attachment is not shown on the front of the card. It's still there, it still exists,

but maybe I only care about the images themselves or some specific file type. So show attachments can be most helpful if you're managing a large number of attachments and you want to see that level of detail

Rewind Backups

on the front of the card. Now, the next Power-Up in our list is all about safety and helping us from making a major mistake. How often have you shared your Trello board with a new coworker, a freelancer, or someone else and only to have them come in here and make a lot of changes that you wish that they wouldn't have,

or maybe even for your own personal boards where you've gone in and made a few changes and saying, "Oh, I wish I could go back to the way I had this yesterday morning?"

Well, that's precisely why I use Rewind Backups for all of my Trello boards and why it's one of the top three most installed Power-Ups right now .If you want to back up all of your Trello data, if you want to go back in time in case you make a mistake, you can do so with Rewind Backups for Trello.

And if you're not already using Rewind for your Trello boards, you can go to rewind.com/scott-friesen

and get $50 when you subscribe on this page. Be sure to see the link in the description for more details.

Countdown

Now, when it comes to managing all of your cards in Trello, you're probably already familiar with adding a due date. That's because many cards represent a task, a project, or include some other deadline.

But sometimes these dates, such as July 7th or July 14th, can get lost, and we often gloss over in terms of how soon is something coming up, or maybe one of these cards is more important than the other and we would like it to stand out in relation to that due date.

Well, here you will notice I have a couple of cards that have a little timer beside it. In this one. it's letting me know that it's due in just two days time. And this one, titled A Major Problem, is due in just 19 hours.

It's coming up very, very soon. That's because I am making use of the Countdown Power-Up. And the great thing about the Countdown Power-Up is you don't have to apply it to all of your cards, you can apply it to just very specific cards.

So for example, let's take a look at this one here saying July 7th, and maybe I want to make it stand out for both myself and for my colleagues that this is coming up soon,

or to be notified when something is coming up soon. I can click on this particular card, and on the right hand side, when I have the Countdown Power-Up installed,

I can select this and I've got a variety of different options available to me. Now, by default, and I would think in most cases you're going to set it from the card due date.

So if I select this first option, it's going to add that countdown. And, yes, it is one day from now. But you will notice that a target time is added. And in this case, the target time is in sync with the due date, but it doesn't have to be.

So for example, if I click on the target time now that I've added it here, I can change that target time. I could have added this from the first step if I wanted to, but now I get the calendar, but maybe I have to say, you know what? This is actually coming up earlier than we thought, or at least the first stage is coming up earlier. I'm going to hit Submit.

So now we're only 22 hours away from the target time, even though the due date is about a day later. So you can have a lot of flexibility here with that countdown.

Some other helpful features, if I go over to this major problem, which is due in less than 19 hours, if I select this card,

and I can either select the target time, or I can come down and select the Countdown button, I can say pin this countdown. If I select this, what it will do is actually add it to the bottom of my Trello board. So now it's really hard for me to ignore this card. The title of the card will be listed and then how much time is left due.

So in order to make sure that I don't get distracted with other things and other cards,

this can be a powerful feature as well.

Bulk Actions

Now, the next Power-Up on our list is going to save you so much time, even if you only use it once in a while. How often have you needed to come into a Trello board and make changes to multiple cards, such as adding yourself to maybe seven different cards at the same time, or maybe pushing out the due date by, I don't know,

let's say three days for every single card in this list? Well, in order to do so, I'm going to have to click on every single card and change the due date, even if I'm using the Quick Edit here, I've got to click there, and then I've got to click the date, and then I've got to select the date, and then I got to hit Save, and then I've got to hit Save here.

And I got to do that all over again for each card in this particular list. Well, with the Bulk Actions Power-Up installed, you can do this and so much more, making your Trello life that much easier.

By selecting the Bulk Actions button, you're going to see the same Trello board. The only difference is that you'll notice there are now check boxes beside each of your cards, including the list. So going back to this example,

if I wanted to push out the due date for every card in this list, I don't have to click on all four, I could just click on the list at the top of the screen, but I can also click them individually. So if I want to go here and say that we're going to change the due date

of these three particular cards, I've selected them, and now, in the top right hand side of your screen, you can see that we can change, well, pretty much anything that we could within an individual card.

In this case, I'm going to select due dates and I'm going to say we are going to modify the date. I can either choose to change them all to a fixed date, or what if I want to push them out by a certain period? So in this case,

maybe I want to push them all out by one week. I'm going to do so. It'll even give you a quick preview down below before you make the change, just to make sure which cards are going to be applied to and what is going to happen next.

I can either select change due dates, or I can say change due dates and keep selection. Maybe on top of changing the due date, I also need to add a specific label. So you don't always have to go back and change or select all of those cards.

In this case, I'm going to select change those due dates, and now they've all been pushed out by one week.

When I'm done using Bulk Actions, I just need to hit the X in the top right hand corner

and I'm returned to my default view. Bulk Actions is something that I do not use on a daily basis, but when I need it, it is so, so valuable. So make sure that you take advantage of the Bulk Actions Power-Up.

List Limits

Now, I know from experience that it can be difficult and frustrating if there's a particular stage, if there's a particular list in your Trello board where things tend to bottleneck, or you want to make sure that you don't have too many cards at any given time. Well, that's precisely where the List Limit Power-Up comes into play.

Here, on this board, you will notice that one of my lists is not like the other, and in this case, it's the testing list. I have a two out of three, I've got a fraction here telling me that I have two cards within this list, but I only ever want a maximum of three. So if I add a third card to this list, that's fine. But as soon as I add a fourth card to this list,

the entire list turns to a shade of yellow. This makes it very visible to myself and to others to say wait a minute, we've got too much going on here. Can we move something into complete, or do we need to push something back to development?

The great thing about List Limits is that, again, you can only apply them to specific lists. You don't need to apply them to all of your lists. And I would say, in many cases,

there were probably only one or two where this is most valuable. Let's say I want to make sure that the queue never gets too large. All I need to do is select the more option here, and with the List Limit Power-Up installed, I can come down and select set list limit.

Maybe in this case I'm going to say seven and hit Save. So I can quickly see what that limit is and I can also quickly see how many cards are currently in that list. A very simple but yet very powerful Power-Up to use as a part of your Board toolbox.

Card Numbers

Now, the next Power-Up on our list makes it so much easier to reference specific cards, especially when we are collaborating with others. Here, you can see that I have a unique number on every single one of my cards.

So instead of having to describe or list the full name of a card, I can just tell my teammate, "Can you please go look at card number 16 and give me your feedback?" These two cards in particular are rather similar.

They're in the same list, they are both removing something, and I'm assigned to both of them, but there's a pretty big difference between 16 and 19. So if I'm telling or collaborating with someone and say I don't mean 19, let's take a look at card number 16, we can do so. Now, everyone is going to be a unique identifier.

And you can tell that this card was obviously created before this one over here,

which is numbered as 21, but you can make sure that every single one of your cards

has a unique identifier. And when you open up that card, that card number will be front and center as well if you want to see it there. In addition, if we go into the card number settings, we can edit and add a prefix to the front of that number.

You can see that by default, it's going to add the number sign, but maybe I want it to say case number. Maybe this is a ticketing type of system. So now you can see, we have case number as the prefix in front of all of our unique identifiers.

A very simple but very helpful Power-Up nonetheless. Now, if you've watched this far into the video, I'd love for you to prove it by adding the phrase, "Trello Power," to your comments down below.

And while you're there, why not tell me what are some of your favorite Trello Power-Ups that make your days that much easier? And if you enjoyed this video,

you'll love my other Trello videos and playlists right here on the Simpletivity channel.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Create a form in Word or Google Docs

Would you like to turn your document into a fillable form? Well, it's actually a lot easier than you think. So in this video I'm going to show you how to take any Microsoft Word document or Google Doc and turn it into a fillable PDF.

So let's get started. To begin, all you need to do is create your form in the word processor of your choice. So in this example, I'm in Microsoft Word but you can create this in Google Docs or in a variety of other word processors as well.

So in this case, I've created a fairly simple one page form leaving space for the areas where I'm going to be adding fillable components. So at the top here I've got things like name, phone, and email.

Of course, I'm going to make this fillable in the next step, but down below I've also left some space for some drop down menus. Keep in mind you don't have to create tables like you see here.

Sometimes that can be helpful to keep things in order, under this services menu, for example, I'm going to be adding a couple of check boxes but just down below, when I ask them when you would like their service to begin, I'm going to reserve these spaces for radio buttons. So you are probably already familiar

with creating documents within Word or Google Docs. So you can make this as simple or as complex as you needed. In fact, you may already have a form that is ready to go. So let's move on to the next step.

Upload document to OnlyOffice

Now, once your document has been saved, we're going to go online and travel to OnlyOffice.com. OnlyOffice is a full productivity suite which allows us to edit, share and collaborate in a variety of different ways.

I'm going to click on documents because this is where we're going to add those fillable components. Now the very first step is to upload the file to OnlyOffice. Now you can also choose to connect directly to Drive or OneDrive or a variety of other shared cloud services but in this case, I'm going to go and find that file.

So let's go upload our file. And in this case, this is the landscaping document that we were looking at just a moment ago. Once the file has been uploaded to our OnlyOffice account next we're going to want to select the orange button, create and then come down to form template.

Now you could choose to create a fillable form from scratch but in this case, because we've already done most of the work, we're going to say from a text document. OnlyOffice is going to show us all of the text documents available to us.

And ours happens to be the very first one on the list. So I'm going to select that one and say create. Now I have an option here to rename it if I want to. So maybe I'm just going to say sample in this case just so it stands out and I'm going to hit that check mark beside it.

That's going to now open up this file within the OnlyOffice editor. And the great thing is is that we have all of these fillable fields and fillable options available to us. The other bonus is

because OnlyOffice is a full document suite, if we need to make changes to anything within this document we can do so here as well. If I select the home menu for example, we have all of the familiar options available to us including headings and other editing tools, just like we would see in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Adding fillable areas to the document

But for our purposes, we want to focus on the forms tab. So it's really as easy as selecting the area of the form where you would like to include a fillable component.

So under name, I'm going to include a text field, seems to make sense, and I'm going to do the same thing for phone and email, but we do have some additional options available to the right.

So for example, here's the placeholder text, your text here. Well, maybe in my case, I'm going to say I only need the first name of that person. So I'm going to type in first name. So that's what they're going to see in that fillable field.

Under the phone field I'm also going to include a text field but this time I'm going to add a few enhancements. Number one, I'm going to select this checkbox which says comb of characters. What that's going to do is actually break this up into different components.

It may be hard to see that at the moment, but if I come down to border color and select a darker shade now you can see as I start to enter in numbers, yes you can see that things are being added along the way. So it's going to be that much more obvious that I'm asking for a phone number. Next, let's add a couple of dropdown menus

Insert dropdown menus to form

to these questions down below. Now, up in the ribbon, you can see that we have two choices available to us, a dropdown menu and a combo box. Now some of you may be confused as to what is the difference between these two.

They're both going to look almost identical. The difference with a combo box is that you allow the user to input an option which is not listed amongst the choices.

So for example, in this question, how did you hear about us? I'm actually going to insert a combo box and on the right hand side I can add the different value options. So maybe Facebook is going to be one of my options.

Maybe I'm going to say Google search is going to be another one of the options. And maybe the last one is going to be like an advertisement, something like that. But of course there could be a variety of different options.

So what this will allow the user to do is actually choose either one of these three or they can type in their own. I'll show you how that works once we've finished publishing the form.

In this second option down below I think it's going to make more sense if I just add a traditional drop down menu. So for my value options, maybe I'm going to add Portland. Let's add Seattle and let's add Vancouver as well.

So those are going to be my three options for location. If I want to change the order and put Seattle as the first option, I can just select it and move it up. So if I want to add some choices there I can do so.

And this placeholder text, just like you saw when I inserted the name is optional. If I don't want anything there, I can leave it blank. Or I can just put in a word such as select, maybe something very simple so they can know where to click and where to choose.

Adding checkboxes and radio buttons

Next up I want to know what kind of service they are after, and in this case, I'm going to add some check boxes. Now I've already reserved a column for these check boxes.

So this is really as easy as inserting my cursor, selecting a check box, coming back down, selecting another check box and then the third one down below. So now they can choose one or more of the services that they are after.

Lastly, let's add a radio button to this final question. When would you like your service to begin? It wouldn't make sense for me to add a checkbox here because I only want them to select one of these three. So in this case, I'm going to select a radio button.

I'm going to come down here, select another radio button and then a third radio button as well. And remember, you can continue to edit along the way. So maybe I'd like to add a single space in between those just so it looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing and easier for people to fill out.

Maybe the last thing that I'll let them do is add in a date. So I'm going to add a text field here and I'm going to say today's date, maybe something like that just to remind them what I'm looking for them to fill in that last component.

Publishing your fillable PDF form

Now, once you are finished and happy with the look and feel of your form, all you need to do is come up to the file tab select download as, and we are going to select PDF. So now when I open up this PDF on my computer I can quickly and easily fill out this form.

So I'm going to enter in my first name here. I can start to fill in my phone number which of course starts with 555. And you can see how easy it was for me to see how many characters, how many numbers they are asking for.

Coming down to our combo box down below, I could say that I found it through Google search but I can always click on this field and because it's a combo box, I can enter in an additional option here. Where are you located? Located in Portland.

And then let's come down to our check boxes and I am looking for both mowing and weeding services. And when would you like your service to begin? Next month, but on second thought, the lawn is getting pretty long.

How about this month? Let's start the services this month. Now, if you enjoyed this video, you'll also enjoy the other app reviews

and tutorials right here on the Simpletivity channel.

Remember being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

What is Walling?

Trello is great and so is Notion, but sometimes you may feel a little boxed in by either of those applications.

So, in this video, I'm going to give you a tour of Walling, and show you why it may be a better solution when it comes to managing all of your ideas, tasks, and projects. Here I am within my Walling account, and I've just created a new wall which is really the equivalent of a project or a workspace.

But I really like that terminology because just like a blank wall in your office or in a room, you don't have to start in the top left and move your way to the right. You don't have to start at the top and move your way down either. Like a blank canvas, I can start anywhere.

If I just double-click in the middle of my screen, I can start with a new task, and then within that task, I can add as little or as much detail as I like. If I want to add some notes or bullet points, I can easily get started with new things, and notes, and everything else that I want to add here. But I also don't have to display it all the time,

so if I want to hide that information, I can do so. If I want to expand it I can do so here as well. And maybe, I don't want to see it there in the middle 'cause I've got a new idea to add, well, I can just drag things around. Here's my second task, for example,

the next thing that I want to do in my list, but I've got some other information that I want to include. Perhaps, in this case, the task is to review the following video. And all I have to do is, well, paste the link to that video and it will automatically embed it right in here.

And the great thing is that I can start to play and interact with this content directly from within the brick itself. Yes, that's right, these components are referred to as bricks because you can place them anywhere that you want. I'm going to drag this one over to the left here,

Easily insert content and move around

and let's just add a few more as an example. Now, Walling also makes it super easy for us to drag and drop other content into our walls. For example, if I want this image, I just need to click and drag it into my wall, I got to place it there.

And now, I've got access to that. I can turn this, and keep notes, and assign it, and give it a due date if I want to as well. In this case, perhaps I want to add this article to my wall, I just need to grab the address, drag it to my tab.

And yes, I'm going to put it here within this first area so now I've got direct access as well. Of course, keeping in mind that Walling is not going to box you in. If you want to grab and drag things to certain areas, keep them in a certain order, it is so easy to do so.

In addition, we can highlight certain bricks in a variety of ways. If I want this to stand out maybe with a particular yellow shade here, and if I want to assign some task management, I can do so as well.

In this case, maybe I want to accomplish these tasks by the end of the week, and I can assign them either to myself or to other people that I'm collaborating with. So, a very flexible way of keeping all of those ideas and all of those tasks on the same page, and unlike Trello or Notion, I can see all of those details on the same screen.

Here you can see I've got a fair amount of text, I've also got a checklist within this particular brick. But if I don't want to see all of that information, I can collapse it while I'm still staying on this page. If I need to expand it, I can still see it in the context of my other bricks and pieces of information here.

So I don't have to be going in and out, or looking at the back of a cart and going back and forth all the time. I can have all of that information available to me, and I can minimize it whenever I need to.

Viewing multiple sections on the same page

But perhaps one of the most helpful features within Walling is creating multiple sections on the same screen. Here, you can see at the top, I'm going to give this section the title of, Ideas. But down below, I'm going to create a new section called, Tasks.

I can keep this as very much a brainstorming area where myself or other members of my team can freely add those ideas.

But if I want to graduate something, I can move it down into the Task section down below, let's move that blog article idea down here as well. But unlike just having two canvas areas, we can also change the way we view that information.

If I do prefer more of a kanban style, I can do so. Here, maybe this is, In Review, maybe that's the first stage within Tasks. And here, we can say that this is the Approved stage for example so I can have that kanban feel.

But on the very same screen, I can still brainstorm and reference that information up above. You can see here on the right-hand side, the multiple types of views that we can add or change through.

If I want a calendar view, I can do that here as well, and here I can move things to maybe a little later in the week where that particular article is going to land. So, not only can we get access to multiple views,

but we can view them on the very same screen. If you want multiple kanban boards you can do that here. If you want to drag some creative images in one section and had that show up on a marketing calendar for example,

Walling vs Notion

you can do that right here as well. Now, one of the issues that I hear from many Notion users is just how linear of a system it is. Notion will force you to basically

start out in a document format, and start to list ideas top to bottom, very much like a bullet point system. But as you can see here within Walling, it gives us so much more flexibility regardless of the type of content that we have.

If I want to move things around and group things together regardless if some have video or images and others do not, I can always do that and have that flexibility. In addition, Notion creates everything inside of a database, which if you're working with numbers

and you like that type of format, that may be okay. But again, we have a lot more flexibility here. Another complaint that I hear far too frequently among Notion users is that they have to embed pages within another page, within another page.

And suddenly, on the left-hand side of their Notion account, they've got way too many things going on. Getting back to our example here, we've generated some ideas. But instead of embedding another page, I can bring it down to this additional section

where I can set it up any way that I want. And if I have another step to bring it to, no problem, I can now drag it into my calendar all without having to link or embed,

or add some new content here

Walling vs Trello

on the left hand-side of my menu. Now, if you have more experience coming from Trello, you'll appreciate how Walling can give you faster access to the information you need.

In this example, I've got a kanban style board. But you can see I've got a variety of checklists, I've got links, I even got a file which is attached over here, and I can get direct access to them without having to click in and out of cards.

So if I need to start checking things off of this checklist, I can do so from the front. If I need to access information, I don't have to go in and out, in and out to access that information.

But perhaps, the greatest advantage when comparing to Trello is the ability to manage your information and manage multiple boards on the exact same screen.

Within Trello, you can send information, you can send a card to another board, but you can never see two boards at the exact same time. In this case, if I need to graduate or move this particular piece of information, I can just drag it down below into my board here.

And I can quickly view and move information back and forth, something that makes it a lot more flexible, especially if you want a certain section or a certain board for different purposes.

You can manage your entire workflow within one screen, not having to jump back and forth or click through different menu options on the left-hand side. In addition, Walling makes it easy for us

to manage all of our reference information. If you're a Trello user, you're probably familiar with creating a card or multiple cards just to stuff full of links and documents,

something that's not actually going to move or be accomplished but you have to stick it somewhere. Here within Walling, we can create our own section where I can include files, and links, and other things that I want to reference, but something that is separate from the board itself.

And I can view this in a variety of different ways as well. Perhaps, I want more of a database view as we would be used to within Notion,

I can access that down here below as well. A great way to manage multiple types

of information but on the same page. If you'd like a more flexible and easier way

to manage all of your ideas and projects, be sure to check out Walling. Go to walling.app, or click the link in the description down below. And if you're looking for more great apps that will help you save time, be sure to watch this video next.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Can you really build a free website?

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Can you really create a great looking website and get it hosted for free? Well, the Squarespace site says no, it's going to cost you $14 a month. The Wix website says no, as well, and even if you do pay this smaller amount, you're going to get ads on top of your site. And Weebly says it's free to use, but wait a minute, we can't even connect a custom domain to that account, that means you're going to have this somewhere in your URL. But don't fret, if you want a 100% free website builder with free hosting and a free custom domain in your first year, I've got the solution for you. Odoo is a website builder specifically designed for businesses, and yes, it is 100% free, including hosting and domain,

Getting started with Odoo

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so let's get started. All you need to do is travel to the Odoo website and we're going to select create your website. And what I love about the Odoo process is that all we need to do is give a little bit of information and then we're off to the races, we can create our website in a matter of minutes. So all I need to do is just fill in some basic information and hit that Start Now button. Now, you've probably familiar with other website builders which give you a number of templates to choose from, but you can tell that Odoo is designed specifically for businesses, because we're going to get right to the core of it, we're going to get right to your business or your needs in just a few steps. I'm going to select let's do it, and the first thing is, what kind of website are we looking for? Because remember, a business website is a little bit different than an online store, versus a blog or an event, or if you're hosting a number of courses.

Now, the great thing about Odoo is that we can layer these things on, but let's start with that business website. And all you need to do in the next step is start to type in,

are you maybe a pet store or a pet grooming business, something along those lines,

maybe I'm a consultant, I mean, I am a consultant, so why don't we go with that? I'm going to be a consultant business in this case. And what is my main objective?

Because again, different websites have different purposes. In this case, I'm going to say that it is to get leads, so I'm going to select that option here. I can choose from one of the pre-made palettes, one of the color palettes here, I'm going to go with, kind of like this color scheme here,

Adding pages and features

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but this is where I think things really stand apart from many other website builders.

I'm going to add the pages that I want or that I need, but nothing more, nothing less. Yes, I want an About Us page, a Services, and maybe I want to add a Live Chat feature, as well. I can continue to layer and add other things, but not only does this get me to my destination of creating my website that much faster, it's going to allow me to customize my website that much easier. So I'm going to say, build my website,

and on the very next screen, I get to choose my theme. Now I've got three different ones to choose from, which is ideal. I don't have time to sift through 100 or 200 different templates, these are very different and distinct. I kind of like the way that things are going on here, but I also like these diagonal blocks that we have here.

So I'm going to pick that middle one here. And it may take a few seconds, it may take up to a minute, depending on how many pages, how many different things that we selected previously, but it's going to take all of that information. Yes, it's a business website, yes, I'm a consulting business and I'm wanting to gain more leads and build me my own custom website that I can start editing immediately. And before you know it, you've got your website ready for you to fill in all of those additional details.

Editing blocks and content

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So everything from the fonts, the layout, even many of the images you see here are going to be very suitable for a business consulting business. Look at even these three pictures here, this is going to fit very well for my business. Now I can edit, and I probably will edit a number of these things, but if you want to quickly create a great looking website, this is a great place to start. Almost everything is editable just by clicking on any field. So if I want to change the title here and say, let's get started, something like that, something to get them enticed, get them ready to work with me.

But on the right hand side of the screen, this is where I think things get really special

with features that you won't find in other website builders, including such things as Squarespace and Wix, is the number of building blocks that we can add to our page.

Yeah, you're going to find a few common things, such as an image gallery, for example, or text, or heading, but what if I want something that looks a little more special? What if I want something that has something like maybe a comparisons?

All I need to do is drag that onto the left hand side of the screen, and look at this great pricing model that is just ready for me to start changing the titles. No, it's not $65, I increase that to $75, and I can start adding and editing those details right here.

Some of my other favorite blocks that I love to use, down below, for example, if I want to make a comparison of items, let's say I am selling something on my website,  I can use this items block, just going to drag it in over here, perfect. So I can have my different services listed here, as well.

Advanced editing features

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Now, another great feature of Odoo is that even when you are bringing in your building blocks and elements into your website, are the number of customizations

in which you can change when it comes to those blocks. So for example, maybe I think that this image is a little doll, so I'm going to select it in this case, and I'm going to come over here and select Shape. Now what I can do is I can pick something

that maybe jazzes things up just a little bit, right? Things that just sort of change it up

in some way, shape, or form, but I can even go one step further and change the animation of this image, as well. So for example, maybe I want it to slide down or fade in from the left when someone scrolls to this part of the website, well.

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So unlike many other free or popular website builders, which don't give you this level of customization, you can do so right here within Odoo. And don't forget, because we selected those additional pages when we first set up our website, they're here and ready for us to start digging in. So I already have an About Us page, just waiting for me to start and edit and fill in this information with things that are relevant to my company. But what if I want more than just this? What if I need some more advanced features? Well, the great thing about Odoo is that you can add on as you go.

Adding e-commerce and cart to website

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So here in the top left hand corner, I'm going to select this little app icon, you can see this little grid here in the top left hand of the page. And what that's going to do is open up the other things that are not only available to me, such as the live chat, you may remember that I said I wanted to enable a live chat for my website, but if I go over here and select Apps, I now have access to all of the Odoo apps that are available to me. Now this may be a lengthy list for you to get through, but trust me, if you're a business owner, you're going to want to work through this. Why? Because Odoo is more than just a website builder. It can be a complete solution for your business, including things such as point of sale,or subscriptions, or invoicing, or almost anything that you could use for your business. Now, in this case, I might want to filter my results to just a website in this case. So yeah, I want to add some eCommerce to my website. All I need to do is hit the Install button, and in just a few seconds, it will apply that to my account. And yes, eCommerce is absolutely free when you create a website with Odoo. That's certainly one of the nice advantages

of using a system like this, rather than getting lost with all of the many different options and having a service try to get you to install or try and get you to engage

with things you really don't need, you can only bring in those components as you need to. So for example, I haven't created any products here, so all I need to do is select New in the top right hand corner of the screen. And in this case, we're not adding a new page to our website, we're going to be adding a new product.

Let's call this product A Cool T-shirt, the type of t-shirt that every single person on the planet wants to buy. So immediately, I can start and upload my image here on the left hand side, change my pricing and how pricing is displayed, and everything from the theme. Maybe I want a different button color on my cart, then something else. I have many of the same blocks and structures and features available to me here on the right hand side, but now I have a fully functioning cart, and eCommerce suite as a part of my website.

Adding business apps to your website

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But remember, you always have access to the full app library. So for example, if I'm focusing on sales, maybe I want to add a CRM system directly as a part of my website. So when someone signs up within my website, I don't have to create some type of connection or API to another system, I can do it right here. Maybe I want to set up a subscription service or manage rentals right here from within my website, right within my Odoo account, I can do so here, as well.

Odoo support and history

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Now, if you're worried that this sounds a little too good to be true, or that you've never heard of Odoo before, don't be. Odoo has been in business for more than 17 years with more than 1,700 employees and 7 million users. That's a lot of sevens, but seven is a lucky number, and here is your lucky number. 100% free website builde with free website hosting and a free custom domain. To take advantage of this, be sure to click the link in the description down below. And if you're wanting to create a free mobile app for your business, be sure to check out this video and playlist next.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

How to add an email signature

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This video is brought to you by WiseStamp, more about them a little later in the video.

Hmm, got to admit, that email signature is pretty bland. Nothing special to see here.

Now what about this one? Image, social links, easier to read, and invitation to do something. Yeah, this email signature might just make a difference. So in this video,

I'm going to show you three different ways in which you can create a custom email signature right here within Gmail. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity,

helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And let's get started with finding out where we go to edit our custom email signature. So first off within Gmail, we want to come up to the gear icon and then select See all settings. And on the very first tab, the General tab, we're going to scroll down almost all the way to the bottom where you will find the signature area here. Now, keep in mind, when it comes to signatures within Gmail, you can manage as many as you like and you may want to have multiple email signatures depending on the different purposes, or if you want a different signature just for your replies or when you are forwarding a message.

Create a basic signature in Gmail

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So let's get started with creating our first signature right here within Gmail. So to get started, we need to select the Create new button and give this new signature a name or a label. Now you're going to want to name it something descriptive so that you can remember it, and especially if you're using multiple email signatures. So I'm going to say, this is my sales signature here. So maybe I'm going to add something specific or an invitation to my sales page, or some other thing related to sales. So I'm going to say Create at this stage, and then on the right-hand side, we have a blank canvas ready for us to go. Now, of course we can add any type of text that we like,

but keep in mind, we can also add links and images as well. So if you want to jazz up your signature and have those links installed, let me show you how to do so. First of all, I'm going to start with just some basic information, maybe my full name, maybe my title, maybe I'm a sales manager, for example, in this case.] And of course for every single thing we can choose to do things like italics here. And maybe I want my name in bold for it to stand out here. And maybe I'm going to add my phone number,

my default fake phone number here, and perhaps my email address as well. Let's say Scott@email.com in this case. Now when it comes to something like your email address, you probably want to create a link so that someone can click on this immediately if they need to. So what I'm going to do is going to highlight this and I'm going to come down here to link. And you can see it's immediately made it a link.

It knows it's an email address, so that's fine. We can leave it as is but we can do this for other things as well. So let's say this is the name of my website, right? Something like that. This is maybe the business name or maybe I want it something nice and clean, right? So I'm going to say something like simple.com even though there might be further details and I'm going to lead them to a specific page. So I can say link here, but if I wanted to go to a specific page, but still show simple.com, I can say Change and I can say /sales/signup or something like that. And I can hit OK. So they are only going to see the simple.com link, but if they were to click on it it's going to take them to that specific page. And if you need to double check, all you need to do is just click on those links here and it's going to show you exactly where it's going to send that individual, but we want to spruce this up just a little more. And for that, we're going to go and find an image so I'm going to come in here and I'm going to say insert an image. Now you may want to select something that is already uploaded to your Drive account, but in my case I'm going to go and find something

that is on my computer. So I'm going to go over here. I'm going to go search for my logo and this is the logo that I want to add to my email signature. Now, the first thing you're going to notice is that, whoa, it's huge. That is far too large for us to include in an email, but no problem, we can make a few adjustments. First things first, we want to click on it and you can see just like when you're inserting an image directly with an email message, we can choose if we either want to keep the original size or change it. So I'm going to go through here and I'm going to select small. I'm going to say that's maybe a little too small. Medium looks almost perfect in this particular case.

So I've got my information up top here. I've got a few links and now I've got my logo down below. Now, keep in mind, just like adding links to any piece of text, we can make any image clickable as well. This is especially helpful if you're adding social media icons, for example, to your signature. All you need to do is highlight that particular image.\ You can see that here, but I'm not going to change the sides.

I'm going to select link and so what I'm going to do here is I can select, again, any link that I want, I'm going to select my website here, for example. And I'm going to say, okay, so now what's going to happen? You see, now when I click on this image, not only does it still give me the options, if I want to adjust the sizing, but it's also telling me that it's going to go to this link. This is especially helpful if you're going to create something like a banner image, right? Something that is inviting people to make a sale or participate in a discount or sign up to your newsletter, something along those lines. So now we have an email signature which is much more presentable, much more helpful to our users. However, if you want to do even more,

Create a professional signature with WiseStamp

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let's go to method number two. Here we are within my WiseStamp account. And in order to create or manage a new signature, I just need to select that new signature button. And I'm going to say that this is again a sales signature in this particular case

and I'm going to select create signature. Now, one of the great things about WiseStamp is that you only have to enter in your details once and then you can repurpose them as many times as you like. So whether you're needing to change or swap things out or if you want to make sure that other members of your team never change, for example, the website address or the banner image or the logo or even the style and fonts of the signature, you can do so right here within WiseStamp.

So even though I've decided to create a new signature, you can see that it's already brought in all of this information so I don't have to waste time recreating the wheel.

Instead, I can focus on creating a much more engaging and effective signature. So for example, if I want to change or add these social media icons here at the bottom of my signature, I only have to enter in that information once but then I can use those same links across multiple signatures, or maybe I want to assign them, so that everyone within my business has access or includes these links as a part of their signature. But we can also get very creative with the different templates. I can test out different configurations to see if I want something perhaps a little more compact

and you can see you can change the theme as well. Maybe I want to add a social media strip at the bottom as well. In fact, there's an awful lot of things that you can experiment with here, right within the WiseStamp templates. And of course every design element is customizable as well. I know there's often a big debate in terms of should you be labeling these things in terms of what they are,] a website versus an email address versus a phone number. Well, you can experiment with what works for you. Do I want a full description there such as this? Do I want just the initial in front, or maybe I want a cool icon to separate that out? In fact, in my case, I kind of like this one the best, this little cell phone, globe, and an envelope to indicate the differences between those two, but perhaps the most impressive area of WiseStamp is all the additional apps] in which you can add to your signature. For example, maybe I'd like to add a stylized sign off such as my name, and now I can have my signature here.

Maybe something just a little more meaningful. In addition, you can add a variety

of call to action buttons. So for example, if I want to encourage people to book a meeting, I could add that down below or a variety of pre-designed banners, or you can upload your own. And again, add your own links and any other details that you'd like. Last but not least, if you want to make sure that your brand and your signature

looks consistent across your entire team, you can manage everyone right here within WiseStamp and allow them to edit certain fields or information perhaps such as their name or their phone number. But if you want to go and make an update or make a change, especially when it comes to things like that custom banner, you can have it displayed across all of those signatures and manage them right here in one place.

If you'd like to learn more and start creating and managing your email signatures within WiseStamp, be sure to check out the link in the description below.

Create a signature with Drive

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Now for method number three, we're going to get started in Google Drive where we will create our email signature and then copy it into our Gmail account. So all we need to do is select a new Google Docs. We want a blank document to get started with here. Now you can title this anything that you want, of course, something signature related would be great, so you can come back and find this because in the future you may want to make some edits. This is where you're going to make some of those changes and then be able to bring it back into Gmail. So I'm just going to call this signature test here. Now in this blank document, before you start inserting any information, your very first step is going to be to insert a table. So under Insert, I'm going to come over here to Tables and I'm going to select a two by two table in this particular case. Now in your needs, you can of course change this. You can maybe expand this to two by four or three by two, depending on your needs, but let me show you why we're starting with the table and how that's going to give us a few more options here with our signature. One of the things that you may have noticed in the first signature we created is that it was very linear. It was top to bottom because within the Gmail signature editor, we can't actually push things into columns or into specific areas, but that's exactly what we're going to do in this setup here. So for example, I'm going to add an image, a profile image of myself here in the top left-hand corner, and then to the right is where I'm going to add my text details

including my name and my phone number. And then down below, we are going to add a banner which is going to span across, but evenly down below. So let me show you how to do so So to insert an image where you want, all you need to do is place the cursor in that particular cell. And then I'm going to come up here and select insert image. Now, in this case, I'm going to say upload from my computer. I'm going to go down and select this image here, and perfect, I've got my image here. However, you'll notice that it's probably not the right sizing that I want. We're going to adjust some of that sizing a little later as well. In fact, I would encourage you to do a little bit of trial and error, but keep in mind what you're seeing here is going to be very close to what you and your users will experience. So I'm going to drag this to something like that,

I think that's probably a little more appropriate when it comes to an email signature.

As a result, what I'm also going to do is take my cursor and drag my vertical line here

so that my text on the right hand side will show up closer to this image as we see here. Now, when it comes to the right-hand side of the table, of course we can add or type in anything that we want. In my case, I'm actually just going to pace the information that we had in our previous signature. You can see that this link came over but for some reason, this one did not. That's fine. We can always come in here and make that adjustment. I got to right click here and I'm going to say insert link.

And there we go, it's made it a link once again. Now, one of the additional advantages of creating your signature within Google Drive first is that you have a few more options when it comes to things such as spacing. So here you can see things are pretty tight together here, right? They may be a bit tighter than I would like them to be but if I highlight over them and I say, you know,\ let's go with maybe 1.5, that's maybe a bit too much. Let's do something custom here. I think somewhere right in the middle, maybe like a 1.25, for example and I'm going to say Apply. There we go.

It just spaces it out a little bit more, a bit easier to read.] Then I can always go back to my image here and drag it so it's maybe more in line with the bottom of that link, right? So everything is sort of nice and centered, easier on the eyes. And remember, you can always drag and adjust these table divisions here. So if I need to drag something up or down, I think I've got a space in there. There we go. I've got a cursor in there. That's why it wasn't allowing me to drag that up, but that's probably almost perfect. Maybe I'll even give it just a little more space there before we add the image down below. Lastly, if I'm going to add a banner image or maybe some social media links down below, and I wanted to span across both below my image above, and also my information here, I'm going to have to merge these cells, so I'm going to select these, I'm going to right click and say merge cells. So now I'm just dealing with one open space here down below. Now, in my case, what I'm going to do is keep things nice and simple. I'm going to say insert an image, and I'm going to go back and grab. I'm going to grab that logo that I did in my previous example. Now, of course, for you, you may want to grab something completely different, right? Something custom that's inviting people to maybe book an appointment with you or to take advantage of a discount. And just like before, this is probably too big. So let me maybe drag this to something that's a little more appropriate. When you're dealing with a banner image, in many cases, you'll have it much longer, than what I have right here but this will suit us just perfectly, for this example. Now, while we're almost ready to copy

and paste this into Gmail, you may notice that we still have these table lines

and that certainly does not make this look like an effective signature. So all we need to do is select our table, come up to formatting and then select table. And in this case, what we're going to do is select table properties. And over on the right-hand side you can see that we can adjust the color of the table. So I'm going to click on this expansion arrow and here you can see the table border is yes, in black. We want to select this and make it white in this case. Now keep in mind, the table is technically still there but it's just not visible. Now this looks more like an email signature. Keep in mind that table is there for you to edit in the future. So if you want to make adjustments, if you want to add perhaps an additional row or switch out this banner,

you can always come back in here and do so. What we're going to do at this stage is again, select our entire table. We can either hit Control + C on our keyboard or I'm going to select copy here and jump back into Gmail. Now we haven't created a new signature yet for this. So I'm going to say that this is our drive test signature, in this particular example, I'm going to say, create new. You can see that we've got nothing over here and all I need to do is select paste. And immediately, that signature, everything that we've created over in Drive is going to come over and the layout is going to be perfect just the way that we laid it out in our Drive file. And if you enjoyed this tutorial video, you'll like the other content right here on this Simpletivity channel.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Google provides 15GB of free cloud storage across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. While this seems ample, users often find themselves nearing the limit, leading to storage warnings and the need to either delete files or pay for additional space. Instead of opting for a monthly subscription, you can manage your storage efficiently by following these simple yet effective techniques to clean up unnecessary files and emails.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of checking your storage status, backing up important data, and removing large or outdated files in both Google Drive and Gmail. Let’s get started!

Understanding Your Google Storage Status

Before you begin deleting files, it’s essential to assess your storage usage.

Checking Storage in Gmail

1. Open Gmail and scroll to the bottom of the screen.
2. You will see a storage status bar indicating how much space has been used.
3. Click on the status bar to open a detailed breakdown of your storage across Google services.

Checking Storage in Google Drive

1. Open Google Drive.
2. On the left-hand side, locate the storage indicator.
3. Click on the indicator to view your files sorted by size.

This will give you an idea of which files and emails are consuming the most space.

Backing Up Important Data Before Deletion

Before deleting anything permanently, it’s wise to back up your data to prevent accidental loss. Google provides an excellent tool for this—Google Takeout.

How to Use Google Takeout for Backup

1. Click on your profile picture in any Google service and select Manage your Google Account.
2. Navigate to Data & Privacy on the left-hand menu.
3. Scroll down to Data from apps and services you use and click on Download your data.
4. This will take you to Google Takeout, where you can choose the data you want to back up.
5. Deselect everything initially, then manually select Google Drive and Gmail.
6. Click Next Step, select one-time export, and choose a preferred format (ZIP recommended).
7. Click Create Export and wait for the email notification when the backup is ready for download.

Once your backup is complete, you can proceed with deleting unnecessary files confidently.

Identifying and Removing Large Files in Google Drive

One of the fastest ways to free up space is by targeting large files.

Sorting Files by Size

1. In Google Drive, click on the Storage tab on the left-hand menu.
2. This will automatically display your files sorted from largest to smallest.
3. Identify unnecessary large files, such as videos and raw image files.
4. Right-click on the file and select Remove to move it to the trash.

Emptying the Trash

Deleted files remain in the trash and continue to consume space unless permanently removed.

1. Click on Trash in Google Drive’s left-hand menu.
2. Click Empty Trash to permanently remove all deleted files.

Finding and Deleting Old Files in Google Drive

Another effective way to free up space is by deleting old, unused files.

Sorting by Last Modified Date

1. Navigate to My Drive.
2. Click on the Last Modified column to sort files by date.
3. Review old files and delete anything that’s no longer needed.

Using Date Filters to Search for Old Files

A more refined approach involves using Google Drive’s search function.

1. Click on the search bar in Drive.
2. Type before:YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., before:2019-01-01) to display all files created before a certain date.
3. Select and delete files that are no longer needed.

Finding and Deleting Large Emails in Gmail

Emails, especially those with large attachments, can occupy significant space over time.

Using Search Filters to Find Large Emails

1. Open Gmail and click on the search bar.
2. Click on the Filter Icon on the right-hand side.
3. In the Size field, select Greater Than and enter a file size (e.g., 5MB).
4. Click Search to display all large emails.
5. Review and delete unnecessary emails with large attachments.

Finding and Deleting Old Emails in Gmail

Emails from years ago can add up, even if they don’t contain attachments.

Using Search Filters to Find Old Emails

1. In the Gmail search bar, type before:YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., before:2020-06-01).
2. Press Enter to display all emails from before that date.
3. Select emails for deletion.

Deleting Emails Permanently

Once emails are deleted, they remain in the Trash and continue to take up storage.

Emptying Gmail Trash

1. Click on Trash in Gmail’s left-hand menu.
2. Click Empty Trash now to permanently delete the emails.

Additional Tips for Managing Google Storage

Use Google Photos Storage Settings

• Convert photos to Storage Saver quality to reduce file sizes.
• Regularly review and delete duplicate or blurry images.

Unsubscribe from Unnecessary Mailing Lists

• Use the Unsubscribe button in emails to reduce incoming clutter.
• Set up filters to automatically delete promotional emails.

Use Google’s Storage Management Tool

• Visit Google One Storage Management for a quick overview of your storage usage.
• Use Google’s recommendations for files to delete.

Conclusion

Managing your Google storage effectively can save you from unnecessary expenses and keep your digital space organized. By identifying large and outdated files, using search filters, and permanently deleting unneeded files, you can maximize your free 15GB storage. Implement these tips today and keep your Google account clutter-free!

Scribe

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Chrome extensions are one of the easiest ways to save time and get more done whether you are working online or just browsing the web. So in this video, I'm going to share with you seven free Chrome extensions that I think you should be using right now. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. Now, the first free Chrome extension on our list is called Scribe.

Scribe is all about showing others how to do something, or maybe just remembering yourself how to do something online without wasting the time of watching a full video. So let me give you a real world example. Here I am within my QuickBooks online account and I don't know about you, but when it comes to something such as

accounting or tax purposes there's many things that I only do once or twice a year.

And those are so easy to forget whether I need to do it or I need to share this, perhaps with a personal assistant. So in this case, what I'm going to do is I'm going to record myself actually going through the actions. Up here in the Chrome extension window, you can see here is the Scribe icon. I'm going to select that and I'm going to say start recording. Now, it's going to tell me that the capture has started and now I just go about the regular order of events. So I'm going to say, we need to click new and then we need to come here and select the journal entry. That's going to open up a new screen. Now remember, we're actually not recording any of the video. What scribe is doing is recording my actions. So maybe I always forget to change the currency. We need to change that to U.S. dollars. And maybe I need a particular exchange rate, so I'm going to enter that in here. And I'm just going to list this as test entry

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for this purposes. Then I'm going to come down to account, the account that I need to select here and put in the amount and then select perhaps the additional account that I need to use here.Again, things that I probably will easily forget if I'm only doing this a handful of times, or if I'm trying to teach someone else. Maybe lastly I want to throw something in the memo here, so this is just a transfer note, and then we can hit save. In the bottom left hand corner, you can see it is flashing. What I can do is click on this. I can either pause my recording, I can start again, I can move this somewhere else, but in this case I'm going to say complete the recording. What Scribe is going to do is open up that recorded steps in a new browser tab. So here it's called it an Intuit Workflow, but I can change that right away. I can say, actually, this is the a journal entry, journal entry example, for,for example, here, it took me about  two minutes to record and there's a total of 19 steps. But remember I was explaining what I was doing. I probably could have done this in as little as 45 seconds. Down below, you can see all of the different steps and they're clearly numbered. So navigate to this website,of course, all of this is editable. So instead of maybe including this messy URL, if that's not what I need to send them to I can say, you know what? Just navigate to QuickBooks. Okay? In this case, especially if I'm teaching someone else maybe how to do this with their own QuickBooks account. But down below, here are all the recorded steps, click new, and you can see it highlights where my cursor was. Then click journal entry, then click U.S. dollars down below, then click this text field and type 1.2 and then click here. Now you'll notice I just clicked out of this field. This actually isn't a step. No worries. I can just come here and say, delete that step. Are you sure? Yep. Let's remove that one. Then I want them to click this field and type test entry. Yeah, that's what I want them to type into that field. So you can see it's recorded all of the different steps that I have input here. And unlike a video recording,

I can always come back in here and make minor changes if I need to. When I'm ready to share, I can either select copy link or I can select this share button. And if I want to, I can even export it into a variety of different formats, including a PDF. So if you want a much easier way to create a visual guide and not a lengthy video, be sure to check out Scribe.

Wordtune

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Next on our list is an extension which is going to help us write a little more cohesively,

but also give us some further ideas. Regardless if we're writing an email or writing in some other text field on the web. And for this, we're taking a look at a tool called Wordtune. Let me show you how it works. I'm going to open up this email message that I'm crafting here. And I have to admit writing is one of my least favorite activities and sometimes I could use a little help. So sometimes when I'm crafting an email or putting together a draft, I'm often second guessing myself and seeing if I could have put things a little bit better. Well, that's exactly where Wordtune comes into play. If Wordtune is installed within your browser, all you need to do is hover over a selection of text, such as this sentence, and you'll see you'll get this little Wordtune icon. If I select it, I am automatically given some suggestions as to some other ways in which I could say this, maybe something that's a little more casual or a little more professional or something that's just going to be that much more eye catching to the readers. So maybe how are you and your team doing? That's actually probably a little bit proper than the way I phrased it. How's the team? What's up with you and the team? Maybe that's a little too informal for me. Did you and the team have a good week? So if I've settled on this, all I need to do is select it. It will automatically replace it. And I can go to somewhere else, maybe I want to highlight this text and see, have you taken a look at the proposal yet? Have you seen the proposal? Did you review the proposal? Have you given the proposal a look yet? So a variety of different ways in which we can use this. Now the free version is going to give you a total of 20 rewrites per day. That may be enough for many of us, but if you need more and want more options, you can choose other tones as well. So there's a formal tone, a casual tone, for example, if you want to shorten or if you want to expand, but that is all with the premium version, but you can get 20 rewrites per day with the free version of Wordtune.

Hover Zoom

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Next up, we're taking a look at an easier way to view images in their proper size, regardless of where you go online. And for that purpose, we're taking a look at Hover Zoom+. Let me show you how this comes into play. I often spend a lot of time searching for images on Google images. And so you're probably familiar with a results page such as this, but if I want to take a closer look at this one, I need to click on it and it's going to show me a preview of the image here. But if that's not quite what I'm looking for, I got to close this and I got to come down here and I'm going to click on this one. And well, wait a minute. Is that really the full resolution? Is that how it's really going to look? Well, with the Hover+ extension installed, any image you hover over will show you that image in its full size and full resolution. So if I want to come down here, how big is this really? Oh, that's a much better preview of what's happening here. What about this image that I looked at earlier? Fantastic. Now I can just hover over those images and see them at a full size rather than having to click here, there, and everywhere. So, so perfect. I can see the resolution. I can see what that's going to look in its full size. This free extension can be especially helpful when you are visiting shopping sites. So if I just hover over some of these images here,

I get the full size book cover. If I want to take a closer look at this product here, perfect, I'm just hovering over it and I can zoom in on it.

Text Mode

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Now if our last extension was all about seeing images more clearly, our next extension is the complete opposite. In fact, it's going to remove images when you don't want to see quite as many and maybe you just want to focus in on the text. And for that, we're taking a look at Text Mode. Let me give you an example. Here I am within a website which has an awful lot of images going on. And often we are drawn more to the images than the actual titles or perhaps the headlines if you are viewing a news site. Well, with Text Mode, we can simply select it here from our extensions in the top right hand corner and what it will do is convert that page and eliminate the images, it will actually turn it into more of a gray scale experience, so now we can just focus on those headlines themselves and not necessarily be persuaded by the fancy graphics and the digital images that are shown in front of us. So here I can go through and I can search through

the actual titles and see what is more applicable to me and not just be enticed maybe by the images that are presented here. Now text mode gives us a few helpful options. So if we don't want to desaturate those colors, we can uncheck this box and also the white background. And you can also choose what it will look like for those images. So maybe I don't want something quite as intense, I'm going to choose this first option here, and now you can see the images are a little less obvious. I can still click on anything and treat this website like I would any other way, but now my eyes are drawn more to the headlines themselves not necessarily the images that accompany them.

Dark Reader

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Now another great way to make it easier on our eyes and just a more enjoyable experience while we are online is by turning on dark mode. And for that, we're taking a look at Dark Reader which can turn absolutely everything into dark mode, but also give you some customizable options so if there are particular sites you would like to see in a different way, you can do so right here. So let's go back to Life Hacker for a second and you can see that we are in dark mode. If I jump over to Sports Illustrated or to Ticketmaster, it has taken everything and given it a beautiful dark mode experience. But let's say when I am on the Sports Illustrated page, I would rather this website be in its normal mode. No problem. All I need to do is come up here and select Dark Reader. And I am going to click on this, I'm going to click on that domain, and now Dark Reader will remember that. So I can continue to browse the rest of the web in dark mode, but I can set certain websites to an alternative view if I prefer it in another way. The other great feature within Dark Reader is that we can choose other options to slightly adjust the settings for either a particular site or the mode as a whole. So rather making these brightness and contrast adjustments on our monitor, I can adjust this throughout the day. I can dim both the brightness and the contrast here to make it a little bit easier on my eyes. So a lot of choice, a lot of options available to us here. If you enjoy dark mode and want to apply it to your web experience.

Fakespot

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The next free extension on our list is especially designed for those of us who shop on Amazon, eBay, or other popular review sites. How often, for example, have you been shopping on Amazon and recognize that really all of the ratings are exceptional.

It's really hard to find something that is less than four and a half stars. These all look like fantastic products. Well with the Fakespot extension installed, you'll get some additional helpful information. For example, you'll notice here in the image, I've got a little check mark, that's the Fakespot, icon and a grade. This has a grade of B, this has a grade of B, but some of these have a grade of C and oh, this has a grade of A.

What Fakespot does is it searches for fake reviews. That's right, because often some of our Amazon products and other shopping websites are flooded with fake reviews.

When we click on the product itself, you can see that we have the fake spot review and grade over here in the top right hand corner, but we can also select this analyze reviews. And this is what I find is most helpful because it summarizes the pros and cons based on the information and the reviews that it has given down below. As a result, this extension can give you some great additional information and give you more confidence while shopping. For example, on this product here, it has an Amazon rating of four and a half stars, 4.7 to be precise, but Fakespot says that it's really should be more like a three and a half based on its grade and looking and weeding out fake reviews. In fact, it would say that this would only give this product

a score of a C compared to the thousands of ratings which it has received. So if you want to be a smarter and more savvy shopper, you may want to install the Fakespot extension.

Similarweb

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Next, we have a tool for all of you who like data and numbers and wanting to find out a little bit more about the website you are currently browsing on. Similarweb gives us both traffic rank and website analysis for almost any website you come across.

Let me take a look evernote.com, for example. And have you ever ended up on a website and wondering if you really are the target audience, or if it's worthwhile spending your time within that particular site? Well, with the Similarweb extension,

all we need to do is click on it and it will give us some very helpful data. For example, the global rank, the country rank, and the category rank. As you can see, Evernote is yes, fairly high when it comes to computers and electronics, but you can also see the visits over time and how many other people are visiting that site. Something that I find very helpful is the geography. So in this case, did you know that United States are the number one share of visitors, but Japan is close in second place. So some interesting data which may be valuable to you especially if you may be a competitor to a particular site. Here, if I go to another one here, I'm on lifehack.org, once again, I'm going to click on Similarweb and I'm going to see things such as the bounce rate and pages per visit. So I can see how long are people actually visiting this website.

And once again I can take a deeper dive at their target market also the traffic sources and how people are ending up and getting to this particular website.

Now, if you enjoyed this video, you'll also enjoy the other content right here on the

Simpletivity channel. So be sure to subscribe. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Downside of regular Windows search

If you're a Windows user, you're probably familiar with Windows search, where you can type in a few keywords and get a few different suggestions, including web results here on the right hand side, but also some things that may be specific to your machine, including apps, documents, or photos.

But in my experience I just haven't found this quite as helpful as I would like. Therefore, I don't use it as often. So, recently I've started to use a free launcher called Flow Launcher, where I can easily type in a few characters, including getting access to system settings and other things on my device, but also on the web as well.So, let me show you how to use it and how to install it on your machine.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And first things first, why might you want to install a launcher or use such a tool? Well, recently I found myself wanting or needing to go into my settings, specifically my Bluetooth settings, in order to make sure that a specific device was connected, and I'd either have to come down here to my system tray and then come here and find what I'm looking for.

It's going to take me at least two or three clicks in order for me to do so, but after discovering Flow Launcher,

Benefits of using Flow Launcher

all I need to do is hit a few quick keys on my keyboard, and even if I just type in BLU and then enter it's going to bring me directly to that screen.It's bringing me directly to what I need. If I hit those quick keys again on my keyboard, here, you can see, I can even dive down deeper into specific areas of my machine.

How about my network settings? Yeah, I just typed in network and immediately I'm brought to my network settings. How about if I want to maybe search for something online, such as a free CRM? No problem.

It's going to bring me right to my search results right here within the browser. You can even do some other cool things such as equations. So, for example, if I go eight times three, yeah, that's 24.

And then what else might I want to do with that? I could copy it to the clipboard. I can do a variety of different things. How about file folders? So, if I'm looking for something on my machine here, yeah, and then I can use my keys, my arrow keys to go down and find the file and yeah, that's the, yeah, this is the video file I'm looking for.

So, let's open that up. So, as a result, I can spend a lot less time with my mouse and keep my fingers on my keyboard, so I can pull up the launcher at any point in time and find almost anything that I'm looking for.

Flow Launcher settings and options

So, let's open up the Flow Launcher interface and see how you can change a variety of different settings, so that you can get the most out of this tool. Now, here within general, a lot of these initial settings have to do with do you want to hide it within your system tray? Do you want to start it up automatically?

For example, auto update, a lot of things that you can change and decide what's best for you. But what I like here are some of these customized features, such as the maximum results shown.

So, for example, if I bring up the launcher here, and again, let's just type in something like CRM, right now I've got it set to five. It's going to give me five suggestions, but if I want more or less, I can do so I can choose and change that right here.

The other thing here is you can change things, such as, which is the default file manager. If you're managing files in a variety of different places or if you just want to search a particular file folder, you can do the same thing with your web browser.

If you want to just follow the default for your system or use something in particular, but perhaps what shows

Plugins and advanced search features

off Flow Launcher's capabilities the best is by looking at the plugin section. So, for example, these plugins are really referring to the types of search queries that you can make within your system, and yes, there's quite a lot to choose from.

So, for example, at the top, we have browser bookmarks, and you'll notice the different icons here. So, for example, if I come down here and expand this the action keyword is the letter B, B as in bookmarks, and all of these are editable, but I think B makes the most sense.

So, if I open up the launcher here and I start with the letter B, already it's given me some suggested bookmarks for my browser. And if I continue to type in CRM that's the first one on the list.

I can see that all of these are bookmarks that I can go directly to, but you want to be familiar, or you'll want to get familiar with some of the other options here as well. The other thing that you'll want to notice here is priority.

Now, by default, all the priorities are set to zero. If you want your files to search higher up in your launcher rankings, all you need to do is select on priority, and in this case,

the higher the number the better the result will be ranked. So, for example, we could change this to five and then that's going to be much higher in the results than the other options listed here.

And that's of course, very helpful, if some things share the same names, but as you go down here, we can do everything from process killing, in terms of killing certain apps, we can do things such as shut down commands, or restart commands, as you can see down below, type in certain URLs.

There's really such a wide range of possibilities. Now, if you'd like to customize your launcher experience even further, you can click on the plugin store, and here you can see there is a wide selection of things that are very specific.

So, if there's a particular service, maybe a particular website or social media site that you'd like to integrate with, you can do so here.

For example, here's a flow YouTube plugin that I may want to explore, if I'm using it quite often to manage and to search for certain videos, there's also a Spotify plugin, which can make it really easy for you to access your playlist, rather than always having to come up to another tab or switching back and forth.

Below that we have the theme, which allows you to really customize your experience here as well, including the size of the launcher itself, and of course a variety of different color schemes as well.

So, depending on your needs depending if you want, for example, a sound effect or something else to play when you're using it, you can do so as well.

How to install Flow Launcher

Now, if you'd like to try Flow Launcher for yourself all you need to do is go to flowlauncher.com, and when you get to this screen, we're going to select GitHub, so we can access the latest version.

Now, you might be a little intimidated, especially if you're not familiar with the GitHub website because you're going to have a lot of information staring back at you. Don't worry. You can ignore a lot of this.

Where I want you to go is down over here to releases and we can select that most recent release here and then scroll just a little way down and here you can see all of the assets.

Now, it's really up to you. If you'd rather download the zip file, you can choose this first one here, or if you'd just like to download the executable file, you can choose the one down below and that will get you started with using Flow Launcher within your machine.

So, if you'd like a faster and easier way to access your files, access your web and customize certain procedures right within your Windows machine, be sure to check out Flow Launcher, and if you have any questions about how to use Flow Launcher, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Remember being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Problem with sharing spreadsheet data

I want you to take a close lookn at this spreadsheet and tell me in just three seconds

how this business is doing, ready? Three, two, one. Okay, did you get anything meaningful out of that data? Now how about this? This is much of the same data that we just looked at but is there something more meaningful here? Yeah, we've got some big numbers.

We've got some trending lines. We've got some valuable information which will help us manage our business or our teams that much more effectively.

So in this video, I'm going to show you how to create a professional dashboard just like this one by using any Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet and many other tools that you already use in just a matter of minutes, hello everyone,

Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And when it comes to managing your business, you are dealing with spreadsheets

and you're dealing with an awful lot of data but it can be really challenging to look at a spreadsheet such as this and determine, are things going in a positive direction,

in a negative direction, which of these figures, which of these numbers is most important or less relevant to us, and how can we communicate that to other members of our team or perhaps even our clients? Well, there is a much easier way,

and dare I say, a much more fun way to link your spreadsheets and also other data

so you can create a live, real-time dashboard that you'll be proud to share with others, but perhaps more importantly, will allow you to keep tabs on what's most important to you. So in order to create our dashboard, we are going to be using a tool called,

Why Geckoboard is a better solution

Geckoboard, not only is Geckoboard very simple and easy to use but it integrates directly with your spreadsheets and other apps and services that you may already be using to run your business.

So here we are with inside Geckoboard and after creating your first dashboard, we need to start adding some widgets. We are given a complete blank canvas so we can start to build out the visuals and the key metrics which we want to track.

So here I'm going to select add widget in this case and what it's going to do is going to bring me to my integration page. As you can see, spreadsheets are one of the most popular ways to connect your data to a dashboard whether you use Excel or Google Sheets but you will also notice there is a large quantity of other services and applications you can connect as well.

More on that a little bit later. I'm going to select Spreadsheets in this case and I've already connected my Google Sheets account. So I have access to all of my spreadsheets down below and you can add as many accounts here as you like.

In this case, I'm going to select my Pitch Sales Sample data here which just has a few key metrics here but the problem is is that no one has visibility to this other than myself

or maybe I would just like to include this in a broader dashboard which we are about to create.

Selecting key data to share on the dashboard

Next, what we need to do is select which of these data points or which of these cells

we would like to include in our widget. So in this case, I'm going to select the quarters here but I'm also going to select the units sold. That's really what I want to show on my dashboard, the quarters and how many were actually sold.

Next up, we're going to come up and select Create visualization. And down below, we can continue to edit our selection up above but now we get a preview of the different things that we can display with the data which we've selected.

The nice thing is that it's only going to give us options for the things that are relevant to this data point. So for example,

because I've chosen something with numeric values, as this or I could choose a column or a bar chart. I think I'm going to go with this column chart in this particular case.

When I'm happy with the type of visualization, which I have, I just need to select Continue and now I can customize the look and feel of this widget. So for example, I may want to give this a title and I'm going to say this is Units Sold, so everyone knows exactly what we're looking for here.

But it gets better because what I really want to do

Adding goals to dashboard data

is also add some target ranges to this graph. Make it that much more meaningful

to anyone who is laying eyes on this data. So under Add goal, I'm going to choose this option here and I can either input manually what that goal will be or maybe I keep track of that goal within the spreadsheet itself.

In many cases, you may have a cell where you express your goal and this is also going to be the place where you go to update that. So it only makes sense to link it to that particular spreadsheet cell.

But in this case, I don't have that goal. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to come up here and I'm going to type it in, and in this case, I'm going to say 250 is our goal.

I can choose if it's either less than or more than, because remember, maybe this is a bug reports or something that is maybe more negative and we want to keep those numbers down but look what's happened over here to the right.

Not only do I have that range highlighted in a different shade but it's also showing me that in Q2 and in Q4, we hit that goal because it's changed those bar colors to green. So I'm going to hit save in this case.

If I need to, I can come here and adjust the formatting, right? If these were dollar values or something along those lines, so I can change decimal places. I can change the values here, whatever I like, but I'm pretty happy with the way things look here so I'm going to select Add to dashboard.

Now it's going to load my dashboard

Moving and customizing widgets on the dashboard

and we're going to have this new widget, Units Sold, placed in the top, left-hand corner. Now the great thing is I can customize this any way I want. I can drag it somewhere else. I can bring it out a bit more if I want to make it perhaps a little more prominent or a little wider.

So why don't we bring that back to the top left

but now it's a little more prominent so everyone can see what our Units Sold is.

Let's go ahead and add another widget, but this time, I'm going to show you the power of gauges and how that can really spruce up your dashboard. So to add our second widget, we just need to go to the top, right-hand corner, select Add widget

and we will be returned to the option to choose where we would like to connect that data from. Remember, your dashboard can be made up of connections outside of a single spreadsheet or a single tool, but for this example, I'm going to stick with my spreadsheet.

So in this case, I'm going to choose this spreadsheet, the Pivot Table Example so I have some different data to play with.

Adding gauges to your visual dashboard

In this case, I'm just going to pick out a single number to show you a few examples

of how these gauges may work. So in this case, I'm going to choose this one here,

this number 95, and I'm going to say, Create a visualization. Maybe this is the total number of units for the month. Maybe this is the number of calls per day. Maybe it's a variety of things that we want to track on a live basis.

So down below, I'm going to choose my visualization, but because we're looking at a single number, I can either have that target number, that numeric value like we see here, or I'm going to use this Gauge option which I really like a lot.

This can be really valuable to see if you are meeting, exceeding, or maybe even failing at a certain point. So I'm going to select Continue here so that we can see a few more options available to us.

Now, by default, it's making this gauge from zero to 100 but that might not be the case in this particular example. So I'm going to click on Visualization options and I might leave the minimum value at zero but perhaps the maximum value for this particular gauge is about 200.

So 95 is only about halfway along, right? So again, depending on what you're measuring here, you can customize it the way that you want but the real power here is adding a status indicator.

So for example, I want to say what is our success level here. So I'm going to type in that we are successful whenever we are exceeding 125. Here, you can see that little green marker here but it's more than just a marker.

If this gauge makes it past the marker, this entire side of the gauge is going to be shaded in green. Now we don't have to add these status indicators but they can be really, really helpful and also powerful for other members who may be viewing this data.

I'm also going to add a warning level saying that, you know what?

If we ever drop below 50, that's cause for concern and we need to do a deep dive

in terms of what is going on here. So here at the very top, I'm going to say that this are the number of, let's say, Warm Leads. Maybe we're a sales organization and these are the number of leads that we have in any given week. I'm going to hit Save.

In this case, I could change my formatting again like we saw before but I'm going to say Add to dashboard in this example. Once again, we are brought back to our dashboard and now we have our new widget where we can drag and drop and adjust the size

Spreadsheets sync with the dashboard

any way that we like. Now remember, the information that is being used on our Geckoboard dashboard is being connected live and dynamically from your spreadsheets or any other source which you connect to. So here, for example, is that 95 which we just created with our recent widget. But what if things have changed?

I'm going to select this cell and say that perhaps we updated our units and now have 145 warm leads for the coming week. All I need to do is go back to my dashboard

and you can see that it has been updated automatically. In addition, we now have this green shade because we have exceeded our goal.

If I was to change that unit number to something below 50, this would also be shaded in red, a nice, bright and bold way of letting myself know and others that things have changed either for the better or for the worse.

And remember, goals and status indicators can be used on almost any widget or data type which you select. Down here, in this example, we have a conversion rate and we can see by this highlighted box and this check mark

that we have hit our close rate percentage.

Connecting other data sources to the dashboard

And don't forget the many other tools which you can bring into your dashboard. In this example, as I hover over this widget, you can see in the lower left-hand corner, there is a Trello icon.

This is showing me the number of cards I have in each of these four lists for this particular board. And in the bottom, right-hand corner, I have a running list of all of the actions which have been made on this particular Trello board.

So whether you use email marketing, project management or a CRM system, you can pull in that data as well as a part of your live dashboard.

Sharing dashboard via email, link or TV

Now, when it comes time to share your dashboard with others, Geckoboard gives us a number of different ways to do so. If I select the share option at the top of the screen, I can copy this link and share it with anyone.

But the email share may be the most useful especially if you want to send a snapshot at a given time. So for example, maybe every weekday on Tuesday and Thursday, I would like to send this dashboard out to my team.

I can specify the time in which I want to and all I need to do is include the email addresses up here. So instead of reminding people to use the dashboard or just give them a link which you hope they will go and refer to, you can set up a schedule which works for you.

You can also select a direct connection to Slack or invite others to give view-only access, or if you need to, to have others collaborate as well.

But keep in mind, one of the values of having a dashboard like this is sharing visibility to things which others may not necessarily have access to,

or if they do have access to those spreadsheets, they can now see that data in a more meaningful way. In addition, Geckoboard gives us the option to send our dashboard to a TV.

So whether you want to broadcast this to your entire sales team or support team or maybe you want to display this] in the lobby of your office, you can do so.

And if you're managing multiple dashboards you can create a dashboard loop where it will cycle through two or more dashboards at the timeframe which you choose so that you can see multiple sets of data within the same screen.

So if you want to track all of your key metrics in one place and in real time, be sure to check out Geckoboard. You can sign up for free by clicking the link in the description below.

And if you enjoyed this video, you'll enjoy the other content right here on the Simpletivity channel.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.