text posts

Filed under: Text, Freeware, Open Source, Web

SimpleText.ws is a dead-simple online text editor

by Jason Clarke Nov 16th 2009

Keeping notes, todo lists, or just anything you are writing synchronized between computers can be a hassle. Some solutions, like using DropBox, require you to install software on computers that you regularly use. If your needs aren't that heavy, but you'd like a free way to keep your text available wherever you are, check out SimpleText.ws.

SimpleText.ws is an open-source, very light text editing environment that allows you to create and manage documents in a web service, and access them anywhere. It uses Google for authentication, so if you already have a Google account, signing in is as simple as clicking the Sign In link.

The fact that SimpleText.ws is open source means that if you're not comfortable hosting your text on someone else's server, you can grab the server code and host it yourself.

There is also a public API available for SimpleText.ws, which means that developers can write applications that synchronize with it. Currently there is only one, but it's a good one: Hog Bay Software's WriteRoom for iPhone.

How do you keep your text files available no matter what computer you're working on?

Tags: authentication, developers, google, hog bay, hog-bay, HogBay, iphone, Open Source, Open-Source, OpenSource, public api, public-api, PublicApi, server code, server-code, ServerCode, simpletext, text, web service, web-service, WebService, writeroom

Filed under: Text, Utilities, Web services

Readability 2 makes webpages printable, pasteable and uncluttered

by Jay Hathaway Oct 30th 2009

I've written before about the Readability bookmarklet, a handy way to make cluttered sites more easily readable (and printable). Well, TUAW blogger and talented designer Brett Terpstra has made some improvements that result in an even more minimal page. Print/email links and logos are cut out, and only essential images are included. For most sites, that means you'll be left with some nicely-formatted text, and nothing more. This new-and-improved version is aptly called Readability 2.

If you need to copy-paste an entire article without grabbing images or accidentally copying weird formatting tags, Readability 2 is just the ticket. Code and pre tags are also preserved, so Readability 2 won't destroy the formatting of code snippets on a webpage. Mr. Terpstra points out that it's also great for getting text ready to be grabbed with capture tools like Evernote.

(and yes, the image above is a screenshot of this post, after using Readability 2.)

Tags: brett terpstra, BrettTerpstra, clean, formatting, readability, readability 2, Readability2, text

Filed under: Security, Text, Web services

Convert text into unsearchable images with TxtNinja

by Jay Hathaway Aug 31st 2009

If you want a bit of text to be human-readable, but not read or indexed by bots, TxtNinja has got you covered. It converts your text to a GIF, with customizable size, font and color. Potential uses include concealing your email address from spammers, sending sensitive information over IM, and getting around text filters on forums.

The downside of TxtNinja is that the choices of fonts and colors are very limited, and they aren't common web fonts, either. Your TxtNinja GIF, unlike a real ninja, is unlikely to blend in with its surroundings. This isn't a particularly big deal, though, and you can use it to your advantage if you happen to want your text to stand out.

Tags: convert, email, image, text, txtninja

Filed under: Text, Productivity, Web services

J.ot Down is a simple, sharable online notepad

by Jay Hathaway Jun 3rd 2009

There are a lot of ways to take quick notes and share them online. Some, like Google Docs, have large feature sets and require accounts. J.ot Down is at the opposite end of the spectrum. It lets you type, share and save, and that's about it.

Going to the site opens up a new note. From there, you just type. There's no formatting with fonts, colors or styles, and no HTML support - just typing. When you pause, J.ot Down will autosave your document and give you a permalink you can use to share it or come back to it. You can also manually save.

That's the entire feature list, as far as I can tell. It's amazingly lightweight, and makes a good substitute for stickies or notepad docs when you're not on your home machine.

Tags: document, j.otdown, jotdown, notepad, notes, text

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Web services

Conceal your email address from bots with HideText

by Jay Hathaway May 5th 2009

Sometimes you want humans to be able to read some information -- like your email address, for example -- while disguising it from bots that might be automatically collecting it. One way to do it is by displaying the info as an image, instead of as text, like Facebook does with email addresses. HideText gives you a quick way to do that.

HideText has two modes for converting text to images. One is a plain text box, with a choice of only two fonts and a few sizes, but you can enter whatever text you want, and it will get the job done. The other is an email-specific mode that includes your provider's logo as part of the image. It works with most major email services, like Gmail, Yahoo, and MSN. Either way you use it, you end up with your text concealed from Googlebots and things that could potentially be more malicious, like spammers.

Tags: anonymous, bots, hidetext, image, text, text-to-image

Filed under: Productivity, Web services

If you don't like the way it looks, read it with Readable App

by Jay Hathaway Apr 6th 2009

Readable App is a bookmarklet you can use to display text from any webpage in a more easily-readable format, according to your preferences. If that sounds familiar, it might be because you've heard of Readability, a similar service I covered on Download Squad recently. The author of Readable App knows about Readability, acknowledges he borrowed some color settings from it, and offers a list of ways his app is better. He actually makes some good points.

When you click the Readability bookmarklet, it reloads the page you're reading and styles it according to your Readability settings. Readable App, on the other hand, shows a lightbox-style overlay that you can click out of to show the original page. This is definitely more convenient, especially when you take into account that neither Readable nor Readability works properly on every page. If you hit a page it can't display well, it's faster to click out than to reload. Other than that, the choice between the two comes down to which site's selection of styles you prefer.

Tags: readability, readable-app, reading, text

Filed under: Text, Windows, Freeware, BlackBerry, iPhone, Mobile, Web, Android, Windows x64

Use PicoNote for dead-simple note taking anywhere

by Lee Mathews Mar 11th 2009

Like to keep things as simple as possible? Looking for a way to create notes for yourself?

Take a look at PicoNote. It's available in three forms: a free Windows application, a web-based app, and a mobile-friendly web app (http://m.piconote.com). From the moment you sign up, you'll enjoy its simplicity - the registration form only asks for a username and password.

Once you've created an account, adding notes is easy to do: create, add title and body text, and save your note. If it contains a URL, Piconote will automatically turn it into a clickable link. Private notes are hidden from prying eyes, but you can also create public notes to share with anyone. There are no formatting options, but you shouldn't really expect those from a "pico" application anyway, right?

The desktop application is just as easy to use. Its interface defaults to Polish, so to switch to English just click notatnik -> language. Once you've created a local notepad, Piconote will sync it to your web account and automatically sync it every time you open or close the file.

If that's not enough, you can also create notes via Twitter. Just follow @piconote and send a direct message.

Tags: notebook, notes, text

Filed under: Text, Productivity

Readability unclutters your online reading material

by Jay Hathaway Mar 4th 2009

Reading articles online can be a huge pain. Some sites have no sense of type design, or just have too much clutter to give you a pleasant reading experience. Readability is at least a partial solution to the problem. It's a customizable bookmarklet for all major browsers that lets you load a site in a text-only mode to make it easier on the eyes.

Readability offers modes for everyone who reads online, whether you prefer a terminal-style light-on-dark monospace style or a newspaper-style serif. Text size is customizable and can be made extra large, which actually strikes me as an accessibility feature, and not just a convenience. You can also adjust the column width to suit your personal preferences. Readability works better on some sites than others: it's perfect on NYTimes.com, and unfortunately doesn't work at all on Download Squad.

[via Daring Fireball]

Tags: fonts, readability, text, text-only, typography

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, Mobile, Web

Get Twitter tracking and free international SMS with Twe2

by Jay Hathaway Feb 20th 2009

Remember when Twitter let you track your @replies and search terms, and when SMS alerts were free around the world? Well, I do, and I miss it.

Fortunately, Twe2 has come along to fill the void. The service lets you customize which Twitter alerts you want to get on your phone, when you want to get them, and how many you want per hour.

So far Twe2 has worked as promised for me, although it can be slow at times due to the volume of signups. This isn't a serious drawback, since Twitter alerts could also be slow, back when you could still get them. Twe2 is ad-supported so it can stay free, but a short text ad isn't that distracting and it doesn't keep you from getting complete messages.

The service could improve by switching to oauth instead of requiring a Twitter password, but for right now, I'm just happy to get @replies to my phone again.

Tags: free-sms, international, oauth, sms, text, tracking, Twe2, twitter

Filed under: Web

Make a custom tag graphic with TinyTag

by Jay Hathaway Nov 26th 2008

If you need a punchy visual element to spruce up your website, you might consider TinyTag. The holiday season is nearly upon us (check out the gift guides we've been posting here on Download Squad), so 'tis the season for colorful tags. TinyTag makes it really easy to generate one. Enter your text, choose a color, size and alignment, and that's it.

Try line-breaking the text of your tag to adjust the size of each word. Once you've got it right, you can export to Flickr or Imageshack, and use the tag wherever you want. The simplicity of TinyTag is also its downfall, in a way. It would be nice to have more colors and typefaces available. Fortunately, the tags look pretty good as they are.

Tags: generator, image, text, TinyTag

Filed under: Security, Text

Flip Title lets you type u?op ?p?sdn!

by Jay Hathaway Nov 24th 2008

I always thought typing upside down was an obnoxious novelty trick, but I admit it can be pretty fun. Flip Title, a site that flips over any text you input, showed me that it can also be useful. Upside-down characters can be part of URLs or passwords for a little bit of extra security. They can also be part of usernames on some services, which makes it a pain in the butt for anyone to add you without using copy and paste.

Using the magic of Unicode, Flip Title totally flips your words, upside down and backward. If you want text that's upside-down and forward, you'll have to look elsewhere (or type everything backward into Flip Title). Despite the practical uses I described above, I'm still against anyone using upside-down text to annoy me in instant messages.

If you're looking for a text-flipping alternative to Flip Title, you might want to check out our earlier review of Reverse Fad's upside-down text tool.

Tags: flip-title, text, unicode, upside-down

Filed under: Text, Office, Productivity, Web

EtherPad: worth giving up Google Docs for?

by Jay Hathaway Nov 20th 2008

Hosting documents online is nothing new, and neither is sharing them for collaboration. Right off the bat, you're probably thinking of Google Docs. I was too, until I found EtherPad. It doesn't beat Google Docs at everything, but it does have advantages, like editing in real time, and using highlighting to distinguish who wrote which text. EtherPad is also faster to set up, since it doesn't require an account to use.

Just pass the URL to your collaborators, and everyone is set to start editing. There are stylistic limitations, with no fancy fonts and formatting, but edits happen in real time. There's also a handy chat box in the sidebar, in case you need to discuss your changes. Where you might want to use Google Docs instead is if you're writing something long that needs to be exported to Word or another file format. EtherPad does saving -- and infinite undos for all users, which is quite handy -- but it doesn't do exporting. You'll have to plug your document's URL in to pick up where you left off.

Complaints? Not many. The aforementioned exporting would be nice, and although it's great that you can quick-start with no accounts, they should at least be an option for privacy. And, speaking of privacy, users can see each other's IP addresses in the sidebar. I'm not sure what that adds. A built-in spellchecker would also be a perk, but it's not necessary. What EtherPad has so far is quite impressive, and I hope it continues to improve, while staying fast and easy to use.

Tags: collaboration, etherpad, google-docs, text

Filed under: Design, Text, Productivity

Lorem2: for the discerning lorem ipsum aficionado

by Jay Hathaway Nov 18th 2008

Designers know the words "lorem ipsum" all too well. If you've mocked up a layout for anything with chunks of text in it, you've probably run across the infamous Latin paragraphs that commonly show up as filler. Where do you get your lorem ipsum, though, and how do you make sure it's the right fit for your design? Lorem2 is one great way to do it.

Lorem2 is a nicely laid-out collection of lorem ipsum paragraphs and bullet points, both short and long. If you're the kind of person who keeps a text file full of this stuff, you might be better off filling it up with the whole contents of Lorem2. You'll never have to give a second thought to avoiding repeated text that detracts from your layouts, because the solution will be close at hand.

Tags: design, layout, lorem-ipsum, lorem2, text, type, typography

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity

Tofu makes on-screen reading actually bearable

by Jay Hathaway Jun 24th 2008

If you're like us, you have to read long blocks of text on a monitor all the time, and it's kind of a pain for your eyes. E-books and long PDF articles would be great if they could somehow get diced into neat, readable columns. Hey, it works for newspapers. Well, Tofu brings that pleasant reading experience to the Mac.

In a nutshell, Tofu cuts up what you're reading -- whether it's a PDF, a doc, or a chunk of text you've selected -- into columns. This is a good, because monitors are wider than the human eye is really comfortable with, and columns fit the text into your optimal scanning area for easy reading. Tofu's full screen mode and adjustable text size and colors are crucial, too. This app is good enough that we'll think twice before printing out something we can just read in Tofu.

Tags: documents, os x, OsX, PDF, reader, text, Tofu

Filed under: Internet, Text, Utilities, Macintosh, Blogging, Productivity, Commercial

Get your clip on with jfSnips for Mac OS X

by Drew Olanoff May 26th 2008

Do you often repeat the same HTML code, form emails, or text? jfSnips might be up your alley then. With jfSnips you can manage all of the text you regularly paste over and over again, as well as re-use everything you've copied in a clipboard, much like Windows does. Except this is for all of you Mac OS X lovers out there.

You can place clips of text in whatever categories you like, so you could have one for PHP code, Javascript, HTML, or whatever tickles your fancy. Just don't tell us about your fancy tickling, that's way TMI.

Keyboard shortcuts make it even easier to insert text wherever you like. A simple SHIFT-CTRL-V pops open the jfSnips drop-down that sits up in your menu bar. Easy.

So if you repeat multiple email signatures that go a little something like "Sincerely, Thurston Howell IV" over and over and over, then give jfSnips a whirl. You can download it and give it a 15 day try or pay $15 for a full license. If you're looking for a free option, or a commercial utility with a different feature set, check out our recent rundown of clipboard applications for OS X.

Tags: apple, clipboard, jfsnip, mac, text

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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