Posts Tagged ‘online tools’
Monday Links – Arts Focused
There is so much focus about the online community and the different ways people can connect to each other. I had previously written about online tools for Entrepreneurs. There are so many ways to evaluate the usefulness of new website and the tool set they create.
This week, I thought I would take a look at art-focused websites and the ways they can help that community collaborate online.
- Reel Clever – an online shape where filmmakers can create, managed and collaborate with other on their reel or other projects
- Book Oven – the online space allows writers to make their work available for comment, collaborate with other writers or share it with their closest confidants. It also allows you to review snippets of other works so you don’t have to review an entire work.
- Society6 – probably the best know platform for visual artist that has a system of small grants that can be in the form of money or opportunity.
- Build A Jam – this platform for musicians helps users build a fan base or help musicians living in more remote areas with less musical talent to connect to other to help create music
I am sure there are a ton more arts focused online tools and communities. Any good ones that you belong to or have seen lately?
Spell Checking Your Web pages with Spellr
There are several times when I have been reading a blog post or some copy on a website (as much as that doesn’t seems like that typical thing to do) and noticed a spelling error.
I am sure with the speed at which I try to type my blog, it happens to me as well (see image on this page with spelling errors). If you diligently look through this blog, I am sure there are few.
What to do? Even more importantly is a website with a high volume of content. It is true that most modern CMS systems will have a dialog that will include spell check and show what has been spelled incorrectly.
However, what about the content comes from databases? Most database entry systems do not have spell checking. What about the smaller website that might be hand coded? Yes, they are still out there.
A great online service called Spellr.us can check your website for common spelling errors. The Basic account lets you scan up to 100 pages of your website. The tool also allows you to set intervals to check your content.
The pricing model is cheaper than hiring a proof reader. You can get a free basic account to try out the service. That account allow the user to scan 100 pages and do up to 5 scans. The account only lasts for 30 days, but you can get a Zebra account for only $24.
For $267 you can scan up to 15,000 pages and have 200 scans in 30 days. You can also set the interval at which you want to do scans – monthly, weekly, daily or even hourly.
The tool gives a nice output with the error by URL so you can go back and make correction on the page or track down the product data to help identify the source.
One you get into the page report, you can see the errors on a sliding scale of Likely, Possible and Unlikely. Even better, it will show you what it has identified as an error and link you to that part of the page.
For proper names or unusual technical terms, you can add them to a custom dictionary so they will not appear in later scans.
There is some solid functionality in this tool. I think it is great for a smaller agency who does not have the staff to employee a content person or an overburdened web staff that is trying to manage content entry.
It is even better for a time-pressed blogger who isn’t so great at proof reading her own stuff.