Tools & Tips

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Tools

Tips

Adobe Acrobat

The best way to publish documents to the web. Use it to post manuals, Annual Reports, Newsletters. If you don't have the Acrobat reader yet, go to Adobe's website and get it for free. If you need to edit pdf files and post documents to the web, buy the full version. You can save entire websites, Word, Excel, Powerpoint presentations, Access reports, really any file you can print you can save as a pdf file.

"What You Should Know Before You Buy:  A Candid Conversation About Fundraising Management Systems"

PDF Version - originally presented at the Foundation Center on September 30, 2009

Drupal

A powerful open source (i.e., free) content management software for developing websites.  Adding interactive features such as blogs, calendars, polls, online registration, etc.  is made easy through the use of modules. This site is designed in Drupal.

"Making Your Database Sing! How to Get the Most Out of Your Software Investments"

PDF Version - originally presented at Fundraising Day in New York on June 24, 2005.

Filezilla

A free FTP program.  Works on PC and MAC.  Very powerful and easy to use.

"The Perfect Fit - Finding the Right Fundraising Software"

PDF Version - originally presented to the NSFRE/NDP (New Development Professionals) on March 28, 1998

Paint Shop Pro

A great photo-editing program; very powerful and much cheaper than Photoshop.

 

"Keys to a Successful Conversion"

PDF version - originally presented at The New School, April 26, 1995

Personator Pro & StyleList

Terrific timesavers. These programs can parse out name and address data; re-concatenate it and re-personalize it; perform upper-lowercase conversion; and abbreviate and expand name and address data.

 

Snag It

A powerful screen capture software.  An excellent tool for creating user manuals.

 

SurveyMonkey

Need to do an online survey? This service allows you to do free surveys (up to 10 questions & 100 responses). Unlimited for a small monthly fee. Nice survey design tools, reports & database import/export utilities.

 

TextPad

A venerable and powerful text editor for editing anything from html files to sql files to data files.

 

Chaos Intellect

Just upgraded from my all-time favorite PIM (Personal Information Manager) program to this program which includes Time & Chaos plus Email.  Lovin' it!