More Great Tips for Pastors & Church IT Gurus

1. Ninite

If you own or manage 1 or more PCs then it’s inevitable (if you’re using Windows XP/Vista/7) that you’ll need to do a reinstall one day.  Ninite is your perfect reinstalling solution.

Simply download the exe file (Ninite doesn’t even install itself), pick the software you want downloaded (heaps to choose from including Google Chrome, Skype, iTunes, MS Office (trial), Picasa and AVG (freeware anti-virus)) and click Go.  Walk away and each application you selected will download and install with default settings and NO junk like browser toolbars etc.  Could save a LOT of time especially if you work with multiple PCs.

2. Google Forms/Surveys

Free and easily customisable forms to survey groups, teams or even the whole church are easily created with Google Docs now.  Simply hit the Create New button and select Form.  Design your form (stacks of easy to use options like multiple choice, checkboxes, text fields, scales etc) and when people enter data you’ll receive the results in spreadsheet form through Google Docs. LOVE IT.  Saves time and money going into something like SurveyMonkey which I hear is pretty good but not free for organisations.

3. Google Sites/Wiki

Need to create an easy online location for policies, training manuals and other documents, info for your leadership teams?  Google Sites is the perfect idea.  You can have it public (like my church site C3NewLifewiki) or you can have it only available to select people you share it with (same as a Google Doc).  I’ve even got a family one that I use to share with extended family ideas for kids (and me!) for Christmas, plans for renovations in our new house and other things I want to keep that is handy to store online.  Check it out here.

Future Changing Ideas #1 Google Wave

You’ve probably heard about Google Wave by now.  If not, check out the video below or you can head to http://wave.google.com and browse around.

Wave is a game changer for many reasons, firstly because it changes the way we communicate.  Instead of sending an email to your team then having to sort through all the replies, get the right info to the right person and wishing everyone would just hit ‘Reply All’ everytime you just start a ‘wave’ and invite all relevant people.

The reason I think Wave could change the future of ministry so much is because it allows teams in different locations to collaborate in real time together.  If one person isn’t in the real-time collaboration, when they access the ‘wave’ they can rewind and play through the discussion to get up to speed.

Of course, in a ministry context we are often dealing with sensitive issues, ideas and concepts so vigilance in the area of confidentiality is essential.  But for teams trying to work together better, Wave could likely be the tool we need to do that. 

Essentially Wave is a central meeting place where you can chat, work on documents together, share ideas, watch a video and collaborate together on a project.  With an open API, Wave also allows organisations to create their own extensions and embed waves in their sites.

Can’t flippin wait!

Places I get stuff

It’s handy to know where to find decent cheap or free stuff online.  When you’re a pastor or in ministry you have a budget and/or you don’t want to waste hours and hours trying to find a font that works, a picture that fits or a program that does the right thing well.

Here’s what I use:

Fonts – FontSpace (excellent customize option allowing you to see what your text looks like in each font before you download!), Acid Fonts, Fonthead (some free, all excellent)

Photos/Illustrations – iStockphoto, SCX, LogoInstant, Google images, Deviantart.  Just a note to ensure you get permission to use a free image before you download and use!

Software – Google Docs, NCH (I use for audio, video stuff), MindMeister (mind mapping), MS Office 2007, MS One Note (see my posts about it here & here).

Where do you get ‘stuff’?

Twitter Apps

Twitter is a fantastic connecting tool which is quickly being adopted in the social and business world even to hoards of non-tech-heads.  It’s a service where you and the people you ‘follow’ can interact through sharing brief 140 character messages.

The concept is brilliant and is seeing a massive spike in usage and new users right now.  The movement I’m in (C3i) is adopting it like crazy for it’s ability to keep people connected. I follow tons of C3 pastors around Australia and worldwide and love being inspired by them, able to connect with them in this strangely personal impersonal way.

Now to the Apps. There are stacks of Twitter Applications depending on what you need it for.  There are Widgets for Facebook, Blogger, MySpace and anything that uses Flash or HTML. There are Apps for Windows, Mac, Google Desktop, iPhone and iPod touch, Mobile Phones and so so much more.

I use 2 Twitter apps, firstly the Facebook Twitter Application which imports your twittering into Facebook and updates your status automatically.  Brilliant!  Now you only need to do it once and everyone knows in Twitterland and Facebook what you’re up to.

The other app I downloaded today is called Twhirl.  It uses the Adobe AIR platform so you’ll need to install that too but it’s an excellent Windows app which runs outside your browser, a program that is just for twitter.  Clean, pleasing to the eye and very functional, I’m going to keep it!

Check it out or view the veritable plethora of Twitter apps for Windows XP or Vista right here.

What Twitter apps do you use?  And how do you use Twitter for productivity or social benefits?

MindMeister – collaborative online mind mapping tool – Review

MindMeister is brilliant.  In my brief search for a fully online, mind mapping tool which allows full collaboration with others, links, notes and several very handy other functions too.  See here for the About section.

The purpose we wanted it for was for our Leadership Team to see visually all the documents we were working on at a glance.  We needed to see how everything linked together and for it to be easy to use and most importantly, COLLABORATIVE.  Collaboration is key.

Just from the pic you can see some instant possibilities.  We expect to use the site for many more ideas.  Speaking of ideas, you can email or sms new ideas straight to your default map or use one of the many gadgets available (for iGoogle, Yahoo, iPhone, Mac OS X or Windows Vista).  There is also Offline Use through Google Gears if you sign up for any paid edition (from $4/month) which is impressive.

Click on the picture to be taken to the site with a demo you can actually use.

The main mind-map screen runs in your browser and is fully online (no downloads).  The site acts like software (similar to Google Docs) and you right click for options, left click to create, link, etc.  It’s flippin good so just go and try it.  I’m sure you’ll think of stacks of ways to use this excellent site.

You create a mind map by double clicking anywhere on the main area, type in the label of your ‘branch’ then drag it where you want it. Smaller branches (nodes) are created by either pressing TAB whilst on a branch or dragging a branch onto another one.  You’ll see what I mean. A quick play is all you need to work it out. It’s simple to use. 

One EXCELLENT help is the Tutorial Video (3 minutes and very helpful).

Basic edition is free, allows you to have 6 maps going (all shared with others you’re working with), allows you to download the map as pdf or rtf, share and collaborate with others and publish maps to websites or blogs.

You gotta check it out… it rocks.  What might you use a mind map for?  How could you collaborate online with others to increase productivity

Windows Live Writer – Actually good.

There are many things that Microsoft do that I shake my head at.  There are also many things that Google do that are better than what Microsoft does.  But Windows Live Writer is something I stumbled upon which is totally changing how I blog and it’ll make blogging MUCH easier for you too.

I’m a MS Word user and have been for YEARS.  Now blogging is as easy as creating a Word document with a program tailored for blogging!  I used to use Flock then Word for blogging but Live Writer is tailored for blogging so it’s far superior.  You’ll need to get it to see what I mean.  It’s very impressive!

Windows Live Writer works with Blogger, WordPress, Moveable Type and others.  Blogging is simple as you insert pictures, links, tables, video or maps with ease.  You can see drafts and posts you’ve recently published in the right hand column, you can have multiple accounts setup and transferring between them is simple.

You have impressive editing options available to you but the thing I LOVE is how easy the program is to use.  It’s what you naturally do with Word, OpenOffice or Google Docs but it integrates perfectly with your blogging platform and uploading is seamless.  Setting tags, categories and a publish date in the future is also simple.

A new feature is WYSIWYG authoring.  The program checks out the formatting of your blog so you create a blog post knowing exactly what it will look like while you’re making it!  You can also view in HTML source and web preview mode for extra tweaking.  Now you can see exactly what it looks like before you hit Publish.  Love it!

So go grab it and test it out.  It might just save you time and make blogging easier for you!

Are you willing to try a free MS product?  What do you think of it?  Will you use it to blog?  What do you normally use to blog? 

Personalise Instant Searches – Google Chrome

I love Google.  And I love Google Chrome.  And now you can create your own Custom Search Engines within the program and it’s EASY!

Imagine setting up a search tool for any website you regularly search and customising it to be simple and easy to use for you?!  Imagine just having to type ‘Bible John 15’ in your browser bar to get it instantly?!  What about doing a Wikipedia search for Emperor Tiberius just by typing ‘Wiki Tiberius’’?!

Now you can… and you can customise it for any website.  Here’s a quick tutorial.

Firstly you need Google Chrome.  It’s the best browser there is so get it here.

Secondly choose what site you regularly search.  For this example I’m using Bible Gateway mainly because you can type in a scripture reference or a word and it’ll work it out for you and display results.  Do a search and copy it.  Remember what search term you used!

Thirdly open Chrome, hit the Spanner in the top right hand corner, select Options then you’ll see this:

Select Manage then you’ll see a host of options already available to you.  (You can also get here by Right Clicking in the browser bar and selecting Edit Search Engines.) You can modify one that already exists or hit Add and make a new one.

Here you can create your customised searches.  Create a Name, a Keyword to use in your browser (e.g. Bible or B) then paste the URL in and replace the search term with %s.  Then you’re done!  For BibleGateway use the following: http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=%s&qs_version=31 (Version 31 is NIV).

Now check to see if it works.  Hit F6 to select your browser bar, type in ‘Bible (Reference or search term) and watch Bible Gateway come to life and get what you need.

 

You can do it for any website you search.  Just remember to replace the search term used with %s and you’re done!  Here’s a few examples with thanks to ChromePlugins.org.

Google Images - http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=%s&btnG=Search+Images

Google Maps – http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=es&q=%s

I’m Feeling Lucky – http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%s

Digg.com – http://digg.com/search?s=%s

Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s

That ought to make getting what you regularly search for quicker and easier!

Google Maps – Review Businesses

Google Maps has a fantastic feature which I’d like to encourage everyone to use!  Whenever you search for a business or organisation you have available to you reviews that other people have left.

However, there is a surprisingly SMALL number of reviews (i.e. none!) for most businesses that I’ve done searches for and the reviews function has been available for some times now.

Imagine trying to find a decent coffee shop and searching for it on Google (even with your mobile device!) and finding 10 in your location but none with reviews.  If 1 of them had a positive review you’d probably try it wouldn’t you?!  I would!

I guess the fundamental problem is that when you’re searching for something you haven’t been there yet so you don’t know what it’s like.  Hence you’re not ready to write a review yet!  But you’d probably appreciate it if someone else did!

So this is my ‘bit’ to get you writing reviews for businesses, doctors, dentists, churches, supermarkets and coffee houses that you’ve been to.  Write about ones you love and ones you hate.  Get the word out there and help people find quality and a great experience.

In January I reviewed a dentist who was exceptional in Coffs Harbour when I had to get a tooth fixed.  Some businesses just deserve a good report!

Generosity Creates Loyalty – Give Us Free Wireless!

I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately.  Why do some companies make you pay for everything and others give you decent stuff for free?!

For example… I went for coffee at Juicy Beans Cafe in Newcastle this morning and had planned to work on my script I’m writing.  The internet cost me $2 for 1 hour and it was total crap.  Speed was slow plus it kept disconnecting me every couple of minutes.  Not good.

On the way home I stopped by Hamilton as I know Beaumont Street has free wireless.  I connected immediately and simply, speed was decent enough and signing in was no hassle at all.  That’s a small example of being generous to your customers.

I reckon that every shop, cafe, restaurant, business and medical facility should have free wireless.  Even if you just have your iphone or mobile phone (with wifi) you can search for things or do things while waiting and it wont cost you anything.  For minimal setup and low ongoing costs it’s an easy way to generate loyalty amongst your clients.  Even setting up a couple of free to use netbooks (small laptops that are mainly used for internet stuff) would only set you back $500 each and be a great option for customers/clients.

Generosity begets loyalty and loyalty is hard to come by these days.  What else do you think businesses/organisations could do to be generous towards their clientele?

Comments – Facebook and Google

The world has gone comments crazy!  Actually, I love it.

Facebook comments now apply to most news feed items such as status updates, photos additions etc.  This allows greater community within the site as you can have entire conversations about a person’s status, ask them why, etc.   The back-and-forth commenting has become a facebook staple now.  I love how they keep thinking of new ways to deepen the community (and draw people back for greater advertising $ no doubt!).  Anyway, it gets the big tick of approval from me.  The ‘Like’ function is also very cool.  It’s similar to Digg in a way but also allows you to comment without commenting if you know what I mean!

Google searches now also allow you to comment on the results.  The results can now be modified to suit you (handy unless you just bookmark everything anyway) and you can even remove results entirely.  A great thing for those doing searches which might land them in shady territory!  Here’s a Google comment I made.  Anyone can now view that comment and add to it.  Good idea if you like to know what the internet community thinks about a website, company etc.  

To see the notes available on a page, click the Promote button and they’ll appear below the search result.What do you think of the new additions to Facebook and Google searches?  Anything else you’d like to see?