SmartDraw is one of the most popular graphics software. It can be used for many purposes from creating flowcharts, high quality illustrations and diagrams, project management chart, floor plans, landscapes and so on.

One can use the excellent templates available to jump start the process or start from scratch depending on the level of comfort and the nature of the drawing. One advantage of SmartDraw is its short learning curve and one can create professional quality illustration, diagrams and charts in a matter of minutes. While a creative and expert artist can make the drawings and illustrations come alive, an average user can also create high quality charts and figures. The short learning curve and ease-of-use are two factors that make this exemplary product more popular and usable.

The people at SmartDraw have created detailed videos, whitepapers, sample diagrams and charts, and a host of other materials that will help the user in becoming proficient in using SmartDraw very quickly.

There are many other uses for SmartDraw like presentations, business process diagrams, flow charts, project management charts, landscapes, floor plans, organizational charts, mind maps, etc. In this review, I will concentrate on how SmartDraw will help you in creating the drawings and illustrations for the book or article that you are writing.
SmartDraw can help you in two ways. First, when you want to convey an idea of a diagram to your graphic designer, instead of a hand drawn figure, you can create it in a matter of minutes using SmartDraw and save it in any of the popular graphic file formats.

The second and more important use is that you can create your own drawings and illustrations without the help of a professional graphic artist. SmartDraw templates and an excellent searchable image library help you in creating high quality images that will add the extra value to your book or article. The features like aligning, grouping, rotating, ordering, making all objects of equal size, and so on makes your tasks easier and quality of the images better. For example, given below are some of the images created using SmartDraw.

You can get more details from the SmartDraw website. You can download a trial version of the software and see the features before buying it. You can choose the right business graphic using the Encyclopedia of Business Graphics. You can read through the Business Graphics bulletins with links to white papers, webinars, tutorials, success stories, and more at. You can learn more techniques and tips by studying the examples. In addition to the above resources there are step-by-step tutorials for creating a perfect diagram in minutes.

SmartDraw is a must for every technical author as it will improve the productivity and also the quality of the images making the article, essay, or book more interesting and readable. I recommend it to all authors and technical writers.

If you are a student researching for your project, a researcher conducting literature review for your thesis, a teacher preparing notes for your lectures, a speaker noting down a passage or quotation for your speech, or a writer researching for your new book, then this product is ideal for you. I am sure all of you have encountered situations where you have to write down a few passages or sentences from a book, journal, or other print references.

Writing down a few paragraph or a few sentences from large reference books or journals is a time consuming and strenuous task. Now you have an alternative—IRISPen Scanner. IRIS pen scanners are available in different versions. The product reviewed here is IRISPen Executive.

Figure 2. The Scanning Process

The IRISPen ^TM Executive is the full-featured OCR scanning pen. This scanning pen works just like a highlighter—simply slide it over printed information from newspapers, magazines, faxes, letters, etc. What you get is real and editable text, right at your cursor. The scanner recognizes more than 50 languages.

IRISPen Executive connects to your computer via a USB port. It takes a few hours to master the scanning process. But once you get the hang of it, near 100% accurate scanning is possible. I have a reasonable typing speed of 60wpm, but when I tried scanning the text instead of typing it took only about one-third the typing time, which is considerable productivity improvement.

The scanning is faster and most accurate when you are scanning from plain sheets or books that lay flat on the table. Getting perfect results using books that does not fully open or have a curved profile require some practice. The scanner is attached to the computer using a USB cable which restricts the free movement of the scanner. IRIS could have used a more flexible cable to make things easier.

This pen scanner scans text (font sizes from 8–20 points), dot matrix printer outputs, barcodes, small images, and so on. There is also a speech synthesis with which you can make the IRISPen speak out the recognized data for you. The speech synthesis is available in seven languages— Brazilian (Portuguese), British English, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian. Speech synthesis is easy; just scan the text and the computer reads it out. But enabling speech synthesis will reduce the scanning speed considerably.

Since the scanner is connected to the USB port using a cable, there is no need for external power supply. This is an ideal tool for anyone who wants to capture text into their computers. The scanner is an ideal companion for your laptop when you go to the library for research as you could scan in the text you want directly into your word processor much faster than typing.

Figure 3. A Stand for the IRISPen Scanner

There are a few things that IRIS could have done to improve the user experience. First as I have mentioned above the USB cord could have been more flexible.

Figure 4. End Cap for Protecting the Scanning Head

Second, a pen stand (see Figure 3) or an end cap (see Figure 4) for keeping the scanner would have been ideal for protecting the scanning head when it is not in use.

Figure 5. Wireless Scanner with Bluetooh Technology

Another option could have been to make the scanner wireless with a USB Bluetooth transceiver (see Figure 5) or store the text in the scanner (like a pen drive), which could be transferred to the computer when the scanning is finished (see Figure 6). One of the reasons IRIS went along with the corded USB option was accuracy, in that case, the only suggestion I have is to make the cord more flexible.

Figure 6. Storing the Scanned Text like a Pen Drive

An excellent product that is very useful for all who deal with information. More information about IRISPen products is available at IRIS Web site.

Today with computers becoming part of our lives, all of us have to do a lot of typing. I have observed many people using the keyboard and found that the majority use only 1, 2, 3 or maximum 4 fingers to type. They also have to look at the keyboard while typing to type without mistakes.

Touch-typing is the art of typing without looking at the keyboard. When you are a touch typist you will use all your fingers to type. You will use the correct fingers to strike the correct keys. You will increase your typing speed and your productivity. You will reduce the number of typing errors. You will do all these without looking at the keyboard–that is the beauty of touch-typing. Till now, mostly stenographers, personal assistants, secretaries and other data entry operators have practiced touch-typing.

In today’s competitive world where everyone is required to work on a computer, the single finger or two finger typing will not do. Every one who uses the computer (especially the information worker who uses it for performing almost 80% of his/her tasks) needs to learn how to type correctly—i.e., learn touch-typing. Touch typists can do more work in fewer hours, giving them extra time to devote to other tasks as their typing speed will increase many times.

Touch-typing is a skill like riding a bicycle–a skill that can be learned and can be perfected and improved by practice. So once you have learned touch-typing in the correct way, the more you practice, the faster and better you get. Touch-typing will improve your productivity. As you reach higher speeds, you will be able to finish your typing tasks–composing an email, writing a letter, posting an entry in your blog, completing a class assignment or preparing a project report–in much lesser time.

When you are touch-typing, you need not look at the keyboard. This will free your mind and help you in better organizing and structuring the material that you are typing. Another advantage of touch-typing is that it frees the eyes from the keyboard.

The single, two or three finger typists are typing incorrectly–they are not using the correct fingers to tap the keys. So even if they have been typing for many years, there is a limit to which their typing speed will increase. Touch-typing is the correct way of typing where you use the correct fingers to tap the various keys.

Touch-typing has many advantages. One, once you have learned touch-typing, the more you type your typing speed will increase. Second, since you are typing in the correct method, the typing load is evenly distributed between all the fingers and so the chances of typing related injuries are less. Third, since you don’t have to look at the keyboard while typing, the eyestrain is reduced.

So by learning touch-typing, you can increase your typing efficiency. You get more time for other activities. You will also straining your fingers and eyes to a lesser degree, which reduces fatigue and tiredness. You can use the time you save to do your favorite activities.

Typing Tutor by Media Art is an excellent software program that helps one learn touch typing easily, effectively and efficiently while having fun. The creators of this software have taken great care in making the software as user-friendly as possible. The interface is intuitive and pleasing and is a marvel of aesthetic and ergonomic excellence.

Typing Tutor consists of 40 basic lessons, a word and a sentence drill and 16 sample texts. The 40 basic lessons teach touch typing of alphabets, numbers and the special characters. The word and sentence drills help one to improve the typing skills learned in the first 40 lessons. The 16 sample texts simulate the real world typing experience. You can create your own lessons using the “Advanced Lessons” feature. After completing each exercise, you will get a result card showing your speed, accuracy, problem fingers and difficult keys, etc.

Typing Tutor can be used by more than that one person and the program keeps track of each person’s progress. Training reports, which gives the lessons covered, typing speed, accuracy, etc., can be obtained for each person.

This excellent software offers numerous games that make learning fun while improving the typing skills. There are also games that teach the proper usage of the mouse. Another advantage of this software is that almost all the features are customizable and can be set to suit the individual preferences of the learner. You can buy the product from Media Art’s web site.

Visual Thesaurus is an innovative product that improves your productivity and quality of work while improving your knowledge. Using this product is a unique experience and you will find that writing and learning new words will never be the same again.

Visual Thesaurus uses the revolutionary Thinkmap software as a visualization engine. Thinkmap, which excels at displaying relationships, is ideal for displaying the relationships between words. Thinkmap gives users the ability to retrieve a result set from large data sets. The visualization mechanisms help users understand the composition and structure of the data that is being examined.

Visual Thesaurus is a dictionary and thesaurus with an intuitive interface that encourages exploration and learning. Visual Thesaurus is a marvelous way to improve your vocabulary and your understanding of the English language.

The Visual Thesaurus has over 145,000 English words and 115,000 meanings. The way in which the related words are presented is what makes Visual Thesaurus unique product. Visual Thesaurus’s intuitive interface helps you find the right words through their semantic relationship with other words and meanings.

The pronunciation feature incorporated in Visual Thesaurus helps in learning the correct pronunciation. You can choose between British and American accents. This product helps in understanding the relationships between English words and meanings. In addition to synonyms, the Visual Thesaurus shows 16 kinds of semantic relationships.

From any word, you can initiate an Internet search for either web pages or images. The Visual Thesaurus suggests alternatives so you can find the right word even when you’re not sure of the spelling. The Visual Thesaurus allows you fine control over your settings. You control font size, the types of relationships that are available, content filtering, and more.

Visual Thesaurus is available in two editions—desktop and online. The desktop edition can be installed on your PC and needs and Internet connection only for audio pronunciations and expanding a word search to the Internet. The online edition does not require any software to be installed, but needs an Internet connection. Both the desktop and the online editions allow you to filter content at four different levels.

This amazing product is an excellent companion for writers, students, journalists, teachers and word lovers. It will help you in finding the exact word you are looking for, it will assist you in writing better, it will help you in seeing and understanding the connections and relationships between words, it will get the help you in finding the correct synonyms and antonyms, it will help you in improving your vocabulary, it will help you in exploring new words, and the list is endless…

This product is an excellent tool for improving your writing quality and productivity. This fantastic product is a must for all who are serious about their writing and want to improve their writing skills.

You can try and buy the product from the Visual Thesaurus Home.