Module 4 Tools/Plug-ins Task

In your learning log record which programs you downloaded and note which (if any) facets you think might prove useful.


Bookmark Buddy for Windows:

For this task, I firstly downloaded Bookmark Buddy for Windows. I found it quite a useful tool in that it assisted in categorizing bookmarks/favorites in a well-ordered fashion. It also proved useful with respect to backing up/restoring bookmarks when they were accidently lost. During this task, I inadvertently deleted my bookmarks while experimenting with some other bookmark software - Zinkmo. The Bookmark Buddy was able to restore all of these so proved to be quite valuable.

While completing this task, I also found an additional add-on for the Firefox Browser called PlainOldFavorites which allowed me to add an IE Favorites menu to the Firefox toolbar. This is convenient as it does not involve having to manually update the links in FF from IE. However, what I really would have found useful, is an offline seamless automatic integration of bookmark synchronization between Firefox and IE eg add a bookmark to IE and the bookmarks automatically update in FF. Most of the tools available were much more involved so ultimately I settled for the above mentioned 'favorites' add-on in addition to the Bookmark Buddy.

WebCopier for Windows:

For the second part of the Module 4 Tools/Plug-ins task I downloaded the WebCopier trial version. I did not find the software that straight forward and it took sometime to learn how to download a full website. However, once I grasped how the tool worked I was able to download the website without any problems. Some of the website content was not viewable after the download, but the main content was available to peruse at leisure.

I then downloaded a similar program, Website Ripper Copier, in the hope that it might prove to be a little more intuitive and straight forward, which it proved to be.

After completing this task, I discovered that website copiers are extremely useful. Being able to download a website to my laptop and then view the pages while offline has the potential to provide a convenient way to surf the net when there is no internet connection available eg when travelling for instance. I can forsee myself utilizing web copier tools with my studies when I am 'on the move'.