Staying in constant contact with business associates is the best way to keep your business thriving. Instead of playing phone or email tag, use helpful features like instant messaging to get quick responses. There are so many web applications that give users access to these features without having to pay large amounts of cash. In order to remain competitive with other business owners, you must stay up to date with all changes. Pownce is a social network application that lets its users communicate with friends via instant messaging and also share files. With a few simple suggestions, you’ll learn how to use Pownce to network a business.

1. Sign up for Pownce on their homepage. You’ll be prompted to create a username, enter a password, first name, last name and a few other personal details. After entering this information, you’ll also be asked to upload an image of yourself. If you would prefer not to do this, then just select the “Skip This Step” button to move forward. Locating your friends that are already using Pownce can be easily done by selecting one of the social networks from the “import friends” section. It can find your registered friends that use Digg, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail and several more services.
2. Step 2

   Customize Pownce even further by adjusting your profile settings. You’ll be able to type a few words in the “About Me” blurb section to personalize your Pownce account. In this area, you will also have the chance to correct incorrect information in the name, address, or birthday fields. Accessing private URLs for your personal notes, files and iCal events can also be found in this location as well.

3. Step 3

   Change your Pownce theme in the profile settings area to reflect your style. Just remember to choose a professional one if you will be using your Pownce account to network with business contacts. Considering that first impressions are extremely important when networking with new business associates, choose a template that is not overly busy or overwhelming. It’s OK to have a page with numerous graphics and other fun things in a fun atmosphere, but not a professional one.

4. Step 4

   Upload business files to you Pownce account and instruct other business associates to create their own accounts. This will come in extremely handy when you need to send multiple files to them. Adding each other as a friend can also give you the opportunity to see who is currently available for file transfers or instant messaging. The Pownce application will conveniently let you use both of these features in one application. Users can also download the application to their desktop instead of having to login to a web interface. You’ll need to have Adobe Air installed on your computer system before doing this. Visit the Adobe Air homepage to download and install the application.

There are a number of reasons why a user may be unable to open a PDF file on their computer, and most of them are easily resolvable with a little patience.

File is Corrupt

1. One possibility is that there was an error either in the transmission or the storage of the PDF file. If you downloaded the file from the Internet, attempt the download again. Otherwise, you may need to restore a backup.

Old Version of AIR

2. If you are trying to view the PDF file from within an Adobe AIR application, this may fail if your copy of the AIR runtime is out of date. Updating your copy of AIR should resolve the issue. (see Reference 1)

Old PDF Plugin

3. If you are attempting to open the PDF file from within a browser such as Firefox, you may have an old version of the PDF plugin. (see Reference 2)

Old Version of Adobe Reader

4. If you are using an older version of the Adobe Reader program, some newer PDF files may be impossible for you to open. Update your copy of Adobe Reader. (see Reference 3)

PDF Files is Protected

5. Finally, if the publisher of the PDF so chooses, she can implement security features to limit who has access to the PDF. In this case, you will need to contact the publisher to be granted access permission to her file

Swirls add a nice touch to digital scrapbook designs. You can design your own (easily) with free software Livebrush Lite, an Adobe Air application.

1. Go to livebrush.com to download free software Livebrush Lite (or Livebrush Pro for a fee). Adobe Air is required; you will be directed to that download if you don’t already have it.
2. Step 2

   Open Livebrush Lite and start designing your swirl! Hold down your mouse as you create your line on the blank page. Livebrush smoothes out the line so even a jagged mouse user can make elegant swirls.

3. Step 3

   Layer lines and swirls on top of each other to make more complicated designs. As a more advanced step, add your own png files as decorations for your creations under the Deco tab in the Tool Settings palate on the right side of the screen.

4. Step 4

   Export your design to use in other software. Select the layers you want to export in the layers palate at the bottom right of the screen. Control-click to select more than one layer. Under File, click on Export and then Export Layer(s) to Image. Choose your destination. (The file will be saved as a png.)

5. Step 5

   Now you can open up your image in other photo editing software. Since the file is a png, the background is transparent. This makes it easy to layer on a scrapbook page. Have fun!

Using Google Reader to keep updated on the latest breaking news or just your favorite website is a fun thing to do. It definitely helps to save you valuable time when you have tons of websites to keep tabs on. All of your feeds are organized in one neat application that allows you to customize it according to your preferences. Although Google Reader has a user-friendly interface, sometimes it’s a bit boring. There are several applications that try to enhance the way you read your daily feeds. ReadAir is an application that can access your Google Reader feeds and present them in a more favorable view. With a few simple suggestions, you’ll learn how to use ReadAir.

1. Visit the ReadAir homepage to download and install the application to your computer system. Instead of logging into a web browser to access all of your feeds listed in Google Reader, you’ll have these feeds delivered directly to your desktop. The entire interface of the ReadAir application is extremely similar to Mac OS X. It’s not cluttered with numerous useless buttons or features that will cause you to get confused. In order to successfully run the application on your computer desktop, you’ll also need to have Adobe Air installed on it as well. This is the platform that allows ReadAir to operate. If you don’t currently have Adobe Air installed, then visit the Adobe homepage to get it.
2. Step 2

   Enter your Google login information when ReadAir prompts you to do so. As soon as the application is installed on your computer system, it will ask for this information. In order to log into the system, just enter you complete email address and password that has been already established for your Google account. After doing this, ReadAir will then begin to access all of your feeds and download them onto your computer. You’ll be able to read through them by launching the program and minimizing it to your system tray when you’re not using it.

3. Step 3

   Change the time intervals for checking new feeds by going to the “general preferences” area. It can be found by accessing the login box. There is no other setup requirement that will take you through a long process. Just login and then start reading your feeds as they are downloaded. Within a few minutes, you will be fully updated on any changes with your favorite websites or news headlines.

4. Step 4

   Add or remove feeds by clicking the “+” or “-” at the bottom left of the ReadAir application. Organizing your feeds can also be done by associating specific tags with each of them. Select a desired feed, click the “+” at the bottom left corner, and then choose the “add/remove tag” option. Each feed will be immediately placed in its correct place after doing this.

Twitter is an extremely popular micro-blogging platform that most Internet users are familiar with. You can quickly send your daily thoughts and questions to tons of friends in just one instance. Considering its popularity, many developers have jumped at the chance to create a user friendly application that will allow users to enjoy it even further. With a few suggestions, you’ll soon learn how to use Twhirl to Twitter friends.

1. Visit the Twhirl homepage and download Adobe AIR 1.0 on your computer system, if it is not already installed. This application will be needed in order to successfully run the Twhirl application. There are a few requirements that your computer system must meet before installing the Adobe AIR 1.0 application, such as an Intel Pentium 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of memory, and Microsoft Windows versions 2000, XP, or Vista and a few other details.
2. Step 2

   Download and install the Twhirl application to your chosen computer system. It will work with a Mac OSX or Windows 2000 and higher computer system. After the installation set-up, you will be able to receive notifications of brand new tweets and even post images for your Twitter followers to see as well. Twhirl also conveniently allows you to send numerous shortened URL’s to other Twitter friends. This feature comes in handy if you have found an interesting website and would like to share it.

3. Step 3

   Reboot your computer system after the installation, so that you can gain full functionality of the Twhirl application. Most newly installed programs will automatically ask you to reboot, but do so even if the application does not prompt you. This will help you have a fresh start with your newly installed program.

4. Step 4

   Set up your Twitter account in Twhirl by entering your user-name via the accounts tab. You’ll also be able to enter your FriendFeed info as well. Twitter users that have several accounts will enjoy this application because it easily allows you to add multiple accounts with the click of a button. Just make sure that the Twitter setting is selected, type the user-name in the empty space, and then click the ” +” sign. After entering the information, select the “connect” button and Twhirl will try to connect to the service. You’ll be able to view all of your friends that you’re currently following.

5. Step 5

   Customize the way Twhirl looks according to your personal preferences. Change the color theme of Twhirl by choosing the “colors” tab. You’ll have several available selections to choose from. After selecting a theme, you can easily change it by choosing the “change color scheme” button. Doing this will automatically convert the current Twhirl interface into the one you’ve chosen.

6. Step 6

   Post your own words to other Twitter followers by typing in the empty white box at the bottom of Twhirl. Press the enter key and your words will be viewed by anyone that is following you. This application gives Twitter users another convenient way of staying up to date with friends and family members. You’ll no longer have to rely solely on a web interface to log-in to your Twitter account.

Twitter is an incredibly powerful social networking tool that enables real-time conversations with a wide range of audiences. Many people find that creating separate Twitter identities is the best way to manage the range of different conversations that can be had using Twitter. For instance, it is useful to have different Twitter accounts for personal and business use. If you operate multiple websites, aligning custom Twitter accounts with each one is a great way to reach out to users. Managing all these various Twitter accounts through the standard Twitter interface is difficult though, so it is good idea to explore alternatives.

How to Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts with Brizzly

1. Step 1

   Create an account at brizzly.com.

2. Step 2

   Login and add your Twitter accounts by clicking “Add a Twitter Account” in the right sidebar.

3. Step 3

   Post from different Twitter accounts by clicking the corresponding Twitter avatar at the top of the screen. You can post to only one account at a time.

How to Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts with TweetDeck

4. Step 1

   Download and install Adobe Air.

5. Step 2

   Install TweetDeck by navigating to tweetdeck.com and then clicking “Install Now.”

6. Step 3

   Launch TweetDeck and follow the on-screen prompts to add multiple TweetDeck accounts.

7. Step 4

   Post from different Twitter accounts by selecting the Twitter user ID from the top of the screen. You can post updates from multiple accounts simultaneously using TweetDeck.

How to Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts with Seesmic

8. Step 1

   Download and install Adobe Air.

9. Step 2

   Install Seesmic by navigating to seesmic.com and clicking “Install Now.”

10. Step 3

    Launch Seesmic and follow the on-screen prompts to add multiple TweetDeck accounts.

11. Step 4

    Post from different Twitter accounts by selecting the Twitter user ID from the top of the screen. You can post updates from multiple accounts simultaneously using Seesmic.

How to Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts with Firefox

12. Step 1

    Install Firefox.

13. Step 2

    Add the Echofon (formerly known as TwitterFox) to Firefox by navigating to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/5081 and clicking “Add to Firefox” and restart.

14. Step 3

    Add Twitter accounts by right-clicking on the status bar entry in the bottom right and selecting “Add Account.”

15. Step 4

    Post from different Twitter accounts by clicking the status bar icon. You can post to only one account at a time.

A favicon appears in your browser’s location bar. For instance, the favicon for eHow is the letter O with a check mark that you see in the site logo. Many sites use these favicons to help identify and brand their site. Here I will review the steps to creating a favicon for your own website.

1. You can create your own icon using an image of your choice. Many images don’t scale down clearly and cleanly, so choose an image that is simple and clear and will reduce in size clearly.
2. Step 2

   Open the image in any photo editing tool you have. GIMP, Photoshop, Fireworks or Paint Show Pro will all do what you need (see Tips below if you don’t have any of this software available).

3. Step 3

   Crop the image to contain only the material you want to appear in the favicon, then reduce the size to 16-by-16 pixels. The image resolution should be either 72 or 96 dpi.

4. Step 4

   Save the new image. You can save it as a JPEG, GIF or PNG. Upload the image to your website.

5. Step 5

   
   

   The Link in HTML 4.01

   The proper way to link to the icon depends on the version of HTML you are using in your website. For linking to the icon using HTML 4.01, insert the code shown in the image into the head of your document. Of course you must use your own information, such as the name of your image and server.

6. Step 6

   
   

   The Link in XHTML

   If your webpage uses XHTML 1.0, use code similar to what you see in this image. Again, customize the information to suit your particular server and image name.

7. Step 7

   
   

   The Shortcut Icon Method

   This option using the rel=”shortcut icon” attribute for the link will work in XHTML. See the code in the image. The icon must be named “favicon.ico” and it the icon must be stored at the top level of the website (not in any subfolders) for this link to work.

8. Step 8

   You can use an absolute link to the image as shown in the HTML 4.01 example, or a relative link, as shown in the XHTML 1.0 example. Use your normal method of linking to image, relative or absolute, whether it’s HTML 4.01 or XHTML.

9. Step 9

   Upload the page with the new code in the document head and reload your page to test to make sure that your new favicon appears in the browser’s location bar.

Adobe Air is a program for developing desktop applications that enable users of a website to access certain features of the site without having to be connected to the Internet. A number of different file types are associated with Adobe Air, including “air” files.

Identification

1. A file with the air file extension is known as an Adobe Air installation package.

Function

2. If an application created with Adobe Air is included on a website for visitors to download, the installer file that transfers the necessary files for the application onto the user’s computer is an air file. The air file is saved to your computer when you click the “Download” button on the website.

Operating Systems

3. Air files will download website applications on Windows-, Mac- and Linux-based computers.

Location

4. If you have downloaded an air application from a website, you will most likely find the air file for the application in your downloads file, your web browser’s download manager or the default location that you have selected to save items that you download from the Internet.

Considerations

5. In some cases, Windows Vista users experience error messages while trying to open air files. Consult the technical support for the website where you downloaded the air file for assistance if this occurs.

Clever innovations of new technology and methods of utilizing legacy assets have made the Internet a dynamic experience for today’s surfer. There are limits, however, to the level of control an application has when used over the Internet as opposed to being run from a user’s desktop. Adobe Systems has introduced AIR as a tool to integrate the desktop with the World Wide Web. The idea is to bridge the functionality of a desktop program with the real-time information updates possible with the Internet.

History

1. Adobe AIR was released to the public on Feb. 25, 2008. The technology was used first by companies like eBay and Time Warner to deploy a version of their Web sites to users’ desktops. AIR allows these companies to offer their clientele a fully customizable desktop program that has access to the user’s local system and the information assets deliverable via the Web.

Function

2. AIR stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime. A runtime environment is essentially a small program that a user downloads to a computer. The runtime acts as a translator, taking the code humans write and interpreting it into a series of 1s and 0s that a computer will understand. A user downloads the AIR runtime once, then downloads any number of programs from vendors developed for the AIR platform. The assumption is that as long as AIR is able to be installed on the computer, the other programs will function regardless of the user’s specific system.

Benefits

3. The benefits touted by Adobe are for developer and end user both. On the development side, existing technologies and personnel are able to be utilized since AIR interprets widely used Web programming languages. Additionally, since AIR applications are able to be run on almost any computer platform, there is no need to develop separate applications to target different operating systems.

   For the end user, the benefits are in ease of integration. Once installed, the runtime is consistently monitoring any updates, applying them when necessary. Since applications are developed for AIR and not the operating system, end users can feel confident the application will run on their particular setup.

Considerations

4. Of course, not all technology is as infallible as its creators would like us to think. Mike Chambers, principal product manager for developer relations for the Flash Platform at Adobe, hosts a blog with a post that allows users and developers to air grievances about AIR. A recurring issue on the blog for developers is the warning screen that alerts users of AIR applications to the security risks involved. AIR applications need a connection to the Internet in order to function. The programs are also given unrestricted access to the user’s local file system. Combine these two facts with a nefarious program and you have a recipe for disaster.

Potential

5. The potential for AIR technology to change the way we use our desktops is tangible. AIR’s success depends on three factors: first, the number of companies that embrace the technology and develop useful, efficient applications; second, Adobe’s aggressiveness in backing the technology; and last, the willingness of the end user to put complete faith in the opaque workings of a third-party’s program

Adobe Air is an Internet application platform developed by Adobe. There are dozens of robust, attractive and fully interactive Internet applications that have been developed using the Adobe Air platform. These applications give users the ability to access some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications in an innovative and efficient fashion, while lending some visual flair to user interactions. Installing the Adobe Air platform on Linux is a breeze using the packages provided by Adobe.

1. Download the Adobe Air installation package from Adobe. It should be a .bin file saving the file to your Home folder.
2. Step 2

   Select “Applications > Accessories > Terminal.”

3. Step 3

   Input the command <chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin> and press enter to set the installation package as an executable program.

4. Step 4

   Input the command <sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin> to initiate the installation package. Once complete, you can install Adobe Air applications directly from your Web browser.