In her recent guest post, Francesca Geens sang the praises of upgrading our email to Microsoft’s Exchange Online. Well, I have taken her advice and done exactly that – and I definitely recommend it. Here’s why:

• I can now access all my emails on my iPhone and iPad. That means I can always keep in touch with who is emailing me, even when I’m away from my desk all day or out of the country.

• All my contacts in Outlook are now automatically in my iPhone and iPad. No manual inputting or syncing via cables. And, whenever I update a contact or add a new one, it changes in the other devices, too.

• My calendar is available on all my devices and, again, everything is synced. So, if I change the time of a meeting or add a new one, the information is updated in all three. Same goes for my ‘Tasks’ list. All this without me having to connect – it’s all done wirelessly.
Read more »

Not heard of Office365 yet? I am sure you will in the coming months as it is Microsoft’s ‘next big thing’ which is currently in Beta and about to be launched soon.

So what is Office365 and why do I think it’s the perfect service for any freelancer? Here are 6 (and a half) reasons to get you thinking:

1. Email, calendar and contacts

Hopefully you won’t be on a POP3 email account – if you are then you should definitely listen up as this is not a great way to manage your email. Even if you are proud to have made the transition to IMAP and you are happy that you can sync your emails between your phone and laptop then you should know that there is an even better way and it’s called Exchange Online.

This is a cautionary tale.

Last week, my husband bumped into a graphic designer we both know. He told my husband how, two nights earlier, a burglar had stolen his iMac from his ground floor studio while he was asleep upstairs.

“I can get a replacement computer easily and my insurance will pay, but I’ve lost all my work and all my client’s artwork.”

Because he hadn’t backed anything up.

Backing up your work is a habit you need to get into. Here are eight ways you can back up your data.

1. Memory sticks (USB flash drives)

Copy your files on a weekly basis onto memory sticks (or more often) and keep them somewhere safe.

2. Copy your files onto CDs/DVDs

The only problem with this method is it’s quite time consuming. They also don’t store huge amounts of data, so aren’t ideal for big photo or music collections. Do be sure to store them offsite in case of fire.

My colour inkjet gave up the ghost the other day and, because I had no idea about what kind of printer I should buy to replace it, I asked my IT guy.

He suggested two: either this one from Brother or this Lexmark Pinnacle Pro 901 For some reason, the Lexmark printer was marked down from £299 to £99. I bought that one. (Although I have to admit I was a bit suspicious – why was it at such a low price?) Anyhow, it has turned out to be such a great printer that I decided to write a review about it.

Welcome to guest blogger, John Brook, who tells us about ten essential tools for a paperless office.

In today’s fast-paced office environments, the emphasis is trending toward an office that is free of paper and printed documents. There are many computer and phone based applications and software services that allow busy modern professionals to maintain their contacts, projects and clients without having to stay in the office. From online document creation and sharing, to software that allows a contract to get signed without ever getting printed and mailed, there are many ideas on how to make the office more flexible and mobile.

1.) Email
One of the quickest and easiest ways to reduce the amount of paper coming out of an office is to use email services instead of sending documents through the mail.

Welcome to guest writer, Malcolm Davison who provides a round-up of some Mac software packages that freelancers will find useful. Malcolm is offering readers of Freelance Factfile a discount on his online web writing training. Details are at the end of this post.

The Mac has become the computer of choice among creative agency staff and freelancers. The ease of use and reliability are legendary.

Freelancers especially are being frugal with their spending on software these days. And just how many versions of Microsoft Word do you really need, after all? But there are many other packages that have appeared on the scene that just concentrate on a single job and do it very well. They also don’t make too big a dent in the office budget. Let’s look at a few of them: