Cherry Ad-ons, Links, and Gadgets

 Despite all the time I could possibly waste on the internet, I'm a student; I have papers to write and research to do. I've come across some very cool and very practical little tools that have been huge time savers for me in the past week and I'd like to share them with you. So here are some cherry picks from the world wide web:

Apture
This browser add-on allows you to highlight a name, word, title, pretty much anything, and gives you the option to look up more information under that heading in a miniature window. You get wiki articles, photos, videos, Twitter, and Google results without having to open a new tab or leave the site you're on. It works on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. It's a huge time saver and it's free.


After the Deadline
Another plug-in for your internet browser that allows you to spell check your text when the option isn't normally available. Just last week my college online courses changed their spell check method to a pop-up window that doesn't work at all. This tool came in pretty handy and it's much faster than the embedded spell checkers. One strange thing I have noticed about it though: when you click the spell check icon it has the tendency to temporarily remove any formatting or special characters while you use it. Once you exit the tool things go right back to normal. Also, once the tool is activated, it works by using the left mouse button rather than the right.

Google Dictionary Extension
Highlight any word and click the dictionary icon in the address bar, the definition comes up in a small drop-down window. This extension only works with Google Chrome. Users are awaiting a Firefox extension but until then, Mozilla fans can use Dictionary Tooltip

One Look

You know what the word means but you can't remember it for the life of you. Frustration escalates and you start asking friends, family members, who ever is around with a decent vocabulary to help you identify that one word that encompasses the message you're trying to get across. Sometimes you remember hours later, other times you give up and rewrite the sentence you agonized over. You don't have to waste that time again; some mad genius created a reverse look-up dictionary. If you can describe the word, you can find it. You can even look up words that start and end with specific letters, or phrases that have specific words in them. This site generates a list of suggestions based on your description and provides links to their definitions. Drawbacks? You need to be short and clear about what the word means. Hopefully that's the case if you're trying to use it in a sentence anyway.