Enhance your productivity with a bit on the side [BT broadband office]

Enhance your productivity with a bit on the side

Posted 15 March 2007 at 10:12AM by Simon Dickson in Email and communications, Hints and tips, Light relief

With the growth in people watching movies via their PCs, whether online or on DVD, widescreen displays are becoming increasingly common on both desks and laptops. But what do you do with the extra 25% of screen space when you're just doing normal PC things?

A great way to fill the gap is to install an information sidebar. With your PC permanently connected to the world via your broadband line, you can pull in the very latest news headlines, share prices, sports scores, weather forecast, emails in your inbox, and so on.

You can also display details of your computer's current operation, as well as details of your appointments and tasks for the day. It all clings to the edge of your screen, always visible but usually not too distracting (especially on a larger display). You'll quickly find yourself just absorbing the new information as it comes in; and it might help your productivity to keep your task list always on screen, nagging at you.

Desktop Sidebar

One of the first sidebar programs for Windows was Desktop Sidebar, still available as freeware from desktopsidebar.com. It's still my own preference, mainly because it works well with my relatively old version of Microsoft Outlook. It also comes with a 'skin editor', letting you customise its appearance however you wish. There are dozens of free skins and plugins for extra functionality, available from the website. But development of the program, and its enhancements, has slowed of late, with the arrival of new and better-backed rivals.

Google Desktop

Google includes an optional sidebar as part of its free Google Desktop download, which gives you a local search engine for all your files, emails, appointments, chat sessions, and so on. Hundreds of 'gadgets' are waiting to be added to your sidebar, with an easy-to-view catalogue just a single click away. Being a Google product, it's very easy to use and very reliable - and there are lots of new gadgets being created all the time. If you've tried it before, and ruled it out, it's worth having another look: the newest version looks a bit nicer, and runs a bit smoother.

Windows Vista

Of course, if you've made the switch to Windows Vista, you'll have Microsoft's sidebar ready and waiting for you. There isn't a huge difference between the Vista sidebar and the Google one; there's a similar range of (incompatible) gadgets available for both. If you're on Vista already, it makes sense to start with the built-in sidebar, and see how you like it.

Klipfolio

The dark horse in the field is Klipfolio, by Canadian developers Serence. It's been around for a few years as a normal Windows program, but with the release of version 4 last month, you can now stick it to your desktop as a sidebar. It's arguably the prettiest and most flexible sidebar, with lots of easy customisation options - and it's a tiny download too. There's a decent supply of extra gadgets (known as 'klips'), but it's likely to suffer in comparison with bigger-name competitors.

In conclusion...

If you're using Windows Vista, the decision is more or less made for you. Stick with the default sidebar, unless you find a good reason not to. For the majority of us still on XP, the best bet is probably the Google product. Not only is it a solid sidebar, with a healthy supply of new gadgets, but you also get the benefits of a full search engine on your PC. But since they're all free of charge, there's no reason not to try them all, and see which one suits you best.

Tags: desktop, gadgets, google, klipfolio, sidebar, Windows Vista

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Comments

1. At March 27, 2007 1:23 PM, Nagif Salvah wrote:

I am using Google-bar but which is actually causing my system running slow rather then helping me getting most out of Internet.

2. At March 27, 2007 4:19 PM, Simon Dickson wrote:

You've spotted the catch, Nagif - there's inevitably a price to be paid for having applications like these running permanently on your PC. My guess is that any problems are more likely to be related to system memory than connection speed.

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