A picture paints a thousand words – and adding one to an email can really help get your point across, making your communication clearer.

Now you can add a screenshot to your mail directly from within Outlook – by using the Insert, Screenshot dialog on the ribbon..

Clicking this allows you to select the open window you want to copy, and then crop the image down to fit your needs.

Now there is no excuse for clipping a small part of a webpage to show someone via email. Easy to use and no fuss.

I’ve been using it to build playlists and listen to new albums. From now on, all of the music links on mattrutherford.com will be to Spotify, so if you have any account – you can easily listen to a recommendation and if you like, can buy the album – there is no affiliate programme, so I’m not gaining  from the process (apart from sharing great tunes).

I’ve also bee trying out some music recommendation sites that work with Spotify – and this is one of the best – it links your last.fm ID and  checks for new music by people in your top 50 lists. Awesome for finding new material, it can also find Spotify links from your recommendations.

PS – Its legal, and you can use it offline and mobile – so no fears there.

What are you listening to from the clouds?

If you are preparing to install Windows 7, or have just finished – then you’ll know what a pain it is to reinstall all your favourite applications straight afterwards. repaving a PC is never that easy.

There is Windows Live Essentials which grabs a few good tools from Redmond (Windows Live Writer being my favourite) – but what about the rest of the useful stuff.

Ninite is an excellent idea – a bulk application installer that simplifies the process of adding some REAL essentials to your PC. Firefox, FileZilla, uTorrent, Skype, paint.NET, Adobe Reader and winRAR are all on my list, and they are ALL included as options in Ninite – alongside many other useful apps.

You just select the application set that you want – and click install – and all of the apps you need are installed quietly and efficiently with the minimum of fuss. Everything is free, and just works with out any intervention.

Genius idea – well executed. Check Ninite out by clicking here.

Ninite – bulk application installer – really useful if you are paving your PC to install Windows 7 this week.

What are your essential applications?

Despite having two Zunes at home (a new HD and a 30), we still have three iPods on the go, and despite loads of changes – I am still not a fan of iTunes. Here are three alternatives the bloated Apple client.

• DoubleTwist – available for both the PC and the Mac, DoubleTwist is a full featured client that allows music to be downloaded to a number of devices including the iPod. The current release allows the Amazon MP3 store to be used to replicate the iTunes experience, as well as allowing video to be converted and loaded to your device.
• Anapod Explorer – from Red Chair software allows you to load music directly from Windows Explorer to your iPod and has a number of companion tools for backing up and recovering your precious shiny MP3 player.
• DOPISP – daft name, useful software that integrates your iPod with Windows Media Player, works with Windows 7 and is a lovely integration. I’ve used this for a while, and it has never let me down.

What other tools are you using to escape the Apple hegemony?

One of the single most useful applications on my PC is the Image Resizer powertoy, this allows me to quickly resize a photo to send by mail or use in a presentation.

The Powertoy is now available for Vista and Windows 7 (32bit and 64bit) and once installed will give you right click access to a whole range of options for shrinking those giant hi-res images that your hard drive is full of.

Download the Image Resizer Powertoy directly from here. (Full info at : Aviraj’s Blog) Oh yes, did I mention it’s free?