2009 certainly proved to be a busy year for Worldlabel, as we modified the business, started a blog which was hacked and started all over again. But, it was a productive year, too, as the following blogs show. We’ve picked twelve top blog entries for 2009 and offer them below, many written by guest authors and most that focus on Open Source tutorials and products. These blogs are in no particular order, but they’re our favorites because they seemed to help a lot of our readers…

Over the next year, let us know which blogs you like so we can pick them out for our favorite blogs in 2010.

BUSINESS CARD TUTORIAL IN INKSCAPE

Business Card Tutorial in inkscapeorg: The author for this piece was Author is Ryan Lerch of http://ryanler.wordpress.com/. He wrote an impressive tutorial that received lots of raves.

OPENOFFICE.ORG NEW USER ORIENTATION

OpenOffice.org New User Orientation: Andrew Ziem has worked with OpenOffice.org since 2001 as an author, trainer, tester, and quasi-developer. He blogs about OpenOffice.org at http://www.oooninja.com and he wrote this tutorial about how to use OpenOffice.

FREE FILLABLE PDF PLANNER PRO

PDFplannerPRO: Free Fillable Printable Planner, Organizer, Diary and more: This was a popular tool that we developed, that allows users to use a template to plan, organize, write a diary and more. It is customizable and the schedule has an easy date pulldown for reference.

FREE WEDDING LABELS

Wedding Labels for Free in Fillable PDF: Our free wedding labels in PDF format were a hit with readers. There are four sets available, each with a diffierent design and each containing numerous options to use across the board, from CD labels to a thank-you card.

OPENOFFICE.ORG OPENS UP FOR BUSINESS

OpenOffice.org Opens up for Business: We’re going to have Andrew Ziem write for us again, because his articles about OpenOffice were hits across the board. This one featured the value of OpenOffice to business owernships and management.

DESIGN WINE LABELS WITH ILLUSTRATOR

Design Wine Labels in Adobe Illustrator: We must have some wine lovers out there, as this article also was very popular. Chris Spooner of spoongraphics.co.uk did a bang-up job on this Adobe Illustrator tutorial.

MUST HAVE OPEN SOURCE TOOLS FOR FREELANCERS

Must-Have Free Open Source Tools for Freelancers: While we carried a few lists this year, this one was popular because it contained open source tools – and, we’re all over open source!

CLIP ART OF THE WEEK: SUNFLOWER

Clip Art of the Week: Sunflower by Mokush: This article about the Open Clip Art Library 0.19 was popular in 2009. They hit a milestone that week at 10,000 pieces of clipart uploaded to their new system.

VIDEO EDITING MADE EASY WITH KINO

Video Editing Made Easy with Kino! Christian Einfeldt, Producer at the the Digital Tipping Point, wrote this article on how to edit video with Kino. It was a huge hit.

FREE DESKTOP PUBLISHING WITH SCRIBUS

Free Desktop Publishing with Scribus (Open Source): Nathan Willis wrote this popular tutorial, which focused on how to use Scribus. Scribus is the leading open source solution for desktop publishing (DTP); it supports professional features like press-ready color separations and PDF output, as well as every media file type under the sun.

FREE SOAP LABELS AND CANDLE LABELS

Free Soap Labels & Candle Labels Biz Starter Kit: Who knew so many people would want soap labels? Our kits, similar to the wedding packages above, focused on fillable PDF label templates with various designs and in various label shapes and sizes.

DESIGNING A BUSINESS CARD WITH WL-244 TEMPLATE

Designing a Business Card with WL-OL244 Template: Last, but not least, was a tutorial on how to create your own business cards by Scott Citron of scottcitrondesign.com. He used Adobe InDesign to create a memorable design and an effective and easy-to-follow tutorial.

A device that allows blind people to attach and read audio labels on everyday objects has gone on show. The PenFriend uses minute barcodes which – when scanned by a digital pen – trigger MP3 files recorded on the unit.

The PenFriend has been developed by a UK firm together with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

It costs less than £60, and can be used to label foods and medication as well as clothing, personal documentation and film and music collections.

“At the moment we are just scratching the surface: we are starting development of address books, organisers, diaries and calendars,” explained Alison Long of the RNIB.

The PenFriend is the result of collaboration between the charity and London-based company, Mantra Lingua. It uses optical identification technology (OID) to print microdots on to adhesive labels which are then read by the scanner in the tip of the PenFriend.

Read More at  BBC

AutofillPDF Labels is a handy web tool for anyone who’s wanted to print their own labels of any kind, but loathes the idea of manually filling out the printing template over and over.

Many print-your-own label packets come with links or CDs that provide you with a pre-formatted Word document to fill out. Unless you’re getting married or sending out other invitations, though, you’ll usually end up putting the same thing on each label, and Ctrl-C/V-ing your precious time away.

This handy webapp pops open a scripted PDF file on any system, while letting you change the font, styling, size, and other text properties, and also add images in short shrift. In other words, you create one label, and the PDF fills out the rest of them for you. The templates include CD labels, address or mailing, file folder labels, and even non-sticky business cards. Free to use, no sign-up required, and it works best with Adobe Acrobat (the free reader).

Via Lifehacker.com

via Makeuseof.com

Alltop is a new venture created by Guy Kawasaki, world-famous entrepreneur and author. Kawasaki and his team (Will Mayall and Kathryn Henkens) import the stories of the top news websites and blogs for any given topic and display the headlines of the five most recent stories. When you place the cursor over a headline, part of the story is displayed so you can decide if you want to read it or not. To read the story, you click on the title, and a new tab or window will open in your browser so you can read the full story at the original site.

Basically, Alltop is a news aggregator that is divided into individual topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. Two topics might interest those who are into graphics, and those are Printing Industry News and Top Publishing News.

If you don’t find your site in the Alltop algorithm, you might be able to change that omission. The news is uploaded about once an hour from sites and blogs chosen from results of Google searches, site and blog content reviews, researchs and Alltop staff “gut” instincts. Site and blog owners and people who care enough to write to them also offer suggestions. But, Kawasaki is quite frank in his policy about new additions – he states that the Twitter community is his best resource.

If you’re not involved with Twitter, it might help if you begin to use that tool as soon as possible if you want your news to be included at Alltop. Then, after you’ve developed a Twitter following, use Alltop’s submission form to ask for consideration. Those actions might constitute your best shot at one of the hottest new aggregators around.

(Update) We are pleased to announce that AllTop as accepted in the Printing catagory.

Blank Labels

Do you feel stymied when it comes to using labels? Do you think labels are dull? Do you have piles of blank labels gathering dust in that bottom drawer? You’re in the right place, then. We’re here to help you overcome your “labelphobia” so that you can realize your organizational and productive potential. Labels can simplify your life if you know how and when to use them. They also can make your life more colorful and exciting!

So, we welcome you to the Worldlabel.com blog. Our company has been in business for a decade, and we offer labels, label designs and design ideas to people the world over. Now, we want to expand on our services to provide users with even more resources. No matter whether you’re a work-at-home mom, a CEO, an artist or a non-creative type – we’re here to help you make the most of your talents and time with our ideas, tips, tricks, hacks and more.

We’ll provide you with news and information about topics such as Open Source tools, productivity and organizational tricks, “how-to” articles, reviews and downloads. We’re here to make your life easier. We’re here to have fun!

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