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4 Tools to Help You Access Your PC When You’re Away

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Professionals today are busier than ever, traveling from work to home to meetings around town. Many small business owners find they’re spending more time on airplanes than at the office, as they work hard to network and attract new business.

All of this traveling means professionals are rarely afforded the luxury of being seated in front of a computer. Cloud-based travel apps can help you while on the road, but what if you arrive at your location, only to find the file you need is on the hard drive of your computer? Even if you can access your company servers from anywhere, a file saved to the computer itself will likely be inaccessible outside of the office. When that happens, here are a few cloud tools that can grant you access to the PC on your desk.

TeamViewer

This popular free app can be used to access a remote PC or conduct meetings and share your screen with attendees. One of the biggest benefits of TeamViewer is that no software is required on the client side, which means you can take over a PC without preparing ahead of time. You’ll simply need to ask someone nearby to enter a user ID and password to let you in. TeamViewer finds a way around firewalls and blocked ports to give you a connection every time.

Microsoft Remote Desktop

Available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, Microsoft Remote Desktop is a free app that lets you control your PC from a phone or tablet via a secure connection. The app can even be used to hook up to a projector or external monitor to let you directly stream presentations from your work desktop to a projector located on the other side of the country.

SplashTop

SplashTop lets you remotely access your PC or Mac from a PC or mobile device, as well as mirror your iPad or Chromebook to any computer screen. The software isn’t free, with plans starting at $1.99 a month per user for the personal edition and $60 per user per year for the business edition.

Screens Connect

Using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, users can access a Windows, Mac, or Linux PC from anywhere. Screens Connect is $19.99, but it allows you to copy and paste items from host to guest and it comes with a customizable toolbar for easy session management.

In addition to being able to remotely access your own PC, these tools come in handy for helping colleagues or employees troubleshoot problems or learn software. As you find a favorite remote screen-sharing app, you’ll likely open up a suite of new possibilities for using the technology in your everyday life.

Tools of the Trade: CSS

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Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is the language in which web pages built upon.  There are a lot of tools out there that work with or in conjunction with CSS.  Here’s a breakdown of a few that might be of use to you.

1.  Firebug

Firebug is an add-on for Firefox.  Open sourced and free, this add-on allows you to inspect code.  Whether you are veteran web designer or new to the game, this tool is great for viewing how things might look in production.  The ability to add and remove code to see how the changes appear on the front end is essential to staying on top of bugs

2. CSS Menu 3.3

Menus are a time eater.  CSS Menu 3.3 allows for quick menu creation, allowing you to easily visualize how menus will look and behave.

3. CSS3 Button Generator

Buttons!  Buttons are a great way to add polish to a website.  They are used to draw attention, generate sales, or make statements.  CSS3 Button Generator is free, though we do suggest that you donate to help support the creators, CSS Portal.