Two great sidebar gadgets to help and amuse

Donavon West created the Windows Vista Countdown gadget back in November last year. It sat in my Windows Sidebar, counting down the days until Windows Vista hit the shelves - the same day Issue 1 of the magazine came out.

Since then, his Windows Sidebar creations have earned him a 2008 Most Valued Professional title, and I can see why.

Tips & Tricks

This one's perfect if you've just moved over to the new 2007 Microsoft Office system and you're still finding your way round all the new (and some of the old!) features. Rather than trawl through laborious help documentation, the Tips & Tricks gadget displays a tip - such as 'Delete a meeting without notifying invitees'. If you're in any way interested by what it says, you can click to open an expanding window, explaining exactly how to pull off that particular trick.

Say It! 2.0

 

Say It serves little purpose but to cause hilarity; type a sentence into the speech bubble and press enter to have it read in Windows Vista's default text-to-speech voice. It's actually pretty accurate on most words, and while this functionality has been part of Windows for a while, it's never been quite as accessible as when it's sitting in your Windows Sidebar. Perfect in an office environment, as I've discovered.

 

Get both gadgets from Donavon's Windows Live Gallery page, here.