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10+ Cool Pre-Built Websites Designed With Creatives and Developers in Mind

Creatives need a digital space to call their home. A place from which they can show off their best work, and from where people can get in touch with them to buy or hire from them.

You should have a digital space of your own as well, and we’re here to help you do just that.

With one of 600+ Be Theme’s pre-built websites at your fingertips you can establish your own digital presence in no time at all. While you’re certain to find one to get started among such a large selection, we’re happy to offer a helping hand. The following 15 top BeTheme pre-built websites were specifically designed with creatives and developers in mind.

Don’t be afraid of choosing one that might not turn out to be the exact best choice. Every one of these 600+ pre-built websites is customizable, and you can always select another example or experiment if you want to.

15 Awesome BeTheme Pre-Built Websites You Can Call Your Own

No matter your choice, you’ll quickly discover that most or all of the heavy lifting involved in creating a website has already been done for you. Customize, add your own content, tweak as necessary, and you’re done!

That said, let’s get started.

1. BeAgency 4

Whether you prefer to go it alone or dream of someday building your own creative agency, the BeAgency 4 pre-built site would be a great foundation for your site. It oozes professionalism, it’s easy for your visitors to navigate, and you’ll love its clean, modern design.

As an extra feature (and most of these pre-built sites have one or two), BeAgency 4 has a Portfolio page. Swap in your own content and you’re set to go.

2. BeAgency 5

Like its predecessor, BeAgency 5 offers plenty of flexibility. You might find its completely different style more causal and relaxing, given the hand-drawn elements and small animations sprinkled throughout.

The extra feature here is a premade page for case studies you could use to add context to items in your portfolio.

3. BeArtist 3

Whether you’re a visual artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, or whatever, the BeArtist 3 pre-built site’s cool design with its unique vibe could be just what the doctor ordered.

It even has a Shop setup you can use to sell your work, or you can convert it to a portfolio if you intend to showcase that.

4. BeBusiness 3

If you would like to create a simple website to market your artistic services BeBusiness 3 would be an excellent choice.

Whether you’re a photographer selling family portraits or wedding packages, a web developer searching for clients, or a graphic designer specializing in logo design, this pre-built site gives you a great starting point.

5. BeCompany 6

If you’re looking for a way to help your company stand out from those that would prefer to play it safe in terms of website design, this BeCompany 6 pre-built site, whose geometric shapes and illustrations give it a particularly artsy vibe, would be an option well worth considering.

Not to forget; among BeCompany 6’s features there’s a page with case studies that can help you highlight your work.

6. BeConsultant

It’s sometimes the case that after creatives have become experts at their game or craft, they branch out into consulting. If you fit into that category, you might find BeConsultant to be the perfect fit for you.

If you’re not a full-time consultant, or not into consulting at all, you could still use this pre-built site as the basis for a website to show off or sell your skills.

7. BeCopywriter 2

This one’s for writers. If that’s you, and your work is focused on words, it only makes sense to use a pre-built site like Copywriter 2 to beautifully showcase your content.

8. BeCreative 4

BeCreative 4 offers a distinctive point of view on what a typical website for creatives should look like.

While it features everything you need, e.g., a portfolio page is included along with a section for sharing testimonials, it offers a few other surprises as well; surprises like its left-aligned navigation for starters.

9. BeCV 2

BeCV 2 is not your standard digital CV or resume. Not by any means.

It’s a single page site that will serve as a perfect vehicle for sharing your skills, your experience, and your accomplishments as reflected in your body of work. It also gives prospective employers or clients the opportunity to connect with you directly through your site.

10. BeData

BeData would be a good choice for IT professionals, web developers, and programmers. Its layout, techy design, and cool features can easily be customized to suit your needs.

11. BeMedia 2

BeMedia 2 tests the limits of conventional design in a variety of ways, including its asymmetric layouts, outsized images, and its animated background video; all designed to instill a heavy dose of energy into your website and your brand.

12. BePhotography 3

The BePhotography 3 pre-built site isn’t for professional photographers only. If you are a web designer, an illustrator, or any kind of a visual creator, this image-centric pre-built site offers a great way to show off your creative efforts and dazzling works of art.

13. BePortfolio 2

BePortfolio 2 is great way for showing off in the best possible way your work, your experience, your list of clients, and whatever else is of importance to you and your business. For creative professionals it doesn’t get any better than this.

14. BeTheme

A great thing about using BeTheme is you can use it to create a website as simple or as complex as you like, as well as one that will get your message across in the best possible way. BeTheme comes with the building blocks you need, and quite naturally an impressive portfolio page.

15. Webmaster 2

Programmers and developers. This pre-built website was created just for you.

BeWebmaster 2 gives you a fun way to take your techie language and translate it into something they can relate to.

Build a website you’ll be proud to share with the world.

One of the things users like best about using Be Theme is its huge selection of pre-built websites they can make a choice from (600 and counting to date!).

[– This is a sponsored post on behalf of BeTheme –]

Source

The post 10+ Cool Pre-Built Websites Designed With Creatives and Developers in Mind first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

11 mai 2021/par Service comm.

How to Install VPN on Linux?

Actualités, Méthodes et organisation des process IT

A VPN is a way to keep your identity a secret and protect your traffic on the internet. Your internet traffic passes through a tunnel that encrypts your data that no one can see, such as your internet service provider or government when you connect to a VPN server.

Let us list down why you need to use a VPN.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

10 mai 2021/par Service comm.

Popular Design News of the Week: April 26, 2021 – May 2, 2021

Actualités, Actualités

Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.

The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!

Curated List Of Awesome Lists

20 Best New Websites, April 2021

I Studied The Fonts Of The Top 1000 Websites; Here’s What I Learned

Markdown To Slideshow

WordPress Checklist: 17 Steps to Launching Your Site

Understanding Easing Functions For CSS Animations And Transitions

This is Tech! Illustrations About Technical Processes

This Amazing AI Tool Lets You Create Human Faces From Scratch

When You Shouldn’t Display Radio Buttons in a List Format

Lightweight, Privacy-First, Open-Source Comment System

8 Stunning Examples of CSS Glassmorphism Effects

CSS Tips

Source

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

2 mai 2021/par Service comm.

Poll: Is Basecamp Right To Shutdown Politics At Work?

Actualités, Actualités

This week, in a move like something from a particularly eventful episode of The Office, popular project management app company Basecamp banned political and societal discussion in the company’s internal communications.

In a post that has been revised for “clarification,” the company’s co-founder Jason Fried listed six rules for employees: No societal or political discussions at work; No more ‘paternalistic’ benefits; No more committees; No more lingering on past decisions; No more 360 reviews; No forgetting what we do here.

A follow-up post from Heinemeier Hansson notes that Basecamp will still permit discussion of issues deemed central to its business like anti-trust and privacy; certain civil liberties are to be championed, while others, like racism and climate change, are not.

On the surface, it seems reasonable, Fried and co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson would like you to believe that it is. After all, people are paid to work, not soapbox, right?

So why, if they’re the ones being protected, are Basecamp’s employees angry about the move?

It turns out, multiple sources from inside Basecamp are reporting that the ‘political’ and ‘societal’ issues referred to in Fried’s public memo were, in fact, frank and open conversations about Basecamp itself.

As reported by The Verge, way back in 2009, a list of ‘funny’ customer names began circulating at the company — hardly respectful, potentially racist, and certainly inappropriate. The misalignment between co-founders and staff occurred when staff members attempted to hold discrete conversations about this and numerous other diversity and inclusivity failings at the company. Fried’s move appears to be a direct attempt to halt criticism of the status quo at Basecamp.

Basecamp itself is a highly political organization: The co-founders have written several books advocating certain societal change; they even provided a campaign headquarters and substantial donation for a candidate for Chicago mayor. Both co-founders are highly active on social media, using their business positions to elevate their personal views.

The truth is that the solo entrepreneur is an almost mythical beast. Successful startups require contributions from a range of skills and experience beyond any one individual. Jason Fried may be the frontman, strutting up and down the stage in spandex pants, with David Heinemeier Hansson playing lead guitar with his teeth, but behind them, there’s a drummer keeping time, and behind them all, there’s a crew of roadies without whom none of the equipment will arrive, let alone sound good.

Basecamp’s founders argue that the company has a mission, and that mission is to create apps that streamline the workplace. But how can you develop a product that is inclusive if staff cannot discuss what inclusive means? The answer is, you can’t.

Discussing racial bias in advertising or the impact of company wastage, climate change, or gender pay gaps in HR meetings are all political and societal and lead to a healthier, more united company.

As designers, we often say that you cannot not communicate; every decision is a design decision; there is no such thing as “adesign.” Likewise, choosing to be apolitical is itself a political choice. The only way it is feasible to run a company like this is to treat employees like robots (in the word’s original sense).

If employees feel the need to discuss exclusionary policies in the workplace, do the company founders, who benefit from those policies (or they would not be in place), have a moral or legal right to restrict those discussions?

Although it is the first point in Fried’s list that has drawn most ire, it is the fourth item on the list that is most telling: “No more lingering or dwelling on past decisions.” Like a parent answering, “Because I said so,” Fried’s attitude to his staff is laid bare in one statement.

It turns out two wealthy white men would rather their employees not try to change the world or even their workplace.

When Coinbase announced a similar move last year, it lost 5% of its staff. If Basecamp suffered the same loss, it would amount to three people. Hardly a disaster. The question for the founders — who, judging by the number of follow-ups and clarifications they’ve published, are aware the ice they’re on is perilously thin — is whether this kind of controversy creates irreparable reputational damage.

Featured image via Pexels.

Source

The post Poll: Is Basecamp Right To Shutdown Politics At Work? first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

29 avril 2021/par Service comm.

No-Code: »It’s a Trap! »

Actualités, Méthodes et organisation des process IT

Gartner predicts that by 2023, over 50% of medium to large enterprises will have adopted a Low-code/No-code application as part of their platform development.

The proliferation of Low-code/No-code tooling can be partially attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put pressure on businesses around the world to rapidly implement digital solutions. However, adoption of these tools — while indeed accelerated by the pandemic — would have occurred either way.

Even before the pandemic, the largest, richest companies had already formed an oligopsony around the best tech talent and most advanced development tools. Low-Code/No-code, therefore, is an attractive solution for small and mid-sized organizations to level the playing field, and it does so by giving these smaller players the power to do more with their existing resources.

While these benefits are often realized in the short term, the long-term effect of these tools is often shockingly different. The promise of faster and cheaper delivery is the catch — or lure — inside this organizational mousetrap, whereas backlogs, vendor contracts, technical debts, and constant updates are the hammer.

So, what exactly is the No-Code trap, and how can we avoid it?

What is a No-Code Tool?

First, let’s make sure we clear up any confusion regarding naming. So far I have referred Low-Code and No-Code as if they were one term. It’s certainly easy to confuse them — even large analyst firms seem to have a hard time differentiating between the two — and in the broader context of this article, both can lead to the same set of development pitfalls.

Under the magnifying glass, however, there are lots of small details and capabilities that differentiate Low-code and No-code solutions. Most of them aren’t apparent at the UI level, leading to much of the confusion between where the two come from.

In this section, I will spend a little bit of time exploring the important differences between those two, but only to show that when it comes to the central premise of this article they are virtually equivalent.

Low-Code vs. No-Code Tools

The goal behind Low-Code is to minimize the amount of coding necessary for complex tasks through a visual interface (such as Drag ‘N’ Drop) that integrates existing blocks of code into a workflow.

Skilled professionals have the potential to work smarter and faster with Low-Code tools because repetitive coding or duplicating work is streamlined. Through this, they can spend less time on the 80% of work that builds the foundation and focuses more on optimizing the 20% that makes it different. It, therefore, takes on the role of an entry-level employee doing the grunt work for more senior developers/engineers.

No-Code has a very similar look and feel to Low-Code, but is different in one very important dimension. Where Low-Code is meant to optimize the productivity of developers or engineers that already know how to code (even if just a little), No-Code is built for business and product managers that may not know any actual programming languages. It is meant to equip non-technical workers with the tools they need to create applications without formal development training.

No-Code applications need to be self-contained and everything the No-Code vendor thinks the user may need is already built into the tool.

As a result, No-Code applications create a lot of restrictions for the long-term in exchange for quick results in the short-term. This is a great example of a ‘deliberate-prudent’ scenario in the context of the Technical Debt Quadrant, but more on this later.

Advantages of No-Code Solutions

The appeal of both Low-Code and No-Code is pretty obvious. By removing code organizations can remove those that write it — developers — because they are expensive, in short supply, and fundamentally don’t produce things quickly.

The benefits of these two forms of applications in their best forms can be pretty substantial:

Resources: Human Capital is becoming increasingly scarce — and therefore expensive. This can stop a lot of ambitious projects dead in their tracks. Low-Code and No-Code tools minimize the amount of specialized technical skills needed to get an application of the ground, which means things can get done more quickly and at a lower cost.
Low R isk/H igh ROI: Security processes, data integrations, and cross-platform support are all built into Low-Code and No-Code tools, meaning less risk and more time to focus on your business goals.
Moving to Production: Similarly, for both types of tools a single click is all it takes to send or deploy a model or application you built to production.

Looking at these advantages, it is no wonder that both Low-Code and No-Code have been taking industries by storm recently. While being distinctly different in terms of users, they serve the same goal — that is to say, faster, safer and cheaper deployment. Given these similarities, both terms will be grouped together under the ‘No-Code’ term for the rest of this article unless otherwise specified.

List of No-Code Data Tools

So far, we have covered the applications of No-Code in a very general way, but for the rest of this article, I would like to focus on data modeling. No-Code tools are prevalent in software development, but have also, in particular, started to take hold in this space, and some applications even claim to be an alternative to SQL and other querying languages (crazy, right?!). My reasons for focusing on this are two-fold:

Firstly, there is a lot of existing analysis around this problem for software development and very little for data modeling. Secondly, this is also the area in which I have the most expertise.

Now let’s take a look at some of the vendors that provide No-Code solutions in this space. These in no way constitute a complete list and are, for the most part, not exclusively built for data modeling.

1. No-Code Data Modeling in Power BI

Power BI was created by Microsoft and aims to provide interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities to all types of business users. Their simple interface is meant to allow end-users to create their own reports and dashboards through a number of features, including data mapping, transformation, and visualization through dashboards. Power BI does support some R coding capabilities for visualization, but when it comes to data modeling, it is a true No-Code tool.

2. Alteryx as a Low-Code Alternative

Alteryx is meant to make advanced analytics accessible to any data worker. To achieve this, it offers several data analytics solutions. Alteryx specializes in self-service analytics with an intuitive UI. Their offerings can be used as Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) Tools within their own framework. Alteryx allows data workers to organize their data pipelines through their custom features and SQL code blocks. As such, they are easily identified as a Low-Code solution.

3. Is Tableau a No-Code Data Modeling Solution?

Tableau is a visual analytics platform and a direct competitor to Power BI. They were recently acquired by Salesforce which is now hoping to ‘transform the way we use data to solve problems—empowering people and organizations to make the most of their data.’ It is also a pretty obvious No-Code platform that is supposed to appeal to all types of end-users. As of now, it offers fewer tools for data modeling than Power BI, but that is likely to change in the future.

4. Looker is a No-Code Alternative to SQL

Looker is a business intelligence software and big data analytics platform that promises to help you explore, analyze, and share real-time business analytics easily. Very much in line with Tableau and Power BI, it aims to make non-technical end-users proficient in a variety of data tasks such as transformation, modeling, and visualization.

You might be wondering why I am including so many BI/Visualization platforms when talking about potential alternatives to SQL. After all, these tools are only set up to address an organization’s reporting needs, which constitute only one of the use cases for data queries and SQL. This is certainly a valid point, so allow me to clarify my reasoning a bit more.

While it is true that reporting is only one of many potential uses for SQL, it is nevertheless an extremely important one. There is a good reason why there are so many No-Code BI tools in the market—to address heightening demand from enterprises around the world — and therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at their almost inevitable shortcomings.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

23 avril 2021/par Service comm.

Conseils pour bien choisir votre (nouveau) système ERP

Actualités, ERP & Applications, SAP

Il existe des centaines de systèmes ERP parmi lesquels choisir, avec un large panel de fonctionnalités, de points forts, de points faibles, d’applicabilité et de tarifs. Si cela peut sembler intimidant, un processus méthodique de comparaison des ERP peut guider votre équipe vers la bonne décision dans un délai raisonnable.

La méthodologie décrite ici, éprouvée, peut vous aider à trouver la solution qui répond le mieux aux besoins de votre entreprise. Elle peut sembler basique mais les entreprises qui se mettent en quête d’un fournisseur ERP sans suivre ces étapes logiques sont souvent confrontées à des retards, coûts supplémentaires et à une personnalisation inutile. Au contraire, les entreprises qui appliquent les meilleures pratiques gagnent généralement en fluidité dans le processus de sélection et dans les implémentations subséquentes. Elles peuvent ainsi profiter plus rapidement des avantages d’un système ERP moderne et être plus compétitives à l’ère du numérique.

Une méthodologie en 5 étapes pour évaluer les systèmes ERP

Une fois la décision prise de remplacer un ancien système ERP, la première étape consiste à monter une équipe pour piloter le processus de comparaison, de sélection et d’implémentation du logiciel ERP. L’équipe commence son travail par l’élaboration d’un plan initial, qui est plutôt à ce stade une stratégie générale.

Le processus de sélection d’un fournisseur ERP se déroule en cinq étapes :

Définition des besoins en matière d’ERP
Appel d’offres
Evaluation de pré-sélection
Comparaison des ERP et évaluation détaillée
Décision finale et contrat

Diagramme illustrant les 5 principales étapes du processus d'évaluation d'un ERP

1. Définition des besoins en matière d’ERP

Vous devrez transmettre des informations concernant votre entreprise et ses besoins à vos fournisseurs ERP potentiels afin qu’ils puissent configurer, packager et tarifer correctement la solution appropriée. Commencez par identifier les principales ressources en ligne, telles que les démonstrations de produits et les blogs, qui racontent l’histoire de votre entreprise.

Décrivez votre entreprise et ses processus de manière générale plutôt que de créer de longues listes de besoins et processus spécifiques. Informez les fournisseurs de la taille de votre entreprise, de son volume d’activité et de transactions, de la complexité des différents processus et de toute caractéristique ou facteur spécifique. Concentrez-vous sur les critères et processus qui donnent à votre entreprise son avantage concurrentiel. Ce sont ces éléments qui différencieront les systèmes et qui vous permettront d’examiner de près la façon dont chacun peut être configuré pour les prendre en charge.

Indiquez les éléments que vous aimez dans votre système actuel. En effet, vous voudrez que votre nouveau système les gère au moins aussi bien. De même, indiquez les choses que votre système actuel ne fait pas (ou mal). Signalez les applications, fonctions ou modifications personnalisées qui doivent être prises en charge par des fonctionnalités standard ou une personnalisation simple du nouveau système (et non une modification). En d’autres termes, concentrez-vous sur les éléments qui sont uniques à votre entreprise et partez du principe que les éléments de base se feront d’eux-mêmes (vous vérifierez cette hypothèse lors des démonstrations et des évaluations finales).

« Concentrez-vous sur les éléments qui sont uniques à votre entreprise et partez du principe que les éléments de base se feront d’eux-mêmes. »

Principaux points à retenir et conseils

Ne vous fiez pas aux listes de contrôle / vérification des ERP. Ces check-lists, une vieille pratique courante dans le secteur, ne permettent pas de départager les solutions et ne vous aident pas vraiment à faire un bon choix. La majorité des éléments figurant sur ces listes sont des fonctions et caractéristiques proposées par tous les systèmes, au moins dans une certaine mesure. Et les fournisseurs en compétition sont susceptibles de cocher « oui » dans l’interprétation la plus large de la fonctionnalité.

Choisissez les bonnes personnes pour votre équipe projet. La spécification des besoins est une tâche difficile. Elle nécessite des collaborateurs engagés, qui connaissent bien l’entreprise et qui ont du temps à consacrer au projet. Refreinez la tentation de constituer une équipe de personnes enthousiastes mais inexpérimentées.

Assurez-vous que votre appel d’offres contient les informations suivantes :

Présentation de votre entreprise et de ses processus
Ce que votre système actuel fait bien
Ce qu’il ne fait pas aussi bien que vous le souhaiteriez
Ce que vous voulez que le nouveau système fasse d’autre (classé par ordre d’importance)

2. Appel d’offres ERP

L’étape suivante consiste à envoyer un appel d’offres à un groupe sélectionné de fournisseurs. Leur nombre peut varier, mais n’oubliez pas que vous devrez procéder à un examen détaillé pour chaque réponse. L’expérience a montré que plus le nombre de fournisseurs est réduit, plus les informations fournies sont détaillées et meilleures sont les réponses. Il est donc préférable d’identifier une douzaine (ou moins) des meilleurs candidats pour votre short list.

« L’expérience a montré que plus le nombre de fournisseurs est réduit, plus les informations fournies sont détaillées et meilleures sont les réponses. »

En réponse, les fournisseurs d’ERP doivent proposer un système qui offre les fonctionnalités et les caractéristiques requises pour répondre aux besoins que vous avez identifiés. Les propositions contiendront également des informations sur leurs sociétés, leurs produits, leur expérience dans le domaine, les ressources qu’ils consacreront à l’implémentation, ainsi que d’autres informations destinées à gagner votre confiance.

Alors comment identifier la douzaine (ou moins) de candidats sur lesquels concentrer vos efforts de sélection ? Comment réduire la liste des centaines de fournisseurs d’ERP pour n’en retenir que quelques-uns ? Commencez par consulter les publications spécialisées qui présentent des « success stories ERP » (gardez à l’esprit que ces publications ne vous parleront probablement pas des difficultés rencontrées ou des échecs, mettez donc ces informations en perspective). Utilisez vos contacts – par exemple associations et groupes d’entreprises – pour identifier d’autres professionnels qui ont pu avoir une expérience récente de la sélection et de l’implémentation d’un ERP.

Il existe également de nombreux annuaires en ligne, outils de sélection et services de sélection de systèmes qui peuvent vous aider à identifier les logiciels qui possèdent les fonctionnalités dont vous avez besoin et/ou les fournisseurs qui ont de l’expérience dans votre secteur.

Pour obtenir des conseils personnalisés, vous pouvez passer un contrat avec la branche conseil de votre cabinet comptable ou trouver une ressource conseil indépendante dans votre région et/ou dans votre secteur d’activité. Veillez à vérifier leurs antécédents et leurs affiliations pour vous assurer qu’ils sont réellement indépendants et pas associés à un ou plusieurs fournisseurs de systèmes ERP.

Vous pouvez choisir d’inclure certains fournisseurs de systèmes ERP qui présentent un intérêt pour d’autres raisons. Peut-être qu’un ou plusieurs de vos clients les plus importants utilisent un système ERP et vous ont encouragé à utiliser le même système. Ou peut-être que votre société fait partie d’une grande entreprise ou d’un groupe qui a opté pour une plateforme ERP donnée. Demandez une proposition au fournisseur recommandé puis évaluez toutes les propositions de manière équitable et impartiale avant de prendre votre décision.

Principaux points à retenir et conseils

Veillez à ce que toutes les parties prenantes définissent leurs besoins. Votre appel d’offres doit inclure les contributions de toutes les parties prenantes. Dans le cas contraire, vous risquez de choisir un système ERP qui ne sert que certaines fonctions de votre entreprise, obligeant les autres départements à investir dans des systèmes autonomes. Évaluez les systèmes qui fonctionnent pour l’ensemble de l’entreprise et utilisez le calendrier de déploiement pour livrer les modules prioritaires en premier.

Faites attention au classement des besoins. Souvent, l’appel d’offres est divisé en domaines fonctionnels avec des sections à remplir par chaque service. Chaque département – qu’il s’agisse des RH ou des opérations – fait généralement un excellent travail de classement des fonctionnalités pour son unité opérationnelle, mais ses priorités peuvent ne pas correspondre aux objectifs globaux de l’entreprise. C’est à votre équipe projet d’ajuster les priorités dans une perspective plus large. Quelles sont les fonctionnalités vitales, importantes ou simplement souhaitables ?

Vérifiez la disponibilité effective des fonctionnalités. Les sociétés de logiciels ont d’excellents départements marketing ; certaines vendent des produits qui n’ont pas été entièrement développés et testés. Faites des recherches sur les fonctionnalités « à venir dans une prochaine version » par rapport à celles qui sont utilisées dans les références actuelles. Il est tout à fait envisageable de prendre en compte les fonctionnalités en cours de développement – mais ne pariez pas tout votre projet sur des fonctionnalités à venir si elles sont essentielles.

Évaluez vos processus. Les processus intégrés dans les ERP packagés sont considérés comme étant conformes aux « meilleures pratiques ». Les consultants et les experts de l’implémentation d’ERP vous diront qu’il est presque toujours préférable de modifier la procédure pour l’adapter au logiciel (en tenant compte de la dimension « meilleure pratique ») que de modifier le logiciel pour l’adapter à la procédure existante. Toutefois, c’est à vous de prendre cette décision. Mais n’oubliez pas que les nouveaux processus peuvent être à l’origine des progrès et des avantages que vous tirez d’un nouveau système. N’oubliez pas non plus que tous les logiciels ERP modernes sont personnalisables. Vous disposez donc d’une grande souplesse pour modifier l’affichage, les procédures, les caractéristiques des données et leur traitement, et bien d’autres choses encore – sans modifier le code.

Tenez compte du retour sur investissement de votre ERP. La plupart des entreprises exigent une analyse du retour sur investissement (ROI) comme condition préalable à l’autorisation et au financement de tout projet majeur. Comme son nom l’indique, il s’agit de la somme des coûts liés à l’achat et au déploiement du nouveau système, plus la différence des coûts d’exploitation par rapport à ceux du système existant. Le ROI tient également compte des avantages qui s’ajoutent aux économies directes, notamment l’amélioration du rendement, du service à la clientèle et de la productivité au travail.

3. Evaluation de pré-sélection

L’évaluation se déroule en deux phases. Au cours de la première phase, toutes les propositions sont évaluées pour voir dans quelle mesure elles correspondent à votre environnement et aux exigences décrites dans votre appel d’offres (cette phase ne comprend pas la comparaison des fournisseurs, qui relève de la deuxième phase d’évaluation).

L’objectif à ce stade est d’écarter les offres qui ne remplissent pas vos critères et de classer celles qui semblent convenir. Il en résulte une short list des meilleures propositions. Celles-ci, et seulement celles-ci, seront soumises à une évaluation détaillée jusqu’à la sélection finale.

Si vous devez examiner de nombreuses réponses, les détails auront tendance à se brouiller et il vous sera difficile de vous souvenir des réponses particulièrement solides (ou celles insuffisantes) et dans quels domaines. Une échelle de notation numérique peut vous aider à ne pas perdre le fil et à documenter votre processus de décision. Voici quelques conseils supplémentaires pour vous aider lors de cette étape de documentation :

Mettez en place un formulaire ou une feuille de calcul agencée de manière à ce que les évaluateurs puissent noter chaque proposition en fonction des principaux critères que vous avez spécifiés. Demandez à chaque examinateur d’attribuer une note à chaque critère d’évaluation (l’échelle peut être de un à dix, de un à cinq, de un à trois, ou tout autre niveau de granularité que vous jugez approprié). Vous pouvez avoir autant ou aussi peu d’examinateurs que vous le souhaitez.
Laissez de la place pour des notes et des questions, pour le suivi. Vous pouvez demander des éclaircissements à ce stade ou attendre l’évaluation détaillée des propositions présélectionnées. Attribuez un coefficient à chaque critère en fonction de l’importance de la fonction ou du processus pour votre entreprise.
Multipliez la note donnée par chaque évaluateur par le coefficient de chaque critère et calculez une note globale pour chaque fournisseur. Le plus souvent, plusieurs d’entre eux se classeront en haut de l’échelle, plusieurs autres un peu plus loin dans le classement, et quelques-uns ne seront pas retenus. Vous devriez maintenant avoir votre short list de finalistes – idéalement trois à cinq candidats – pour l’évaluation finale.
Il y a de bonnes chances que vous puissiez identifier les meilleurs candidats, mais si ce n’est pas aussi clair, revenez aux évaluations individuelles et discutez-en avec l’équipe.

Principaux points à retenir et conseils

Traitez chaque fournisseur potentiel de la même manière. N’acceptez pas de démonstrations en direct, de réunions spéciales en présentiel ou de visites sur place, à moins que vous ne soyez prêt à offrir la même possibilité à tous les fournisseurs. Il est important de maintenir des règles du jeu équitables. Une technique courante consiste à organiser une « conférence des candidats » dans vos locaux pour faire visiter les lieux à tous les fournisseurs potentiels et répondre à leurs questions (devant tout le monde).

N’oubliez pas qu’une proposition est un document de vente. Les réponses contiendront les informations que vous avez demandées et bien plus. Partez du principe que toutes les affirmations sont véridiques ; vous pourrez vérifier la plupart, sinon toutes, au cours du processus d’évaluation. Mais sachez que les auteurs de la proposition répondront à vos questions de manière à présenter leurs produits sous le jour le plus favorable.

Recherchez les valeurs aberrantes. Accordez une attention particulière aux critères pour lesquels les notes varient considérablement. Si un évaluateur donne une note très élevée à une proposition pour un critère et qu’un autre évaluateur lui donne une note très basse, cela vaut la peine d’en discuter. Interrogez les deux évaluateurs de manière constructive pour savoir ce que chacun pensait. Il est probable que l’un ou l’autre ait remarqué quelque chose que les autres n’ont pas vu ou n’ont pas considéré comme important. À la suite de ces discussions, vous souhaiterez peut-être ajuster les notes pour un critère spécifique, ce qui pourrait modifier le classement général.

4. Comparaison des ERP et évaluation détaillée

Une fois que vous avez identifié trois à cinq finalistes, il est temps de vous mettre au travail pour vérifier leurs affirmations et valider leurs références.

Comment commencer votre évaluation

Prenez contact avec chacun des fournisseurs potentiels et annoncez-leur la bonne nouvelle : ils ont été retenus dans la short list ! (Il n’y a pas de mal à leur dire combien il y a d’autres finalistes et même à leur faire savoir avec quelles entreprises ils sont en concurrence, si vous êtes à l’aise pour le faire).
Dans certains cas, vous pouvez également leur demander d’affiner leurs propositions.
Discutez avec les utilisateurs actuels du système (ou rendez-leur visite), de préférence ceux de votre industrie (ou d’un marché comparable) et de la taille de votre entreprise.
Obtenez des références si les éditeurs ne les ont pas déjà fournies (les fournisseurs peuvent hésiter à fournir des références pour des raisons de concurrence. Mais vous devez insister. Rassurez-les sur le fait que vous signerez et respecterez les accords de non-divulgation).

Comment gérer les démonstrations

C’est également le moment d’inviter les candidats présélectionnés à effectuer des démonstrations détaillées de leurs systèmes – mais vous devez contrôler ces démonstrations.

Fournissez à chaque candidat un script ou une liste des fonctionnalités que vous souhaitez voir bien avant la démonstration prévue. Tous les fournisseurs potentiels devraient recevoir la même liste.
Permettez-leur de montrer les fonctions spéciales qu’ils souhaitent mettre en avant uniquement après vous avoir montré les fonctions et les processus décrits dans l’appel d’offres.
Assurez-vous que votre script ou votre liste inclut les exigences spécifiques identifiées à l’étape 1. Les systèmes ERP traitent les processus courants de la même manière ; ce sont les exceptions qui posent problème (par exemple, la possibilité d’entrer des commandes pour des articles qui ne sont pas en stock, de vendre des articles dans des packages, des kits ou des ensembles, ou encore la prise en charge d’un processus spécifique de rapprochement des factures).
Pendant la démonstration, vous voudrez voir comment le logiciel peut être configuré et adapté pour prendre en charge vos processus et procédures uniques. Cela dit, restez ouvert d’esprit dans la mesure où vous pourriez découvrir certaines meilleures pratiques dans ces fonctions standard qui amélioreraient les opérations et les résultats de votre entreprise.
Dans l’idéal, le démonstrateur sera en mesure de montrer le fonctionnement du système en utilisant vos propres données. Ce n’est pas toujours possible, mais lorsque c’est le cas, cela vous donnera une bien meilleure idée de la façon dont le système fonctionnerait dans votre environnement.

Principaux points à retenir et conseils

Ne vous laissez pas éblouir par les démonstrations. Les professionnels qui font la démonstration des logiciels sont généralement très expérimentés et ont une forte personnalité. Leur objectif est de vous convaincre et de vendre leur logiciel. Ne vous laissez pas distraire par la personne ou le discours de vente, aussi captivant soit-il. Concentrez-vous sur le fond.

Tirez le meilleur parti des visites de référence. Sélectionnez avec soin les visites que vous souhaitez faire. Passez un bref appel à votre interlocuteur pour vous assurer qu’il a bien déployé le logiciel et qu’il a obtenu les avantages promis. Convenez de ce qu’il vous montrera et des personnes que vous rencontrerez au cours de la visite. Une fois sur place, jugez soigneusement si leur succès est reproductible dans votre environnement. Posez également les questions difficiles : « Quelles ont été vos plus grandes surprises ? » et « Si c’était à refaire, que feriez-vous différemment ? ».

Continuez à poser des questions. Encouragez votre équipe à poser des questions, ne serait-ce que pour clarifier les réponses. Faites-le lors de l’examen de l’appel d’offres et pendant les démonstrations ; cela réduira considérablement les risques de mauvaises surprises. C’est le moment de découvrir les réponses qui ne vous plaisent pas – avant que les négociations ne commencent. N’oubliez pas non plus que vous obtenez vos réponses gratuitement à ce stade, alors apprenez-en le plus possible. Lorsque vous commencerez à implémenter le produit, il se peut que vous deviez attendre une assistance ou même payer des frais.

5. Décision finale et contrat

Une fois les évaluations détaillées terminées, vous constaterez probablement que deux ou trois fournisseurs répondent à vos critères. Sélectionnez celui qui, selon vous, répond le mieux à vos besoins actuels et futurs, mais n’écartez pas les autres. Faites-leur plutôt savoir qu’ils vous conviennent mais qu’ils ne sont pas votre premier choix ; cela laisse la porte ouverte au cas où vos négociations avec le meilleur candidat ne se déroulent pas comme prévu.

Vous pouvez maintenant commencer à négocier les détails du contrat avec le meilleur candidat. La plupart des entreprises savent comment cette étape est « censée fonctionner ». Mais comme pour toutes les autres étapes du processus d’évaluation et de sélection d’un ERP, vous risquez d’avoir des surprises.

Le pouvoir est de votre côté dans les négociations. Cependant, il est préférable de considérer le fournisseur comme un futur partenaire, et non comme un adversaire dans les négociations. Visez un accord équitable qui incite les deux parties à déployer le système de manière efficace et à en assurer le bon fonctionnement.

Chaque aspect de l’implémentation du système et du maintien de l’assistance doit être discuté et documenté – en détaillant le prix, la personne responsable et, dans certains cas, le temps nécessaire. Le contrat comporte de nombreux aspects, dont notamment (mais pas exclusivement) :

L’achat initial, la location ou la licence du matériel et des logiciels.
L’implémentation du matériel et des logiciels (en précisant ce qu’englobe le mot ‘ »implémentation »).
Coût et calendrier de la simulation d’implémentation (avant ou après le paiement du logiciel).
Coûts de formation initiale et continue
Maintenance continue du matériel et des logiciels (et à quel niveau).
Conversion des données et intégration à d’autres systèmes
Mise en réseau et sécurité
Personnalisations (initiales et avec les versions futures)

Principaux points à retenir et conseils

N’annoncez pas votre sélection finale avant les négociations. À la fin de la phase d’évaluation détaillée, l’équipe peut vouloir déclarer un « gagnant ». Cependant, informer le candidat principal qu’il est « l’élu » n’est pas dans l’intérêt de votre entreprise. Il n’est pas rare d’avoir des surprises au cours du processus de négociation et vous devrez peut-être revoir votre choix.

Planifiez à long terme. Lors du démarrage, veillez à examiner attentivement les coûts à long terme afin que vos estimations soient correctes et que vous ne faussiez pas les chiffres du retour sur investissement de l’ERP. Certains fournisseurs offrent davantage de services gratuits pendant une période plus longue et d’autres peuvent confier leur assistance à long terme à une entreprise qui facture à l’appel. Certains fournisseurs fixent un plafond pour l’augmentation des tarifs annuels de maintenance ou d’abonnement, mais beaucoup ne le font pas. D’autres vendent un abonnement SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) à bas prix, qu’ils augmentent considérablement après quelques années. Certains fournisseurs proposent une mise à jour annuelle, mais ne fournissent aucune assistance réelle lors du processus de mise à jour. Posez des questions et obtenez des réponses écrites pour être sûr de bien appréhender vos coûts à long terme.

L’importance de l’équipe projet

Le facteur le plus important pour le succès du processus d’évaluation du système ERP est l’équipe projet. Cette équipe doit être constituée très tôt et doit être le moteur de l’élaboration, de la diffusion et de l’évaluation de l’appel d’offres et de la sélection du nouveau système ERP.

D’après notre expérience, lorsque les équipes sont au milieu d’une investigation et d’une évaluation détaillées, elles prennent souvent des raccourcis. Mais si votre équipe projet suit ces cinq étapes et prête attention aux enseignements tirés, elle sera en mesure de trouver la solution optimale pour répondre aux exigences de votre entreprise, maintenant et pour l’avenir.

Publié en anglais sur insights.sap.com

The post Conseils pour bien choisir votre (nouveau) système ERP appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

20 avril 2021/par Service comm.

25 Exciting New Tools For Designers, April 2021

Actualités, Actualités

Rather than spring cleaning, do some spring “shopping” for tools that will make your design life easier. Packed with free options this month, this list is crammed full of tools and elements that you can use in your work every day.

Here’s what new for designers this month:

April’s Top Picks

Charts.css

Charts.css makes creating beautiful online charts that much easier. It’s a modern CSS framework that uses CSS utility classes to style HTML elements as charts. It’s accessible, customizable, responsive, and open source. There’s a quick start option and available source code to work with.

Haikei SVG Generator

Haikei is a web app that helps you generate SVG shapes, backgrounds, and patterns in all types of shapes to use in projects. Everything can be exported into the tools you are already using for easy integration, and every element is customizable. The tool is free right now – no credit card needed – and you get access to 15 generators and can export in SVG and PNG format. A premium option is on the way, and you can sign up to get notified for access.

Fluid Space Calculator

Fluid Space Calculator helps you create a related space system and export the CSS to implement it. The calculator allows you to add space value pairs and multipliers and see the impact on the screen before snagging the related code. It’s great for determining how things will look in different viewports and for creating custom space pairs.

Night Eye WordPress Plugin

Night Eye WordPress Plugin helps you create a dark mode option for your WordPress website with ease. It’s completely customizable, schedulable, and one of those things that users are starting to expect. The plugin has free and paid versions – the only difference is a link to credit the developer.

3 Productivity Boosters

Macro

Macro is a supercharged checklist app for recurring processes. It’s designed to help teams document, assign, track, and automate for maximum efficiency. Now is the time to test this tool because it is free in public beta.

Writex.io

Writex.io is a free writing app that uses AI and smart features to help you write more efficiently. It can check readability as you write, make suggestions, check spelling, and allows you to work with versioning. All the settings are customizable, so you can get help and suggestions when you want them and avoid things you don’t want.

Taloflow

Taloflow, which is in beta, is a tool that helps you find the top cloud and dev tools for your use case. This is designed to be a time-saving solution to finding the right infrastructure and API products for your work.

8 Kits with Illustrations and User Interface Elements

Skribbl

Skribbl is a collection of free, hand-drawn illustrations in a light and fun style. The black and white sketches are friendly, and the collection keeps growing. Plus, the illustrators are allowing them to be used free for any use.

Mobile Chat Kit

Mobile Chat Kit is a free starter kit for building apps in Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD. It includes more than 50 screen options with mapped-out flows for a quick-start project.

Flowchart.fun

Flowchart.fun is exactly what the name implies. The app allows you to type, create nodes, and link elements to develop simple flow charts quickly. Then you can alter shape and size with drag and drop. Export it for use as an SVG, JPG, or PNG.

Shuffle

Shuffle is a marketplace packed with UI libraries to help you with a variety of digital projects. There are more than 1,500 pre-built components to choose from with professional designs. This premium tool comes with a monthly subscription or lifetime license.

Cryptocurrency 3D Pack

Cryptocurrency 3D Pack is a set of icons with fun colors in three-dimensional shapes that you can use to represent different crypto elements. The pack includes 55 #D icons in PNG and BLEND formats.

Stratum UI Kit for Figma

Stratum UI Kit for Figma includes nine free screens that are ready to use. Options include API documentation, Kanban, document, data dashboard, ecommerce product list, ecommerce product options, payments spreadsheet, cloud storage, and newsfeed.

Conic.css

Conic.css is a collection of simple gradients that you can browse and then click to copy the code into your CSS to use them in projects. It’s quick and easy while using trendy color options.

Artify Illustrations

Artify Illustrations is a Figma plugin that allows you to access more than 5,000 SVG and PNG illustrations within the app. It’s got a built-in search feature, everything is high-resolution, and the huge library includes various styles.

2 Tutorials

A Complete Guide to Accessible Front-End Components

A Complete Guide to Accessible Front-End Components is an amazingly comprehensive guide from Smashing Magazine with everything you need to know about accessible components. From tabs to tables to toggles to tooltips, you’ll find it all here and learn how to use it the right way.

Grid CheatSheet in 2021

Grid CheatSheet in 2021 is a useful guide of everything you can do with CSS Grid. Plus, it has plenty of fun illustrations and an accompanying video.

8 Fresh and Fun Fonts

Athina

Athina is a modern display serif with beautiful connector strokes. The free version is a demo, and there’s a full family that you can buy.

Brique

Brique is a free (personal and commercial) display font with a wide stance and uppercase character set. The letters have a lot of personality and a readable configuration.

Code Next

Code Next is a great geometric sans serif with a full family of styles. Including two variable fonts. It’s highly readable and would work for almost any application.

Inter

Inter is a simple and functional sense serif family with everything from extra light to heavy weights. The extra character personality makes this a fun and functional font option.

Nothing Clean

Nothing Clean is a fun grunge-type option. It’s an all uppercase character set with alternates.

Playout

Playout is a fun, hand-drawn style typeface with interesting glyphs and alternate characters. The most fun feature might be the pawprint characters in the demo set.

Rockford Sans

Rockford Sans is a geometric typeface with subtly rounded edges. It has eight weights and italics. With its large x-height and round features, it’s legible and friendly. It’s suited to cover a wide variety of tasks from editorial to brand design and advertising.

SpaceType

SpaceType is a fun and funky typeface in regular and expanded styles. The stretched letterforms make interesting alternates for display purposes.

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Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

19 avril 2021/par Service comm.

15 Useful Tools & Resources Worth Checking Out

Actualités, Actualités

As a web designer, you face plenty of challenges, both good and bad. One of the bad ones is to suddenly find out that you’re either in danger of missing a client’s deadline or will be unable to meet it at all.

A missed deadline could be due to something beyond your control and no fault of your own. There are measures you can take to avoid what you do have control over. Such as not having the right design tool or design resources to do a task that has to be done.

An ounce of prevention can definitely be worth a pound of cure in this case. Before starting a project, make sure the tool or tools you will be using will be up to the task.

The 15 design tools presented here are the tops in their respective categories. You should be better able to handle whatever is thrown at you.

1. Be Theme

Its more than 200,000 sales to date have certainly established the BeTheme multipurpose WordPress theme as an all-time favorite among web designers.

In truth, “multipurpose” doesn’t do BeTheme justice. Users might argue that “all-purpose” would be a more accurate description.

Be’s 40+ core features give web designers plenty to work with in terms of page-building tools, design aids, design options, and special effects.

Most notably:

The Muffin Builder, which when used with other core features, makes building a website quick, easy, and coding-free;
The Admin Panel/Shortcode Generator combo gives all the flexibility designers need;
BeTheme’s 600+ customizable pre-built websites could well be the star of the show. They cover 30 business sectors and all the popular website types, they are customizable, responsive, and feature cool UX features, and they can get any project off to a rapid start.

Click on the banner to learn more about Be’s other core features.

2. Timezy Booking Software

Timezy will help you create a booking environment that works best for your business by allowing clients and customers to book your services as easily as possible. You can then integrate Timezy into your website to streamline and speed up your booking operation.

Clients and customers can book appointments online 24/7;
They can receive real-time email notifications and reminders;
Timezy can be integrated with Zoom;
You can reorder steps on the booking form to fit your needs;
Timezy can be used to manage employee assignments and schedules, vacations, and special days.

If you lack a website of your own, Timezy will provide you with a modern web page you can customize to fit your brand for clients to book appointments at any time.

3. wpDataTables

wpDataTables is the top-selling and most powerful WordPress table and chart-building plugin on the market. There are other good ones, but their table and chart-building capabilities quickly become inadequate as you go down the list of what wpDataTables can do that most others cannot.

wpDataTables key features and capabilities:

The ability to create interactive and responsive tables and charts;
The ability to create frontend editable and easily maintainable tables and charts;
The ability to rapidly process massive amounts of data that come in various formats and from various sources;
The ability to build tables and charts using real-time data.

You can also brighten up or improve a table or chart’s readability by highlighting or color-coding key information.

Click on the banner to find out more about what this plugin can do for you.

4. LayerSlider

LayerSlider is not for sliders only. This multipurpose WordPress tool can also be used to create eye-catching animations and engaging content.

Add a little spice to a stale website;
Create popups with stunning effects to interact better with visitors;
Avoid coding, since LayerSlider is drag and drop.

This popular design tool has been assisting web designers for nearly a decade and serves millions of active monthly users.

5. Amelia Booking Plugin

Amelia is a user-friendly WordPress booking plugin you can use to manage your appointments and events on a single platform.

Clients can instantly book, change, or cancel appointments online 24/7;
Employees and customers can manage meetings, appointments, and events from their own dashboards;
Amelia can be integrated with Zoom to conduct training or consultation sessions;
Amelia can also create packages of services with discounts and validity periods.

Amelia can service multiple business locations.

6. Uncode – Creative Multiuse & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

With its more than 80.000 sales to date, Uncode has become one of ThemeForest’s all-time best sellers.

You can create custom layouts and designs with Uncode’s Dynamic Content feature and use them as templates for category pages;
Uncode features the WooCommerce Product Builder, custom Checkout, Cart, My Account, Quick-View, etc.

Uncode has a comprehensive library of tutorial videos and a showcase of user-created websites that is well worth visiting.

7. Total WordPress Theme

Created with perfection in mind, Total is nonetheless an extremely user-friendly WordPress theme.

This drag and drop website building tool’s extreme flexibility allows users to create any type or style of website;
The WPBakery page builder is accompanied by an assortment of custom modules;
Total is RTL and Translation-ready and easily integrates with WooCommerce;
Total is developer-friendly.

Click on the banner to learn more.

8. Dr. Link Check

Dr. Link Check saves you the inconvenience of having to periodically conduct a manual search of your site for broken links.

Dr. Link Check inspects for:

Broken links and improper URL formatting;
Blacklisted malicious content links;
Websites that do not contain any valuable content, including ad-only sites.

Dr. Link Check publishes downloadable daily, weekly, or monthly reports.

9. Mobirise Website Builder

Mobirise is not only a top tool for creating fast, responsive, user-friendly websites. It also has the advantages of being offline. Mobirise is also free.

Factors that contribute to Mobirise’s excellent performance include:

Google Amp and Bootstrap 4 frameworks;
Professionally-crafted website templates, popups, sliders, and eCommerce features;
Mobirise is all drag and drop.

Click on the banner to download your very own copy.

10. 8b Website Builder

When a website builder is fast, free, responsive, user friendly, and Google-friendly as well, it is certainly worthy of consideration.

The 8b website builder:

Allows you to create websites at home or on the go on any device;
Features templates and website sections designed to get projects off to a rapid start;
It gives your site a Google ranking with a couple of clicks;
It can be hosted wherever you want.

Download your copy now.

11. WHATFONTIS

WhatFontIs, with its database of more than 700K commercial and free fonts and font-finding AI functionality enables you to identify fonts from images you upload.

This top-of-the-line font-finding tool:

Identifies an uploaded font 90% of the time;
Gives answers in seconds;
Identifies cursive fonts (the letters in the image must be separated);
Displays 60+ similar fonts for each uploaded image.

12. Litho – The Multipurpose HTML5 Template

Litho is a responsive multipurpose Bootstrap 4 HTML5 template that gives startups, design agencies, and other businesses an ideal website-building starting point.

Litho’s features include:

Cool selections of ready-made home pages, inner pages, and template blocks;
Page styles for portfolio, shop, and blogging sites;
Sliders, banners, forms, and other creative design elements.

Litho offers 5-star professional support.

13. XStore – The Most Customizable WooCommerce Theme Ever

XStore may be the best tool anyone could have at their fingertips when looking for a fast and easy way to create a high-performance eCommerce website – for only $39.

XStore’s key features include:

100+ customizable ready-to-go shops;
$500+ worth of premium WordPress plugins;
A Single Product builder and a Header builder.

14. Goodiewebsite

GOODIE’s web development platform assists clients who are eager to get a professionally-coded website quickly up and running.

GOODIE’s services focus on:

Web designers seeking a development partner;
Startups looking for ways to test their ideas and concepts;
Small businesses seeking an online presence or improvement of an existing one.

GOODIE’s specialties include 1-10 page, WordPress, and eCommerce websites.

15. Heroic Inbox

There are several excellent reasons for letting Heroic Inbox manage your business’s departmental email inboxes.

They include:

Encouraging efficient staff collaboration on email assignments and responses;
Helping staff members accomplish and maintain Inbox Zero status;
Tracking key team performance metrics.

Two key Heroic Inbox features are its smart workflows and a fast and friendly UI.

Every web designer owns a toolbox of tips and tricks they use in their website building projects. Even when a toolbox is superbly stocked, it is always challenging to keep it up to date. Doing so requires maintaining a knowledge of the latest and greatest web design resources and tools—some of which you may need to meet ever-changing industry demands.

This article features the top tools & resources for designers and agencies for 2021. Choosing one or more of them could not only help you stay on top of your game but could even make your day.

Source

The post 15 Useful Tools & Resources Worth Checking Out first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

31 mars 2021/par Service comm.

The Most Comprehensive Grammarly Review Ever

Actualités, Actualités

Who is Grammarly for? Can a grammar checking tool like Grammarly replace a human editor and proofreader? Is the Grammarly checker worth it? Are the Grammarly free checks sufficient for me, or should I upgrade to Grammarly Premium? Should I install Grammarly on Chrome? How effective is Grammarly for Word? Is downloading the Grammarly desktop app worth it? You have questions…all of which we’re going to answer.

I have been using Grammarly regularly for proofreading my documents and emails since 2015 and have witnessed its evolution as a product firsthand. After checking over three million words during this period, I can confidently say that Grammarly has come a long way. Raising $200M in total funding at a valuation of $1B+ so far, and with more than a million downloads per month, Grammarly is now a top-1000 website by traffic worldwide.

I write a lot, so Grammarly has been my go-to writing assistant for correcting passages and enhancing my writing. I first tried the Free version, and in May 2020, I upgraded to the Premium version, finally! Grammarly Premium is a great tool that takes care of most of your writing, proofreading, and plagiarism-checking needs for intensive work.

In this article, I’ll explain what Grammarly is, its features, what it does (functions of all versions and products), the pros and cons of using Grammarly, my rating of Grammarly, who should use the Free version, and who should use the Premium version and the difference between the two. I’ll also explain how to use Grammarly properly. I’ll then compare it with other popular tools and suggest which ones suit your needs. In the end, I’ll leave you with my final assessment and FAQs.

What is Grammarly?

Grammarly is an online digital writing assistant that checks for a range of English grammar and spelling mistakes. It also helps enhance the writing through its excellent context-based clarity suggestions (Premium version).

Grammarly is a writing aid that checks not only for spelling slights, grammar rules, and clarity issues but also identifies the tone of the writing to provide relevant instructions through its Error Cards. It also has a plagiarism checking tool, which is available with the Premium version.

Grammarly employs AI (Artificial Intelligence) and NLP (Natural Language Processing) to check the content for all possible syntactic and semantic issues. Although it has an extensive database, it is still incomparable to human proofreading and professional editing, especially when it comes to understanding the context of the writing.

Grammarly Overview For Beginners – Compatible, Accessible

Grammarly is astonishingly easy to use, primarily due to its compatibility via the Browser Extension/Add-on, from which you can use it on millions of websites. Moreover, its other product forms, i.e., the Online Editor (Web App), Desktop Application, MS Word/Outlook Add-in, and the Grammarly Keyboard for iOS/Android, make it accessible everywhere.

How Does Grammarly Work?

It automatically detects issues in the content in the Desktop App, the Online Editor, and the browser (even in Google Docs, which is in Beta at this time) via its add-on. Yet, for the MS Word Add-in, you have to click the Grammarly button to activate the app. Grammarly explains all detected issues via an Error Card that contains relevant information for each item. You can implement it by clicking the suggestion, ‘Ignore’ the problem, or ‘Add to Dictionary’ (in case of a spelling issue). You can also provide feedback (if you think that the suggestion is wrong). The Free version checks only for spelling and critical grammar mistakes. The Premium version also reveals a ton of advanced ‘Clarity Issues.’

The Tone Detector helps you estimate the entire document’s tone, which can be valuable for many writers who target a particular audience, e.g., formal writing for the business audience.

Limitations of Grammarly (For Beginners)

Grammarly, overall, excels at almost all the things it does, and therefore the free version is recommended for everyone. Grammarly provides a generic readability score. Advanced grammar checks like the clarity checker, the plagiarism checker, and many other features are not available for the free version.

Grammarly is dominant amongst its competition, but it doesn’t solve all English language problems. It is useful at picking syntactic mistakes but still misses significant semantic errors, which can be a problem for people who are not particularly adept at English — as they won’t notice these slips.

The Good	The Bad	& The Ugly
Ease of use – simple, intuitive, and efficient interface	English language only	Tad expensive (notably the monthly subscription at $29.95 per month)
Context-based grammar checking	Not 100% accurate (primarily misses linguistic bloopers)	No free trial for the premium version.
Fantastic grammar checker	Business account starts at three users and charges per number of users (can be a bit expensive for small businesses)	Only one account (license) for the premium version. You can use it on up to five devices.
Convenient tone detector	Insufficient as a standalone tool (doesn’t do everything)	Incomplete sentences can sometimes go undetected
The insightful error cards are instructional and productive (they help you to improve your writing)	Unlike ProWritingAid and Hemmingway Editor, it doesn’t provide much information about the whole passage, Grammarly’s scoring is generic right now	No substitutes are suggested in many cases. Example: synonyms, rephrasing suggestions for the intricate text, etc.
Integrates well with MS Word, Outlook, WordPress, emails, social media, and millions of websites	The free version is limited to fundamental grammar and spelling mistakes	Cannot determine contextually incorrect sentences (it cannot perceive the meaning of the written document)
Knowledge-base	The premium version identifies repeated words but sometimes doesn’t provide a suitable alternative to use	Short on vocabulary suggestions (not as competent as the free thesaurus writing tool)
The Grammarly keyboard is available for Android & iOS for FREE	Free version shows the number of advanced clarity mistakes but doesn’t tell you what those mistakes are and where they are	The formatting tool is rudimentary. You have to write in another text editor and then import it to the Grammarly Editor to format your writing accurately
Personal dictionary	Google Docs is not supported yet (in Beta).	Restricted to English only, and it also doesn’t translate other languages as Ginger does.
The adjust goal option allows you to customize Grammarly’s feedback.	It can miss simple semantic issues, which sometimes can be caught by text editors like Google Docs and MS Word.
Formatting remains the same if you import/upload a document, but it changes if you copy/paste.	Plagiarism Detector is not available for the free version.
Weekly writing stats (sent to user email) can help you identify your problem areas	The browser extension can malfunction, i.e., opening and closing the Grammarly editor within a website (sometimes) duplicates the content
Option to download the detailed performance statistics as a PDF	Sometimes Grammarly doesn’t catch all mistakes on the first try. You have to refresh or scroll to let it run again and see if it finds new issues
Grammarly blog teaches English grammar rules, writing techniques, and more
Context-based checker is more accurate than competitors
Provides rephrasing suggestions for complicated sentences
The premium version excels at catching inconsistencies

Who Should Use Grammarly?

Free:

Everyone

Despite being limited, Grammarly (free version) is a phenomenal tool. Therefore, I would heartily recommend it to everyone. It’s free, and it’s convenient.

The free version should be everyone’s go-to tool for proofreading social media statuses, tweets, and comments. It is also crucial for editing all sorts of short-form writing, such as emails. Professional writers can also use the free version to catch typos and basic grammar mistakes.

Premium:

Professional Writers
Authors
Bloggers
Students
Businesses that require extensive writing
Marketers/Advertisers
Content Creators
Editors and Proofreaders

Apart from all the necessary features offered in the Grammarly free version, Grammarly Premium provides several other valuable elements such as an advanced clarity checker and a robust plagiarism checker. All these help you enhance your writing effectively.

Grammarly Premium is a helpful tool for people who are already adept at English as it still requires plenty of work on catching semantic errors. Businesses and Professional writers who do intensive writing should give the Premium version a go. From writing, editing, and proofreading to plagiarism checking, it is almost an All-in-One solution (though not a substitute for a human proofreader – at least yet).

Who Shouldn’t Use Grammarly?

Free:

Students
English Learners

People, especially students who cannot learn from their mistakes, should avoid relying on Grammarly as it can hinder their learning process.

Granted, Instructional Error Cards and Weekly Writing Stats (emailed to the user) can pinpoint your weak points, but educating yourself from there on is entirely up to you.

Just like ‘Auto-correct’ hinders people’s ability to learn proper spellings, Grammarly can do that for learning grammar rules.

Premium:

Amateur Writers
Infrequent Users

Grammarly is an excellent tool, but it still makes slips, which can be misleading for amateurs who don’t have a solid grip on the English language. Therefore, if you are not proficient enough in English, you should only subscribe to Grammarly Premium if you can remember that it is not a replacement for a human teacher or a proofreader. Or, you can continue using the Free version, which is competent enough to check fundamental grammar and spelling oversights.

Furthermore, businesses and professionals who are infrequent users can stick to the Free version if they feel they will not be making the most of the Premium version.

Grammarly vs. Basic Text Editors

A comparison with basic text editors will illustrate Grammarly’s true potential:

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is the most popular and feature-packed text editor. It includes a basic grammar and spelling checker that catches typos in real-time. However, MS Word is very limited in its grammar checking capabilities.

I’ve written many articles using Microsoft Word, which were considered error-free by the text editor. However, when I put the same documents in Grammarly’s Editor, there’d always be some critical mistakes caught by the Free version and some clarity or consistency mistakes pointed out by the Premium version.

Grammarly finds inconsistent punctuation that MS Word missed.

Google Docs

Google Docs is another mighty text editor, which is free to use. It also has numerous features, including spelling and grammar checking. Google Docs’ grammar and spelling check software only flag issues with an alternative in its database; otherwise, it ignores them. It auto-corrects the obvious spelling blunders. It can also pick missing determiners (articles) better than Microsoft Word. However, once again, when compared to Grammarly, Google Docs falls far behind in exposing slip-ups.

Grammarly in Google Docs.

Google Docs performs a little better than MS Word when it comes to punctuation, yet it is incomparable to Grammarly, which is in Beta for Google Docs.

How to Write Better With Grammarly

Grammarly proofreads content written in English (American, British, Australian, and Canadian) and gives detailed performance statistics. Weekly Writing Statistics are emailed to the user account, and you can download a complete PDF that extensively illustrates your performance.

From scoring to pointing out all mistakes and amendments, Grammarly doles out a comprehensive document that you can use to improve your weak areas. Grammarly can function as your teacher in this regard if you learn from these mistakes and try to improve your performance, especially in areas pointed out by the software.

Try Grammarly for yourself.

All Grammarly Products

Grammarly is available in the following product versions:

Grammarly for Business (3 or more users)
Grammarly @edu (for Educational Organizations/Institutes)
Grammarly Premium
Grammarly Free

All these versions are usable in the following product forms:

1. Online Editor

Grammarly’s web application acts as an online editor to upload a document, copy/paste content, or write directly. It has a 4MB size-limit and a 100,000 characters-limit (about 60 pages). When you upload a file, a pop-up tells you that your document formatting will restore when downloaded.

Grammarly’s interface for the online version and the desktop app is identical, and it is outstandingly intuitive and accessible. A dedicated writing assistant panel on the right side contains valuable information and choosable options. It also lists and categorizes all the errors found.

A bar at the bottom contains a few formatting options and some length-related info about the passage.

2. Browser Extension

Typing in any online text editor activates the ’Grammar and Spelling Checker’ when the extension is on. It underlines (in red) all the issues in real-time. Hovering over the problem pops up an Error Card that contains corrections and more information about the mistake.

You can use the Grammarly icon at the bottom-right of online text editors to activate or deactivate the tool. This option is beneficial because sometimes you want to check your content but don’t want distractions while writing. I recommend turning on the extension after you have completed your draft and now want to begin the editing phase. You can also open the Grammarly editor within a website for added convenience.

The Grammarly add-on is available on all popular browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge Chromium, etc. And it is compatible with millions of websites and the web versions of many desktop applications, including WordPress, emails, social media, work platforms, and many more. Grammarly for Google Docs is in Beta right now. The Grammarly extension also gives you the option to ’Show Definitions and Synonyms via Double Click,’ which works like a dictionary within any website.

The Grammarly icon within your text editors tells you the total number of issues found on the Grammarly pop-up. However, you have to scroll through the document and find those problems yourself. It is not as efficient as the online Editor. The extension only shows the critical issues inside your online editor. It gives you the option to open the online Grammarly Editor to see the errors pointed out by the Premium version. The browser extension also works slower for lengthy content. It is convenient but only for short-form writing.

3. Desktop Application

The desktop application, like all other products, is online only and doesn’t work offline. An internet connection is necessary as Grammarly uses its database to process the document. The desktop app is identical to the online editor.

4. Microsoft Word/Outlook Add-in

You can integrate Grammarly into Microsoft Word and Outlook through their Add-in. Unlike other Grammarly product forms, the MS Word Add-in activates when clicked — otherwise, it stays dormant. When enabled, a right panel appears with suggestions, Error Cards, and statistics, just like the Online Editor and the Desktop App. Grammarly has no character limit for the MS Word Add-in.

5. The Grammarly Keyboard App

You can download Grammarly Keyboard for both Android and iOS through their respective stores. Now available for iPad as well, it is easy to use as it works like the auto-correct feature available in the smart devices. It gives suggestions when Grammarly encounters any grammar or spelling lapses.

Grammarly Pricing Plans

Grammarly is a tad expensive when purchased as a monthly subscription, which costs $29.95 per month. The quarterly ($59.95) and annual ($139.95) subscriptions offer better value for money. Through its weekly newsletter and other channels, Grammarly presents discount offers to its free users from time to time, which you can avail yourself of to get an even cheaper deal for the Grammarly Premium subscription.

Grammarly Pricing Plans for Premium Version – Monthly, Quarterly, Annual

Free

Grammarly Free is limited but still adequate for many as it gives you critical grammar and spelling checking capabilities. It is usable in all product forms.

Premium

Grammarly Premium, along with Spelling and Grammar Checker, offers an advanced Clarity Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and experimental Tone Detector. All Grammarly features are available for the Premium version.

Business

Grammarly for Business offers all the Premium features for three or more users. It also gives you an admin panel to customize your experience. You can add a personal dictionary, among other things, which will be accessible to all users. Grammarly for Business includes:

Individual accounts
Admin panel
Centralized billing
Team usage stats
Priority email support
Single sign-on

Grammarly Business Pricing Example

Grammarly @Edu

Grammarly @Edu is also an available option, of which educational institutes and organizations can avail themselves. It caters to a large number of accounts, as it targets students.

Grammarly Features

UI

Grammarly has hands-down the best interface among all the writing assistants. It is incredibly intuitive and user-friendly.

Compatibility

Grammarly integrates with millions of sites and text editors. It is also compatible with MS Word (both for Windows and Mac) and Outlook via an Add-in. It is still in Beta for Google Docs.

Grammarly is incompatible with some desktop apps, but you can use Grammarly in their web versions.

Supported Document Formats

For products where you can upload text documents, the supported document formats are: .docx, .rtf, .odt, .txt.

Languages

Grammarly is restricted to English only, including American, British, Canadian, and Australian English. Grammarly doesn’t support foreign language phrases, translation, etc., at the moment.

Grammarly Functions

Spelling Checker

Grammarly checks for spelling mistakes based on context. It is excellent at differentiating between commonly misspelled words. It can also tell Common and Proper Nouns apart (in most cases).

Grammar Checker

All Grammarly products on all plans help you check for grammatical errors and syntax issues in the provided document in real-time.

Plagiarism Checker

The Plagiarism Checker is not available for the free version. When I inquired about plagiarism in hard copy, patch plagiarism, and ProQuest, here’s what Grammarly Support had to say:

“We teamed up with ProQuest to provide even more accurate plagiarism checks: currently, Grammarly’s plagiarism checker searches major proprietary databases along with over 16 billion web pages. You can check ProQuest libraries here http://www.proquest.com/libraries/academic/databases/.

Please note that Grammarly catches verbatim plagiarism and slightly modified text that can be classified as unoriginal. As comprehensive as our algorithms are, significantly rephrased text oftentimes can’t be traced back to its source.”

Note: I checked this document with both; Grammarly Plagiarism Checker is not as robust as Copyscape, but it’s catching up fast.

Tone Detector

It detects a variety of tones based on the context of the given passage.

Grammarly Tone Detector

Clarity Checker

Grammarly checks for advanced issues for the Premium, Education, and Business versions. The Free version checks for limited conciseness; the rest is available on the Premium version only.

Grammarly Support

Grammarly offers support via its extensive, well-written, and user-oriented knowledge-base. Grammarly also provides support via email (24/7 for the Business version) if you can’t find a relevant answer in the knowledge-base.

Moreover, the Grammarly Blog teaches, among other useful things, the proper use of grammar in English.

Grammarly Blog

The Grammarly Blog teaches the rules of English grammar and gives tips on writing. It also specializes in teaching about the most common blunders, which are also a strong suit of the application.

Detailed Performance Statistics

You can view the ‘Statistics Summary Card’ by clicking the ‘See Performance’ button. Or you can download the detailed statistics via the Download PDF Report option. These statistics are in-depth and contain exhaustive information regarding the whole document, including your score, errors, reading time, speaking time, and more.

Grammarly Performance Stats

Adjust Goals

You can customize Grammarly’s feedback according to your needs. This option gives you an adjustable chart where you can set your preferences according to your needs. It helps with the document’s tone, the difficulty level depending on the target audience, and more.

Grammarly Adjust Goals

Get Expert Writing Help

Grammarly gives you the option to get your work checked by experts. It’s a particularly convenient option for those who cannot or do not want to rely on their proofreading skills better than finding and hiring someone yourself.

Grammarly Expert Writing Help

Is Grammarly Really Free to Use?

Grammarly has a free version with a powerful-enough spelling and grammar checker. It is available in all product forms – Online Editor, Browser Extension, Desktop Application, and Word Add-in. The Free version checks for up to 150 grammar rules.

It is superb at uncovering elementary grammar fallacies due to its context-based checking, powered by its robust AI and NLP software.

The Free version doesn’t show clarity issues. It reveals the number of clarity issues in the content, but it doesn’t tell you what and where those issues are.

Is Grammarly Premium Worth The Cost?

The Premium version shows advanced grammar issues such as clarity, conciseness, dangling modifiers, squinting modifiers, monotonous sentences, intricate text, split infinitives, and many more. It checks for over 400 rules of English grammar, far more than the Free version. Grammarly Premium also has a plagiarism checker within the interface, which is mighty-enough for online plagiarism checking.

Grammar Checks

When you run some text through any version and product form of the app, Grammarly will process the document for the following:

Sensitivity
Determiners
Voice
Conciseness
Conjunctions
References
Nouns
Fluency
Word order
Spelling
Conventions
Syntax
Variety
Formality
Pronouns
Prepositions
Verbs
Numerals
Punctuation
Modifiers
Consistency
Correctness
Clarity
Delivery
Readability
Engagement

However, Grammarly will not point out many of these mistakes for the Free version. It will only tell you the number of such problems in your content.

Grammarly Checklist

Grammarly Free in Action:

Let’s see some examples.

Verbs

Grammarly detecting the wrong form of a verb.

Context-Based Checking

Grammarly Context-Based Checking

Capitalized Words

Grammarly detects unknown words, and if you capitalize them, it considers them proper nouns. It can also miss the incorrect use of a term if you spell it correctly and put it within commas.

Grammarly while dealing with proper nouns, capitalization, and unknown words

Phrases vs. Sentences

Grammarly can differentiate between phrases and sentences. Therefore, you can write headings and subheadings in the form of expression.

Grammarly differentiating between sentences and phrases

Multiple Mistakes in One Sentence

Grammarly catching multiple mistakes in one sentence

Determiners

Grammarly pointing out the wrong determiner-article use

Incomplete Sentences

The Grammarly algorithm is not good enough yet at recognizing incomplete sentences. Grammarly is far from perfect, as evident from these examples. Google Docs suggested ’was because’ for the last line instead of ’is because,’ but Grammarly missed that.

Grammarly can miss incomplete sentences.

Grammarly is only making one suggestion that the article use may be incorrect here in the below image.

Cannot detect incomplete sentences (sometimes) if other issues exist

Grammarly suggests you change the first line in the below image because it believes it’s caught a sentence fragment. You accept the suggestion, and it becomes the second line, which is, again, a sentence fragment, according to Grammarly.

Grammarly ‘sentence fragment’ suggestions

Sometimes, the suggestions are right as well.

Grammarly recognizes sentence fragments in some cases

Punctuation

Comma

Grammarly is a sniffing-hound-on-steroids when it comes to commas — both missing and wrong ones. It pinpoints the exact location where you should place a comma in a sentence. Whether it is between clauses, a list of items, or something else, Grammarly knows if you have missed a comma or placed a wrong one. It also exposes the famous “Oxford Comma.” Grammarly now points out any inconsistent punctuation (curly vs. straight commas, for example) in your articles.

Grammarly pointing out the missing Oxford Comma

Hyphen

First, it points out the missing hyphen. Once you rectify the error, it points out the wrong capitalization. Grammarly works in steps for multiple errors in a sentence.

Grammarly catching a missing hyphen.

Semi-colon & Colon

Grammarly catches the incorrect use of the semi-colon & colon.

Period

Grammarly points out a missing period

Missing Apostrophes

Grammarly can catch missing apostrophes

Grammarly Premium in Action:

Apart from correctness that checks for critical grammar mistakes, the Premium version has options to check for clarity, delivery, and engagement, along with many more correctness checks.

Clarity

Clarity check is not available for the Free version; all other versions of the app have it. It catches linguistic issues that a fundamental grammar checker cannot reveal. These include dangling modifiers, split infinitives, misuse of passive voice, intricate text, inappropriate colloquialisms, etc.

Text Inconsistencies

Grammarly Premium can detect inconsistencies and gives you the option to select one form if a word has been used inconsistently in the same document. It can also detect inconsistent punctuation, for example, curly and straight commas.

Grammarly Premium identifies text inconsistencies.

Rephrasing Suggestions

For unclear or complicated sentences where there might be an issue of a dangling modifier or something else, Grammarly suggests an alternative way to write the same sentence.

Grammarly Premium giving rephrasing suggestions

Wordy Sentences

Grammarly can also note if you have used many unnecessary words in a sentence. If there are more words and less content in a sentence, then it suggests you rephrase it. This option can help you make your content non-fluff.

Passive Voice Misuse

Grammarly is so-so at deciphering when the passive voice is right to use and when you should avoid it in a sentence. My experience is that, more often than not, it will recommend that you rewrite a sentence if it detects passive voice use anywhere.

Grammarly – always – detects passive voice use.

Intricate Text

Grammarly exposes unclear and hard-to-follow sentences in the written piece. Sometimes it gives alternatives (if one is available in its database), but usually, it only tells you to rephrase the sentence to make it more understandable.

Monotonous Sentences

If you continuously write similar sentences in a passage, Grammarly will detect these sentences’ monotonous nature and advise you to rephrase them.

Grammarly detecting a monotonous passage

Sound Confident Suggestion

Grammarly suggesting alternatives to sound confident

Politeness Suggestion

Sound more diplomatic with Grammarly!

Delivery

Grammarly Premium catches informal sentence structure like a preposition at the end of a sentence. Some other informalities include inappropriate colloquialisms, split infinitives, etc.

Grammarly points out informality.

Engagement

Grammarly Premium points out overused words and suggests using an alternative here, but sometimes it doesn’t provide suitable options like the Thesaurus Writing Tool.

Grammarly suggesting engaging alternatives

Most of the time, the suggestions are worth considering, though.

Grammarly is suggesting more engaging alternatives

Grammarly Free vs. Grammarly Premium

The Grammarly Free version catches all critical issues as it checks for 150 Grammar Rules to determine errors in a document. The Premium version looks for over 400 Grammar Rules and detects far more problems than the Free version.

I wrote an article and checked it through both the Free and the Premium versions. Here is the difference between how the stats of both look like before making the suggested changes:

Original Stats (before checking with Grammarly Free)

Original Stats (before checking with Grammarly Premium)

After editing another article and making the suggested changes, here’s how the Free version stats look like:

Grammarly Free Stats

After editing the same article using the Premium version, the stats look like the following:

Grammarly Premium Stats

Grammarly vs. Human Proofreader

Grammarly is a marvelous tool, but it is incomparable to human proofreading. Grammarly cannot detect the sense and meaning of the written text. It catches blunders using English language and grammar rules as efficiently as a machine can. However, some mistakes can slip through Grammarly if there is no syntax error, but just a linguistic or semantic misuse.

Grammarly didn’t suggest anything for a nonsense sentence

Grammarly is not an alternative to human proofreading

Pros of using Grammarly in 2021

Context-Based Grammar Checker

Grammarly is evolving with time and has gotten pretty accurate in identifying common mistakes. Its extensive database helps Grammarly recognize errors based on the context.

Real-Time Grammar and Spelling Checker

Grammarly scours the whole text for errors when you provide it a written document. Thankfully, it also checks for blunders as you write or edit your text in any product form – Chrome Extension, Online Editor, Word Add-in, Desktop App (Windows and Mac), and the Grammarly Keyboard for iOS and Android.

Accessible Interface and Robust Editing

With Grammarly, you get a highly-efficient software, which is not only a phenomenal editor but also incredibly easy to use.

Customizations – Set Goals and Personal Dictionary

You can customize your Set Goals and your Personal Dictionary with the ‘Add to Dictionary’ feature in the Error Cards. This element is convenient for proper nouns and personal vocabulary (even words from a different language).

Tone Detector

Based on your Goals, Grammarly, through its tone detector emojis, cautions you of your tone – the vocabulary and phrasing you are using. You can adjust goals keeping in mind your target audience and choose the most appropriate words to use.

Clarity Checker

Apart from basic grammatical mistakes, Grammarly helps you fix linguistic oversights. It tracks down a wide range of slip-ups, including dangling modifiers, intricate text, split infinitives, passive voice misuse, redundancies, and many other slips. In essence, the Clarity Checker elevates the level of your writing.

Plagiarism Checker

It is a bonus in all senses of the word. It might not be essential to the app, but it certainly assists users. Grammarly plagiarism checker is not the absolute best in the industry, but it does the job swiftly. It checks plagiarism across 16 billion pages on the internet and ProQuest’s database.

Error Cards

Error cards are compact, simple, and instructional. They serve their purpose elegantly. Any shortcoming that you experience in Grammarly’s usage so far is due to its still-not-so-extensive database. Error cards also fall short when it comes to giving suggestions due to this very reason. Otherwise, they are usually handy.

Free Version

You can proofread, remove typos, and analyze the content quickly via the app’s free version. You can also use it before buying the Grammarly Premium subscription.

The Grammarly Keyboard

Supported on both Android and iOS, The Grammarly Keyboard App functions like the auto-correct feature. It gives real-time suggestions about the proper use of grammar and spellings in the written text. Grammarly is now available for iPad and supports hardware keyboards as well.

Grammarly Support

Grammarly provides customer support via its extensive database and email. By now, almost all popular queries have a database entry. Furthermore, the Grammarly Blog assists with learning English grammar rules.

Knowledge-base

Grammarly has amassed a plethora of information in its database, which helps run the application smoothly. This knowledge allows the app to identify problems based on the context. You will find accurate solutions for most common issues, thanks to its extensive database growing with time.

Grammarly Blog

The Grammarly Blog focuses on teaching people English grammar rules and common mistakes in their writing. There are dedicated articles for each item; separate sections cover different punctuation like Commas, Hyphens, etc.

Writing Stats

The weekly writing stats sent via email and the downloadable detailed performance stats PDF give you comprehensive feedback on your writing. This feature helps you pinpoint your mistakes better than anything else available in the market.

Insights

Grammarly Insights are the real-time feedback that the application provides regarding your writing. It bases it on your Set Goals. You can customize this feedback according to your needs, which can be amazingly valuable if you cover different audiences. Insights also include the reading time and speaking time, which is particularly useful to Vloggers, YouTubers, etc., who can quickly determine how much time their script will take on the video.

Reliability

Grammarly is the most popular and best-in-class digital writing assistant tool, growing exponentially both in features and number of users, indicating that it will provide the best services to its customer base.

Grammarly is notably popular among professional writers, bloggers, publishers, marketers, and businesses, showing that Grammarly has a demanding clientele to please. Therefore, their standards are supposed to be (and they are) higher than the competition.

Product Investment

Having more than a million downloads per month and being a top-1000 website by traffic globally, Grammarly has raised $200M in total funding at a valuation of $1B+ so far, which speaks volumes of its success, investors’ trust in the product, and its projections.

Cons of using Grammarly in 2021

Free Version is Limited

The Free version identifies only critical grammatical errors, typos, and limited ‘conciseness.’ Moreover, it only lists the number of total advanced clarity issues in the text with an ‘Ad’ that keeps asking you to buy a Premium subscription for these issues. It also doesn’t support plagiarism checking.

Premium Version is a Tad Expensive

The biggest drawback of Grammarly is that it is a tad expensive for many. Grammarly Premium can be a costly subscription at $30 per month if you don’t have much writing to proofread.

Semantic Issues

Grammarly is good at picking fundamental grammar mistakes – even context-based grammar issues, but it still cannot understand what you have written. If you write a nonsense sentence with no grammatical fault, Grammarly will consider it a correct sentence. It can also happen with incomplete sentences.

Insufficient

Grammarly is a mighty grammar checker but lags behind when it comes to rating the whole document. Its scoring is based on mistakes and length of words and sentences only, unlike some other tools that provide a more comprehensive text scoring. Grammarly is also not an alternative to human proofreading as it can’t understand the meaning of the written content.

Limited Vocabulary

Grammarly has a limited vocabulary in its database so far, which leads to inaccurate synonym suggestions at times. The Thesaurus Writing Tool, another free digital writing assistant, has an extensive vocabulary due to its vast Thesaurus.com database and offers far more vocabulary suggestions and alternatives.

Alternatives Not Provided for Every Issue

For many suggestions like Intricate Text, Split Infinitives, etc., Grammarly doesn’t provide an alternative. You have to rephrase the sentence yourself. Grammarly only points out bloopers sometimes, which can be a little frustrating for amateur writers.

Not Supported Everywhere

Grammarly is not supported everywhere yet. The most prominent places are Google Docs (in Beta at the moment – which doesn’t include Grammarly Premium corrections and the Pop-up Grammarly Editor) and desktop applications. However, it works on the web versions of these desktop applications via its browser extension.

Insufficient Formatting Options in the Editor

Grammarly Editor is imperfect for writing purposes. It is incomparable to authoritative text editors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs. So you have to write your text in another editor and import it in Grammarly for proofreading if you want proper formatting of your document.

Irritating and Aggressive Advertising

Grammarly wants you to upgrade all the time. When using the Free version, you’ll get constant notifications to upgrade to Premium to check for issues that are not available in the Free version.

Only One Language Supported

Grammarly doesn’t offer support for languages other than English. There is also no option available for translation like Ginger.

Only One Account for Premium

The Grammarly Premium account gives you only one license for use on up to five devices. It is an obstacle for people with multiple accounts for different purposes. Grammarly Premium is already expensive, so buying two licenses is not feasible for the majority.

Top 5 Free Grammarly Alternatives 2021

Grammarly stands out as the most prominent and well-received tool when you compare all popular digital writing assistants. It has been endorsed and appreciated by countless publishers and writers. Grammarly has become a top product in the digital writing industry with its robust marketing and significant NLP and AI improvements.

Grammarly Inc. has secured enough funding as of late 2019 to improve its natural language learning database to enhance its AI-based application further. Keeping all this in mind, it is evident that Grammarly is dominating the market. Still, there are a few products that come close for one reason or the other. Here are the top 5 Grammarly alternatives in 2021:

ProWritingAid

Pros: Long-Form Writing (Books, etc.), Writing Insights, Separate Checking of Issues, MS Word Add-in, Efficient Browser Extension

Cons: Short-Form Writing, Fewer Errors Detected, Not for Amateurs, No Free Version

ProWritingAid is considered a worthy alternative to Grammarly (notably for long-form writing – books, etc.), but it falls far behind Grammarly for short-form writing.

ProWritingAid is accurate, feature-rich, and integrates well with apps and websites, but the interface is not as user-friendly as Grammarly’s. It also reveals fewer issues as Grammarly has advanced context-based grammar checking capabilities.

ProWritingAid offers better pricing and value for money (Premium is $60 per year, $70 with Plagiarism Checker), and it also has a Lifetime Plan. However, it doesn’t have a free plan like Grammarly. The Online Editor has no word limit, unlike Grammarly’s 60-pages or 100,000 character limit.

ProWritingAid provides many options/tabs to check for each issue separately, handy for longer articles or books. However, it is not as user-friendly for short writing pieces.

It also presents a better analysis of the whole document and provides a lot of information regarding your writing, which you can use to improve your writing style.

ProWritingAid has an easy-to-scroll-through panel at the right-side that contains corrections and suggestions, which you can use to see all issues without scrolling the entire document.

ProWritingAid has the following tabs to check for each issue separately:

Grammar
Spelling
Overused
Readability
Cliche
Sticky
Diction
All Repeats
Echoes
Thesaurus
Dialogue
Consistency
Pacing
Pronouns
Alliterations
Homonyms
Transition
Acronym

Ginger

Pros: Keeps Formatting, 60 Languages & Translation, Built-in Dictionary, Browser Extension, Free Version

Cons: Fewer Issues Detected, Fewer Insights, Interface is just OK, no MS Word plugin

Ginger is also a notable competitor of Grammarly. It has a free version, and it integrates well with different websites. However, it doesn’t have an MS Word plugin. It is also not as accessible due to its clunky interface.

Ginger is not as powerful as Grammarly, but it is still a decent alternative. Ginger’s annual subscription is $89.88 (cheaper than Grammarly’s).

Ginger keeps the original formatting of the text document, which is pleasant. It also has a Translator within the app that supports 60 languages. Also, there’s a built-in dictionary, which you can use to find alternatives to overused words.

WhiteSmoke

Pros: Cheap, Integrates with Platforms, Gimmicks – i.e., Templates, etc.

Cons: Interface is awful, Fewer Mistakes Caught

WhiteSmoke is cheap to use, but it has a horrible interface. It integrates with many platforms, but it is incomparable to an advanced tool like Grammarly. It has some useful gimmicks like templates for specific writing purposes, i.e., Sorry, Thank You, Condolences, etc.

The annual subscription of WhiteSmoke costs $79.99. However, it is not advanced enough to be considered better value for money.

Thesaurus Writing Tool

Pros: Free, Vocabulary suggestions on hovering the cursor over a word, Blog

Cons: Editor is dreadful to use, Ruins Formatting

Thesaurus Writing Tool is a free-to-use online text editor powered by Thesaurus.com. You can copy/paste or write directly in the Editor. It doesn’t retain the original formatting, which makes it a bit uncomfortable to use. Just click on the ‘Check for Grammar’ button, and it will work its magic. It also has a dedicated blog that teaches you how to write better.

The Thesaurus Writing Tool is unimpressive when checking grammatical errors, but it is highly potent in vocabulary suggestions. Its interface is simple but insufficient. Hover over any word, and it will show you a vocabulary card with a lot of synonyms. Clicking on any suggestion will replace the original term with the selected item. The replaced word gets a yellow underline. An undo option is available if you are not happy with your word selection.

Hemingway App

Pros: Free, Information about Text, Text Readability Score

Cons: Ruins Formatting, Fewer Mistakes Caught

Hemingway App is yet another incredible tool that is quite capable and straight-forward. It is convenient for analyzing your document as it scores the content based on its readability. It has a free web app and a paid desktop app. You can copy/paste into the online Editor or write directly, but it messes up the formatting.

Hemingway App identifies the use of passive voice, adverbs, and difficulty of reading. It recognizes long sentences – even the easy-to-read ones – as complex, which affects the document’s grade.

Final Verdict: Grammarly Review 2021

Using advanced NLP and AI, Grammarly free is hands-down the best and must-have writing, editing, and proofreading tool for everyone that checks for spelling and critical grammar mistakes. Easy to use, compatible with most popular products, and trusted by millions of users, Grammarly instantly elevates your writing everywhere; statuses, comments, emails, documents, tweets, you name it! Trying out the free version before upgrading to a premium plan also makes sense.

Grammarly Premium is a more robust and advanced tool with numerous amazing features like an advanced clarity checker, tone detector, and plagiarism checker. The Premium version is unparalleled when complemented with knowledge of the English language and some other tools. However, it is insufficient as a standalone tool because it can make slips (especially semantic ones).

I highly recommend Grammarly Premium to professionals (freelancers, writers, bloggers, authors, publishers, and editors) who require intensive use of the app. Similarly, Grammarly for Business is a good investment if your team does intensive writing. Non-intensive users should stick to the Free version as it suffices.

Aa one user said, “Grammarly Premium helps you sound like a pro, or at least helps you avoid looking like a fool!”

FAQs About Grammarly

Is Grammarly a good app?

Yes, Grammarly stands out among its competitors as it has advanced context-based grammar checking capabilities, thanks to its up-to-date natural language processing and artificial intelligence.

Is Grammarly Premium worth it?

Yes, for the most part. However, it is a tad expensive for many. It is suitable for professionals and businesses that have lots of writing needs. It identifies several advanced grammar issues that the Free version only counts. However, it is not a substitute for human proofreading as it can make linguistic mistakes that a human can easily find.

Is Grammarly supported in Google Docs?

It is in Beta at the moment. So, it should be available shortly. At the moment, it is imperfect as it only specifies the number of errors. You have to scroll the document to find those mistakes (underlined red) on your own. It has already started working in the comments, though.

Is Grammarly supported in Quora?

Yes, Grammarly works with Quora.

Is Grammarly supported in Medium?

Yes, Grammarly is available for Medium.

Can Grammarly replace a professional editor?

No, it can’t. Grammarly can make simple semantic mistakes because it doesn’t know the meaning of the written text, so it cannot replace a professional editor. It is only suitable for catching syntactic issues.

Is Grammarly supported in Microsoft Word?

Yes, a plugin is available. It is an efficient plugin as it gives similar options in Microsoft Word as it does in its online editor and desktop application. Grammarly is now available for both Windows and macOS versions of MS Word.

Is Grammarly available for Mac?

Yes, Grammarly’s desktop app is available for macOS. Grammarly is available for both Windows and macOS. Grammarly for MS Word is also available for Mac now.

Is Grammarly supported in WordPress?

Yes, it is supported. You can use Grammarly in WordPress via its browser extension.

Is Grammarly supported in Gmail?

Yes, it is. You can edit your email using the Grammarly browser extension within Gmail. However, it is not the best solution for lengthy content. For extended text, the Online Editor, the Desktop App, and the MS Word Add-in are better options.

Does Grammarly work offline?

No, it doesn’t. Grammarly uses its database to run the app, so an internet connection is necessary.

Does Grammarly help you improve your writing?

Yes. If you read the weekly stats, detailed performance stats PDF, and Grammarly Blog for grammar rules and writing tips and try to implement them in your writing, Grammarly can significantly improve your writing capabilities.

Is Grammarly Safe and Secure?

Yes, Grammarly is quite safe, as Google verifies it. Moreover, Grammarly is as secure as any other site that uses SSL/TLS encryption. It is also reliable for plagiarism checking as it doesn’t violate your privacy.

What is the Grammarly cancellation refund policy?

You can get your money back if you are not satisfied with the Premium subscription by contacting Grammarly support within ten days.

Is Grammarly a reliable checker?

Yes, Grammarly outperforms its competitors. Yet, it cannot surpass a professional human editor.

Is Grammarly available for Android/iOS?

Yes, it is. You can use the Grammarly Keyboard to edit your text for grammar and spelling errors by installing the Grammarly Keyboard app from the Play Store or the App Store. It works like the auto-correct feature. Grammarly is now available on iPad as well.

Check out Grammarly for yourself.

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29 mars 2021/par Service comm.

ITF Launches Free Font Service Fontshare

Actualités, Actualités

ITF (the Indian Type Foundry) has launched a brand new font service to bring beautiful typography to every business for free.

The service, named Fontshare, will be familiar to anyone who has used Google Fonts. Browse the fonts list, pick out the styles you want, and add them to your site.

It’s a well-designed site; there are several options for browsing, list or grid views, editable sample text, and even a type layout tester.

There are two embedding options available, you can link to Fontshare’s API, or you can download the fonts in OTF, WOFF, and WOFF2 formats for self-hosting — considering the so-far untested nature of Fontshare’s CDN, the latter option is safer until the service has run for a few months.

All of the fonts on Fontshare are owned by ITF, and there are no plans to extend the service to cover other foundries. As a result, there are far fewer fonts available than on Google Fonts. However, the fonts’ quality is consistently excellent and higher than many proffered by Google’s service. ITF is so confident in its craftsmanship that letters are presented with their outlines so you can examine their curves.

Fontshare currently boasts 50 typefaces, and moving forward, ITF has pledged to make 25% of its Latin typefaces available for free. It’s an extremely generous gesture and one that can only benefit the design community.

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25 mars 2021/par Service comm.