A complete collection of essential operation and promotion tools for new media professionals!

Here's the thing, I'm a person who loves using tools at work, and I firmly believe that tools (and laziness) can change the world.

Last week, someone asked me what kind of convenient software is available because the process of organizing recordings is too tiring. I came up with Noted , which can play at variable speeds.

Later, someone asked how to extract text from a PDF document in image format, and I sent her an OCR software package .

In view of this, this issue is a recommendation post for a less popular, niche tool that you may use from time to time and may improve your work efficiency.

Contents of this issue:

Gallery and Image Maker

Video download plugins for Miaopai , Ins, etc.

Data visualization and infographics

Data Query

Recording

OCR recognition

Some small programs that you don't know about until you use them

Gallery and Image Maker

After the WeChat version was revised, the role of the header image became more and more prominent. At this time, where to find the image became a big problem. This section introduces still image websites, GIF image websites and GIF image production tools.

Still image (website)

Google and Baidu: There is no need to say much about this. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the copyright issue.

Pixabay: Free material library, mainly photography photos

Cupcake: A cool-toned landscape

New Old Stock: Vintage Pictures

DryIcons: A large number of high-quality icons

Rafael-varona: The style of painting is fresh and simple

Free Image Bank: Many high-quality illustrations

Viintage: Vintage pictures

Gratisography: There are many creative pictures

Magdeleine: A website for finding images by color and mood

Huaban.com: There are many original works, but they are copyrighted. You can contact the author for copyright issues.

…

Here’s another tip . If you find a picture you like, you can use the “ search by image ” function to find pictures with a similar style and keep them for later use.

Gif

Giphy (Webpage)

A website that has received Series D funding for its GIF search engine . It has a lot of GIF materials and has collaborated with many brands and movies , such as "South Park." By using keywords cleverly, you can get very interesting pictures . For example, this is the result of searching for Monday. You can also try Friday.

soogif , piggif (webpage)

A domestic GIF website that can search, create and compress GIFs.

Image production

Gifcam (PC)

A small software for capturing animated images. It should be noted that the recording time should not be too long, otherwise the image will be too large to be compressed and uploaded to the public account backend. (You can reply to the keyword "tools" in the background to receive the download package)

imgplay pr o（mobile）

A Gif production tool for iOS that can convert videos into Gif images, adjust the length and speed of the animation, add filters, and set it to play forward or reverse.

Video Download Plugin

Video Downloader professional, Video Downloader Plus (plug-in)

Simply search for the extension in the Chrome browser app store . When a video appears on a web page, these two icons will turn into arrow shapes. You can pull down to find the video and download it.

Data Visualization and Infographics

Compared with dry text, data visualization will be a powerful tool to enhance users' desire to read, for example, the dot plot of the volume distribution of keywords in the popular articles of public accounts in 2017. If you don’t know how to make data charts and don’t want to bother a designer, here are the five must-have websites for beginners selected by Baidu Echart and a British journalism website.

Baidu Echart (webpage)

This is an open source data visualization tool developed by the Baidu team. The key point is that a lot of templates have been built into the webpage. In addition to the common line charts, pie charts and scatter charts, there are also heat distribution maps, tree diagrams, radiation diagrams, 3D diagrams and visual charts, etc. You can use it by directly changing the data. Whether it is making graphics or conducting data analysis , it is very convenient.

Visme (webpage)

A tool for making long infographics. The website provides multiple long graphic templates that can be used according to the scenario, such as year-end data summary, project progress, project status introduction, etc. By adjusting modules and icons, modifying data, you can generate your own infographics.

Canva (Web)

A fool-proof design website that solves your header image difficulties. It designs designs for social media , blogs, e-books, and various documents based on usage scenarios, such as making a resume with one click . Most of the materials are free to use, and anyone who uses them will know.

other:

datawrapper.de

infogram.com

piktochart

Data Query

When we write articles, we inevitably need to conduct data queries to ensure the credibility and professionalism of the articles. There are professional websites for reference on application data, website data and trend data .

App Data Query

App Annie (web, mobile)

free

You can view the ranking of apps by device, country, category, whether it is paid or not. You can also view the historical versions of a single app (this is very useful), historical rankings, and usage rankings in different countries . However, basic users can only view data within three months. If they need to upgrade, they need to contact the sales manager.

App Annie also has a mobile version, which is easy to use and can be checked at any time.

Qimai Data (webpage)

The basic version is free, and the annual fees for VIP and SVIP are 4680 and 15600 respectively.

Do you still remember the comments from WeChat users over the past seven years that the editor wrote in the article "WeChat seven years ago also received a lot of negative reviews ..."? The data used is Qimai.

This tool can view rankings, the apps that have risen and fallen the fastest recently, monitor keywords, delisting and removal, and download volume, and has powerful export functions, including competitor products, historical review details, and more. (First registration will give you three days of SVIP)

other:

iResearch App Index: You can view the monthly active users, daily active users and monthly usage time of an app, as well as the gender ratio of users, the region where they are located, etc.

Website ranking and traffic query

Alexa (webpage)

Basic version is free, premium version costs $99-399 per month

Alexa ranking is one of the most authoritative website rankings in the world. It is often used to query a website's comprehensive ranking, independent visitors, PV, visitor sources , etc. This information can help the website to optimize keywords, compare competing products, improve traffic, etc. If you just want to check recent rankings and visitor status, the free version is sufficient.

Bilibili 's global website ranking in the past year

Trend Query

Public Account Index (Webpage)

Regarding a certain hot topic, how many articles have 100,000+ views?

Through the new list trend query, users can clearly see the changing trend of the total amount of a keyword spread in WeChat public accounts . It also supports 5 groups of keyword query comparisons, and supports customization of the AND, OR, or NOT conditions and WeChat fields of specified keywords to make the query more accurate. Moreover, all data paying users can download with one click.

"Yang Chaoyue" public account index

https://data.newrank.cn/trend.html

other:

Baidu Index

Weibo Index

Qingbo Big Data

Statista (comprehensive data website including transportation, tourism, consumption, technology and the Internet )

Recording

Organizing recordings is an essential skill for new media editors. iFLYTEK Voice Notes is a very useful speech-to-text app, but only annual fee users can convert 3 hours of recordings, and the conversion error rate is high, requiring re-proofreading. Bangmei hereby recommends an app for variable speed playback, Noted.

Noted (Mobile)

Free for basic users, annual fee for upgraded version is 60 yuan

The biggest advantage of this app is that it can play at variable speeds. Usually, when it is adjusted to 0.5 times the speed, it can keep up with the typing speed. If you need to check the recording, you can adjust it to 1.5-2 times the speed when playing it for the second time.

Noted also supports real-time organization of recordings. Each time a keyword is entered, the time node will be recorded to facilitate subsequent organization.

Currently, this software is free to download. Basic users can store 5 audio notes, while the upgraded version has unlimited storage and costs 60 yuan per year.

OCR recognition software

OCR, or optical recognition, can convert images, documents, etc. into images and then recognize the characters therein. Simply put, if you have a stack of books that need to be converted into word documents, you may need it.

Bangmei has tested four OCR tools, namely Youdao Cloud Notes (mobile), Abbyy FineReader (PC) , Abbyy TextGrabber (mobile), and Abbyy Finescanner (mobile). In terms of recognition ability and cost-effectiveness, only the first two are recommended.

Abbyy Finereader (PC)

TOLL

The recognized OCR killer comes from Abbyy, a Russian company.

The best way to use it is to first scan the manuscript into a PDF document with a scanner or mobile phone, and then use the software to recognize it. High accuracy and fast speed. If I only recommend one OCR, I would recommend this one.

OCR recognition example

(Reply to the keyword "tool" in the background to receive the installation package and crack package)

Youdao Cloud Notes (Mobile)

10 free trials per month, 198 yuan per year

I tested two Abbyy products on my mobile phone one by one and found that Youdao Cloud Note had the best recognition effect.

Automatically crop page margins and export directly to PDF documents. If you upgrade to an annual membership, you can scan unlimited times, recognize multiple images, and enjoy 50G storage space in collaboration with Youdao Cloud.

Some useful small programs

Public Platform Assistant : Real-time management of account background information associated with WeChat accounts, reply to messages, view data, etc.

WeChat Index : Check the WeChat Index of a current hot word to understand its popularity. You can also add keywords for comparison.

Reward account : check the rewards of the public account, see how many rewards there are, reply to the readers who appreciate, set payment information, and the public account for receiving payment, etc.

Mini Program Data Assistant : View the data of bound Mini Programs

Pomodoro : A time management tool to improve work efficiency

Author: Xinbang , authorized to publish by Qinggua Media .

Source: Newrank (ID: newrankcn)