DEV Community: FIRAT

How to make a pitch deck with Gamma, from a one-line prompt to an investor-ready export

FIRAT — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:26:56 +0000

Originally published at kuponaut.com, where plan details are kept up to date.

Gamma makes a deck from a prompt, from pasted notes or from a file, and you edit the result in a card-based editor rather than a slide canvas. The quickest route to a pitch deck is to write the story first, let the Agent build a draft, then spend your time on the three or four slides investors actually read. This guide follows the steps and names in Gamma's help centre (read 20 October 2026), and ends with what the free plan's 400 credits do and do not cover.

Step 1: write the deck in ten lines before you open Gamma

Gamma builds around what you give it, so the prompt matters more than the theme. Write one line for each of the usual pitch sections: the problem, your solution, why now, the product, the business model, traction, market size, competition, team and the ask. Keep the numbers in. A traction line that says "412 paying customers, $38k MRR, 11% month-on-month" gives the Agent something to build a chart from; "strong growth" gives it nothing.

If you already have a memo, a Notion page or an older deck, you do not need to retype it. Gamma's help centre lists three ways to start: Generate (a topic or prompt), Paste (your own text, which Gamma formats) and Import (a PowerPoint, a document or a URL). For a pitch deck, Paste with your ten lines is usually the best balance between control and speed; Import is the right choice when a previous deck already has the story and you want it restyled.

Step 2: start with the Agent and pick Plan, Express or Research

On the dashboard, describe the deck in the prompt bar. You can attach files, choose a template or add your own images: click the + button and Upload Files, and Gamma will use your images instead of sourcing its own, which is the right move for product screenshots and team photos.

Then pick a mode. Plan (the default) asks a few questions about your goal, audience and priorities, shows a plan covering the story, the style and the look, and waits for your approval; the help centre is explicit that the Agent will not start building until you approve it. Express skips the questions and the plan review and goes straight to a first draft. Research pulls web sources before writing and only works with Plan. For an investor deck, Plan is worth the extra minute: say the audience is seed investors, that the deck is for a 20-minute meeting, and that every slide needs one headline sentence. You can answer each question with a tappable option, type your own guidance, or choose Decide for me.

If you prefer the older flow, the dashboard still offers Use classic generator, where you choose Generate, Paste or Import directly. Either way the Agent researches, writes, designs and generates images while narrating progress; slides appear in a live grid, and the browser tab shows a yellow badge while it is building and a green check mark when it is done.

Step 3: fix the deck with the Agent, one slide at a time

The first draft is rarely the deck you send. Gamma's own pitch-deck guide describes two ways to change text: click the Agent icon in the top right and describe the change for the whole deck (shorter text, a more formal tone, a different audience), or navigate to one card first and then use the Agent so only that card changes. The help centre notes that targeted revisions leave other slides and your manual edits untouched, and that asking for a restyle keeps your content.

For images, click the sparkle icon on the image and prompt for a different one, or replace it with an upload. For layout, the Smart Layouts button on the right-hand bar previews the same card in different arrangements, which is the fastest way to turn a wall of text into a two-column or a stat block. Typing / opens the slash menu for formatting, embeds and other commands, and pasting a link (a YouTube demo, a Google Sheet, a Loom) embeds it where you paste it.

Spend the editing time where investors look: the problem slide, the traction slide and the ask. Gamma can add a chart or a table if you ask the Agent for one, and the "use this text as-is" instruction in your prompt tells it to build around finished copy rather than rewrite it.

Step 4: set the theme and hide what you do not want investors to see

Theme sits in the upper right of the editor; changing it applies your fonts, colours and backgrounds to every card, and a saved custom theme (title and heading fonts, background images, accent colours, a logo) keeps later decks on brand. Custom branding beyond the standard theme editor is listed under the Pro plan on Gamma's pricing page.

Three sharing settings matter for a pitch deck and all live under Share and its Advanced Settings: Hide "Made by Gamma" (Plus and higher), Require a password to view (Pro and higher, for Gamma docs rather than sites) and Make discoverable on the web (Pro and higher, and for a pitch deck you want this off). Access levels for the link are No access, View, Comment and Edit; workspace settings override the link, so if your workspace is set to "Members can edit", members keep editing even on a view-only link.

Step 5: share a link, export a PPTX, or both

Gamma's own recommendation for pitch decks is to share the live link: click Share in the top right and copy it. Recipients always see the latest version, and there is no file to re-send after an edit. In Present Mode, pressing S switches on spotlight, which highlights one element at a time; it is useful in a live meeting and does nothing in an emailed file.

Investors who ask for a file get one from Share then Export (or the three-dot menu then Export). Formats are PDF, PNG and PowerPoint; the download starts automatically and a copy is emailed to you. In the dialog, choose All cards in the dropdown, otherwise only the current card may export, and leave the Editable tables toggle on if you want the tables to stay editable in PowerPoint. Exports follow Present Mode, not Edit Mode, so check the deck in Present Mode first. There is no Google Slides button: export PPTX and upload it to Google Slides. Word is not supported on any plan.

The "Made by Gamma" badge appears on PDF and PPTX exports made while the workspace is on the Free plan. Upgrading removes it from future exports but not from files you already downloaded, and if a subscription lapses the workspace drops back to Free and new exports carry the badge again. Printing from the browser (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P) while signed in does not add the badge on any plan, which is a workable route to a clean PDF on Free.

Analytics: see which slides investors read

If you share a link rather than a file, Gamma can tell you what happened to it. Open the gamma, click the three-dot menu in the top right and select Analytics: it shows relative time spent per slide, the percentage of views per slide, how far viewers got and unique viewers for the last 30 days. Only collaborators with full access can see it, and the help centre states that full analytics access is only available on the Pro plan or higher.

What the free plan covers, and what it does not

Gamma's Free plan costs nothing and asks for no card. New accounts get 400 credits at signup, and on Free those credits do not refill; once they are gone, you earn more through referrals (200 credits per completed signup, up to a 2,000-credit balance) or upgrade. Credit cost is metered per slide and per image when you create with AI, and editing with the Agent, adding cards with AI and trying new layouts also use credits, with the exact cost depending on the model and the length of the output; image generation shows its credit cost before you confirm. AI errors and clarification questions are not charged.

Free also limits each prompt to 10 slides, which is enough for a short teaser but not for a full 12-to-15-slide investor deck in one pass; you can generate the rest card by card or on a second prompt. Exports work on Free (PDF, PPTX, PNG) but carry the badge, the badge-hiding toggle needs Plus, and password protection and analytics need Pro.

On Gamma's pricing page on 19 October 2026, Plus was $12 a seat a month or $9 a seat a month billed yearly ($108) with 1,000 credits a month and up to 100 slides per prompt; Pro was $25 or $18 billed yearly ($216) with 4,000 credits, premium image models, custom branding, analytics and the API; Ultra was $100 or $90 billed yearly. Unused plan credits roll over up to twice the plan size, and paid plans can buy extra credits that never expire while the plan is active. Refunds close three days after subscribing and only if credit use is under a threshold, so build the deck on the free 400 credits first and upgrade when you need the badge gone or the analytics on.

How to recover deleted or formatted files from a hard drive, USB stick or SD card

FIRAT — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:05:30 +0000

Originally published at kuponaut.com, where prices and plan details are kept up to date.

Deleted files are usually still on the drive until something new is written over them, which is why the first few minutes matter more than the software you pick. This guide walks through recovering files from a hard drive, USB stick or SD card with Donemax Data Recovery, using the steps and feature names on donemax.com, and explains when no software can help. Prices are from the Donemax store on 15 October 2026.

Step 1: stop using the drive

When you delete a file or format a drive, the data is not wiped straight away. Donemax explains that a quick format only erases the file system's address table: the files disappear from view and their space is marked as free, but the contents stay on the disk until new data overwrites them. Every file you save, download or copy to that drive can land on top of what you want back.

So stop using it. Do not save, move or create files on the affected drive. If it is an SD card, take it out of the camera and do not take more photos. If it is the drive Windows or macOS runs from, keep use to a minimum: close programs that save in the background and avoid downloading anything to it.

Check the easy places first. Open the Recycle Bin (or the Trash on a Mac) and restore from there if the files are still listed. If you use File History on Windows, Time Machine on a Mac or a cloud service, a backup copy may already exist. Recovery software is for when those are empty.

Step 2: install Donemax on a different drive

Download Donemax Data Recovery from donemax.com on a working computer. Donemax warns that installing recovery software on the drive you are recovering from can overwrite the very files you need, so install it on another partition or an external drive. If the lost files were on your only internal drive, the safest option is to install and run the program on a second computer and connect the problem drive to it.

The Windows installer asks for a language, the licence agreement and an install folder; that folder is where you choose the other drive. The Windows version supports Windows 11, 10, 8/8.1, 7 and Vista plus Windows Server editions, and reads NTFS, ReFS, FAT, exFAT and ext file systems among others. There is a separate Mac version.

Step 3: select the drive and scan

Connect the device and open the program. SD and microSD cards go in a card reader, USB sticks and external drives plug in directly. Select the drive or card where the files were lost. For files deleted from the Recycle Bin, Donemax says to select the drive the files were originally on, not a separate Recycle Bin entry. If an external device does not appear, Donemax's user guide points to fixing recognition first.

Click Scan. Donemax's user guide describes a single Scan button that uses its deep scan mode to look for every recoverable file, and its guide on formatted drives says the software runs a quick scan first and then a deep scan. In practice you do not have to choose between them: start the scan and let it finish. You can pause or stop it, and the Mac version lets you browse files found so far, but Donemax recommends waiting for the full scan, which can take a long time on a large drive or a slow card.

If you need to stop, the user guide describes exporting the scan result to a .dmef file and later choosing Resume Recovery to load it, so you do not have to rescan the drive.

Step 4: preview, then recover to another drive

When the scan ends, use the filters and the preview to check the results before recovering anything. Previewing a photo or document is the quickest way to tell whether a file came back intact or only as a damaged fragment; Donemax lists previews for common formats such as JPG, PNG, TXT, DOCX and PPT.

Select the files you want and click Recover. When asked for a save location, choose a different drive: an external disk, another partition or a second USB stick. Donemax repeats this on several pages, because saving to the original drive can overwrite other deleted files still waiting to be recovered. For SD cards, do not save back to the card.

The program also has a Disk Tools section with a Repair option for file system errors, and access to disk management. Recover your files first and only then repair or reformat the drive, since either step writes to it.

Special cases: formatted SD card, emptied Recycle Bin, Mac

Formatted SD card or USB stick: the steps are the same. A quick format leaves most data in place. A full format overwrites the disk, and Donemax says only some data may come back after one. If Windows asks you to format a card it cannot read, decline; Donemax notes that files on a corrupted card may still be recoverable, and formatting it first makes that harder.

Emptied Recycle Bin or Shift+Delete: select the drive the files were on and scan it. Act soon, since every hour of normal use writes new data to that drive.

Mac: Donemax Data Recovery for Mac supports macOS from 10.11 up to the current release on Apple silicon and Intel Macs, including Macs with the T2 chip. For files emptied from the Trash, Donemax's guide says to check Time Machine first, then select the startup drive in the program, click Scan, preview and recover to another location.

When software cannot help

Recovery software reads what is still on the drive, so it cannot help once the data is gone. Donemax says recovery may fail if the data has been overwritten, if the drive is physically damaged, or if it is encrypted and you do not have the key.

SSDs are the big exception to the advice above. Donemax states that SSDs with TRIM enabled, which covers most modern SSDs, erase deleted data blocks quickly, making recovery from them extremely difficult or impossible. A scan still costs nothing to try, but expect less from an internal SSD than from a hard drive or memory card.

If a drive clicks, grinds, is not detected at all or was dropped, stop running scans on it. Repeated reads can make physical damage worse, and that is a job for a professional recovery lab.

Prices and plans

Donemax Data Recovery for Windows has a free version that scans, previews and recovers up to 200 MB of files. That is enough to bring back a few documents or photos, or to confirm that larger files open properly before you pay. On the Mac, Donemax describes the free download as letting you scan and preview; it does not state a free recovery allowance there.

On 15 October 2026 the Donemax store listed Data Recovery at $89.95 a year or $109.95 lifetime, both covering 2 computers, with Windows and Mac priced the same. An Enterprise lifetime licence for 100 devices was $499. For a one-off emergency the yearly licence works, but it costs only $20 less than lifetime, so lifetime is the better value if you might need it again. After buying, you click Activate in the program and enter the licence key.

Refunds are limited. Donemax's 30-day money-back guarantee covers cases such as duplicate purchases, technical faults support cannot fix, or a licence code not delivered within 24 hours, not a change of mind. That is another reason to scan and preview with the free version first.

Donemax or Recoverit?

Wondershare Recoverit does the same job and is the bigger brand. Recoverit's free version recovers 100 to 500 MB and it offers a 7-day refund window, while Donemax gives 200 MB free on Windows. Both work the same way: scan, preview, then pay only if your files are there.

Gamma vs Canva for presentations: what the two pricing pages actually say (October 2026)

FIRAT — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 22:38:55 +0000

Originally published at kuponaut.com, where the price table is kept up to date.

I keep seeing the same question in two forms: "should I pay for Gamma or just use Canva?" and "is Canva's AI good enough that I can skip Gamma?" They are not really the same product, so the answer depends on what else you make. Here is what the two pricing pages actually said on 19 October 2026, and how I would choose.

What each one is

Gamma is an AI-first presentation and document generator. You give it a prompt or import a PDF or PPTX, and it produces a deck (or a one-page site, or a doc) in its card-based editor. You pay for AI credits per seat; generating and editing with AI spends them.

Canva is a general design platform. Presentations are one of a thousand design types alongside social posts, flyers, videos and brand kits. Its AI features draw on a shared usage allowance per plan, and most of what you pay for is the template and media library plus brand tools.

Free plans

Gamma Free costs nothing and needs no card. You get 400 credits at signup that do not refill (referrals add 200 each, up to a 2,000-credit balance), up to 10 slides per prompt, import from PDF and PPTX, and export to PDF, PPTX, PNG and Google Slides with "Made by Gamma" branding. There is no trial; Gamma's help centre says it does not offer a traditional free trial, and the Free plan is the test.

Canva Free gives you the full drag-and-drop editor with 1,000+ design types, 1.6M+ templates, 4.7M+ photos and media, one brand kit with three colours, 5 GB of storage and up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses. Pro and Business both have a free trial.

For an AI-generated deck, Gamma's free credits go further. For building a deck by hand from templates, Canva Free is the bigger toolbox.

Paid plans (US prices)

	Gamma	Canva
Entry	Plus: $12 a seat a month, or $9 billed yearly ($108). 1,000 credits a month, up to 100 slides per prompt, no Gamma branding	Pro: US$18 a month, or US$144 a year for one person. AI tools, 3.6M+ templates, 141M+ premium media, 5 brand kits, social scheduling, 100 GB, 10x the AI usage of Free
Mid	Pro: $25 a seat, or $18 yearly ($216). 4,000 credits, premium image models, custom branding, analytics, API	Business: US$25 a month, or US$250 a year per person. Team admin, 100 brand kits, approvals, Flourish, 500 GB, 20x the AI usage of Free
Top	Ultra: $100 a seat, or $90 yearly ($1,080), 20,000 credits. Business: $40 a member a month, yearly only	Enterprise by contact: SSO/SCIM, 1,000 brand kits, 1 TB. AI Pass add-on for more AI usage
Yearly saving	Up to 28%	From 16%

So at the entry Gamma is cheaper: $108 a year against $144. But Canva Pro covers a lot more than slides, and if you would otherwise pay for a social scheduler or stock images, the comparison flips.

The two things that decide it for many people

Education and non-profits. Canva gives K-12 educators and their students premium features free through Canva Education, runs Canva Campus for higher education, and gives non-profits Pro features free for a team of up to 50. Gamma publishes no education discount on its official pages. If you qualify for any of Canva's programmes, that is hard to argue with.

Refunds. Gamma's refund window is three days from a new subscription, and only if you have used fewer credits than its threshold (under 200 on Plus, 600 on Pro, 2,000 on Ultra); cancel at least 30 days before renewal to avoid the next charge. That is tight, so burn through the 400 free credits on a real deck before paying. Canva's subscription refund terms were not readable on the pages I fetched, so check its help centre before you pay.

How I would choose

You want a finished deck from an outline in minutes and will edit lightly: Gamma, starting on Free, then Plus yearly.
You make social posts, print and video as well as decks: Canva Pro, and use its AI for the slides.
You are a K-12 teacher or student, or at a non-profit: Canva's free programmes first.
You present to clients and need custom branding plus analytics on who opened the deck: Gamma Pro.

Make one real deck on each free tier and keep the one you edited least.

Sources

Gamma pricing (read 19 Oct 2026)
Gamma help centre (credits, refunds)
Canva pricing, US (read 19 Oct 2026)
Full comparison table on Kuponaut

How to record and edit a screen tutorial with Camtasia: a practical walkthrough

FIRAT — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:30:08 +0000

Originally published at kuponaut.com, where prices and plan details are kept up to date.

A good screen tutorial is mostly preparation and editing; the recording itself takes minutes. This guide walks through making one with TechSmith Camtasia, from planning and the Camtasia Recorder settings to cutting mistakes, adding cursor effects, zooms and captions, and exporting the finished video. Feature names and steps follow the TechSmith tutorials and support pages, and prices are from the TechSmith store on 15 October 2026.

Step 1: plan the recording

Decide what the viewer should be able to do once the video ends, then write down the clicks needed to get there. A short outline or a full script keeps you from wandering, and splitting a long topic into several short videos makes each one easier to record and to update later.

Prepare the screen before you press record. Close apps you do not need, turn off notifications, sign in to anything the tutorial uses and load sample data so nothing personal appears on screen. On a Mac, the Camtasia menu bar icon has a Hide Desktop Icons option if you are recording the desktop.

Sound matters more than most people expect. TechSmith recommends a USB microphone over a Bluetooth one because it is more reliable, placed close to the person speaking. Make a ten-second test recording and play it back before the real take, so you find a muted microphone or missing system sound early.

Step 2: set up the Camtasia Recorder

Open the Camtasia editor and click New Recording on the Home window, or click Record inside a project you already have open. The Camtasia Recorder opens with a highlighted area on the screen and a row of toggles: Screen Recording, Camera, Microphone and System Audio. Turn on only what you need.

To set the capture area, drag the handles around the highlighted rectangle or type exact pixel values into the Width and Height fields. You can move the area by dragging its centre handle on Windows or dragging inside it on a Mac, and drag it to another display if you have more than one. To capture just one program, open the Screen dropdown, pick Choose Window, select the app and click OK. In that mode System Audio records only that app, and closing the window ends the recording.

Use the Camera and Microphone dropdowns to choose your webcam and microphone, and drag the microphone slider to set the input level. Switch System Audio on if the tutorial needs computer sounds such as alerts or a video playing; leave it off otherwise. There is also a Camtasia Rev toggle that opens Rev after recording; you can ignore it for a standard tutorial.

Windows users can set a Maximum capture frame rate and the Recording encoder (TSC2 or H264) under Tools, Preferences, on the Inputs tab.

Step 3: record and stop

Click Record, or press F9 on Windows or Command+Shift+2 on a Mac. Work through your outline at a slightly slower pace than feels natural, and move the mouse deliberately so viewers can follow it. If you make a mistake, pause for a second and repeat the sentence or the click; a clean gap is much easier to cut than a stumble in the middle of a word.

To stop, click Stop, or press F10 on Windows or Command+Option+2 on a Mac. You can also stop from the Camtasia Recorder icon in the Windows taskbar, or from the Camtasia icon in the Mac menu bar with Stop Recording. The rest of the work happens in the Camtasia editor.

Step 4: cut out mistakes

Start with the edit that matters most: removing pauses, retakes and dead time. To shorten the start or end of a clip, select it on the timeline and drag its edge inward; dragging it back out restores what you trimmed.

To remove a section from the middle, drag the green and red playhead handles to mark the start and end, then click Cut. The timeline Zoom slider helps you place the handles precisely. If there are tracks you want to keep untouched, such as background music, click Lock Track next to their names first. Cut material can be put back with Paste at the playhead.

To divide a clip in two, place the playhead and click Split, or press S on Windows or Command+T on a Mac. Splitting is useful when you want to move, delete or speed up one part of a recording without affecting the rest.

Step 5: guide the eye with cursor effects, zooms, annotations and captions

Screen recordings are hard to follow when the important part is a small button on a large screen. Three tools in the Camtasia editor deal with this. Cursor Effect in the tools panel lets you drag an effect onto the recording so viewers see where the mouse is and when it clicks.

Zoom-n-Pan, found under Animations in the tools panel, lets you resize a rectangle to zoom into part of the screen and drag it to pan to another area. TechSmith points Mac users to Custom Animations for the same result. Use zooms for menus, small text and form fields, and zoom back out so viewers do not lose track of where they are.

For annotations, move the playhead to where a label or arrow should appear, open Annotations in the tools panel and drag your choice onto the canvas. Keep them short and remove them once the step is done.

Captions help viewers who watch without sound or in a second language. In Camtasia 2024 and later, the Windows support article describes generating them with Captions, then Speech-to-Text, which transcribes the narration automatically. Read the result before export, since names and technical terms are the words most often misheard.

Step 6: export and share

Click Export and choose Local File to save the video to your computer. TechSmith lists MP4, GIF, M4A and WebM for this option; MP4 is the safe choice for a normal tutorial. On Windows you choose a preset or Custom, and on a Mac you pick the format and use Options for advanced settings. Batch Export creates several versions at once, for example a full-quality file and a smaller one.

If you added quizzes, a table of contents, captions or search, export with the TechSmith Smart Player, using the MP4 with Smart Player preset on Windows or the options in the MP4 export on a Mac, including the SCORM option if the video goes into a course platform. YouTube does not support quizzes or hotspots.

To publish directly, Export also offers YouTube, where you add a title, description, tags and privacy setting, and Screencast, the TechSmith hosting service. Every plan includes hosting for up to 25 videos on Screencast.

Which Camtasia plan you need

On 15 October 2026 TechSmith listed four yearly plans. Starter costs $39 a year and includes Snagit and the Camtasia editor, but exports from the editor carry a watermark. Essentials, at $179.88 a year, is the first plan with watermark-free exports, and the pricing page lists text-based editing, transcription, unlimited captions, cursor effects, quizzes and SCORM export from this plan up, plus Audiate. Create, at $249, adds AI scripts and AI voiceovers with 200+ voices. Pro, at $599, adds avatars, dubbing, translation, a large stock library and unlimited video sharing.

For tutorials you record with your own voice, Essentials is the plan to look at. Create only makes sense if you want a generated voice instead of your own. Students pay $45 a year and educators $162.36 through the education store. Camtasia is sold as an annual subscription, and every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee.

You can try the editor before paying. The TechSmith support page lists no time limit on the Camtasia editor trial, only a watermark on exports, which it says can be removed after purchase.

Camtasia, Snagit or Filmora?

Snagit is not a competitor here, because every Camtasia plan includes it. Use Snagit for screenshots and quick, unedited recordings, such as a short clip for a colleague, and the Camtasia editor when a video needs cuts, zooms, captions or a polished export.

Wondershare Filmora is a general creative video editor and costs less, at $49.99 a year. It suits social videos and vlogs, while TechSmith Camtasia is built around screen recordings and teaching videos, with cursor effects, quizzes and SCORM export.

How to run Windows apps on an Apple Silicon Mac with Parallels Desktop (2026)

FIRAT — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:45:34 +0000

Originally published at https://kuponaut.com/blog/how-to-run-windows-apps-on-an-apple-silicon-mac/ — current prices and plan details are kept up to date there.

Parallels Desktop runs a Windows virtual machine alongside macOS, so a Mac user can work with a Windows application without making a separate Windows computer the default workspace. This guide focuses on an Apple silicon Mac and a specific application you need for work or study, rather than promising that every Windows program will run. The installation steps follow Parallels' official documentation.

Step 1: identify the application and the right Windows version

Start with the application you actually need, not the discount. Write down its name, version, licence details and any connected equipment. Parallels' Apple silicon installation guide specifies an Arm version of Windows; it is not a route for installing an arbitrary Intel Windows image. Check the application's own requirements before committing to a subscription, especially if it depends on specialist drivers or peripherals.

Define a small acceptance check using a copy of a real document. For example, opening a spreadsheet is not enough if your work also requires an add-in, a printer or an export function. List those actions beforehand. Keep an untouched copy of the original file outside the experiment, and avoid moving your entire working environment until the essential task is complete.

Step 2: install Windows through the documented assistant

Install Parallels Desktop from its official site. For a first virtual machine, the documented assistant presents Install Windows. If you already have a virtual machine, use the Parallels menu-bar icon, open Control Center, choose +, then Get Windows 11 from Microsoft. Continue leads to Install Windows. Follow the download and installation prompts rather than selecting an unrelated image found elsewhere.

Allow the installation to finish before adjusting advanced settings. Keep the Mac connected to reliable power and a stable network, and read the agreements displayed during setup. Record which Microsoft account you use so that ownership and recovery are clear later. These preparation suggestions are not a claim about installation duration, required bandwidth or the amount of storage your particular workload will need.

Step 3: activate Windows and install the actual application

Parallels' activation article treats Windows activation as a separate step after installation. A Parallels subscription is not a Windows product key. Resolve the Windows licence through Microsoft's activation process and use the application's official installer inside the Windows environment. Do not assume an existing application licence automatically covers an additional installation; check its terms before activating another copy.

Keep the first run simple. Open the application in the normal Windows desktop and complete the essential operation you listed earlier. Confirm that the correct account is signed in and that output files can be found afterwards. If an installer reports an unsupported system or a missing driver, stop and ask the software vendor about Arm compatibility rather than repeatedly changing settings or buying another edition on speculation.

Step 4: complete a real task and decide how to work daily

Use a duplicate document to check the entire path: open it, make a harmless change, save a new copy and open that copy again. Then inspect the result from the place where you normally work. Its purpose is to expose practical problems before you rely on the setup for a deadline.

Parallels describes Coherence as a way to integrate Windows applications with the Mac desktop on its comparison overview page. Treat that presentation option as a convenience after compatibility is settled. Decide where finished files will live, how you will name them and which environment will keep the authoritative copy. A visually integrated desktop should not leave you unsure which application or operating system created a file.

Tips and common mistakes

Separate three questions when troubleshooting: did Windows install, did the application install, and did the required task succeed? A successful Windows installation answers only the first. Save the exact error message and the operation that caused it. That is more useful to support than a general description that the virtual machine feels wrong.

Avoid making several changes at once. If you change application version, sharing settings and virtual-machine configuration together, you lose the ability to identify what helped. Keep backups independent of the virtual machine and do not treat a temporary evaluation environment as the only home for important documents. If an employer controls the device or software licence, confirm its rules before using work files in a new environment.

Compatibility and edition limits that matter

The scope here is Windows on Apple silicon, not a universal compatibility guarantee for games, anti-cheat systems, specialist hardware or legacy drivers. Parallels' comparison pages are vendor explanations, not independent performance evidence. Benchmark percentages and claims that a product is always faster are deliberately excluded. The relevant question is whether the application and its required accessories work for your job.

Use the recorded trial to assess the edition you intend to keep. Do not infer that every capability available in a Pro trial belongs to Standard. Likewise, a one-time licence and an annually renewed subscription are different purchases. Read their upgrade and renewal conditions on the final order, and keep the invoice with the product and edition clearly identified.

Prices and plan allowances (read 14 October 2026)

Pricing record updated 15 October 2026, with prices read on Parallels' buy page on 14 October 2026 (prices shown in EUR for our region; your currency may differ). New 1-year subscription: Standard €99.99, Pro €119.99, Business €149.99 a year — on 14 October 2026 Parallels' own page showed them at €54.99, €65.99 and €97.49 (45%/45%/35% off). Standard is also sold as a one-time licence at €189.99. Students and educators: Standard €49.99, Pro €59.99 for the first year (50% off). Pro Edition upgrade for existing users: €44.99 a year. 14-day free trial of Pro and a 30-day money-back guarantee on direct purchases.

Regional currency, taxes and promotion eligibility must be checked on the order.

Parallels or VMware Fusion?

VMware Fusion is another virtualisation option identified on Parallels' own comparison page. Parallels' comparison pages promote its Windows integration on the Mac, such as Coherence view mode; those are the seller's positioning claims, not a neutral verdict.

A fair decision can be narrow: if this is for a required work application, compatibility, file handling and support matter more than a general benchmark. If you only need a service with an adequate browser version, try that workflow before adding a second operating system. There is no benefit in maintaining a virtual machine for a task already covered by your existing tools.

How to analyze an Excel or CSV file with Julius AI (and check the answers)

FIRAT — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:43:49 +0000

Originally published at https://kuponaut.com/blog/how-to-analyze-excel-or-csv-with-julius-ai/ — current prices and plan details are kept up to date there.

Julius AI lets you upload a spreadsheet and ask questions about it in plain English. It writes and runs Python or R code to get the answer, then shows the result as text, a table or a chart. That makes it fast, but not automatically right: the written summary can disagree with the numbers underneath it. This guide covers preparing the file, asking useful questions, getting charts, checking the work and exporting, with feature names taken from the Julius documentation and prices from julius.ai on 16 October 2026.

Step 1: prepare the file before you upload it

Julius accepts CSV (.csv) and Excel (.xlsx, .xls) files, along with JSON, Parquet and several other data formats. A few minutes of preparation saves credits later. Put one header row at the top, give every column a short, unique name ("order_date", "net_sales", "region"), and remove merged cells, subtotal rows and notes typed below the table. Keep one kind of value per column: dates as dates, amounts without currency symbols mixed into some cells.

Remove anything personal you do not need for the question. Names, emails, phone numbers and customer IDs are rarely required to find a monthly trend; replace them with a neutral ID or delete the columns. For a first test, use a small file whose answer you already know, such as last quarter's totals. That way you learn how Julius behaves before trusting it with something important.

If your workbook has several tabs, you can upload it as it is. The Julius FAQ says you can refer to individual tabs by name in your prompts, so note the exact tab names first.

Step 2: upload the file or connect a Google Sheet

In a chat, click the + button (some help pages call it the paper clip) or drag the file into the conversation window. The same menu can import from Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or Google Sheets. To connect a Google Sheet, the docs ask you to share it as "Anyone with the link" with Viewer access and then paste the URL in Julius. Be aware that this setting lets anyone who has the link open the sheet, so only use it for data you are comfortable sharing that way.

Julius does not enforce a row or file-size limit, according to its FAQ; the practical limit is the memory of the cloud sandbox where the code runs. The pricing page lists 16 GB of RAM on Plus and 32 GB on Pro. For very large data, the FAQ suggests connecting a data warehouse such as BigQuery instead of uploading a file.

Step 3: clean first, then ask specific questions

Start by asking Julius to describe the data: "How many rows and columns does this file have, what are the column types, and which columns have missing values?" Write the row count down; you will use it to check later answers. The Julius data-cleaning guide suggests either a one-step prompt such as "Clean this dataset" or separate commands to standardize formats, handle missing values and remove duplicates. Separate commands take a little longer but show you exactly what was changed and how many rows were dropped.

Then ask questions the way the Julius prompting guide recommends: clear, specific, with context and the output format you want. "Analyze my sales" is vague. "Using the Orders tab, show total net_sales by month for 2025 as a table, sorted by month, and say which month was highest" is something Julius can answer and you can check. Break larger tasks into steps and refine the prompt if the first answer misses the point.

Step 4: ask for the chart you need

Charts are made with Python libraries such as Matplotlib, Seaborn and Plotly. The documentation lists line, bar, scatter, histogram, box plot, pie, heatmap and violin plots, plus more advanced types such as treemaps and Sankey diagrams. Describe the chart as precisely as the table: "Line chart of monthly net_sales for 2025, months on the x-axis in order, values in USD, label the highest point."

Look at the chart before reading the summary underneath it. If the axis starts above zero, a category is missing or months are out of order, ask Julius to fix that specific point rather than regenerating everything.

Step 5: check the work before you use the numbers

Julius shows its code in the chat as "Generating code" and then "Generated code", and you can read and copy that code and see its output inline. You do not need to understand every line. Look for the filters it applied (a year, a region, rows with missing values dropped), the column it summed and whether it used all rows. The Data Explorer, opened from the right menu or with "Expand" on a table in the chat, lets you page through the dataframes Julius created, 49 rows at a time.

Then check a few facts against the source file yourself: the row count matches what you wrote down, the highest and lowest values match a sort in Excel, and any percentage change uses the same starting and ending rows you would use. The written explanation deserves the most suspicion. Treat a correlation as a lead to investigate, not as proof of cause.

Step 6: export results and tidy up

Ask Julius to export a result table as CSV or Excel, and a download link appears in the chat. To save a chart, right-click it to copy or download it. If a download does not work, the troubleshooting page suggests checking your files, refreshing the browser or asking Julius to produce the file again.

Download what you need promptly. The Files documentation says free-plan files are kept for up to 1 hour of inactivity and paid-plan files for up to 7 days of inactivity, after which uploaded and generated files are deleted. You can also remove files yourself on the My Files page by selecting them and clicking Delete. On privacy, Julius's own documentation states that customer data is not used to train models, that files are stored in the US and that you can initiate deletion of your data. If your file contains confidential or regulated data, check those pages and your own company's rules before uploading.

How to turn a long video or podcast into short clips with Klap (2026 workflow, limits and prices)

FIRAT — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:54:10 +0000

Originally published at https://kuponaut.com/blog/how-to-turn-long-videos-into-clips-with-klap/, where prices and plan details are kept up to date.

Klap takes a long recording, such as a podcast episode, interview or livestream, and cuts it into vertical clips with automatic reframing and captions. The useful question is not how many clips it makes but how many you can post after a short review.

Before you start: footage rights and a free first run

Use only recordings you own or have permission to edit. Klap's terms say you are responsible for having the rights to any content you submit, and a subscription does not change that. For a podcast with guests, that usually means your own episodes or ones where the guest agreed to be clipped.

Klap's tool pages say you can create one video free without a credit card, and that Klap does not add watermarks, including on the free plan. The pricing page lists only paid plans, so check what the sign-up screen offers on the day. Pick a representative episode for the free run rather than your best one, so you see typical results.

Step 1: upload a file or paste a link

Start a new project and either paste a video link or upload a file. Klap lists YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, Google Drive, Dailymotion and Facebook among the links it can import, and MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV and FLV among the file formats. With a YouTube link you do not need to download and re-upload the video yourself.

Klap says a single upload can be up to 4 hours long, which covers most podcast episodes and many livestreams. Your plan also limits how many source videos you can process each month and how long each one can be, so check the current plan details before you queue a long backlog.

Step 2: choose the settings before you generate

Klap's own walkthrough for YouTube Shorts sets a few options before generating: the format (Shorts), a target duration for each clip, the language of the video (English by default), reframing from 16:9 to 9:16, the dimensions (Portrait is recommended, with Square and Landscape also offered) and auto-generated captions. Klap also says you can adjust the target number of clips and the clip length.

Set the language to the language actually spoken, because captions are built from the transcript. Klap says captions are available in 52 languages. If you are aiming at YouTube Shorts, keep the duration within what the platform accepts; Klap's guide uses a one-minute setting. Klap also describes custom prompts, where you ask in plain English for particular moments, such as every time a guest explains a pricing mistake. Then click Generate Shorts. Klap says processing takes from a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on the video.

Step 3: review the clips, starting with the Virality Score

Klap returns a batch of clips, each with a Virality Score from 0 to 100, and lists the higher-scoring clips first. Treat the score as a sorting aid, not a verdict. Klap's own pages describe it as being based largely on hook strength in the opening seconds, which does not tell you whether a clip is accurate or makes sense out of context.

Watch each candidate with the sound on and ask three questions: does it start on a clear hook, does it end on a complete thought, and would the speaker be comfortable with it standing alone? Discard clips that cut someone off mid-argument or depend on earlier context. The number of clips you keep at this stage is the figure to use when you judge whether a plan is worth paying for.

Step 4: fix reframing, captions and timing in the editor

Open a clip with Edit. Klap's editor lets you trim pauses and filler, crop to adjust framing, and change captions, including timing, font, size and colour, or add your own text. There is also a transcript editor, so you can tighten a clip by editing the words rather than dragging the timeline.

Reframing is handled by what Klap calls AI Reframe 2, which converts horizontal video to vertical and follows the active speaker or the main point of interest. For podcasts with several people on screen, Klap applies split-screen or 3- and 4-screen layouts. Check the framing at the moment speakers change, since that is where automatic tracking most often needs a manual crop.

Read every caption against the audio. Klap advertises high caption accuracy, but names, brand terms and technical words are the usual errors, and a wrong name on screen is more visible than a slightly slow cut. If you publish for a brand, Klap describes a brand kit for a logo, colours and caption style, and caption templates so clips look consistent.

Step 5: export, publish or schedule

When a clip is ready, you can use Download HD to save it, or export several clips in one batch. To publish from Klap itself, connect your YouTube, Instagram or TikTok account. On the Exports page, the Post option under a clip's thumbnail opens the Publish page, where you add a title, description and hashtags.

Choose Schedule to pick a date, time and time zone from the calendar, then Confirm. Scheduled posts appear in the Scheduled tab on the Exports page, and you can reschedule by opening the video, changing the time and confirming again. Scheduling a week of clips at once is the main time saving for a weekly podcast.

Credits, limits and what Klap costs

Klap says credits scale with video length, and each plan sets a monthly clip allowance: 100 clips on Basic, 300 on Pro and 1,000 on Pro+. On 16 October 2026 klap.app listed Basic at $29 a month, Pro at $59 and Pro+ at $189 on monthly billing. Billed yearly, the monthly equivalents were $14, $39 and $94, which is $168, $468 and $1,128 a year before tax.

The Klap API has its own usage-based pricing for input, short generation and exports, separate from the app subscription. Klap's terms allow a refund request before the end of the first month if you are not satisfied; on yearly plans a full refund is only available in that first month, with limited partial refunds for unused months after that.

Klap vs alternatives

Opus Clip is the most direct rival. Klap's comparison page, dated 13 May 2026, claims 4K export against Opus Clip's 1080p, 52 caption languages against 5, and the full editor included on every plan, but these are the vendor's own claims. We have not run a new side-by-side test. The fair method is to put the same licensed episode through both tools and count the clips you would publish and the caption corrections each one needs.

WayinVideo is another option we compare with Klap, and Zeemo is worth a look if you mainly need captions rather than clipping. Our Klap vs Opus Clip and WayinVideo vs Klap pages set out the current plan differences.

DEV Community: FIRAT

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How to analyze an Excel or CSV file with Julius AI (and check the answers)

Step 1: prepare the file before you upload it

Step 2: upload the file or connect a Google Sheet

Step 3: clean first, then ask specific questions

Step 4: ask for the chart you need

Step 5: check the work before you use the numbers

Step 6: export results and tidy up

Links

How to turn a long video or podcast into short clips with Klap (2026 workflow, limits and prices)

Before you start: footage rights and a free first run

Step 1: upload a file or paste a link

Step 2: choose the settings before you generate

Step 3: review the clips, starting with the Virality Score

Step 4: fix reframing, captions and timing in the editor

Step 5: export, publish or schedule

Credits, limits and what Klap costs

Klap vs alternatives

Links