I came across a very useful website called BatchFrame which contains scripts, plugins and presets for After Effect.

I particularly enjoy the Auto Crop script (UI panel).

Before, I used to:
- precomp my layers
- open the precomp
- draw a Region of Interest
- Click on Composition > Crop Comp To Region of Interest

Now, I:
- precomp my layers
- click on Auto Crop

Done!
Simple!

Time Saver!

if you have 5 min to spare, Type is art is a great site in which you can explore interactively the different components of typography. Here is my attempt:

Forget Print Screen, use the snipping tool coming with Windows 7!

1) create text and sequence the layers

2) import this comp in another comp and add a solid. Toggle the text visibility off

3) Add the CC particle world effect

and voila!

4 importants functions found in the File Menu:

Remove Unused Footage > Self expanatory

Consolidate All Footage > Removes duplicated footage

Reduce Project > Remove unused footage + any compositions not used within the selected comps

Collect Files > Gathers copies of all the used files into one same folder

(Source: livedocs.adobe.com)