Great Software
Here are some links to programs and online services which I use because they make my working and personal life much easier to manage and organise. I hope you will find some of them helpful too. Most are free. To download, just type the name into Google.
COMMUNICATIONS
| SKYPE | The most well known communications program around. Talk or video chat to your friend. Make official phone calls. Video conference with each other. Cheap rates too (cheaper than most landlines). |
COMPUTER UTILITIES
| RENAMING FILES | ANT RENAMER (free) Rename a large number of files all in one go.
KEN RENAME is another good program that does the same thing. |
| FREE SOFTWARE | DOWNLOADS.COM The place to go to get downloads of a variety of software tools for achieving different things. Does Macs as well as PCs. TUCOWS.COM Another site for getting downloads. Does Macs as well as PCs |
| PC DECRAPIFIER | if you have bought a new computer recently and would like to read some of the unnecessary and unwanted software, then this software is a tool for the job. |
DISC BURNING
| CD BURNER XP | Despite its name, works well with Vista and Windows 7. Simple and easy to use interface. Even better than many of its equivalent 'pay for' software. Remember, it's for burning discs (music and data), not for burning DVDs. |
| DVD STYLER | This piece of software is for burning DVDs. Simple and easy to use interface. Even better than many of its equivalent 'pay for' software. Those of you who have Windows 7 will also have Windows DVD Maker - which is basic but works well too. |
DRAWING/GRAPHICS/DESIGN
| DIA FOR WINDOWS | Dia is software for creating diagrams. It can be used to create relationship charts, flowcharts and network diagrams. There are symbols for diagrams in all sorts of areas from simple Logic circuits, to map symbols. These are all laid out in separate but easy-to-select menus |
| INKSCAPE | This is a vector graphics program for creating drawings or manipulating photos. You can do some stunning stuff. A little complicated to learn at first but some excellent web tutorials on youtube. Certainly recommended if you don't fancy spending £500 for Adobe's Illustrator! |
| GOOGLE SKETCHUP | Particularly good for 3D modelling - desigining your new kitchen, garden and so on. This program's contineud FREE existence continues to upset developers of commercial equivalents. |
EDUCATIONAL
| E-books | CALIBRE this software helps you manage a collection of electronic publications/books on various devices including the Kindle, the iPad and many more. It's free and it's brilliant. |
FINANCIAL
| MICROSOFT MONEY | The best money management program around. It can download statements from your bank account (if your bank account is microsoft money compliant - many banks are but some are not). The last update was in 2005 and remains perfect for today's use too. |
MISCELLANEOUS
| EDISON ENERGY SAVER | Edison is a tool that you can use to determine maximum energy saving from your computer, depending on use. You can configure a working day (when you leave the office), so that your system will go in to deep sleep so it conserves as much energy as possible. Go on.... help save our planet. You'll probably save around £50 per year per PC! |
MAPS
| GOOGLE EARTH | A 3-D representation of the globe. Simply unbelievable. |
MUSIC
| MAGIX MUSIC MAKER | A great piece of software to start creating computer generated music. Easy to use and you can even edit midi files from your keyboard. |
| HIT 'N' MIX | Software that can amazingly analyse a song and split it up into its component parts - eg vocals, bass etc. You can then play around with each component. |
NETWORKING
| NETWORK MAGIC | Takes the pain out of hooking up your home (or other) PC network wirelessly (including printers, scanners etc). Not free.
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| LOG ME IN FREE | An application that allows you to control another PC remotely over the web. Need to install it on both computers. |
OFFICE
| TYPING | ADDICTIVE TYPING FOR FIREFOX Learning to type properly makes a huge improvement to using computers but it can be tricky to get started. Addictive Typing Lessons is an add-on for the Firefox browser containing all you need to learn this important skill. Once installed a small picture of a keyboard appears on the right of the bottom of the Firefox window. A left-click on this starts the add-on in a separate window. There are 26 lessons included with Addictive Typing Lessons. A must for those who need to improve their typing skills.
BETTER TYPING is another good program that does the same thing.
MAVIS BEACON TEACHES TYPING - the best software for teaching typing skills - need to buy but only costs £25 or so.
MEDITYPE - online typing tutor specifically for health professional.s
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| ELECTRONIC POST-IT NOTES | EVERNOTE Evernote lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time — from your iPhone, computer, or the web. If you find you're always cluttered with post it notes, try evernote.
STICKIES (free) A program that creates electronic notes that can be stuck to the Windows Desktop just like post-it-note
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| EVERYTHING | EVERYTHING everything is a search tool which indexes every single file on your PC. It can whittle down results in real time as you type. Basically, it finds files and folders much faster than Windows' own search. if Everything's developer ever decides to start charging, we will be at the front of the queue of paying customers. |
| DESKTOP PUBLISHING SOFTWARE | SCRIBUS If professional desktop publishing software is out of reach, Scribus is certainly worth a look - and it's free. Templates available and an online manual. SERIF PAGEPLUS Good for small desktop publishing jobs SCRIVENER Rather than concentrating on page layouts, as is the case with most of the work processes, this application focuses on structure – chapters and passages can be rearranged simply by dragging and dropping items into a virtual corkboard. |
| MIND MAPS | CAYRANET Cayra.NET is a free mindmapping program. Mindmapping can be helpful when brainstorming or planning as it is easier to visualise ideas and to move them around.
FREE MIND is another good program that does the same thing.
BLUMIND A new comer but very impressive. Great for building idea visualisations. |
| ALTERNATIVES TO MICROSOFT OFFICE | THINKFREE OFFICE (free) Don't have Word, Excel or PowerPoint? Create and edit documents from any PC with an internet connection. Store your documents on ThinkFree's computers so you can edit them wherever you are. But you must have an online connection! LOTUS SYMPHONY A full strength office software suite carrying a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications that are more than a match for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. And it's free. PS Before Microsoft, Lotus used to be top of its field! |
| OCR | SIMPLE OCR An accurate and free simple OCR application. It includes a built in word dictionary which helps a program reach the recognition accuracy of 99%. It negotiates documents with images, retaining the pictures are required, and can be set up for batch OCR. It shouldn't be free but it is. |
| PAPERPORT | An excellent document management software. Costs over £100 but well worth the investment. Start scanning and storing all your bits of papers - bills, invoices, documents and so much more. Works well with a duplex (double sided) scanner like Fujitsu's Fi-6130. |
| VOICE RECOGNITION SOFTWARE | DRAGON NATURALLY SPEAKING The best in its field. Dictation made easy with a fabulous recognition rate. Also available is an international version for those who speak English with an accent (like people from India, Nigeria and so on). |
PHOTO
| AUTOSTITCH | Excellent utility to help you join several pictures to make a single panorama. |
REFERENCE
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RELAX
| TAKE A BREAK | EYES RELAX It’s an utility that helps avoiding eyes-related problems when working at a computer for several hours. Concentrating your eyesight on a computer screen can cause an eye strain. You can prevent this by taking regular breaks during the work and look at distant objects. Eyes Relax is a tool that reminds you about taking those breaks. It a very flexible utility, which allows you to specify two independent (short and long) work periods, the length of the breaks, break types, notification sounds and many other settings. Eyes Relax has also the parenting features. It can enter the password-protected Parent Mode in which the user is forced to take breaks (during the break the computer is locked). This is very useful since children often forget about the real world and play video games much too long.
WORKRAVE This is a fab little programme that reminds you to take rest breaks from your computer and even suggests short exercises you might do. It's a great way to recharge your batteries and make sure you are on top performance all the time when at the computer. An absolute must. |
SECURITY
| AVG | A great free anti-virus program. All computers should have an anti-virus program. |
| SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY | Software that looks for key loggers and nasty cookies that may be spying on your private data. |
VIDEO
| CAMSTUDIO | Camstudio is designed for those who want to capture their on-screen actions for things like tutorials. This particular piece of software doesn't have anywhere near the complexity of Adobe's Captivate but is enough for most users. |
| VIDEO CONVERTER | FREEMAKE FREE VIDEO CONVERTER Converts between the different video formats. |
| VIDEO EDITING | LIGHTWORKS light works shouldn't be free but it is. This is an advanced video editing application and it's even used by professional film editors. What further recommendation do you need? |
| DOWNLOAD FROM YOUTUBE | YOUTUBE DOWNLOADER Helps you download video clips from You Tube onto your PC. |
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