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!
• 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.
• SNAGIT – This is a great little program for capturing screen images and addition notations.    If you need to write a document to tell others how to do something (say) on a computer, this is a great way of illustrating it.  Use Snagit to: take a photo of your computer screen, create quick demo videos to share with anyone, enhance images with stamps, text, and effects, organize your screen captures with easy auto-storing and tagging features and share your images and videos to presentations, social media sites, and more.
• 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.

• 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
• 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.

PHOTO

• AUTOSTITCH – Excellent utility to help you join several pictures to make a single panorama.

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.

TYPING BETTER

• 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 professionals.

VIDEO

• KEEPVID – www.keepvid.com to download video files from You Tube.  Always choose MP4 as the type of file to download the video file as.
• DVD FAB – You have to pay for this program but its worth it.  Takes the pain out of copying and making DVDs.
• 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?
• 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.
• FREEMAKE FREE VIDEO CONVERTER – Converts between the different video formats.
• YOUTUBE DOWNLOADER – Helps you download video clips from You Tube onto your PC.

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).