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Hain · 01-04-2008, 09:15 AM

[anchor]AROUND THE OFFICE TOOLS[/anchor]
[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

Foxit Reader (****)(W) - "Foxit Reader is a free reader for PDF documents. You can view and print PDF documents with it." Faster than Adobe stuff. I use it.
Lightning (*****)(W,M,L,+) - "Manage your daily schedule directly within Thunderbird." Makes Thunderbird more like the all in one office utility that Microsoft Outlook is. I like it as it allows me to no longer use Rainlender. Just a reminder: this is a Thunderbird plugin.
Calendar Alternatives click to show
- Sunbird [Mozilla] (****)(W,M,L,+) - "a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit. Our goal is to provide you with full-featured and easy to use calendar application that you can use around the world." It is part of the same Mozilla Calendar Project. Having the same look and feel as the Lightning Plugin for Thunderbird, one has no problem understanding the interface when switching from one to the other. These are separate programs.
- Rainlendar (*)(W) - Rainlendar is a customizable calendar..." I use it to keep track of my schedule. Helpful, lightweight.
Notepad++ (*)(W) - "Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment." Nifty little tool, hander than notepad and Wordpad combined.
Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats [Microsoft] (*)(W) - "Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007." You are going to see alot more of DOCX and XLSX files. Now you don't have to wonder what to do with them.
OpenOffice (*****)(W,M,L,+) - "OpenOffice.org is an open-source, multiplatform and multilingual office suite comparable with MS Office." Pretty good considering it is free. Also, I have little need for MS Excell since I perform most of my data analysis though MATLAB anyways.
PDF Split and Merge (**)(W) - "A free open source tool to split and merge pdf documents." Just like its name implies. I use it plenty now.
PDFCreator (****)(W) - "PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDF files from nearly any Windows application." It acts just like a printer, in fact, is seen by windows as a printer!
Print Document to PDF Alternatives click to show
- CutePDF (*)(W) - "free version of commercial PDF creation software" Very basic, and requires an additional program that is not included with the installer. However, it works on my computer... unlike PDF Printer...
- PrimoPDF (****)(W) - "Convert to PDF from any application by simply 'printing'" Currently my replacement to PDF Printer, which for some reason had issues with the GUI when printing, and now freezes when printing. This is pretty good, however, it is not has clever as PDF Printer.

[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

[anchor]PHOTO / IMAGE PROCESSING[/anchor]
[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

Blender (*)(W,M,L,+) - "the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback." Never personally used it, however all of my graphic design friends that are learning 3-D animation with the "pop program of the week that wont be industry standard next week" teach themselves to use Blender. It is free, it is open source, it is muli platform compatible, and therefor it is always available to them.
Exifer (*)(W) - "...features regarding IPTC editing and viewing EXIF data." I use this to edit time and date data for photos all the time. Does batch processing for groups of photos. For a more detailed explaination visit this thread, Changing Photo Time Stamp, Bulk Editor.
Time Stamp Editing Alternatives click to show
- iPhoto (?)(M) - "iPhoto automatically organizes your photo library and makes editing as easy as clicking your mouse — so you can get the most out of even the biggest collection." Never used it, but was recommended by Redlemon as a solution to my problem but for the Mac user. It doesn't appear to be freeware...
FastStone Image Viewer (***)(W) - "FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments."
Paint.NET (***)(W) - "free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools." It is very nice, and has become my photo-editing tool of choice.
Photo editing tool alternatives click to show
- GIMP (*)(W,M,L,+) - "GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages." Does what it says. Used it once and only once, but I still trust it.
Google SketchUp (*)(W,M) - "Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D." Really great for drafting simple plans for lofts, tables, etc.

[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

[anchor]UTILITIES[/anchor]
[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

CCleaner (*****)(w) - "CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less than a second to run) and Free." Really great for cleaning temporary files and finding registry issues.
FastKake (**)(W) - "will create a set of handy and useful shortcuts which will give you full control of your Windows operating system and simplify your computing life." I use this to lock my computer screen when I log in from a reboot.
filehippo.com Update Checker (**)(W) - "The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions and then send this information to filehippo.com to see if there are any newer releases." I like hippos.
HashTab (**)(W) - "HashTab is a Windows shell extension which adds a tab called "File Hashes" to the Windows Explorer file properties." Rather nice when download sites include the hashes of the download for validity. Simple... should be standard in windows.
JkDefrag (*****)(W) - "a disk defragmenter and optimizer for Windows ... Completely automatic and very easy to use, fast, low overhead, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a Windows version, a commandline version (for scheduling by the task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts), a screensaver version, a DLL library (for use from programming languages), versions for Windows X64, and the complete sources." A really great tool. I have set it up as my screen saver to defrag stuff while the computer is at rest. It is fast and low memory footprint.
Defragmentation Tool Alternatives click to show
- Defraggler (***)(W) - "quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive" Just like it says. It is good if you only need certain files to be defragmented.
Open Command Window Here (**)(W) - "This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window pointing at the selected folder." Enough said. Use it a lot when testing command line programs.
Power Calculator (*)(W) - "With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions." Enough said.
Recuva (****)(W) - "freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer" It is really nifty. Made by the same people that make CCleaner, it does what it says and looks simple to use.
File Recovering Alternatives click to show
- PC Inspector File Recovery (****)(W) - "data recovery program and file undeleter. Recover deleted files with this great freeware utility." Need I say more?
Rehash (**)(W) - "ReHash is an easy-to-use console-based hash calculation tool written in standard C++. It may be freely distributed and modified under the terms of the BSD open source license." Supports tons of hash algorithms, and makes it easy for me to spot errors in my media archive.
Remove Empty Directories (**)(W) - "RED is a little utility that allows you to remove empty folders recursively. (for Windows, build with Winbinder)" VERY USEFUL. Always changing music directories and FTP directories, so I need to clean the old empty folders out.
7-Zip (***)(W) - "7-Zip is an open source file archiver predominantly for the Microsoft Windows operating system." Opens damn near everything, open source, and can be run through the command line. So far, 7Zip works best at archiving documents with the LZMA scheme to a 7Z archive (~60% reduction of PDFs).
SyncToy (**)(W) - "The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers." Perfect for backing up home pictures, music, or syncing folders and computers.
TweakUI (***)(W) - "This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more." Nice to tinker with. I set my school provided laptop to auto-login to my account always, then with FastKake, cause it to lock the screen. Preloading is Choice.
Unlocker (**)(W) - "Unlocker is the solution to the following types of Windows error messages... cannot delete..." Great to get rid of those goddamned files you know you want gone!

[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

[anchor]DESKTOP ENHANCEMENTS / KNICK-KNACKS[/anchor]
[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

Bilderman (*)(W) - "Bilderman is a simple screen capture application."
ClearType Tuner (****)(W) - "This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access." Makes things look quite a bit clearer in nearly all my windows applications.
Launchy (***)(W) - "Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!" Wow it is really cool. I avoid my mouse and type commands at my machine, this makes it so much easier! Love it, love it, love it! The only reason it isn't a 5 star, is because it uses 20MB+, I think it ought to use less.
Synergy (*****)(W,M,L) - "Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s)." CHOICE. I used this with my desktop and laptop and geeked out every day I used it. It can even work between machines not of the same OS.
Virtual Desktop Manager (***)(W) - "Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy." Really helpful, if you couldn't guess, I do a lot of things all at once, so I move to a new clean desktop with it.

[anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] | [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink]

01-04-2008, 09:15 AM	#26 (permalink)
Hain has a plan Location: middle of Whywouldanyonebethere	*[anchor]AROUND THE OFFICE TOOLS[/anchor]* [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] Foxit Reader ()(W) - "Foxit Reader is a free reader for PDF documents. You can view and print PDF documents with it." Faster than Adobe stuff. I use it. Lightning (*)(W,M,L,+) - "Manage your daily schedule directly within Thunderbird." Makes Thunderbird more like the all in one office utility that Microsoft Outlook is. I like it as it allows me to no longer use Rainlender. Just a reminder: this is a Thunderbird plugin. Calendar Alternatives click to show Sunbird [Mozilla] (**)(W,M,L,+) - "a cross-platform calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit. Our goal is to provide you with full-featured and easy to use calendar application that you can use around the world." It is part of the same Mozilla Calendar Project. Having the same look and feel as the Lightning Plugin for Thunderbird, one has no problem understanding the interface when switching from one to the other. These are separate programs. Rainlendar ()(W) - Rainlendar is a customizable calendar..."* I use it to keep track of my schedule. Helpful, lightweight. *Notepad++ ()(W) - "Notepad++ is a free source code editor (and Notepad replacement), which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment." Nifty little tool, hander than notepad and Wordpad combined. Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats [Microsoft] ()(W) - "Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007."* You are going to see alot more of DOCX and XLSX files. Now you don't have to wonder what to do with them. OpenOffice (*)(W,M,L,+) - "OpenOffice.org is an open-source, multiplatform and multilingual office suite comparable with MS Office." Pretty good considering it is free. Also, I have little need for MS Excell since I perform most of my data analysis though MATLAB anyways. PDF Split and Merge ()(W) - "A free open source tool to split and merge pdf documents." Just like its name implies. I use it plenty now. PDFCreator (**)(W) - "PDFCreator is a free tool to create PDF files from nearly any Windows application." It acts just like a printer, in fact, is seen by windows as a printer! Print Document to PDF Alternatives click to show *CutePDF ()(W) - "free version of commercial PDF creation software" Very basic, and requires an additional program that is not included with the installer. However, it works on my computer... unlike PDF Printer... PrimoPDF (**)(W) - "Convert to PDF from any application by simply 'printing'" Currently my replacement to PDF Printer, which for some reason had issues with the GUI when printing, and now freezes when printing. This is pretty good, however, it is not has clever as PDF Printer. [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] *[anchor]PHOTO / IMAGE PROCESSING[/anchor]* [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] *Blender ()(W,M,L,+) - "the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback." Never personally used it, however all of my graphic design friends that are learning 3-D animation with the "pop program of the week that wont be industry standard next week" teach themselves to use Blender. It is free, it is open source, it is muli platform compatible, and therefor it is always available to them. Exifer ()(W) - "...features regarding IPTC editing and viewing EXIF data."* I use this to edit time and date data for photos all the time. Does batch processing for groups of photos. For a more detailed explaination visit this thread, Changing Photo Time Stamp, Bulk Editor. Time Stamp Editing Alternatives click to show iPhoto (?)(M) - "iPhoto automatically organizes your photo library and makes editing as easy as clicking your mouse — so you can get the most out of even the biggest collection." Never used it, but was recommended by Redlemon as a solution to my problem but for the Mac user. It doesn't appear to be freeware... FastStone Image Viewer (*)(W) - "FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments." Paint.NET ()(W) - "free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools." It is very nice, and has become my photo-editing tool of choice. Photo editing tool alternatives click to show* GIMP ()(W,M,L,+) - "GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages." Does what it says. Used it once and only once, but I still trust it. Google SketchUp ()(W,M) - "Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D." Really great for drafting simple plans for lofts, tables, etc. [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] [anchor]UTILITIES[/anchor] [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] CCleaner (*)(w) - "CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less than a second to run) and Free." Really great for cleaning temporary files and finding registry issues. FastKake ()(W) - "will create a set of handy and useful shortcuts which will give you full control of your Windows operating system and simplify your computing life." I use this to lock my computer screen when I log in from a reboot. filehippo.com Update Checker ()(W) - "The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions and then send this information to filehippo.com to see if there are any newer releases." I like hippos. HashTab ()(W) - "HashTab is a Windows shell extension which adds a tab called "File Hashes" to the Windows Explorer file properties." Rather nice when download sites include the hashes of the download for validity. Simple... should be standard in windows. JkDefrag (***)(W) - "a disk defragmenter and optimizer for Windows ... Completely automatic and very easy to use, fast, low overhead, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a Windows version, a commandline version (for scheduling by the task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts), a screensaver version, a DLL library (for use from programming languages), versions for Windows X64, and the complete sources." A really great tool. I have set it up as my screen saver to defrag stuff while the computer is at rest. It is fast and low memory footprint. Defragmentation Tool Alternatives click to show Defraggler (*)(W) - "quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive" Just like it says. It is good if you only need certain files to be defragmented. Open Command Window Here ()(W) - "This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window pointing at the selected folder." Enough said. Use it a lot when testing command line programs. Power Calculator ()(W) - "With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions."* Enough said. Recuva ()(W) - "freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer" It is really nifty. Made by the same people that make CCleaner, it does what it says and looks simple to use. File Recovering Alternatives click to show PC Inspector File Recovery ()(W) - "data recovery program and file undeleter. Recover deleted files with this great freeware utility." Need I say more? Rehash ()(W) - "ReHash is an easy-to-use console-based hash calculation tool written in standard C++. It may be freely distributed and modified under the terms of the BSD open source license." Supports tons of hash algorithms, and makes it easy for me to spot errors in my media archive. Remove Empty Directories ()(W) - "RED is a little utility that allows you to remove empty folders recursively. (for Windows, build with Winbinder)" VERY USEFUL. Always changing music directories and FTP directories, so I need to clean the old empty folders out. 7-Zip ()(W) - "7-Zip is an open source file archiver predominantly for the Microsoft Windows operating system."* Opens damn near everything, open source, and can be run through the command line. So far, 7Zip works best at archiving documents with the LZMA scheme to a 7Z archive (~60% reduction of PDFs). SyncToy ()(W) - "The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers." Perfect for backing up home pictures, music, or syncing folders and computers. TweakUI ()(W) - "This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more." Nice to tinker with. I set my school provided laptop to auto-login to my account always, then with FastKake, cause it to lock the screen. Preloading is Choice. Unlocker ()(W) - "Unlocker is the solution to the following types of Windows error messages... cannot delete..."* Great to get rid of those goddamned files you know you want gone! [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] *[anchor]DESKTOP ENHANCEMENTS / KNICK-KNACKS[/anchor]* [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] *Bilderman ()(W) - "Bilderman is a simple screen capture application." ClearType Tuner (**)(W) - "This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access." Makes things look quite a bit clearer in nearly all my windows applications. Launchy ()(W) - "Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!"* Wow it is really cool. I avoid my mouse and type commands at my machine, this makes it so much easier! Love it, love it, love it! The only reason it isn't a 5 star, is because it uses 20MB+, I think it ought to use less. Synergy (***)(W,M,L) - "Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s)." CHOICE. I used this with my desktop and laptop and geeked out every day I used it. It can even work between machines not of the same OS. Virtual Desktop Manager (*)(W) - "Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy." Really helpful, if you couldn't guess, I do a lot of things all at once, so I move to a new clean desktop with it. [anchorlink=RECENT UPDATES]Augi's list[/ANCHORLINK] \| [ANCHORLINK= The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread]Biznatch's List[/anchorlink] Last edited by Hain; 06-22-2008 at 09:44 AM..