Archive for the ‘Freeware’ Category

DevVicky Word 2010 - a very capable free word processor

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

We recently found a freeware word processor called DevVicky Word 2010, and like it very much.  It has some great features, especially when you consider that it is free!

 DevVicky Word 2010 Splash Screen

The user interface and toolbars will be familiar to anyone who has ever used almost any modern word processor:

(click image below to open enlarged in a new tab or window)

devvickyscreen.jpg

DevVicky Word 2010 will create, edit and save files as .rtf, .htm, .docx, .doc, and .txt: 

DevVicky Word 2010 Save Formats

An ODF to Word and Word to ODF converter is included as well.

For web editing, HTML stylesheet options are configurable from the Menu Bar via Options… HTML…

 DevVicky Word 2010 HTML Options

DevVicky Word 2010 will also export created files as .pdf and as .css:

 DevVicky Word 2010 File Export Formats

PDF settings are configurable from the Menu Bar via Options… PDF…

DevVicky Word PDF Settings

Another nice feature is the Doc Reader, which uses the Microsoft Text-to-Speech Engine to read your documents to you.  The machine-read text can also be saved as a .wav file:

DevVicky Word 2010 Doc Reader

Click the green Play arrow below to hear Microsoft Mary talk about us:

 

As a free, standalone word processor, we think you’ll find this program hard to beat.  Interested in finding out more?  Details and a link to download the program are on the DevVicky website.

Malware: Infecting the Unexpecting

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Different kinds of malware have been infecting computers since 1988. Here’s a breakdown of the different kinds, what they do and where they come from, courtesy of the Intac web hosting blog.

(click the image below to open it enlarged in a new tab or window…)

Malware Infographic

So, how do Windows users avoid getting infected by malware?  Here are a few basic steps:

As always, if you need help recovering from a malware infestation or with proactive prevention, contact us!  We’d be happy to be of assistance!

Free Websites Reloaded

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Just over a year ago, we blogged about free website builders aimed at non-technical users.  This is a subject that we get questions about all the time.  Here are more resources:

Mark Thompson recently posted 45 Web Builders to Create an Insanely Awesome Free Website on the 1stwebdesigner blog.

The Smashing Apps blog recently featured 13 Easy And Powerful Website Building Tools To Create Your Free Site.

100 Free and Useful Portable Apps

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

What’s a portable app?  A piece of software that can be run and used from a portable drive - typically a USB flash drive - without installation on a host computer.  They can be handy if you use multiple computers or if you use public computers.

This list is aimed at college students, but the general public will find many of these useful as well. 

Megan Jones (the author of the above-linked article) writes:

The following portable apps cover everything from documents to note-taking to organization to security to helpful tools and more, are all small enough to go anywhere, and cost absolutely nothing.

See also John Haller’s PortableApps.com, PortableAppZ, Pendriveapps.com, App-Stick, and The Portable Freeware Collection for more.   Portable freeware suites or compilations like the Lupo PenSuite are also available.

IBM Lotus Symphony goes portable…

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

We’ve blogged about IBM Lotus Symphony many times in the past, and are fans of this free office productivity suite.

lotus-head-2.jpg

Now there’s a portable version of this software, packaged to be run directly from a USB drive without installing anything nor leaving a footprint on the host PC.

The portable version was put together via a partnership between IBM, VMware and NSEC, and was packaged for NSEC’s Keypod line of USB storage devices

It can be downloaded free of charge from the Keepod Store.  This version will run from any USB storage device; ownership of a Keepod is not necessary.  You will have to register and give a valid email address to get to the 188 MB file download.

Be advised that this version weighs in at a beefy 493 MB unzipped:

493mb-2.jpg

Like many portable applications, it doesn’t start up as quickly as the installed-to-the-hard-drive version.  The portability factor is, in our view, a reasonable tradeoff for a slower-than-expected start up.  Once the suite is open performance is on par with the installed version.   

Edit 01/14/2010:

Here’s a more in-depth article about IBM Lotus Symphony courtesy of the How-To Geek

Free Software for Business Use

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Many free software programs are licensed for home, non-commercial, or non-business use only.  Our Links to Free Software page contains a note about this which states:

Some free software licenses stipulate home or personal use only - read the license agreements and let your conscience be your guide…

Here is a well-researched, two-page long list of software applications that may legitimately be used in a business setting over at the Donation Coder forums. In this age of doing more with less, I thought that blogging it would be appropriate.

As always, if you aren’t sure what you need, contact us!  We’ll be happy to help!

Back to School 2009

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Actually, school here in metro Birmingham, AL has been back in session since mid-August.  However, since this is Labor Day weekend with tomorrow being the “traditional” start of school for many, we thought we’d note some resources that would be useful for students and parents.

The first is a post we wrote a couple of years ago about web-based applications for students.

The second is an article written for Mashable by Josh Catone entitled Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students.  He writes:

“From staying organized to improving study habits to making sure you reference your research sources properly, the web can help you be a better student.”

The third is a call from blogger Bill Mullins urging High School/College Students (to) Line Up Here for Your Free PC Software.  Bill’s picks are, in his words:

“…recommended free downloads that will help you communicate, get those assignments done, have some fun, and manage and protect your system while you’re surfing the Internet.”

Bill mentions Open Office in his picks.  We’ve pointed out several Microsoft Office Alternatives over the last few years.  As we’ve said before, “free is good”, especially in this day and time of belt-tightening.

Looking for other sources for legitimate, free software?  We maintain a list on out links pages!

Best Websites of 2009 (+ Edit)

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Here are two sets of picks for the best websites of 2009 - one from Time Magazine, and one from PC Magazine.  The latter also features a downloadable application that will add add all 100 sites to your IE Favorites (you can also export them to Firefox).

We’ll edit this post whenever more lists come out between now and the end of 2009.

Edit 10/30/2009:

techradar.com has a six page list entitled 95 Websites You Should Totally Bookmark Today that is worth a read.

More CD / DVD Burning Freeware…

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

We blogged on this about a year ago.  Recently, v3.co.uk made a full, commercial version of Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 available for free download.

Nero has also made a free version of Nero 9 available, though this version is somewhat feature-limited.  Download Squad’s Lee Mathews doesn’t care for it, and we can agree with the negative aspects that he pointed out about this application.

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is a free and lightweight disc burning software program for most Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The website is in Russian by default, but clicking the British flag in the upper right corner will change the page to read in English.  This program has a ton of features generally not found in other free burning software.

Ashampoo Office 2008 for cheap (or free…) (+ Edits)

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Ashampoo Office 2008 is a “rebranded” version of SoftMaker Office 2008.  We blogged about SoftMaker Office 2006 last year, and noted that the freeware 2006 version did an excellent job with word processing and spreadsheets but did not include a presentation (PowerPoint-like) application.

Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2008 corrects this with a very capable presentation application that can also utilize templates originally created for PowerPoint.

Softpedia posted an article earlier this spring detailing how to buy a copy of Ashampoo Office 2008 for $4.99.  From that article, here is a direct link to Ashampoo’s offer.

The second link on the left side of that Ashampoo offer (the first black button) says “Download 30 days free full version HERE”  Clicking that link in turn takes you to a CNET download.com page where the installation file can be downloaded and saved.

According to the Planete Beranger blog, A full license key to turn this 30-day version of Ashampoo Office 2008 into a full, non-time limited version can be obtained from Ashampoo by filling out this form using a valid email address.

Once you’ve obtained your key from Ashampoo via email, go ahead and run the installation file you downloaded from CNET download.com.  Enter the name, email address, and serial number you received from Ashampoo in their reply email when prompted.  After the installation is complete, download and install SoftMaker’s service pack from here, which will make sure your Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2008 installation is fully up-to-date.

Here’s how to make this very capable office suite save files in Microsoft Office (.doc, .xls, .ppt) formats automatically. You’ll need to do this in all three (TextMaker 2008, PlanMaker 2008, and Presentations 2008) programs.

After installation, click on Tools, Options… in the menu bar…

Tools, Options

…and and then click on the Files tab at the top of the Options window.

Options

The drop-down menu labeled Default file format (as shown above) allows the default file format to be set to your choice of Microsoft Office-compatible formats.

TextMaker documents will then be saved with a .doc file extension, PlanMaker spreadsheets will be saved with a .xls file extension, and Presentations will then be saved with a .ppt file extension automatically by default so they can be shared with Microsoft Office users.

Hopefully these links will all last.  Either deal - free or five bucks - is pretty hard to beat for what you get.  Take advantage of it before Ashampoo does away with it.

Edit 07/19/2009:

InfoWorld says:

“ SoftMaker Office 2008 shows superior compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, while OpenOffice.org 3.1 falls flat”

The For Free On Internet blog also has a recent post about how to get Ashampoo Office 2008 for free.

Edit 10/12/2009:

Here’s a video review and tutorial for Ashampoo Office 2008 courtesy of infopackets.com:

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