Applications

Office 365

I've used Word, Excel and PowerPoint ever since they were version 1 products. I've never really been a big fan of Project, Visio or Publisher because I've rarely ever found myself in a situation where I couldn't get the effect that I wanted from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. 

I absolutely love SharePoint but am not quite so into Teams. I've had a love/hate relationship with OneNote but that's well and truly over now because I've moved to Loop and am not coming back. Then there's the whole O365/ EntraID / Azure stuff which I use but don't particularly like. 

There was a point where I was going to write about O365 but decided not to. The market was already too saturated. Here's some blog posts that I've done on the subject;

• Erasing Backgrounds in PowerPoint (May 2020)

• Using your own Backgrounds in Microsoft Teams (April 2020)

G-Suite

I Jumped on the Google bandwagon with the introduction of Gmail about 20 years ago now and I've been using it ever since. I've run a few businesses on G-Suite but these days, I'd give O365 the edge. G-Suite is a great lower cost alternative.

My favourite parts of GSuite are, Gmail, Drive and Sites. The applications are quite impressive too and Google Analytics is incredible.  Google Photos is also worthy of a mention and it's my photo backup tool of choice. 

Affinity

Affinity is a relative newcomer. I started using it in 2022 after a couple of years of urging from my kids (and too much pointless marketing with too few new features from Corel), I decided to switch to this as my main Graphics package. Along the way I've also embraced Affinity Publisher but getting started on that one is a little complex. 

Also in their favour is that they have a lot of great tutorials on YouTube. 

• Affinity Website

• The Affinity Channel on YouTube

Skylum Luminar 

Luminar is my go-to software for enhancing photos. I used it to replace Adobe Lightroom.  I've used Luminar as V4, AI and Neo.  Neo has taken a while to become the best but it's there now. I used to say that you should own it outright but nowadays, their subscription model is better. I also own On1 (which I'm trying to find time to use) and Topaz (which  aims at a completely different market). 

• Skylum's Website

• Jim Nix - Easily the best videos explaining how to use Luminar

Corel Software

I used Corel Draw extensively from version 3 until about 2020. Unfortunately that didn't make me an artist. For many years it was an "everyday" app that I thought I would never replace but now it's been replaced by affinity. Why? Not for technical reasons (other than a high crash frequency), it was more that Affinity has some better tools and doesn't have questionable marketing tactics. 

Although I used to love WordPerfect and Quattro pro, I own them but haven't used them since Corel bought them.  I also have their video software but prefer Filmora.  I've used a few alternatives to Corel including the GIMP, Illustrator, PhotoShop, and Illustrator but I kept returning to Corel - until Affinity.

Notes/Domino

I've used Notes and Domino since version 3.0 back in 1993.  Twenty-seven years later and I'm still using it (now version 14) daily. Over the years there have been many attempts to replicate the capabilities of Notes. There has never been a single application that can do everything. 

Notes still has a security model that is unmatched by anything out there and it's one of the few applications left that still allows for actual "rapid" development.

I had thought that Microsoft's Outlook +  SharePoint + PowerApps, PowerAutomate and forms might do the trick but again, Microsoft lost the "citizen developer" and doesn't support decent security.  

HCL's recent moves, in exposing the REST API has moved domino back to being our most critical application. Pretty much anything can connect to it now. 

Chrome

I jumped on Chrome more or less as soon as it came out. I'd been using Firefox and Opera for years.  I wasn't using IE because "friends don't let friends use IE".  Now that Microsoft has finally fixed Edge to run on a Chrome build, I use edge for work and "chrome for home".  

I've disabled all the extensions in my browsers. You can no longer trust them. 

If I want to read a news site with lots of popups, I switch to Brave. 

Adobe

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Adobe. Mostly hate. They have a couple of good products, Acrobat, Illustrator and Photoshop but they have so many security issues and the UI for Acrobat leaves too much to be desired for usability. 

Over the years I've tried a lot of alternatives but none of them have been able to do everything that Acrobat does, so I've always had to come back. These days however, I've replaced all of their other applications (except Acrobat) with other software and I only use Acrobat for work (and I minimise my time in there). 

Notepad ++

A decade or so ago, when I was sick of having to switch to a DOS editor (QEDIT) for all of my text editing needs, I went through an exhausting review of all the major notepad replacements out there. Notepad++ was the only one that offered the four big ticket items on my wishlist; Code Syntax, Macros, Column Selection and Sorting. 

I've been using it ever since and it's probably the first thing I install on any new PC.

Notepad ++ is free and can be obtained from here.

Utility Software

There's a lot of great utility software out there and I prefer free and open source options, especially if they're multi-platform. Here are some of the best;

• 7-Zip: I found this a decade or two ago while looking for a free alternative to  WinZip. It's free and can be obtained from here. 

• VideoLAN (VLC): If you're after a media player that can play pretty much anything, VLC is the one to go to. Even better, it converts things too.  Get it here.

• FileZilla: I don't use FTP much but when I need to test something without the command line, I use FileZilla. Get it here.