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.

Moving out from the core applications, the Office 365 admin system is great, and I use Teams, OneNote and Outlook (generally preferring the web experience) constantly. I'm getting into PowerBI and PowerApps but I simply don't have enough time to really get into them. I absolutely love SharePoint as well.

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 as a welcome replacement to InDesign (and one which has a decent UI).

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 use it to replace Adobe Lightroom. It's light-years ahead of 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'd also recommend paying the extra money to own it outright.

• Skylum's Website

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

Corel Software

I've been using Corel Draw extensively since version 3. Unfortunately that doesn't make me an artist. Most of the things I produce in Corel are either technical drawings or photo retouchings. I've gotten very good at restoring historic photos. I do occasionally do work for websites as well. My main Corel go-to's are Photo-Paint, Draw and Paint Shop Pro. I dabble with a few of their other products; Painter, PhotoMirage, Aftershot as well.

Although I used to love WordPerfect and Quattro pro, I 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 seem to keep returning to Corel.

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 11) almost 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.

Microsoft's latest attempt, using Outlook, SharePoint, PowerApps, PowerAutomate and forms is a good one and it's obviously succeeding. I've been transitioning to Microsoft's much more expensive space but there are some things that are just too much work to move from Notes and too difficult to rebuild in O365. Integration is the future.

Chrome

I jumped on Chrome more or less as soon as it came out. I'd been using Firefox and Opera for years (and I still use them). I don't use 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 occasionally too but most of the time I still find myself in Chrome.

The key extensions that I run for Chrome are; Feedly (to replace the old Google Reader which I loved), ScriptSafe, TamperMonkey and Microsoft Defender to keep things safe.

Adobe

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Adobe. 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 the key applications (except Acrobat) with other software.

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.