Nifty Freebies
The first FREEBIE worth mentioning is the one geodesic_eye is firmly hosted on. There used to be Google Pages, but this was scrapped and we were all migrated to the new initiative. Google Sites is very user-friendly and easy for newbies to get started on without compromising the tools that are available for more advanced users. Lots of templates to choose from to skin your website and the reliable guarantee of secure content storage within the mighty Google universe. You only get 100 megabytes of on site storage, This means that bulky files, such as images and videos for example, are best stored on a FREE storage service and linked to appear in your posts here. I use PhotoBucket for images and (of course) YouTube for video. Other file sharing sites can help out with PDF and so on.
STARS
PIC FUN
Browser based interactive star map and virtual sky.
Photoscape does what Instagram does and much, much more. It's my
main photo editor since it was downloaded to test a few eons ago.
Very handy and friendly utility. Free!
Free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows realistic sky in
3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
RESEARCH & SHARING
Free PDF Creator
Most useful. Say you're reading an essay on the web and you need to ponder it
at length. Easy. Hit PRINT, select from the drop-down menu: PDFcreator and, in
a trice, you have a desktop PDF. Neat, in fact nifty and it has a sense of humour
as it does it.
Turn you photos into cool looking effects like vintage and retro snaps.
With this fun and simple darkroom you can apply filters, lightning
and borders as easy as one two three. Free!
DICTIONARY
Excellent (✓) not bad ( ) could do better ( ) don’t call us, we’ll call you ( )
♪
also see:
also:
artpad (online)
sketch & paint (online)
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*Try this (review) FREE feature rich screen print utility: LiveCapture (download)
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TEXT EDITOR
Simply the Best
Desktop utility and online resource to a
seemingly infinite array of information
Undowithoutable
It takes a little thoughtful time to get the hang of this excellent utility, but once you do it is an absolute godsend for any PC user. I tend to use this for snippets of HTML code, links and regular blurbs. Entire essays can be logged and actioned by typing a short keyword to trigger the text in question. Definitely a keeper.
Multi-tabbed Text Pad and Editor
Totally excellent and that's only scratching
surface. Simple to use ---- top of its game.
Quirky But Useful
This program will help you to convert letter case either if you need to capitalize the first letter in a name or if you forget to turn Caps Lock off while typing.
uppercase -> UPPERCASE (Ctrl+[) convert to upper case
lOWERCASE -> lowercase (Ctrl+]) convert to lower case
sErGe -> Serge (Ctrl+/) capitalize first letter
dENNIS -> Dennis (Ctrl+') invert text case
Totally Handy
Make a window roll into its title bar, send it to the back or make it stay on top. Minimize, maximize or close all visible windows, including minimizing to the tray area. Make a window translucent.
MIND MAP
Handy
Sure, you can use address bar inside a folder, but what
about files? ---> just select your target and right click.
There are more utilities on this link - check 'em out . . . .
Hyper-link Your Cognitive Clusters
Zillions of uses. Say you're outlining a piece of writing. First, you can extrapolate from your core concept (mindmapping what comes to er, mind) and then, when that's satisfactory, you can link to the actual work files in progress and also link to your research locations on the internet. All in one central place. The temptation is to have too many mind maps on the go, so some discipline is necessary! For research purposes this software is particularly useful for creating timelines and relationships between typologies (example: the history of Japanese literature and a visual web of haikai's various formal expressions). This connected outlining is an great way to remember facts and figures.
Free Winzip Alternative
No complaints whatsoever, in fact, I like this better than than
Winzip (which once upon a had a free version). Easy to use.
Virtual Rule For PC Screen
NOTE: The JR Directory Printer Utility is
worth trying out - on same link above)
Sometimes Crucial
Find what processes are running on your PC --- too many can hog system
memory and slow things down to a crawl. Some are downright malicious.
Press a green button and you're taken to an online definition with advice.
Crucial
Try it and never look back. Your online world turns into a quiet country stroll as contrasted with a manic Las Vagas.It also helps your computer memory to provide a much better response time.
Excellent
MsOffice is not cheap for either home or business versions. OpenOffice is FREE and possibly more comprehensive. Also, OpenOffice is COMPATIBLE with MsOffice! It's a no-brainer really, at least for those of us who are thrifty. Having said this, I am fond of
my trusty old MsOffice 2000 Business Version (which fell off a truck a long time ago).
This has to be totally useful to anyone running Firefox.
I use light yellow mostly as it's so cheery to read.
Damn Useful
This Photobucket Firefox addon allows you to right-click on images that appear on any web page and upload them directly to your Photobucket account. It also makes interacting with your Photobucket account a lot quicker and easier.
NOTE: Facebook users. . .
From the pop-up screen (when you clik a pic - black surround) you can ENLARGE the image. If you then send your pic to Photobucket using this Firefox add-on ('Photobucket Uploader 1.3.3' - see link below) it seems you will get a larger pic in your album than is normally allowable case. Apart from this handyness, Add-on is totally recommended.
Probably the BEST
For downloading DownloadHelper is a Firefox extension tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.
The Best PDF Reader – Over 130 Million Users.
Hard to believe it's FREE and allows so much to be done. A must for anyone who remotely has a use for a PDF reader. Beats the free version of Adobe hands down.
Totally handy quick define tool and more. . .
FastestFox (formerly SmarterFox) is one of the more powerful add-ons to enhance Firefox browsing. It displays a clean-looking bubble filled with customizable search engine shortcuts when you highlight a word or phrase.
MORE ON THEIR WAY . . .
Becomes so useful you want to upgrade!
CintaNotes lets you quickly save and tag any useful information
that you come across or just need to jot down.
MORE ON THEIR WAY . . .