Whenever I buy a new computer for the office or home, I’m always astounded at how the biggest part of the price is for the software! Now, I understand that there’s development costs and the like, but it’s still a big chunk of money to put down for something that you will have to buy again in a few years.
So because of that, I am always on the lookout for freeware or shareware that’s inexpensive and keeping my eye open for new ways of doing things that will make my life easier.
Here’s a few of the things I’ve discovered!
AVG Anti-virus: Great free anti-virus program for basic protection. AVG also has root-kit protection and a number of other free products.
Babelfish: Need to translate to and from a variety of languages. This is one of the better translators out there.
Cooltext: Need a new banner or logo? Need to find a new font to use? This is the place for you!
Dollzmania: Want to create dolls, glitter graphics, avatars and more? This is a great site and easy to use.
Flash Forge: This is a free program which converts Flash files into screensavers with installers. Look for more on this one on Friday when I offer you up some screensavers from THE CALLING.
GIMP: GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program and is good free software for working with images, photos, etc.
GoogleDocs: Need to backup some documents? Or keep them where you can access them from anywhere? Open a Google account and check out GoogleDocs which offers basic wordprocessing, presentation and spreadsheet capabilities.
Microsoft GIF Animator: Created animated banners using this free software. You will need to make sure all your files are GIFs.
PrimoPDF: Free software for creating PDF files.
A-PDF: Need to extract text from a PDF file? Another piece of freeware to do that for you.
WordPress: What can I say? An absolutely fabulous, free and friendly way to build a website. All of my sites are now built in this and it gives me amazing flexibility with the many plugins that are available to use.
Hope some of the above help save you a little time and money!
i jjust sent ur blog link to my daughter, she has dsl and can do stuff, my 28.8 on a good day, dial up works, mostly it like 24. something
THANK YOU for the links though
Thanks, Amie.
I was wracking my brains trying to remember that this morning, but couldn’t!!
If anyone else has any suggestions, please post them!
I haven’t had a chance to play with it much but there’s also Open Office (a free answer to Microsoft Office).
Why must you torture this Luddite with these lovely, yet still unobtainable for the simple-minded, things?
Most generous of you, however. I sent my girls to your blog. If and when they get around to helping their mother, they will have the resources. Thanks, sweetie.
Thanks for the advice about majorgeeks. It’s amazing how quickly computers can get infected with all kinds of malware.
I forgot to mention SPYBOT, which is another great free program for tracking spyware.
I can also highly recommend majorgeeks.com as a resource if you end up with an infestation of malware. They have a really good guide that will step you through the cleanup process and point you to all the free tools you need to do it. By the way I have had good results with AVG Anti-Virus whereas Computer Associates Anti-Virus has not worked as well.
I second your opinion of WordPress though I’m not nearly as far along as you are in terms of expertise.