Computer Software You Can't Do Without: Tools You Can Use to Get Organized and Save Money

Computers have always promised the ability to save people time and money. As consumers, we see it everywhere. When shopping for computer hardware we see it with the descriptions of the cpu, the printer, networking equipment and all other hardware. They boast about being faster to perform your work so as to save you time. The biggest place that we see promises of higher efficiency is with software. Office products promise to put all of your main functionality into one package that will allow you to prepare letters, memos, presentations, spreadsheets, and more. In my office, I'm constantly seeing new and additional software coming into play. Software for managing development coding. Software for communicating with coworkers and customers. Software for storing software. Software for everything!!! The reason we buy this software is simply because it does something that we think will save us time or money.

In my many years of experience working with computers, I still haven't been convinced that computers always save us time or money. The potential is there, but software development companies have realized a flaw in this idea. If software is saving people money, that means there is less available for them. So, companies have taken many different approaches to prevent this from happening. One such approach is marketing. A new product is marketed that it is superior to other products or previous versions. This makes us want to purchase it. This doesn't always work because if we have a product that works for us, we don't always buy. This is where limited support comes into play. Companies only offer support for a product for a limited amount of time. We may not need the newer version of some software for the new functionality, but if we want to continue to get support from the company, we are forced to upgrade.

There are many companies and individuals that use these approaches, as well as several others, to sell you software and keep you buying. Trial offers, limited features, subscriptions, etc. However, just because there is the ability to purchase software all around you, that doesn't mean you should always buy it. There are many free variations of software out and available to the public. Many times this is referred to as open source or free ware. This software sometimes takes some looking around to find it. That is because it is developed on low or no budget so there isn't money available to market it. That makes it harder to find, but doesn't mean it isn't effective.

Over the years, I have come across many different tools and applications that really have given me the ability to save time or money. This is by no means a complete list as I'm sure there are hundreds or thousands of applications still out there that I haven't found yet, or maybe never will.

Office Productivity

>Google Docs - This is Google's approach to the need for an office suite of applications. It provides you with a document editor, a spreadsheet editor and a presentation editor. The interesting thing here is that everything is stored online with your Google account. This means you have access to them anywhere you can get online. This also means you can't get to them when you do not have access to the Internet. In addition, Google Docs allows you to share documents with others. This provides one central place for the documents to come from instead of e-mailing copies of your document all over the place. For me, this is a great application.

>Google Calendar - This is a great calendar application which can help you to get organized and link it with your Google GMail account. You have many options that you can use to setup for reminders, sharing the calendar amongst friends and family and more.

>Open Office - Open Office is a full office suite that is most comparable to Microsoft's Office suite. It is a free solution compared to the hundreds of dollars that you'll spend to purchase MS Office. It attempts to be compatible with the MS Office formats, but you should expect to lose some formatting when converting files.

Internet Tools/Filters/Protection

>Firefox - This is an Internet browser which can be used as a replacement for Internet Explorer. Since Internet Explorer is the most widely used Internet browser, many hackers develop viruses and spy ware applications to work against the flaws in Internet Explorer to spread their mischievous software. Firefox is a great alternative to IE which gives you a bit more protection. It is quick and light weight and it has hundreds of additional plug ins that you can add to customize and enhance the browser.

>Google Chrome - This is another Internet browser alternative to IE. Much like Firefox (above), it replaces the use of Internet Explorer which is a highly targeted browser for spy ware, viruses and other mischievous content. I haven't used this one since I've been overly satisfied with Firefox, but given the other successes of Google, I'd suspect that it is also a great product.

>K9 Web Protection - K9 is a web content filter. It is marketed as a solution to protect kids from the many inappropriate sites fount out on the Internet. This is a home based product that falls under the Blue Coat corporation, who's main focus is on providing large businesses with Internet filtering.

>Windows Defender - This is an anti-spyware program intended for the Windows operating system. It works in conjunction with the firewall protection that is built to the operating system. This works well, especially with an additional anti-spyware application such as AdAware listed below.

>AdAware - Spy ware can be a disaster if it gets onto your computer. Adaware helps to keep your computer free of spy ware and remove it if it gets on there.

AntiVirus

>AVG Antivirus - Like Avast below, this is a free antivirus program. It works very well and is much more simple than the programs you have to pay for like Symantec .

>Avast Antivirus - Avast is a great antivirus program. It works well, quick and is completely free for the Home edition. It gets its program and virus database updates automatically and will quickly and easily warn you when you have a potential infection.

Music

>Audio grabber - This is a simple application for ripping music off of CD's and making them into MP3 files for your computer or your portable music player. You can find this functionality in many other applications as well, but I've been a fan of audio grabber for years. It is easy and it works!

>Winamp - This is an audio file organization and playing suite. It works well and gives the user lots of flexibility for working with mp3 (and other) formats as well as syncing with portable music devices. It is most comparable to the iTunes package, but isn't quite identical in functionality.

Images

>Picasa - This is a great application for sorting your photos and making basic edits. It isn't a professional quality application, but it works great for the general photo users. Since it is a Google product, it also links to their photo sharing site and allows for easy uploading of images in order to share and print them.

>GIMP - GIMP is an advanced image editing application for working with photos. It is comparable to Adobe's Photoshop but it is free, unlike the several hundred dollar photoshop. I'm no Photoshop expert, so I couldn't compare the two very well, but I've had some workings with both. GIMP doesn't have quite as many features as photoshop, but if you have the need to edit images and you are on a tight budget, it is worth giving this one a look.

Finance

>Clear Checkbook - Clear Checkbook is an online checkbook registry service. You can create multiple accounts (checking, savings, credit card, etc.) and you just enter your transactions into it as you would a regular checkbook registry. You can categorize your transactions and then generate reports in order to see where you're spending or earning from. This doesn't actually link to your accounts, so it makes for an easy and secure way to verify the balance on your different accounts.

>Mint.com - Mint is an online service that allows for easy tracking of your many different accounts. I'll be honest here, I don't use this because I don't like the idea of entering all of my financial data into this site, however, I have coworkers and friends that use it and love it. Word is that it simplifies keeping track of where your money is going and coming from.

Misc.

>Primo PDF - I love this software. It installs like a printer would, giving you the option to print to the Primo PDF software. However, instead of spitting out paper like your printer does, it generates a PDF file of whatever it was you printed. This is a great alternative for printing out bill payments and online shopping receipts. You don't have to find a place to put that paper. Just print to the Primo PDF software, generate your PDF file and save it for future reference.

>7-zip - This is a free alternative to WinZip. WinZip and 7-Zip allow you to compress or decompress files into a "package" which makes them easier for distribution. This package is becoming less popular these days because the Windows Operating System is now building in the ability to decompress these files without the use of additional software. None the less, it is easy to use and a great free alternative to WinZip.

Finding More Software

The list above includes just some of the software that I use, or know to be widely appreciated. There are so many additional tools available for just about any type of need. Here are a ways to help you find good and free (or cheap) software.

>Tucows - A software download website. It offers all types of software from different providers. Reviews and ratings help you to find just the right software for your needs. Not all of the software on this site is free, so pay attention to the type of software it is and the terms of its use.

>Download.com - Another software download website. This is just like tucows, just from a different company. Much of the software is the same that you'll find on tucows, but there are some differences too. It is worth searching both of these sites if you are looking for specific software.

>Source Forge - This site specializes in open source software. Everything on this site should be free to download. Be careful here because a lot of the software is still in a beta stage, meaning it hasn't been fully completed and released for general use. You can use it and may have no problems, but it could also result in errors or problems. Generally though, this is a great source to find unique software solutions or no-cost alternatives.

>Google Search - When it doubt, "Google It". Google is a great place to find content. As with any search, you'll have to sort through the millions of results that you get back. Take caution here with what you find. Viruses are out there and hoping to be downloaded.

A quick word of caution before wrapping this up. The one concern that you need to be aware of when using free software is viruses or ad ware. One easy way for hackers to distribute malicious software is to advertise it as a free software solution. Users find it, download and install it and then get infected. Once the user finds out that the software doesn't really do what they want, it is too late. You can protect yourself from this by being extra cautious about where you download your software from. Some of the sites listed above are trusted sources for free ware and open source software. If you stick to sites that you know, or that are widely accepted, chances are you'll be OK. If you aren't sure about a site or the software that they offer, try searching for reviews of the specific software name or the site. If you are still in doubt, don't download it and install it. Also, make sure that your virus, firewall and other Internet protection software is up to date and running.

Good luck and enjoy.