ELM Bulletin - June 29, 2007
Utilities That Save Us Time
(Or that we just plain like to use)
In the ELM Bulletin of September 2006 (click here to read it) we supplied a list of our favourite software which we encourage you to review. This month we would like to update that list with some of the utilities that we use here at ELM on a regular basis.
PLEASE NOTE: We do not recommend installing software listed in this or any other ELM Bulletin without first discussing it with your IT specialist. Some software may be prohibited by corporate policy, others may conflict with software already on your system. Additionally, not all of the software listed here may have been tested with Windows Vista. If you are installing to a Vista system we recommend that you try the software on a test system prior to installation in a production level system. All software listed has been tested on XP systems.
1 - PDF Creation: CutePDF Writer - Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is one of the best ways to share documents with others, ensuring that documents will be displayed as they were designed. But how do you convert the document to a PDF file in the first place? Adobe Acrobat (not the free Reader) is the natural tool to use but it is costly. Microsoft Office 2007 has a PDF creator add-in (as does the free Open Office suite listed in September's ELM Bulletin) but many applications do not share this functionality. CutePDF Writer (available here) remedies this by installing itself as one of your printers; a printer that creates PDF files rather than paper output.
2 - Screensaver: Google Photos - Windows has a number of pleasing screensavers bundled with it but if you're longing for your screensaver to cycle through your favourite images Google Photos Screensaver (available here) is just the ticket allowing you to specify any image on your computer to be included as part of your screensaver. Google Photos Screensaver is supplied through Google Pack which is a bundle of Google utilities from which you can pick those you wish to install.
3 - Internet Enhancement: Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer - Also bundled with Google Pack (available here) is Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. This enhancement is compatible with both Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 and provides many useful features not included in Internet Explorer.
4 - File Management: Lupas Rename - Most of us have copied images from a digital camera or scanner and been afterwards confused by the abundance of cryptic file names. If you are like me you will want to rename them to make their names more descriptive of the data they contain, yet manually renaming more than a few files is a daunting project. One utility that I have found extremely useful in renaming hundreds of files in mere minutes is Lupas Rename 2000 (available here). This utility is very flexible and allows you to rename a series of files using almost any convention you need.
5 - Display Resolution: Multires - Both Windows XP and Windows Vista default to a screen resolution of 800 X 600. In most cases this is acceptable but there may be occasions where you need to quickly change the resolution of your display or use a resolution not supported by the operating system (such as 640 X 480). Multires (available here) is the perfect answer to these situations. Once installed it resides in the system tray (beside the clock) and can be used to quickly change to any resolution supported by your display adaptor with a single click.
6 - File Compression/Extraction: ZipGenius - Both Windows XP and Windows Vista include the ability to open a ZIP archive (an archive of one or more files compressed into a single file) by double clicking on it from within Windows Explorer. Unfortunately this method of opening compressed archives is not the fastest available. We have been using ZipGenius (available here) and have found it to be not only much faster than Windows' native ZIP utility (typically five to ten times faster) but also much easier to use.
7 - Taskbar Enhancement: Visual Task Tips - One of the highly praised features of Windows Vista is its ability to display a live view of running applications while you switch between them via the ALT-TAB shortcut key combination. This feature does not exist in Windows XP but with Visual Task Tips (available here) you will be able to see a live view of any running application simply by hovering your mouse over its icon in the task bar; making it easier to switch between applications when many are running at the same time.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.
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Peter Rhebergen Telephone |
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