If you read my previous post you know I’ve been busy reinstalling software onto my new computer. And while I have many purchase software programs, much of what I use is free (or nearly free) software I download from the internet. I’ve been busy relocating old favourites but I’ve also had a chance to discover some new things that I suspect will quickly become faves.
Since I’ve been immersed in software, I thought I’d share my list of must have programs.
TweetDeck
Although Twitter has added some cool features that make it more interesting to use Twitter from Twitter.com, I’m still a big user of TweetDeck. It allows me to manage my Twitter feed much easier. I can have several columns open at once; one for everyone I’m following, two for groups I want to follow more closely, @replies people have sent me and direct messages. Thanks to my new monitor, I can see all those columns at once. There’s also a column for Facebook news feed. I can even comment or “like” people’s Facebook comments from within TweetDeck.
Skype
Skype is an instant messaging, video chat and voice phone. Calls are free to other Skype users, no matter where they are in the world. What’s handy about it is I can see if one of my connections is available. This is handy if I’m working at odd hours. I would never dream of phoning someone at 5 a.m. or 10 p.m., but if they’re on Skype I feel free to send a message.
You can also quickly send files, have group calls and a record of previous instant message conversations.
There are also several features that I haven’t tried but may look into for the future. You can pay for long distance so you can dial land lines and cell phones from within Skype. I understand the rates are really low.
Even more interesting, you can purchase phone numbers in various countries. People using a phone can dial that number and reach you on Skype. Other than the cost of the phone number, the call to you is free. Canadian phone numbers aren’t available but U.S. ones are. If you are outside the U.S. but dealing with American clients, this is an inexpensive way to make it easier (and cheaper) for U.S. residents to contact you.
Firefox
Mozilla’s Firefox is my current web browser. I’ve never liked Internet Explorer; I find Firefox much more appealing. Plus, being open source software it tends to be more secure. But even better, if there’s something you wish Firefox could do there is probably someone else who felt the same who has written a plugin to make Firefox do it. Here is a list of my favourite Firefox plugins:
Colorzilla
Colorzilla adds an eyedropper to the lower left corner of your browser. Click on the eyedropper and your cursor turns into a crosshatch. Hover it over any part of the website you are looking at and Colorzilla will tell you what the html code is for that colour. Right click on the eyedropper and you have a number of options to choose from. One option is the Webpage DOM Color Analyzer which gives you an entire palate of colours used on the site you are looking at.
Why would anyone possibly want this? If you’re not a graphic designer, deciding what colours go well together can be a challenge. If you see a website that looks particularly attractive you can grab their colour pallet to use in your own projects.
However, I use even more basically. I am forever forgetting the html codes I use on my website. Whenever I am creating a new document I want to keep the colours consistent. I just go to my website and use Colorzilla to instantly grab the correct colour codes. Saves me having to look them up. A small thing, yes, but it has been ever so useful to me.
Read It Later
This is one of the news ones I discovered and I love it. I’m always discovering interesting articles that I fully intend to read later, when I have a moment. So I leave the page open as a tab in my browser. The problem is some days I’ll run across several pages. I’ll leave the tabs open to read tomorrow. If I have too many open, it starts to slow down Firefox when I turn it on. Yes, I could bookmark them. However, often it’s something I just want to read once.
That’s where Read It Later comes in. It adds a check mark in the address bar. If I want to save a site I click on the check and it’s added to the list. When I’m ready to read, my list is saved and ready for me to read. My browser looks cleaner and loads faster plus I don’t have to worry about losing the pages if I do something stupid.
Twitter Bar
This plugin adds a Twitter icon to your addressbar. You can easily send the URL of the page your are looking at by clicking on the icon. But you don’t just have to send the URL. Twitter Bar lets you add text as well. Just type what you want to Tweet right in the address bar. No more copying the URL, flipping over the Twitter and pasting. It’s all one step.
Wisestamp
If you use webmail services such as gmail, this plugin is for you. Wisestamp lets you create email signatures that are attractive, and include whatever information you want. You can include a photo, links, social media links complete with icons, your IM service or whatever you want. It’s easy to set up and the signature files look very attractive. I can’t wait until they have a version that works with Thunderbird!
Filezilla
When uploading files to your website you need an FTP program. Filezilla is a good one. Easy to use and will store multiple user names and passwords so if you have multiple sites you upload to regularly you won’t have to remember them all.
Audacity
Audacity is a sound recording and editing program. It looks crazy complicated because apparently you can do all sorts of wild editing and effects. I use about six features. That’s all you really need to know to get started recording and doing some basic editing. It may take you a while to figure out how to get started but once you do, you’ll be happy you took the time.
Now all of these tools are promoted as free downloads. Several however have a donation button on their websites. If you like the tool, toss them a few bucks. It sure beats paying full price for commercial versions.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Do you have a favourite tool I’ve missed? Please leave a comment and tell us about it. Don’t forget the URL so we can try it out too!
