I’ve known about this browser extension for a while, but I am writing about it now after using it recently and finding it to be an invaluable tool.

I recently needed to download some 450 or so entries into Excel from a browser-based workflow and ticketing system that we use at work . There is no “export” function and I simply intended to copy and paste the rows of text into my spreadsheet. The only problem was that there were 40 listings per each displayed page in the browser, and that number was not customizible. I would have had to manually browse through a dozen or so pages and copy and paste a whole bunch of times in order to complete what I thought should have been a fairly straightforward process. This is when I remembered the PageZipper bookmarklet on my browsers; a single click loaded all listings pages instantly into the same browser page, and a single copy/paste transferred all the data into my spreadsheet all at once.

Here are more notes on this program:

• It works well: in articles or listings that employ “next” links to move to the next page, including most search-style results.
• It does not work well: in articles or pages that do not use “next” links or use a custom navigation scheme such as javascript (it does not work well with this site).
• Headers and footers: from all pages are loaded into your consolidated page. This means that if you want to grab the information on the page and are concerned about esthetics you will have to go in later on and clean up your web clipping manually.
• Be careful how you use: using PageZipper on search results that may span dozens or hundreds of pages means that your browser will be downloading and appending pages forever, and you will have to abort.
• How to install: for Firefox you simply install a plugin. For IE you will need to place a Javascript bookmarklet on your favorites toolbar (or in your favorites folder). Instructions on how to do this are on the PageZipper site.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• The option to specify a specific number of “next” links to load. For example, if I am looking at a set of results that span 100 pages I might want to, say, consolidate and clip the first 5 pages only. It would be great if I could specify this, although I realize that it may be tough to embed too much interactive functionality into a javascript bookmarklet.

The verdict: a brilliant and original idea. This little service will be extremely valuable to anyone who does a lot of research on the internet (and/or a lot of clipping of web content). It will also be very valuable to anyone who might work with browser-based reporting systems where they might want to grab/clip or quickly copy information that spans many pages wholesale into the clipboard.

Compatibility: Requires Internet Explorer or Firefox browser.

Go to the PageZipper page to get the latest version.

Possible uses are up to your imagination, and include merging disparate chapters or parts of an audiobook into a single file, archiving and organizing albums, and creating a single file for easier publishing or sharing on the net.

Ir ecently downloaded an audiobook that was dispersed over 36 or so separate MP3 files. As I started listening I realized that it was quite difficult to keep track of where I last left off and which of the numbered files I had already listened to. Also, it was impossible to get an overall mental picture of how many minutes I had listened to and how many still remain.

This is when I started looking for free programs that can merge audio files into one, and MakeItOne MP3 Album Maker is one of the best that I found. Here’s what I like about it:

1. The merging process is reversible: MakeItOne seems to store the information needed for this within the audio file itself.
2. Preserves audio tags: with the ability to edit this data before combining.
3. Ability to add album art: within the MP3 file itself, from a locally saved image file. Will not fetch from the internet.
4. Nice Interface: with drag and drop functionality
5. Command line interface/scripting option: is available
6. Can split Albumwrap-merged files: which you may occasionally encounter on the internet.
7. Supports VBR: in some fashion. MP3s that are between 96-320Kbps 44KHz 16bit Stereo should play fine, but the duration of the album will be misreporeted. However, to quote the developer’s site, the program’s "support for VBR is no worse currently than any other Album Maker/Joiner/Wrapper Mp3 application." Go here for more info.

The verdict: if you need to merge MP3 files this is one of the best options around. If I could ask for one feature, however, it would be the option to save CUE files, which some related programs utilize. Aside from that I can report this program does exactly what it promises and does it well. Recommended.

Version Tested: 3.4

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires MS .NET Framework 1.1 or higher for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 432K).

SPlayer is a free, open source media player that is lightweight, well designed, and quite powerful. It promises to play every conceivable media format (including DVD’s and streaming media), and to optimize your audio and video quality to best utilize your hardware specifications. It is light on power consumption, making it ideal for laptop/travel use, is truly portable, and offers a handful of innovative features such as on-demand automatic downloads of subtitles.

Wow! Where did this one come from? To start let me just state that there is an undeniable wealth of fantastic free media players available, such as The KMPlayer, which I am very fond of, VLC, GOM Player, BSPlayer, to name a few. Which is why it is quite an achievement when a newcomer can lump all of the others together and somehow differentiate itself. Splayer does exactly that by means of its sheer “economy”; i.e. by being lightweight, having a small footprint, being truly portable and light on power consumption, and by its sparse yet sleek interface. It does this while simultaneously being innovative and offering a breadth of features. Here are more notes on this program:

• Lightweight: low footprint, low startup and playback memory footprints, low energy consumption (perfect for laptop travel use).
• Design: a lot of attention to detail when it comes to interface design and look and feel. Splayer seems sparse and simple; on-screen controls appear only when you hover over the program dialog. They succeed in presenting a clean, minimalist interface even when the program has a lot of features on offer.
• Optimizes picture and sound quality: reduces screen noise, features algorithms that are enhance image and sound quality, optimized for multi-core SSE2 SSE3 MMX GPU etc
• Portable version available: unzip and run; includes all internal codecs that can play any media file in any environment. Look for the word “portable” on the program page to find the download link to the portable version.
• Streaming: streams any format; allows users to supply URL for media on the internet.
• Audio and video capture: to disk from device, supported.
• Other features: “subtitle matching” automatically downloads and displays subtitles, bookmark favorite media, pin as topmost window, tweak transparency, capture screenshots, automatically remove black bar (if any) for widescreen video, etc.

Wish list

• One thing I noticed switching from KMplayer on Windows 7 was that video file icons added after the switch no longer automatically displayed a preview screenshot as their icon. A minor issue but I hope it will be addressed.

The verdict: a very nice player that is also open source. With its combination of (a) being extremely light on resources, (b) having a very nice and sleek interface, and (c) playing every conceivable media format this program has won itself a permanent stay on my machine. It has also just become the default media player that I would recommend to people if asked. You will like it.

Version Tested: 3.3 (build 1021)

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 5.75 megs).

See the screenshot to the right above to get a sense of what this program can do. The actual purpose of these “scenesheets” is a bit open ended and really depends on your needs and the way you manage or view your video collection. For example, you could use Scenegrabber to batch-create a library of these thumbnail sheets that you can use for content preview purposes, especially if you have a great number of videos in your collection and/or you are not entirely familiar with the content. You could save these images in a single, centralized location or otherwise save each “scenesheet” in the same folder as the video itself. This would be especially handy if you use your PC as a primary media player. Moreover, these thumbnail sheets could be very useful for content preview purposes if you are publishing videos on the internet.

If you can think up a practical use for these thumbnail sheets that is not mention it please share it in the comments. Here are more notes on this program:

• Manual vs. automatic: you could jump to specific points in the video and grab specific screenshots manually, or otherwise click “grab screenshotS” and have the program automatically scan the length of the video and grab images for you.
• The settings: you can specify the length and width of the output image in pixels, the number of columns to use, as well as the number of screenshots to grab.
• Video information: Scenegrabber .NET is able to display extensive video information, much like MediaInfo, for example.
• Editing the sceneshot: aside from the settings above, the program will create captions for each image that contain the timestamp for each image. You can edit these manually to whatever text you like, change the font size or color, or even do away with captions altogether. You can also drag thumbnails to rearrange them as well as specify the media info fields that are displayed with the thumbnails.
• Formats supported: supports any video file that is playable on Windows Media Player; if you have the appropriate codec installed on your system it will load up the video.

The verdict: a very nice, handy program, especially if you are looking for a functionality such as this or if you are looking for a quick and easy way to preview videos.

Note that there may be an issue with WMV format videos, but that the author is aware of this and it will be fixed.

Version Tested: 0.9.3.1

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Seven. 32bit or 64bit. .NET Framework 3.5 is required for XP.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.81 megs).

This strangely named program is primarily a media player, but it also includes many other functions that typically are not bundled together, such as media conversions and cutting. There’s something really nice about having multiple functions in the same place within a unified interface; take a look at the screenshot above and notice the tabs and top, and you will immediately ’get’ the concept behind this program.

This program does a good job overall, but needs some significant improvements and is far from perfect. Here are PROS and CONS lists.

PROS:

• Supports a wide range of formats: including avi/xvid/divx, mp4, mkv, flv, mov, mpg, and a number of others (for video). Also supports a wide range of audio formats. (Seems to be based on Mplayer/Mencoder).
• Self contained: you will not need to install sperate codecs (encoders/decoders) on your system; the program seems to handle everything internally.
• A single-stop for many functions: which obviously is the main attraction.
• Nice, simple interface: the tabs simply have a good feel to them. Note that the program offers several skins; what you see in the screenshots is the "Windows Theme". The default skin, a kind of tree-leaf theme, is particularly unfortunate in my opinion and will probably scare many people away.
• A range of interesting playback options: e.g. frame step, changing ratio, loading subtitles, take screenshots, and other.
• Simple quality settings: for audio or video conversions (same quality, very high quality, high quality, medium quality, low quality and very low). There’s also a "custom" setting where you can go in and tweak the settings. However, the simple quality settings are a double-edged sword; they may work for some people, but more advanced users who want to tweak settings may find the "custom" setting lacking (see the cons section below).
• Photo cutting, resizing: with an interesting and rather unusual way to go about performing these actions.
• Slide show: right click on a bunch of images and select "slide show", and the program will run a slideshow with some interesting zooming effects. Supports a music track as well..

CONS:

• Cutting function will always re-encode: there does not seem to be an option where it will simply save the desired segment as-is without re-encoding.
• No join function: where there is cutting there has to be joining, no?
• Custom settings lacking for video conversion: in some ways at least. You cannot set the quality by deciding on the desired file-size in megabytes, you cannot set the width of the output video and have it automatically preserve the aspect ratio and determine height accordingly, and you will run into trouble if your video has an aspect ratio that is not 16:9 or 4:3, as I did.
• Custom settings lacking for audio conversion: allows you to select from a dropdown for different bitrates, but 160 kbps, which is what I always look for, is not one of them. Also doesn’t let you specify constant,average, or variable bit rate, or any other setting.
• Somewhat unresponsive: I found it strange that I would press buttons on the interface and face somewhat of a delay before the command took effect. I am not sure as to why that would be the case but the end result is rather frustrating.
• Drag and drop unsupported: you cannot just drag a bunch of audio or video files to the converters to add them.
• Browser tools: bundled into the application are browser extensions for IE and Firefox that allow you to right click on text and have your PC "speak" it for you; or alternately right click on an image and manipulate the way it is displayed in the browser. Unfortunately, neither function worked when I tested them in IE7. In Firefox 3.5.5, the context menu items did not show up at all.

The verdict: overall its a very interesting and compelling program, although it could and should be much better. I would still prefer to use The KMPlayer over this one and Avidemux for my cutting/editing. But I will definitely be on the lookout for how this program develops.

Version Tested: unsure; could not find a version number anywhere.

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 8.02 megs).

Screenr works on Mac or PC, essentially any computer with a modern browser and Java installed. You can capture up to 5 minutes of video at any resolution up to 2560×1600 on a PC and 1920×1200 on a Mac. You can integrate the use of a microphone to voice-over your video capture, but unfortunately there currently isn’t any means to add captions or annotations to your recording.

You’ll create an account with Screenr to make your recordings and it integrates your Twitter account if you have one. After you have your account, you can just click the Record button in the top-right corner. This will take you to a page that loads a Java element which provides your recording interface. You can move the box with the dotted border anywhere on your screen and resize it by dragging any of the black squares. You can also choose a pre-selected resolution from the control bar at the bottom. There you also control the microphone sound as well as begin, end, or cancel the recording. I used Screenr to making a recording that showed much of the functionality of Google Image Swirl for the article I wrote last week on it.

Once you have everything lined up where you’d like it, just hit the record button and walk through your screencast. You can minimize the browser and record anything on your primary display. After you’ve completed everything you want to capture, hit the Done button which will take you to the Summary screen. There you can add some commentary about your video and publish the automatically-provided shortened URL to your Twitter account (or check the box to not tweet it) and hit the Publish button.

This will send it through a very fast (considering) publishing process.

After it’s published, you’ll end up on the video page like this: http://screenr.com/nIB

From there, you can see the URL to share with people, the code to embed a Flash player version of your video and options to upload directly to YouTube or download the .mp4 file.

The YouTube integrated process is very convenient to use and if you have your own site, you can embed the video easily with the code provided. Along with anywhere on the net, Screenr also states that the videos can be played on an iPhone.

You can see the screencasts that are being produced through Screenr and made publicly available through the Public Stream. If you find a favorite author, you can find an RSS subscription per author as a subtle feature of Screenr.

Screenr is easy to use, fast, convenient, and provides the hosting for simple screencasts. If you have more complicated screen recording needs, you might check out previous reviews of BB Flashback Express or CamStudio and other Camtasia alternatives.

For simple cases though, Screenr will be a perfect, no-install-required choice. Check it out at Screenr.com.

Requires: Modern browser with Java installed.

I am always on the lookout for interesting animations to feature on this blog (click this link for a list). I was just sent this by reader and sometimes contributor Elioz Heffer who described it as follows (with some edits on my part):

"Zoomquilt II is just like a quilt blanket was made from about 20 artists contributions. The beauty of it is that the drawings are put into a never ending zoom motion (inwards or outwards) [as] you enter the microscopic world …

When opening the picture, it will take few moments to upload and then will present the pictures (interrelated) in a zoom motion. You can choose the direction (Zoom in or Zoom out) and the speed … If you look [closely] enough you’ll notice that it finally returns to the same starting point like a perpetuum mobile, but you are tricked to believe it is a fluid part of the Hellish world presented there.

The pictures remind [me of] some ideas of Hieronymus Bosch the famous painter, and there is also a [downloadable] screen saver".

The only thing I will add is that the screensaver is awesome and highly recommended. Check it out for yourself!

Go to the Zoomquilt II page, where you can download the screensaver (approx 5.66 megs).

[Editor's note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].

Text 2 Mind Map

Text 2 Mind Map is listed as a work in progress, but it’s very complete in what it does. While it’s not as advanced as the other sites on the list, it is the most simple to use. You just make an outline of the text that you want in the left pane. Use Tab to indent and Shift+Tab to outdent to make the order of your thoughts. You can easily edit the list while you’re working on it or after the chart has been made.

The toolbox on the right is also straight forward and you can move it around to if it’s in your way. You can make the screen go full size in order to accommodate your chart if it’s too big. By default the chart will move around whenever you update it or drag nodes around so that everything is mostly equidistant. You can turn this off by checking the ‘Freeze map’ and then drag everything how you want it to look. You can change the size and the color of the text from the Toolbox and you change the color of each node level by clicking on the node and then the small arrow that appears. You can also change that coloring from the Toolbox under the Colors section. You can also choose to have each branch a separate color instead of each level if you’d prefer it that way under Coloring Method. Finally, you can change the line color and width as well.

You can save the Mind Map for working on later by just manually copy/pasting the outline to a file for yourself and you can save the image by hitting the ‘Save map…’ button in the toolbox to render a .jpg version of it.

Lovely Charts

Lovely Charts allows you to make flowcharts, sitemaps, wireframes, organization charts, network diagrams and pretty much anything else by allowing you to import .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png images as symbols. Lovely Charts has a Basic, free version and a Premium version at $29 Euros a year. You can see what the version differences are on their FAQ page and judge for yourself if it’s worth the upgrade. The Basic version allows you to create diagrams with the full symbol library and the ability to export as .jpg or .png files. The diagrams will have a Lovely Charts logo with the free version. The free version allows you to have one editable document that can be collaborated upon with others.

To get started with Lovely Charts, just create account and enter the verification code that’s e-mailed to you. You’ll have to have Adobe Flash installed for your browser, but you can quickly start creating diagrams for whatever purpose you need. Some cool features of Lovely Charts includes opacity control for each symbol and the ability to quickly select a different symbol in the same library group from the right-click menu. You can also control the line width and arrow end of any pointing lines and align the symbols to a grid.

Lovely Charts uses a different type of control to create symbols that I didn’t quite find intuitive although I believe if I got accustomed to it, you could very quickly create charts if you had a specific purpose in mind. You start off by dragging a symbol from the toolbar onto the grid. You then drag that object to where you want the next object to be and a copy will be made with an arrow pointing back to the original object. You can then right-click the new object to change it to a different symbol if needed. While an interesting method that seemed very smooth, I think I would prefer a more static system where I could just drag an object, drag a different object, and then drag an arrow from one to another.

Creately

Creately is the full-blown experience and the best tool out of this list. It is a data driven, online diagramming & design suite all in one sharp web application. With Creately, you have a package that is much more comparable to the full-blown commercial suites like Microsoft Visio. You can sign up for an account to get started immediately. Creately gives you a lot for free: unlimited public diagrams, 5 people collaborating on a diagram at most, the ability to publish/export, 10 megabytes of storage, and SSL protected connections. With the basic account, all exported documents are watermarked with the Creately logo. You can upgrade to the Creately Plus! account at a ‘pay what you want’ price. But back to the features you get with the basic account (free):

You can collaborate with people over flowcharts, mockups, network diagrams, presentations, sitemaps, and a lot more. You can easily create your charts using the drag and drop interface, resize shapes, and easily undo any mistakes you make along the way. In your collaborating, revisions will be made and your co-workers can leave comments on the revisions. As far as the visual display is concerned, you can style your charts or even make graphics out of the tools available at hand including gradients, style, text size and font, and the alignment of nodes.

You can export your diagrams as an image, a PDF file, an XML data file, or send through e-mail. Your diagrams can all be saved under your account for easy access from any Flash-enabled browser. Creately also uses tabs to allow you to work on multiple files easily at the same time.

See their demo video for a tour and a display of its awesome ability to intelligently work with network diagrams and other features:

As your image collection grows you may have noticed that although it is taking more and more space on your hard drive, yet ironically you seldom get to actually look at your pictures. Wouldn’t it be great if you could integrate your images into your desktop and screensaver so you could actually get to see them? If this sounds like something you want then read on.

There are three types of toys that this program offers:

1. Dynamic wallpaper (“collages”): these consist of a backdrops with three “postcards” overlayed on top where PhotoJoy will randomly shuffle pictures from your collection.
2. Photo widgets (which it calls Photo Toys): reminiscent of other desktop widget engines (e.g. Klipfolio or Vista’s built in widgets). There are 5 variations on this in the version I tested that feature animation and interesting transitions (see screenshot to the right). The downside is that these seem to consume too much CPU power, so I would use sparingly and only on powerful PCs (see CONS section below).
3. Animated Screensavers: I’ve seen screensavers based on images before, but must admit that these are very interesting and the range of different screensavers on offer is impressive (screenshot on top left of this post).

Here’s a list of PROS and CONS:

PROS:

1. An excellent range of choices; many “toys” that you can download and use
2. The screensavers: very cool and smoothly animated
3. The dynamic wallpaper “collages” are generally very interesting

CONS:

1. Memory use is approx 40 megs, which is not insignificant. But the more important issue is that this program seems to be constantly using up CPU processing cycles on my PC (about 20%-30%). Upon further investigation I found that it was the widgets (Photo Toys) that were responsible. The other toys were ok in terms of CPU usage. See more on this subject in the “verdict” section below.
2. The backgrounds for the dynamic wallpaper tends to be somewhat, erm… cheesy.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):

• The ability to create custom dynamic wallpaper would be great, such that you would use your favorite image as wallpaper and overlay it with the postcard style changing images.

The verdict: generally a very good, well made program. What’s interesting about PhotoJoy is the range of options that it has on offer; there are dozens of “collages” and screensavers to choose from and most of them are innovative and well done. On the flip side the high CPU usage for the widgets (Photo Toys) was a deal breaker for me, and I quickly removed these. Unless you have a powerful PC or really want the widgets on your desktop I would skip those and stick with just the wallpaper and screensaver options instead (which to me are the more interesting ones anyway).

Demo video:

Version Tested: build 200956

Compatibility: Windows XP or Vista, graphic card with 64 mb of memory

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 621K for the installer, which will then download more files on installation).

If you’ve ever wanted to string a bunch of images together into an animation then PhotoFilmStrip is for you. Three things make this program notable:

1. It is extremely easy to use. I was able to create a fairly decent film literally within 10 minutes of installation.
2. It is very nicely laid out. The interface design is intuitive and simple.
3. The output videos are smoothly-animated and of excellent quality.

Decisions: part of why this is so easy to use is that the decisions that the user has to make are fairly straightforward, and there really aren’t too many of them. First off you have to add images to the movie, arrange them in the right order, rotate them if necessary, and choose whether you want to recolor them(b&w or sepia). Next, for each image you have to choose the beginning and end state of the camera; i.e. how the camera will zoom in or out. This is the most “creative” part and is done via two rectangles for the beginning and end states (see screenshot above), and is surprisingly simple to do. Lastly, you can type in a subtitle for each image (which is optional) and specify the duration in seconds that each image animation will occupy within the movie. You will need to make a couple more decisions once at the very end once you’re ready to render, including resolution, output format, and whether you would like to add a soundtrack. The program does not support any fancy transitions between one image and the next; all images simply fade in and out of each other.

More notes on this program:

• Subtitles: if you enter subtitles they will be rendered in .SRT format; they will not be “burned into” the final output movie. (Most decent media players, such as The KMPlayer, will be able to play this format of subtitles).
• Rendering the filmstrip: you can use pre-defined profiles in the settings, including DVD and other profiles for different resolutions (can go up to an impressive HD (1920×1080) resolution). I like that PhotoFilmStrip has the Xvid encoder built in and doesnt require the user to install codecs.
• Adding audio: once you’re ready to render, you can add an audio track. If you want to add narration you will need to do some post processing with external programs (e.g Audacity to record and something like VirtualDub or Avidemux to add the new audio track to the video.)

Wish list (or how this program can be even better)

• Support for custom, pre-built transitions: I just had to put this out there, even as I acknowledge that it will add a layer of complexity and that the default fade in/out transition works just fine.
• Burn-in subtitles: the option to burn subtitles in rather than output them in a sperate file.

The verdict: an excellent program that is both powerful and easy to use. You will be up and running creating animations out of your images in minutes. The program may lack some fancy bells and whistles, but the flip side but compensates for that in usability and good user experience. Recommended.

Version Tested: 1.1

Compatibility: Windows, Linux.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 14.9 megs).

Someone at work sent me this and I liked it so much I wanted to post it here. The animation is looped twice back-to-back; I’m not quite sure why this is the case, but my guess is that they did it this way to show how seamlessly the beginning and ending of this can mesh together (so much so that I know it would have taken me a while to figure out that the animation had re-started had I not been forewarned).

Anyway if you have other animations you like please let me know as I would love to see (and potentially post) them.

[Thanks to Simon S. and Matt A. for the tip]

Go to the COMBO (2 times loop) page on Vimeo.

There are a number of good freeware image viewers/taggers out there, but Viewer2 will immediately impress due to its stylish interface and innovative functions. I would suggest that you view the video at the bottom of this post to get a sense of how this program works and feels; meanwhile here are some notes on this program:

• The interface: there’s not much of it, until you mouse over to the edges of the screen, where you will find all the tools that you need to browse, view and tag your images. But note that in order to really take advantage of what this program can do you really have to become familiar with the different mouse manipulations (e.g. right-click and move to move selected sets of images around – see the video tutorials). You also might want to become familiar with the various keyboard shortcuts, esp. the ones that concern tagging images, as they will make the process super fast and easy. Note that when hovering over any command icon in the interface a text label will show at the bottom of the screen to explain it (although a tool-tip would have been better, I think).
• Grouping images: Viewer2 can automatically group images visually in various "piles". It can group by name, by path, by resolution, by number views, by time/date accessed, by color, and of course by tags.
• Automatic tag suggestions: for quick tagging, Viewer2 can suggest tags based on other tagging activity.
• Film Strip view: right clicking while viewing images displays thumbnail view of all other images in that folder that you can quickly browse through with horizontal mouse movements. A super cool effect (illustrated in the one of the two screenshots on the top of this review).
• Lasso-type tool: an innovative tool that can be used while tagging to select multiple images (alternately you can simply CTRL+click on several thumbnail to select them). In image view mode the lasso tool is there, but this time it serves to quickly zoom into the lassoed area (is that a word?).
• Searching: the search function is one of the most versatile and powerful that you could hope for, offering search by tags, by name, location, size, etc. It is able to field sophisticated queries such as give me the word "bla" with "2007" in the path excluding the tag "wallpaper" as an example (see the manual section for an overview).
• Navigating folders: double click on the viewed image to display the other images and folders in the same location.These will be represented visually in piles that can be hovered over (for more info) or clicked on to access. Alternately mouse over the left side of the screen to access a simple directory listing.
• Customization: most everything about this program can be customized in the settings, from the size of the thumbnails to the way various elements behave.
• Memory use: only 16 megs in memory, despite the nifty, visual pyrotechnics.
• Technical details: IPTC data editing, full Unicode support.

A video of the program in action:

The verdict: I am bowled over by this app. Its not just because of the high coolness factor, which would have been enough to win me over, but also because the innovative interface and process actually makes it super easy to work with tags quickly and effectively. The developer who thought out and built this (and kept it at such low memory usage) did a terrific job! Download and try it you will like it.

[Thanks go to reader Anjan for tipping me off about this program!]

Version Tested: 4044

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista.

Go to the Program page to download the latest version (approx 1.59 megs).

This program is not the most feature-rich freeware screen capturing program out there, it isn’t the most powerful, and it doesn’t have the built-in editors/annotation tools that some other programs have; despite all of this, however, it manages to be an excellent screen capturing program, provides a very good range range of functions, and (most notably) delivers an excellent user experience.

If you’re wondering about “what could possibly be so stylish and cool about this program?”, the answer is in the way the interface is implemented, from the actual capturing process all the way to the (very pleasant) post-capture visual pyrotechnics where the captured image floats on screen and can be moved around and/or manipulated via right-click (check out the video below to see for yourself).

Here are more notes on this program:

• Capture modes: capture full screen (click “PrintScrn” twice), rectangular region, or freehand region of any shape. [Update Sep 14, 09] also supports capture topmost through Alt+PrntScrn hotkey.
• Hotkey: program is activated by clicking “PrintScrn”; you can optionally change it to any other hotkey combination.
• “Annotation”: will let you perform drawings with the mouse on screen right before you capture, which sounds like a great thing but in practice is of little use.
• Delays before capture: right click the PrtScr icon in the system tray to request delays of 5 or 30 seconds (not changeable).
• Editing: there is no internal editor; however, click “edit” and your captured image is opened using your PC’s default image editor. To find a good editing/annotation app and change the default image editor on your PC see this post.
• Multiple monitors: supported.
• Rescaling: (i.e.resizing the image) is possible before saving.
• Title and comment: you can add a title and/or a comment on-the-fly as you capture a screenshot

Wish list:

• More capture modes: specifically, (1) capture active window [supported], and (2) the ability to scroll through capture specific window elements, and (3) the ability to capture a fixed region.
• “Repeat last capture”: an option which I frequently use and need, which PtrScr does not currently offer.
• Magnifier glass: the kind that would pop-up when you’re capturing in order to help you select the area you want up to the exact pixel. Strangely absent.

The verdict: this is the kind of program that you might want to recommend to people who secretly want a Mac, or users who are not too technically savvy (not that I am equating these two groups in any way ). Or you may want to use it alongside a more powerful/sophisticated screen capture program (e.g. PicPick or Screenshot Captor) and set a different hotkey for each so they don’t conflict. Try it out for yourself you may like it!

Version Tested: 1.5

Compatibility: Windows XP ot Vista and a good graphic card.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 2.35 megs).

Do you know what you spend the most time on when you’re using your computer? For example, you may want to know how much time you spend checking and responding to email vs. the amount of time you spend on doing “real work” (vs. the amount of time you spend randomly browsing the internet). Recently I’d been thinking about the amount of time that I spend doing research online (a lot) compared with the amount of time that I am actually working on creating something, whether its my deliverables at work or creating actual posts for this blog.

Which is why I am now running ManicTime. Here are more notes this program:

• The User Interface: is divided into a day view and a “statistics” view where you can view a range of dates together. Four timelines are simultaneously visible in the day view (Computer Usage, Applications, Browsing, and Tags). Clicking on any of these will change the type of information that is displayed on the bottom half of the screen. Not that you can (a) click on any colored chunk in any timeline to zoom into that information, and (b) you can select any range with the mouse to hone in on that. ManicTime uses color coding for similar items listed in the data section, which makes it easy to work with these.
• Tagging: is a great way to organize information in a way that makes sense to you. For example you can create tags such as “Project A”, “Project B”, “Work”, “Personal”, or even, say “Procrastination” or “Research” or whatever… anything that makes sense. You can right click on any colored chunk on any timeline to apply a tag to it. You can also check items within the data table on the lower half of the screen then click the “Add Tag” button on the top left. Kind of unintuitive at first, but works.
• Charts: in the “statistics” tab, you can add any element (from the Computer Usage, Applications, Browsing, or Tag timelines) and chart it against other elements. Very cool.
• Filtering: in the “Day” tab, type straight into the “Filter” box on the bottom of the screen to filter. Or otherwise check the boxes next to the individual entries, move the mouse to the “Summary (Selection)” section on the right hand side, and right click “filter by this group”. Click on the “Clear” (next to the filter box) to unfilter.
• Off the record: right click on the “ManicTime” icon in the system tray and select “off the record” to manually tell the program to stop recording.
• Exporting data: to CSV, is possible. Select a specific date range or “all”. Note that the “table” tab in the statistics section is what’s exported, so make sure to add as much (or as little) data detail to that as you want.

The verdict: This is the kind of program you simply let run in the background and only interact with once it has had the time to collect sufficient data, once a week or so. It can provide a great deal of information; however, whether this info is useful and/or insightful largely depends on you, the user, and what you want to get out of it.

What I like is that allows so much control over the data and collects data with such granularity as every single URL you have visited. I would say that interacting with the data can be somewhat confusing though, esp. filtering and tagging (which is why I describe them in detail above). The other drawback is the memory usage which, at approx 46-55 megs on my machine, may be a little too resource intensive on some machines.

Still, this is a very mature program and what it does ManicTime does an excellent job. The breadth and sophistication that this program has built into it is commendable and honestly quite surprising, and certainly is one of the best free programs of its kind. Recommended.

ManicTime Video Tutorial, Part 1:

For more tutorials, see the links below, or go to the Tutorials section on the program home page.

ManicTime Video Tutorial, Part 2
ManicTime Video Tutorial, Part 3

Version Tested: 1.2.1.0

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 4.81 megs).

If you, like me, think that there’s something.. um, magical … about right clicking on a file and being able to quickly perform the operations on it then you might want check this program out. Explore and Burn is a simple CD/DVD burning program that is launched from Windows’ right-click context menu. More notes below.

• How to use: select a file or group of files and right click the Explore and Burn context menu. This will launch the program’s wizard-style file burning process.
• Burning images: Explore&Burn can burn .ISO and .IMG files to CD/DVD; it can also optionally associate itself with these file extensions.
• Supported media: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM discs including Dual Layer discs.
• Bugs on XP: I encountered a problem in XP whereby the program did not burn ISO images to disk and I got a "Cannot Complete the Disc Writing Wizard" message (regular files burned just fine though). Someone posted this issue in the forum; and although the prescribed fix did not work for me, there’s the promise that this will be addressed in future versions.

Wish list: (or how this program can be even better)

• For non disk image files, this program installs two context menu entries which offer exactly the same functionality, making one of them absolutely redundant (see image to the right). It would be nice to be able to keep only one of them.
• Fixing the disk-burning problem with XP mentioned above.

The verdict: for what it tries to achieve (which is quick, on-the-fly file burning from the desktop), Explore&Burn works beautifully (assuming of course that bugs are eventually dealt with). For most users, however, Explore&Burn is no replacement for a full-fledged, full-featured CD/DVD burning program (such as CDBurnerXP), and it does not claim to be.

Many users will like the quick spontaneity of this. Moreover, this program is perfect for non tech-savvy users who just want to burn files quickly (a perfect thing to install for your grandmother for example).

Version Tested: 1.2

Compatibility: Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista and Windows 7, 32bit and 64bit. XP and Server 2000 may require installing the KB932716 update package from Microsoft.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 2.7 megs)

This is a very fun and extremely original game that employs some innovative game dynamics. You move your character with the A/S/D/W buttons and use your chalk with the mouse. A chalk gesture has a small “half life”, if you will, in that it only lasts for a short time from beginning to end. There are 3 things you can do with a chalk gesture, as follows:

1. Connect the dots: most objects/hostiles have patterns of “dots” on them. If you are able to quickly draw a line that connects all of these you destroy the bad guy. Bonus points are granted for connecting multiple dots on multiple objects/bad guys in a single stroke.
2. Connect bullets to bad guys: some of the bad guys will shoot bullets at you; use your chalk to connect the flying bullet back to enemy ships and you will turn the tables and zap them instead.
3. Draw a shield: if it gets too hectic, use your chalk to draw shields or barriers that will trap some objects such as hostile ships behind them.

The verdict: the console-style graphics and sound serve to add to the atmosphere, and despite it’s “uniqueness” it is extremely easy to learn and get to grips with. Watch the video below, then download and play this very interesting game.

A video of this game in action:

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the game page to download the latest version (approx 3.86 megs).

Ever wanted to insert YouTube videos into your PowerPoint presentations? AuthorStream desktop makes it extremely easy to do so. Here are more notes on this program:

• What it does: embeds a YouTube video or images from the web into a PowerPoint presentation, allowing you to place and resize your media on the page as you would any image object. Does NOT download videos, and does NOT save the actual video inside your PowerPoint files.
• User interface: click on the authorStream ribbon (in PowerPoint 2007) to access its functionality. Very straightforward. Note that I did not test on PowerPoint 2003 and am not sure what the interface looks like there.
• Two ways to embed: you can either provide the URL for the YouTube video or image you would like to embed, or otherwise use the built in search functionality (will display search results from Google or Bing image search).
• Sharing your files: you can email or share your Presentations with other users and they will be able to view them without having to have AuthorStream Desktop installed (they will need an internet connection though).
• Uploading: AuthorStream Desktop provides 1-click PowerPoint presentation uploads to the AuthorStream online presentation sharing service, which could come in very handy if you use that service to share your presentations.

Wish list: (or how this program can be even better)

• The ability to embed private video uploaded to hosting services such as DivShare or even incorporating into Powerpoint any standard HTML code used for embedding video into sites/blogs .This would make this software EXTREMELY useful in some settings (conferences, business presentations) where the video content could not be uploaded publicly to YouTube for privacy concerns (note that private YouTube uploads are a headache that requires setting up YouTube contact lists, logging in with a YouTube user ID and other non-practical measures).

The verdict: a great idea that is implemented in a very simple, straightforward way. This software presents a very practical and easy way for many people to use video in PowerPoint presentations by their videos into YouTube and embedding them into their presentations (which has the added benefit of keeping the PowerPoint files small and compact for the purposes of email, etc.) Not to mention the useful opportunity it presents to PowerPoint spammers everywhere

On the other hand AuthorStream Desktop can be so much more useful if it supported embedding FLV videos that are uploaded privately to file hosting services where only the people you share the video link with have access to it (DivShare is the service I use). This would make it possible to use PowerPoint with private video content in professional and business settings where uploading this content publicly to YouTube is not an option.

Version Tested: 1.0.0.1

Compatibility: WinAll. Requires PowerPoint 2007.

Go to the the program page to download the latest version (approx 1.56 megs).

Battlefield Heroes is a third person, online only action game. It’s free-to-play, supported by optional micro transactions, and can only be launched through your web browser. It’s created by EA DICE, the developer behind the famous Battlefield series.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Travis B. Check out his freeware games blog here].

War is an ugly, bloodstained affair. When two nations engage in it, lives are ruined, families forever destroyed, and generations of nationalistic tension are usually the most defining outcome. But reality is depressing, and very often completely lacking in bright colors and comical mishaps. For those of us who like our wars a little more cute and cuddly, Battlefield Heroes comes to the rescue. In this free-to-play 3rd person shooter, its all about the laughs. Set in a happier version of World War 2, this multiplayer, online only game breaks free of more than a few industry trends. With its cartoon graphics, rapid fire action, and generally upbeat presentation, it looks like a welcome relief from the surplus of grim action titles we’ve been seeing. So does Battlefield Heroes deliver the goods, or is it all flash and no bang?

• Graphics: The first thing any player will notice is the pleasing Saturday morning cartoon feel. The sky is a cheery blue, the buildings look like the work of Walt Disney’s contractor, and the vehicles like a child’s idea of their real world counterparts. Of course that’s a good thing in this context. All in all, the whole game world fits together well. The only real complaint is that the lack of rag doll death animations is painfully obvious, especially given the seamless fluidity of everything else here.
• Sound: The folks who did the audio did a good job. Weapon noises are well done, emotes are accompanied by recognizable gibberish, and the theme music is catchy. Point in fact, I can hear the music even now. Still, sound effects do repeat quite a bit, and more attention to ambient noise is definitely in order.
• Gameplay: Battlefield Heroes is an action arcade game through and through. Players choose from one side, three classes, then find a match, and jump into the action. It plays like a cross between team deathmatch and king of the hill, with various strategic hotspots up for grabs scattered around the map. The classes break down into: soldier, commando, and gunner. With the soldier being your utility grunt, the commando your sneaky sniper, and the gunner a slower moving heavy. Each class can use any vehicle, and has a unique set of upgradable abilities, all of which play to their strengths.
• Controls: have clearly been designed to be efficient and intuitive, and are never an issue. Even piloting planes is straightforward and newbie friendly. The game’s mandatory match finder is also worth a mention. It takes stock of your character level and recent performance, and drops you into a server it thinks will work with you. It does a decent job.
• Character Customization: You have the ability to customize your character’s appearance, gear, and skills, and most everybody takes advantage of this. It’s not all that unusual to see a parrot shouldered commando bedecked in an Admiralty uniform, ducking for cover. Gamers gain game money by playing, and can buy a more potent form of game cash from the item store using a credit/debit card. Cash can then be used to purchase new clothes, weapons, experience point bonuses, and even emotes. The better merchandise generally requires you to spend a little real world money. Fortunately for cheap gamers (like myself), the game is enjoyable without having to whip out your bank card. But you will occasionally be playing at a disadvantage.
• Replayability: I got addicted to Battlefield Heroes. Its joyously callous cartoon violence appeals to me (confirming that I’ve got the mind of a child). While the combat lacks the depth of most modern shooters, the upgrades for each class do a lot to make up for it. Unfortunately, those upgrade paths are fairly short. All in all, gamers should be able to get some good play time in before things become stale. Hopefully the near future will see the addition of more maps, vehicles, and weapons. As it stands, you’ll like this title, but there isn’t enough here to keep you playing forever.

The verdict: Battlefield Heroes does a good job. With its match finder, well balanced classes, and lack of friendly fire, its the sort of game that could appeal to a wide audience. While you can indirectly buy yourself into the higher levels, the game does a good job keeping the sharks out the of kiddie pool. For those who want a break from serious titles, Battlefield Heroes is a breath of fairly fresh air.

Compatibility: Windows XP or Vista. Requires a graphics card with 64mb of dedicated video memory, a broadband internet connection, and one of the major web browsers.

Go to the Battlefield Heroes page.

[Editor’s note: this review was written by Freewaregenius contributor Jason H. Check out his tech blog: 404techsupport.com].You can focus on a wall by double-clicking it. This will cause you to fly-in so you only look at that wall. You’ll be able to see the edges of the adjacent walls and the floor while you’re focused on one wall, so you can double click on the edge to move from one wall to the next. Don’t worry! The four walls and the floor makes your desktop seem more like diorama than another cubicle. You can throw icons on to the wall to hang them there or slide them across the floor and they’ll bump into other icons. You can use this to throw files to the recycle bin or into some of the desktop widgets that integrates E-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. These widgets will allow you to throw a file into them and then start a new message with the file attached. You can also pin sticky notes to the walls so you can write down notes to yourself. You’re limited to two (2) notes in the free version. Double click to edit a sticky note or right-click to add one.

Your normal right-click context menu is replaced with an easy to use circle menu where you can choose different features of BumpTop. You can still access the normal right-click menu (with some additions) under the More… selection. All of these selections, as you can see, also come with keyboard shortcuts so you can really work how you do.

One great feature of BumpTop is the ability to increase or decrease icon size. If you use something frequently, why not make it bigger so it’s an easier target to hit? You can increase the size of icons to make them easier to access. With the physics that are implemented by BumpTop, this also increases their weight and they won’t get bumped out of the way so easily. It could also make the Recycle Bin an easier target if you want to throw files away.

Some of the practical uses of BumpTop include searching and piling. You can search your desktop for a file just by typing and any matching icons will be highlighted. You can also access the search through the right-click menu. You can also pile icons together to tag them as related and to keep them physically together. To pile icons, you just highlight them and go to the pile icon. This will move all the icons on to a stack and you can then double-click on the pile to spread them out in a separated grid or right-click and fan them out.

Your mileage may vary, but BumpTop measured in as a 60-75 MB process for me and was a 10.7MB download for the installer. You can optionally configure BumpTop to start with Windows. Otherwise you can start it manually and close it with a system tray icon. It will remember your icon layout each time it starts up.

I used BB Flashback Express to record a video of going through the opening tutorial, so you can see some of the animations in action in the below video.

You can configure a number of settings: icons physics, photo frame cycling, and the desk widgets which allow integration to e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also change some of the visuals and graphic card usage. If you have multiple monitors, it looks like BumpTop can only be used on one desktop at a time. You can change the theme that BumpTop uses or just specify individual images for each wall/floor. You can have your current Windows background be the floor and then specify images for each wall or leave it with the theme defaults. You can see how to install a theme and browse the growing number of themes to really customize it to your liking. There are some really cool themes out there!

Another cool thing that BumpTop adds to your desktop comes in the form of Photoframes. Photoframes allow you to run a slide show from a local directory or an online source like a Flickr RSS feed. They can be configured with how frequently they update their source and how often they change images.

If you’re curious for more info you can watch a TED talk on the software.

Version tested: 1.0 build 3038

Compatibility: A 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, with latest service packs. Intel 915 integrated graphics or Nvidia GeForce 6200 or ATI X300 or better with updated drivers. OpenGL 2.0 driver support required (may require additional drivers available at the bumptop drivers page).

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 10.73 megs).

If you’ve seen the previous incarnation of this program you’ll be happy to know that this new version is a complete departure from its predecessor, completely re-written in JAVA. It avoids or circumvents all of the problems/issues that afflicted the previous incarnation including false positives reported by some anti-malware programs, restrictions on some (adult) sites, memory issues, and issues with registry entries and drivers that the program installed and left on the system (in truth, by the time the last version of Tubemaster plus was released all of these were actually already remedied, but I wanted to make sure to mention that these issues were a thing of the past).

Improvements also include a better looking user interface (the built-in browser of the predecessor is done away with). In fact the only feature of TM+ that I liked that TM++ does not have is portability. Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: once you launch TM++ (it will reside in the system tray), use your browser to navigate to the video or audio that you want to download. TM++ will display a notification and start downloading your media as soon as it starts playing in the browser. You will need to keep the browser window open for the duration of the download in order for TM++ to download your media properly.
• Media conversion: on-the-fly. Includes a couple dozen conversion presets, my favorite of which is the quick MP3 extraction.
• Audio/video search: the search functions are very impressive. For video search, you can specify which site you want to search from a rather expansive list of sites.
• Virus/malware free: a clean bill of health from Virustotal.

The verdict: I’ve seen the development trajectory of this program and I think that developer deserves a lot of credit for taking this software in the right direction and creating what is undoubtedly an excellent product. But what makes this product noteworthy compared to others in its category is its ability to download from almost any site, including ant-leech encrypted media. It can be independently launched when needed and does not install itself as an extension in your browser.

Although TM++ is no longer portable (like TM+ was), this is understandable given that it relies on a number of other apps/technologies (including JAVA, which it will install if absent). Overall I highly recommend this.

Version tested: 1.0 beta

Compatibility: WinAll. Requries JAVA. Will soon be available on Linux and Mac.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 180K).