Posted by B.C. Tietjens on September 22, 2011 in Best of, Excel / Spreadsheets, Freewaregenius Picks, Money & Finances, Office, PowerPoint / presentations, Productivity & Applications, Word Processing | Tagged Database, Draw, editing, formula, Freeware, HTML, Libre, Math, Office, Productivity, Spreadsheet, Suite, SVG, Word |
Looking for an alternative to paying for Microsoft Office? Tried OpenOffice.org but found it didn’t quite fit? You might find what you need in LibreOffice free office tools from The Document Foundation.
LibreOffice consists of six full-featured office tools. Base allows you to manage databases, and create queries and reports to track and manage information. Calc is basically the same as Excel or any other mainstream spreadsheet program. Draw allows you to create illustrations, logos and flow charts. Impress is basically the same as Powerpoint. Math and Writer are pretty self explanatory from their names as well. Even these names are typical of the whole experience I had with LibreOffice: simple and effective. It is also multiplatform, running on Windows, MacOSX, and Linux.
LibreOffice was originally started by folks who detached from the OpenOffice.org project due to dis-satisfaction with the project’s parent company. That explains the similarities between the two. “Libre” comes from latin, meaning “liberty”.
[Note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor B.C. Tietjens.] Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on September 22, 2011 in Encryption, File Management, Security, System, Utilities |
Everyone has documents and files of sensitive nature that they would like to keep away from prying eyes. Users have a handful of options to do this, ranging from the most secure, such as mounting virtual archives using programs like TrueCrypt, physically encrypting and reprocessing files, or hiding and embedding them within other larger files … to less secure options that merely hide files cosmetically. These tend to be quicker and easier to use but files can be easily found if someone was actually snooping. Disguise folders is a small, free program that belongs to this latter category.
This small app runs on Windows 7 and can quickly replace your folders with the icon of various system folders or functions, such as Windows update or Display Options or the Recycle bin. Clicking on the new icon will open the system folder or service, leaving your files hidden and invisible. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on September 21, 2011 in Art / Animation, Games, Graphics, Web2.0 |
Some think computer games are an art form; while others use them as a medium; that, at least, is what Jason Nelson does with his “net-artworks/art-games” such as Six Sided Strange (a hyper-interactive twist on the well known Rubkick’s cube) and Scrape Scraperteeth (an art/poetry-game commissioned by the San Francisco Gallery of Modern Art).
As with his other creations previously featured on Freewaregenius (“Game, game, game and again game”, and “I made this. You play this. We are enemies”), both of these game/artworks combine audiovisual elements, gaming concepts, as well as text into a playable exploration designed to provide an interactive user experience, without any obvious rules or objectives. In these ‘games’, as in life, you don’t really know what the point is, and make it up as you go along 
. Continue reading ..
Posted by Will on September 21, 2011 in Geo & Mapping, Internet, iPhone / iPad | Tagged iPad, Iphone, iPhone / iPad |
If you’re like me, a not too serious star gazer with an iPad, you may appreciate an app that helps you navigate the night sky. From the DOS days forward there have been many computer programs that show you the universe, or a specific chunk of it. But unless you want to hold up your laptop outside at night and try to orient the screen to the direction you’re facing, you are limited to an onscreen experience indoors. The iPad, with its portability and gyro changes all that. It’s like taking an illuminated map outdoors. I installed three apps that allowed me to look toward the heavens with a more educated eye: SkySafari, SkyORB 3D and Planets.
[Note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor Will Lewis]. Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on September 20, 2011 in File Management, Icons, Kindle, System, Utilities |
I recently wrote about a software that displays image thumbnails rather than icons for all manner of common and obscure image files (here). If this sounds good to you, and if you have ebook files on your computer (esp. Kindle friendly .AZW, .MOBI and .PRC formats) then check out Mobihandler, a free software that will replace the bland file icons for these formats in Windows with a thumbnail of the cover artwork.
In addition, Mobihandler adds a tab in file/properties that displays the cover and some ebook of the ebook’s metadata. Works on both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows. Continue reading ..
Posted by B.C. Tietjens on September 20, 2011 in News, Web Apps, Web2.0 |
There are tons of online dating sites that SAY they are free but really have hidden costs that you don’t notice until you’ve already gone through a whole lot of time and effort. You can think of this as a public service article, which looks at two of the most notable free online dating services: Datehookup.com and Connectingsingles.com.
From technophile to physics major, fast food worker to code monkey, male or female, we all want to make a connection with another person and enjoy their company. It’s part of the human condition. Goodness knows there are tons of sites out there in cyberspace where one can pay to be matched up with other people, and there are always those chance encounters, but what is one to do otherwise? Most of us don’t want to spend money just to get a list of names that may or may not reject talking or meeting us. It’s hard enough to make a connection in the first place, and shelling out our hard earned cash just doesn’t appeal to many of us. Paying for dinner and a movie is one thing, but paying to meet someone is another. If you want to take an active role in your hunt for companionship, but you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg doing it, you may consider using one of the 100% free dating or personals sites out there.
[Note: this post was written by Freewaregenius contributor B.C. Tietjens.] Continue reading ..
Posted by Samer on September 19, 2011 in File Management, File Tagging & Organization, Utilities, Windows Enhancements | Tagged Note-taking, Notes |
Arranging files into folders is one way of organizing your files, but is limited in that it will not allow you to easily place a file into several categories simultaneously, and can be a lot of work to modify and maintain.
Enter DiviFile, a free program which provides another way to organize your files, namely, a ‘virtual’, user-defined hierarchical structure that can be used alongside any folder structure that you may be using. It also allows you to store notes and URL’s as well. Your files and folders will not be moved from their location on your hard drive.
DiviFile’s objective? To be a “hub for all your information”; i.e. (1) a file tagging utility, (2) bookmark manager, and (3) a note taking app. It lets you import bookmarks from Internet Explorer and import notes from MS Outlook, and provides a search box for quick retrieval. Continue reading ..
