Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
The Hemingway Editor is an app to help improve the quality and clarity of your writing; it not only counts your words and grades their readibility, but highlights problem words or phrases that are difficult to read, are written in passive voice, contain adverbs, etc.
Still in development but very interesting, Manuskript writing freeware offers an outliner to help you organize your story ideas and elements, a mode where you can write without distractions, and a novel assistant that uses the Snowflake method of outlining and plotting to tackle story development.
Showing posts with label freeware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freeware. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2018
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Four Freebies
Bibisco is a "free and open source software for writing novels. With Bibisco you can organize chapters and scenes, manage revisions, export novel in pdf or rtf, and write with a fully featured text editor. You can create a novel structure, define premise, fabula, narrative strands and settings: geographic, temporal and social context. And, most of all, with Bibisco you can know everything about your characters" (OS: Windows, Linux)
CreaWriter is a Windows program designed to boost your productivity and creativity. Its full screen, minimalistic interface provides a distraction-free environment. Indulge yourself in a relaxed and calm atmosphere and achieve a whole new level of concentration!
Inspired by OmmWriter, a Mac OS X only application, CreaWriter allows you to customize both background image and ambient sound" (OS: Windows)
Quip is a "free, communal online office suite with word processing and spreadsheets. It shines as a collaborative tool—great for anyone doing some kind of group novel. Quip offers free apps for iOS and Android, so you get full online, mobile writing options. Quip stores all your files on its own servers" (OS: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android devices)
Write Monkey is a "Windows zenware writing application with an extremely stripped down user interface, leaving you alone with your thoughts and your words. It is light, fast and free. With an array of innovative tools under the hood and full Markdown* support, it helps you write better" (OS: Windows)
All of these links were found while rifling through the articles at PC Mag.
CreaWriter is a Windows program designed to boost your productivity and creativity. Its full screen, minimalistic interface provides a distraction-free environment. Indulge yourself in a relaxed and calm atmosphere and achieve a whole new level of concentration!
Inspired by OmmWriter, a Mac OS X only application, CreaWriter allows you to customize both background image and ambient sound" (OS: Windows)
Quip is a "free, communal online office suite with word processing and spreadsheets. It shines as a collaborative tool—great for anyone doing some kind of group novel. Quip offers free apps for iOS and Android, so you get full online, mobile writing options. Quip stores all your files on its own servers" (OS: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android devices)
Write Monkey is a "Windows zenware writing application with an extremely stripped down user interface, leaving you alone with your thoughts and your words. It is light, fast and free. With an array of innovative tools under the hood and full Markdown* support, it helps you write better" (OS: Windows)
All of these links were found while rifling through the articles at PC Mag.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Write! Free
I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays. I spotted this Write! freeware over at AbsoluteWrite.com: "It does not get in the way of your creativity. It helps you be productive when you write or edit. It connects you with other people when (and only when) you need it. Yet Write! provides enough functionality for when you switch from "write drunk" to "edit sober" mode, you can stay as productive and creative as after a bottle of Chardonnay.
Even though it's trendy in the software development community these days, we chose to abandon being mobile-first and browser-based, but set on an alternative path of native desktop responsiveness, performance and experience over the overhyped browser-based-everything. That being said, the much hyped cloud-everything does have a point, so Write! is set to be deeply integrated with the cloud: your drafts, notes, documents and research materials all synced. Another big "online" feature we want to focus on is collaboration and digital asset management integrated right into the text processor.
You can think of Write! as a lightweight combination of a distraction-free editor, Evernote app, a bit of Wordpress post editing UI, some formatting features of Word, and even some IDE mechanics, from which we borrow how auto-complete or text folding works."
A bit too technical for someone as allergic to devices as me, but it seems like something you gadget-savvy scribes might like. You can see the features here, and I particularly liked this bit: "Every account starts with the Pro version of Write! and falls back to the free version after one month, should you decide not to subscribe." The pro version is $4.99 a month. Looks to be Windows but you might want to check into that.
Even though it's trendy in the software development community these days, we chose to abandon being mobile-first and browser-based, but set on an alternative path of native desktop responsiveness, performance and experience over the overhyped browser-based-everything. That being said, the much hyped cloud-everything does have a point, so Write! is set to be deeply integrated with the cloud: your drafts, notes, documents and research materials all synced. Another big "online" feature we want to focus on is collaboration and digital asset management integrated right into the text processor.
You can think of Write! as a lightweight combination of a distraction-free editor, Evernote app, a bit of Wordpress post editing UI, some formatting features of Word, and even some IDE mechanics, from which we borrow how auto-complete or text folding works."
A bit too technical for someone as allergic to devices as me, but it seems like something you gadget-savvy scribes might like. You can see the features here, and I particularly liked this bit: "Every account starts with the Pro version of Write! and falls back to the free version after one month, should you decide not to subscribe." The pro version is $4.99 a month. Looks to be Windows but you might want to check into that.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Free Online Mapper
Wise Mapping is a free open source "web mind mapping tool that leverages the power of Mind Maps mixing new technologies like HTML 5.0 and SVG. A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, and decision making. It is an image-centered diagram that represents semantic or other connections between portions of information. By presenting these connections in a radial, non-linear graphical manner, it encourages a brainstorming approach to any given organizational task, eliminating the hurdle of initially establishing an intrinsically appropriate or relevant conceptual framework to work within. A mind map is similar to a semantic network or cognitive map but there are no formal restrictions on the kinds of links used. The elements are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts and they are organized into groupings, branches, or areas. The uniform graphic formulation of the semantic structure of information on the method of gathering knowledge, may aid recall of existing memories." You can download this one or use it online, and the currently supported browsers are: "Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and above. Google Chrome 19 and above Firefox 12 and above. Safari 5 and above. Opera 11 and above. Important: Internet Explorer 8 require the installation of Google Chrome Frame plugin."
Monday, August 24, 2015
Diary Free
In My Diary is a "free, multi-language, personal diary application to help you organize all your upcoming tasks and events, store your passwords, keep track of notes and manage your contacts. The diary supports one-time and recurring events with customizable colors, linked notes and early alert options. You can also configure the application to send you email reminders, using your own mail server or the provided SMTP service. In addition to diary entries, you can use In My Diary to keep a daily journal, store your passwords as well as personal notes. The program also integrates a contacts database with optional birthday reminders and label printing features. Other features include support for import/export (iCal, vCard), keyword search, built-in password generator, anniversary and special event options, and more." (OS: Available for all Windows systems, Apple Mac (10.4+), and Linux [native or wine])
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Design Freely
The free starter edition of WebPlus allows you to "create amazing websites, design bespoke web graphics and banners all with simple drag and drop tools in this amazing website design software. Take advantage of the most up to date technology and design web pages exactly how you want them, without any coding experience. WebPlus allows you to add creative content to your website and help you stand out and shine. Add pre-designed objects ranging from buttons, navigation bars, graphics and background images, and design with dedicated drawing tools, stylish effects and a huge range of fantastic colour schemes. WebPlus makes it easy to optimise, export and get your website online in a couple of clicks. Upload your site to the host of your choice, or use Serif’s own easy web hosting – it’s so easy to do." (OS: Microsoft Windows® 8, 7, Vista, or XP (32-bit) operating system)
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Off Again
I'm taking the weekend off to finish up a writing project for one of the clients. So your stop here was not entirely wasted, here's some interesting freeware to check out:
Paint.NET is a "free image and photo editing software for PCs that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP" (OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Paint.NET is a "free image and photo editing software for PCs that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP" (OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Monday, May 11, 2015
No Cost Noting
The free/Basic version of Debrief is "PC software to handle note overload. Keep your notes in one place, saved in your PC. With Debrief, organization can becomes habit, while hardly even trying. Debrief provides a significant step toward remembering what you know, and where you put it. The goal behind Debrief is to organize notes in different contexts and formats with simple mouse clicks. Examples include: daily notes, meetings, to-dos, assignments, issues, changes, risks, decisions, research, contacts, and more."
Features:
"Arranged by Date
To imitate how you may be taking notes today, Debrief automatically dates each note when it is created. Your notes can be viewed by date, similar to how you may do that today in a written notebook. To display notes from a particular day, click on that date in the calendar. If you need to write a status report, highlight the entire week on the calendar to review what you did during that week.
Arranged by Subject
Do you like notes with similar subjects grouped together, like folders in a desk or file cabinet drawer? Then drag them to Debrief folders, similar to how you may drag email notes to folders in your email software. This is convenient for reviewing several notes on similar topics in a single view.
Note-Based Reports: Dated Journals, and Organized Files
Do you like notes printed, or saved to a file for word processing? The Reports features offers several different formats, such as by date or folder. If you print them by date, they are in a similar format to what you may have in a spiral binder.
If you kept notes all your life in this format, you could print them in date order and have a journal. Or, print them by subject folder and have a biography. It is fast can can be done with just a few mouse clicks.
Arranged like Note Cards
If you would like to rearrange your notes like note cards, try the Note Deck feature. Arrange notes by dragging them in a new order, and a new draft document is automatically created. This can be useful for using your existing notes to draft a whitepaper, a research paper, a script, or a novel.
Associated with Reading Material
If you have reading material, like books and magazines, mention these in Debrief and let Debrief start building a virtual library. You can take notes pertaining to specific reading material, while the notes are also organized by subjects and date. The items in the library can be viewed as a reading list, and printed as end note material for research papers.
Indexed like a Book
Sometimes notes contain many ideas. In these cases, you can create an index to notes, similar to an index in the back of a book. On a project at work for example, you may want to list lessons learned. In this case, create an index for "Lessons Learned." When you have noted material that you want to later refer to in this context, click the index when editing these notes. Then later refer to them in one view, no matter what their dates or subject folders.
Grouped by Action Items
Sometimes it is useful to keep a thread of notes that cover tasks or issues spanning days, or even weeks. In these cases, associate these notes with tasks and issues. Later, you can review to each entire note thread, even if it spans multiple subject folders and months.
Quick Reference
It is useful to keep some notes only a click or two away, such as a glossary, timesheet, expenses, or file locations. In these cases, tag notes with the Favorites attribute. That keeps them within a click or two with the Favorites button.
Find
Now just where did you store that note. When you need to search notes for keywords, try the Find feature, one click away. Imagine being able to search all your notebooks.
Speak to Debrief
Are you using speech recognition software on your current PC? If so, point it to Debrief. With speech recognition and your mouse, talk to Debrief and drag paragraphs to folders. Notes are automatically dated, and instantly organized."
(OS: Windows: 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, or Vista)
Features:
"Arranged by Date
To imitate how you may be taking notes today, Debrief automatically dates each note when it is created. Your notes can be viewed by date, similar to how you may do that today in a written notebook. To display notes from a particular day, click on that date in the calendar. If you need to write a status report, highlight the entire week on the calendar to review what you did during that week.
Arranged by Subject
Do you like notes with similar subjects grouped together, like folders in a desk or file cabinet drawer? Then drag them to Debrief folders, similar to how you may drag email notes to folders in your email software. This is convenient for reviewing several notes on similar topics in a single view.
Note-Based Reports: Dated Journals, and Organized Files
Do you like notes printed, or saved to a file for word processing? The Reports features offers several different formats, such as by date or folder. If you print them by date, they are in a similar format to what you may have in a spiral binder.
If you kept notes all your life in this format, you could print them in date order and have a journal. Or, print them by subject folder and have a biography. It is fast can can be done with just a few mouse clicks.
Arranged like Note Cards
If you would like to rearrange your notes like note cards, try the Note Deck feature. Arrange notes by dragging them in a new order, and a new draft document is automatically created. This can be useful for using your existing notes to draft a whitepaper, a research paper, a script, or a novel.
Associated with Reading Material
If you have reading material, like books and magazines, mention these in Debrief and let Debrief start building a virtual library. You can take notes pertaining to specific reading material, while the notes are also organized by subjects and date. The items in the library can be viewed as a reading list, and printed as end note material for research papers.
Indexed like a Book
Sometimes notes contain many ideas. In these cases, you can create an index to notes, similar to an index in the back of a book. On a project at work for example, you may want to list lessons learned. In this case, create an index for "Lessons Learned." When you have noted material that you want to later refer to in this context, click the index when editing these notes. Then later refer to them in one view, no matter what their dates or subject folders.
Grouped by Action Items
Sometimes it is useful to keep a thread of notes that cover tasks or issues spanning days, or even weeks. In these cases, associate these notes with tasks and issues. Later, you can review to each entire note thread, even if it spans multiple subject folders and months.
Quick Reference
It is useful to keep some notes only a click or two away, such as a glossary, timesheet, expenses, or file locations. In these cases, tag notes with the Favorites attribute. That keeps them within a click or two with the Favorites button.
Find
Now just where did you store that note. When you need to search notes for keywords, try the Find feature, one click away. Imagine being able to search all your notebooks.
Speak to Debrief
Are you using speech recognition software on your current PC? If so, point it to Debrief. With speech recognition and your mouse, talk to Debrief and drag paragraphs to folders. Notes are automatically dated, and instantly organized."
(OS: Windows: 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, or Vista)
Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Freely Sticky
Hott Notes is a "free sticky notes reminder program for your desktop. It´s simple, yet attractive interface makes it intuitive and easy to use. Not only can you post sticky note reminders, you can make checklists, set alarms, draw on your notes, and archive. Other features include a Notebook to organize your notes, a backup system to keep your notes safe, and much more." (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)
What I thought was interesting about this freeware is the notebook option -- if you use sticky notes for organizing scenes, characters or what have you with your writing you could turn them into virtual versions with this program and keep them saved in the program's notebook (you can see the notebook window in the center of the screenshot up there.)
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
RedNotebook
A few years back I test-drove RedNotebook, which has a new version that's just been released. This is one of the more interesting and easy-to-use electronic journal freewares out there, so I thought I'd post the info and links for anyone who is looking for a free electronic notebook or journaling program:
RedNotebook is a graphical diary and journal helping you keep track of notes and thoughts. It includes a calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality and word clouds. You can also format, tag and search your entries.
Features:
Enter text for individual days and navigate using a fancy calendar
Add Categories to days and fill them with content
Tag your entries
Format your text bold, italic or underlined
Insert Images, files and links to websites
Links and mail addresses are recognized automatically
(Live-) Search
Automatic saving
Backup to zip archive
Word Clouds with most often used words and tags
Templates for each weekday and arbitrarily named ones
Export the journal to PDF, HTML, Latex or plain text
Graphical preferences dialog
You can have multiple journals
RedNotebook is open source software, you are free to use and redistribute it under the terms of the GPL
Translated into 16 languages
The data is stored in plain text files, no database is needed
Direct PDF export
Markup highlighting
Use webkit more extensively
save your journals on a remote server (SSH, FTP, WebDAV)
RedNotebook is fully translated into 16 languages (make it speak your language)
Optional tray icon and spell checking
auto-completion and command line functionality
(OS: Win 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7)
RedNotebook is a graphical diary and journal helping you keep track of notes and thoughts. It includes a calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality and word clouds. You can also format, tag and search your entries.
Features:
Enter text for individual days and navigate using a fancy calendar
Add Categories to days and fill them with content
Tag your entries
Format your text bold, italic or underlined
Insert Images, files and links to websites
Links and mail addresses are recognized automatically
(Live-) Search
Automatic saving
Backup to zip archive
Word Clouds with most often used words and tags
Templates for each weekday and arbitrarily named ones
Export the journal to PDF, HTML, Latex or plain text
Graphical preferences dialog
You can have multiple journals
RedNotebook is open source software, you are free to use and redistribute it under the terms of the GPL
Translated into 16 languages
The data is stored in plain text files, no database is needed
Direct PDF export
Markup highlighting
Use webkit more extensively
save your journals on a remote server (SSH, FTP, WebDAV)
RedNotebook is fully translated into 16 languages (make it speak your language)
Optional tray icon and spell checking
auto-completion and command line functionality
(OS: Win 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7)
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Free Trees
Visual Family Tree Maker is a freeware that "simplifies this process of building your family tree. Just fill in the blanks for name, birth, death and other vital information. Individuals are automatically linked with family members. Add an unlimited number of photographs, maps, census forms, birth certificates and other documents. Associate each with only one or with multiple individuals. Make Wall charts, shows the root person and his descendants or ancestors." [PBW notes: this could prove valuable for series writers with complicated dynasties or who are writing historical or family sagas; I'd use it to tree your cast of characters] (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Time Tracker
The free standard version of ManicTime "automatically collects data on your computer usage. It records active and away time, as well as which applications you used and for how long you used them. The data ManicTime collects is stored in a local database on your computer. Once data is collected you can use our simple click and drag feature to accurately tag how you spent your time. Time tagging allows you to see how you spent your time based on your own time tags and gives you accurate information on how efficient you really are. Because there is so much data available about your computer usage, you are able to tag spent time for days in the past. Based on this data you are able to generate various statistics. You can easily find out how much time you spend behind a computer or how much time you spend browsing the web." (OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/7/8)
Monday, March 16, 2015
Digital Art Freeware
KRITA is a "KDE program for sketching and painting, offering an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch by masters. Fields of painting that Krita explicitly supports are concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering. Modelled on existing real-world painting materials and workflows, Krita supports creative working by getting out of the way and with a snappy response. Note that when we say "Krita is a KDE program", that doesn´t mean you need to run the Plasma Desktop to run Krita. It means that Krita as a project is proud to be part of the wonderful KDE community and uses the great framework technology that the KDE community develops. You can run Krita on Windows, Gnome, XFCE, and if you spend some effort even on OSX. There are three versions of Krita: Krita Sketch, for touch devices, Krita Desktop desktop systems and finally Krita Studio, which is like Krita Desktop but supported by KO GmbH. You can find info and the download links for the other Krita programs as well as various Linux ditros on the developer´s download page. A 64-Bit version is also available." (OS: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)
Monday, February 17, 2014
Not a Dime Ten
Ten Things You Can Have for Free
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
Anki is a "program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn. Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless" (OS: Win 98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3/Vista/7/8)
Bandizip is a "lightweight, fast and 100% free All-In-One Zip Archiver. Bandizip has a very fast Zip algorithm for compression & extraction with Fast Drag and Drop, High Speed Archiving, and Multi-core compression. It handles the most popular compression formats, including Zip, 7z, Rar, and so on" (OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/7/8 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Buddi is a "personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, I have attempted to make things as simple as possible, while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users" (OS: Designer notes: "If you have a modern operating system with a copy of Sun's Java Virtual Machine [version 1.5 or higher], it should work fine. This includes most recent versions of Windows, Macintosh OS X 10.4, most Linux distributions, Solaris, and possibly more. Please consult the help files for your given operating system if you are unsure whether it supports Java 1.5 or not.")
GanttProject is a "project management tool" that is "very usable for small to medium size projects, with a surprisingly good depth of features and accessories for a free product. As its name suggest, it's excellent for making Gantt charts, great for making logical and easy-to-understand development plans" (OS: Windows, Linux and Mac OS X)
Pencil is a "free drawing program that helps users to create mockups on their PCs. Its friendly graphic user interface provides ready access to a collection of built-in shapes that can be used to create interfaces for both mobile and desktop platforms" (OS: "The prototyping tool is available for all platforms")
Scribus is an "open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux, BSD UNIX, Solaris, OpenIndiana, GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design. Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation." (OS: Complete download list and links here)
SSuite My Money Portable is a "simple to use personal finance manager that is also portable. SSuite Office - My Money – Portable is a cross-platform utility that allows users to keep an eye on their accounts, income and expenses, and to generate financial reports. New accounts can be added by specifying the type and balance, and you can give details about transactions, such as description, date and amount. Thanks to its built-in search engine, you can quickly find the accounts in the list; they can be edited or deleted. Furthermore, it is possible to specify the income description, date and amount, as well as provide information about the inter-account transfers and expenses. SSuite Office - My Money – Portable allows users to create financial reports by selecting a report type and fields that are included (account number, type and balance), specifying the report title, number of columns on each page and page orientation (portrait or landscape), and picking the font style" (OS:Windows All [32-Bit/64-Bit])
The free trial of TaxSlayer Books is a "complete, online accounting software for your small business needs. Includes payroll, and bookkeeping software." It also "allows you to import bookkeeping information from Quickbooks, making setup a snap" (OS: Windows XP, Vista)
Tomboy is a "desktop note-taking application" that is "simple and easy to use, but with potential to help you organize the ideas and information you deal with every day" (OS: Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X)
Tonido "allows you to set up and run your own personal cloud storage" (OS: Linux, Mac OS X 10.5 or later, Windows 2000, Windows 7 [32 bit], Windows 7 [64 bit], Windows 8, Windows Vista [32 bit], Windows Vista [64 bit)], Windows XP)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
Anki is a "program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn. Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless" (OS: Win 98/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3/Vista/7/8)
Bandizip is a "lightweight, fast and 100% free All-In-One Zip Archiver. Bandizip has a very fast Zip algorithm for compression & extraction with Fast Drag and Drop, High Speed Archiving, and Multi-core compression. It handles the most popular compression formats, including Zip, 7z, Rar, and so on" (OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/7/8 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Buddi is a "personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. In making this software, I have attempted to make things as simple as possible, while still retaining enough functions to satisfy most home users" (OS: Designer notes: "If you have a modern operating system with a copy of Sun's Java Virtual Machine [version 1.5 or higher], it should work fine. This includes most recent versions of Windows, Macintosh OS X 10.4, most Linux distributions, Solaris, and possibly more. Please consult the help files for your given operating system if you are unsure whether it supports Java 1.5 or not.")
GanttProject is a "project management tool" that is "very usable for small to medium size projects, with a surprisingly good depth of features and accessories for a free product. As its name suggest, it's excellent for making Gantt charts, great for making logical and easy-to-understand development plans" (OS: Windows, Linux and Mac OS X)
Pencil is a "free drawing program that helps users to create mockups on their PCs. Its friendly graphic user interface provides ready access to a collection of built-in shapes that can be used to create interfaces for both mobile and desktop platforms" (OS: "The prototyping tool is available for all platforms")
Scribus is an "open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux, BSD UNIX, Solaris, OpenIndiana, GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design. Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation." (OS: Complete download list and links here)
SSuite My Money Portable is a "simple to use personal finance manager that is also portable. SSuite Office - My Money – Portable is a cross-platform utility that allows users to keep an eye on their accounts, income and expenses, and to generate financial reports. New accounts can be added by specifying the type and balance, and you can give details about transactions, such as description, date and amount. Thanks to its built-in search engine, you can quickly find the accounts in the list; they can be edited or deleted. Furthermore, it is possible to specify the income description, date and amount, as well as provide information about the inter-account transfers and expenses. SSuite Office - My Money – Portable allows users to create financial reports by selecting a report type and fields that are included (account number, type and balance), specifying the report title, number of columns on each page and page orientation (portrait or landscape), and picking the font style" (OS:Windows All [32-Bit/64-Bit])
The free trial of TaxSlayer Books is a "complete, online accounting software for your small business needs. Includes payroll, and bookkeeping software." It also "allows you to import bookkeeping information from Quickbooks, making setup a snap" (OS: Windows XP, Vista)
Tomboy is a "desktop note-taking application" that is "simple and easy to use, but with potential to help you organize the ideas and information you deal with every day" (OS: Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X)
Tonido "allows you to set up and run your own personal cloud storage" (OS: Linux, Mac OS X 10.5 or later, Windows 2000, Windows 7 [32 bit], Windows 7 [64 bit], Windows 8, Windows Vista [32 bit], Windows Vista [64 bit)], Windows XP)
Thursday, May 30, 2013
By the Chapter
Chapter by Chapter (aka CbC) is a freeware program designed by Sébastien Berthet for "novel writers who use Microsoft Word intensively. It allows managing and organizing chapters within a book far easier than in Word just because it deals with one doc file per chapter rather than one big file containing the whole book. When the book is finished (or whenever the writer wants), CbC generates that big file. CbC was developed because the Master Document feature of Word was too complex and very buggy (it corrupts documents). So, the idea was to mimic this feature from out of Word with another application running independently and driving Word."
I usually work on a novel as a single document on Word and keep all my chapter/scene/etc. notes separate and hand-written in my novel notebook, so this approach of doing both at the same time on the same screen definitely appealed to me. I downloaded the program and installed it today (very quick and no problems there.) When you open CbC you'll first get this little side screen on your desktop:
(Click here to see larger version)
When you open a new book you're prompted for a title, byline, and which file format (doc, rtf, docx etc.) that you want to use. Once you've input that, you can begin adding chapters by right-clicking on the appropriate act, which automatically opens up a new Word file and companion screen:
(Click here to see larger version)
I like the convenience of being able to make notes while I'm writing a chapter, which the program allows in a small box at the bottom of the side screen:
(Click here to see larger version)
When you save your files, the document is segregated to the CbC program file, but you can dupe it elsewhere easily with a different Save As file name. This is as far as I've gotten with using the CbC program, but I'm going to give it a genuine test drive by writing an entire story using only the program for what I usually do in Word and with my hand-written notes. If it proves to be as helpful as I think it will, I'll report back on what happens and how I think you can use it for your Word story projects.
I usually work on a novel as a single document on Word and keep all my chapter/scene/etc. notes separate and hand-written in my novel notebook, so this approach of doing both at the same time on the same screen definitely appealed to me. I downloaded the program and installed it today (very quick and no problems there.) When you open CbC you'll first get this little side screen on your desktop:
(Click here to see larger version)
When you open a new book you're prompted for a title, byline, and which file format (doc, rtf, docx etc.) that you want to use. Once you've input that, you can begin adding chapters by right-clicking on the appropriate act, which automatically opens up a new Word file and companion screen:
(Click here to see larger version)
I like the convenience of being able to make notes while I'm writing a chapter, which the program allows in a small box at the bottom of the side screen:
(Click here to see larger version)
When you save your files, the document is segregated to the CbC program file, but you can dupe it elsewhere easily with a different Save As file name. This is as far as I've gotten with using the CbC program, but I'm going to give it a genuine test drive by writing an entire story using only the program for what I usually do in Word and with my hand-written notes. If it proves to be as helpful as I think it will, I'll report back on what happens and how I think you can use it for your Word story projects.
Monday, January 28, 2013
No Cost Ten
Ten Things You Can Have for Free
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
7 Sticky Notes is a "good 100% free desktop notes software that creates Sticky Notes directly on your Desktop. It has a really good-looking realistic sticky note appearance for ultimate user experience and it offers amazing and cool features that makes 7 Sticky Notes at the same time powerful, simple to use, reliable, and light" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)
ArsClip is a "freeware utility for the windows clipboard. ArsClip monitors the clipboard and keeps track of the entries. Pasting is done by using a triggered popup window. This window can be triggered by a hotkey, holding right-click, a special trigger window, and other methods" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)
Funny Photo Maker "lets you enjoy photo editing. Helps you export photos in image file and gif animation. Easily turns your photos into artistic and interesting masterpieces" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)
The free, full-featured trial version of ImageWell is a "compact, powerful image editing application that lets you quickly resize, crop,watermark, edit your images, take screenshots and then instantly upload them to the web, save to your computer or email them to a friend. ImageWell also lets you annotate your images with text, shapes, arrows and lines, quickly and easily. And it doesn't stop there - add a drop shadow, a shaped border, flip or rotate your image, adjust the sharpness and brightness, plus so much more" (OS: Mac)
LyX is a "document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG). LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a graphical interface. This results in world-class support for creation of mathematical content (via a fully integrated equation editor) and structured documents like academic articles, theses, and books. In addition, staples of scientific authoring such as reference list and index creation come standard. But you can also use LyX to create a letter or a novel or a theatre play or film script. A broad array of ready, well-designed document layouts are built in. LyX is for people who want their writing to look great, right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting details, “finger painting” font attributes or futzing around with page boundaries. You just write. On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output — or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced — looks like nothing else" (OS: Linux/Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X; available in several languages.)
Scheduler allows you to "schedule tasks to perform at a particular time of day. Tasks include the ability to open any file in its default program, open a URL in the default web browser and shutdown or restart your computer. The main window can be minimised to the system tray. The uses of this range from using it as an alarm clock or reminder to shutting down your computer at a set time after any remaining tasks have been completed" (OS: Not specified but it looks like Windows.)
Scribus is "an Open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design. Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and Spot Color support, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation" (OS: Linux/*nix/BSD, MacOSX(R) and Windows(R))
SoftCard Manager uses your scanner to "store Business cards and other similar sized cards. SoftCardManager stores digital images of each Card. Each one highly compressed is immediately available for viewing. Scan in a card, enter it into a phone book (basic details, Name, Company, Email address) and you can look at all their details instantly" (OS: Not specified but it looks like Windows.)
SSuite Office My Money Portable is "a simple to use personal finance manager that is also portable. Features: create and add unlimited accounts; make income or expense transactions against your accounts; supports inter-account money transfers; includes a custom report builder. A French version is also available. (OS: All Windows; designer notes: "If used in Windows Vista / 7 / 8, set the application to run as an Administrator")
VueMinder Lite USB is a "free calendar program that can run from a USB stick - no installation required. It can auto-sync with Google Calendar. A calendar browser allows addition of many events, such as holidays, local weather, sport schedules, religious occasions, and much more. You can also create your own calendars, which are overlaid into day, week, and month views. Events are also visible directly on the Windows desktop, even when offline" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
7 Sticky Notes is a "good 100% free desktop notes software that creates Sticky Notes directly on your Desktop. It has a really good-looking realistic sticky note appearance for ultimate user experience and it offers amazing and cool features that makes 7 Sticky Notes at the same time powerful, simple to use, reliable, and light" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)
ArsClip is a "freeware utility for the windows clipboard. ArsClip monitors the clipboard and keeps track of the entries. Pasting is done by using a triggered popup window. This window can be triggered by a hotkey, holding right-click, a special trigger window, and other methods" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)
Funny Photo Maker "lets you enjoy photo editing. Helps you export photos in image file and gif animation. Easily turns your photos into artistic and interesting masterpieces" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)
The free, full-featured trial version of ImageWell is a "compact, powerful image editing application that lets you quickly resize, crop,watermark, edit your images, take screenshots and then instantly upload them to the web, save to your computer or email them to a friend. ImageWell also lets you annotate your images with text, shapes, arrows and lines, quickly and easily. And it doesn't stop there - add a drop shadow, a shaped border, flip or rotate your image, adjust the sharpness and brightness, plus so much more" (OS: Mac)
LyX is a "document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG). LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a graphical interface. This results in world-class support for creation of mathematical content (via a fully integrated equation editor) and structured documents like academic articles, theses, and books. In addition, staples of scientific authoring such as reference list and index creation come standard. But you can also use LyX to create a letter or a novel or a theatre play or film script. A broad array of ready, well-designed document layouts are built in. LyX is for people who want their writing to look great, right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting details, “finger painting” font attributes or futzing around with page boundaries. You just write. On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output — or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced — looks like nothing else" (OS: Linux/Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X; available in several languages.)
Scheduler allows you to "schedule tasks to perform at a particular time of day. Tasks include the ability to open any file in its default program, open a URL in the default web browser and shutdown or restart your computer. The main window can be minimised to the system tray. The uses of this range from using it as an alarm clock or reminder to shutting down your computer at a set time after any remaining tasks have been completed" (OS: Not specified but it looks like Windows.)
Scribus is "an Open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design. Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and Spot Color support, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation" (OS: Linux/*nix/BSD, MacOSX(R) and Windows(R))
SoftCard Manager uses your scanner to "store Business cards and other similar sized cards. SoftCardManager stores digital images of each Card. Each one highly compressed is immediately available for viewing. Scan in a card, enter it into a phone book (basic details, Name, Company, Email address) and you can look at all their details instantly" (OS: Not specified but it looks like Windows.)
SSuite Office My Money Portable is "a simple to use personal finance manager that is also portable. Features: create and add unlimited accounts; make income or expense transactions against your accounts; supports inter-account money transfers; includes a custom report builder. A French version is also available. (OS: All Windows; designer notes: "If used in Windows Vista / 7 / 8, set the application to run as an Administrator")
VueMinder Lite USB is a "free calendar program that can run from a USB stick - no installation required. It can auto-sync with Google Calendar. A calendar browser allows addition of many events, such as holidays, local weather, sport schedules, religious occasions, and much more. You can also create your own calendars, which are overlaid into day, week, and month views. Events are also visible directly on the Windows desktop, even when offline" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 [32-Bit/64-Bit])
Monday, March 05, 2012
Zero Cost Ten
Ten Things You Can Have for Free
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
Bolide Free Slideshow Creator is "the smart software which saves a lot of your time and makes it super easy for you to create just amazing slideshow videos! This program helps you avoid uploading hundreds of photos from your summer holiday or birthday party or your friends´ wedding or some other celebration - instead you make only one stunning slideshow video which includes all your photos and even more! As you may guess, using Slideshow Creator you can not only combine photos into a movie with you and your friends in the lead role, but also add your comments and necessary notes. So, for each image you explain what is going on, who is there, where they are, why everybody is laughing and what has just happened before the photo was taken, etc. In other words, give as much information as you find necessary and suitable for the situation. Moreover, you are welcome to choose from a variety of awesome transition effects and the best music you find suitable for the shot. The program has all possible transition effects for every occasion! Be it a children´s party or a get-together for the staff, you are going to find something to your taste and make your photo slideshow video great!" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)
GloboNote is a virtual sticky notes program that offers a lot of unusual features: Set Alarms. Remind yourself of important events. Set recurring alarm, play custom sound(*.wav, *.aiff or *.mp3); Build-in Calculator; Organize notes in group. Display/Hide notes according to group; Customize notes. Change color, font, behavior of your note; Create note templates; Search Notes; Attach files on note then double click to launch it; Attach images on notes. Paste image from clipboard to note; Support for URLs handling; Find/Replace the content of the note; Make note to always stay on top of other window; Support for rich text editing with bold, italic, colour etc (OS: Designer notes: "Platform Independent. Run on any OS that has Java 6 or higher installed")
Hanso Recorder is "a feature-rich audio program developed for a wide range of sound tasks such as: converting CDs, tapes, DVDs, live performances, TV sounds, Internet radio, video games and any other sound source into audio files you can easily save on your computer. The software´s capabilities also integrate text-to-speech conversion that uses natural voices allowing you to listen to your documents while not around your computer. Hanso Recorder comes with support for the most popular formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, VOX, AU, AIFF" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)
In My Diary is "a smart, free personal organizer. The main display is based on a traditional diary format but, although all entries appear as one line of text, each actual entry can contain as many lines as required. Diary entries can be set to auto-repeat at the required interval. In addition to the daily diary, there is also a daily journal facility, a calendar, Address book with flexible labelling system, Anniversary entries and a notes section with links to diary entries" (OS: Designer notes: "It runs on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, and on Apple Mac [10.4 and above]. There is also now a native version for Linux OS or the Windows version can be used and works well running in the Wine emulator")
InDeep Notes is a "simple application that helps you create and manage your text notes with ease" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7, Designer notes "Requires: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5")
Interactive Calendar is "a free, feature-packed and extremely customizable desktop calendar that is a pleasure to use and look at. Unlike the majority of its direct competitors, this calendar software renders the calendar grid right on the wallpaper, considerably increasing the speed of refreshes/updates.
The calendar has several views and allows you easily create and manage tasks, specifying their duration, order and other parameters" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 32-Bit/64-Bit)
NoteItDown is "a protable application for creating and managing notes of all kinds. The most important features are: Notes can be stored in an user defined folder structure; The font, font size and colors are changeable for each note; With a RTF-editor each note can be designed individually; A search function finds notes with a specified text; Text inside of a note can be found with an incremental search function; An edited note will be saved automatically" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2008/7. Designer notes "NoteItDown runs in multi user environments as well on USB sticks")
SNV Calendar Lite is "a highly customizable desktop month calendar that allows you to verify the accuracy of your dates. With this calendar application a selected date can be copied to the Clipboard, the difference between a current date and another date can be calculated, the background picture, color scheme, first day of the week and other properties may be set. An important feature of SNV Calendar is that its multiple instances can be opened as separate windows - each with different appearance" (OS: Windows 7/XP/Vista)
Task Coach is "a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. It grew out of my frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks" (OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3/Vista/7)
VueMinder Lite USB is a free calendar program that can run from a USB stick - no installation required. It can auto-sync with Google Calendar. A calendar browser allows addition of many events, such as holidays, local weather, sport schedules, religious occasions, and much more. You can also create your own calendars, which are overlaid into day, week, and month views. Events are also visible directly on the Windows desktop, even when offline! (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 32-Bit/64-Bit)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
Bolide Free Slideshow Creator is "the smart software which saves a lot of your time and makes it super easy for you to create just amazing slideshow videos! This program helps you avoid uploading hundreds of photos from your summer holiday or birthday party or your friends´ wedding or some other celebration - instead you make only one stunning slideshow video which includes all your photos and even more! As you may guess, using Slideshow Creator you can not only combine photos into a movie with you and your friends in the lead role, but also add your comments and necessary notes. So, for each image you explain what is going on, who is there, where they are, why everybody is laughing and what has just happened before the photo was taken, etc. In other words, give as much information as you find necessary and suitable for the situation. Moreover, you are welcome to choose from a variety of awesome transition effects and the best music you find suitable for the shot. The program has all possible transition effects for every occasion! Be it a children´s party or a get-together for the staff, you are going to find something to your taste and make your photo slideshow video great!" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)
GloboNote is a virtual sticky notes program that offers a lot of unusual features: Set Alarms. Remind yourself of important events. Set recurring alarm, play custom sound(*.wav, *.aiff or *.mp3); Build-in Calculator; Organize notes in group. Display/Hide notes according to group; Customize notes. Change color, font, behavior of your note; Create note templates; Search Notes; Attach files on note then double click to launch it; Attach images on notes. Paste image from clipboard to note; Support for URLs handling; Find/Replace the content of the note; Make note to always stay on top of other window; Support for rich text editing with bold, italic, colour etc (OS: Designer notes: "Platform Independent. Run on any OS that has Java 6 or higher installed")
Hanso Recorder is "a feature-rich audio program developed for a wide range of sound tasks such as: converting CDs, tapes, DVDs, live performances, TV sounds, Internet radio, video games and any other sound source into audio files you can easily save on your computer. The software´s capabilities also integrate text-to-speech conversion that uses natural voices allowing you to listen to your documents while not around your computer. Hanso Recorder comes with support for the most popular formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, VOX, AU, AIFF" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)
In My Diary is "a smart, free personal organizer. The main display is based on a traditional diary format but, although all entries appear as one line of text, each actual entry can contain as many lines as required. Diary entries can be set to auto-repeat at the required interval. In addition to the daily diary, there is also a daily journal facility, a calendar, Address book with flexible labelling system, Anniversary entries and a notes section with links to diary entries" (OS: Designer notes: "It runs on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, and on Apple Mac [10.4 and above]. There is also now a native version for Linux OS or the Windows version can be used and works well running in the Wine emulator")
InDeep Notes is a "simple application that helps you create and manage your text notes with ease" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7, Designer notes "Requires: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5")
Interactive Calendar is "a free, feature-packed and extremely customizable desktop calendar that is a pleasure to use and look at. Unlike the majority of its direct competitors, this calendar software renders the calendar grid right on the wallpaper, considerably increasing the speed of refreshes/updates.
The calendar has several views and allows you easily create and manage tasks, specifying their duration, order and other parameters" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 32-Bit/64-Bit)
NoteItDown is "a protable application for creating and managing notes of all kinds. The most important features are: Notes can be stored in an user defined folder structure; The font, font size and colors are changeable for each note; With a RTF-editor each note can be designed individually; A search function finds notes with a specified text; Text inside of a note can be found with an incremental search function; An edited note will be saved automatically" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2008/7. Designer notes "NoteItDown runs in multi user environments as well on USB sticks")
SNV Calendar Lite is "a highly customizable desktop month calendar that allows you to verify the accuracy of your dates. With this calendar application a selected date can be copied to the Clipboard, the difference between a current date and another date can be calculated, the background picture, color scheme, first day of the week and other properties may be set. An important feature of SNV Calendar is that its multiple instances can be opened as separate windows - each with different appearance" (OS: Windows 7/XP/Vista)
Task Coach is "a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and todo lists. It grew out of my frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks" (OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3/Vista/7)
VueMinder Lite USB is a free calendar program that can run from a USB stick - no installation required. It can auto-sync with Google Calendar. A calendar browser allows addition of many events, such as holidays, local weather, sport schedules, religious occasions, and much more. You can also create your own calendars, which are overlaid into day, week, and month views. Events are also visible directly on the Windows desktop, even when offline! (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 32-Bit/64-Bit)
Monday, February 13, 2012
Not a Dime Ten
Ten Things You Can Have for Free
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
This is extremely cool-looking -- Desktop Shelves turns your screen into a virtual library to help "fight the clutter on your Desktop by organizing files on shelves. A shelf the size of 5 icons holds 20 files" (OS: Mac)
Focus Writer is "a simple, distraction-free writing environment. It utilizes a hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen, allowing the program to have a familiar look and feel to it while still getting out of the way so that you can immerse yourself in your work. Features: TXT, basic RTF, and basic ODT file support; Timers and alarms; Daily goals; Fully customizable themes; Typewriter sound effects (optional); Auto-save (optional); Live statistics (optional); Spell-checking (optional); Multi-document support; Sessions; Portable mode (optional)" (OS: Designer notes: "It's available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, and has been translated into many different languages.")
The designers of free photoshop software GIMP have released their latest version 2.6, which is "a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7)
In My Diary is "a smart, free personal organizer. The main display is based on a traditional diary format but, although all entries appear as one line of text, each actual entry can contain as many lines as required. Diary entries can be set to auto-repeat at the required interval. In addition to the daily diary, there is also a daily journal facility, a calendar, Address book with flexible labelling system, Anniversary entries and a notes section with links to diary entries" (OS: Designer notes: "It runs on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, and on Apple Mac (10.4 and above). There is also now a native version for Linux OS or the Windows version can be used and works well running in the Wine emulator.")
Someone out there needed a generator for naming medicines. Here you go.
Designed for family tree huggers but can double as a great organizer for character info, Personal Historian Essentials is a freeware that "contains many core features from the ground-breaking Personal Historian personal and family history writing software. Features: Single-file database format; Support for international character sets through Unicode integration; Integrated backup and restore help safeguard your data; Write unlimited stories; View the list of your stories on screen; Filter the list of stories; Direct RootsMagic import; Direct Family Tree Maker import (version 16 and earlier); Direct PAF import (version 5); Direct Legacy import (versions 3 and later); GEDCOM import; Import text data (tab or comma delimited)" (OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000)
Seventh Sanctum has an interesting new generator here that produces names for SF Tarot cards. Yes, that's SF as in science fiction.
Trello is a free online "collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process. A Trello board is some product or project that is under continuous development, though a board can have a variety of uses and mean different things. Boards are made up of multiple lists. Generally, lists on the left are the start of a workflow and lists on right are the end. Lists contain cards. Cards represent the basic unit of a board, for instance: a new feature, a bug, a story lead, a legal case, a client, research for a paper, a potential employee, or a customer support issue. Cards move from list to list to indicate progression. Board members can add themselves to cards, start conversations on cards, create checklists on cards, and so on." (Thanks to our blogpal Charlene Teglia for posting about Trello and sending me over to check it out.)
If you're looking for a virtual version of the magic hat I use for giveaways here at PBW, Virtual Hat might be worth checking out.
WebbIE is "a web browser for blind and visually-impaired people, especially those using screen readers, used since 2001 all over the world. It comes with the Accessible programs, letting you access news and audio on the Internet in a simple and accessible way, allowing you to use podcasts, listen to the radio and read RSS and news with your screen reader or other access solution" (OS: Windows '98, Me and 2000 XP SP3, Vista and 7)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
This is extremely cool-looking -- Desktop Shelves turns your screen into a virtual library to help "fight the clutter on your Desktop by organizing files on shelves. A shelf the size of 5 icons holds 20 files" (OS: Mac)
Focus Writer is "a simple, distraction-free writing environment. It utilizes a hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen, allowing the program to have a familiar look and feel to it while still getting out of the way so that you can immerse yourself in your work. Features: TXT, basic RTF, and basic ODT file support; Timers and alarms; Daily goals; Fully customizable themes; Typewriter sound effects (optional); Auto-save (optional); Live statistics (optional); Spell-checking (optional); Multi-document support; Sessions; Portable mode (optional)" (OS: Designer notes: "It's available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, and has been translated into many different languages.")
The designers of free photoshop software GIMP have released their latest version 2.6, which is "a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7)
In My Diary is "a smart, free personal organizer. The main display is based on a traditional diary format but, although all entries appear as one line of text, each actual entry can contain as many lines as required. Diary entries can be set to auto-repeat at the required interval. In addition to the daily diary, there is also a daily journal facility, a calendar, Address book with flexible labelling system, Anniversary entries and a notes section with links to diary entries" (OS: Designer notes: "It runs on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, and on Apple Mac (10.4 and above). There is also now a native version for Linux OS or the Windows version can be used and works well running in the Wine emulator.")
Someone out there needed a generator for naming medicines. Here you go.
Designed for family tree huggers but can double as a great organizer for character info, Personal Historian Essentials is a freeware that "contains many core features from the ground-breaking Personal Historian personal and family history writing software. Features: Single-file database format; Support for international character sets through Unicode integration; Integrated backup and restore help safeguard your data; Write unlimited stories; View the list of your stories on screen; Filter the list of stories; Direct RootsMagic import; Direct Family Tree Maker import (version 16 and earlier); Direct PAF import (version 5); Direct Legacy import (versions 3 and later); GEDCOM import; Import text data (tab or comma delimited)" (OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP, and 2000)
Seventh Sanctum has an interesting new generator here that produces names for SF Tarot cards. Yes, that's SF as in science fiction.
Trello is a free online "collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process. A Trello board is some product or project that is under continuous development, though a board can have a variety of uses and mean different things. Boards are made up of multiple lists. Generally, lists on the left are the start of a workflow and lists on right are the end. Lists contain cards. Cards represent the basic unit of a board, for instance: a new feature, a bug, a story lead, a legal case, a client, research for a paper, a potential employee, or a customer support issue. Cards move from list to list to indicate progression. Board members can add themselves to cards, start conversations on cards, create checklists on cards, and so on." (Thanks to our blogpal Charlene Teglia for posting about Trello and sending me over to check it out.)
If you're looking for a virtual version of the magic hat I use for giveaways here at PBW, Virtual Hat might be worth checking out.
WebbIE is "a web browser for blind and visually-impaired people, especially those using screen readers, used since 2001 all over the world. It comes with the Accessible programs, letting you access news and audio on the Internet in a simple and accessible way, allowing you to use podcasts, listen to the radio and read RSS and news with your screen reader or other access solution" (OS: Windows '98, Me and 2000 XP SP3, Vista and 7)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Outline Ten
Ten Things to Help Outline Your Novel
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
The Lite version of Action Outline "consists of an Explorer-like interface where you can store and arrange all your information in a tree outline form. Arrange items using your keyboard or mouse, cut and paste branches, place checks or tags next to listed items, search information, print data, export to the external file, or link to web or local files" (OS: Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, XP, Vista and Windows 7.)
Essential PIM is a "personal information manager that allows you to keep all your information in electronic form. All your appointments, tasks, notes, contacts, password entries and email messages are stored in a graphical user interface and easily accessible form. Automatically import your data from pretty much any PIM software that just isn't working for you. Synchronize with popular online services such as Google Calendar and Contacts, Yahoo Contacts, SyncML and CalDAV servers and more, always keeping your data up-to-date and accessible anywhere, anytime" (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7)
The Guide "evolved from the need to have an application that could organize information and ideas in a hierarchical, tree-like structure. Tree-based structures are frequently employed to manage information through a "divide-and-conquer" approach, wherein each level of the tree represents a further level of specialization of the parent-level topic — the best example of this being a book. The Guide is an application that allows you create documents ("guides") which inherently have a tree (which you can modify as you please) and text associated with each node of the tree. The text itself is of the rich-text variety, and the editor allows you to modify the style and formatting of the text (fonts, bold, italics etc). For the initiated, the Guide is a two-pane extrinsic outliner. This concept is similar to mindmapping in some ways" (OS: Designer notes: "The Guide is available as an installable package for Microsoft Windows 2000 and upwards (XP, 2003, 2008, Vista). The binaries are also available as a zip file that requires no installation and supports portable use. The Guide is a 32-bit native C++ Win32 application (that uses MFC). It will work on 64-bit platforms also.")
MemPad "is a plain text outliner and note taking program with a structured index. All pages are stored in a single file. User interface available in 15 languages. The program offers standard editing functions including cut, copy, paste, undo, date/time insert, drag&drop, and supports Web links as well as network and local file or folder links (full path not required) and internal page links. Environmental variables can be used in file links to run programs, for example" (OS: Win95 / Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7)
Mind Raider is a "personal notebook and outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to help you in organization of your knowledge and associated web, local and realworld resources in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing" (OS: Windows, Linux and Mac)
The Note & Do free plugin for MS Office applications (Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word) allows you to: "Drag and drop text from the documents to instantly create notes or tasks; Drag task or note text directly into your document; Categorize notes and tasks with color; Auto arrange the notes; Remove all notes at once; Pin a note to all applications or just the ones you choose; Create application-specific tasks; Complete and re-enable tasks (OS:Windows 7 (x86, x64), Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista (x86, x64), Windows 2003, Windows XP. .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed.)
NotesLogExp "can store, retrieve, catalog, manage, search, sort and export notes, documents, links, etc. The program can save and automatically fill forms as well as usernames and passwords (with auto login). The program includes a search tool, the database is password protected, and includes export to HTML" (OS: Windows 98, Vista, 7)
Text Tree was built on Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake outlining method, and "is designed make structured, understandable documents easily and quickly. Text Tree has been found useful for story writing, FAQ creation, novel planning, manual writing, software support, biographies, and lesson planning. What really sets Text Tree apart from other outliners is its export abilities. In other outliners, you make a outline of everything, then you have to cut and paste or go node by node to get your information out. Text Tree allows you to quickly export all or part of the information in your outline" (OS: Windows XP with Java installed)
Tkoutline is "a single pane, cross-platform outline editor written in Tcl/Tk. With this editor, information can be structured hierarchically in an outline and outlines can be hyperlinked together to create a web of outlines" (OS: Win95 / Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP)
TreeLine is "a structured information storage program. Some would call TreeLine an Outliner, others would call it a PIM. Basically, it just stores almost any kind of information. A tree structure makes it easy to keep things organized. And each node in the tree can contain several fields, forming a mini-database. The output format for each node can be defined, and the output can be shown on the screen, printed, or exported to html (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
The Lite version of Action Outline "consists of an Explorer-like interface where you can store and arrange all your information in a tree outline form. Arrange items using your keyboard or mouse, cut and paste branches, place checks or tags next to listed items, search information, print data, export to the external file, or link to web or local files" (OS: Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, XP, Vista and Windows 7.)
Essential PIM is a "personal information manager that allows you to keep all your information in electronic form. All your appointments, tasks, notes, contacts, password entries and email messages are stored in a graphical user interface and easily accessible form. Automatically import your data from pretty much any PIM software that just isn't working for you. Synchronize with popular online services such as Google Calendar and Contacts, Yahoo Contacts, SyncML and CalDAV servers and more, always keeping your data up-to-date and accessible anywhere, anytime" (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7)
The Guide "evolved from the need to have an application that could organize information and ideas in a hierarchical, tree-like structure. Tree-based structures are frequently employed to manage information through a "divide-and-conquer" approach, wherein each level of the tree represents a further level of specialization of the parent-level topic — the best example of this being a book. The Guide is an application that allows you create documents ("guides") which inherently have a tree (which you can modify as you please) and text associated with each node of the tree. The text itself is of the rich-text variety, and the editor allows you to modify the style and formatting of the text (fonts, bold, italics etc). For the initiated, the Guide is a two-pane extrinsic outliner. This concept is similar to mindmapping in some ways" (OS: Designer notes: "The Guide is available as an installable package for Microsoft Windows 2000 and upwards (XP, 2003, 2008, Vista). The binaries are also available as a zip file that requires no installation and supports portable use. The Guide is a 32-bit native C++ Win32 application (that uses MFC). It will work on 64-bit platforms also.")
MemPad "is a plain text outliner and note taking program with a structured index. All pages are stored in a single file. User interface available in 15 languages. The program offers standard editing functions including cut, copy, paste, undo, date/time insert, drag&drop, and supports Web links as well as network and local file or folder links (full path not required) and internal page links. Environmental variables can be used in file links to run programs, for example" (OS: Win95 / Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7)
Mind Raider is a "personal notebook and outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to help you in organization of your knowledge and associated web, local and realworld resources in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing" (OS: Windows, Linux and Mac)
The Note & Do free plugin for MS Office applications (Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word) allows you to: "Drag and drop text from the documents to instantly create notes or tasks; Drag task or note text directly into your document; Categorize notes and tasks with color; Auto arrange the notes; Remove all notes at once; Pin a note to all applications or just the ones you choose; Create application-specific tasks; Complete and re-enable tasks (OS:Windows 7 (x86, x64), Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista (x86, x64), Windows 2003, Windows XP. .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed.)
NotesLogExp "can store, retrieve, catalog, manage, search, sort and export notes, documents, links, etc. The program can save and automatically fill forms as well as usernames and passwords (with auto login). The program includes a search tool, the database is password protected, and includes export to HTML" (OS: Windows 98, Vista, 7)
Text Tree was built on Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake outlining method, and "is designed make structured, understandable documents easily and quickly. Text Tree has been found useful for story writing, FAQ creation, novel planning, manual writing, software support, biographies, and lesson planning. What really sets Text Tree apart from other outliners is its export abilities. In other outliners, you make a outline of everything, then you have to cut and paste or go node by node to get your information out. Text Tree allows you to quickly export all or part of the information in your outline" (OS: Windows XP with Java installed)
Tkoutline is "a single pane, cross-platform outline editor written in Tcl/Tk. With this editor, information can be structured hierarchically in an outline and outlines can be hyperlinked together to create a web of outlines" (OS: Win95 / Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP)
TreeLine is "a structured information storage program. Some would call TreeLine an Outliner, others would call it a PIM. Basically, it just stores almost any kind of information. A tree structure makes it easy to keep things organized. And each node in the tree can contain several fields, forming a mini-database. The output format for each node can be defined, and the output can be shown on the screen, printed, or exported to html (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux)
Monday, January 16, 2012
Mac Ten
Ten Things for the Mac Freeware Lovers
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
The free lite version (or possibly a free trial download; my links are not jiving with each other) of Art Text is "a powerful tool. Create compelling text for your advertisements, brochures, letterheads, newsletters and more. Spice up these documents by designing decorative graphics that are sure to impress others. If you're creating a website for a business or your personal needs, Art Text has all of the tools you need. The 250 editable materials and 600 supplied vector icons and shapes will give you a quick start to getting your site up and running, or create your own web graphics effortlessly with the help of multiple layers. A logo often creates a strong association with your business in the minds of customers. You want your logo to make a statement. Design your company's logo right in Art Text and make it unique by taking advantage of 100 additional fonts (Extras Pack only) and the large library of shapes included in the program" (OS:Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, Intel only. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion compatible.)
Calendar is an app "for those would want to put a calendar directly into their menu bar, allowing for easy access. It provides a quick look at today’s date, and one click brings up the calendar, and a schedule sidebar. Switching between months and years is handled quickly" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later)
Dropbox is "a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you’re a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost" (OS: Mac, Windows, Linux and various mobile devices)
Growly Notes "lets you capture everything you’re interested in, all in one place. Organize research projects, trips, to-do lists, or journals. Scrapbook your images, web links, and video clips. Your imagination is the only limitation. Pages can contain almost anything: formatted text, images, movies, audio clips, PDF files, tables, lists, web and file links, and drawings you create in Notes. There are no rules for where things have to go: put an image beside text or under it. Draw shapes on top of other notes. Put two snippets of text right next to each other. Click anywhere and start typing. It’s really that simple. Notebooks are organized into sections (the larger tabs on the left in the image above), each of which contains as many pages as you like. All the open notebooks are shown in one window, for easy navigation and quick jumps" (OS: Mac)
Jet Photo Studio 5 is "a feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photography software. Features: Organizes photos in albums; Manage photos with the calendar and map; Geotag photos with GPS; Create Flash and Web galleries; Publish web albums with JetPhoto Server. New version 5 can also manage video clips and make Flash or web galleries contains videos" (OS: Mac OS X 10.3 / 10.4 / 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7; this one also has a Windows version for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7)
MovingPhotos3D is "a visualization that lets you see your photo library in a new way. It sends your photos flying around the screen in 3D. You can see hundreds of pictures move into different patterns and shapes" (OS:Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later)
Scene Painter is a Mac freeware "for those who are looking to tell a story using a graphics component library as its source. You can create comics with this tool, or create other various pieces of art. You can get in depth with the program, utilizing advanced tactics or keep it simple" (OS: Mac, Jave version 1.6)
smallQWERTY is a free "keyboard app. You can input the following functions in groups of 4x5 buttons with left clicks, some of which in groups of 3x3 buttons with left or right clicks: 1. Letters (with standard ABC and efficient smallQWERTY layouts) 2. Numbers (1 ~ 0) 3. Symbols (all the symbols in standard keyboard) 4. Cursor keys (Left, Right, Up, Down, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down) 5. Function keys (F1 ~ F12) 6. Common File menus (New, Open, Save, Close, Hide, Minimize, Quit, ...) 7. Common Edit menus (Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Undo, Redo, Find, ...) 8. More menus (Folder creation, Preferences, Spotlight, Trash, ...) 9. Useful commands (Navigation, Screen capture, Media control, ...) 10. System commands (Monitor, Log off, Restart, Shutdown, Sleep) 11. Desktop commands (Mission control, Dashboard, Launchpad, App/window switcher, ...) 12. All the individual keys of standard keyboard 13. Modifiers (Command, Shift, Option/Alt, Control) 14. Custom app launcher. More functions in 3x3 keyboard interface are coming soon" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later)
Speakline is a "simple language tool allows users to type a message onto the notepad and have their Mac read it back. The app supports the Mac system voices. Speakline will save the text, and can be exported as a AIFF file" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later)
Wunderlist is a task manager that "stands apart from other like it, for being on the cloud. This free app will help you to boost productivity, and will work across a wide variety of devices, including: Macs, Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android, and on the web. You can share you lists with friends and co-workers to maximize efficiency when trying to get things done" (OS: Mac OS X, also Windows, Linux and various mobile devices)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
The free lite version (or possibly a free trial download; my links are not jiving with each other) of Art Text is "a powerful tool. Create compelling text for your advertisements, brochures, letterheads, newsletters and more. Spice up these documents by designing decorative graphics that are sure to impress others. If you're creating a website for a business or your personal needs, Art Text has all of the tools you need. The 250 editable materials and 600 supplied vector icons and shapes will give you a quick start to getting your site up and running, or create your own web graphics effortlessly with the help of multiple layers. A logo often creates a strong association with your business in the minds of customers. You want your logo to make a statement. Design your company's logo right in Art Text and make it unique by taking advantage of 100 additional fonts (Extras Pack only) and the large library of shapes included in the program" (OS:Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, Intel only. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion compatible.)
Calendar is an app "for those would want to put a calendar directly into their menu bar, allowing for easy access. It provides a quick look at today’s date, and one click brings up the calendar, and a schedule sidebar. Switching between months and years is handled quickly" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later)
Dropbox is "a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you’re a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost" (OS: Mac, Windows, Linux and various mobile devices)
Growly Notes "lets you capture everything you’re interested in, all in one place. Organize research projects, trips, to-do lists, or journals. Scrapbook your images, web links, and video clips. Your imagination is the only limitation. Pages can contain almost anything: formatted text, images, movies, audio clips, PDF files, tables, lists, web and file links, and drawings you create in Notes. There are no rules for where things have to go: put an image beside text or under it. Draw shapes on top of other notes. Put two snippets of text right next to each other. Click anywhere and start typing. It’s really that simple. Notebooks are organized into sections (the larger tabs on the left in the image above), each of which contains as many pages as you like. All the open notebooks are shown in one window, for easy navigation and quick jumps" (OS: Mac)
Jet Photo Studio 5 is "a feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photography software. Features: Organizes photos in albums; Manage photos with the calendar and map; Geotag photos with GPS; Create Flash and Web galleries; Publish web albums with JetPhoto Server. New version 5 can also manage video clips and make Flash or web galleries contains videos" (OS: Mac OS X 10.3 / 10.4 / 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7; this one also has a Windows version for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7)
MovingPhotos3D is "a visualization that lets you see your photo library in a new way. It sends your photos flying around the screen in 3D. You can see hundreds of pictures move into different patterns and shapes" (OS:Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later)
Scene Painter is a Mac freeware "for those who are looking to tell a story using a graphics component library as its source. You can create comics with this tool, or create other various pieces of art. You can get in depth with the program, utilizing advanced tactics or keep it simple" (OS: Mac, Jave version 1.6)
smallQWERTY is a free "keyboard app. You can input the following functions in groups of 4x5 buttons with left clicks, some of which in groups of 3x3 buttons with left or right clicks: 1. Letters (with standard ABC and efficient smallQWERTY layouts) 2. Numbers (1 ~ 0) 3. Symbols (all the symbols in standard keyboard) 4. Cursor keys (Left, Right, Up, Down, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down) 5. Function keys (F1 ~ F12) 6. Common File menus (New, Open, Save, Close, Hide, Minimize, Quit, ...) 7. Common Edit menus (Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Undo, Redo, Find, ...) 8. More menus (Folder creation, Preferences, Spotlight, Trash, ...) 9. Useful commands (Navigation, Screen capture, Media control, ...) 10. System commands (Monitor, Log off, Restart, Shutdown, Sleep) 11. Desktop commands (Mission control, Dashboard, Launchpad, App/window switcher, ...) 12. All the individual keys of standard keyboard 13. Modifiers (Command, Shift, Option/Alt, Control) 14. Custom app launcher. More functions in 3x3 keyboard interface are coming soon" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later)
Speakline is a "simple language tool allows users to type a message onto the notepad and have their Mac read it back. The app supports the Mac system voices. Speakline will save the text, and can be exported as a AIFF file" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later)
Wunderlist is a task manager that "stands apart from other like it, for being on the cloud. This free app will help you to boost productivity, and will work across a wide variety of devices, including: Macs, Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android, and on the web. You can share you lists with friends and co-workers to maximize efficiency when trying to get things done" (OS: Mac OS X, also Windows, Linux and various mobile devices)
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