Free Software and Useful Sites

This Section of our Website is dedicated to finding, reviewing and recommending Software (Programs, Widgets, etc.,) and Services which you may find useful and can be downloaded or utilised for FREE from the web.

We provide links to specific websites which we have found to be useful and give a précis of the service the site provides.

We make websites, inexpensively (Please check the Homepage).

We can help when you're having problems with your computer...

Need Help?

If you are battling in ANY aspect of using your PC or Laptop and need some help and advice, just give me a quick overview of the problem in the box below and your contact e-mail and I shall do my very best to sort it!

Don't assume that the question you have is just too unimportant to submit - it's not! - I've been in the computer world professionally since 1969 and have accumulated a wealth of knowledge, which I would love to share.

NO PROBLEM IS TOO SMALL...
... NO QUESTION IS "DUMB"!

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Subject Matter

Down to Business...

In order to download a program in the list, just click on the associated picture logo (it'll open in a new tab)...
Quick Tip: when you get to the download site, DON'T click on the first download button you see - just make sure that you find the correct link to download.

Use the links on the next line to go to the relevant Section...

Software | Services | Webmasters

IZARC Zip/Unzip

(Download Size = 3.97Mb)

Before we start downloading goodies it's advisable to have a good "Unzipper" program, because many of the downloads you may care to make are in a compressed format (to enhance download time) and need to be unzipped before you can use them.

This program, unlike WinZip, is easy to use and I like the fact that you can specify the destination for the unzipped files

Scotty WinPatrol System Monitor

(Download Size = 1Mb)

This System Monitor can best be appreciated by visiting Bill's site...

But I must say that this little fellow is very pro-active! A must for all users!

Quisple Desktop Music Finder and Player

(Download Size = 1.7Mb)

This Desktop feature allows you to search for music on YouTube by song title and play same without invoking the YouTube site in your browser. It requires you to Register with them before you can download - no big deal! Also there are currently a couple of things I personally don't like... 1. there is no way to stop the play once executed. 2. there is no minimise facility, so you have to have it active in your desktop the whole time or not at all. I'm in touch with the owners concerning these points and will give you feedback a.s.a.p. - Just heard from Pavel, who will look at exit "maybe bug" and incorporate a solution on the next release (July 2010). As to the minimise, it's a moot point on my part because the system was designed to use the 'x' option and 'restart' from the System Tray (fair enough!) - These Guys are on the ball!!

E-Sword
- an amazing Bible Study Tool!

(Download Size = 30Mb)

The downloaded package includes many well known and less well known Bible versions, Commentaries, Graphics, Dictionaries (Strong's) and extras. A must for any serious student of the Bible.

Google Desktop - Sidebar

(Download Size = 576Kb)

- i.e. the initialising routine, which leads to a larger download, as you wish. It's an attractive and useful addition to your desktop - many gadget features!

Google Chrome - Internet Browser

(Downloaded Size = ?)

Pretty Big - size is unobtainable because the "download" does an installation, as opposed to a straightforward download.

This Browser is the quickest and easiest I've ever used...

GIMP - Gnu Image Manipulation Program

(Download Size = 17.4Mb)

Don't be intimidated by the jargon on the site. This facility is the ultimate in free graphic manipulation programs. It has all the facilities you enjoy in MS Paint and Picture Manager and more...

I use it often to remove backgrounds from ./images; increase and decrease image sizes, with minimal picture quality loss...

It even has a mention in Wikipedia

Open Office Productivity Suite

(Download Size = 38Mb)

A multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an Open-Source project. This means that programmmers from all over the world contribute to this project free of charge. It has been on the go for more than 20 years, is stable and innovative.

Compatible with all other major office suites...

This Package is rather large and will bite into your Internet Cap, if you are unlucky enough to have one (it's the amount of data you can download each month), but is well worth it!

It includes programs for word-processing, spreadsheet, graphics, databases and more... it can handle files created in all major office systems. In addition they have a myriad of other goodies (extensions/add-ons and stand alone) which can be downloaded!

Spartan Multi-Clipboard

(Download Size = 3.8Mb)

Have you ever been copying, cutting and pasting in your editor, wishing that you could have better control over the clipboard to select the items you are processing? Here is the solution...

ColorPic

- supplies per pixel the colour in RGB and Hexadecimal code.

(Download Size = 579Kb (Zipped))

Ever tried using a color picker on a high resolution monitor? It's impossible. That's why this color picker has a magnifier attached. Grab palettes of up to 16 colors at once and use four advanced color mixers to select a spectrum of possibilities.

Sticky-Notes for desktop

(Download Size = 5.7Mb)

Need a place to put small amounts of data, 'longer term' than the clipboard? Here's the answer!

Easy Thumbnails

- creates thumbnail versions of ./images.

(Download Size = 1.0Mb Zipped)

Google Earth and Climate Change

- a Free and fascinating product from Google and the British Government, best viewed on a high resolution screen.

Below are some of the websites I have come across which I have found useful.

BeeMP3

- lets you download songs to your mobile/cellphone.

I'll be honest and say that I've never tried the Cellphone download (you may well have to pay) and for Webmasters it provides html code to insert a playable link into a web or blog page. Certain, but not all tracks are downloadable to your hard-drive!

This section may also be of interest to non Web Developers!...

Would you like to know the simplest way to produce the "Reflection Effect" in this site's header?

Simly use a javascript I've called "wetfloor.js"...

Copy and Paste the javascript code below into a .js file you may call anything you like...

if (!document.myGetElementsByClassName) { document.myGetElementsByClassName = function(className) { var children = document.getElementsByTagName('*') || document.all; var elements = new Array(); for (var i = 0; i < children.length; i++) { var child = children[i]; var classNames = child.className.split(' '); for (var j = 0; j < classNames.length; j++) { if (classNames[j] == className) { elements.push(child); break; } } } return elements; } } var Reflection = { defaultHeight : 0.5, defaultOpacity: 0.5, add: function(image, options) { Reflection.remove(image); doptions = { "height" : Reflection.defaultHeight, "opacity" : Reflection.defaultOpacity } if (options) { for (var i in doptions) { if (!options[i]) { options[i] = doptions[i]; } } } else { options = doptions; } try { var d = document.createElement('div'); var p = image; var classes = p.className.split(' '); var newClasses = ''; for (j=0;j<classes.length;j++) { if (classes[j] != "reflect") { if (newClasses) { newClasses += ' ' } newClasses += classes[j]; } } var reflectionHeight = Math.floor(p.height*options['height']); var divHeight = Math.floor(p.height*(1+options['height'])); var reflectionWidth = p.width; if (document.all && !window.opera) { /* Fix hyperlinks */ if(p.parentElement.tagName == 'A') { var d = document.createElement('a'); d.href = p.parentElement.href; } /* Copy original image's classes & styles to div */ d.className = newClasses; p.className = 'reflected'; d.style.cssText = p.style.cssText; p.style.cssText = 'vertical-align: bottom'; var reflection = document.createElement('img'); reflection.src = p.src; reflection.style.width = reflectionWidth+'px'; reflection.style.display = 'block'; reflection.style.height = p.height+"px"; reflection.style.marginBottom = "-"+(p.height-reflectionHeight)+'px'; reflection.style.filter = 'flipv progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity='+(options['opacity']*100)+', style=1, finishOpacity=0, startx=0, starty=0, finishx=0, finishy='+(options['height']*100)+')'; d.style.width = reflectionWidth+'px'; d.style.height = divHeight+'px'; p.parentNode.replaceChild(d, p); d.appendChild(p); d.appendChild(reflection); } else { var canvas = document.createElement('canvas'); if (canvas.getContext) { /* Copy original image's classes & styles to div */ d.className = newClasses; p.className = 'reflected'; d.style.cssText = p.style.cssText; p.style.cssText = 'vertical-align: bottom'; var context = canvas.getContext("2d"); canvas.style.height = reflectionHeight+'px'; canvas.style.width = reflectionWidth+'px'; canvas.height = reflectionHeight; canvas.width = reflectionWidth; d.style.width = reflectionWidth+'px'; d.style.height = divHeight+'px'; p.parentNode.replaceChild(d, p); d.appendChild(p); d.appendChild(canvas); context.save(); context.translate(0,image.height-1); context.scale(1,-1); context.drawImage(image, 0, 0, reflectionWidth, image.height); context.restore(); context.globalCompositeOperation = "destination-out"; var gradient = context.createLinearGradient(0, 0, 0, reflectionHeight); gradient.addColorStop(1, "rgba(255, 255, 255, 1.0)"); gradient.addColorStop(0, "rgba(255, 255, 255, "+(1-options['opacity'])+")"); context.fillStyle = gradient; context.rect(0, 0, reflectionWidth, reflectionHeight*2); context.fill(); } } } catch (e) { } }, remove : function(image) { if (image.className == "reflected") { image.className = image.parentNode.className; image.parentNode.parentNode.replaceChild(image, image.parentNode); } } } function addReflections() { var rimages = document.myGetElementsByClassName('reflect'); for (i=0;i<rimages.length;i++) { var rheight = null; var ropacity = null; var classes = rimages[i].className.split(' '); for (j=0;j<classes.length;j++) { if (classes[j].indexOf("rheight") == 0) { var rheight = classes[j].substring(7)/100; } else if (classes[j].indexOf("ropacity") == 0) { var ropacity = classes[j].substring(8)/100; } } Reflection.add(rimages[i], { height: rheight, opacity : ropacity}); } } var previousOnload = window.onload; window.onload = function () { if(previousOnload) previousOnload(); addReflections(); }

File it in your Javascript Directory and place the following code in your html page's HEAD section...

<script type="text/javascript" src="./js/wetfloor.js"></script>

Remembering to CHANGE my Javascript Directory and the file's name, to yours...

Then add the code below to your image's img tag...

class="reflection"

That's it!

Friends in the Trade...

Doc Sheldon's Clinic
Dealing with all things, SEO and SEM, including tools, tips, opinion and news.

Germsoft
A software website with a development forum and a Great resource for Operating system development.

These people in the States provide an excellent Link Exchange System for SE Optimisation purposes!

More Friends

Notepad++

- is a probably the best html editor out there!

I use version 5.6.8., which has a download size of 3.2Mb, because I prefer it. The most recent Version as of July 2010, is 5.7. ...

Unlike WYSIWYG editors (such as Kompozer, below), Notepad++ does not fill your html page with extraneous guff and is truly CSS friendly!

(Download Size = 3.9Mb)

Very easy to use and a stable html editor. Also handles PHP ASP XML etc.,

KompoZer

- is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) html editor.

(Download Size = 6.8Mb)

Very easy to use and a stable html editor, which took over from Nvu in 2005

(Download Size = 41.69Mb)

Filezilla

Upload your web documents to your server with a very reliable FTP Client Server Utility.

Stat Counter

These guys (aussies) do a fine visitor tracking service for nothing! I use it to track the number of visitors I receive and where they are from (from my StatCounter Online Control Panel). Good analytical information is gleaned from a comprehensive personal Control Panel. One can also embed a visitor count in webpages - quite useful...

Grad Color

This site enables you to create colour graded ./images online for subsequent download, vertically or horizontally - especially useful when creating page backgrounds!

If you want to create an html background image (like the one on this page), I recommend that you dimension you vertical image, in the Grad Color Control Panel, to 5 x 550 pixels...

The .html code below will set your background image to the gradient you have created and downloaded, and should be placed in the head section of your html file.

<style type="text/css">body { background-image:url(../images/Bgimages/qYrpzZ.png);background-repeat:repeat-x; background-attachment:fixed;} </style>

Be sure to change my url to yours!...

Dynamic Drive

Generate Favicon Online and download

A Favicon is the small logo on the tab of your browser, representing a Company; Organisation; etc.,

To designate a favicon to a webpage, upload your generated favicon.ico file to your root source folder in your domain and include the following code in the HEAD section:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.COM/favicon.ico" type="image/gif">

Don't forget to insert your proper domain name!

Komodo 5.2

for Windows a multi-language editor.

(Download Size = 33.8Mb)

I use this facility to edit PHP files.

Read an online review

.xml file editor

(Download Size = 395Kb zipped = 972Kb unzipped)

High performance text editing and parsing of text files, aligning and indenting XML, print, print preview, e-mail sending, text encoding selection and conversion, Unicode character functions, and C++ code generation to see how to create or navigate your XML with CMarkup.

The Free Dictionary

I just found this facility, but have only used it here... Maybe you can use it?

	Online Reference Dictionary, Encyclopedia & more
Word:
Look in:	Dictionary & thesaurus Medical Dictionary Legal Dictionary Financial Dictionary Acronyms Idioms Encyclopedia Wikipedia Periodicals Literature Other languages: Spanish Dictionary German Dictionary French Dictionary Italian Dictionary Chinese Dictionary Portuguese Dictionary Dutch Dictionary Norwegian Dictionary Greek Dictionary Russian Dictionary
by:	Word Starts with Ends with Mentions

Comm100

Open Source and Free Hosted Customer Service Software

I utilise their Online Chat Utility as a better alternative to Windows Live Messenger, which I found intimidated visitors because of the pre-requisite 'Windows Live Id.' requirement. They have recently (July 2010) launched a Desktop Control Panel version, which simplifies things somewhat...

This site offers free blog facilities

Some attractive templates available...

Word Artist

- a variety of Image Text Styles to liven up a page!

(Download Size = 572Kb)

DeKnop

is a graphics editor...

(Download Size = 1.13Mb)

Lets you create buttons for your website, without necessarily having any graphic design experience.

FotoSketcher

Turns photographs into 'Art'

(Download Size = 3.9Mb)

However, I've created a similar effect simply by opening a photograph in MSPaint and saving it as a .gif file. Example...

Quick Thumbnail

Not just an Online Thumbnail Generator

This facility also has extensive resizing (including 16x16 favicon size) and cropping capabilities!

Welcome Free Beer Website Template!

This year is marked with the special event – 200th anniversary of the first Oktoberfest that was held in Germany. Wonderful festivals with amusing entertainment, amazing parades, excited crowd of people in traditional costumes and, of course, beer tasting make this day one of the most favorite holidays of the year. This event is a pretty nice chance to present you this Free Beer Website Template that can help you to make most of your Oktoberfest, ‘cause using this theme you can start your own project that deals with beer and share your passion for this product with other likeminded people. Enjoy every day of the year and make your life bright! Try this free website template and start your online business successfully!

Please, help me to promote these free facilities by sharing this site with your friends

on FaceBook...

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