Useful Software to Download

This is some of the most useful free software on the net.

Open Office

Open Office is a full function, comprehensive, easy to use office software suite. It contains a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Database and Drawing application. While it has its own native formats it can convert most document types from and to the Microsoft Office suite and a number of other common and not so common formats. (Note that it does not seem to handle some of the latest Microsoft Word (2007) formatting as well as the earlier Word format versions. I imagine this will be fixed with time.) The word processor does (nearly) everything that the large office suite word processor does (there may be some minor functionality that few people would ever use anyway and it has probably a few functions that the other programs don't do). Its appearance is similar to a lot of office type programs, consequently it is intuitive and works fine. 

I have been recently using the spreadsheet program and some of the ways that it operates is not the same as other spreadsheet programs I have used - and not in a good way. It may be just that I am not use to it yet.

Firefox

Firefox is a web browser. It is comparable to Chrome, in some ways better - with the added benefit of being open source. Used in combination with the DuckDuckGo search engine perhaps perhaps it will mean that your data is not as easily collected - and on sold - if that is a concern for you.

Blue Griffon

BlueGriffon is a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) web page editor. It is simple to use, writes quite clean HTML (especially when used in conjunction with Topstyle style sheet editor - see below) and allows manual editing of the HTML - though it has the annoying habit of leaving gaps in the code - it doesn't effect how it works though.

Topstyle Lite

As mentioned Topstyle is a style sheet editor. Easy to use and comprehensive. There is the free basic version and the paid for professional version. Unless you are a professional the basic version should be adequate.

http://topstyle.en.softonic.com/

Audacity

Audacity is a audio recorder. I used it for recording some of my old vinyls and cassette  tape into a digital format. If you think you have this requirement it will probably do the job, though it hasn't got all the bells and whistles of commercial programs. You will need to buy lead to connect your stereo to the computer's headphone jack.

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If you would like to suggest other useful free software please email me.

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