.jpg "free software")
There are a lot of *really* neat/cool, FREE programs out there, on the WWW. Here I'm telling everyone which are my favorites. If you have favorites, PLEASE let me know the details, and I may add them here. I list ONLY programs which are FREEware and are super-easy to use.
SPYWARE: If you worry that a program might contain "Spyware" check it at SpyChecker http://www.spychecker.com before you download it. Or try http://www.spywareguide.com/product_search.php
Sometimes a program which is FREEware is succeeded by a newer version which is NOT freeware. For that reason, when you download a really good program, KEEP the original file just in case. Once you have downloaded a newer version, have used it for at least a month and are sure it is 100% freeware and not time-limited, then delete the original download. I have a folder called "Downloads" where I keep these and in it is a text file done in Notepad where I make a note of the filename, where it came from, when and what it does. Sure works for me!
427 Kb (version 3.12)
http://irfanview.tuwien.ac.at/
The author (a student in
Austria, named Irfan Skiljan) is constantly improving this program. IrfanView is a very fast graphic tool
for Windows. Probably this is the program I use more than any other. I like it so much that I made my own
website about IrfanView; it lives at
http://www.sticksite.com/irfanview/ There is an Irfanviewusers group at Yahoo! Groups; for more
information on that, visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irfanviewusers.
2,817Kb
http://www.b-zone.de/software/bt.htm
Written by Bjorn Ischo in Germany. Buttonz & Tilez is a powerful software package for web authors.
There are two applications in this package, Buttonz! , which renders buttons of various size and shape,
and Tilez! which generates seamless textures using a procedural approach. In Tilez! can choose more than
20 basic texture types, all of which can be modified to suit your needs. Additionally, textures can be
combined in layers to produce more complex ones. You can even import images to include them in a texture
as a layer. Buttonz! offers a wide range of button shapes and effects, as well as the batch rendering of
several similar buttons with different captions. The button faces can either be filled with a texture, an
imported image or a gradient. The author's email address is webmaster@b-zone.de
100Kb
http://www.pcww.com
FREECARDS lets you create customized, multimedia
greeting cards on your IBM PC or compatible computer running MS-Windows. Your greeting cards can contain
text, animated pictures, and sound (MIDI music and WAVE sound).You create the cards as executable files.
When you send them to another PC, they expand, are displayed, and disappear automatically. Images must be
BMP format and since the result is an .EXE file, you don't send them to Mac users.
469Kb ZIP file
http://home.pacbell.net/michal_k/
EXIF viewer is a simple
image viewer application for photos taken with digital cameras. It's capable of reading EXIF information
embedded in photos as well as a little thumbnail. Because small thumbnail is already present in most
photos displaying it is really fast. EXIF viewer can also provide detailed information about photos
(shutter speed, aperture, etc.) and conveniently list them for comparison purposes. EXIF viewer also
displays image histogram. It also features copying and moving and deleting of selected photos. A single
photograph can be displayed in separate window or in a full screen mode. I use this to remove all the
"data" from pictures before uploading them to a website or emailing them to make the file size smaller
and transmission faster. Note that Irfanview (Number 1 above) can show the EXIF and also the IPTC info.
353Kb ZIP
file http://www.nfx.com
By clicking on buttons, you can change the
various parts of the face and make some really funny faces. They now have a second version of it, using a
picture of Santa Claus.
433Kb EXE file
http://www.cerious.com/mandel.shtml
This allows you to
make all kinds of fractals. A really neat little program. If you like it, you are asked to make a $20
donation to the charity mentioned in the HELP file
453Kb ZIP file
http://home.netvigator.com/~godfreyk/likse/
A
stand-alone reader of Internet files writen in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). So small you can put it
on a diskette. (remember those?)
453Kb ZIP file
http://magnifier.sourceforge.net
This program shows a
magnifying glass lens that follows the mouse movement. You can move the lens around the screen to view
magnification of any screen area. To close the lens, click left mouse button. You can stretch the glass
vertically and horizontally. Really cool!
453Kb ZIP file
http://www.photo-editor.net
This is the free version of
VicMan's Photo Editor; you can make nice buttons with it and apply effects to photos.
204Kb EXE file
http://www.webtesttools.com/webtesttools/f.asp?fid=9015
If you make websites, you will find this a
blessing. This is a tool for using safe colors on the www. BUT..... note that Comodo indicated that
this software included the virus "TrojWare.Win32.Exploit.Nuker.36@28371024."
204Kb
EXE file http://www.wheatworks.com/freeware.htm
This
is a realy simple, versatile and easy-to-use Mortgage calculator. Also available at
http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/9081.html. The only
problem with it is that once you start running it, you cannot exit or stop it. You have to click
"Continue" to the final screen. Not a big problem. See also item 57 on page 2 for more calculators.
3093Kb ZIP file
http://www.beatbrowser.co.uk/software/home.html
If you make websites, you will find this a blessing. This one is not for beginners; I had some
difficulty with it. BUT, it can be a VERY handy tool and it might be wise to grab it for when you really
need it. Finding a file in a large number of HTML files could be a very major but very important job.
When I switched my ISP years ago I had to change "telusplanet.net" to "direct.ca" in a large number of
files and long after I was done and had uploaded the files, I picked up on numerous instances where I had
missed the correction. Here, your tool would have been VERY useful.
Power Searcher is an advanced file search and print utility that can find files by full or partial name, size, date, attributes, or contents. You can specify whether you want to find just files, just folders, or both. File contents can be searched for multiple keywords and the lines where the keywords/phrases are found can be viewed at a glance without having to open each file. Power Searcher also comes with a built-in hex viewer that allows you to take a peek at the contents of binary files, an option to add folder to a favorites list, the ability to save searches, and more. Search results can be printed as file listings and also exported to a comma delimited format.
Craig" helped me with it. He said: "Try using the 'Whole document' option as it appears you are searching thru files that are not pure text. The 'Line Only' method of searching is used when you know the files you are searching thru are text only. For files that have been created in Microsoft word or other applications (which gets compressed) you have to use the 'Whole document' option....following on from that, the only way that ANY search program could find text in a compressed file is to know what program originally compressed it and use the same algorithm to Uncompress it before doing the search. This would probably not be possible as only the company that made the word processing/text editing package would know the algorithm to uncompress the file and you would need the algorithm for every text editing package out there to allow a search on those types of files. Also I notice that your tolerance level is just 5 bytes!! Just read the help files and you will see what the tolerance is used for. This was defaulted at 5Mb at should be kept so for the average search.
I did find another SEARCH and REPLACE tool; it is listed on page 3 at #63.
http://www.mozilla.org/releases/
No picture required;
by now everyone knows that FIREFOX is the best browser available on Planet Earth and it is FREE. If you
want to be safer than Microsoft's Internet Explorer allows you to be, then be sure to get this tool.
319Kb ZIP file
http://sac-ftp.externet.hu/graph25.html
This is a
software package which takes an "unlimited" number of photo snapshots and puts them together to form a
larger picture. NOTE: This URL is no longer working; if you know the new one, please tell me; thanks!
307Kb ZIP file
http://www.harmware.net/stile.htm
A really neat little
program you can use to make your own seamless backgrounds for your webpages. Comes complete with various
textures etc.
168Kb
ZIP file http://www.joshmadison.com/software/
This
little program will convert from *any* measurement of *anything* into any other measurement that you can
imagine. Really terrific!
618Kb EXE file
http://www.cybermatrix.com/clipmag.html?exe
I've searched the WWW long and hard for the ultimate
Clipboard Extender. Everyone needs a Windows Clipboard extender; saves a LOT of typing. This one does a
very nice job, is small, fast and easy to use. In Dec. 2006, I had some problem with it so I downloaded
the newest one, version 4.014. NOTE: if it won't "archive" your clips (i.e. remember/save them) then shut
down Clipboard Magic and restart it.
.jpg "measurement conversion
tool")
600Kb ZIP file http://www.freebyte.com/
This is a very handy tool for finding things on your hard disk. I *thought* I might have a TXT file
somewhere on my HD, and wanted to get rid of it. I knew, from a print-out, that it contained the words
"Frostbow Home Inventory." It searched the HD and found all the occurrences of that text. It offers 3
kinds of search: by filename, by file type or for text INSIDE a file.
40Kb ZIP file
http://thepluginsite.com/
This handy utility will take any HTML
file and shrink it by removing unneeded tags etc. You can specify what to leave or what to remove. I have
used it to reduce some of my files, making them faster to download and to save space on my ISP's computer.
Harald Heim has done a great job on this and he continues to look for ways to make it better. If you make
websites, you really *must* have this one! Harald calls this one "Linkware." I found that I prefer to
leave any "end-of-line" tags in place, making HTML files easier to edit later. Harald is from Nuernberg,
Bavaria, Germany. Version 1.07 was released Feb. 5, 2000. If you don't already have VB5 Runtime Files
installed, you'll have to download the larger version, 1.4MB. THANKS, HARALD!
1,917Kb ZIP file
http://www.ultimatepaint.com/
Ultimate Paint is a paint
program. Its main purpose is to draw and edit graphics, although there are several additional built-in
photo-processing functions and effects. It has a very flexible brush handling method which encourages
creative drawing. You may also find it useful to touch existing drawings and photographs. All pictures
are handled 24 bit (true color). Version 1.91f is freeware. It has a LOT of filters/features/effects
which you can apply to your pictures.
2,482Kb ZIP file
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
This is an
absolutely fantastic program, still under construction. For the time being, there is, I believe, a free
version. With this, you can draw "original" landscape scenes like a professional artist!! I have made a
few and some of them live at
http://www.sticksite.com/terragen/. When you download it, be sure to get also, the "surfaces.zip"
file and the "tgguide.zip" file. Also, get the Brooksbank Tutorial. This one is addictive!
174Kb EXE file
http://www.sulaco.co.za/downloads.htm
This program
scans a selected drive or folder and reports the size of all the folders in it. The size can be viewed in
bytes, in percentage of total space or as a bar graph. This is a stand-alone program; no installer, DLLs
nor registry entries. To get rid of it, simply delete the EXE file. Great if you are going to burn a CD
but want to make sure of the total memory needed by the current folders and all its sub-folders. See also
#73 on page 3.
525Kb ZIP file
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam
Digital Camera
Enhancer does the hard job of noise reducing, skin smoothing and automatic balance control for you. The
program works best if you have bad light condition (indoor, shadows etc..) and your image is somehow off.
So if some of your images are already fine, you won't see much difference. One thing makes DCEnhancer
different from other tools - reducing the noise and skin smoothing algorithm. It makes DCE ideal for
making cool portraits and close-ups! And, yeah; THAT is Jennifer, alright!
655Kb EXE file
http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105513
LookDisk is multi-functional disk tool that you can
use to search for files using various parameters. You can search for text in any files, find duplicate
files (by name or content) and also get an overall view of your disks and space usage. Additional
features include several advanced filtering options, use of external viewers, and more. The list of
found files can be saved or printed. LookDisk can handle large files without using lots of system
resources. This one is very good for finding, for example, if a certain (image) file is being used in any
of my websites. I searched, for example, for "bearhead.gif" in all my website folders: C:\websites and it
worked fine. See also items 12 and 63.
427Kb ZIP file
http://www.treepad.com/
TreePad is a personal database program, a
powerful information organizer, Personal Information Manager and outline text editor. It is ideal for
storing notes, emails, URLs. It features extended search, edit, export and import options. Supports
non-western fonts. Has a "Windows Explorer" type gui.
140Kb ZIP file
http://renamefiles.it-falke.com
This little program will
enable you to change the names in any folder, all at once, or only selected files in different folders,
in almost any way you want. Very configurable. Easy. Written by Jan Falke. This is one everyone should
have; a "necessary tool." It seems Jan's website is gone; you should be able to download it from this site though:
http://www.download-tipp.de/shareware_und_freeware/2973.shtml
45Kb ZIP file.
Color Picker takes and displays a Color Picker in which you pick your colors it then takes and converts
it to the format used in the Body tags in HTML version 3. It will then optionally transfer it to the
clipboard so that you can easily place it in the HTML file you are working on.
http://www.vecdev.com/htmlcolor.html
NOTE: THIS item seems to be no longer available. The link has gone bad as so many do. Sorry to see it go. If you REALLY need it badly, email me; I can send you a copy, a 96Kb .exe file.
An alternative might be "Absolute Color Picker 3" from: http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Web_Authoring/HTML_Color_Pickers/
1,026Kb ZIP file
Another tool for making your own animated GIF images. This one is VERY easy to use. I can not find this
one on Microsoft's website any longer but there are lots of sites where you can download it. I tried it
with Windows XP and SP2 and it worked just fine.
http://www.jhepple.com/gif_animator.htm
511Kb ZIP file
http://deknop.sjfrancke.nl/index.html
Sam Francke in Holland is making this VERY
excellent button-making tool. VERY configurable; has options most of the others do not have, for
spectacular buttons. Sam keeps making this program better all the time. GOOD stuff. With this, you'll
never need another button-maker.
.jpg "web color tool")
226Kb ZIP file
http://www.webmasterfree.com/colorcode.html
This is one of the most useful utilities for any web designer. It is a program that will
retrieve a color of your choice on screen, and return the HTML, RGB, and Delphi color codes. All you have
to do is drag your cursor around the screen, and drop it over the color you want get the color codes for,
and that can easily be transported into your image editor of choice, html editor, or Delphi!
