Fantastically Fabulous Freeware vol 2
-or- more goodies for less
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
In my ever continuing quest to conquer the enigma that is my computer and become true master of my domain I have once again stumbled across (or in some cases actively sought out) more great freeware programs. So on this glorious Monday here is another edition of. . .Fantastically Fabulous Freeware!
Audacity--I discovered Audacity when I was looking for an easy, free way to simply cut bits from audio files and add fade in/out effects. Windows sound recorder can cut, but didn't do the fade bit for me, so I wasn't satisfied. Enter Audacity. Not as powerful as those expensive audio editing programs, but certainly capable in its own right. Audacity can work with just about any audio file type, export them in the type you desire. There are a number of effects and tools that come with its default download. And because it is open source there are tons of powerful plugins available. Adjusting volume, pitch, tempo, speed, removing noise, editing out vocals (to a degree), fades and many other effects become a simple matter with Audacity. In fact I used to to make a quite professional sounding CD for my wife with voice overs, mixing of tracks, and editing them. This has a permanent place on my hard drive.
First Page 2000--I would never claim to be an HTML pro. But I have learned enough to play around with it and usually get it to do the very basic things I want it to. In terms of building web pages I am not a big fan of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors such as Front Page. I like to see what is going on behind the surface, and I like the power that editing the actual HTML offers. Enter First Page by Evrsoft. Completely free, this is an incredibly powerful HTML editor. It is organized very much like any office type program, and you can easily see the different elements (font, colors, images, backgrounds, tables, etc) and add them in how you want. You can enter in the values you want and design the elements as if it were a WYSIWYG editor, but the output will be the actual HTML code. This has been invaluable for me in learning the what the different tags do and what their abilities are. You can instantly see a preview of the document or the program will preview it in whatever browser you want to make sure it looks good in all of them. This is another program that I use regularly.
Easy Thumbnails--Making thumbnails is really no big deal. Just open the image in something such as Paint, Irfanview, Xnview, or one of the more powerful editors such as PSP or Photoshop, resize, then save as a different filename. Piece of cake, right? Not when you have 10-15 screenshots you want to size down from 1600x1200 to 300x225 (or something similar). Resizing each one and then saving each one with a new name can be frustrating. Easy Thumbnails makes it a piece of cake. Open the program, find the folder with the files, and select them manually or just hit select all. You can control the maximum dimensions for the thumbnails (it will scale them appropriately), then hit the "Make All" button. You can tell the program where to save the thumbnails and instantly you have 10-15 files, scaled down perfectly (you can also control the compression), saved with a tn_ in front of the filename of the original. Great program for making thumbnails and previews, especially if you have more than one to do.
So here is another batch of freeware programs that I have found to be very useful and use on a regular basis. I will continue to keep my eyes open, and send me a heads up if you see anything worth noting as well. (I have some others, but will probably do them in another article after I have a bit more time to test them and see how useful they are)
Audacity--I discovered Audacity when I was looking for an easy, free way to simply cut bits from audio files and add fade in/out effects. Windows sound recorder can cut, but didn't do the fade bit for me, so I wasn't satisfied. Enter Audacity. Not as powerful as those expensive audio editing programs, but certainly capable in its own right. Audacity can work with just about any audio file type, export them in the type you desire. There are a number of effects and tools that come with its default download. And because it is open source there are tons of powerful plugins available. Adjusting volume, pitch, tempo, speed, removing noise, editing out vocals (to a degree), fades and many other effects become a simple matter with Audacity. In fact I used to to make a quite professional sounding CD for my wife with voice overs, mixing of tracks, and editing them. This has a permanent place on my hard drive.
First Page 2000--I would never claim to be an HTML pro. But I have learned enough to play around with it and usually get it to do the very basic things I want it to. In terms of building web pages I am not a big fan of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors such as Front Page. I like to see what is going on behind the surface, and I like the power that editing the actual HTML offers. Enter First Page by Evrsoft. Completely free, this is an incredibly powerful HTML editor. It is organized very much like any office type program, and you can easily see the different elements (font, colors, images, backgrounds, tables, etc) and add them in how you want. You can enter in the values you want and design the elements as if it were a WYSIWYG editor, but the output will be the actual HTML code. This has been invaluable for me in learning the what the different tags do and what their abilities are. You can instantly see a preview of the document or the program will preview it in whatever browser you want to make sure it looks good in all of them. This is another program that I use regularly.
Easy Thumbnails--Making thumbnails is really no big deal. Just open the image in something such as Paint, Irfanview, Xnview, or one of the more powerful editors such as PSP or Photoshop, resize, then save as a different filename. Piece of cake, right? Not when you have 10-15 screenshots you want to size down from 1600x1200 to 300x225 (or something similar). Resizing each one and then saving each one with a new name can be frustrating. Easy Thumbnails makes it a piece of cake. Open the program, find the folder with the files, and select them manually or just hit select all. You can control the maximum dimensions for the thumbnails (it will scale them appropriately), then hit the "Make All" button. You can tell the program where to save the thumbnails and instantly you have 10-15 files, scaled down perfectly (you can also control the compression), saved with a tn_ in front of the filename of the original. Great program for making thumbnails and previews, especially if you have more than one to do.
So here is another batch of freeware programs that I have found to be very useful and use on a regular basis. I will continue to keep my eyes open, and send me a heads up if you see anything worth noting as well. (I have some others, but will probably do them in another article after I have a bit more time to test them and see how useful they are)
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