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The Portable Document Format (pdf) is the cross-platform standard for document distribution. Allowing the combining of formatted text and images, it's the perfect package to get the word out to whoever you need to communicate with. Unfortunately, the official tool to manipulate files in this proprietary format, Adobe Acrobat, isn't cheap. It would be nice to be able to tweak your pdf files without emptying your wallet.

Pdftk is a Swiss army knife for manipulating pdf files, and best of all, it's free. It's a command line utility, so it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but if you're comfortable opening a terminal window/DOS box, you can accomplish a lot with only a couple of keystrokes. You can, for example, merge multiple documents into one file, break a single pdf document into multiple documents, rotate a page, or even add a password.

Pdftk is available with installers for Windows, OS X, Linux, and other UNIX and UNIX-like systems.

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Glide is pretty close to an entire operating system's worth of applications and tools, available online. With nothing to download or install, just about anybody with a modern web browser can take advantage of its capabilities.

Along with email, instant messaging, and a calendar app, Glide also has tools for website creation, a presentation tool (like PowerPoint), a text editor, photo editor tool, and a bunch more. There are applications that support sharing media, whether it be photos, music, videos, or documents. There is also a spreadsheet app that runs in conjunction with the Glide Sync tool.

You can also use Glide's Sync tool synchronize files living on multiple machines. This tool must be downloaded and installed and requires Windows 2000 or later, or Mac OS X 10.4+, or Linux (kernel 2.6).

With Glide Mobile, you can harness the power of Glide through your web-enabled phone or PDA. The publishers recommend it as the perfect accompaniment for the iPhone.

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Thinking Rock is a planning tool that follows the "GTD" (getting things done) methodology. Basically, the thought is that if you get all the bits and pieces down somewhere in black and white, you don't have to waste your mental bandwidth keeping track of what you have left to do. Let the tool keep track of the "stuff", and you can actually work.

By organizing your thoughts into actions, projects, information, and future possibilities, Thinking Rock makes it easier for you to review and execute the tasks you need to perform, or to delegate those tasks to other people.

Thinking Rock is small enough that you can install it on a USB thumb drive and take it with you. Since it's a Java app, it can run on both Windows and Mac systems, making it even easier to bring it along.

Thinking Rock is a Java app and will run on just about anything that supports the JRE version 1.5.0 or later, including Linux (Fedora 4 or equivalent), Mac OS X 10.4+, or Windows XP or Vista.

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Computers have added a whole new dimension to teaching. The abilities to drill for mastery of content, provide instant feedback, and work interactively between students are just a few of the opportunities available with computers. There is a potential downside as well.

Assuming that "no good deed will go unpunished", having students working on computers adds a whole layer of administrative attention that must be brought to bear. You don't need much tech support with a paper and pencil, but computer systems aren't so easy.

iTALC, the tool that provides Intelligent Teaching and Learning with Computers, can help make this part easier. Its ability to control machines remotely means that teacher can "look over the shoulders" of students, to examine their work and help coach their efforts. iTALC can also flip that around, putting the teacher's screen in front of each student at their remote workstations, making it an ideal platform for demonstrations. This functionality is not limited to a shared subnet, so remote systems can be included as well, great for students who are at home rather than school.

It can also lock workstations, so that students are paying attention to instruction, rather than being distracted by their systems. And at the end of the day, teachers can power-off an entire lab full of computers, saving lots of time.

iTALC is a free download, and runs under both Linux and Windows (Win2k or better).

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Is there a screenplay in you? The original inspiration may be from your muse, but the details of making it all work out depends on your hard work. Celtx, an integrated media pre-production tool, may be just what you're looking for.

Screenwriting is a complicated process, and it uses standards and conventions that aren't used in other types of writing. Formatting, vocabulary, it's all pretty confusing. Celtx can help you keep track of things with its five industry standard editors. Each of these tie into a set of index cards, that let you arrange and rearrange your story to make sense of the big picture.

Scheduling tools help you to keep on target with your timeline. You can generate a breakdown of your locations, props, cast members to know what and who needs to be where.

You can even drag and drop documents between projects, so you can produce the sequel at the same time as your original masterpiece.

Celtx is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux machines.

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Everybody pretty much agrees that monopolies aren't the best way to run things. While it may make sense on have only one water company in town, there are a lot of other areas where more competition would probably be a good thing.

Gnumeric, the Gnome Office Spreadsheet, is another way to avoid the pitfalls of being locked into one software supplier (and you know who you are) but to still maintain compatibility with your peers.

Licensed under the GNU General Public License, Gnumeric is a fully functional standalone spreadsheet. Not designed to be a clone of "Brand M", it reads other popular spreadsheet formats, while allowing you to customize it so that you can work the way you want to. Gnumeric is designed to be able to handle even the largest spreadsheets fast, and its accuracy is the stuff of legends.

Along with all the functionality of the name-brand spreadsheet, Gnumeric boasts over 150 additional functions, in addition to all the graphing functionality you would expect, and page formatting and drawing objects.

Gnumeric is a Linux app.

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A polar bear is a Cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.

Not too many graphing jokes out there, but we've always liked that one. And speaking of graphing, we've found a great place to download almost every graphing format imaginable. Free Online Graph Paper has a huge collection of customizable graph and grid paper downloads, all available in PDF format. Ranging from plain vanilla graph paper to paper with only dots instead of lines, five-line music staves to accountant's ledger paper, to calligraphy and Chinese character guides. Many of the grids are customizable, allowing you to select colors, and even decide whether the heavier index lines should be every five lines or ten lines and so on.

All you need to do is to find the type of grid you're interested in, enter your specific details, and download the resulting PDF file. The author even says that if you need a type of grid that isn't already featured on the site, send him an email and he may give it a try.

Since all these grids are in PDF format, they're compatible with any system that supports an app to read the files, meaning that just about anybody can take advantage of them.

Download Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs

Way, way back when the earth was new and MS-DOS (and its cousin PC-DOS) was the name of the game, Lotus Development created a state-of-the-art integrated application that featured a spreadsheet, word processor, database manager, graphics app, and communications program called Symphony. Much more efficiently coded than most of today's bloatware, the entire app would load into memory when you booted your PC/XT and pop up for you when you pressed a hotkey.

DOS is almost forgotten, and Symphony certainly is–or was until now. IBM Lotus Symphony is now available, and it's free for home, school, and business.

Like its ancient namesake, the new Symphony is a suite of applications that features a text editor/word processor, a presentation manager, and a spreadsheet tool. Symphony uses the Open Document Format (ODF) for its files, and fully supports Microsoft Office file formats, allowing you to import- and export your data, as well as the ability to export to PDF files as well. Macros written for the Office platform aren't compatible with Symphony, and vice versa, but Symphony does have its own macro language that allows you to automate repetitive tasks to speed you on your way.

IBM Lotus Symphony is available for Windows (XP or Vista) and Linux platforms, with support for OS X promised in the near future.

And who knows: if they can bring Symphony back, can the DeLorean be far behind?

Download IBM Lotus Symphony

With a name like "TaskJuggler", this application sounds like another calendar and PIM app that lets you create "to do" lists. That couldn't be further from the truth.

TaskJuggler is a full-featured, industrial-grade project management tool, like Microsoft Project, but without the $600+ price tag. You can use it as a planning tool to allocate resources, and as a reporting tool to track your progress and see how closely you're sticking to your schedule.

All you need to do to get started is to enter your project outline and any specific constraints that you have, and TaskJuggler will work within those parameters to tie all the pieces together. Rather than having to provide all the details at the start of your project, you can add and change the particulars "on the fly" as you progress, not unlike the approach taken with Extreme Programming or Agile Project Management.

You can generate reports in HTML and XML formats, and export to CSV files is supported, so that you can easily import project details into your office productivity tools.

TaskJuggler is a Linux app licensed under the GNU GPL.

Download TaskJuggler

GnuCash is a full-featured personal and small-business accounting tool. As a double-entry system, you ensure that you can track the dollars from one end of the app to the other. Since it uses a checkbook-style register, you already know how to enter transactions for cash and checks, credit cards, as well as deposits, stock transactions, and all.

Along with keeping track of your personal income and expenses, functionality is included to track customers and vendors, including invoicing and bill paying, making it easy to keep track of all your small business transactions.

Built in reporting capabilities make it easy to see where your money is going; the integrated graphing facility makes helps you to better understand just what is happening with your finances.

With its statement reconciliation window, you don't have to dread balancing your checkbook any more. You can even print checks from GnuCash, and scheduled transactions make sure you don't miss any important payment deadlines.

GnuCash is available with an installer for Windows; in addition, you can install it on OS X, Linux, and just about any other platform.

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