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Sometimes it seems like life is just too complicated. With so many things to do, it's nice when you can automate some of them. That's part of the reason why we use computers, right? Using a spreadsheet or an accounting program kind of helps to automate managing your finances; using a word processor helps automate typing that letter to mom—or at least it gets rid of the smell of Wite-Out in the office. But so many of the things that computers do require that you perform several non-automated steps to make them happen.

If you're a guru with scripting languages, you may be able to automate some of that stuff. But for the rest of us, learning some programming language to speed things up probably isn't the way to go either. Enter Batchrun, an automation tool that doesn't require that you be able to write a lick of code.

With Batchrun, you create scripts by making selections from dropdowns, browsing to files, and generally just piecing things together. In short, you get your work done without having to struggle to figure out how to use the tool. And that helps make life much less complicated.

Batchrun is a free download. It run on Windows systems from the lowly Win9x up through the latest Windows 7.

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Mom always told you to "play nice" with each other. Cooperation is really the only way to get things done when there are multiple people involved. While it's easy to cooperate with others when you're all in the same room, it gets a little tricker when you are spread out around the enterprise or across the world. We've all played the game where a document is edited and changes are made, and then circulated around the department. The next person tweaks this, then somebody else tweaks that, and before you know it, nobody can figure out what is really going on. It would be much more efficient if everybody could put their two-cents worth in at the same time.

MoonEdit is a tool that lets you do just that. There's a server part as well as a client app that lets everybody load the same document at once. Everybody gets their own cursor—color-coded so you can tell who's doing what—and can edit your shared document simultaneously. No more waiting for everybody to look, approve, and circulate to get the job done.

You can download a copy of MoonEdit. It's free for non-commercial use and comes in flavors for Windows ('98 and later), as well as Linux and FreeBSD.

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Sometimes you want the fancy version with all the bells and whistles. Other times, you're looking for something a little more basic: "just the facts, ma'am". Desktop Calendar falls into this latter category.

Desktop Calendar is a simple calendar that sits on your Windows Desktop. It doesn't put a button on your Taskbar, and it doesn't stick an icon in your System Tray. What it does do is sit transparently on your desktop, letting you keep an eye on the current month's calendar. You can also set simple reminders, both for one-time-only events and meetings, as well as recurring events. Even for this simple app, you still have plenty of options to customize it to your liking. Pick your font, tweak colors, modify date formats, and even change first-day-of-the-week settings (Sunday? Monday? Something else?). The app is self-contained, so there aren't a bunch of Registry entries or support DLL files scattered across your system, so uninstalling, if necessary, is easy. We're guessing it would probably do fine on a removable drive as well.

Desktop Calendar is a free download. It's a Windows application and should run on systems with Windows 2000 or later.

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Text editors are used for editing text. Nothing too sexy or exciting about that. But when you need one, bells and whistles generally aren't at the top of your priority list. Well, here's a text editor that offers at least a bell or two for you.

Bend allows you to create and edit straight-up text files, so your web server will be happy with the result. But while you're doing the editing, it's got a few features that can help take the pain out of the task. It's got syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, ASP, PHP, and more. It's got an always-on "find" tool that not only highlights your target text, but also dims the rest of the page, making it really easy to see what it is that find found. It uses tabs, so you can have multiple documents open at once. You can zoom in and out with your mouse wheel, to see bigger- or smaller chunks of text at a time.

You can grab a copy of Bend for free. It's a Windows app and runs under Windows 7. You'll also need to have version 4 of the .NET Framework installed on your system.

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The choice of a text editor can be a highly personal matter. On Windows, you've got Notepad; on Mac there's Text Edit. On Linux and other Unix-like systems, it's not so clear cut: most of those setups have two basic text editors, emacs and vi. To the uninitiated, each of these seems kludgy, but once you're up and running, there's a lot you can accomplish with a few simple keystrokes. If you're a *nix guy or gal working on Windows, or anybody looking for a different approach to text editing on that system, you might want to take a peek at WinVi.

While it features a GUI that might make it familiar to Windows users, complete with File, Edit, and Windows menu choices, underneath it's still good old vi. Insert mode lets you enter and edit text, while command mode lets you take care of business such as opening, saving, and closing files, jump around in your file, and more. It's the best of both worlds: a dessert topping and a floor wax. Or at least a pretty good text editor.

WinVi is a free download. It's a Windows app and runs under Windows 2000 and later. They've also got older versions, so if you're the last person on earth still using Windows 3.1, you're in luck too.

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Sometimes it seems like the planning that goes on for a project is more work than the actual project itself. Trying to keep track of all the tasks and sub-tasks, allocating necessary resources, and arranging the people to do the work can become its own project. Then I suppose you have to figure out how to manage that project, and on and on….

GanttProject is a free project scheduling and management tool. As its name suggests, it's easy to picture your project when it's displayed as a Gantt chart. Those horizontal bars make it easier to visualize dependencies and critical path as you try to figure out how you're ever going to get this thing done with the amount of time you have available. Once you've got a handle on everything, you can export your projects as PNG images, with reports to back them up.

GanttProject is a Java app, so it should run on just about any platform with an appropriate Java runtime installed on it. To make things super convenient, there are separate packages available for Linux, Mac (OS X), and Windows systems. Or if you just want to check it out, you can even try a Web-based version in your browser.

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If you've got employees, you need to keep track of how much time they put in. If you are an employee, you want to make sure the boss knows how hard you've been working. Luckily it's easy to take care of both of these with a timeclock. Back in the day, this meant one of those machines that you had to shove a card into and have it print a time on it. Now we've got all those newfangled computer-machines, and things are easier, and dare we say more convenient?

PHP Timeclock is an online time tracking system. Running on your webserver, you use a browser to access its data input and output functions. Clocking in and out at the beginning and end of your shift is easy. Management can pull data with no muss or fuss via its admin functionality: no more having to dig through and copy data from a stack of dirty timecards, and no worry about losing them either. It generates all manner of reports, so you can be on top of your staffing needs. And this app does one thing that even the best physical timeclock can't do: it can be in two (or more) places at once. One system will serve all your locations, since it lives on a server, rather than being a bunch of discrete mechanical clocks.

A free download, PHP Timeclock needs to be installed on a server with PHP, MySQL, and Apache. You should be able to access the front-end with most modern web browsers, including Firefox and IE ver 6 or later.

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So many programs, so little time. Sometimes it's easy to lose track of all the nifty applications you've got loaded on your system. You can always go dig through Program Files, but that may take several minutes—or hours—to find what you're looking for. Even the Start Menu is probably going to give you more choices than you can reasonably handle. If those two options let you keep track of the important- and the really-important stuff, what do you do to track your really really important applications? Maybe something like Hidden Menu.

This tool lets you compile a collection of your most important applications. Or you can drive it the other way around and make a menu of your most important documents—either way, it's easy to get up and running quickly here. Add just the items you're most interested in, and you won't have to dig through a bunch of your second-string players. And on top of that, the "hidden" is there in the name for a reason: when you're not using Hidden Menu, it's, how shall we say it, hidden. Set a screen area to activate it, maybe the lower right corner, and your menu stays out of sight until you move your mouse down there. Then it leaps to life to let you choose where you're going to go next.

Hidden Menu is a free download. It's a Windows application, and should run on anything from Win95 on up.

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No matter how big your business, if you employ somebody, you have to deal with human resources. If you're just a little ma-and-pa organization, it probably isn't too complicated. But once you start adding the folks, the complication grows. Pretty quick you're spending more time dealing with your workers than taking care of your work. That's why they invented HR software. Unfortunately, HR apps tend to be complicated and costly. That's bad.

OrangeHRM is a free human resources management system. It's modular in construction, so you can pick and choose the pieces you're interested in if you aren't ready to take the plunge and dive completely into it. Using its modules, your life will become much easier when you deal with personnel information, attendance, benefits administration, and even recruiting. It has self service features, so employees don't need to hassle HR staff for simple changes like updating contact information. Along with keeping track of raw information, you can generate reports to let you better see how things are going on the HR front. Save your report templates, so you can track things over time.

OrangeHRM is available for free for Linux and Windows systems. If you're too intimidated by the whole thing, or simply lack the IT depth to properly administer the system, they do also have a paid hosted version you can use.

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Setting up a web server probably isn't the most complicated thing you'll do in a day, depending on how you generally spend your time. Now if you decide that you also want to add a database, as well as a couple of scripting languages, the coefficient of complication may skyrocket. Well, as luck would have it, there's a way you can do that without lots of pain.

XAMPP is an all-in-one bundle that includes an Apache web server, MySQL database, as well as the PHP and Perl scripting languages. It's all pre-configured so that literally all you need to do is to install it, and go from there. It's self-contained, so it isn't going to make a mess of your system, and if you decide you need to delete it, all you have to do is kill the directory and it's gone (with Windows, as always, you should use the uninstaller to get rid of any stray bits in the Registry). You can use XAMPP to gain familiarity with the constituent tools, or as a development environment for building your next high-powered web application. What you shouldn't do, however, is put it in a production environment. As it comes straight out of the box, it has all kinds of security issues (weak passwords, that sort of thing), which while they may not be a problem on your desktop or local network, could open you up to a world of hurt if you put it out in public.

You can get XAMPP for Linux, Mac, and Windows systems.

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