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Shortcuts are a Godsend in the world of software. No matter what the configuration of your system is, it's not always easy to dig through piles and piles of directories to find that tool you want to use at a particular moment. But when you've got a bunch of shortcuts, you can save some serious time, whether it's writing a term paper, visiting a web site, composing an email, or any of the zillions of things we do with our computers each day. Whether you call it a shortcut, a link, or an alias, they help you get through your day much more easily.

Windows makes it pretty easy to create shortcuts. Advanced Shortcuts Composer makes it even easier, and adds extra functionality to your shortcuts.

When you create a shortcut with this tool, not only do you get the quick-and-easy "double-click on this to run the application" that you're used to, but you can also direct where that shortcut will be created (desktop, folder full of personal shortcuts, etc.). You can assign a priority to the underlying application, so that it will play nice with other software on your system. You can even create hotkeys to run your shortcuts from the keyboard, giving you even faster response times. The only real question left is "what will you do with all the free time?"

Probably go download more apps, right?

Advanced Shortcuts Composer is a free Windows application. It's compatible with systems running Windows 2000 or later.

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Everything's got a password. Online bank accounts. Online mail accounts. Editing your blog. Logging in to your network at work. That's a lot of accounts, and that means a lot of passwords.

Now you can avoid having to remember a bunch of login information if you always use the same short passwords that are based on dictionary words or easily knowable personal facts about yourself, or if you always write them down on sticky notes and hang them on your monitor. Of course, with that approach, you can also forget about keeping your money, identity, work product, and everything else that those passwords are supposed to protect. If you really want to keep things safe, you should use long, complicated, impossible-to-remember passwords, and change them regularly. Good luck keeping track of all that.

Password Gorilla may be the tool you've been looking for. A cross platform app for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and more, it helps you to use passwords the way they were intended. Now instead of having to remember a whole brain-full of passwords, you can store account names, passwords, URLs, notes, and more in Password Gorilla's encrypted database. Now you only have to remember one password, and everything else is safe and sound behind it. If you're feeling particularly uninspired, it will help you generate serious passwords that nobody is likely to crack in this (or several more) lifetimes.

Password Gorilla is a free download.

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In the beginning was the Terminal. It wasn't necessarily pretty, but it got the job done. Remember, we sent people to the Moon without a GUI anywhere in sight. Sometimes the bells-and-whistles just get in the way. In times like that, maybe JDarkRoom is the tool you need.

A basic text editor, JDarkRoom doesn't do anything fancy; it's a no-nonsense text editor that's not going to get you bogged down with a bunch of flashy stuff. If you need to write, and you're easily distracted by shiny things, you're bound to get a lot more done here. Just because it's not flashy doesn't mean that it comes without features.

You can choose a color scheme and default font and size. Specify a default file to open on start. Text search, word count, adjustable margins, and more make sure that low overhead doesn't mean low functionality as well. Who knows—it may just become your favorite editor.

JDarkRoom is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's a Java app, so you'll need to have Java 1.4 or better on your machine.

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So what's the real difference between a GUI and a terminal or command prompt interface on your computer? Ease of use? Drag-and-drop file maintenance? Point-and-click convenience? Those are all good. I like the pretty pictures.

We've come to think of our applications and data as the icons that represent them. Whether it's the big blue "W" of Microsoft Word, or the globe-and-critter icon for Firefox, they've changed the way we relate to our computers. But maybe you'd like a little input on this topic. Maybe you have a better idea about how things ought to look.

IcoFX is a free icon editing tool that lets you create and edit icons for your Windows or Mac system. You can create original icons, or extract them from other files; you can even change the icons embedded inside of your Windows executables. Make icons out of images. Further personalize your blog or website with favicons. It supports all different sizes and has over three dozen effects you can apply.

IcoFX is a Windows application. It runs under XP or Vista.

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Tazti (pronounced "tasty") is speech recognition software for your PC. Basically, it allows you to do just about anything on your system without touching it, just by the power of your voice.

It has many built-in commands that hook into commonly-used applications and websites, but you can also add your own, so that you can use it with virtually any program you have on your computer. Along with specific commands to play a track in iTunes or to log into your Facebook account, you can also tell it to run your mouse, with commands like "click," "double-click," and "context menu."

Each user creates a "recognition profile", so that Tazti will recognize their unique speech patterns. That way, no matter what kind of accent you have, Tazti will understand what you want it to do.

Tazti is a Windows app. It requires Win XP or Vista, with separate downloads for each flavor of Windows.

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There are lots of tools out there that let you convert Word DOC files into Adobe Reader PDF files. There are a bunch of virtual printer drivers that let you "print" your DOC to PDF and take it from there. Heck, under OS X, you can print directly to a PDF file, from Word or any other application. But what about going the other direction: converting a PDF file back into a DOC? Not so many choices there.

One of the ones that does exist is the HelloPDF Free PDF to Word Converter application. Take your non password-protected PDF file and convert it back to a Word DOC. Now you can copy, paste, edit, and otherwise manipulate the file's contents in ways you couldn't before, and without having to buy the full version of Adobe Acrobat. It'll even keep the same layout as in the PDF file if you want it to.

You can choose how you want to manipulate your PDF, whether you want to convert all pages of the document, or specify a more limited range of pages instead. If you like, you can open your new document automatically in WordPad, Microsoft Word, or Open Office's word processor app.

As you'd expect with the name, Free PDF to Word Converter is a free download for your Windows system.

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So where would we be without our handheld electronics? Whether it's keeping track of our schedule or keeping in touch via email, SMS text message, telephone, or websites, there's almost nothing those things can't do. What about shopping?

If you're like most of us, even though you've got more computing power in the palm of your hand that it took for a moon shot, you probably go shopping with notes scribbled on an index card, scrap of paper, or shopping list. How about harnessing the power of your electronic gizmo?

HandyShopper is an application that lets you do just that. Set up stores, categories, and items that you need to shop for. As you pick up items on the list, mark them appropriately and they disappear, so that your list gets shorter and shorter the closer you get to completion—much nicer than crossing stuff off a hand-written list, and certainly easier to read. With search and sort functionality, you can juggle your list until it makes the most sense to you.

HandyShopper works on any Pocket PC device that uses Windows Mobile™ 2003 or higher, and on any device that uses Palm OS 2.0 through OS 5.x.

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There's a story making the rounds regarding a supposedly ancient Chinese proverb that translates roughly "May you live in interesting times." While it may be questionable whether such a saying actually represents ancient wisdom, it does give one pause.

Our times are certainly interesting. With all the stories in the news about the financial markets, changes in the cost of living, and the home mortgage crisis, we probably qualify as being in those "interesting times."

How interesting are your times? Sometimes in spite of our best efforts, we can find ourselves overextended financially. Whether it's credit cards or other debt, sometimes it piles up and frankly looks like we're never going to be able to pay it all off. What we need is a plan.

The Debt Reduction Snowball Calculator might be the start of a plan for you. A free spreadsheet download, the Calculator can help you to get a handle on your debt, and to come up with a plan for paying it off. Enter your financial data and see how your payments will help you to retire your debt. In addition, you can generate a payment schedule, so you can see in black and white how you're going to succeed.

Debt Reduction Snowball Calculator is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It doesn't require an installer, and it doesn't have any macros, so you don't have to worry about any macro viruses sneaking onto your system. It should be compatible with any system running Excel 2002 or later, or other applications that can open XLS files.

Download Debt Reduction Snowball Calculator

How much stuff do you have? Sure, you have a lot of things, but what exactly do you have? Nobody likes to think about it, but there are times when that precise list may become vital.

If your home were to be burglarized, or if a fire or some natural disaster should befall you, your insurance company is going to want a complete list of what was lost, including names, numbers, purchase dates, values, and more. That's a lot more than "some computers and other stuff."

Of course, the time to take a detailed inventory is before you need to use it. A software tool like KnowYourStuff may be a good way to make sure you're prepared for this unfortunate eventuality. This easy-to-use tool makes taking and recording inventory information much less onerous. The setup wizard makes it easy to start, prompting your for the names of the rooms in your house. Working room-by-room, you can go through the process of adding to your list. Once your inventory is complete, it's easy to add additional items over time when they acquired.

Once you're done, you can store your inventory electronically (hard drive, CD-ROM, remote location) or print it out and stick it in your safe deposit box. They also have an optional paid service where you can upload your list.

KnowYourStuff is a free download. It's available for both Windows (Win2k or later) and Mac (OS X 120.3 or later).

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Back in the old days, nobody cared about what things looked like on computer screens—you had your choice of green text on a black background, or if you were really adventurous, you might have amber on a black background. Nowadays, everything's graphical: desktop applications, web pages, and more. Graphics are everything.

With text, you could describe what you saw on your screen in terms of characters and lines—maybe an area ten characters wide and three lines tall. Now, it's all pixels. Images, icons, on-screen widgets, web pages—everything has a size, and those sizes are important. Will this control fit on the screen? Will this picture fit on the page? There are a zillion things to consider.

Meazure is a cool tool that helps you wrap your head around all these graphic elements. You get on-screen rulers that allow you to measure all of the stuff you see on your display. In addition, you can grab screen captures for any piece of the screen you want. You can even measure to see whether what you've got on your screen will fit into common screen or video sizes.

How much would you expect to spend for all this functionality? You're right: it's free. Meazure is a Windows application. It runs under Windows 98 or later.

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