documents

Word searcher

DataMystic's WordPipe is an enterprise-class search-and-replace utility for Microsoft Word documents. With it, you can search for and replace text, hyperlinks, contacts, drop-down fields, bookmarks, document properties, and more, in thousands of documents at once. It updates UNC paths when servers are renamed and automatically handles passwords and read-only files, too.

WordPipe's Evaluation version opens with a countdown nag screen. The program's main interface is a businesslike dialog with a few simple file menus, including a Help file, and basic control icons above a tabbed display. Add and Delete buttons below the main window make it easy … Read more

Outlook add-in

Microsoft's Outlook does so much that few users need more, but there's always room for improvement, especially when it comes to productivity enhancements. Software Solutions' Aladdins Office Documents Pro is an Outlook add-in that makes it easy to create specialized Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and customized, predefined Outlook emails that save time and increase accuracy over individually prepared Office documents.

Office Documents is an Outlook add-in, so its "main interface" is two small buttons the program adds to the Outlook toolbar, one for the main menu and another for the Aladdins Contacts List. Right-clicking the main … Read more

$9,000 is the new 'free' for Oracle

The open-source world has long debated alternatives to the word "free" to describe open-source software. It's "free as in freedom," they declare, "not free as in free beer."

For Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, however, the answer is much simpler--"free as in $9,000."

As noted by The H, Oracle still touts its Open Document Format (ODF) plug-in for Microsoft Office as a free download. But clicking through reveals that Oracle has changed its license terms for the formerly free plug-in, which enables Office users to read, edit, and save to … Read more

Juicing your files

If you're a graphic designer or you otherwise work a lot with images, File Juicer can be an extremely useful (if narrow in purpose) utility. Like a kitchen juicer extracts juice from fruits and vegetables, this application "juices" a wide variety of image formats and even audio and video out of almost any kind of file, from browser caches to Microsoft Office docs--so for example, you can drop a PowerPoint onto File Juicer, and the app will extract any images, text, and even Flash and ZIP files from the presentation.

File Juicer excels at its core purpose, … Read more

Help help

HLP to RTF Converter by Armenian Dictionary Software is an interesting utility that can convert any Windows Help file (HLP) to a printable, high-quality RTF document or generate completely recompilable Help projects. You can use it to print out manuals for employees or for safekeeping, as well as create your own WinHelp project, rescue previously complied files for conversion or re-use, or simplify the generation and handling of HLP-formatted documentation from a standard authoring format.

This program's tabbed, dialog-based interface is practically self explanatory, reflecting its focused mission. Tabs let you select Batch or Single mode; there's the … Read more

Keyword creator

Back in the 1990s, the keywords meta element was an important part of Web design; putting the right keywords in this tag helped search engines properly index sites and, if done right, helped improve search rankings. Unfortunately, because it was so easy for unscrupulous site owners to add misleading keywords and create irrelevant search results, meta keywords have largely fallen out of favor with the major search engines. If you decide to use them anyway, Keywords Meta Tag Generator can help you analyze your content and select the best keywords for each particular page.

The program's interface is basic, … Read more

Office applications: Still your father's Oldsmobile

It's 2010. The Internet is pervasive and mobile. Business processes, supply chains, and financial markets are globally connected and electronically executed. There are no flying cars, but in many other ways, the future has arrived. Yet when we look at the tools and processes organizations use to create and update documents--the lifeblood for business processes--they're straight out of the 1990s playbook. The world's changed, but the office applications most in use today--our word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation programs--basically have the same priorities and follow the same strategies they did two decades ago.

Sure, today's office apps … Read more

Graphic grabber

At first the purpose of this program puzzled us. Why would you want to download all of the images on a given Web site? We pondered this for a moment and then it dawned on; although we're sure there are other reasons, the first one that occurred to us starts with a P and ends with a -orn. Whatever your reasons, if you find yourself needing to grab a lot of images off the Web in a hurry, Web Image Collector is exactly what you need.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, with graphical buttons that represent … Read more

Eliminate Google from your life

As Google gets bigger and bigger, so do our privacy concerns. If you use Google search, Gmail, Google Docs, and YouTube, Google collects a staggering amount of data about you. And we only named a handful of the Google products.

But you can live life without Google. Here's how. Let's start with search.

You may think you can't find anything on the Web without Google, but you can. In fact, you have several worthwhile options to choose from. Bing is the next most popular search engine and it will soon power Yahoo search. You can also try … Read more