Whether we?re typing out a quick memo or writing a letter to a friend, word processors are invaluable tools that provide the means to draft documents when needed. Word is the most widely used solution in this regard, but it?s packaged with Microsoft Office, a software suite that includes a host of other applications ? Excel, Powerpoint, etc. — that you may not require.
Free and easy to use, Abiword is an alternative for those who need just a word processor, freeing your computer from needless software that?s along for the ride.
Abiword works with every major operating system:
Windows
Linux
Mac
After editing a Word document at work, Abiword can continue editing it at home, allowing for seamless transitioning between the two formats.
This is a nice solution for those looking to keep their system limited to the barest essentials. If you ever have any questions about its use, feel free to contact one of us.
We?re all guilty of happening upon a website from which we?d like to quickly exit. Even if just the result of an inadvertently clicked link, our travels on the web will always consist of visits to sites which are best tucked in the remote corners of our memory.
If your internet adventures are taken with Firefox, here is a quick way to expunge from your browsing history those websites which you?d no sooner forget.
Two methods effectively address this need:
FIRST SOLUTION:
In the address bar, begin typing the name of the website. In the example below, we?re ridding ourselves of the ?CNN? url.
Even before the full address is typed out, you?ll notice that the website ? or several selections ? will drop immediately beneath the address bar. Highlight those selections you?d like deleted.
Once highlighted, press the ?delete? button on your keyboard. Doing so renders that site obsolete, as far as your browser is concerned, which becomes evident when attempting to type ?CNN? in the address bar again.
SECOND SOLUTION:
Slightly more involved than the first method, this process sees you open your ?history? window and review the entire history of your browser?s romps about the internet. To open it up, look at the menu bar, where you will select the ?History? option.
From that drop down, click on ?Show All History,? which opens the History Library Window.
As you?ll see, once opened, you can review your history in its entirety.
Looking at the history, you can select the website you?re seeking the removal of. Right clicking on the website will bring up a window that affords you the option to ?Forget About This Site.? Like before, we’ll use the “CNN” example.
After its removal, the only way that site will return to your browser?s history is if you return to the website.
While these two methods will successfully clear your history of any sites worth forgetting, it?s best to be mindful of where you?re visiting, should you ever find that you need to delete a?? website from your history.
Long considered the most popular alternative to Microsoft Windows Media Player, Apple?s Quicktime is a platform that supports multiple forms of media ? music, text, video, etc.
For users who wish to use it without the bloat, there is a decidedly slimmer version available, offering the fundamental utility of Quicktime in a smaller and more efficient package. ?The most welcome omission is Apple?s Software Utility Update, which runs background processes that can impact performance.
Absolutely free, QT Lite is available for Windows only.
Six games into the new NFL season, the contagious fanaticism of football season is upon us, from chatter at work to discussions amongst friends and family about how the teams are faring. As a devout follower of the NFL, having some means — any means — to watch the games goes without saying.
Thanks to the generous folks at NBC, Sunday Night Football is just a few keystrokes away.
While nothing quite tops the joy of watching a game in all its HD glory on your television, this new and free internet? service? offers a number of features that transcend the traditional viewing experience.
As seen above, NBC?s Sunday Night Football viewer offers multiple angles from which to catch each play:
Cable Cam
End Zone Cam
Sideline Cam
Star Cam
If you want to review a play, you can rewind and play one back as often as you?d like.
A sidebar gives an informative delineation of the statistics, by team and player.
Lastly, for those who tire of constant interruptions by commercials, watching through this viewer will see far less advertisements. In fact, during those breaks, you can still view the action on the field.
Matching the fun of crowding around the television with friends and food is near impossible, but this is an alternative that every fan of the sport should keep in mind — provided, of course, they have access to the internet.
Working on on both Mac and PC platforms, you can use NBC?s Sunday Night Football player here.
As any veteran of Microsoft?s Windows Operating System knows, the ALT-TAB function is a convenient way to immediately switch from one application to another, underscoring Windows? multi-tasking properties.
Like many features within Windows, while extremely functional, it doesn?t exactly lend itself to the overall appearance of the Windows platform. More important, the function can lead to frustration, with many people unsure of what ?window? they?re switching to.
However, for users of the latest versions of Windows (XP, Vista, and the recently unveiled Windows 7), a helpful and considerably more attractive utility would seem to supplant that rather basic command we?ve grown accustomed to using. Offering the same functionality, this tool takes the core feature of ALT-TAB and augments it to an impressive degree.
Instead of giving you a mere row comprised of the applications to select from, VistaSwitcher provides a sizable window, granting you a beautifully realized preview of what’s available. Use it just as you would ?ALT-TAB,? by pressing those very two keys to bring up the preview area.
VistaSwitcher also enables the following:
By using the ?S? key after you?ve pressed ?ALT-TAB,? you can option more than one window for previewing, giving you a number of hot keys with which to manipulate their grouping ? C for cascade, V for Vertical, and H for Horizontal.
When pressing ?CTRL-ALT-TAB,? you?ll be able to alternate between open windows within a single application. For instance, as someone who works on multiple writing projects at a time, hopping from one document to the next can quickly become tedious. With this utility, assuming all my documents are worked upon in one application (i.e., Microsoft Word), I?m granted the ability to easily switch from one window to the next in much the same way I would between multiple applications.
If you?d rather go with familiarity, you can always stay with the standard ?ALT-TAB? function. But for those of you looking to wring just a bit more from this oft-used function, VistaSwitcher is a great way to spruce up your use of Windows.
From the always innovative minds at Google, comes Google Wave,? a seminal offering that joins various web-based functions — instant messaging, email, social networking, wiki — to inspire and facilitate collaborative efforts.
With an emphasis on communication and teamwork, Google Wave houses multiple protocols within one package, promoting a thread of consistency between participants on a single project.
For a clearer demonstration on the functionality afforded by this new offering, visit here.
Invites to this service are always being introduced, though the wait can be lengthy.
