AuthorPoint Lite converts PowerPoint presentation files to SWF (Flash) files that are then uploaded to AuthorPoint Lite's Web site. Once your presentation is on the Web site, you can link to the provided URL, or you can share it via Twitter and other forms of social media. You can also embed your presentation into a separate Web page.
AuthorPoint Lite is clean and attractively designed. It immediately prompts you to upload a PowerPoint file. The presentation we chose contained many photographs, but AuthorPoint Lite handled it with ease. Once our file was finished, the next step was to upload it to the AuthorPoint Lite Web site. You must create an account in order to use the Web site, but it's free. It took about 20 minutes for our presentation to post to the site, because of the time needed to downsample our images for Web resolution. Presentations that are mostly text and vector graphics will load more quickly. It was worth the wait! When our presentation was ready, the AuthorPoint Lite Web site provided us with a link to view it on the Web site. You can share the link freely or make your presentations private and password protected, a nice benefit if you're handling confidential material.
AuthorPoint Lite is a fabulous tool for sharing PowerPoint presentations over the Internet. It's easy to use, and help is available on the manufacturer's Web site if you encounter problems. AuthorPoint Lite is free and installs and uninstalls easily. This is a top-notch application.
One of the first applications built to find and remove malware and spyware, Ad-Aware's reputation is well-justified. The latest version continues the publisher's tradition of adroitly addressing user concerns, but isn't yet perfect.
Building on the improvements made in version 8, former Ad-Aware users should be glad to hear that the program installs faster than it used to. Without a doubt, though, this version of Ad-Aware improves greatly on what has come before. It loads faster during your boot cycle, and scans are faster. Empirical tests noted that while the Quick Scan finished in less than 10 minutes for version 8, the current version's Quick Scan finished in under three minutes. Previous files that had been falsely detected as threats weren't flagged this time around, probably due in part to Ad-Aware's behavioral detection engine. Called Genotype, it's based on heuristics and uses a one-pass scanning system, Genotype isn't directly exposed to users, although you can opt in to anonymously contribute data from the Settings menu. The new version also explicitly calls out in the scan windows what the scan looks for.
New users should note that Ad-Aware Free performs faster than integrated antivirus and antimalware programs in part because only the paid version of Ad-Aware comes with an antivirus engine. Other important features are disabled in the free version. While rootkit detection is present, behavior-based heuristics and real-time registry protection are not. Ad-Aware Free cannot scan networked drives, and even a basic feature like the scheduler remains off-limits to nonpaying customers. The proprietary real-time defender Ad-Watch Live has been reconfigured to run more smoothly in the background, however, and long-time fans will notice the change. Ad-Aware continues to make improvements and seems to be unwilling to rest on its malware-removing laurels, but the free version is undeniably hamstrung.
How many times have we wished for a quick and easy way to take and edit a screenshot? Sure, it's easy enough to take a screenshot, but then there's the pasting, the fumbling with image-editing software, the figuring out how to save it in the appropriate format--it's a pain! GreenShot makes this whole process incredibly simple.
GreenShot runs in the system tray, and when users are ready to take a screenshot, they can either right-click on the program or use one of its shortcuts. Users can capture a region, a window, or the full screen. Once the image is captured, GreenShot's basic editing program opens automatically. Here users can add lines, shapes, and text. Once users are satisfied with their image, it can be saved as a JPG, GIF, PNG, or BMP. It doesn't seem that there's a way to crop the image once it's in the image editor, which is unfortunate; users who are taking screenshots of one region of their screen will want to make sure they get it right the first time. The built-in Help file briefly explains all of the program's functions, but it could be a little more detailed. Other than those complaints, though, we were quite happy with GreenShot. It works quickly and nearly all of its functions were intuitive.
GreenShot is free, and it installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users looking for a quick and easy way to take and edit screenshots.
What if Digsby and Skype merged into one seemingly all-powerful VoIP and messaging communications tool is the question that VoxOx seeks to answer. VoxOx's many features have not yet been seen in one package, and version 2 of the program introduces even more features. Whether their execution suits your needs may be another matter.
VoxOx 2 offers all that came before, and more. It's got multi-protocol chat, social networking support, and Web mail integration. It also offers a telephony service that includes call encryption, mobile-to-mobile calls initiated by either SMS or via a Web site. New in this version are a free personal assistant for recording, forwarding, routing, and screening calls, inbound and outbound fax management, Facebook and MySpace IM support, a reworked contact manager that attempts to merge your contacts from their disparate sources, and stronger back-end support. Users have been promised that new servers can handle the workload asked of them.
You can share files up to 100MB via an internally-generated download link that can then be shared via e-mail or instant message. This is different from the direct support of most IM clients, but that file size bump is hard to ignore. There's mobile access, too, for those who use a mobile browser, iPhone, or WAP. The call quality on the Callback feature, where you initiate a long-distance or international phone call from your computer or SMS, was clear and crisp.
The Personal Assistant is the big new feature in this version, and for users who need to manage multiple phone numbers, it's a killer. You can redirect calls based on which number you want to be reached at first, and by who's calling you. You can record calls as they occur, or listen to messages as they're being recorded. You can also transfer a live call from a landline to a mobile number and not lose the call.
The interface has received an overhaul, and in general it's better. One drawback is that while many options are available from the Settings menu, not all of them are. Some you need to go to different parts of the program, such as altering IM fonts. Using VoxOx's phone features requires points, and users are given 120 points/minutes to get started. With an overwhelming feature set, VoxOx continues an uphill climb against better-known competitors or those who focus on a single feature, but it's hard to ignore the appeal of what's offered.
What if Digsby and Skype merged into one seemingly all-powerful VoIP and messaging communications tool is the question that VoxOx seeks to answer. VoxOx's many features have not yet been seen in one package, and version 2 of the program introduces even more features. Whether their execution suits your needs may be another matter.
VoxOx 2 offers all that came before, and more. It's got multiprotocol chat, social networking support, and Web mail integration. It also offers a telephony service that includes call encryption, mobile-to-mobile calls initiated by either SMS or via a Web site. New in this version are a free personal assistant for recording, forwarding, routing, and screening calls, inbound and outbound fax management, Facebook and MySpace IM support, a reworked contact manager that attempts to merge your contacts from their disparate sources, and stronger back-end support. Users have been promised that new servers can handle the workload asked of them.
You can share files up to 100MB via an internally-generated download link that can then be shared via e-mail or instant message. This is different from the direct support of most IM clients, but that file size bump is hard to ignore. There's mobile access, too, for those who use a mobile browser, iPhone, or WAP. The call quality on the Callback feature, where you initiate a long-distance or international phone call from your computer or SMS, was clear and crisp.
The Personal Assistant is the big new feature in this version, and for users who need to manage multiple phone numbers, it's a killer. You can redirect calls based on which number you want to be reached at first, and by who's calling you. You can record calls as they occur, or listen to messages as they're being recorded. You can also transfer a live call from a landline to a mobile number and not lose the call.
The interface has received an overhaul, and in general it's better. One drawback is that while many options are available from the Settings menu, not all of them are. Some you need to go to different parts of the program, such as altering IM fonts. Using VoxOx's phone features requires points, and users are given 120 points/minutes to get started. With an overwhelming feature set, VoxOx continues an uphill climb against better-known competitors or those who focus on a single feature, but it's hard to ignore the appeal of what's offered.
This one-hit wonder of a Firefox extensions nevertheless provides a useful feature for those who do a lot of cutting and pasting from Web pages into text fields or documents. AutoCopy copies any text you highlight to the clipboard--it's that simple.
It does do a bit more than that, though. The extension's Options menu lets users configure highlight behavior, post-copy pasting behavior, keyboard shortcuts, toggling a Status Bar button, and a menu that pops up after copying. From that pop-up menu, you can automatically paste the selected text into the location bar, the search bar, a new tab, access previous clipboards, or undo the copy.
AutoCopy's only flaw is that it occasionally conflicts with other extensions, but overall it's a simple, effective, must-have tool for those who copy text from a Web site to anywhere else on their computer and wants to speed up those tedious copy-and-paste tasks.
DownTester is a portable app that tests download speeds from HTTP and FTP URLs. It's unobtrusive and gets the job done, but also comes with some useful features that make it worth downloading.
The Advanced Options menu is reasonably robust. You can configure the tests to conclude and move on to the next URL based on time or bytes downloaded. Both of these are user configurable, giving the test broad powers to judge how fast data is flowing to you. You can also set the program to retry upon failure and configure the number of times that repetition should occur before moving on. FTP addresses can be tested in Passive or Active mode. Users have the option to export their test list by saving it as a TXT, HTML, CSV, or XML file, and there's an import test list option as well--Add URLs from File. You can even toggle test URLs from an existing list.
As simple as it is, DownTester didn't seem to need much fine-tuning. You can't paste directly from the clipboard to the test list; you first have to open the Add URLs List window, but that seemed to be just about the only drawback to this utility. Anyone who is trying to diagnose connection speed problems should check it out.
This one-hit wonder of a Firefox extensions nevertheless provides a useful feature for those who do a lot of cutting and pasting from Web pages into text fields or documents. AutoCopy copies any text you highlight to the clipboard--it's that simple.
It does do a bit more than that, though. The extension's Options menu lets users configure highlight behavior, post-copy pasting behavior, keyboard shortcuts, toggling a Status Bar button, and a menu that pops up after copying. From that pop-up menu, you can automatically paste the selected text into the location bar, the search bar, a new tab, access previous clipboards, or undo the copy.
AutoCopy's only flaw is that sometimes after installing it, Firefox doesn't always realize it should be in the active extensions list. Research on the AutoCopy Web site revealed no answers, leading us to conclude that the add-on might conflict with other add-ons. To remedy this, we recommend trying to install it again. Once installed, though, AutoCopy worked flawlessly and was immensely helpful in speeding up tedious copy-and-paste jobs.
Advanced PDF to Word Converter Free doesn't start off well, but, surprisingly, leaves you with a nearly-perfect document. When you install the program, it will ask you to reboot. While rebooting makes sense for programs that have deep hooks into your operating system, it strikes warning bells in such a simple converter. However, the final DOC output from this PDF to Word format converter looks pretty good, albeit with some image quality degradation and minor text alignment problems.
The program sports drag-and-drop additions, adding an entire folder or individual PDFs from different folders and custom output folders, and output renaming. While these may strike many as boilerplate, many competitors offer some variation on these features, but not all of them. OpenOffice.org users will appreciate that this converter puts out a DOC that OpenOffice Writer can cleanly read.
There are some minor problems that tag along with the major ones already mentioned. There's no support for encrypted PDFs, and when you convert there's a nag screen to get you upgrade. You can upgrade for advanced features like batch conversion, RTF and TXT output, and image deletion, but the Advanced PDF to Word Converter Free will give you a reasonable document to work from.
It hasn't been updated since February 2005, but Firefox Preloader continues to help users who want faster boot times while maintaining a heavy load of tabs and extensions. Weighing in with an installer at 840Kb and using about 30MB of RAM, the program dramatically improved start-up times on Firefox when loaded with tabs and extensions.
How dramatic were the improvements? Without using the Preloader, it took 32.1 seconds for Firefox to open, and 2 minutes, 34.2 seconds to finish loading all the tabs. With the Preloader running, Firefox opened in 7.8 seconds, with another 1 minute, 36.7 seconds to complete all the tabs. Firefox Preloader is not otherwise laden with options. You can set it to run when you turn on your computer, and it installs a convenient system tray icon for accessing it on the fly. From there, you can unload the preloader which clears out the program from the list of active tasks, and you can reload it, which dumps it from the active cache and then reloads it.
The Preloader doesn't play well with certain browser functions, notably when Firefox restarts after installing an extension or theme. It almost certainly adds at least a small amount of time to the computer's boot cycle, since it's one more thing that needs to load before Windows is ready to go. But for users who want to have their cake of extensions and tabs and eat it, too, Firefox Preloader remains a reasonable way to gain back more than a few precious seconds.
