Mashed Articles

Each issue we hunt down the best productivity applications available on the internet so you don’t have to. This could be anything from task reminders to document organisation, from PDF editing to mind mapping and everything in between. You name it, we’re likely to cover it. Best of all, everything you’ll find on this page will be freeware. So no nagging popups, no time restrictions and no feature limitations. Just strictly no holds barred functionality! Read on to find out what we’ve been digging during the last month.

Papercrop
Forego the eyestrain that’s a frequent result of viewing PDF files on your mobile phone by doing a little processing beforehand. With Papercrop it’s possible to automatically rejig PDFs into one column for easy reading on a small display while also preventing RSI from all the unnecessary touching and pinching of the screen.
Website
Download from here

AbiWord NEW
There is an increasing amount of free office software becoming available. Few, however, do things as well as AbiWord does. It mimics Microsoft’s market-leading word processor in both style and functionality, and boasts cross-platform compatibility. With the extensive list of plugins available, you’ll be able to use a word processor that suits your needs and saves you a small fortune.
Website
Download from here

Simple Sticky Notes NEW
Keeping your to-do lists and notes lying around is a recipe for disaster, as they can get lost and then that important snippet is gone forever. Using Simple Sticky Notes is a smart alternative; with its uncomplicated style you’ll find it easy to keep all your notes and lists on your desktop.
Website
Download from here

Customise your notes to keep things organised and stay on top of tasks

CSV File Editor
CSV or comma separated values are simply plain text files capable of storing tabular data. Commas are used to distinguish between fields in a row. CSV files tend to be more widely supported than formats like Microsoft Excel’s xls. This software offers up a huge number of additional features that just aren’t available in text editors including column edit, random number generation and row numbers.
Website
Download from here

FreeMind NEW
Mind-mapping is a great way to organise your thoughts and increase your productivity. While a lot of us will be used to the pen and paper approach, the added benefits of using mind-map software are obvious – clear and clean style, save and export functions, the ability to share via email and, of course, print outs. FreeMind does all this with aplomb, and is built in Java which means it can run on almost any system.
Website
Download from here

Digital mind-mapping improves your mental productivity and allows easy sharing via email

PDFrizator NEW
PDFs are the ideal way to exhibit text and image combinations in an uncomplicated way,. They can, however, be boring and awkward to navigate. Using PDFrizator will enable the creation of PDF presentations, complete with background music and transition effects between pages.
Website
Download from here

Use PDFrizator to liven-up your presentations with PDF transition effects and music

Hexonic PDF Split and Merge
Perform simple PDF-editing tasks without the need to crank up an unwieldy desktop publishing suite. Hexonic can split a page or sections of PDF files and merge several PDF files together into a single document. In addition you can add page numbers, headers or footers and even amend the page layout so that multiple pages are displayed on the same sheet.
Website
Download from here

Breaker
When you’re at the office and in the zone, taking a break can be seen as detrimental to your working momentum. But it can be necessary to maintain productivity. Breaker help by reminding you of when you to take a breather. The software has a number of different options including the Pomodoro style, where you work for 25 minutes and take a five minute break.
Website
Download from here

Texter NEW
If you’re used to texting on your mobile phone, you’ve probably grown to love (or hate) predictive text input. Texter is a lightweight background application for Windows that brings predictive text input to your word processing, email writing and note-taking. It is customisable with your own Hotstrings, so you can set up what your quick keystrokes are and what they should be replaced by. Once you have it configured how you like it, it will save you a lot of time and stave off the tedium of typing out recurrent phrases in full.
Website
Download from here

Doxillion Document Converter
It’s especially annoying when somebody sends you Word document that’s been exported in the docx format if you’ve yet to upgrade to the latest edition Office. Fortunately help is at hand with Doxillion Document Converter. It can convert the file to a readable format such as a regular doc or rtf. Even more handy is its ability to convert PDF to doc.
Website
Download from here

All these great tools are part of issue 315 of PC Plus, on the shelves on 11th November 2011. Subscribe today to the paper edition and you can get it up to a week early! Subscribe to PC Plus.

Why not save some money and get PC Plus on your smartphone, laptop or tablet? Buy the PC Plus digital edition for a bargain price, or save the most and subscribe to PC Plus through Zinio.

Has the moment passed? Don’t panic. You can pickup a copy of issue 315 through our back issues service. Buy PC Plus paper back issues or, if you’re digitally inclined, buy single issues on Zinio.