10 useful free software which will make your life easier

Almost everyone uses a computer on a daily basis these days, whether it is for work or pleasure. But even heavy users of the web, bloggers or professionals advanced in Excel don’t know basic and useful free software available on-line. Of course, not everyone has to be a computer geek, but some of this software can make people’s life just easier.

Everyday PC user

• Adobe Reader – software to read any documents (e.g. e-books, invoices) saved in PDF format.

http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/?promoid=BUIGO

• Cute PDF – document converter, it can save any document (e.g. Word) into read-only PDF file, then you can share it with others without worrying that someone will copy or change your document.

http://www.cutepdf.com/index.htm

• Microsoft Paint – basic graphic painting and photo editing software.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5465600_tutorials-microsoft-paint.html

• Skype – communication programme which lets you call another PC user in any country in the world, you both need a microphone and good internet connection.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/

Web-creator/blogger

• Google Analytics – a must-have for any who owns a website, it provides easy to analyze information on your web traffic.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

• Google Add Url – you can add your website to Google search engine so it is visible to everyone in the net.

http://www.google.com/addurl/

Lifestyle/Hobby

• Google Earth – an exciting way to explore the Earth from the space.

http://earth.google.co.uk/

• Mind Omo – a free web-based mind mapping tool.

http://www.mindomo.com/

• Dark Room – However exciting it sounds, it is actually a tool for writers. You get a full screen in black so there is nothing to disturb and it is easy to concentrate.

http://they.misled.us/dark-room

• Audacity – free software for recording and editing sounds, e.g. you can record your voice for an audio book, cut long piece of music into short parts, remove background noise.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/

• VLC – multimedia player and converter which can read most of the audio and video formats.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/