We met at the Bank of the West Community Room in downtown Petaluma this
month. Steve, our Webmaster, brought a Zip Disk full of programs to
share. Exploring them used all the allotted time. There was no time left
for Rawls to present the material he had organized, but he assured us
that all of it will be available at next month's SIG on Saturday,
September 30th at RE/MAX Marina in Petaluma. This is going
to be another full, exciting meeting. Don't miss it! Below is a summary
of the programs we explored.
602Pro-PC-SUITE2000 - New Version!
602Pro PC SUITE 2000B Office Suite now includes spell checking. Seamless
compatibility with Microsoft Office is a must today. 602Pro PC SUITE
2000 is composed of three components: 602Text (word processor), 602Tab
(spreadsheet) and 602Photo (graphic editor). 602Text is a powerful word
processor compatible with Microsoft Word (.DOC 9x/2000) and many other
document file types. 602Tab is a Microsoft Excel (.XLS 9x/2000)
compatible spreadsheet with over 150 available functions. 602Photo is a
graphics editor designed for digital camera and scanner image editing
with support for over 15 graphic formats.
Try 602Pro PC SUITE, its an under fifteen meg (15MB) downloadable office
suite that contains everything you really need, and it's free*
for commercial and non-commercial use. Learn more, view screen shots, and download this
program at www.software602.com/products/pcs/index.html.
*When you register 602Pro PC SUITE 2000 all pop-up windows about
registration will stop and the spell checker will be enabled!
Registration is FREE!
CryptEdit
Crypt Edit v4.00 Word Processor for Windows 95(OSR2) and
Windows 98/NT/2000 is a powerful, free word processor with spell
checking. Released 15-Aug-2000—it has received top marks from reviewers. ZD Net gave it 5
Stars and TUCOWS Office awarded 5 Cows!
Small size, modest system requirements, and Microsoft compatibility may
well make this the ideal word processor for people with limited computer
resources. It could be perfect for an older laptop. If you use
Windows 95 it must be OSR2 (a late version of Win95). See PolySoft
Solutions at ps.yaroslavl.ru/ for
information and download links.
DoubleDesktop
DoubleDesktop v.2.0 for Windows 9X/NT/2K is a simple, elegant tray-based
FREEWARE utility that effectively doubles your Windows desktop. It's
easy to use—just click its icon or press a hotkey combination to
switch between the left and right desktops. It's like
having dual monitors without the expense.
www.fatfreesoft.com/2desk.html
Hilitext
Hilitext v1.0 for Windows 9x/NT4 is a free text highlighting
utility that lives in the System Tray (near the clock). It instantly finds and
highlights all occurrences of a specified word or phrase in
Web pages, e-mail messages, and most 32-bit Windows documents. The screen shot below shows
how this page looks with the word "highlighted."
This is a real help when you're searching for
information, or editing documents—it saves time and reduces eyestrain. You
can access it with a hotkey, and select your own highlight
colors. Get this small [586 KB] download from Fanix Software at
www.fanix.com. It's free to try and free to keep.
Recycle Bin Changer©
Tired of the same old look of your Recycle Bin? Recycle Bin Changer
v.1.0 by Black Mantis allows you to change its name, icons and the sound
associated with it. Comes with an icon library and optionally lets you
choose your own icons. Have fun with this versatile tool—it's free!
members.xoom.com/black_mantis
[in Downloads]
TweakUI 2000 for Windows 98 and later
The version of Microsoft's TweakUI Power Toy for Windows 98 included on
the Windows CD was buggy, and was not included with Windows 98 Second
Edition. Subsequently Microsoft published prerelease versions which have
since expired. Microsoft says that a new version will be released about the
same time as Windows ME (mid-September). TweakUI is a free, but
unsupported, Windows Power Toy from Microsoft.
You can find non-expiring (modified) versions of the last prerelease version
on the Web. This is reported to be a stable, bug-free version. For more information and downloads go to:
infinisource.com/windows98/tweakui2000.shtml, or
www.pcforrest.freeserve.co.uk/tweakui.htm.
Don't know what version of Tweak UI you have? If it's installed on your
system, look for TWEAKUI.CPL file in your \Windows\System folder.
Right-click that file, choose Properties, then click the Version tab to
see the version number. If you are unsure about using TweakUI, or
wonder what you can do with it, ask Jerry Popky at an Omni SIG.
XO v.1.0 for Windows 9x is a simple Tic Tac Toe-like board game. You compete against
artificial intelligence (your computer). Try to put five pieces in a horizontal, vertical
or diagonal row! You can also play XO on-line at the author's Web site.
www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/
XRat Mpeg Player
XRat Mpeg Player v.1.1 is a cool, fast MP3 player that can play MPEG audio version 1,
2, 2.5 layer I, II, III, plus Xing's VBR (variable bit rate) files.
Features include a simple interface, a 10-band equalizer with presets, playlists, and handy tray controls.
It uses less CPU time than Winamp, and it's absolutely free!
glory.nm.ru/xrat.html
Many downloads are .ZIP files, if you need an unzipping tool, the
Webmaster recommends ZipCentral, the freeware zip file manager.
