What’s This All About?

ClipDiary is a a well and simply implemented clipboard extender. It saves multiple clips effortlessly and without user intervention. These clips are then quickly available either using your mouse or a hotkey combination.

Why Would You Want It?

As the standard Windows clipboard only saves one clip at a time the ability to save multiple clips (copied text and images) for reuse later by pasting into documents or just to keep a history of certain information such as web site addresses, or say brief details of a set of applications, names or something similar can be very useful. Also the ability to be able to have a history of information you are collecting is very useful. I have mentioned in a couple of recent  posts the usefulness of collecting information using automatic copying of selected information for research and writing.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Stores information copied to the clipboard
• Pastes to active application on demand
•  

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 20% [?]

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What’s This All About?

Have you ever typed the perfect sentence or paragraph? A real moment of inspiration, never to be repeated! It may be into a word document, or a blog comment  webform or some other program -  and then disaster. A system or program or Internet malfunction results in these never to be remembered words disappearing in a puff of random electrons. Well if it hasn’t happened to you then it has certainly happened to me on more than one occasion.

The answer I found was to use a keylogger to record everything that was being typed. While not a perfect solution it has certainly saved some of my more important sentences, phrases and paragraphs from an early grave as well as saving my time and frustration

REFOG Free Keylogger is an excellent freeware program that has most of the functions you require for this type of use.

This forms part of my overall instant to long term backup and archiving system that uses a number of different freeware solutions  which include ”on the fly” backup of files as new documents or versions are saved through to long term backup of essential documents and information to NAS devices and online storage solutions.

This is a great example of using a utility that may be seen as only having uses for spying on others or trying to nefariously obtain passwords for a good use.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Records “all” keyboard input (including Ctl-Shift_Alt, etc.)
• Records mouse clicks
• Records details of program, time and date.
• Records web addresses visited
• Monitors addresses for changes
• Copies the clipboard information
• Logs Information

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 20% [?]

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Windows Seizer is a quick and easy to use portable application that lists all the program Windows that exist on the system including hidden and “no caption” ones.  Not only does it list the windows but it allows them to be closed individually or in groups, off screen (lost) windows to be moved on screen and processes to be killed. It also provides details of the windows size and class as well as some process details like a task manager

Why Do You Want It?

I wrote the other day in Recover Hidden & Off-screen Windows with this Simple Tip and Freeware Program ForceWindowVisible -

Sometimes Windows just disappear off of your computer monitor. There are several reasons why this may occur:

• Changing Screen Resolution
• Using a Single Monitor after using a Dual Monitor Display
• Corruption of Registry or “ini” file data
• Programming Errors
• Program Conflicts

When this happens you need a simple and reliable method to get them back onto your screen.

Windows Seizer not only does this in a quick, easy and intuitive way, it also provides some very useful additional functions as detailed below.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays a list of all current windows
• Displays or hides the window
• Moves the window to the top left of the monitor
• Closes Groups of Windows
• Shows the Desktop
• Kill Processes

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 19% [?]

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What Is It?

A Firefox Add-on that automatically copies text in a Firefox window to the windows clipboard with many useful options.

Why Would You Want It?

Essentially Autocopy will save you having to click on selected text with your mouse and then choose Copy or using Ctl-C if you prefer to use the keyboard for copying and pasting. In a single instance this is a small saving of time, probably less than a second, but if you use copy and paste a lot then the small savings all add up. A really big advantage is if you use a clipboard extender to store multiple clipboard copies of text and images, such as Cipboard Magic, Clip Diary, Ditto or one of the several other freeware clipboard extenders available. When you use a clipboard extender you can copy multiple selections of text to use in another document without having to keep switching back and forth on each copy/paste cycle. I find this very useful when I am researching for ProReviewer or work and want to collect multiple pieces of information and then use them as background information rather than a straight copy and paste into a document.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Automatically copies selected text
• Provides Search options for selected text
• Provides other useful options

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Popularity: 20% [?]

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What’s This All About?

A simple way to find hidden and off-screen windows using a tiny freeware program and a quick way to move “visible” windows back on screen.

Why Do You Need to Know?

Sometimes Windows just disappear off of your computer monitor. There are several reasons why this may occur:

• Changing Screen Resolution
• Using a Single Monitor after using a Dual Monitor Display
• Corruption of Registry or “ini” file data
• Programming Errors
• Program Conflicts

When this happens you need a simple and reliable method to get them back onto your screen.

Using Windows Standard Move Function

Sometimes you will see the “lost” window in the Taskbar and right clicking will allow you to carry out the normal windows functions. What has happened is that the coordinates the system has for the window (for whatever reason) make the system think the window should be displayed somewhere off of your actual monitor screen.

This standard Move function tip is available from many sites offering advice, hints and tips – this is what you need to do:

Right Clicking on the Taskbar Icon

This displays the standard windows controls and in this instance we are interested in Move

Click on Move and the move cursor will be displayed in the middle of the title bar for the window (although obviously you can’t see it on an offscreen window).

The important thing now is to press one of the cursor (up/down/right/left arrow) keys on the keyboard to attach the window to the mouse. If you don’t do this you can move the Move cursor onto the visible screen and click with the mouse but nothing happens (Why? It would have been simple and obvious for MS to have programmed it to work this way )

When you click on any one of the arrow keys it attaches the Window to the mouse cursor and you can drag it back to the visible area. Of course if you don’t know where it is and it is a long way off your actual screen this can be a bit of a hit and miss process.

Actually when you hit the arrow key it also moves the window in the direction of the arrow so you can use the arrows to get the window back but this can be even more long winded and frustrating if you don’t know where the window is in relation to your screen.

What is clear is that this solution works but can be difficult when you don’t know where the window is. Also if the window is “hidden” it will not show in the taskbar so you can’t use the above method,  so what is a better solution?

Useing ForceWindowsVisible

This is a very simple, very small portable executable file which will list all the windows currently created on your PC by the operating systema nd the programs you are running.

However a word of caution. Windows and the programs you run may create many “hidden” windows that you are never meant to see. Take care if you display these windows, which may not have any visible information, as closing them may cause problems or crashes of programs and the system.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays a list of all current windows
• Displays or hides the window
• Moves the window to the top left of the monitor
• Resizes the window to fit on the screen

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 29% [?]

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What’s This All About?

CatGrab is a handy program to download your photos and videos from a USB connected camera or from a Flashcard reader. CatGrab automatically renames your files and places them in separate folders for photos and videos on your desktop. This review is for the “small” or Freeware edition which has restricted options and a “nag” screen, however for a simple and quick method of downloading it is quite acceptable. Personally I use Picasa which is also free and provides more options.

Why Would You Want It?

Most cameras come with some proprietary software which will do the job of getting photos/videos from the camera to your PC. If you have more than 1 camera you may need to load more than one program and there may also be conflicts. CatGrab provides a simple and quick solution to this. It also separates photos from videos and provides renaming based on the date the photos were taken. Also it will not download duplicates.

(Note - Static addresses can be assigned if required. This is relatively easy for LAN addresses but will probably involve additional costs with an ISP for your WAN)

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Downloads photos and videos to a PC/Laptop
• Renames files based on original date and time
• Separates Photos from Videos

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware (small version)

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Popularity: 16% [?]

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What Is It?

Scan2PDF is a small program designed to scan images or load images from standard image formats which can then be combined as pages to form a single pdf file. Images can be rotated and text can be added to overlay the image if required. What’s more, several images can be added to the same page, resized and arranged with text added as captions or for information.

Why Would You Want It?

In any home or small office environment there are hundred of documents you need to keep for one reason or another. In the home bank and credit card statements, normal house hold bills, receipts, guarantees, instructions, official letters, tax returns, car documents, etc. There are literally hundreds of documents you need to keep, some for a short time others for much longer. Managing all that paper, filing it, finding it when you need it, sorting out what you don’t need any longer and what you must still keep takes a lot of time to do properly. When you don’t do it well then you spend even more time trying to find something when suddenly you really need it.

The obvious answer is to keep all the documents on your computer. With an organised file naming system (and folders as well if you like, personally I prefer to minimise on folders and use the file naming system as a sort of virtual folder structure). A document scanner that is suitable for this is fairly cheap nowadays and many multi-function devices are also available.

So why scan to pdf rather than just standard jpg, tif, bmp or other image format files. Mostly as this is a convenient and standard document format which will store multiple page documents. That combined with the ready availability of programs to convert word documents to pdf also means that you can keep all correspondence in a single format and read it with a single application whether you use Adobe Acrobat or smaller and faster pdf applications such as Foxit or Sumatra.

There are a few quite to very expensive document management applications available to do this job so it is nice to find a freeware solution which will meet the needs of most home users if used with an appropriate file naming/folder storage method.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Scanning Interface for single or multiple pages
• Other images can be used to create pdf pages
• Text can be added where required

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 15% [?]

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Folder Size adds a “Folder Size” column to the standard Windows Explorer file explorer utility. It also adds a further 3 columns that report the number of files and folders that appear under the folder being viewed. This is a simple and brilliant Explorer add-on that is an essential tool for anyone interested in how disk space is being used or where all the large file/folders are.

Why Would You Want It?

Windows does not provide a utility that shows the size of folders in a simple and easily used way*.There are many reasons why you need to know the size of folders. It may be that you are running out of disk space. You may want to know why a particular folder is using so much space. Or you are simply interested in the fact that certain applications produce large files and use up so much disk space. Armed with this information you can make all sorts of decisions:

1. Do I want to use an application that uses lots of disk space?
2. Do I want to delete this folder?
3. Do I want to move this folder?
4. How can I use this utility more efficiently?
5. What do I delete now that I am running out of disk space?

I am sure there are lots of other reasons why you would want to know the sizes of folders.

*You can always use the “right click context menu” in Explorer to view propertied. This only give information for a single folder and is slow/cumbersome to use.

However, not only does Folder Size add a Windows Explorer column for the size of the folder, you can also add columns that will tell you the number of files and/or folders within that folder (sub-folders/files).

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Displays Folder Size Information in Windows Explorer
• Displays Number of sub files and folders in additional columns
• Runs as a Service

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 27% [?]

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The Pantone Huey is a useful piece of kit combined with a software program that allows you to accurately calibrate the color display of your monitor. This calibration means that you will see images and in particular your photos with accurate color rendition. What’s more the Huey and combined software will automatically adjust the display based on the room lighting conditions.

Why Would You Want It?

Accurately setting the colours, contrast and brightness of your monitor is practically impossible with the naked eye. If you want to see digital images and in particular your photographs as they actually are then accurate calibration is a necessity. If you use digital editing software to change or enhance your images then it is very important you work with accurate settings in order to achieve the desired results. This is even more important if you are then going to print the enhanced images.

I bought a Huey about 12 months ago and I am still amazed at how different the true settings are for my monitors compared to those I have set by eye. The results, particularly where I am printing photos to display or send to relatives make the Huey a worthwhile investment.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Sets the colors, brightness and contrast for your computer monitor
• Adjusts the display based on changing room lighting
• Allows optimised settings for different  uses.

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Simple to set up

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Popularity: 24% [?]

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Neutron is a tiny portable utility to synchronize your computer with “Atomic Clocks” through various Internet servers.

Why Would You Want It?

While you probably don’t need the time on your computer to be accurate to the second you will often want it to be correct to the minute. Things like scheduled reminders or recordings of programmes are obvious examples. It is also useful to have reasonably accurate time “stamps” on the creation and modification of files.

I have had occasions where a computer has been years out due to corruption of the bios information on a power failure and then the system restarts with the bios reset to the base date or some other completely wrong time. If this goes unnoticed you can have hundreds of files with the wrong dates and (perhaps) even worse restore points that are incorrect. Trying to sort duplicates where files have incorrect dates or synchronising files across your local area network can be made far more difficult if different machines don’t have the same time.

So a simple, tiny utility that will make sure you don’t have this problem is well worth while.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Looks up the exact time on Internet Servers
• Synchronises the local computer either manually or automatically
• Syncs at Startup (Optional)

Pros: What’s Good?

Features & Benefits

• Freeware

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Popularity: 15% [?]

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