These days there are so many more things you can do with your photographs than just putting them in albums, which are then stored in the loft. Software such as Microsoft AutoCollage allows you to get more creative with your images.

It may look very simple when you first launch the application, but actually, a lot of research and development has gone into Microsoft AutoCollage. The project is an advanced computer vision and imaging program that gathers a selection of your photos and knits them together seamlessly to produce eye-catching collages.

The level of automation in Microsoft AutoCollage means that you don't really have to lift a finger. You just select the folder you want the program to collect the photos from, choose how many images you want incorporated into the collage using the slider, then click 'Create'. You can then save, email or even set the picture as your background wallpaper, directly from within AutoCollage.

The technology in Microsoft AutoCollage is certainly very impressive, particularly the face detection element, which automatically picks out peoples heads, allowing you to draw attention to these. If anything though, I felt AutoCollage was a little too hands-off as there are no real image editing tools for you to refine your collages yourself, or add text, frames, etc. What's more, there were a few bugs that cropped up in testing, such as when setting the image as a desktop in XP.

Microsoft AutoCollage is a powerful collage-rendering tool, it's just a shame it doesn't give you more control over the finished output.

Download Microsoft AutoCollage 2008 1.1 in Softonic

Just bear in mind that there's a more recent version available - Microsoft Visio 2010. If you're interested in the 2007 version, however, read on!

If you've ever needed to create a flowchart for work or school, you'll understand how difficult (and messy!) it can be to try to draw one by hand.

Microsoft Visio is a valuable tool for anyone who needs to create works like drawings, network diagrams and calendars. You can even make office layouts and flowcharts. Ready-made templates are included in Microsoft Visio, or you can opt to start from scratch if that's your preference. A member of the Microsoft Office 2007 family, Microsoft Visio gives you a lot of options and is compatible with other Office programs, which makes it even more convenient.

Although there are many types of drawings you can make with Microsoft Visio, three basic steps are all most users will need to create ready-made templates of any design. Just choose a template you like and open it, drag shapes and connect as you like and lastly fill up the shapes with any text you want. That's really all there is to it with Microsoft Visio.

Making custom designs is the only really tricky part about using Microsoft Visio. Beginner users might find it difficult to learn to do. It also takes some time to navigate around the program's interface.

Great for just about any diagram need, Microsoft Visio is an easy-to-use program for students and employees alike.

Download Microsoft Visio Professional 2007 in Softonic

Featuring the new Office Ribbon Interface, Microsoft Project Professional is now much easier to navigate. There is an excellent timeline view that makes organizing the execution of even complicated and long projects much easier. The compatibility from other Office apps is also much improved, meaning you can quickly copy paste into Microsoft Project Professional while retaining your formatting.

Microsoft Project Professional allows you to manage a team of people on a project with a really visual resource view that allows you to easily see who is available and when. Creating tables, adding columns and so on is much easier now, and there are some great data mining tools.

For new users there are wizards to get your project plan up and running. Setting projects up is still a long process, but it's not difficult. Once you start, Microsoft Project Professional is full of automated aspects that make life much easier. Graphs, calculations and reports can all be automated.

When you add in integration with the Office suite, Microsoft Project Professional really is the finished product, a great application for creating workflows and plans for projects of all sizes.

Download Microsoft Project Professional 2010 in Softonic

With Microsoft Visio, you'll be able to create and share a variety of diagrams, organizational charts, flowcharts, floor plans and even network maps. You can choose from a wide variety of templates to help you get started, modifying as easily as you go thanks to an intuitive ribbon interface and drag & drop capabilities.

Even if you haven't used a tool like Microsoft Visio before, you shouldn't have many problems. As you would expect from a Microsoft product, there's plenty of help and when you first run the program, an interactive guide.

Modifying diagrams created with Microsoft Visio is easy - all aspects are totally modifiable - from both an aesthetic and technical point of view - and you'll be able to insert all kinds of extras, such as hyperlinks, documents and CAD drawings.

To ensure the validity of your diagrams, Microsoft Visio has a Diagram Check function, which will point out all of the possible errors in your document. Ideal for business situations, you'll also be able to share your documents via SharePoint, as well as importing Excel documents and automatically converting them.

Microsoft Visio isn't very flashy, but it is a solid tool for creating diagrams and charts of various kinds.

Download Microsoft Visio 2010 14.0.4760.1000 Premium in Softonic

Being the cheapest of all three editions, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student is also the smallest one. It only includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote – unlike the Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business edition, with five apps, or the Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus pack, which features the full collection. However, these four apps are more than enough to complete school assignments and take care of household projects – such as creating and maintaining a domestic budget.

As regards appearance, the four apps in Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student keep the ribbon interface – in a clear, almost minimalist style – but the Office button has been renamed to "File" and now shows a different pane. It includes direct access to all document-related tasks, and also shows detailed information about the document you're currently working on.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student has pretty much the same features we saw in the Technical Preview, and in other Office editions as well. The context menu in Word, for example, has been greatly improved and lets you see changes in real time as you browse through the different options. You can now add videos to your PowerPoint presentations, and insert small color charts inside cells in Excel spreadsheets. There are also tools to translate text, take and use screenshots, and apply special effects to the images you use in your documents. What's more, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student now lets you save your documents on SkyDrive and share them online in just two clicks.

Regarding performance, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student seems to be quite fast and light on system resources. There's a significant improvement in the time the suite apps take to launch, and how they behave when working on your documents.

In all, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student is an excellent productivity suite with great new features that makes it easier and more comfortable to use.

Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student lets you fully test the latest, long-awaited version of the world's most popular productivity suite.

Download Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student in Softonic

To stay organized when working on multiple projects you need to learn how to manage your time well. Don't expect anything too fancy with TimeSheet: this project management tool works with Java, so you'll get everything except an attractive interface. On the other hand, this means that the interface is clear and works efficiently.

There's nothing too difficult with TimeSheet: create a new project, create a new entry, add start and end times and you are ready to go. The left side of the program structures all entries by data and reflects time spent. The center of the interface shows all your entries, and if some of them are still not finished you will be able to see the duration counting down.

TimeSheet won't let you reorganize entries by columns, which limits the ways you can see your data. We also found it quite difficult to change the time and date as you need to enter them exactly as they are seen in TimeSheet.

TimeSheet is a good effort at a time tracking solution, but there are too many limitations to allow it to be used intensively. Try Project Clock as another way to manage your time.

Download TimeSheet 0.8.4.2 in Softonic