As far as free PDF converters go, doPDF is one of the best out there saving you tons of cash on Adobe's patented version and whatsmore, doing it in half the time.

The program is remarkably simple to use. Just open a document in Microsoft Word, WordPad, NotePad or practically any other text editing software, choose Print and select doPDF. The program asks you where to save the PDF file and when finished, the PDF file will be automatically opened in your default PDF viewer. This process takes less than a minute and you'll be amazed at how accurate the PDF is. Occasionally, it can suffer with unusually formatted text and images and so they won't come-out exactly as you want but this can be remedied.

Unfortunately, there's also no option to print large web pages (such as long news articles or forum pages) without dividing it into separate pages so you'll end up with lines dividing the article up throughout your PDF documents. The other slight downside is that it seems the PDF files it creates can be rather large although if you ZIP them up, this is not much of an issue.

An excellent PDF converter that's fast, easy to use and serves as more than an adequate replacement for Adobe's software.

Download doPDF 6.1.271 in Softonic

There's an increasing demand for alternatives to Adobe's resource hogging, RAM sapping, not least expensive PDF creator and PrimoPDF weighs in as an excellent alternative.

The fact that this program is free makes it all the more appealing. One of the problems with these PDF programs is that invariably, they change the formatting of your text, once you've converted your Word, Publisher etc. document to PDF. PrimoPDF largely avoids this however converting to PDF as faithfully as the original. It's also remarkably fast and the installation is equally speedy.

Once installed, the program appears as a virtual printer in your Printer Driver preferences too. The main downside, of which there are few, is that you are regularly prompted to register although this is a small price to pay for an excellent program. It's also a bit unreliable when converting images. Text is fine but images can sometimes be in the wrong position or formatted incorrectly when converting from Office documents. It also doesn't use Windows standard way of saving documents - it has it's own format which doesn't suggest a file name but it's a small drawback.

A really excellent PDF creator that will have Adobe critics laughing all the way to their virtual printers.

Download PrimoPDF 4.1.0.9 in Softonic

Google Docs has to be one of Google's greatest innovations in recent times making it easier than ever to share documents and not mess around sending attachments all the time.

Ok, it's still not as good as using an Office suite (and still lacks a decent Powerpoint equivalent) but it's immensely useful in a variety of situations. gDocsBar is a sidebar extension for Firefox that makes your Google Documents closer than ever. Rather than having to access the Google Docs site, you can simply access your documents via a sidebar.

gDocsBar allows you to even drag and drop multiple files and documents into the sidebar to upload. So, if you need to work on a Word document while on the move, just drag it into the gDocsBar sidebar and you'll be able to edit it online. In addition, you can also search and filter documents from the sidebar. It also includes some snazzy templates, webclips and smart folders. Of course, this requires access to your Google Account and there's no guarantee that gDocsBar doesn't store that data although the developers assure that it's totally secure using SSL.

If you are constantly on the move and need to access your documents anytime anywhere, the gDocsBar is definitely worth a look.

Download gDocsBar 0.5.7 in Softonic

Finally you can convert your PowerPoint presentation into Flash file so to have the benefits of both formats. Microsoft's popular slideshow tool makes it quick and easy to to create attractive, animated presentations; whereas Flash offers all the benefits of a universal format which can be viewed on any computer and any browser as well as a potentially much smaller file size.

Firstly, you do need to register before you can convert any presentations, but the process will take just a minute. The program integrates perfectly with Microsoft PowerPoint. Put simply, when you have created the PPT presentation, press the 'Quick Publish' or the 'Publish' button, where you can select some options, and that's all you have to do. iSpring also includes a feature which allows you to insert Flash movies into PowerPoint presentations. It's a pity that there is not an option to set the compression rates for specific elements (certain images, sounds, etc.) - as that would make it possible to decide exactly where you want to compromise on quality.

It is also interesting that you can publish your Flash file online, allowing you to access all your presentations wherever you are. After pressing the 'Publish' button, select 'SlideBoom' as destination of your file and type the account details. You can sign up for a free account from the menu as well, and the process is fairly easy and quick.

iSpring lets you easily create your PPT presentations and convert them into a Flash file to share with your co-workers and friends. You can also publish and store them online thanks to a free hosting service.

Download iSpring Free 3.5.1.2363 in Softonic

GenoPro is a software to draw family trees. Among all the family tree software, GenoPro is the simplest to learn and easiest to use. If you are a beginner to genealogy, you can learn to use GenoPro in a few minutes without the need to take a look at the online help.

GenoPro is capable to draw any type of family tree, including the most complicated family difficult to "picture". Once you have finished your family tree, you can save your family tree in a metafile to insert in Word, PowerPoint or any other Windows software. A metafile is a picture with a transparent background capable to be scaled to any size without quality loss. You can use GenoPro to create a huge poster of your family tree.

GenoPro can insert unlimited pictures for each individual and family, and help you to create a CD ROM of your family album. GenoPro has a powerful report generator to generate detailed reports in the language of your choice. Those reports can be printed using Word or published on the Web using your internet connection. GenoPro has built-in reports in 10 languages and you are welcome to add your own language or customize an existing report to your taste.

GenoPro has an excellent tool to compile statistics about your family and ancestry. With a few mouse clicks, you can find everything from the oldest ancestor to the largest family to the individual most divorced.

GenoPro uses the genogram to represent your family tree. A genogram is a graphical representation of a family with a set of simple rules and images. Genograms include basic information about the number of marriages, number of children in each marriage, birth order, age and death. Some genograms also include relationships between individuals and information on disorders running in a family such as alcoholism, depression and diseases.

Download GenoPro 2007 in Softonic

Nowadays, most people use PowerPoint to create presentations and graphs for statistical data.

However, sometimes PowerPoint is not enough to give you the full control over statistical data that you need, especially if you need to create complex charts. In addition, it's expensive, as it comes as part of Office but this package is totally free.

The main purpose of TeeChart-Office is to allow you to easily create both basic and complex charts while linking them to the original data. In a few clicks, you can modify and change the chart appearance (for instance from pie chart to bar chart), export charts to their native format, insert image files, print them, share them with others and lots more.

The program offers 17 main chart types with a huge number of customisations options. You can just about anything from labeling your charts to inserting complex mathematical formulas. Some of the more advanced plotting features are only available if you upgrade to the Pro version although you won't need these unless you are designing scientific graphs. You can also easily export graphs and images to another format using a simple wizard.

The look of TeeChart-Office is not exactly great - it looks rather blocky and basic compared to PowerPoint but it's incredibly powerful, customizable and best of all, free.

Download TeeChart Office 3.00 in Softonic

Desktop sharing is not just the expert field of tech professionals anymore. Whether you want to show how an application works or simply to explain things on someone else's PC, you'll need to find a way to share desktops easily.

TeamViewer offers a simple way of creating desktop sharing sessions with other users whether on a distant PC, local connection or over the internet. Both users will each have an ID and password with which to connect to their session.

Taking control of another PC is a great way to solve issues from a distance and demonstrate things on a desktop without actually being there physically. TeamViewer also allows file transfer and includes a chat function to communicate with your contact.

You can also record sessions and play them back afterward. These can then be used as tutorials or to go back on what you've done in previous sessions.

If you dig in the details you'll be able to choose not only whether to optimize quality or speed, but also configure the amount of access you want to give to your desktop.

The free version of TeamViewer has a number of limitations, and lacks a number of modules like the TeamViewer manager or customer module. If you want more features you'll have to be ready to pay at least €159 for higher end versions.

TeamViewer is a good program to quickly share desktops with another user. The free version will let you create secure sessions and control what you show to your contact over the internet.

Download TeamViewer 3.6.4606 in Softonic

Large files are always difficult to share online. Free file sharing sites are a pain, not everybody has an FTP server to share stuff and sharing them by email can take ages – if your email server can handle a 10MB email attachment at all.

Fortunately now there's another way to share big-sized files using email: Podmailing. Of course it doesn't work the usual way (message plus attached file) but more like as a P2P client or maybe I should say P2M client, which is the right way to name this file sharing protocol. The idea is not new (see Pando) but Podmailing has launched to add more choice to the P2M market.

The program is really easy to use. Simply click on the "New" button, select the files or folders you want to share, enter the email addresses and add a message. That's pretty much everything, although bear in mind that you must leave the program open (and your Internet connection on) in order to send the file.

The addressees of your podmail will receive a message in their inboxes with a link to download the file, which they'll be able to do very comfortably from their own web browser without the need for any third-party apps. Anyway, there's also the possibility to download the file via Podmailing or using the BitTorrent protocol (which also works with Podmailing, as this program is also a torrent client).

The main drawback I found is that you have to wait until the file is completely uploaded before starting to download it directly from the browser, so if your friend wants to share a 9GB file you'd better be patient. At least you can always start downloading it right away by using the Podmailing app or any BitTorrent client, which don't require the file to be finished uploading. Also, uploaded files are saved for 30 days on the Podmailing's servers.

Podmailing is a new client for the P2M protocol with which you can easily share large-sized files on the Internet. It may not be the fastest method but it's reliable and above all, very easy to use.

Download Podmailing 0.10.0 in Softonic

The productivity suite market is generally dominated by two main options: you either use the proprietary Microsoft Office suite or its open source alternative, Open Office. But if you don't like any of them, I'm glad to inform you there's a third choice.

Kingsoft Office is a fully featured, completely free office suite you can use for your daily work tasks. It includes three main applications: Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, to create DOC, PPT and XLS files respectively. The three of them are installed and launched separately – unlike Lotus Symphony, which uses a common interface. There are no apps for databases, email, or web publications.

I must admit these three apps are almost identical to their Microsoft Office equivalents, so identical in fact I'm beginning to wonder if it's just a copy. Whatever the Kingsoft developers thought about when creating the suite, I'm happy to be able to use a complete suite without having to pay for it. Also, the fact that it's so similar to other suites you may have been using up to know makes the learning curve practically non-existent.

Kingsoft includes interesting options such as the ability to export any document to PDF format and support for document encryption. On the downside, the suite felt a bit unstable during our tests: the Spreadsheets app, for example, crashed on one of our machines but worked perfectly well on a different one.

In any case, Kingsoft Office 2007 is a great free alternative for productivity suite users who don’t want to tie themselves to the same old choices.

Download Kingsoft Office 2007 6.3.0.1371 in Softonic

If you want to send someone your PowerPoint presentation, distribute it via the internet or through a CD-ROM, the best way to ensure that everyone can view your presentation (not only those who has the needed version of PowerPoint installed on their computers) is to convert to to a self-running slide show using PowerPoint Slide Show Converter.

Generation of a slide show screen saver from your PowerPoint presentation is also possible. PowerPoint Slide Show Converter itself requires Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, XP or 2003, but the self-running slide shows created with it do not require Microsoft PowerPoint. The conversion is a one-way process, the source .ppt file cannot be restored from the converted .exe file, so PowerPoint Slide Show Converter is also useful to protect PowerPoint presentations from unauthorized editing.

Download PowerPoint Slide Show Converter 3.1.2.1 in Softonic

Microsoft has added new file formats to the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to reduce file size, improve reliability, and enhance integration with external sources.

To help ensure that you can exchange documents between Microsoft Office releases, Microsoft has developed a Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. By installing the Compatibility Pack (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) alongside Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, save, and create files using the robust file formats new to the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack 2007 Beta in Softonic

Print2Flash lets you easily convert any printable document (e.g. Microsoft Word, or Excel, or PowerPoint document) to a Macromedia Flash file (SWF). This file can be shared with users who don’t have the software that created the original document (for example, Microsoft Word).

You can view such files with Macromedia Flash Player that is available across a number of operating systems. And these files can be easily published on the Web as well for fast and easy access to them from anywhere across the globe

Download Print2Flash 2.7.2 in Softonic

If you've always wanted to add a check box, radio button or combo box, to your PDF documents and felt frustrated because you couldn't find any easy to use tool to help you, well look no further, this is the application for you.

It's a Microsoft Word plug-in and it requires an updated version of Office i.e. your word processor must be updated with the latest Service Pack. Having said that, the CenoPDF bar and menu are very clear to use and the tools you can add on your Word document are well symbolized with self-clarifying icons. It is of course based on the principle of 'what you see is what you get' (WYSIWYG) so if you are not happy with the size or the location of one box, you can easily move it and resize it. An option menu for each function lets you decide all the settings you might need to personalize. Finally, you can export your document as PDF and see immediately the final result.

CenoPDF is useful to add special buttons to your PDF documents such as list box, text box and check box, but why does the program have to disable the auto-saving function in Word, which is indeed a work-saving tool!

Download CenoPDF 3.0.55.0 in Softonic

Let’s say you need to make a presentation which includes associated text and photos, and you would like a more homely design than the professional, at-times flat PowerPoint slideshow. eXPress Collage Suite might help, as it allows you to create simple presentations as e-books, collage albums, or even calendars.

The outcome will appear rather amateur, but depending on its purposes, can be what you are looking for home-made feeling presentation. The way you carry on your project is also a bit rudimentary and icons look a bit messy. The general rule to follow is that you can import images, text and audio file simply by clicking the import button on the left menu. Change the layout with the menu below and apply changes to see a preview of your document. The GUI can be a bit confusing and there’s plenty of room for usability improvements.

Althought eXpress Collage wouldn’t be suitable for professional purposes, it can be interesting for amateur photo albums, calendasr, eBooks and collages as it lets you create for free virtual books, to present texts and images in a different way.

Download eXpress Collage Suite 5.0 in Softonic

In Animal Fun House 32 animal categories are available, each one containing many thematic clipart elements. The way they are designed is childish and simple, but very funny and sweet.

They are perfect if you need a cartoon image of an animal to add as a logo in your documents or if you want to play with your younger brother, nephew or son, colouring these cute cubs. The way they are designed in fact leaves plenty of space for colouring them, both using Paint or, after printing, with real colour.

After choosing a category, copy the image file by pressing the sheet icon at the bottom of each drawing, in this way the file is copied in the clipboard and you can paste it in the program you like.

Have fun using these sweet animal icons in your documents and if you feel like going back to the best, carefree years of life, colour them with Photoshop, that’s a good use for it, or even better, print and paint them!

Download Animal Fun House 5.0.1 in Softonic

Copernic Desktop Search (CDS) brings the power of a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use search engine right to your PC and allows you instantly to search files, emails, and email attachments stored anywhere on your PC hard drive. It executes sub-second searching of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, Acrobat PDFs, and all popular music, picture and video formats. CDS also conducts a desktop search of your browser history, favorites, and contacts.

Keeping the index “fresh” is a key factor in any search experience, and CDS maintains the freshest search index in the industry. With Copernic's patent-pending “Instant Indexing™” technology, new and updated files are indexed the instant they are saved to disk (Windows XP/2000/NT only), and emails are indexed the instant they arrive (Outlook only). You can't get fresher than that!

CDS was designed to be the world's lightest and most efficient desktop search with respect to CPU utilization. Copernic's exclusive patent pending “Smart Indexing™” technology monitors user activity and indexes only during idle time, assuring that CDS will never slow down your computer.

CDS features an exclusive fault-tolerant desktop search index. This means that if, during the course of the year, your search index has grown to 50,000 documents, you won't wake up one morning and find that your entire index has been corrupted, or has crashed, forcing you to restart the whole indexing process from scratch. With Copernic's patent pending fault-tolerant technology, your entire PC will always be searchable whenever you want it to be.

CDS takes your search terms as you type and searches your entire hard drive. As you add more terms to your search, you see your search results narrowing down right before your eyes. As you scroll through the results list of files or emails, a preview is shown on the bottom of the screen. Just click “open” and the file or email opens using its original application. Nothing could be simpler!

Download Copernic Desktop Search 2.3 in Softonic

BB FlashBack has the advantage over similar screen recorders in that it can record video activity in different formats and allows you to add all sorts of text, images and sound.

The program is very customisable in that it can be customised to take snapshots of only certain parts of a screen at all times - so you can make it dedicated to just the left or right hand side of the screen. Another key benefit is that it's very easy to create shortcuts for screen recordings with the keyboard. In this way, you hardly need to use the mouse. It's the screen recorder with all the features you need to make high quality movies and deliver them in the right format for you and your audience. Probably the best feature though is that you can easily add text, images and sound. You can record a commentary while recording the screen or add it later. The commentary can be in MP3 or WAV format and you can add text boxes, tips bubbles and images to your movie. When exporting, BB FlashBack screen recorder exports to Flash, AVI, WMV, EXE and PowerPoint so it's pretty flexible in that respect too.

An excellent video screen cast solution that's simple enough for beginners but has enough advanced features to keep experts happy.

Download BB Flashback 1.5.6.324 in Softonic

Camtasia Studio is a complete application suite to record, edit and share your videos online, on CD or with a portable player. This highly-acclaimed program allows you to create screencasts or video tutorials, and can also be used to prepare presentations. Let’s get a run-down of all the things you can do with Camtasia Studio.

Thanks to the Camtasia Recorder, you can record and save screen captures or webcam broadcasts. We enjoyed playing around with it, adjusting the region size, highlighting cursor movement and setting elements such as time stamps and captions. Depending on what you need to record, you can also choose to hide or show the cursor and disable audio recording.

The production studio is the central piece of the application, from where you’ll be doing your editing. Drag and drop your recorded videos onto the timeline at the bottom of the interface. Camtasia embeds a player in the studio interface and you can constantly replay your production. From the menu on the left side you can choose from a selection of 18 different transitions, many call-outs (effectively bubbles to insert text into your video) or captions. The Zoom-n-Pan feature can be used to focus in on one part of the video in particular and teachers can use the Flash Quiz Survey feature to prepare multiple choice tests for their students. Camtasia Studio also includes an audio editor to simply record a voiceover directly to your video or tweak the audio in your production. Use Menu Maker and Theater to create full table of contents and credits pages.

Once you’re happy with your editing and have everything in place, you can go on to produce. Camtasia will guide you through what codecs to choose or what format to set according to your output, whether for the web, for CD, DVD or a portable player. The output format will also depend on whether your video only consists of slides and screen recordings or if you also have digital footage. Camtasia lets you choose among the industry standards like AVI, Quicktime, Real Media or Windows Media. You’ll be able to batch produce your videos and select smooth scaling to lessen quality loss while resizing videos. Production preview is a great feature to take a quick look at your video and correct mistakes before actually producing it. Finally, Camtasia integrates with Screencast.com, meaning you can post your best videos online and share them with others.

Apart from being a full video suite for your PC, it would be a mistake not to talk about the user-friendly aspect of Camtasia Studio. The program offers a number of tutorials, many of them in video format, to explain the different actions you can undertake. The process from recording to editing and producing is well structured and Camtasia Studio will guide you, even suggesting things such as the output format. Whether you’re out to make screencasts or need a friendly and complete tool to prepare presentations, Camtasia Studio is the application of choice.

Download Camtasia Studio 5.0.2 in Softonic

Presentersoft PowerVideoMaker is a powerful, yet simple to use tool that allows you to convert PowerPoint® presentations to a Video file. With PowerVideoMaker, you can use PowerPoint as a video-production tool. In a few steps, you can distribute your presentation to anyone, whether they even have a computer or not.

Features of PresenterSoft PowerVideoMaker:

• Convert existing PowerPoint presentations to smooth video of AVI , MPEG or WMV format
• Preserve animations, graphics, transitions, audios and narrations from the original PowerPoint Presentations
• Supports multiple audio tracks which are playing simultaneously on the same slide
• Supports audio files that play across multiple slides or animation effects
• Supports sound effects of animations and transitions

Download PowerVideoMaker Professional 2.9 in Softonic

As IT technologies are booming we entrust much of our business and private information to MS Office documents. Whenever an MS Office document is created it is complemented with such properties as the author, corporate name, document changes, editing time and other metadata. All this makes the private information available to a third party that may put your company at financial risk and/or an embarrassing situation.

Metadata Analyzer is an analytical tool for checking MS Office documents: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint for unauthorized private information disclosure. The software application inserts information about an initial name, (previous) authors, corporate name(s), number of saves and other built-in & custom properties, which can infringe your privacy. Metadata Analyzer will advise you of this information. Be professional in your office work and don't allow unauthorized disclosure of your private information!

Download Metadata Analyzer 2.1 in Softonic