Office software

Open Office

Open Office provides a free replacement for Microsoft's Office suite.

Not only does Open Office replace Microsoft Office, it supports reading and writing all common office formats as well as exporting documents as PDF (Portable Document File) format

Website: http://www.openoffice.org/

Abiword

If you don't need the whole suite of Open Office and just want a word processor, Abisource created Abiword. Abiword is a very compact word processor but manages to offer most of what Microsoft Word does, and you can read and write Word documents. You can create text boxes and even mail merge from a database.

Website: http://www.abisource.com/

Scribus

If you ever need to go beyond producing a word processed document, perhaps you wish to make a booklet or mini brochures you need a DTP (DeskTop Publishing) program. Scribus is a free DTP program and you choose how you wish to lay out your content.

The concept of DTP is vastly different from using a word processor. When writing a letter, you simply type your contents onto the page and add the graphics later. With DTP, you create the look of the page before introducing the text and graphics. Write each article as a document and import the article into the page(s) you are working with, you have full control over the flow of the words on the page using text boxes.

Website: http://www.scribus.net/

Lyx

LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents, not their appearance.

LyX is for people that write and want their writing to look great, right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting details, 'finger painting' font attributes or futzing around with page boundaries. You just write. In the background, Prof. Knuth's legendary TeX typesetting engine makes you look good.

On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output -- or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced -- looks like nothing else. Gone are the days of industrially bland .docs, all looking similarly not-quite-right, yet coming out unpredictably different on different printer drivers. Gone are the crashes 'eating' your dissertation the evening before going to press.

With LyX, short notes or letters are a snap. LyX really shines, though, when composing complex documents like technical documentation, doctoral theses and conference proceedings.

Website: http://www.lyx.org/

Rainlendar

Rainlendar is a compact desktop calendar on your desktop. It displays the month on view with a ToDo and Event list which can be hidden Simply clicking on a date you can add an appointment or reminder. In addition, Rainlendar can display your existing Outlook appointments (read-only), offers message alarms, and can also display multiple months, or the entire year.

Website: http://www.rainlendar.net/

Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader is a compact PDF reader which is much faster and smaller than Adobe Acrobat Reader with all the features of that program.

Website: http://www.foxitsoftware.com

Primo PDF Printer

Primo PDF is a printer driver for creating PDF files by simply printing what you want. The quality of the PDF (and the eventual size) can be set after printing.

Website: http://www.primopdf.com

Steganos Locknote

Hide your serial numbers, passwords, phone numbers and everyday notes in a safe place. Your information will be encrypted using a password and most modern AES 256bit encryption technology.

You can carry around the encrypted files on a flash drive, or send through email. Double click on the file and enter your password to access the contents.

Locknote is for single text files, use Truecrypt and you have an encrypted drive for your documents. You can use them together for maximum security.

Website: http://www.steganos.com/

Stickies

Stickies is quite simply Post It Notes™ for your computer.

Website: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/