Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with software and freeware

Are there any free Mac programs to remove PDF encryption?

raddevon — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:39:12 -0800

Are there any free Mac programs to remove PDF encryption? I purchased a PDF book which I would like to transfer to my new Kindle. I have done the transfer, but the Kindle cannot open the book. I assume this is because the book is encrypted. Does anyone know of a free program for the Mac which will remove this encryption?

Programs to work with Census data?

qldaddy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:51:36 -0800

How do I create a cross-tab from Census data (SF3)? I would like to create a cross tab that shows disability status by household (or family) income at the census tract level of detail. I cannot get that table from American Factfinder. Saw the link that said "download the data and you can generate your own cross tabs". Downloaded data - got big old text (ascii) file that does not easily import into excel or access (the only two potential programs I have now). Now I have big old text file and shattered hopes.

I think I am looking for a (preferably free or shareware) program that will open and analyze this data with a minimum of fussing on my part.

Or, maybe I am looking for something completely different. You'd propbably know better than me.

Thanks in advance.

Personal Knowledgebase Software?

AltReality — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:52:27 -0800

I am thinking about setting up a personal knowledge-base of items at work (Help Desk). Looking for a freeware app with a very simple notepad style interface, that will store mostly text based notes. A few preferences inside... I am tired of trying to keep all the data for all the apps we support in my head and on various notes around my desk. My company doesn't have a real knowledge-base solution, instead preferring to keep everything in word/excel documents in a rag-tag folder structure. I would like to keep my KB articles in a stand-alone app...no web space available. Can't store this data on an external site due to it's sensitive nature. So here's the preferences, but all recommendations are welcome :)

Preferences:

Free

Lightweight/stand-alone (not web-based)(Notepad style interface with a sidebar showing a list of articles is what I imagine, but can't find.)

Ability to insert/attach files (Word/Excel mainly)

Ability to export and share data with co-workers

Ability to search would be nice, but not required

I do not need wiki ability. Writing all notes in wiki mark-up would be very difficult, and my co-workers wouldn't want to learn it

I have been playing with Evernote, and it is nice..I may use it for other projects, but I don't think it will quite work for what I'm trying to do.

What's the best shareware (not freeware)?

teg4rvn — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:52:05 -0800

I'm interested in a random sampling of opinions regarding software. What titles do you swear by shareware over freeware alternatives? I don't want this to be a debate about freeware or open-source vs. commercial or shareware. I'm just curious what titles people think it's worth their $5 to $50 to pay for an app vs trying to use a freeware version of the same.

Here's what I pay for (among others):

Reqall Pro
Ultramon
WifiHopper

Considering:

Evernote Premium

Extra credit for smaller software developers( I don't want 100 people telling me Photoshop is better than GIMP). No iphone apps please...they're so cheap as it is.

Why this post? There appears to be a zeal for always finding the freeware equivalent of a mega-commercial app [PS vs. GIMP]; the moderately priced download-only software seems to get left out.

Audio files for non-audiophiles

fusinski — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:27:21 -0800

What is the simplest way (free or otherwise) to convert M4P and M4A audio files to MP3 en masse?

Older version of Filezilla, or newer version of something else?

middleclasstool — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:00:11 -0800

Older versions of Filezilla? Or another freeware ftp client that can handle SSH and SSL? Hard drive got fried in a storm this weekend, and I'm currently reinstalling everything to the new drive. I was running Filezilla version 2 (I think 2.3.2), and it ran like a top. But I just tried installing the latest version in its place, and a couple of SSH connections don't work with it. They're returning "garbled packet" errors.

Googling reveals that they use puTTY for SSH, and that's where the error comes from. Checking with puTTY, they insist it's not an error, it's a server configuration problem, but there's no way I can get these servers reconfigured, and anyway the older software connected and transferred to them just fine. Also, I've tried the connection with two other non-free clients at work, and no problems occur. Argh.

So I've tried to find a download page for older versions of Filezilla client, and am coming up with nothing. Does anybody know where I can find either Filezilla 2, or -- even better -- can you recommend a freeware ftp client for WinXP that can handle both SSH and SSL transfers?

What are the lightest-weight antispyware and antivirus programs?

Ricket — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:29:46 -0800

What is a good lightweight anti-spyware/anti-virus application that wouldn't slow down an already old, slow computer, and would act as an extra layer on top of good behavior and careful Firefox usage? My step-sister had an old laptop (celeron 1.2ghz, 256mb ram) that she put in storage some months ago because she got tired of how slow it became over time, likely due to spyware and general clutter. We found it and now I've reformatted it, but before I give it to her I want to try and make sure she doesn't slow it down again.

In my household, all of my computers are set up to always use Firefox (no IE here!), and I use a modified HOSTS file to try and block malicious websites at the lowest level possible (google "hosts file" for more info). However, for maximum performance, and because I don't generally need it, I don't use any anti-spyware or anti-virus software, so I'm out of date on the latest and greatest.

I'm going to make sure she does the same now (she used to use IE, eww!). So I know that the likelihood of spyware is low, but I still feel like there should be one more piece of automatic protection there, since I won't be able to keep track of what sort of spyware-infested things she might get into. Is there a good free anti-spyware/anti-virus software out there that wouldn't bog the system down noticeably, yet would provide that extra little bit of protection just in case? It doesn't need to be terribly reliable, but I'm talking about something that would hopefully stop her from (for instance) opening a bad attachment from a stranger, or stumbling upon a website that isn't covered by the hosts file and asks her to download a spyware-infested installer.

Oh, and even though I posed those examples that require real-time protection, feel free to help me out with a suggestion that requires manual running; I would certainly consider it!

Thanks!
-Ricket

Looking for a good Photography editing software.

bamassippi — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:13:47 -0800

Looking for a good Photography editing software. My PC was stolen a few months back. I had the latest version of Photoshop on that PC and when I went to Adobe I was told that there was "no record" of me ever purchasing or registering the product, and after multiple conversations with multiple individuals at Adobe, I gave up -- they win.

Obviously I would never stoop to the level on illegally downloading this software, though I am looking for options. I'm becoming more and more of a serious photographer, so cheap-o editing programs won't be sufficient.

1. How can I go about attaining a legal (discounted or second-hand) version of Photoshop (doesn't have to be the latest version).

2. What free or discounted services (like Picnik or Paint.net) might you suggest?

What cheap software or webapps can I recommend to help my friend manage her small business?

abkadefgee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:04:09 -0800

What free or cheap software, or webapps, can I recommend to help my friend manage and build her small business, a salon? Although there is software out there specifically made for this purpose, it seems out of her price range and shares a lot in common with more general software. I've recommended using Google Calendar to manage her appointments and suggested that her basic inventory needs can be tracked with Excel. However, it would also be helpful for her to be able to track the contact information for her clients and what type of services they receive at each appointment, and perhaps including pictures would be helpful as well.

I would think that someone who has experience in managing a business might have some suggestions for software without having specific knowledge about the salon world. Any advice would be helpful.

Comic nerd's dream/nightmare come true!

fillsthepews — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:40:22 -0800

I get to take an inventory of my work's comic library. Fun, yes - but also... Yikes. There has to be a better way to track our comics than this clunky excel spreadsheet. And I'm no wiz at filemaker. Is there a free/cheap software that can help? I'm on a Mac. Need to keep track of different titles (i.e. Small variations in title - "Superfantasticman" or "Superfantasticman vs Ultradude!" or "Superfantasticman: The RETURN!" Need to keep track of issue #. Need to keep track of quantity in stock. Importantly, need to differentiate between hardcover/softcover trade paper backs and single issue copies. When I'm done, this would be put on our company server and I would use it to see when we need to order more of certain titles - if there was a way to tag "copies less than 5" that would be great.

Am I dreaming?

Best free XP backup/restore software?

rxrfrx — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:52:23 -0800

Best free backup-recovery software for Windows XP Home? I've got a laptop that just had massive hard drive failure. I know not to store anything important on there anymore, but after reformatting and getting Windows XP Home reinstalled (and updated... and updated...) I'd like to use the machine until it really seriously dies.

I want to make a perfect backup (image) of the HD so if the disk dies again, I can just reformat and copy over the image, without having to reinstall all the security updates and download all the extra programs.

I copied Windows Backup from my XP Pro computer, but it won't make a full "automatic recovery" type backup on an XP Home computer.

What's a good piece of free software that will make an image of the entire HD, compress it as small as possible, save it to an external USB hard drive, and make me a bootable CD that I can use to restore from the external drive?

freeware cdrw software???

antisocialiting — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:53:02 -0800

I'm looking for freeware cdrw software that will allow me to use cdrw's like they are floppy disk. I know this can be done using roxio etc but I would like to know if any free versions exist. thanks and it will be for a windows xp machine.

Help an accent-deprived thesis writer do her thing.

anjamu — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:42:08 -0800

I am looking for word processing software that will do very specific accented-character-related tasks. I've been using MS Word to type in Spanish/Portuguese for as long as I can remember, and I quite like using the shortcuts Word uses for accented characters (for example, Ctrl + Shift + ~ followed by n produces ñ).

However, last week, my not-so-trusty old Toshiba pooped out on me. Having just bought a new computer, I don't have much of a budget for expensive new office software.

Are there any freeware or open-source word processors that will let me use these shortcuts or enter my own? I tried OpenOffice, but macros are cumbersome and frankly a bit over my head. Any other suggestions?

Looking for freelance computer tech support software

nitsuj — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:24:09 -0800

Is there a good piece of software (either for WindowsXP, or web based) specifically used for tracking customers, invoices, and jobs for someone doing freelance computer tech support? I've seen quite a few other threads here (and elsewhere) about various customer management softwares, but nothing this particular. Various google searches yield mixed results. Does something like this exist?

I'd prefer something free, of course - but I'd be willing to pay for the perfect solution, if it's out there.

Thanks!

stock freeware

thatjackbuilt — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:08:24 -0800

I'm looking for some type of freeware that will display stock info in realtime on my mac ibook. I'm not too stoked on apple's stock widget because it always seems to be unable to retrieve the data I request. I need something that will allow me to type in ticker symbols for stocks, index funds, ETFs etc. and will give me a chart or graph of current and recent performance. Any suggestions fellow readers??

Pulling data from one window and pasting to another automatically - how?

Fishing Nut — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:14:35 -0800

Looking for a macro program or method that captures and pastes text among different browser windows? I'd like to automate pulling names and addresses off an online invoice open in a browser window, and pasting the data to the correct fields in another window for online shipping. Is there a reliable way to automate some of this? The same name, address, zip, is captured from one window and pasted to another window with the same open field boxes, name, address, zip.

Good Free Mac software and utilities

clarkie666 — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 12:03:22 -0800

New Mac UserFilter - Loading up a new iBook: What software and utilities should I put on it. So I bought my brother a new iBook for Christmas and I want to load it up with some applications before I give it to him. What would you reccomend as regards software or utilities that are must-installs, preferably free? (Christmas has been spendy...)
He is off to Japan to work as an industrial designer and is a PC man - help him get the best Mac experience. I want to enhance his iBook as an entertainment and amusement machine and also to close the physical gap between all of the "clarkies" (there are 666 of us)
Apologies for the very general question, it is basically "what a useful Mac makes" question...

Music Mixing Freeware Needed.

Shfishp — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:57:33 -0800

Music mixing program needed! Does anyone know of a freeware program I can download that lets you mix wav files together? I am creating cd's for my wedding reception and I want to mix the songs so that when one song is ending, the next will start without that second or two of silence. I have programs that let you put one after another, but they don't let you layer them. Any ideas?

Freeware journal keeping software for Windows?

id — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 02:27:49 -0800

I would like to begin keeping a journal, preferably using software. I don't know what software to use- can you help? What I'm looking for is a good recommendation for free Windows-based software that would leave the journal in an open format, and probably organized and searchable. I've looked at Treepad, but the proprietary format frightens me. I'm also looking into .CHM editors, but nothing so far seems good. Any recommendations?

iPhoto Alternatives??

crapples — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 18:54:33 -0800

Is there alternative photo organizer software for OS X? iPhoto is driving me nuts. I'm not interested in anything that costs money -- just a reliable free download that will organize and display photos. Thanks.

Program for Scheduling Library Resources?

dgeiser13 — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 09:49:54 -0800

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good freeware (or cheapware) program which teachers can use to schedule computer time in a high school library? My wife was an English teacher for 10 years and went back to school and became a library media specialist. Her library has an adjacent computer lab and she is responsible for making sure the available resources are scheduled appropriately. During the last school year she had a sign-up sheet but the teachers (not the students!) would get into all sorts of scrapping about who has what time and they would erase each others names and basically get up to no end of hijinks related to this simple procedure.

My wife would like to get a computer program that she can use to schedule time in the pc lab. This program would allow the teachers to grab available blocks of time but they would have NO ability do delete each others blocks. Only my wife could do this if the situation called for it. I guess she would need to have admin level rights and the guest users (the teachers) could have read and limited write ability.

Are there any library personnel who have found a good solution to this problem? Even if you aren't a library person do you know of any program which might the bill?

Since the budgets are tight she will probably have to finance this herself so we are mostly interested in freeware/cheapware solutions but if you had a really good solution that cost a little money she could try and get it funded. So please recommend any good program regardless of the price!!!

MP3 Scratching for Free

LGCNo6 — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:08:07 -0800

What's the best freeware DJing software for Windows? I'd prefer something that lets me match beats easily and/or preview waveforms to match beats, if that's possible. But I know I can't be too picky.

Oh, and nothing with spyware or adware please.

Where can I find simple Windows freeware to track costs for projects?

obiwanwasabi — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:25:16 -0800

I'm looking for some very simple Windows freeware that will let the 20-odd people in my office assign hours to projects and then add up the costs. We're currently using a poorly-designed prehistoric Access database that's updated by rekeying info from printed Excel-based timesheets (seriously). The replacement doesn't need a lot of bells and whistles - we just need to be able to:

- add people (name, team, position and salary);
- add projects (name, and to assign it to one of maybe five categories of project);
- let each person say "well, I think I spent x hours on Project Y today'; and
- have it work out how the office spent its time (and money) by project, team, project type etc.

We don't have products or customers or different rates for different kinds of project - it just needs to track how much time people spent on each project and work out the total costs based on our respective annual salaries. Bonus points if you can enter total time worked for a day (or a week, or whatever), then assign percentage guesstimates to a number of tasks (for example, "I worked 37.5 hours this week, and I think I spent 15% of my time on Project A, 25% on Project B and 60% on Project C). Freeware a must, standalone / no installation required is way up there on the "nice to have" list - some kind of clever self-contained webby thing like the very cool NextAction would be great, but I've no idea how these kinds of things stand up to multiple simultaneous users. Thanks!

Free Fruit?

jopreacher — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:13:44 -0800

I want to spend some of my creative currency creating music using software such as Fruity Loops. However, I would really like to have a freeware/open source option since I am not sure if I will enjoy it or not. I would like to be able to import samples, edit samples, lay drum beats and FX over it, adjust tempo. You name it. The more flexible the better. I also want to be able to actually SAVE the files which is why I have not just downloaded the Fruity Loops demo to play with. I am not interested in doing this in any "professional" way - I just want to express my musical side. Any advice from the electronica set?

So what educational freeware (windows) would you recommend?

Dean_Paxton — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:34:45 -0800

So what educational freeware (windows) would you recommend? My kids school has asked me to assemble some programs, hopefully GPL but, at least freeware that would be suitable for a training laboratory. I'm thinking of including some of the following: Celestia, Artrage (for older artists), tuxpaint (for younger ones), and open office. But, I'm really sure that I'm missing some great titles in a sea of great (and terrible) software. Particularly, I'm looking for an easy IDE to attract some of the would be coders whom could take a little direction (like we did) and fly on their own... I'm thinking StarLogo.