Office 2007 users.. here is great news.

Microsoft released, Office 2007 Service pack 2 yesterday

It has lot of bug fixes and nice features..

Save as PDF / ODF
Improved Charting on Excel
Speeds up Outlook
Improved picture quality on Powerpoint Presentations
and lot more..

Check out the list here..

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=953195

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Get Office 2007  Service Pack 2, download from

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List of interesting  tools / .net components. Visit  www.codeplex.com for more

DoddleReport will add automatic reporting (HTML/PDF/Excel/etc) for any LINQ Query, IEnumerable, DataTable or SharePoint List

http://www.codeplex.com/doddlereport

Open DBDiff is an open source database schema comparison tool for SQL Server 2005/2008.

http://www.codeplex.com/OpenDBiff

Map Report

http://www.codeplex.com/MapReport

Visual Studio 2008 XHTML 1.1 Templates

http://www.codeplex.com/VSXHTML11Templates

MultiMenu ASP.NET Cascading Menu WebControl

http://www.codeplex.com/MultiMenu

Simple weather control

http://www.codeplex.com/aspnetweathercs

TytanNET – Visual Studio Great Add-in

http://www.codeplex.com/tytannet

.Net Documentor

http://www.codeplex.com/netDocumentor

Sharepoint Admin Report

http://www.codeplex.com/spadminreport

AJAX FileUpload

http://en.fileuploadajax.subgurim.net/

Extended Gridview Control

http://aspalliance.com/946_Extended_GridView_Control.all

ASP.NET Alerts

http://www.codeplex.com/alerts

HelpDesk – Very simple ticket and bugtracking web app for very small companies

http://www.codeplex.com/HelpDesk/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=13594

PickList ASP.NET WebControl

http://www.codeplex.com/picklist/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=16222

TooltipExtender

http://www.codeplex.com/tooltipextender

Multi-select listbox without holding down Ctrl Title is required

http://www.codeplex.com/AjaxControlToolkit/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=11907

Before every new Software development, people discuss a lot about prototypes / wireframes. Many times the enthusiasm dies after few days either because of lack of dedication or because of lack right tools to do the job.

I’m not here to discuss about lack of dedication. This post is about, using the right tools for the job.

These are the tools I have personally used and it serves my purpose.

1. Serena Prototype Composer

http://www.serena.com/products/prototype-composer/home.html

It’s complete software for traditional SDLC or for agile technique. It starts from requirement gathering to sample data.

On top of everything it’s FREE. (Why FREE they explain it here)

2. Pencil Project

http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/Home.html

If you are want to do a quickie design or screen template here is the software. No need to install this software. Just works on clicking a .bat file.

It’s also available as a Firefox add-on.

3. Gliffy

It’s a web based (SaaS) tool. Even though its web, the toolset works great and I like the portability. It has Free Basic edition (with some document restrictions) and Professional edition without restriction.

http://www.gliffy.com/basic.shtml

In a multi user environment you may see this message when other users forget to disconnect their connection.

To override this problem, you can use the following command from command prompt

START > RUN > mstsc /console

(some services may fail when you login this way.)

After logging in, goto Terminal Services and delete/remove the idle sessions.

Logoff and then connect the normal way.

If you are a windows user (by wish or by fate) and looking for “Free” softwares to improve your productivity, here you go. I have been using them for a while and so far didn’t have any issues with them. Almost everything works on Vista.

Small print: These softwares are free as of today and I’m not marketing these products.

Use Original Windows and get all the latest patches and upgrades from www.windowsupdate.com

Antivirus:
AVG Antivirus (http://free.avg.com/)

Antispyware: �
Windows Advance Care : http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html?Str=download
Lavasoft Ad-aware http://lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php

Browser:
IE comes with Windows.
Mozilla fans, use Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)

Browser Addon:

For Internet Explorer 7  http://ie7pro.com/
For Mozilla https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Zip/Unzip:
7-Zip http://www.7-zip.org/

PDF Creator:
Primo PDF  http://www.primopdf.com/

PDF Details Remover: If you look at Properties (File > Properties) of a PDF document, sometimes it has more personal information like your username and some document details. If you want to remove them before sending it to others use this freebie.

PDF Info http://www.bureausoft.com/products.html

Office Suite:
Open Office http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

Toolbar:
Google Toolbar  http://toolbar.google.com

Disk Management/Overview:
JDiskreport  http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

FTP:
Core FTP http://www.coreftp.com/

Uninstaller: Its much much better than windows Add/Remove programs.
Revo Uninstaller http://www.revouninstaller.com/

CD / DVD Burner:
CDBurnerXP  http://cdburnerxp.se/

Play video files:

Windows Media Player (free with Windows)�
Get free upgrade http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx

Real Media Player (www.real.com)

Divx Codecs and Player (helps to play some wmv or avi files)  (http://www.divx.com/)

Post It Notes: For sticky notes users

Hottnotes http://www.hottnotes.com/

Screen Capture: Read my other post to know what this software is capable of.

Easy Capture http://www.xydownload.com/easycapture-19.html

Quick Navigation: Goto any directory / drive just by right clicking

Folder Guide http://www.freeware365.com/desktop/folderguide.htm

For screen capture I have been using Cropper  which is very good freebie with few interesting plugins.

It just lacked two features which I always wanted.

1. “Editing” the cropped screen shot.
2. Capture areas which needs to be scrolled up/down.

Even to draw a simple arrow, or write a comment I have to open bulky Photoshop and make changes so that I wont lose the image quality.

Today I accidentally found this great Freebie “Easy Capture” (http://www.xydownload.com/easycapture/)

It also allow you to edit the screen captures and add text, draw lines/arrows and even balloon stamps.

It has several kinds of Capture modes

1. Capture Full Screen
2. Capture Selected Region
3. Capture Screen Scrolling Windows
4. Capture Active Window
   and so on..

Along with this it also has some image editing capability like Rotation, Adjust Brighness / Contrast, Image Filters and lot more..

Its absolutely FREE and my virus scanner / spyware cleaner didnt complain about it.

Give it a shot I bet you will love it.

DOWNLOAD

Sample Image

Pixie

This is a great tool for webmasters / web designers / web developers. Small, Light application sits on your System Tray.

It’s very useful if you want to find the color code of anything that’s seen on your PC monitor.Nattyware has given this application FREE of cost. Great job!

I have been using this for more than 2 years and it never had any problems.

Knock Knock !!

For more info and download

http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.html

Cost: Free

ooOoo

Cropper

This is another great tool for Screen capture. No Alt + Print Screen then copying to word or Photoshop.

Open the application, resize the area you can to capture and double click. The output is saved as PNG / JPG / Bmp or even redirected to Printer.

This application is also a light and is always available on your Tray until you click exit.

For more info and download

http://blogs.geekdojo.net/brian/articles/Cropper.aspx

Cost: Free

ooOoo

JRuler

Want to measure you screen from left to right or top to bottom ?

Here comes JRuler (free ruler).

It supports various units of measurement like pixels, cms, inches and so on.

Want to measure the screen across (bottom left to top right) it can be done but you need to buy Professional (it’s not that expensive for the functionality it offers.)

For more info and download

http://www.spadixbd.com/freetools/jruler.htm

Cost: Free

ooOoo

To display Unicode characters in .NET applications using Visual Studio, save the .aspx, .vb files or .cs files  as

Unicode (UTF-8 with signature) – Codepage 65001

this signature.

File > Save As