5 Free Amazing Utilities from FreeSerifSoftware

With an award-winning software range that covers Desktop Publishing (PagePlus and FontManager), Website Creation (WebPlus), Digital Imaging (PhotoPlus, PanoramaPlus and AlbumPlus), Movie Editing (MoviePlus), Drawing, Graphics and Animation (DrawPlus), and 3D Effects (ImpactPlus), Serif has combined leading-edge tools and technologies within quality products that enable anybody to afford and create professional quality results.

Five of the listed programs can be downloaded and used freely with no limitations. Programs overview:

PhotoPlus

PhotoPlus SE is the perfect choice for editing and enhancing your digital images and photos for print, email and the web.

Main Features

* Export Optimizer.

* Photo Enhancement.

* Selection Tools.

* Image Slicing & Maps.

* Editable Text.

* Quick Shapes.

PagePlus

PagePlus SE is a great way to get into desktop publishing and easily design professional-looking documents for every occasion.

Main Features

* Ads & Brochures.

* Business Stationery.

* Flyers & Forms.

* Invitations.

* Greeting Cards.

* 500+ Free Templates.

WebPlus

WebPlus SE lets you quickly design and publish stunning websites - no HTML or previous web design experience required!

Main Features

* Multi-Document User Interface.

* Help & Advice.

* Table Editor.

* Stylish Website Templates.

DrawPlus

DrawPlus 4 has all the power and tools you need to create attention-grabbing logos, striking text and artistic masterpieces.

Main Features

* Drag 'n' Drop Formatting.

* Animation Mode.

* Advanced Graphics.

* Border Wizard.

* Transparency Effects.

* Backdrop Wizard.

3DPlus

3DPlus 2 can help you add a new dimension to your website graphics, presentations and desktop publishing projects.

Main Features

* 3D Animation.

* 3D Resources.

* 3D Tools.

* Customizable User Interface.

* Output Preview.

How to control the sound volume with a wheel mouse

Volumouse provides you a quick and easy way to control the sound volume on your system - simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse.

It allows you to define a set of rules for determining when the wheel will be used for changing the sound volume. For example: You can configure Volumouse to use your mouse wheel for volume control when the Alt key is hold down, when the left mouse button is down, when the mouse cursor is over the taskbar, and so on...

When the conditions that you define are not satisfied, your mouse wheel will be used for the regular scrolling tasks, exactly as before.

Wheel Mouse Rules

Each rule contains 4 basic fields:

1. Use the wheel when: This field represents the condition of the rule. For example: if your select 'Shift key is down', this rule will be activated only while the shift key is hold down. You can also disable a rule by selecting 'Disabled' in this field.
2. Component: This field determines that sound component that you want to control with this rule. The default and the most useful component is the 'Master Volume' of your system.
3. Channels: The default and the most useful option in this field is 'All Channels' - which means that both right and left channels are changed to the same values. If from some reason, you want to change only one channel separately - you can use the 'Left Channel' and 'Right Channel' options. Starting from version 1.10, 'Mute / Unmute' option is also available. If you select this option, scrolling the wheel down will mute the sound, and scrolling the wheel up will unmute the sound.
4. Steps: The number of steps added to the sound volume for each move of the mouse wheel. If you increase this number, the volume will be changed faster when you scroll the wheel.

There are also more advanced options for each rule, you can configure them by clicking the 'More...' button of the desired rule.

System Requirements

• Windows operating system: Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista. (Windows 95 is not supported)
• Wheel mouse
• Sound card.

Installation

Software is portable and no installation is needed. Simply download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. Launch volumouse.exe.

Developer: NirSoft

Download (portable version): http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/volumouse.zip

Screenshot (Click to Enlarge):

Volumouse

Any Video Converter - All in One for Free

Any Video Converter (free version) is the most renowned free video converter for converting video files between various formats, with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. While there are many competitive products on the market, many of which are freeware as well, Any Video Converter offers a winning set of impressive features, making it the utility of choice for many users.

Input formats:
.3g2 3GPP2, for CDMA-based phones
.3gp 3GPP, for GSM-based phones
.amv Anime Music Video, A modified version of AVI, produced for mp4 players and S1 MP3 players with video playback.
.asf Advanced Streaming Format or Active Streaming Format, it is Microsoft’s proprietary digital audio/digital video container format.
.avi Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology.
.avs AviSynth Script, the script language deals primarily with videos as a primitive data type.
.dat Digital Audio Tape, a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony in the mid 1980s.
.divx Digital Video Express, a brand name of products created by DivXNetworks, Inc.
.dv Digital Video, a digital video format created by Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video camera producers and launched in 1995.
.dvr-ms Microsoft Digital Video Recording, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and the Windows Vista version of Windows Media Center create files in this format. Also .ms-dvr.
.flv Flash Video, the name of a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player
.m1v MPEG-1 Video elemantary stream, no audio.
.m2ts Sony high definition video file type. M2ts files are raw AVCHD videos recorded using Sony, Panasonic, Canon and other brands of AVCHD camcorders.
.m2v MPEG-2 Packetized Elementary Stream, normally destined to be multiplexed before use, mostly no audio
.m4v Raw MPEG-4 Visual bitstreams, commonly used in Apple’s iPod, iPhone, iTunes store and Xbox 360.
.mkv Matroska video file with subtitles and audio
.mov QuickTime multimedia file format
.mp4 MPEG-4 files with audio and video
.mpe Video encoded in MPEG format, a commonly compression applied to digital video files
.mpg MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Video, in NTSC or PAL format for different TV systems.
.mpv MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video elemantary stream, most mpv files have no audio.
.ogm Ogg Media file. It can do a few things the common AVI format cannot.
.qt QuickTime multimedia file format
.rm RealMedia, a multimedia container format created by RealNetworks.
.rmvb RealMedia Variable Bitrate, a variable bitrate extension of the RealMedia multimedia container format developed by RealNetworks.
.vob Video Object, a container format contained in DVD-Video media.
.wmv Windows Media Video, a compressed video file format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft

Output formats: avi, mp4, wmv, flv, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, mpg (PAL or NTSC), mp3, wma, ogg, aac
One of the most important features for many users is the FLV conversion. Just about any video you wish to put on the web works great in FLV. Or if you have an FLV and want to edit the file in Windows Movie Maker, just convert it to AVI, or WMV. Through the program, you can also easily pull out and convert the video clips directly from You Tube and Google.
There is a free version and a paid version of the Any Video Converter software. So far, I noted a single limitation for the free version, noted on the site. The conversion to the Archos video player format can be performed only with the professional software version.

Any Video Converter features include:
* User-friendly interface that is easy to use.
* Converts all video formats to Apple iPod Video, Sony PSP and more
* Batch convert any video formats including avi, wmv, asf, mpg, mp4, etc.
* Support DivX and Xvid avi format as importing and exporting video
* Support default video/audio settings or user customized parameters for video and audio.
* Has the option to preview the video in real-time before conversion .
* World’s fastest video conversion speed with stunning video and audio quality.
* Supports adjust many video/audio options for MP4 files. For example, video/audio sample rate, bit rate, video size...

Developer website: http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Download (free version): http://www.ziddu.com/download/4836966/avc-free.exe.html

Screens - Click to Enlarge:

Any Video Converter FREE

Any Video Converter FREE

Any Video Converter FREE

Top 35 Free Software Utilities for Stock Trading

One of the ways to organize your knowledge base, investigate the potentials stocks to trade, follow up your portfolio, get news, and keep the records is using the special software, designed for the convenience of investors.

The main benefit of using software assistance is that you are going to save enormous amounts of time. You will not have to spend hours behind the Yahoo or Google stock pages, or with the newspaper, interpreting the data. Some Stock Trading software utilities will be able to download all the information that you need and in no time you will find yourself with all the processed data that you require for making the right choice.

Another benefit of the software use is that it will show you cold numbers. That means that you won't be a victim of your emotions. This is a big deal in the software trading!

While all the serious software programs are quite expensive, you can find some mix of the essential features in the free software offerings as well. You might start using freeware programs, and when you get your first profits from your trading activities, you should think about upgrading your software to the full-featured programs as valuable instruments for your success development.

I am offering a list of the freeware software utilities for Stock Trading, which was published at RateItAll online rating site. Every item has brief description, website links, and rating. At the moment, there are 35 free utilities listed.

Access the list through the following link:

http://www.rateitall.com/t-28918-free-software-for-stocktrading.aspx

Stock Trading Free Utilities

You can find more detailed description and analysis for some of the stock trading freeware utilities on my blog:

Online Stock Trading for Beginners - http://internet-traders.blogspot.com/

Advanced Search for Files and Folders in Windows

Description

SearchMyFiles is an alternative to the standard "Search for Files and Folders" module of Windows. It allows you to easily search files in your system by wildcard, by last modified/created/last accessed time, by file attributes, by file content (text or binary search), and by the file size. SearchMyFiles allows you to make a very accurate search that cannot be done with Windows search. For Example: You can search all files created in the last 10 minutes with size between 500 and 700 bytes.

After you made a search, you can select one or more files, and save the list into text/html/csv/xml file, or copy the list to the clipboard.

SearchMyFiles is portable, and you can use it from a USB flash drive without leaving traces in the Registry of the scanned computer.

System Requirements

This utility works on any version of Windows starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 2008.

Using SearchMyFiles

SearchMyFiles doesn't require any installation process or additional DLL files. In order to start using it, simply run the executable file - SearchMyFiles.exe.

After running it, the 'Search Options' dialog-box is displayed. Select the base folders or drives that you want to search, the wildcard, and other search option that you need. After choosing the right search option, click 'Ok' in order to start the search. While in search process, the found files will be displayed in the main window. If you want to stop the search, you can simply click the 'Stop' menu.

After the search is finished, you can select one or more files, and then save the list into text/csv/html/xml file by using the 'Save Selected Items' option. You can also select a single file and open it with the default program by using the 'Open Selected File' option.

Search Options

Here's a small explanation about all available search options:

• Base Folder: Specifies the folder that you want to scan. if 'Scan Subfolders' option is also checked, all subfolders under this folder will also be scanned. You can also specift multiple folders, delimited by semicolon. For example: c:\temp;d:\myfolder;d:\nirsoft
• Excluded Folders: Allows you to specify one or more folders (delimited by semicolon) that you want to exclude from the scan. For example: If you want to scan you entire C: drive, but without C:\Windows and C:\Documents and Settings, you should type 'C:\' in the Base Folder, and 'C:\Windows;C:\Documents and Settings' in the Excluded Folders field.
• Files Wildcard: Specifies the wildcard for scanning the files. You can specify multiple wildcards delimited by semicolon, for example: *.exe;*.dll;*.ocx
• Subfolders Wildcard: Specifies the wildcard for scanning the subfolders. For example, If you want to only scan the subfolders beginning with 'a' letter, you can specify a*.* in this field.
• File Contains: Allows you to search by the content of the files. You can make a text search or binary search. On binary search, you should specify the binary sequence that you want to search in Hex dump format, for example: 'A2 C5 2F 8A 9E AC'.
• File Size: Specifies that you want to search files in specified size range (For example: search all files with size between 238 and 741 bytes).
• Attributes: Specifies that you want to search files with specific attributes. For example: if you want to find all files that are read-only but are not hidden, you should select 'Yes' for Read Only attribute and 'No' for Hidden attribute.
• File Time: Allows you to search files that have been created, modified, or accessed in the specified time range. You can specify an accurate time range (For example: 10/12/2008 12:32:11 - 12/12/2008 13:32:56) or you can specify the last number of seconds/minutes/hours/days. For example, you can search all files that have been modified in the last 10 minutes.
• Search Subfolders: If this option is checked, SearchMyFiles will scan all subfolders under the specified base folders.
• Find Folders: If this option is checked, SearchMyFiles will search for folders according to the other search options. If this options is not selected, SearchMyFiles will only search for files.

Website: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html

Download: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/searchmyfiles.zip

Note that the SearchMyFiles utility is also available in other languages. In order to change the language of SearchMyFiles, download the appropriate language zip file, extract the 'searchmyfiles_lng.ini', and put it in the same folder that you Installed SearchMyFiles utility.

GUI in the following languages is available: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, and Valencian. 

Freeware Radical Image Optimization Tool

What is RIOT?
Riot (Radical Image Optimization Tool) is a free image optimizer that will let you to visually adjust compression parameters while keeping minimum file size. It uses with a side by side (dual view) or single view interface to compare the original with the optimized image in real time. It has a simple and easy to use interface where you will be able to control compression, number of colors, metadata settings and much more, and select image format (JPG, GIF or PNG) for your output file.

How RIOT can help you?
Saving images for web/email/other media with the best compression ratio and quality is a difficult task if you don’t have the right tools. Choosing the right format then choosing the right parameters are the key factors of smaller files. Previewing the resulting image and the projected file size will help the user choose the best settings. This kind of image optimization software is often called “Save for web”.

RIOT key features:
* Open multiple graphic file formats by looking first at the magic number (it does not need file extension to recognize format) including support for uncommon images types (up to 128 BPP, integer and floating point. EX: hdr images, 16 bit grayscale, etc). Adaptive logarithmic tone mapping algorithm (Drago) used for HDR images.
* Save and optimize JPEG, GIF and PNG with a simple, clean user interface.
* Works in dual view: (original - optimized image) or single view (optimized image). Automatic preview of resulting image.
* In-place comparison function (alternatively display the original image over the optimized image to notice small pixel changes).
* Compress files to desired file size threshold.
* Fast processing (all is done in memory); see instant results including resulting file size.
* Decide if you want to keep metadata (comments, IPTC, Adobe XMP, EXIF profiles, ICC profiles). Unsupported metadata is removed.
* Transfer metadata between image formats (destination format must support them).
* Common tools: pan and zoom, rotate, flip.
* Resize image by using well known resample filters (ex: Lanczos3, Catmull Rom, Bicubic, and others).
* The compression and the results are comparable to those of commercial products.

Software is absolutely free and available as stand-alone executable (portable application).

Website: http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/

Download (portable version): http://www.ziddu.com/download/4627563/Riot.zip.html

Screenshots (Click to Enlarge):

RIOT

RIOT

RIOT

RIOT

RIOT

Clickster - MP3 Search and Legal Downloading

Everyone loves getting something for free. With Clickster you get a double dose: This free program searches the Web for free MP3 music files from your favorite artists, and delivers them to your desktop. Clickster’s developer, Robert Palmer, insists that there’s no copyright issues to worry about, since the MP3s that Clickster accesses are free files stored on Web sites. As long as you don’t share the files, you’re safe.

Main Features:

• Search and Download MP3’s from the Internet (NOT Peer-2-Peer).
  
• 3 X the Search Results of Limewire.
  
• Downloads 5 X Faster than Limewire.
  
• Rip Tacks from thousands of Internet Radio Stations.
  
• Download Tracks from MySpace Music.
  
• Compile Playlists and embed them, with player, into own pages.
  
• Download Tracks Directly onto iPod or MP3-Player.
  
• Clickster can be run from a USB Data-Stick.
  
• 100% Clean - No Adware, Spyware or Malware.
  
• 100% Legal.
  
• PRIVATE - Use of Clickster cannot be detected by ISP’s or Recording Industry snoops.

Lovers of Internet Radio from ShoutCast (http://www.shoutcast.com/) will already be familiar with the excellent CD quality music which can be accessed from any of the thousands of broadcasters available. Clickster not only allows you tune into any of these radio stations, but offers a full Stream Ripping feature. Just click on the Record Stream button and Clickster will rip every track broadcast and save it as a separate mp3 file directly to your PC; complete with Artist and Track name. Clickster will even save these ripped tracks directly to your iPod or mp3 player and because Clickster records these tracks directly from the stream and not your sound card, the excellent sound quality is preserved and there is no corruption from any other sounds your PC may make while recording.

Website: http://www.remlapsoftware.com/clickster.htm

Download: http://www.ziddu.com/download/4577638/clickster16342.exe.html

Screenshot - Click to Enlarge:

Clickster