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  Freeware & Shareware
December 2003

Tim Hoke

Tim Hoke is the Sr. Pastor at Faith Presbyterian Church, a long-time member of Alamo PC and an avid computer user who loves to try out new programs, especially shareware and freeware. He gets excited about a good deal.  More than that, he enjoys sharing good deals with others.

Why not send him a note about your favorite shareware or freeware programs.



Here it is, December 2003.  You are probably anticipating some new computer toys for Christmas, while at the same time trying to mentally shift your mind into thinking about a brand new year.  Below I have some programs that might help you get better organized for the New Year.  Having gotten that out of the way, I’ve included some programs that you might want to download to go along with that DVD recorder you’re getting for Christmas.

First up is PIMEX 1.08, an easy-to-use organizer and PIM will keep track of your personal and business contacts, addresses, phone numbers, and distribution lists. It will manage your schedule, remind you about appointments and events, and keep your daily notes in order.  The user interface makes it a snap to find addresses and phone numbers, enter reminders, send e-mail, launch Web pages, and print mailing labels, envelopes, or letters.  Other features include full text search, multiple notebooks and diaries, custom reports, mail merge, mass-mailing personalized letters using Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or Lotus Word Pro, POSTNET bar codes, clip art images, alarms, data import/export, holiday mailing lists, birthday reminders, phone dialing, password protection, data encryption, and more.  This version features snooze; improvements in Calendar and Reminders; daily backup and an automated backup-on-exit option; support for JPEG images on envelopes and labels; and fixed bugs where today's reminders and notes could get accidently deleted under certain conditions. 
$34.95
Download

Above & Beyond 2003 is a PIM that features Dynamic Scheduling technology. It's suitable for single users and workgroups. The Split Task option schedules time for projects, allowing for dependencies such as prerequisites. Additional features include prioritizing, alarms, pop-up calendars, agents, workload balancing, filters, timers, contact databases, auto-dial, time accounting, case number, expense and mileage reports, Web site connecting, custom fonts, color printing, World time zones, LAN scheduling, a meeting maker, password protection, and encryption. The program can send reports to Excel for graphing and time billing as well as print day, week, and month views in DayTimer, DayRunner, and Franklin sizes. This upgrade adds hundreds of enhancements, including sunrise, sunset, moon rise/set, high and low tides, Internet clock sync, and Two-way PalmPilot HotSync.
$50.00
Download

iCal 1.5.1 is useful for Jaguar users as it only supports the new Mac OS X 10.2. Compatibility issues aside, this application does for dates and schedules what iTunes does for music. You can use iCal to remind you of time commitments, keep track of your deadlines, set alarms, and create and prioritize to-do lists. You can locate events, tasks, and names with the built-in search function; display at-a-glance views of upcoming activities by day, week, or month; and set iCal to send you notifications on screen or by e-mail, telephone, or pager. You can share your calendars online using your .Mac account, and subscribe to other calendars to keep up with work schedules, family and school events, and so on. You can even send standards-based e-mail invitations to contacts in your Mac OS X Address Book. 
FREE
Download

If you are still looking for the video file converter program that works best for you, take a look at Super AVI to DVD-VCD-SVCD Converter 1.32.  It is a powerful tool for video file conversion. It is pretty robust.  The main features include: conversion of AVI files to VCD/DVD/SVCD/MPEG1/MPEG2 format; support for DivX AVI, XviD AVI, MPEG1 (layer1, layer2, and layer3), MPEG2, and MPEG4 formats; NTSC/PAL setting option; input/output preview; high audio quality. It allows you to specify NTSC or PAL format of output file, PAL-to-NTSC conversion, and vice versa. Support for AVI, DivX, MPEG1, MPEG2, and MPEG4 formats. Its user-friendly interface lets you easily preview video files and convert; it features optimized performance for Intel Pentium 3 and 4, and AMD Athlon processors.
$19.00
Download

Another possibility in the above category is ImTOO DVD Ripper 2.0.5, an easy-to-use DVD ripping tool with high ripping speed. It can back up DVDs into almost all popular video formats such as VCD, SVCD, DivX, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI... ImTOO DVD Ripper has more settings and it is easier than ever. You can select subtitle language or movie size, PAL/NTSC, audio volume, bitrate, frequency, or whether enable Dolby Surround... Or use default settings and rip DVDs in a few clicks. Check your CPU type automatically and ensure you can rip your DVDs with the best ripping speed and quality. Supports preview. You can view progress on screen when ripping. ImTOO DVD Ripper provides the movie formats you want with excellent image and sound quality.
$35.00
Download

Rosoft CD Extractor 3.1.6 lets you record your Audio CDs into Wave or MP3 files. You can select from a wide range of MP3 formats and record a part of a track, and download information from FreeDB the main database for Audio CD information on the net. The program also includes filters such an equalizer, a pitch, a half speed control without pitch shift and a volume control. With it you can record any type of audio source that you connect to your sound cards line-in jack.  You can even split the recording automatically in different files. It also includes a timer so you can record your favorite radio programs while you are away or a sleep. Release 3.1.6 updates the included toolbar from mySearch. This does not add any extra adware or spyware.
FREE
Download


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