Over the last few weeks we have focused our attention on better utilising our work technology. Specifically keyboard shortcuts we can use every day, features in the office applications and even some unknown office apps that we hope you have found useful.
Lets expand on applications that we can run on Windows that will help us day to day.
Tree size free
https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/
Is your hard drive getting full? The first thing that comes to mind is.. time for an upgrade! And while this may be the case, its normally a good idea to first see where the space is being used. Enter Tree Size Free. A great (free) program that quickly scans your hard drive and reports on the size of each folder.
As you can see, the root folders are sorted from highest to lowest, with the total amount of disk space used noted next to the folder icon. You can expand each root folder to drill down even to the point of seeing the size of each file in a given folder. From here you can right click a folder and open it in Explorer or you can delete directly from the app.
BEWARE! This is a great overview of where your disk space is being used. PLEASE do not delete files from the Windows folder, AppData or from any of the ProgramFiles folders. Doing so will cause your system to stop functioning all together. Only delete files that you have created. If you are in doubt, please contact our help desk. You have been warned!
Sublime Text
https://www.sublimetext.com/
Sublime Text is a great alternative to the windows built in notepad. Don’t be put off by the image on the front of their website. Yes, sublime can be used for coding but it also functions as a plain text editor. I always find myself taking notes in sublime.. if someone pokes their head in to my office, or I take a phone call and need to jot down someones name. The power of sublime comes in creating a new notepad document. It creates a new tab and you can have as many open as you like. Plus even when you close sublime or shut the computer down, when sublime reopens all your notes are still there – even if you didn’t click save! (I do not recommend relying on this feature however). Give sublime a try!
DIA - diagram editor
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dia-installer/reviews
Dia is a great Little program that will help you draw Flow charts, Org charts – even network diagrams or electrical layouts. It can export your diagrams to various popular formats such as EPS, SVG, DXF, JPEG etc.It’s a simple program that comes in very handy
GIMP - (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
So many times i’ve heard people say “I need photoshop!” and every time I tell them. No, you don’t. There is a free alternative that is just as powerful with the same features – it can even read and save photoshop files! Enter GIMP. Whether you only require a simple edit of a picture or need to compile a complex image with multiple layers GIMP will do everything that photoshop will do. It can be a little overwhelming when you first open it but that’s ok – photoshop is the same.
So there you have it. 1 utility and 3 applications - all free! We encourage our clients to utilise great software where ever they can find it. As always, be careful that the software is legitimate and from a reputable source. A quick google can verify this and if in doubt, contact us and we can help.