50 ways to make your software do more

Stuck with a boring browser? Wish that Word could handle more tasks? Feel hemmed
in by Photoshop? You don't have to toss (or upgrade) your existing software
to get new features and tools. Sometimes a plug-in, an add-on, or even a simple
tweak can enable your computer to do tricks you never even thought of before.
We rounded up more than 50 of our favorite tools and tips for unlocking extra
value from popular browsers, productivity applications, and multimedia tools.

Browser Boosters

Web browsers--especially Firefox--are built with plug-ins in mind. Thousands
of these code snippets are available, but here we present some of the most useful
add-ons, plus a few tips that don't require any extra code.

Nuke Web ads: Though decried by many Webmasters for cutting into a lucrative
revenue stream, Adblock
Plus is practically a mandatory addition to Firefox, due to an increasingly
onerous glut of Web advertising. (IE users can try Ad
Muncher free for 30 days and then pay US$30) Put simply, Adblock Plus blocks
ads--not just pop-ups, but regular banners, towers, rich-media stuff, and Google's
ubiquitous advertisements. Adblock Plus doesn't stop everything, but it nabs
enough that you'll notice the difference immediately.

Many PCs, one set of bookmarks: If you use numerous computers, you have undoubtedly
had to deal with separate browsers on each of those PCs, each with its own set
of bookmarks that must be managed separately--unless you have a bookmark synchronizer,
that is. Foxmarks is
one of a number of tools that can sync Firefox bookmarks among multiple machines.
Just install Foxmarks as an add-on to the Firefox installation on each system,
and never worry about manual syncing again. As a bonus, you can access your
bookmarks on the Foxmarks Web site, too.

Put an FTP app into Firefox: Even the most casual Web developer needs
an FTP application, but many of these are cumbersome and unintuitive--and they
require installing yet another full-blown program. FireFTP
turns Firefox into an impromptu and speedy two-way FTP application. Once installed,
FireFTP appears in the Tools menu. Click it and a new FTP tab opens up, offering
a simple two-pane system that lets you easily copy files between your desktop
and your remote site.

Get a handle on downloaded files: If you are a download junkie who always
has something in the queue to leech off the Web, you need a download manager
to help handle everything. FlashGet
is a free and extremely popular download manager that can help you organize
and queue up HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, and other types of downloads, working in
the background and letting you pause and resume downloads. It can even tell
your computer to shut itself down when the downloading is done. Works on any
browser.

Restore embedded passwords to IE URLs: Several years ago, Microsoft
disallowed Internet Explorer to use an embedded password as part of a URL (of
the format https://username:password@server.com) when a user goes to a protected
Web site; instead the person must type in the password manually at the pop-up
log-in screen. (This restriction was a response to phishers' employing phony
password fields to deceive unsuspecting users.) Restoring IE's original ability
takes a Registry tweak. Run Regedit and browse to the following Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_

USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE

Here, create two new DWORD values: iexplore.exe and explorer.exe. Leave the
default DWORD value for each of these at '0'. Restart IE.

Grab a hard copy of any Web page: Did you ever print a hard copy of
a Web page only to have it come out garbled, missing images, and otherwise nigh
unreadable? One reason that may happen is because the newfangled Web 2.0 standards
don't play well with 0.1-era printers. Solution: Grab a screen shot of a Web
page, and select Print. But how do you do that, when a single page has enough
content to fill up three display screens? Simple: Install Screengrab
for Firefox, which lets you save a full page, the visible portion of a page,
or just the tidbit you'd like to keep. IE Screenshot performs similar tricks
for the Microsoft browser. Save images as digital files or print them out.

More Browser Boosters

Copy any Web video: Various Web services let you punch in the URL of
a YouTube flick or other Web video and receive a copy you can save to your hard
drive. But they're often slow and buggy, and you never know if they'll work
on less popular video-sharing sites. Orbit
Rich Media Downloader adds a context-sensitive set of new menu items to
your right mouse button in your Web browser. Now when you see a vid on Dailymotion
or hear a song on MySpace that you like, just click to save it to your PC.

Save protected media files: Some Web sites cruelly disable the right-click
button on images and other media, preventing you from easily downloading them.
Orbit Rich Media Downloader is one workaround, but it's overkill if all you
want to do is to save an image occasionally. Good news: Firefox has a quick,
built-in way to save protected media files without the hassle. Visit the Web
page you want, right-click anywhere on the page (not in the image), and select
View Page Info. Click the Media tab to see a list of all images on the page;
scroll through the list (a preview will appear at the bottom of the window),
and click Save As when you find the one you want.

One click to something new: Collected quotes of Albert Einstein? Winners
of the "I Look Like My Dog" contest? Pictures of real-life sea monsters?
All of these Web pages can be yours at the touch of a button if you install
StumbleUpon, a plug-in
and toolbar available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. StumbleUpon, like
social news sites such as Digg, takes user submissions to point other users
to cool stuff on the Web. Click the thumbs up button if you like what you see,
or thumbs down if you don't. Over time, StumbleUpon refines its suggestions
for you, making it (eventually) the perfect time-waster, and one that's always
at your fingertips.

Easy access to deals and discounts: Smart shoppers perform a quick search
for a coupon code before buying anything online, but forgetting to do so is
easy. RegisteredCoupons.com's
toolbar for Internet Explorer simplifies bargain hunting by putting the information
right where you're most likely to see it: A utilitarian drop-down box lets you
select the retail outlet where you're shopping. Click the store in question,
and current coupon codes and promotions instantly arrive in their own window.

Relocate the Firefox sidebar: Want to move the sidebar to the right
side of your screen? Edit your userChrome.css file or create a new one in your
profile/chrome folder. Find it in C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxx\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\yyyyyyyy.default\chrome, where xxxxx is your username,
and yyyyyyyy is a random set of eight characters. (If you don't see the Application
Data file in your user folder, go to the Tools menu, click Folder Options and
then the View tab, and select Show Hidden Files and Folders.) Rename the example
file there userChrome.css, and then add the following code to the bottom of
the file:

/* Place the sidebar on the right edge of the window */

hbox#browser { direction: rtl; }

hbox#browser > vbox { direction: ltr; }

Keep track of Adsense earnings: If you use Adsense on your Web site
or blog, you can use the Adsense
Notifier Firefox plug-in to keep track of your daily earnings within the
browser, in real time. Just check the bottom right corner for total ad impressions,
CPM, and your total daily earnings as they accrue.

Five Essential Browser Add-Ons

1. IE Tab: If you use Firefox as your primary browser, you probably
get stymied occasionally by Web sites that don't look right in its windows.
Don't fire up Internet Explorer (which maintains a separate history and won't
have your bookmarks); instead, use the IE
Tab plug-in to instruct Firefox to temporarily use Internet Explorer's rendering
engine. IE Tab resides in the bottom right corner of your browser. Click the
Firefox icon to switch to IE mode and vice versa.

2. Duplicate Tab: Want a copy of the current window you're visiting,
complete with the history of that browsing session? IE users can accomplish
this without having to install and use a plug-in: Press Ctrl-N to open a new
window with the entire history of the current window. For Firefox users, Duplicate
Tab lets you obtain such a history with a single shortcut keystroke; or
you can use the tool to merge multiple open windows into a series of tabs.

3. ErrorZilla: The standard "server not found" page is useless
if you're looking for a Web site that's gone AWOL. ErrorZilla
adds a series of buttons to the bottom of the standard "Firefox can't find
the server" message, providing instant access to the Wayback machine, Google
Cache, Whois lookup, and more.

4. Inline
Search: IE users can obtain search-as-you-type functionality that works
the same way it does in Firefox with this free, simple extension.

5. Extended
Statusbar: This plug-in supplements the data that Firefox provides about
a Web page and your Internet connection, providing such details as the total
size (in KB) of the page, the transfer speed, and the load time.

Office Optimizers

Get more out of Microsoft Office by adding a few extras. Watch Word, Excel,
and Outlook perform tricks you never dreamed were possible!

Open Office 2007 files with older Office versions: Microsoft changed its default
file format in Office 2007, so you won't be able to open files saved in the
new format with older versions of the Office suite. However, if you have any
of three prior versions of Office--2000, XP, or 2003--you can install the Office
Compatibility Pack and thereby establish forward compatibility with the
new format.

Open old files with Office 2003: Conversely, with Service Pack 3 for
Office 2003, Microsoft disallowed opening file formats that predate Office 97,
citing security concerns. To re-enable Office to open these files, you have
to run a series of Registry hacks. Fortunately, Microsoft has created Registry
scripts to make this task easy. Download them, right-click them, and then select
Merge. At once, you'll be able to open old files again.

Put offline docs online in a jiffy: Online document-processing tools
are wonderful for people who are working on files as a group, but getting files
online--and keeping online versus offline versions straight--can be a hassle.
The Zoho
Plug-In for Microsoft Office simplifies uploading your offline documents
to the Web service and downloading online documents from it, all without your
having to leave your Office application.

Make PDF files inside Office: You don't need full-blown Adobe Acrobat
to create and edit PDF files. CenoPDF
lets you build PDFs without leaving Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. After installing
CenoPDF, simply print your .doc files and choose the PDF printer option--or
build PDF-based forms using text-entry fields, buttons, and boxes to be filled
out electronically. The program is free to try, though PDFs are watermarked;
it costs $29 to buy.

Add holidays to Outlook: Want to avoid manually adding Memorial Day
and Christmas to your Outlook calendar each year? You can input 12 months' worth
of holidays at once by clicking ToolsOptions, Calendar Options (on the Preferences
tab). On the next screen, click Add Holidays, select the appropriate country
or countries, and click OK.

Organize and prioritize Outlook data: The ClearContext
Information Management System offers tools that are useful for organizing
your Outlook data, starting with a dashboard that provides a consolidated look
at your tasks and calendar items. ClearContext allows you to assign topics (which
you define) to messages; then it automatically files subsequent messages in
the thread. The system flags your most important contacts based on how often
you deal with them, and it color-codes messages based on the sender's importance.
ClearContext reduces inbox clutter by "snoozing" noncritical messages--that
is, by removing them from the Inbox for a specified period of time. The program
is free for 30 days, and then costs $90 to buy.

Become a meeting power user: MeetingSense
takes Outlook's rudimentary calendar system and turns it into a powerhouse.
An extensive meeting dashboard gives you a hub for making agendas, creating
minutes, and sending out summaries, all while providing a centralized meeting
space where you and other MeetingSense users can share files, make notes, and
create action items. It's perfect for scattered groups that meet frequently.
After a 14-day free trial, the software costs $199.

More Office Optimizers

Import Outlook contacts to Lotus Notes, and vice versa: Moving your
contacts list from Lotus Notes to Outlook (or making the opposite migration)
is a snap using the Personal
NAB (Notes Address Book) Import/Export Utility, a no-cost download from
Lotus's Web site. Open the utility the same way you would any Notes database,
and you'll see a simple form where you can point to the file that you wish to
convert, choose the desired operation, and hit a button to start the conversion.
It's very useful if you're migrating to a new platform, for example.

Get a bird's-eye view of your contacts: "Xobni" is inbox spelled
backward, but there's nothing misdirected about Xobni
Insight's cool interface, which provides information about each person that
you correspond with as you read messages from them. Xobni (currently available
only if you sign up for a private beta invitation) lives on the right side of
your Outlook window. It provides a graphical look at e-mail frequency, contact
information, and old conversations with each contact. Don't miss the Xobni Analytics
feature, which tracks how much e-mail you send and receive every day.

18 ways to tweak Outlook: MAPILab
Toolbox is a pile of 18 Outlook add-ins bundled into one big package. Some
of the tools are simple; one, for instance, hides fax numbers in contact searches.
Others are pure genius, such as a plug-in that scans outgoing e-mail for phrases
like "see the attachment" and then pops up a reminder in case you
forget to attach anything. The toolbox is free for 30 days, $24 thereafter.

Redact text in Word: You know how the feds black out sections of documents
they deem too sensitive (or embarrassing) for public consumption? You can too,
if you download Microsoft's Word
Redaction add-in for Office 2003. You can read your own redacted text; but
when you export the documents in redacted form, the marked portions cannot be
read (or edited, if you choose this limitation).

Share Excel files without groupware: You can share an Excel file without
using a Web-based collaboration system: The eXpresso
Plug-In for Excel (a 2007 Innovations Award winner) lets you store the file
while working in Excel, locking it while one user meddles with it, and then
making it available for others to edit. E-mail alerts tell when the file is
unlocked. You can even lock specific portions of a spreadsheet to prevent others
from editing them.

Swell your spreadsheets with demographic data: An Excel spreadsheet
is only as good as its data. But manually adding information (such as the population
in an area code or the average income in a zip code) is tiresome. CDXStreamer
does the heavy lifting: Install this Excel plug-in, and configure it to find
information about a region or a stock ticker you are interested in. CDXStreamer
then grabs the latest content from the Web, automatically. Over 100 pieces of
demographic data are indexed to each zip code. The free trial lasts 14 days;
regular CDXStreamer service costs $30 per month.

Add real-time stock quotes to Excel: Obsolete stock data in a spreadsheet
does you no good. The MSN
Money Stock Quotes for Excel add-on inserts MSN stock prices (which are
delayed by 15 minutes) into any Excel spreadsheet, with updates every time you
change the spreadsheet.

Five Essential Office Add-Ons

1. International
Character Toolbar: Add this toolbar to Office to gain one-click access
to a palette of the most common special characters used in the foreign language(s)
of your choosing. Warning: You may have to sign on to the Office Genuine Advantage
program to get this add-on.

2. ToolbarToggle:
Not thrilled with Office 2007's radical new "ribbon" design in lieu
of good old menus and toolbars? ToolbarToggle restores the 2003 suite's arrangement.
A single-user license costs $20 after a free five-day trial.

3. Word Frequency Count: This shareware application (full name: Word
Frequency Count in Multiple Text & HTML Files) adds up the number of
times that every word occurs in multiple text, HTML, and Word documents. Unlocking
the full utility will cost you $30.

4. Remove
Hidden Data: You probably sometimes receive files filled with embarrassing
"track changes" information and personal data that the creator accidentally
left in. Don't be that person yourself. Thank Microsoft for this free add-in.

5. ClearType Tuner: Part of the Windows
XP PowerToys suite (and available in an online version, as well), this add-on
gives you fine-grain control over how fonts look on your LCD screen. You'll
be amazed at how much of a difference a slight alteration in font thickness
and smoothing can make on your eyes.

Multimedia Muscle Builders

From music players to image editors, add-ons abound in the world of multimedia.
To upgrade your audio or make your photos and videos pop, check out our favorite
plug-ins for iTunes, Windows Media Player, Photoshop, and other popular programs.

Make music friends, get worthwhile recommendations: iLike
is a plug-in for Apple iTunes that expands your music listening options. A standard
(and popular) social networking component turns you on to people with musical
tastes similar to yours, but the "related music" system seals the
deal. Choose a song in your library, and iLike offers other music you might
like (with instant previews you can play), along with free, similar MP3s from
independent artists.

Use Variable Bit Rate encoding in iTunes: No matter what overall bit
rate you rip tunes at, Variable Bit Rate (VBR) delivers the best-quality music
while keeping file sizes small. Finding the option in iTunes isn't easy. To
get there, click EditPreferencesAdvanced, click the Importing tab, and then
click the Setting drop-down menu. Choose Custom, and check the Use Variable
Bit Rate Encoding box. A transfer rate of 192 kbps and Medium High quality for
VBR yield exceptional results; aim higher if you think you can hear the difference.

Give WMP an upgrade: Windows Media Player may not be the most exciting
application on its own, but the free Windows
Media Bonus Pack add-on for Windows XP gives WMP considerably more oomph.
Extras include additional visualizations, skins, and sound effects, plus new
features such as the ability to export your playlist to Excel and a better tool
for finding missing artwork and other metadata on your audio tracks.

Upload to Flickr in bulk: Sending 10, 20, 50, or more photos to the
Flickr photo-sharing site can be dull and time consuming. Download the Flickr
Uploader (now in version 3.0) for a quick and easy way to upload photos
in bulk, all in a stand-alone application. The program also plugs into Windows
Explorer. Right-click any image (or group), and you'll get a 'Send to Flickr'
menu item, which opens the Flickr Uploader application and gets your shots ready
to go.

Upload to Flickr by e-mail: Don't have Web access? You can send pictures
to your Flickr account by e-mail from any PC or even by phone. First, find your
custom upload e-mail address. Use the subject line of your message for the photo's
title and the body for a description. Flag any tags by prefacing them with the
phrase "tags:" on their own line.

Quickly shrink those pics: It's wise to take photos at the highest resolution
that your camera supports, but your friends and family members probably don't
want to be custodians of an inbox full of 4MB files. If firing up a full-blown
image editor such as Photoshop seems like overkill, use Microsoft's Image
Resizer PowerToy to right-click any image and open a Resize Pictures menu
for easily making pics smaller. To resize in bulk, select multiple shots.

More Multimedia Muscle Builders

Make GIMP look like Photoshop: GIMPshop,
a tweaked version of the free, open-source GIMP image editor, mimics the look
and feel of Photoshop, so you can use this full-featured application without
having to learn any new commands. Think of it as a GIMP mod that doesn't require
you to install GIMP before getting started.

An avalanche of art effects: Filter
Forge offers a monster collection of methods (including more than 4000 filters)
for tweaking and digitally adding textures and lighting tricks to your photographs.
Photoshop jockeys can create their own filters and upload them to the Filter
Forge community. Contributors get the plug-in for free; everyone else pays $99
to $299, depending on the resolution they require.

Apply film effects to stills: OptikVerve
VirtualPhotographer, a Photoshop plug-in, lets you apply dozens of preset
film styles (extra grain, soft focus, high contrast, and so on) to photos in
just a couple of clicks.

Silence noisy photos: On some cameras, ISO modes as high as ISO 3200
tempt a lot of people to shoot pictures in the dark--leading to disappointment
with the resulting noisy photos. Noise
Ninja cleans up grainy, pixelated shots. Plug the app into Photoshop and
select noisy areas by hand, or use the Noise Brush to swipe your pointer over
trouble spots. The program costs $45 for home use, and $80 for pros.

Give pics the TV treatment: Looking for a way to crop a photo onto a
television screen and make the resulting image look realistic? Namesuppressed
Design's Autointerlace plug-in for Photoshop adds telltale horizontal lines
to your image, just as if you had photographed your old CRT.

Expand your 3D library: Adobe's free Photoshop
CS3 Extended Plug-In for Google 3D Warehouse lets you search and import
3D models from Google's online repository of photorealistic art.

Get the best possible color from your PC: Printed photos don't look
the same as photos on a monitor. Reconciling the two (and images from other
sources, like scanners) involves installing a color profile for each device.
The Color
Control Panel Applet for Windows XP enables you to switch among all the
profiles on your machine; if you have multiple monitors or printers, you can
easily tweak output to look its best on the device you're using.

Five Essential Multimedia Add-Ons

1. Picasa
to flickr: This plug-in for Picasa is free, handy, and platform-independent.
It uses a simple Java applet to let you zip files from the popular image editor
directly to the equally popular Flickr photo-sharing service.

2.The Filter: Your
party starts in 15 minutes and you forgot to make the music playlist. No problem--seed
this iTunes and Windows Media Player add-on with a handful of tunes you like.
Not only will it generate a killer party sound track, but it will dredge up
hot tracks that you might even have forgotten you had.

3. EvilLyrics:
This free download gets rid of the junk code that accompanies most lyrics search
results by looking for lyrics in the background whenever you play a song in
iTunes, WinAmp, Windows Media Player, or another application. The results aren't
perfect, but they're on target more often than not.

4. ffdshow:
Dodge the hassle of juggling multiple video formats by turning to this versatile
plug-in, which supports most video players and provides all the video codecs
you are likely to need.

5. Plugin
Galaxy: This collection of free effects and filters for Photoshop and
Paint Shop Pro offers a range of warping and blurring effects, plus handy features
like a "page curl" for image corners, all accessible within a single
interface.