FREE FLASH CARD SOFTWARE - MNEMOSYNE

Mnemosyne, www.mnemosyne-proj.org/principles.php A very nice flash card creation tool to help you build effective activity based on an algorithm. The tool is developed keeping in mind the spaced repetition and memory research. The tool does offer basic configuration setting to enable the user to enter appropriate questions i.e. questions that require frequent review. The user can specify priority for different questions so that the ones that require regular reviews appear frequently. The 'Getting Started' guide is quite helpful for a new user wanting to have a quick look at the tool.
Once created, the activity could be exported in an xml format.

Quite an easy-to-use utility tool !

FREE PDF UTILITIES

PDF documents have become an integral part of our work routine. Be it online or offline, pdf documents make our task easier. pdf documents are quite handy. Found out about this handy website with some real useful pdf utilities to offer and that too for free. The site is http://somepdf.com and offers 5 highly useful pdf utility tools. I tried the following three

• pdf to word converter which converts the selected pdf document into a word format
• pdf to html converter which converts the selected pdf document into html pages
• pdf to image which extracts the images from the selected pdf document

The two other utility tools offered takes care of text to pdf conversion and pdf to text(rich text) conversion

The interface is very simple and easy to use.

A very handy set of tools to have

FREE FLV PLAYER

Most of the video download sites have videos available in Flash video format ( .flv format). To run .flv files, one requires a FLV player. Applian FLV player, www.applian.com/flvplayer is one such FLV player one can download and use.

So, install the FLV player and start downloading the flv files.

FREE BASIC FLOWCHART DESIGN TOOL - 1888 QUICK FLOW CHART CREATOR

1888 Quick Flow Chart Creator, www.1888softwaredownloads.com is a simple, basic Flow chart creation tool. The advantage is it has lots of shapes available for use and one can do basic manipulation on the flow chart like adding colour, etc.

Not a very comprehensive tool but useful utility for drawing flowchart and you can save it in an image form.

FREE EBOOK SOFTWARE - SWIFTEBOOK

Found out this little tool called Swiftebook. The tool is available at www.gurucreation.com Found it interestingly simple and useful to carry out basic document creation and editing. To start creating an ebook ( they call it that though the saving formats are the usual ones like HTML, rtf, pdf, etc.). Inspite of that, i liked working on the tool, maybe because of the fetaures it provides in a simple way. No doubt the tool is quite attractive.

Once you start with ebook creation, click on New and start typing. While typing click on the Document and Style options and you get a glimpse of the features available. The user may simply click on the feature to apply it to the document.
The Document option allows to add more about the doucument - title, creator, Category, Niche, etc. which would be quite helpful during ebook search.

The Style option provides with the various common formatting option

Hold on, that not all in this tool. There's this useful Reminder option which can help one organise

SKETCH DRAWING SOFTWARE - SKETCH STUDIO

Sketch Studio is quite an interesting and simple software, www.sketchandsmudge.com/download.html
A wonderful hand sketching tool with some real nice, unique features.The interface is very user friendly and immediately one can get started with creating an image using the Sketch pen of varying sizes.

Some of the unique features of the tool are

• Smudging
• Play Sketch Option
• Trace Image Option
• Help Topics
• Tutorials to get started

Trace Image Option can be used to trace an outline from any existing image

Play Sketch Option can be used to play the sketch as was drawn. A very handy option indeed where one can view the skecth in steps

The tutorials are very helpful and additionally the Help Topics are also available.

Once may also save the sketch as a JPEG image.

An image sample of the Lessons/ Tutorial section is shown below. The Lessons are really nice and one may practice skecthing as well.

A nice tool !!

FREE SOUND FILES

www.findsounds.com is quite useful when looking for some sound (files). A good range of parameters helps refine the search further. Though it supports few popular formats but still a useful site. Depending on one's requirement, specific size files could be searched.

A good alternative when trying to create sound with a bad throat !!

TIMELINE CREATION TOOL

Timeline 2.0, www.timeline.cer.jhu.edu is a highly useful timeline creation tool. The quest for finding a timeline creation tool which could export the file in .swf format ended with this tool. Th e tool is quite handy when you want to create timelines depicting history, life span, evolution, important events, etc. for something. It could be history of how computers evolved, famous personalities, and many more.

Once extracted, the Timeline 2.0 folder contains 6 files. This tool could be easily integrated in eXe authoring sytem as the tool generates an .xml file, a .swf file.



Certain precautions to be taken when working on Timeline tool

• Please fill up the Interface Configuration options and then the Events
• Be thoughtful while specifying Sub Bands. A good way would be to specify some key items in the Sub Bands
• Be careful to specify the end dates wherever essential
• When wanting to create multiple timelines, please save them in different folders
• Follow the proper sequence for creating the timlines i.e., first use the Creator.jar file and then the rest
• When trying to integrate the timeline into any othe tool like eXe, attach the .swf and then copy the .xml into the course folder separately ( after exporting it)
• Go through the Documentation properly as it would guide you how to proceed.

A very handy tool, indeed !!!

Offline Browser - PageNest

PageNest, www.pagenest.com is s useful utility tool for Offline Browsing. A need based useful tool that can help save entire website on the hard disk for later viewing. A simple interface where one can specify the website address, specify the levels and just get started with downloading the wesbite. A handy tool when one is hard pressed for time and not able to view the entire website.

The website offers two versions, Free and Pro. The best part about the offering is that the Free version is as good as the Pro ( commercial version) . Free version is free for personal use, for non-profit, for school whereas the Pro version is for the corporates.

A good tool to have when you cannot afford to be online all the time !

Safe Browsing for Kids - Skool

Skool, www.skool.com is a good site on safer browsing for kids. The site allows safer browsing on 8 different search platforms. A one-stop solution for safe browsing for kids.

Also, the site offers access to teaher tube educational videos. The kids can view the randomly generated videos.

Though the options offered are limited on the site but still a useful site. The kids could be directed to search internet via this site and maybe watch some educational videos as well.

FREE ONLINE CHART TOOL - RICH CHART LIVE

Rich Chart Live, www.richchartlive.com is an excellent tool to create charts online. Indeed a captivating tool because of the range of features provided by the tool. The free version lets you use all the features and would place a small logo in the corner. All the other features are the same as provided in the commercial version.The features include a good collection of templates, Series style charts, multiple layouts, animation features. The Rich chart gallery provides examples charts that could be created using the tool and the list includes charts with hyperlinking features, etc.

Now, coming to the main expectation from any tool i.e. the output format. Quite impressively, the rich chart live offers the option to publish the chart in 4 formats. Two very useful publish formats are 'Publish to Flash' which will enable one to save it in a .swf file format and 'Embed Chart in Blog' which can work wonders for Bloggers wanting to display chart in their posts.

A wonderful tool, indeed !!

BOX SHOT IMAGE MAKER

3D BOX SHOT MAKER A cute little freeware tool to help make box shot images. The images could be saved in 4 different formats. First set the image, the side bar and the front. Once image is set, one may change the other parameters. Available at http://www.bosseye.com/boxshot/

Free Chart Software - TeeChart Office

Teechart Office (http://www.steema.com/downloads/dwn_tch_office.html)
is a useful charting and plotting freeware application. Though it has a limited range of chart typer but still quite a comprehensive tool with many features and options.

One can do any amount of editing/ customisation on the chart to suits one'e requirements. The available features range from the most basic like modifying the colour to annotating, drawing lines, colouring each point, etc.

Another advantage is the option to save the chart as different formats like JPEG, GIF, BMP, PDF, etc.

A very handy tool.

Free Online Multimedia content for Kids

Here's another free content for kids from 5-12 years age group. E-Learning for kids (www.e-learningforkids.org) is an excellent site offering quality multimedia content and offers a good range as well.

The content is extremely comprehensive and of good quality with lots of exercises built in. A good range exists in almost all categories like Mathematics, Science, Computer Skills, etc. The Computer illiterate could go through the computer literacy content and get started with computers.The highly interactive content ensures that the matter is grasped well by the learner and there is a proper retention. Lots of content on Health covering many interesting topics.

Surely, one of my favourite sites. A highly useful one.

Enjoy it !!!

The number of courses keep increasing. So, keep visiting the site for new courses.