words

The fact that PDFs aren't easy to edit is both a blessing and a curse; they can protect content from unauthorized changes, but they can also be a pain when you have a legitimate need to edit something. Sure, you can copy and paste text from a PDF, but your formatting will pay the price. Walker Free PDF to Word Converter makes it easy to convert PDF files into easily edited Word documents, and for the most part it keeps your formatting intact as well.

The program's interface isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it'… Read more

Microsoft Word is arguably the most widely used business application in the world, yet few Word users think twice about the format of their documents. People may change Word's default font size and style or switch between a single space or double space between lines, but that's about it. If you'd like a simple way to communicate your message more effectively without looking flashy, try these simple Word format tweaks.

First, a word of warning: nearly any document can benefit from a little creative formatting, but it can be easy to overdo the effects. Remember, the goal … Read more

Likasoft calls Polyglot 3000 an automatic language recognizer, which is an apt description of this specialized tool. It's similar to automatic translators in that it analyzes the language of text entries, but instead of translating the text, it identifies and displays the language, including confidence in the match expressed as a percentage. It handles more than 470 languages.

Polyglot 3000 has a very simple interface and an equally simple operation. It has a text entry field for typing or pasting text to identify, or you can load Unicode or ANSI text files directly into the program. It has but … Read more

With the Web having so many interesting things to look at, it can be difficult to get work done. Since you can already use Google Chrome to check your e-mail, the weather, and news stories, why not try to get some work done in it, too? Here's a serving of five distraction-free (and free in cost) text editors available in the Chrome Web Store that you can use right inside of your browser, yet still save your work for later.

Write Space

This app offers that blank slate you often hear about. Working offline is no problem, … Read more

If your recipe collection is anything like ours, you have magazine clippings, things you've printed from the Internet, handwritten recipes from Mom, and all kinds of other scraps of paper stuffed into a book, binder, or drawer. If you're ready to get your recipes organized--or if you want an easy way to share recipes with friends and family members--try Recipe Cards for Word. This set of Word templates makes it easy to print attractive recipe cards using software you already have.

Recipe Cards for Word is quite easy to use; just open the template in Word, type up … Read more

Talking Tom Cat 2 is the free, ad-supported follow-up to the popular app Talking Tom, featuring an animated cat that repeats everything you say in a funny voice.

Although Talking Tom Cat 2 has little repeat play value for grownups, the app is predictably a hit with the most kiddos--and its animation and graphics are above average for an app like this (especially in the iPad version). In addition to repeating what you say, Tom has several reactions you can trigger, like purring when you stroke him or hissing and clawing when you poke him. You can also record a … Read more

Hanging with Friends is a free, ad-supported multiplayer Hangman app from Zynga, the makers of Words with Friends and Chess with Friends.

Like many of Zynga's apps, Hanging with Friends is a slick, social machine, making it easy to play multiple, asynchronous games with many friends, whom you can quickly pull in through Facebook. (You can also play random online matchups.) The core game is fun, easy to learn, and fast-playing. And while Hanging with Friends mostly follows the traditional Hangman word-guessing format, it adds a few clever innovations: you choose four- to eight-letter words using a set of … Read more

Later this month I'll be canceling my subscription to a leading security suite that runs on two of my home-office PCs. I'll replace it with Microsoft's free Security Essentials, which I've been using on my notebook since I bought it two years ago. I realized several months ago that I simply no longer needed to spend money for the convenience of an all-in-one security app.

That got me thinking: Is there any software that the average PC user needs to pay for? Most of us bought our current operating system--usually Windows or Mac OS X--as … Read more

Office 365, announced today, gives professionals and small businesses a subscription service that lets them work from anywhere using familiar-feeling Web-enabled applications. Combined with hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, Office 365 is designed to enable users to share, collaborate, and communicate in the cloud. In our testing during the beta, we found that the tools worked well across the board (with some hiccups), and expect that many people who use Office on desktop Macs and PCs will appreciate the familiar look and feel, which should help them get up and running quickly.

Obviously, Office 365 is going to … Read more