compilation

Books are here to stay, but paper is an endangered species. While libraries full of actual books won't be disappearing any time soon, electronic books like Amazon's Kindle have established a firm toehold in the market, a trend that will continue as more titles are published as e-books. That's where Visual Vision's eBookWriter Lite enters the story. It's a free tool for creating and publishing e-books, but it's not a compiler. It's a complete visual environment that requires no knowledge of coding to use, yet it creates single-source-file e-books that can be opened … Read more

Here is part two of the Gadgettes mega-clip show! This was a lot of work but so much fun to make. I hope it shows.

I promised to make a clips show with the very best moments from Gadgettes, and I'm happy to finally deliver on that promise. With the help of countless fans of the show, I bring to you part one of a two part series! Enjoy!

Focus Photoeditor emphasizes digital photography but does just about everything other graphics packages can do, with a few twists of its own. It has automatic features for quick photo fixes, but it's also easy to use it to draw, paint, and create custom graphics. It includes an advanced image browser and a Web album wizard, too.

Focus Photoeditor's menu bar features clearly labeled functions that are logically and intuitively grouped, which makes them easy to find and understand. There's the usual File, Edit, and Help menus, but most controls are labeled descriptively, such as Color, Noise/Sharpness, … Read more

Medieval CUE splitter is an easy-to-use tool for breaking long audio files into smaller, songlike chunks. It has a simple layout and fast results; its only drawback is the rare CUE file format it uses.

The program's interface is nothing spectacular; in fact, it looks and feels rather sterile. However, its commands are clearly marked, and we had no difficulty navigating it or understanding its controls. This program's biggest problem is that it doesn't support every audio format. While it's compatible with MP3, WAV, and other popular formats, these files need to have a CUE text … Read more

CHM Decoder takes the unpopular CHM file type, commonly used for Help files, and easily converts it to the more readable HTML. The program's simplicity is its biggest benefit, as it allows users of all skill levels to operate it.

The program's interface was simple for us to grasp; its major functions were divided into three tabs. Oddly, this program designed to convert Help files didn't contain one of its own. The three-step process was very intuitive, requiring us to locate the CHM file in question, select a destination for it, and simply convert it. We tested … Read more

Computer Screensaver is a basic screensaver that allows users to select from several designs and a handful of options. Although the program has a few potentially useful features, we didn't find much to be impressed with.

Although the publisher's description says the program includes five screensavers, it looks to us like there are only four, and that's counting the one that is nothing but a black screen with white text scrolling across it. Two of the others contain uninteresting abstract designs, while the fourth is a field of stars. The program's interface is fairly straightforward, although … Read more

Lock up your Excel spreadsheets and secure their formulas in binary format and protected VBA code using this compiler that converts the sheet into an EXE file. It offers options for prohibiting illegal copying and for including an end-user license agreement with the executable packet.

DoneEx XCell Compiler installs a DoneEx menu on the Microsoft Excel menu bar between the Window and Help commands. It performed well in our tests; after saving a worksheet and selecting the Compiler command from the new menu, the add-on launched a dialog box with a variety of options for compiling the sheet into an … Read more