Monday, December 10, 2007

Index of Freeware & Online Tools for Writers

This is the first update/renovation of my master list of links to freeware, free trial software, tools and generators available online that may be useful to writers. It's not yet complete -- I have to check links, code and add about another hundred of them, and so forth -- but I thought you might like to see the list in progress.

Also, because I'm constantly adding new links, correcting broken links and removing dead links from it, the list will be perpetually under construction, but I think the indexing will render it more user-friendly. As before, you can park your cursor over each link and a box will pop up with a short description of the item or more details about its function.

Before you use any link to download freeware, please remember the standard freeware caution: always download free programs onto a disk and scan them for viruses or other threats before you put them on your hard drive.

Accounting: Accounting Express 2008 * Personal Finance Manager

Art: ArtPad * Browzer Books Art Pac * Chaos Pro * Desktop Graffitist * Desktop Messager * Digital Snowglobes * Dreamlines * Fractal Wallpaper * Litha:Paint * Photo-to-Sketch * Project DogWaffle * Segmation * Twisted Brush

Calendars: 1 year * Calendar.exe * Calendar Magic * Calendars & Planners * Chandler * Digital Calendar * Easy HR Popup Calendar * MiniMinder * Multi-Reminders * pAgenda * Rainlendar * Remind Me Please * Sunbird * TaskPrompt * TimeLeft * Time Sentry * TimeTool * TKexe Kalendar * ToDo

Clocks: 3D Matrix Clock * Banshee Screamer Alarm * Claudio * ClickClock * Clock! * ClockLink * ClocX * Cursor Clock * Custom Skin Clock * Free Atomic Clock * Floating Clock * Kaleidoscope Clock * MicroEggTimer * MultiLingual Speaking Clock * Talking Alarm Clock * Topmost Clock * yTimer

Color and Color Pickers: Anry Color Picker * Cheap as Free Color Picker * Color Cop * Color Palette Generator * Instant Eyedropper * PagePainter * Paint Chips * Peacock Color Picker * SwatchBook * VMN Toolbox

Database: BiblioExpress * Book DB * List * Margaret Fisk's Writing Links

E-books & PDFs: EBook Compiler * Paperless Printer * PDF995 * PDF Factory * PDF Machine * PDF Maker DLL * PDFOnline.com * PDF Text Reader * Primo PDF * rheaDER * Tiny PDF * TweakPDF * WordPod * yBook

Freeware Resources: FreewareFiles.com * FreewarePalm.com * Freeware World Team * Spacejock Software

Games & Game Creation: 7 Wonders * 8 Kingdoms * AdventureMaker * GameMaker * Legendary Tales * PCGen 5.13.4 Beta * Spice Trade

Graphics: Alice * AndreaMosaic * Art of Illusion * BezierDraw * Capture-A-Screenshot * EZThumbnails * Faststone * FreeSerifSoftware * Free Photo Station * Irfanview * Mosaizer * Nature's Mosaic * 93 Photo Street * Offtype.net * Photo2Web and Photo View * PhotoGadget * Photopolis * PhotoShape * Seasidesoft Book Manager * The Gimp * Wax * WinMorph * WPClipArt

Handicapped Writer Aids: Click-N-Type Virtual Keyboard * RapidKeys

HTML Editor: Alleycode

Inspiration: Bonsai Story Generator * E-muse * The Hero Machine * Ink * Papel * Said * Serendipity * 7th Novel * Seventh Sanctum * StoryMind.com's free trial versions of Story Weaver, Dramatic Pro, and Movie Magic * The Story Starter * WriteThis * yWriter

Journaling: Diary Book * eJournal * iDailyDiary *Life As I See It

Mac Freeware: 63 Great Mac Programs That Won't Cost You a Bundle * Applejack * Butler * iBackup * Inkscape * NeoOffice * Nvu * Scrivener Gold * TextExpander * TextWrangler 2 * XShelf

Mind Mapping & Project Management: Aviz Thought Mapper * Axon * ConceptDraw * Diagram Designer * FreeMind * IDEA! * The Literary Machine * MindGenius * MindManager * MindPad * NovaMind * Project Engine * Visual Mind * Vizual Einstein ME * Voodoopad

Miscellaneous: Dirk Paehl's Web Site * Editor's Choice Free Software * Electronic Piano * FAQ Genie * FastReader * FractMus * FreeMusicZilla * FreeWare Book * FreeToolkit.net * FreewareWiki *Garden with Insight * George's MySpace Editor * GroupMail * Help4J * Jan Verhoeven's Web Site * Magic Speed Reading * MouseCam * ProBoards * SmartBee * SuperMemo * TV.exe * UserHealth * Video DVD Maker * VLC media client (formerly VideoLANclient) * VRML Beans * Weather Watcher * WebMastersChannel.com

Names: Blueman's Name Generators * Fake Name Generator * Kleimo's Random Name Generator * HippoName * Name Generator

Notepad, Notes and Notebooks: AM-Notebook * DocPad * ExCopy * Floating Notes * Fuzzy Duck Note Tab * Keynote * The Magic Notebook * MemoirsLite * MikkoMatrix * The Novel Notebook by PBW * Notebook 2000 * Notebox Disorganizer * Notes * Printable Notebook * Scrapbook * Scribe * Shirusupad * SnipIts * SquareNotes * StickIt * TextBlockWriter * Whiteboard PS * WikidPad 1.9beta12 * Win32Pad * Xint * ZuluPad

Organizers & Planners: Active Tree Notes * Acute Notes * Agenda * BiblioExpress * Chaos Manager * Data Crow * EasyNoter * eQit * Idea Tracker * KPlan Personal * Manuscript Tracking * My Things * NotesBrowser * Personal Info Managers * PlanWare * Pooter4 * Quick2Do * Simple TODO * SlimList * Sonar * Total Organizer * What to Do

Printing/Formatting: BookFormat * Book Reader * Flipbook Printer * Jordi's Handwriting Fonts * Larabie Fonts * PosteRazor * Posteriza * QuickEnvelopes * Text2Web

Reference: Bible Gateway * Convert * Earth's Core * Everest Dictionary * The Form Letter Machine * Fredal's Dictionary * Kwik Facts * MB Free Psychic Dictionary 1.25 Mobysaurus * Rhyme * ScholarCite * Visual Thesaurus * Vocabula * WordWeb

Security: Best Privacy Pack * Secure Notepad

Screenwriting: Freefilmsoftware.co.uk

Text Editor: AkelPad * Angel Writer * Cliche Cleaner * ClipboardDoc * Elfima * eTextReader * Fun4Word * Handwriter * MoonEdit * NotesPad Text Editor *
Paddy *Textplorer * Text Split * TXTCollector * Zdocj

Text to Speech: Alien Speech * DSpeech * SpeakOut * yRead

Titles: The Abstract Art Title Generator

Toolbars: A-Toolbar * WebSearchBar

Utilities: Chaos Crystal * Coffee Cup Zip Wizard * Dead Disk Doctor * DocScrubber * Emsa Save My Work * ForeWords * GlobalSpellChecker * HTML-Help Toy * JR Directory Printer * Laptop Battery Power Monitor * LaunchOnFly * Link Collector * Natural Word * Phrase Express * ReadPal * ReadThemAll * Send 2 Notepad * Smart CutNPaste * SpeedMenus * Spell Magic * Stay Connected * Text Crawler * Text Mining Tool * Textalyser * Title Scroller * TypeItIn * UserClone * Word Index Builder * Word Sorter * Wordcounter * yGen * yLaunch * ySync * Unstoppable Copier

Widgets: The Generator Blog * Slide.com

Word Processing & Office Suites: AbiWord * AbiWord v. 2.4.5 * Book Writer * Budgie 1.6 * Jarte * Open Office 2.3.1 RC1 * Open Office Portable * Page Four * Polar Office * tejpWriter 3.50 * Writers Block

World Building: Artificial Planet * Carabao * Celestia * Chris Pound's Language Machines * Design-A-Room * Furnish * Google Earth * Interlex * Random Terrain Generator * Schmap * StarStrider * Sweet Home 3D * Textanz * WordMorph * Your Sky

Writing: John and Marcia, The Novel Crash Test Dummies* PBW's Left Behind & Loving It 2007 Virtual Workshops

10 comments:

  1. Ta muchly for all the links to my stuff!

    You might like to move yBook to your ebook section from Utils, and add yRead to your Text to Speech section. You might like to add yTimer to your clocks section, if you feel the need for another one. (It allows 100 simultaneous timers, and can sound an alarm, run a program, or both.)

    Another interesting app - but not mine: The Gimp is a fantastic graphics app (freeware). It isn't really writing related, but VideoLanClient is a wonderful DVD-watching/media showing app which can stream over a network, transcode into smaller file sizes, etc, etc. And Irfanview is the best graphics viewer/clipper bar none.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Got them all added and rearranged, Simon -- thanks for the recs, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Link overload! Link overload!

    *collapses*

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an amazing amount of effort on our behalf. Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just discovered this and am in link heaven...Thanks for all the info! I'd like to know, which ones do you use and find to be the best?
    Michele Emrath
    http://southerncitymysteries.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Michele wrote: I'd like to know, which ones do you use and find to be the best?

    I'm physically handicapped, Michele, and the voice program I use to write doesn't jive well with most of these programs, so none. I hunt down links for other writers who can't afford more costly software.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How very giving of you! And impressive that you run all this in spite of your handicap. Thanks, again, for the list and your work!
    Michele
    http://southerncitymysteries.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Just a note: there's some software out from Microsoft labs that's free to download and use: StickySorter. It's basically like a virtual corkboard.

    I used to use TextBlock Writer, but I think that Stickysorter is a better, more natural alternative.

    You can find it here: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/stickysorter/Pages/default.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  9. For accounting, try GNUCash. Works on Windows and linux. It is a full accounting system and free!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous3:25 PM

    This is a great list! Did you know about these?

    * HabitRPG - App that puts time management and habit formation in a game setting. Lots of fun and has a good reward system for keeping up with tasks. It's free, but has a Donate button, as well as the option to buy in-game gems which unlock fun extras.

    * Duolingo - Language learning app. They currently have Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Dutch (Netherlands), Danish, and Swedish for English speakers. If you're a non-English speaker, they have a wide variety of base languages they support in learning English, too many to list here. Like HabitRPG, language acquisition is put into a game format, but it's main strength is that it breaks learning down into small chunks.

    I've used both these apps and found them extremely useful, both in my regular life and as a writer.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.