It's almost too easy to find things for free on the Internet, but the real challenge is finding 'quality' free items, such as useful programs for productivity. A program that doesn't have some type of string attached to it, like intrusive watermarking, advertising banners or embedded malware.
Today, I'm going to share those programs that every person should know about. Some of them may be familiar to you, others might be a surprise. These free programs can save you serious money, especially if that hard drive crashes, and your productivity software backup CD is fatally scratched. I know, it's happened to me on more than one occasion.
An Office-Style Suite
LibreOffice – This free suite of capable productivity software is one of the best freebies available on the Internet. While it lacks the bells and whistles of the most current Microsoft Office productivity bundles, this suite of basic programs function well, for what they do. Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation (think PowerPoint) are among some of the cool things it's capable of doing. Better yet, it's 100% compatible with everything you've produced with the equivalent in Microsoft. Your PowerPoint will open and be editable in LibreOffice Presentation. The same will go for all of your documents and spreadsheets. That way, your backup data files are still valid for access and modification, once you're ready to get back to work. Saving your current project is a breeze, as it supports .doc and .docx among the long list you can choose from. When and if you get another copy of Office from Microsoft, everything you've done will be easily accessed.
Pictures and Graphics
Paint.net – This is an interesting image editing program that can do quite a bit. Don't let the simple interface fool you, there is a mean engine under that software hood. You can save in layers, combine, blend, pretty much do all the basic moves that any competent graphics program should be capable of doing. If your budget won't allow you to snatch up another copy of Photoshop, this program should be a serious stand-in, especially if you need to meet that deadline sometime yesterday. The simple menus and slightly familiar options makes adapting to any layout artist's workload a bit easier. Remember, this won't have the gargantuan list of cool effects that reside in Photoshop, but there are enough options and capabilities to handle most of the major work loads out there.
Ebook Production
Caliber – Upon visiting their website, one of the first questions that might pop up is…why would I need a program for organizing my ebooks? Caliber is so much more than an organizing tool. You can use it to create your own ebooks, in just about any format out there. The learning curve is a little steep, but well worth the time. Adding covers and editing metadata, you can create manuals or content that can be displayed on most devices, including Kindle. If your boss says the report looks excellent on his Kindle Fire, but would like to forward it to corporate, who uses a Nook between the CEO and Chairman, no problem! A few clicks later, the conversion from one format to another is easily done. For a free piece of software, this is one of the best picks a person can make.
3D Graphics Made Easy
Daz Studio 4.x – Attention any graphic artists, layout designers, pretty much anyone who likes to work directly with polygons, textures and surfaces to make some of the coolest 3D objects. Daz Studio is absolutely 100% free. It's not a scaled down version where you have options that are shaded out. It's a fully functional program. The learning curve isn't as steep as it should be, because they have built in tutorials that take you through the creation process, step by step. If that's not enough, there are videos on YouTube, dedicated to teaching folks how to use this powerful program. You can even do some basic animation with it. You're given a starter pack of digital assets to manipulate and create a complete scene, with a warrior fighting a dragon. The built-in example scene isn't static, as you can change anything and everything about it, while retaining the original setup, even if you save your final results under a different name. How Daz Studio makes their money is by selling digital assets, like hair styles, clothing, even fully designed human models. You don't have to buy them to design your own models with the program, though it may take you more time to go the long route. Worried about not having that many digital assets to have more fun with? You can visit the Daz 3D forums and find the threads that are pinned to the top. You've probably guessed it; they have a ton of free resources listed, mostly created and shared by other designers and artists, for you to grab up and use. Some of those designers also register on other websites, like ShareCG.com, where they upload hundreds of digital assets that are 100% free and legal to use.
In closing, I personally use all of these programs. I haven't forked over a dime in big-box brand-name productivity software for more than four years, which adds up to a considerable amount of savings. Do I miss the bells and whistles, the massive amount of options and cool effects? No, not really. I've found it quite easy to do what is necessary and produce quality content using these programs. Even if you don't want to give up your own power house programs that come with a serious price tag, these make for an excellent backup suite of software, or to painlessly add to your computing arsenal. After all, what do you have to lose? They're free!
