Keyboarding | Multimedia/Graphics | Business Apps | HTML/Webpage | Teacher Tools | Other/Zip

Students don't have MS Office at home? Try the free, open source Open Office (basically the same as Office 2003)
http://www.openoffice.org

Keyboarding Programs

Kid's Typing Skills: Practice with keyboard drills, character drills, and word drills. Take timed tests to determine and improve your typing speed.
http://kidwaresoftware.com/kidtype.htm

KP Typing Tutor: Simple program with sentence practice, article practice, and a typing game. You must extract these files to a folder, but you can edit the KP.TXT file and put in your own sentences which will be used for the sentence and article practice.
http://www.fonlow.com/kptypingtutor/

Advanced Speed Typing 98: Free typing tutor program with lots of neat sections like phrase practice, common letter combinations, etc. Also has a built-in game.
Click to Download

TypingMaster's Games: Bubbles, Clouds, and more
Click to Download

Bruce's Typing Tutor (lesson, free typing, and a game)
http://www.qcalculus.com/typing_tutor.htm

SenseLang Typing Lessons (in Flash)
http://sense-lang.org/typing/

Analytic Eye Typing Tutor
http://www.aetech.co.uk/ttutor/download.html

Tiny Piano (FUN!): TinyPiano turns your computer keyboard into an electronic piano with 43 keys formed in two rows.
http://www.geocities.com/tacc21j/index-e.html

Multimedia/Graphics/Video Tools

PhotoFiltre: If you don't have Photoshop, this is a good photo editing program. No layers, but most other features and great filters.
 http://photofiltre.free.fr/

GIMPShop: A Photoshop lookalike. A bit of a clunky interface and I've noticed a few stability issues, but it has layers and works much like Photoshop!   http://www.gimpshop.com/download.shtml

Picnik (online basic photo correction)
http://www.picnik.com

Beneton Movie GIF: Easy gif animation freeware.
http://software.benetonfilms.com/Beneton_Movie_GIF/

Windows Movie Maker 2: Windows XP computers automatically come with a very bad version of movie maker. This upgrade includes an editing software with capabilities for titles, scrolling credits, transitions, and much more! Very easy to use... also download the fun pack (site 2). Tutorials available on the website.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx
Fun Pack-- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/mmcreate.mspx

Microsoft Producer: Use this program with either PowerPoint XP/2002 or 2003 (running in Windows XP or higher only) to add video narration to PowerPoint. Tutorials available on the website.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/technologies/producer.aspx

SmartMorph: Morph one picture into another
http://www.download.com/SmartMorph/3000-2192_4-10264586.html?tag=lst-0-9

Audacity Audio Editing Software: Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings.  Tutorials included on website.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Pixel Ruler: Free and easy to use virtual screen ruler that floats over your screen (can measure on screen by pixels)
http://www.mioplanet.com/products/pixelruler/

dBpowerAMP Music Converter: Rip digitally sound from Audio CDs and store in a multitude of formats, dMC is the Fastest CD Ripper and now AccurateRip Compatible. Convert from one format to another, just about every audio type is supported 
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Blender 3D: Fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, realtime interactive 3D and game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility
http://www.blender3d.org/Download/

Design Workshop Lite: Fast, fun, and affordable software for creating 3D models, walkthroughs, and renderings, from sketch to presentation
http://www.artifice.com/dw_lite.html

HTML/Webpage Tools

NVU WYSIWYG Editor
http://nvudev.com/index.php 

AceHTML: Experience this powerful free HTML editor which comes fully-packed with outstanding features. Although completely free, its collection of solid tools helps novices and professional webmasters build Web sites with speed, ease, and convenience.
http://freeware.acehtml.com/download.html

ColorCop: Have you ever wanted a color picker that is professional, but easy to use and loaded with features, well here it is Color Cop 5.0. This little program features a eyedrop color picker, you can convert RGB decimal values to HTML hexadecimal, convert hexadecimal to RGB decimal values.
http://www.datastic.com/tools/colorcop/

Javascript Mouseover Creator: Does just what is says. Easy to use and generates cut and paste HTML code.
http://www.mrzone.com/freeware/jsmoc.html

Arachnophilia HTML Editor: One of the best freeware HTML Editors available!
http://www.mrzone.com/freeware/arachnophilia.html

AnfyJava Applet Creator 1.4: Neat program with lots of applets that can be used on webpages.
http://www.anfyteam.com/ajdownl.html

Buttonz & Tilez: This program provides a couple of free standalone programs that help you design buttons and background graphics for your Website. Buttonz is probably the more useful of the two, allowing you to select a general shape, size, bevel characteristics, colors, and more. You can even use gradient fills and select the light source. You can save the results to one of several popular image formats (.gif not included, however).
http://www.b-zone.de/software/bt.htm

ArtGallery: Freeware program to create java for internet photo slideshows (drop down list driven)
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hpeer/Javaexamples/javaexamples.htm

Business Applications

Express Scribe (computer transcription)
http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/

PadSpeed: Numeric Keypad speed testing program. PadSpeed will generate a series of random numbers within a range you specify. You can choose to type the numbers on the numeric keypad at your own pace, or use a preset time limit. As you type the numbers, PadSpeed will record the time, total number of digits and numbers entered. It will then display the number of digits and numbers typed per minute and compute the percentage that were correct.
http://www.absolutelyfreeware.com/files/education/padspeed.exe

Moffsoft FreeCalc: Basic calculator that makes a great replacement for the Windows calculator. Some features include a printable and savable tape, sizeable display, system tray icon, always on top setting, memory functions, and ability to print tapes. Works like a ten-key calculator.
http://www.moffsoft.com

Willy's Calculator: This calculator is a computer implementation of an electronic hand calculator with a tape display, memory keys, and constant function. However, you cannot print tapes from this program. It would be helpful to use to illustrate basic ten-key principles for students in an arena where all can see (on a projector) before actually cutting them loose on a ten-key calculator!
http://www.wv-be.com/Calculator.asp

Teacher Tools

DeskPaint: A neat program that you can use in conjunction with your computer projector to write on the screen (circle menus, etc.). Runs in the system tray. Very simple and awesome teaching helper.
Click to Download

JBC Hot Potatoes: The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. Free registration for teachers, but a great program to use to create online quizzes for students to study with.
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/index.htm

CamStudio: CamStudio records screen activity from your Windows Desktop into standard AVI movie files. It is an ideal tool for developing videos to demonstrate features of a new software or any other task that requires the capture of desktop activity. The program is easy to use, and you can select an area or full desktop for recording. You can adjust the video quality settings to reduce file size, use custom cursors and add a soundtrack through your microphone or speakers. Furthermore, you can add screen captions to your desktop while recording. These captions are anti-aliased, high quality images that support text display in multiple languages. With the Video Annotation feature, you can also personalize your movie by including a webcam movie of yourself into the AVI.
http://camstudio.org/

Word Search Factory: This program allows you to create word searches. It does not allow you to save, but the word searches are pretty easy to make and you can print them without saving.
http://www.schoolhousetech.com/Products/WordSearch/

Wink (screen capture, annotated tutorials)
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/download.php

FastStone Capture 5.3 (screen capture; last free version)
http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html

CutePDF (save anything in PDF format; install and then print to CutePDF; requires Ghostscript)
http://www.cutepdf.com/ 

Bulldog PDF Printer (same concept at CutePDF, but with watermark and password ability; requires Ghostscript)
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/BullZip_PDF_Printer/BullZip-PDF-Printer.html 

ReadPlease 2003 (great for special needs students; copy and paste text into it, press play, and it reads aloud)
http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/ReadPlease_2003/readplease.html

Natural Reader (with mini-toolbar option)
http://www.naturalreaders.com/free_version.htm 

Click-N-Type Virtual Keyboard (again, good for special needs or those with temporary hand injuries)
http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/

PDF Reader 2.4 (can type on PDF forms; can't save in this version, but if you download CutePDF and then "print" it to PDF, you will be saving a copy...)
http://www.cadkas.de/downengpdf5.php 

Eclipse Crossword
http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/downloadfull.html

1Time (teeny stopwatch download)
http://www.atma-software.com/1time/

Other Tools

Google Toolbar: Nice add-in for Internet Explorer. Adds a Google search bar which blocks popups and highlights search terms.
http://toolbar.google.com/

FreeZip: FreeZip is a small, fast and efficient Zip utility for compression and decompression of files and directories
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/index.html

Ultimate Zip: Another free one and it works pretty good!
http://www.ultimatezip.com

SpywareGuard: SpywareGuard provides a real-time protection solution against spyware that is a great addition to SpywareBlaster's protection method. An anti-virus program scans files before you open them and prevents execution if a virus is detected -SpywareGuard does the same thing, but for spyware! And you can easily have an anti-virus program running alongside SpywareGuard. SpywareGuard now also features Download Protection and Browser Hijacking Protection!
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

SpywareBlaster 3.2: Prevent spyware from installing in the first place! SpywareBlaster is freeware. Please consider donating to further our cause! Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today.
By simply browsing to a web page, you could find your computer to be the brand-new host of one of these unwanted fiends! The most important step you can take is to secure your system. And SpywareBlaster is the most powerful protection program available.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Other good virus tools (after the fact): Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware
http://www.snapfiles.com