Unlocker is a fantastic program that I have been using for some time. Basically, it allows you to unlock—and then delete/rename/edit/etc—any file that Windows says is currently in use. It’s simple, free, and works very well.
Applications (category archive)
Volumouse is a tool which I have found useful. It lets you control your PC’s volume with the scrollwheel (and modifier keys). I’ve got a multimedia keyboard, so I can use that to control the global volume, but I’m using Volumouse to let me control the wave and line-in (for TV) independently so I can easily mix everything together.
Firefox 2 has been released, and in a word: fantastic. It’s not a revolution, but it’s certainly an evolution. Apart from the new features (which are numerous, including in-built session saving), it’s a lot more polished and responsive—for example, I have always been annoyed with the lag when downloading. No longer; it’s just how it should be. Visually, Firefox has also improved in minor but not-too-minor ways, which also improve the experience.
I’m thoroughly impressed by this. I expected a bunch of new features and options, but the improvements in speed and the interface have caught me by surprise. If you haven’t already, get it.
And, most exisiting extensions still work (with automatic updates required in some cases).
Python 2.5 came out last week. Plenty of nice stuff, including improved performance, upgrades, and new language features. For me, the best things are
- The new with operator;
- Conditional expressions - I think Guido’s decision on the syntax for this is excellent; and
- Partitioning for strings.
Alt+left-clicking on a link is equivalent to ’save link as’.
I recently downloaded a beta version of Microsoft Office 2007. It’s a fairly major upgrade, and so I am going to do a little review about the new version of Word.
First impressions
The first thing I noticed about Word 2007 is that it’s blue, and rather fancy looking. In fact, it looks completely different to all previous versions of Word.
This overwhelming blueness is the Windows XP theme. You can also change it to the Windows Vista theme, which is the same thing, except black. Once I went past the purely cosmetic colour changes, I noticed that Word 2007 is missing both normal toolbars and a menu bar. These have been replaced by two new components: the Quick Access Toolbar and the Ribbon.
Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar is just like a conventional toolbar in older versions of Word. By default, it sits astride the Ribbon, and has buttons for save, undo, repeat, and print. It can be customised to have different buttons, and you can also choose to place it below the Ribbon.
Ribbon
The Ribbon is a far bigger change than the Quick Access Toolbar. Basically, it combines the menu and toolbars from previous versions of Word into a single tabbed palette. The options in the main area of the Ribbon change depending on what tab is. To use the old terms, the toolbars change depending on the menu selected.
Access keys
The access keys (keyboard shortcuts) for the Ribbon are very good, thanks to the excellent KeyTips feature. KeyTips are little tooltips that appear underneath available functions in the program, and they tell you what key to press to active that function. Pressing (and releasing; no more of this holding-down nonsense) the Alt key will display all the KeyTips available in the current view. Press the key that corresponds the function you want, and it will be activated. In some cases—selecting a Ribbon tab, for example—you will be shown some more KeyTips.
For example, I may want to change the size of the margins:
- Press ALT.
- Press P, for the Page Layout tab.
- Press M, for the Margins option.
- Use the keyboard to select the margins option I want.
KeyTips are very intuitive, balancing the need for beginners to access anything without remembering keyboard shortcuts with the ability for more advanced users to quickly select the function they want. My only complaint is that KeyTips are not more common; they’re widely available, but there are still some areas of the program that lack them.
Conclusion
The new interface is going to take quite a bit of getting used to, and I’m still undecided as to whether it’s much better. Never the less, it’s nice to see that Microsoft isn’t resting on its laurels, and is instead making the effort to come up with an interesting new concept.
The Spike is a useful little Microsoft Word feature. The Microsoft Word Help says:
To use the Spike, you remove two or more items from nonadjacent locations, append each item to the Spike’s contents [using CTRL+F3], and then insert the items as a group in a new location or document. The items remain in the Spike, so you can insert them repeatedly. If you want to add a different set of items to the Spike, you must first empty the Spike’s contents [with CTRL+SHIFT+F3].
Basically, you can go around selecting text and images and pressing CTRL+F3 to grab them from the page and stick them in the Spike. When you’re done, you press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 and it spits out everything you’ve put into it. It is also cleared when you do this.
There’s a (fairly) new version of foobar2000 (the minimalist, powerful, extensible, brilliant audio player) now available: 0.9.1. Some new features (playing WMAs, for one) and a fair bit more polish than 0.8.3.
Also, make sure you get the Columns UI component for maximum graphical niceness.
µTorrent is an excellent BitTorrent application I have recently begun using. Even though it’s only a single 154 kilobyte .exe, it has all the features I could ever need. It also has an appealing interface, it’s easy to use, and it’s completely stable.
Look at the download size! There’s no excuse not to try it out.
foobar2000 is an excellent, lightweight, highly customisable, multi-format (and for any format it does not support out-of-the-box there’s a plugin) audio player for Windows. I highly recommend you try it, especially if you’re sick of flashy players that waste system resources.