Every small to medium-sized business is challenged to provide their employees with the best tools they can find. This is crucial because the better equipped your teams are, the more productive, efficient, and profitable they will be. In this article, we are not going to focus on the big applications office workers need like MS Office, Oracle (in any of its flavors), Payroll systems, creativity suits, etc. We know all those systems have a cost attached to them, and the cost of all those applications probably cannot be avoided or brought down to zero.
We will focus on those ancillary tools that can make filler tasks faster and more inexpensive. In other words, we will focus on the menial tasks that probably represent a hidden cost to your company. After all, time is money! If your colleagues and staff members spend time printing, scanning, creating files to email, searching on the web, copying and pasting, etc., you will want to read up on what comes next.
So you finish the proposal. You know you have to print it, so maybe you can send it to the printer, but wait, you must email it. No problem. You can write it in Word and print it to a PDF, right? However, you must encrypt or password-protect the PDF; MS Word does not provide that feature. No problem. I will print it to PDF, then open the PDF with another app, add the encryption, save it, then open my email program, attach it, and send it. That sounds easy; you have done this millions of times. But if we look at how long it takes you to do this, you realize there may be a better way.
What if you had a tool that you could use to print to PDF, but right on the print management screen allowed you to add metatags, author information, password protect the pdf, and set it so it can be read-only or read and filled out, and allow print, or not, etc. All from one screen. Well, yes, there is a way you can do it, and that is by using our first free tool:
From Acro Software (cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp,) This is a great and FREE tool that lets you install a PDF printer emulator that, at the moment of "printing," will allow you to add meta-tags, password protect your pdf, add an author, and specify the user rights to view only, change, and print the file. This is a great tool that installs in seconds and allows you to create PDFs from any application that has printing capabilities
Though Windows has its own native screen shooter called the Snipping Tool, and you can also find hundreds of other screen shooters on the internet, we want to introduce you to a new tool. Almost always, people need to take the shot and then do some editing, add notations, add graphics, etc, and then use it for all kinds of purposes.
The Windows native tool is sufficient if you need to take a snapshot and then save or add the shot to a Word document or paste it into an email and send it. But If you need more sophistication, you will need to save the image or open another app to make changes to the image. Here is where the following free tool makes a huge difference in productivity.
Stickies is a tool that you can download for free from (https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies.) This little tool is like a Swizz army knife in that it comprises several practical ways of taking notes, such as using stickies that can be displayed on your monitor, overlayed, saved, organized, etc. But one of the hidden gems is its capability of taking snapshots of the screen into a sticky note and being set up to do it using the hotkeys of your choice. In addition, it allows you to insert shapes like arrows, boxes, circle, and text while setting color, line thickness, step numbers, blur areas, and crop. You can also save the image and print right from the sticky. This tool is just awesome.
This is undoubtedly one of the most versatile screen shooters, with tons of free features. This tool is, without a doubt, a productivity golden nugget. Additionally, for more advanced users and IT departments, it has APIs for integration with other applications, Active Directory compatibility for group management, email integration, and so on. We do not just recommend this tool, but we dare say it is a must-have for any computer user at any level.
This is no secret: PDF has become the universal format for digital publications worldwide. Though it is relatively easy to create a PDF by just using a PDF print simulator, once you want to do some simple editing, you most likely will crash into a wall of obstacles.
Adobe will ask you for at least a monthly subscription. Many other solutions will ask you for either a one-time (expensive) license payment or a subscription. And yes, many websites and webpages will allow you to edit PDFs, but there are still some limitations where basic tasks are free. However, if you want more sophisticated features, you have to pay. We recommend the following solution that is filled with PDF editing features. This is one of our favorite applications at the perfect price: FREE.
PDFGear (www.pdfgear.com) This is a fantastic application that you can download for FREE. PDF Gear will allow you to create, edit, annotate, merge, split, OCR, convert (to and from Word, Excel, etc.), and sign PDF files right from your computer. This is one of the most giving PDF tools in the internet that will empower your staff to manipulate PDF files for high productivity while maintaining low administration costs.
The following tool is a native Windows tool that most people don't even know exists. It is a tool that will allow you to zoom in on your screen. Zoom? What is the big deal? You may ask, but many people, especially if they present using remote applications, have at some point experienced the difficulties of overcoming their audiences' complaints that the text on the presentation or the screen is too small to read. This tool allows you to zoom in on any area of your screen while maintaining the cost precisely at the $0 mark. The reason is simple: the tool is a native Windows tool called: well, you guessed it!
Yes! The Windows Magnifier Tool will allow you to magnify the screen and zoom in to any area of the screen by moving your mouse to the area you want to show in a magnified way. The tool is versatile in that it allows you to choose the magnification percentage by using a combinator of hotkeys.
To run the tool, use the Windows search feature by hitting the Windows key and typing "magnifier," then select it. Once the tool opens, you can minimize it, and whenever you want to activate the zoom (in or out), you have to hit the Windows Key and either "+" or "-" signs at the same time to zoom in or out. While zoomed in, you can move your mouse to the area of the screen you want to bring to focus, and Windows will scroll the screen accordingly.
Using this very useful little application usually takes only a few minutes to become familiar with. Once you master it, it will become one of your most used tools when presenting at live events or remotely.
If you are one of those persons who have to navigate back and forth through local folders and network shares, handling and manipulating files all the time, you know how frustrating it can become to use the native Windows File Explorer to do all this. Even using the newest version, which is included with Windows 11, it still lacks some essential capabilities that are standard in many other explorers or commanders. It makes one wonder why Microsoft does not have a killer folder explorer.
Now, there are so many excellent tools out there that we are just going to list a few, and we cannot claim that we will list the "BEST" because there are so many tools with so many features that finding the right one to fit your needs is going to be almost impossible. Still, we will start you on your search for a suitable replacement
The suggested file Explorer replacements include features like:
That being said, here are some of our suggestions:
Xplorer2 is an excellent alternative to the Windows File Explorer, loaded with features like dual paneling, tabs, bookmarks, etc. You can download a free version from (www.zabkat.com), or you can try their pro version for 30 days. But even if you go for the free version, it has enough free features to replace the native explorer in Windows.
Great tool with lots of features. The ones we can point to that are remarkable are its small print, screen magnification, color filter, and its capability of having four panels open at the same time. You can find this tool at (Q-Dir.com.)
One of our favorites is Multi Commander (multicommander.com). This is an awesome application loaded with many features, ranging from the obvious to the advanced, including programable features if you are into creating your scripts. This is such a complete application that we were surprised it is freeWe believe this tool is such great value that we thoroughly recommend it. Multi Commander is one of the best productivity tools we have found in a long time.
We can go on and on because there are so many options out there, but we feel that the Explorer alternative mentioned above will get on your way to finding the right tool for you and your team.
We wanted to bring you some valuable tools that can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars by having your staff use them. We are convinced that they will not disappoint you or your staff
Though all these tools are free, we invite you to buy the pro version or donate to the creators. They surely deserve your kindness for the creation of these great tools.
If you need help developing strategies to make your staff more efficient, don't hesitate to contact us.