5.4

Dynamic Draw provides a great set of free tools for creating flow charts and other designs. Although its layout can be confusing, the end product makes it worth a little trouble.

The program's interface takes a while to get comfortable with, and it took us several minutes of studying and experimenting to get going, though everything felt natural after that. We were able to understand and make use of its scattered collection of commands and tools quickly enough, thanks to a great tutorial and onscreen pop-up instructions. Once initiated in Dynamic Draw's idiosyncrasies, you'll be creating interconnected … Read more

Any news reader/podcast receiver worth its disk space should do more than gather headlines. It should also help you search for and organize the latest and most in-depth information on the subjects you're most interested in. All of these functions and more make eSobi among the most popular information management tools available. It combines an RSS reader for searching and gathering the news and updates you want it to, a meta-search engine, and an information library built out of items you select, with eSobi's help. You can build a database of articles, references, and other saved materials … Read more

ASAP Utilities promises to simplify and speed up the experience of working with Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program. By providing dozens of simply applied options, it's certain to gain fans among frequent Excel users.

ASAP Utilities' interface will be familiar to frequent Excel users. The program is embedded into the spreadsheet program along the top row of commands, next to Excel's Help option. You navigate it with expandable menus that look very much like other Excel menus. There's a small Help file, but we recommend simply experimenting with the functions. The 21 options include Text, Columns, Numbers, … Read more

Project management software is a cornerstone of today's business world. Managers, executives, engineers, and administrators depend on it to organize their projects, manage their teams, keep clients and suppliers in the loop, and measure progress toward defined goals. SharedPlan Pro is SharedPlan's enterprise suite of project management tools, and it integrates with the developer's other editions, such as SharedPlan Personal. It's designed to be easy to understand and use, collaborative, and flexible in options and execution, while still having the power and scope to manage large, complex projects with critical deadlines. To that end, it offers … Read more

Although technical writers and other users who need a lot of advanced options will find this program lacking, for the average user, PolyEdit Lite provides everything one would want in a basic word-processing program. Its familiar layout allows users to get started right away.

The program's interface will look familiar to anyone who's used a pre-2007 version of Microsoft Word. The contents of some of the menus are a little different, but for the most part, everything is where experienced Word users would expect it to be. Users can also customize the color scheme of the interface, which … Read more

Foto-Mosaik provides users with a program that not only creates collages, but also remembers your pictures in a database. With simple layout and an intuitive design, users will leap right into this program.

The program's interface is simplified by a wizard-like layout that held our hand through each step with great onscreen instruction. We were immediately impressed by the program when we organized our photo database, which allowed us to save collections of images for future mosaics. We customized the dimensions, shape, and number of photos within a few minutes and were admiring our creation. Images were scattered at … Read more

You know, I'd almost forgotten they still make these. When i say "these," I'm of course referring to standard aspect ratio monitors. With the advent of wide-screen 16:10 and now 16:9 monitors, the last three to four years has seen 4:3 and 5:4 monitors go the way of the Dodo.

NEC seems determined that we don't forget standard aspect ratios and in September will be releasing the 19-inch MultiSync EA190M. According to NEC, the display is designed for "a variety of business environments, government applications, and education users."

Just what government applications are we talking about here? In every episode of "24" I've ever seen, everyone uses wide-screen, 24-inch Dells. This monitor must be for less well-funded government divisions.

According to NEC, the EA190M consumes 50 percent less energy and contains 50 percent less mercury than traditional LCD monitors. It has a one-touch button to go into EcoMode. This most likely puts a cap on the brightness since a display's brightness is the main determining factor for power consumption.

Here are a few other features of the EA190M:… Read more

Actual Transparent Window is an intriguing desktop enhancement that renders open windows transparent at the click of a button, making it easier to keep track of multiple windows at once. It can help you monitor downloads while working on another screen, or organize spreadsheets, stock charts, text files, and Web pages. You can use it as a drawing tool to trace images, create overlays, and even make your own new images.

The program is simplicity itself to use. It adds two small buttons to the Windows title bar, one for settings; the other for toggling the transparency on and off. … Read more

SwordBible offers users a no-frills digital Bible with an automated daily devotional. What this program lacks in flare, it makes up for in fantastic features.

The program is fairly complex, though not impossible to master. Its confusing icons will take some time to learn because of the cluttered interface. Another headache is that each Bible section in the menu is abbreviated, so users must know that Exod is short for Exodus and so on. Fortunately, the program's Help file is excellent and simple to manage. Once the navigational kinks are worked out, SwordBible reveals itself to be an excellent … Read more