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Rider 8 Tools: Super-search your documents

If you've ever wasted time scouring a long document for every place a specific phrase appears, or worse, have had to look for that phrase in more than one document, you need Rider 8 Tools ($19.95), a slim but powerful search application that finds multiple terms in multiple files within any set of parameters you throw at it.

For instance, if you need to see every time the term "business plan" shows up within three words of "market growth" in a 50-page document, you would use Rider 8 Tools to quickly peruse it. You … Read more

Featured Freeware: Dark Room

Based on the Mac software WriteRoom, Dark Room for Windows looks a heck of a lot like the classic text-adventure game Zork. It's a black background with a CRT-style green foreground color for your text that aims to offer a distraction-free application for writing. There are few bells and no whistles: this lightweight text editor is without buttons, menus, or anything else that might disturb your concentration. You can either accept the default preferences and start typing into a new document, or hit Ctrl+, to open up the Preferences.

Because Dark Room starts in full-screen mode by default, you … Read more

Automattic acquires IntenseDebate for better blog comments

Automattic, parent company of blogging platform WordPress, has acquired IntenseDebate, the free blog comment enhancement tool. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The service launched a little more than a year ago with several innovative features that effectively take over a blog's commenting system and add things like reputation, ranking, and a centralized area where blog administrators can manage comments across several sites at once.

Automattic and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg says two of the main reasons for the pickup are IntenseDebate's e-mail replies and rating system which will likely make their way as the default … Read more

Print your Outlook contacts as mailing labels

A friend asked if it's possible to print a subset of the addresses in her Microsoft Outlook contacts as mailing labels. You would think that such a basic operation would be a breeze for an industrial-strength personal-information manager like Outlook. You would think wrong.

The first bit of counter-intuitivity is that you use Microsoft Word, not Outlook. If you use Outlook's own mail-merge function by clicking Tools > Mail Merge, you get kicked into Word anyway. And every time I tried to run the resulting wizard, Word stalled in mid-process.

Instead, move the contacts whose addresses you want … Read more

Quickoffice updates BlackBerry document editor

Article updated 11/4/08.

There's much to admire in RIM's native software set for BlackBerry phones, but for many, the built-in document viewer isn't one of them. Word documents on most models open in a plain text monotone; serviceable, but without the benefit of formatting or the capability to edit the text.

On Monday, Quickoffice released an updated solution for business users and prosumers angling for a more familiar desktop read and the capability to edit attached documents. In addition to support for the usual Microsoft documents--Word, Excel, PowerPoint--eOffice 4.5 ($29.95 after a … Read more

Google's ad quality changes imminent

Attention advertisers: a promised change to Google's AdWords quality-judging method will take effect in coming days.

The change adjusts Google's calculation of advertiser's quality score--a key factor in determining how much the advertiser must bid to ensure ads are placed next to search results. With the new system, quality is calculated at the time a Google user performs a search, though historical data such as an advertiser's click-through rate still factor into the equation, Google's Trevor Claiborne said on its AdWords blog on Monday.

Given the size of the industry that's grown up around … Read more

Featured Freeware: Jarte

The first thing users of this freeware WordPad/Notepad replacement will notice is the unusual interface. Jarte actually uses a simple layout, with a default brushed-metal skin and mouse-over icons that reveal standard Menu bar drop-down menus, but this isn't your basic 1990s user interface. Just the mere fact of having something different to look at is appealing, and generally, it works well. The icons are a bit small, and there's a fair bit of empty space around them so they look somewhat bereft of context.

It turns out Jarte has two other interface schemes. One is an … Read more

Five quick-and-simple Microsoft Word timesavers

You can use Microsoft Word for years and still find new ways to get more work done in less time. Here are a handful of fast-and-easy productivity boosters.

Create outlines out of lists Word 2007 adds a handy outline list to the standard bullet and numbered lists available on Word 2003's Formatting toolbar (the Paragraphs section under the Home tab of Word 2007's ribbon). You can create an outline from an existing list in either version by placing the cursor in the line you want to indent (or outdent, as the case may be) and clicking the Increase … Read more

Jarte injects form and function to WordPad

It's hard not to be a big fan of Notepad alternatives. Just a little extra effort brings some exceptionally useful tools to that utility, and what NoteTab Light and others do for Notepad, freeware Jarte does for WordPad.

Pronounced "JAR-tay", the first thing users will notice about it is the unusual interface. I liked it, although if I go the rest of my life without seeing a brushed-metal skin again, I'd somehow manage to live. Otherwise, it's a simple layout, and perhaps too minimalist for some. Where the Toolbar and Menubar would usually live, there'… Read more