tools

Typing in different languages on the Web can be as easy as clicking on a browser button.

With the Google Input Tools extension for Chrome, you can easily type in multiple languages when typing an e-mail, filling out a Web form, or writing anything else on the Web. Here's how:

Step 1: Install the Google Input Tools extension from the Chrome Web Store.

Step 2: Click on the new browser button in the upper right-hand corner of the Chrome browser and select Extension Options. Choose the languages you want from the input tools list, then close the tab.

Step … Read more

Do you handle a lot of image files? Snapshots, archives, and pictures to upload can pile up, especially when they need to be resized, cropped, converted, or watermarked. Sometimes you just want a quick, easy way to do those jobs. Or maybe your PC didn't come bundled with a big-box graphics package and you just want a simple assortment of essential image tools. How about Image Tools? That's the name of IMDrops' free bundle of fast, powerful image apps that handle all the basics we mentioned, and more, including sharing screenshots and uploading image files.

Image Tools has … Read more

Organizing a meeting time with friends or colleagues can be tedious.

With so many schedules to accommodate and little insight into when, exactly, the participants are available, finding the golden time slot often involves a long, seemingly endless e-mail thread.

That's where Doodle comes in. The free service eases your scheduling stress by allowing you to create a poll of several proposed dates and times. Then, each participant indicates availability and a mutual time is found. Simple, right?

Although the service isn't new, I continue to introduce it to colleagues and marvel at the way their attitude changes … Read more

Anyone who works understands workflow as an intuitive concept, but analyzing, modeling, and designing workflow processes is another thing. Workflow Designer is a freeware workflow application that does much more than map out processes and procedures: it serves as a centralized access point for the data and graphics tools you need to create everything from drawings of simple processes to elaborate mind maps and process diagrams. The optional cloud-based Workflow Connect system gives users access to a wide range of modules to expand their capabilities on demand without committing to unneeded tools.

Workflow Designer opened with an optional tool tip, … Read more

Junior Icon Editor is a free graphics drawing tool optimized for creating and editing icons to use in Windows. You can create icons in sizes up to 64x64 pixels and 32-bit True Color. It includes a variety of standard drawing tools like paint brushes and text tools, and its tabbed interface lets you create several icons at once. You can set transparency, enlarge or reduce images, and smooth edges, among other functions. Once you've created and saved your custom icons, you can use them to replace other icons in Windows.

Junior Icon Editor is basically a simplified, specialized image … Read more

When it comes to protecting your PC, there's no substitute for full backups capable of resurrecting your system from total disaster. But we're also big fans of regular targeted backups of personal files, favorites, and other data you don't want to lose, especially if your big backups are fairly infrequent. To be sure none of your important stuff falls between the cracks, we recommend a specialized backup application like Yadis Backup from Codessentials. This free tool creates full, one-to-one backups of your important personal data, settings, and documents that you can access normally, without having to restore … Read more

Verizon goes all in for 4G, the first Android watch is pleasing on the eyes, and Google TV adds cloud gaming from OnLive.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded, from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

If you use pro audio applications with OS X and are finding they hang when launched, this could be because of faults with third-party drivers for your MIDI instruments.

Music software company Avid has a music-editing package called Pro Tools that you may have installed on your system if you work extensively with audio. This package supports MIDI devices, but early versions of the program may result in a driver conflict with Apple's CoreMIDI framework for handling these devices. As a result, if you have Pro Tools installed and try to launch other audio-editing applications then you may see … Read more

Last May, long before the iPhone 4S was released, a bunch of Facebook users got tricked into spreading spam by clicking on a link attached to this headline: "First Exposure: Apple iPhone 5."

People who normally ignore all the other scams involving purported free software or naked celebrity photos clicked that fake news link and even completed a captcha on a second site, which reposted the scam to their own Facebook stream. That probably says more about how fanatical people are about Apple products than anything else. But it did raise the question--what does it take to lure … Read more