Sometimes it is nice to use a specialised knowledge or Project manager to present times and keep track of money and similar things. these are nice tools to make path plans and similar, for all that are tired of colouring excel fields
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/
http://www.dotproject.net/index.php
http://www.ganttproject.biz/
http://timios.net/gantt/more.html
this is one of the thousand good mind mapping tools, or concept browsers
(simple mindmaps can be done by libre office by the way too this goes
however far beyond this. knowledge oganised with this tools can be easily
structured:
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.thinkgraph.com/english/index.htm
http://cmap.ihmc.us/
http://www.conzilla.org/wiki/Download/Main
Research suite
Docear tries to combine mind manager and reference manager and pdf
collector in one suite, it is an intersting free concept:
http://www.docear.org/software/download/
Live interactive editor, offers a server to work on but also the
possibility to work on your own server Etherpad:
http://etherpad.org/
ever more people are using tablets or external pen driven input. Beside note taking, also the function of working with a pen on pdf files (corrections...) is very useful if you are already using OneNote(not free but part of any larger Microsoft office package) then simple drag and drop a pdf file an an empty note and save it afterwards as pdf there are free alternatives
I have now been using Joplin for a while with good success
https://joplinapp.org
Jamal is a note taking software that lays a transparent over any file you
use (or a white paper) (import pdf as "background")
http://sourceforge.net/projects/javaamal/
Notelab is a very nice note taking software that saves everything as svg,
the new version now allows commenting from pdf but still is a bit buggy.
It was programmed for writing formulas by hand
http://java-notelab.sourceforge.net/features.html
(hint, if the software does not start the start script has an error,
search the line that starts with "java" and change the the "java" to the
path your java is installed, if your path contains spaces you have to put
the whole path in citation marks ("))
Xournal works in the same way like jarnal but is not as far developed yet
http://xournal.sourceforge.net/
There are many Office packages out there. Most Universities provide site
licences for the Microsoft packages. I however prefer the Open source
alternatives
Libreoffice/OpenOffice - Even if there might be stories, the software has
devolved a lot can now open and write all word/excel and powerpoint files)
(the drawing module is good for making vector graphics)
There has been a split in the project and there are now two software
Libreoffice and Openoffice
I would recommend Libreoffice, it has all the features the developers of
openoffice didn't want to put directly in the software and it is
compatible to all old openoffice versions (maybe the once to come to I
don't know this) advantages:opens svg, presenter view included, has nice
fitting routines in the excel module, and is more stable
the new: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/
the old:http://www.openoffice.org/
A really nice feature for presentations in libreoffice is the presenter
view. View the main presentation on the main screen and see the next
slides, all slides or your presentation comments on the laptop only
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Presenter_Screen
in microsoft office this feature is included in the later versions (after
2003).
A less powerfull but also smaller version is Abiword http://www.abisource.com/
a simple editor for changing CSV files (column files with different
seperators and/or other forms) especially useful if files are to be
imported into software like scidavis
http://csved.sjfrancke.nl/index.html
Simple Text editor for writing code! At the end this is what matters and
everything else does just distract, or an advanced version with tabs and
syntax highlighting (for matlab and co) might be found in http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Converter between office versions
ODF and openXML (this is actually all you ever will need!)
http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/index.html
For software allowing you to write with a pen on pdf files see
Note taking software
PDF Tools
PDFcreator (looks for you like a printer, but keeps the Vector data (high
quality)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
PDF Sam works also fine http://www.pdfsam.org/
if you want to combine PDF, take out pages or other simple things I
recommend http://www.angusj.com/pdftkb/#pdftkbuilder
With this little tool you can compare pdfs after appearance and content,
usefull for proof checking http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html
in the standard free PDF viewer (Acrobat) you can copy text, copy vector
graphics, take a snapshot of pictures and comment in the pdf
a faster alternative would be Foxit reader (very strong commenting
features)
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/
SumatraPdf is even faster and does not lock the opened PDF file
(good for working with LATEX)
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html
If you organize a meeting or conference it is often useful to use a
little tool showing the presenter his remaining time. While i didn't find
the perfect tool yet and will try to write my own i found several tools
that come close and might be enough for most users:
This is a small executable that does a very good job. First white on black
last five minutes green last 3 yellow last red and then flashing. it is so
small and doesn't need to be installed and they allow redistribution that
i attach it here including the readme file http://www.cicling.org/timer/
This version is also very nice, the payed version offers more
possibilities but the free one has only a few increments, a bar is
retreating and changing trafik light like the colours during the last
fractions of the presentation. It needs to be installed and only works
with mayor increments, it is however scale able and adjusts the font
during the rescale
http://www.exp-systems.com/MeetingTimer/Features.htm
this page has a totally different approach. It provides a powerpoint
presentation with fancy transitions that corresponds to one minute
intervals. so simply by running the presentation one gets the wished for
timer, nice different designs available. http://www.m62.net/powerpoint-slides/conference-slides/powerpoint-countdown-timer/
this is a fancy tool for bible studies but if programmed right can show
the next speakers in row, count and show the time and organize a full
meeting. to bad that the theme is hard-coded. You won't get rid of the
bible background. (download "congregation meeting timer" on the left side
of the page http://www.publictalkscheduler.org/
As usual there is an APP for this:
up to three times very simple and straight foward: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tmurakam.presentationtimer
several presentations with different times can be programmed in advance
and the bell can ring automatically: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mikufu_works.presentationtimer
simple and does what it should presentationtimer pro (still free!) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrisallenlane.presentationtimerpro
Disporoom is a very nice online service that lets people schedule rooms.
They offer hosting and everything for up to 10 rooms for everybody and 20
rooms for non profits (registration) http://www.disporoom.com/en/
This tool works either on one pc or as a web based application (have not
tried): https://code.google.com/p/rapla/
MBRS requires your own server but looks like a nice browser based solution
:http://mrbs.sourceforge.net/
For scheduling on your own server phpSchedulIt is a very nice open source
solution. Offering quota and similar things http://www.php.brickhost.com/
its own server is also needed for "openroom" including php and mysql: http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/getopenroom/
To schedule meetings www.doodle.com is a
very usefull tool. But there are some more specialized tools for this (to
come later ;o) )
Little tool for post processing of scanned book pages
http://scantailor.sourceforge.net/
Online Tool to convert different file formats into each other. Very useful
to not have to have one tool for each formats
http://www.docspal.com/ (attention, you upload your pdf
to a server, this means that the company can see your documents, this is
not recommendable for sensitive documents, see the "PDF" link for
alternatives)
Online tool to create pdf's also from many pictures. This is the producer
from Foxit pdf reader. So I understand their buisness model and this seems
reliable (check the top bar for more options and file types). https://www.foxitsoftware.com/jpg-to-pdf/
For smartphones I recommend Genius Scan:
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thegrizzlylabs.geniusscan.free&hl=en
Iphone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/genius-scan-pdf-scanner/id377672876
Pandoc seams to have similar capabilities in an offline program, but i did
not test it yet http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/index.html