The great thing from mounting an ISO image and zip file is that you don't have to install a separate ISO reader or editor and zip file launcher to read or write. You can directly access an ISO as a read-only folder without first burning it. You can open zip files and execute any application inside without extraction and thus loads faster. This efficient access is exactly what is being offered by Pismo File Mount Audit Package, a freeware that is being developed by Pismo Technic Inc.

Besides the feature above, Pismo also enables you to create a private folder for your secret files or documents, protecting them from being accessed by any other unauthorized user in an compressed and encrypted container.

For commands execution convenience, it integrates most of the available commands into the shell so you can execute them immediately through the right-click menu and drag-drop actions. All commands are also accessible by command line.

Pismo File Mount Audit Package is free for both personal and business use. It supports Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Windows Server 2008 for both 32 and 64 bit.

---

Add, delete, move, insert, and edit each item of CSV contents as though they were in a database table with CSVed. A small, free portable application built specifically for manipulating CSV document, separated with any separator. There are just a lot of things you can do with this excellent software.

You can use its built-in search feature, check and repair errors, append and merge files, remove duplicates, save your CSV in other file formats (HTML, RTF, TXT, Microsoft Word and Excel), export CSV to clipboard or XML with selectable charset, and more.

CSVed is an excellent freeware available for Windows users. Besides the portable version, the developer also provides the installer.

---

MonkeySee is a unique site where you can show off your expertise or tell people how to do things in form of an interactive video of your own creation, and where you can search for a how-to video. The category it includes is virtually unlimited from parenting, personal finance, food and drink, mechanical, beauty and fashion, games, education and career, sports, and more. If your video doesn't fit any specific category, you can upload it to the "others" category.

Landing on the site's front page you can find many interesting tutorial videos as the featured and recommended ones are displayed first on the road. How to fry chicken, how to learn basic ballet, forward flip skateboard trick are some of the recommended videos when I was visiting the site.

As a visitor, you aren't required to register to view the videos. But of course there are some benefits you are missing when you're not a registered viewer such as the ability to bookmark your favorite videos and critique a disputable video.

If you're interested to upload a how-to video, find out the detail of supported video file formats in its technical standards for expert videos page. Besides being able to utilize this service as one of your effective personal or professional promotional tool, you have opportunity to earn big money by joining its Filmmaker program. However, a high skill and loads of experiences in producing videos is a must here. The amount you can make is ranging from $200 - $500 for the simplest videos and up to $2000 for more advanced videos. Interesting, isn't it?

Personally I love the minimalist sense of the design. Every aspect is well-placed so that you can find what you need easily. It doesn't cluttered with excessive ads.

Moreover, since registered users can flag a questionable video for the facts being presented within, and the video is then reviewed by the MonkeySee's reviewers, the quality standard of each how-to video is virtually preserved from time to time. So I think it is reasonable to search for a step-by-step tutorial video in this site first before using the search engines.

---

Docx is the new extension introduced by Microsoft in its Microsoft Word 2007 product. As in Windows, the previous versions of Microsoft Office in Mac cannot open docx file unless a specific reader is installed.

For Mac user, Microsoft has specifically provided a tool, which is still in beta release, to convert docx file format to another compatible format. It's called Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac. The download link can be found here

Beside docx, this converter is able to convert other Open XML formats such as PowerPoint Presentation (pptx), Powerpoint Template (potx), Powerpoint Show (ppsx), and Word Macro-Enabled Document (docm).

However, you may sometime find that the conversion doesn't give a good result as this tool is still in beta release. Another thing to note is that it only supports Mac OS X 10.4.8 (Tiger) or a later version of Mac OS and the conversion result can only be opened with Office 2004 11.3.4 or later, or Office v. X 10.1.9 or later.

If you don't have Microsoft Office installed, you can try the converter widget of the docx-converter.

---

Docx is the newest microsoft word file extension that isn't able to be opened without the presence of an additional tool. What if one of your colleagues send you an important file in docx format? Should you buy the Microsoft Word 2007 just to view and read it? Fortunately, you shouldn't, and you don't have to own any Microsoft Word version.

It is possible since the launching of Word 2007 Viewer by Microsoft. Word Viewer is a free helper for you to open and read docx even if you don't have any Microsoft Word installed in your computer. Note that you should also download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack to be able to use it.

You should, however, know that it does have limitations. The docx file you open and read with it may lose some of its original formats due to the absence of some of the Microsoft Word 2007 features in Word Viewer. The docx document can't be edited, and you can't create a new one with it as well.

If the file is really crucial and include some formattings supported only by Microsoft Word 2007 and demand to be edited, I suggest you to buy it. Even if you convert it to other formats, there are still some document formattings that may not be supported.

The download link of Word 2007 Viewer can be found here.

---

How to split mp3 into multiple tracks? How to split mp3 every X time without having to define each split point manually? Is it possible to do so? Yes, it is. In fact, it is very easy that anyone can do it straight away. To do this we need DirectMp3Cut. This is one of the free MP3 cutters that has been widely used especially in MP3 cutting. This program provides a tool that makes splitting a large mp3 into multiple parts can be done without hassle. The download link of DirectMP3Cut is here.

• Open your mp3 song.
• Click the "Special" menu and select "Auto Cue".
• Set the splits by specifying a cue every X minute or second.
• Click the "File" menu and select "Save split" to save all the individual tracks.
• Modify the files name the way you want with the available options, and press Ok when it is done.

---

Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro have been widely used for photo and image editing so far. The features they offer are undeniable qualities of functionalities needed by most photographers or home users (who like to take pictures). But the price everyone has to pay to have them isn't something everyone can afford.

So, here you are. The free photo editors which I think the best ones for the no-cost replacement or to be used as a companion if you already have either of them (Photoshop and other similar commercial programs). They are excellent for both novice and experienced photographers.

PhotoFiltre

Photofiltre is by far the most often photo editor I use because of its wide variety of tools yet pretty easy to use, small memory consumption, and fast loading. Why open Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro or even GIMP to perform simple advanced photo retouching tasks while it enables you to do so without longer waiting for the loading and going through all the learning curve?

It indeed lacks of layer functionality, but it packages all the usual image editing functions you can find in any commercial photo editor such as cropping, resizing, selection, brush, red eye removal, image adjustment tools, etc.

Clone stamp for copying or erasing portions of an image, magic wand to select areas of similar color, automatic cropper, image converter to icon, transparency mask, and photo masque are also available.

A lot of effects for image manipulations are offered as well, plus the free additional plugins you can get at the maker's homepage. Batch processing for some image processing tasks is also supported.

Combine this with your favorite free image viewer and you will have an excellent pair of digital photo tools. Or put it into your open-with list so you can open any image within the program, ready to be edited, directly from Windows explorer.

GIMP & GIMPshop

GIMP is absolutely the most well-known free alternative to Photoshop that works under Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Sun OpenSolaris, and FreeBSD. You'll have everything you need here to produce a great digital art outcome. Versatile digital photo retouching tools, layer editing support, digital image processing features, and plugins to extend the capabilities.

Some people, however, don't feel comfortable with the user interface. This inspired the creation of GIMPshop, a GIMP duplicate resembling Adobe Photoshop's interface.

GIMPshop includes all of the advantages of GIMP except the Photoshop plugins support. The interface replication itself is intended to make Photoshop users easier to adapt with it. Additionally, the interface similarity makes you possible to practice many Photoshop tutorials using GIMPshop with a little or even no adaptation effort at all.

Photoscape

Photoscape is a superb photo editor for every quick fix you may ever want to do. It is a combination of an image explorer, photo editing suite, and extra graphic-related tools such as screen capturer and advanced printing options.

Remove red eye, add balloon speech to photos, join multiple photos, create an animated gif from a sequence of pictures, edit several photos at once, convert RAW to JPG, enhance photo quality by adjusting it automatically or manually, add frames and masks, and many more to have.

As it doesn't support layer and third party plugins integration, Photoscape may not be the perfect tool for a precise photo editing especially for an expert with advanced needs, but it is definitely fantastic for normal usages or quick fixes for particularly average users.

By the way, although it doesn't offer open plugin architecture, it offers an interesting set of built-in plugins.

Photobie

Photobie is another free photo editors with a large number of editing functions assembled into one sweet package. It is a delight to use since the size is relativley smaller than Photoscape yet include various quick-editing utilities, advanced layer options and management, and supports thousands of free Photoshop .8bf filter plug-ins.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET offers a wide array of photo tools. Think of it as a simpler version of GIMP and GIMPshop. Though it doesn't feature options as many as them both, its plugins availability can be freely downloaded to expand its capabilities and to maximize its performance. The growing supporter community guarantees the increasing number of new plugins as well.

Paint.NET's user interface is a combination of beauty and simplicity, making it easy and comfortable to learn and use. You will be able to use all of its features without too much adaptation effort.

It includes a number of special effects such as sharpening, embossing, distortion, 3D rotate/zoom to add perspective and tilting, and more. Other tools include shape drawer, gradient creator, magic wand selection, and clone stamp. The unlimited action history makes you possible to redo any action you have mistakenly performed. Layer editing is surely supported here.

Pixia

Fast loading, unlimited layer creation, and the possibility to use customized brushes are just one of its special abilities. Originally Pixia was a Japanese graphic painting and retouch application, but due to its popularity it is then expanded for non-Japanese users. It is now available in Hungarian, English, French, Chinese, German, Polish, Spanish, Korean, and Italian editions.

However, I found this program is the most difficult app to learn due to its not so user-friendly user interface. Make sure you download the help file, if not you will be likely end up circling around endlessly when trying to perform some editing tasks. Visit also the community page for more tutorials.

You may be wondering why I consider a difficult-to-use program like this is deserved to be mentioned here. Well, if you're curious that much, download it, read the manual, learn it, and you'll find the answer.

---

There is another way to open and read rar content other than converting it to zip. You don't even to wait for any file archiver loading the package as usual as this program can open rar directly. It is not a specific rar opener though, it is actually a total windows explorer replacement named Free Commander that is free and much much more powerful. One of its many abilities is to open and extract rar.

There is no specific way to open rar. Just click it twice as you open a folder and it will be instantly opened within the program's window. If you want to extract its content, press Alt + F6 and then choose to which folder it should be extracted.

---

If you need a program to easily fix your underexposed or overexposed photo, give this program a try. The simplicity of Free Digital Camera Enhancer makes it great for improving your photo quality.

Once you load your photo, it automatically perform some adjustment based on the default sliders position. But of course you can change them freely until you get the most optimal setting. Fix the brightness, soften photo to reduce too much noise, and balancing color and details.

It supports bmp, jpg, pcx, png, tga, tif, wmf, pax. Licensed as freeeware by MediaChance and works under Windows. Unfortunately you have to buy the pro version if you intend to fix multiple photos at once. Yes, it is a freeware to market the shareware version.

Related Post:

• Reduce JPEG Photo and Image Size By Compressing With JPEG Express
• Control Photo Noise - Reduce or Eliminate Photo Noise
• Photo and Image Rotator For Lossless Rotation
• Kodak, Cokin, & Hoya Color Photo Filters

---

Do you have any archive format isn't supported by your current archive extractor? Try Universal Extractor, which is free and works under Windows platform. It can extract from a simple zip or rar to installation packages like Inno Setup and Windows installer (.msi). It supports a wide range of archive types.

Like the creator says, it isn't intended to be a general archiving program. So don't expect for any bell and whistles an archiver usually has. It just lets you to add the extraction commands to the right-click menu during its installation process. It is simply an extractor, but it does its job very well. Try to take a look at the list of the supported archive formats at the publisher's site.

---

Always minimize Firefox, Mozilla Suite, Thunderbird, and NVU to the tray area instead to the taskbar every time you click the minimize or close button. Restore the position by clicking or optionally double-clicking the icons at the tray. Some commands can be accessed through the right-click of the icon of each application.

The quicker way to send these apps to the tray is by pressing Ctrl + Shift + M, but there is no way to restore the display using hotkey. The new feature it promises for the next version include options to place Firefox icon to the tray with its accessible menus though no browser window is open, or the possibility for the Thunderbird to be launched directly into the tray when you receive a new message in your inbox.

Minimizetotray

Related post:

• How to Minimize Every Window to Tray
• How to Hide Visible Window and Its Taskbar Button Completely - Hide It!

---

JPEG Express is a very handy tool when it comes the time to compress your JPEG and convert BMP pictures to JPEG to get the possible slimmest size while maintaining enough quality degree. The original and the modified are displayed side by side to easily watch the effect of each of the image adjustment.

The quality is adjusted by means of a slider. You are able to see instantly how the photo will be look like and how much its file size will be as you move the slider.

The strange thing: the preview screen can't be enlarged though the window itself can be maximized. However, by default the preview screen has relatively had reasonable size to effectively view and compare the photos.

Beside able to compare both images in detail part, they can be compared in full-screen to see how the difference takes place in the entirety. The other options let you to move the preview's focues to the center of the photos, and if you want to take a look of how the adjustment affect each photo you can double-click each to view it in full-screen single mode.

JPEG Express -- freeware, for Windows 95 / 98 / XP / NT / Vista

---

RTF Convertor is a free program letting you to convert multiple or single .rtf to .pdf, .xls, .jpg, .bmp, .png, .svg, .html, lotus, and QuattroPro. It throws in some interesting options such as ability to assign a unique hotkey for each different conversion task, perform basic editing to the rtf document in single mode, splitted panel in single mode for conversion to html, flexible print preview, and possibility to customize the conversion result for all extensions.

Its flexible hotkey association makes you able to convert rtf to any of the supported formats easier. You can, for example, assign Alt + 1 to convert rtf to pdf, or Ctrl + M to convert to xls. Another option is to set a default format so when the convert button is pressed the program automatically converts the document to the pre-defined format.

If you, for instance, decide to convert it to pdf, and you activate the option "Show Advanced Setup Dialog on Export" previously, you can do some adjustments: make every link in the pdf active, which pages to be converted, which items to be rendered (text, image, shape), embed some information, compress the size, lock with up to 128bit password, set user permissions (to copy, modify, print, etc.), and so on.

However, don't activate the option if you plan to convert multiple files. The Advanced Setup dialog will pop up after each file processing. So if you have five documents, the dialog window will be displayed five times. This, however, can be solved by first converting one file and make the desired adjustment in the dialog. After that turn the option off and start to convert several files at once. The previous adjustment setting will be applied to all. Just remember not to close the application before you finish converting as it can't remember the configuration on exit.

RTF Convertor works under Windows 98 / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003.

---

Batch PNG to JPG is a free program letting you convert png to jpg images as many as you want. You simply add any file you want, or just pick the container folder to get all the png images contained within converted into jpg at one click.

You can remove any file from the conversion list, or clear the list completely to replace with the new one in case you change your mind of which images should be converted. The quality controller in form of a slider letting you to freely choose which is matter most to you: the quality or the size of the images.

It also allows you to preview the images first to make sure that they're the right ones to be converted. Unfortunately, the drawback here is that you can't preview all of them at once. There is no option to change the list display to thumbnail mode. So it may be better to check them first in Windows explorer or in your image viewers before adding them into the list.

Batch PNG to JPG is a freeware for Windows and the download link can be found here.

---

Impressive. I like it instantly after a few seconds running it, and like it even more now after for some time using it.

The functions within are organized in such a way that makes you able to preview and compare installed and uninstalled fonts the way you want right away, perform some categorizations, add notes, read the fonts information, and display your separately located font collections in multiple panels yet still in one main window.

While you can view all the font variations at once, the ability to view only the selected fonts is great when you need to compare some fonts. You can select the fonts by simply highlighting them using Ctrl/Shift + mouse-click, or based on the type of the fonts.

The size of the fonts displayed can be adjusted by the slider. You can also add sample text as many as you like and delete the no longer necessary. In the fonts preview panel, you can quickly switch between them using drop-down list and create new text in real-time. The text's fonts and background's color themselves can optionally be changed as well.

The possibility to categorize any font you like into different unique groups is very helpful especially when you have different design-related projects requiring different perfect fonts for each.

The Font Thing -- free, Windows 95 / 98 / XP

---

The idea of this freeware Ebook to Images is to convert ebook in any common format (pdf, txt, html, htm, doc, lit) into images (JPG, BMP, PNG) so it can be read on portable devices such as iPhone, Sony PSP, Creative Zen, or other MP3 Players that don't support ebook reading but can view images.

Load your pdf, adjust the screen resolution, modify the font, add page number, enable anti-aliasing, use your own bakcground if you want to, change the orientation, rotate, and do the convert whenever everything has been already set up.

Converting pdf into images will reasonably result larger size than the actual pdf due to the number of the images produced. In this case it may be better to convert it into jpg rather than into other formats since it allows you to adjust the quality of the output, thereby reducing the size.

Ebook to Images is compatible with Windows, but requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.

---