101 Free Online Alternatives to Popular Desktop Software

Many of us are quite familiar with the suites of office tools that come with our computers, and in fact, we use them every day for a wide variety of word processing tasks. However, the Web offers many free online alternatives to these (sometimes quite pricey) software packages that work just as well or better than their offline equivalents. Here are one hundred and one free online alternatives to popular desktop software packages, ranging from slideshows to email managers to document creation to file management.

Backdrop: Jamie Farrant/iStock Vectors/Getty Images

1.  Word Processing

• Google Docs: Free online office suite that offers document processing, spreadsheets, even work collaboration.
• Acrobat: Create PDF files, convert files, and make forms.
• PDFescape: Free PDF form editor within your browser; can also use it to fill in PDF forms online.
• OpenOffice: Free open source productivity package that is similar to Microsoft Office.
• AbiWord: Simple word processing program; multiple people can collaborate on one project.
• Zoho: A free online word processor that works within your Web browser. Share, collaborate, edit, create.
• NumSum: Create and share Web spreadsheets.
• Writer: Simple writing utility meant to encourage concentration and focus.
• CKEditor: Web-based text editor.
• NeoOffice: Full office suite for Mac users.

2.  Communication

• Meebo: Centralized dashboard for several different instant messaging programs.
• TokBox: Live group video chat anywhere, anytime.
• faxZERO: A free fax tool you can use on your computer (covered more fully in Five Ways to Send a Free Fax Online).
• Google Voice: A centralized online space for phone calls and voice messages.
• OoVoo: Free video chat from mobile to mobile, mobile to computer; up to six people at once.
• eBuddy: Web-based instant messaging that works on any computer; integration of all popular chat programs.
• Pidgin: Instant messaging plugin for simultaneous chat networks.
• Trillian: Chat client for computer and phone.

3.  Presentations

• Sliderocket: Easy to use with many of the same features as PowerPoint.
• Prezi: Create high quality presentations completely online.
• ScreenCastle: Free screencast recorder you can use to film activity within your browser.
• Vcasmo: Multimedia presentation tool with a wide variety of interactive features.
• Empressr: Presentations with photo, music, audio, and video; can embed anywhere on the Web.
• Animoto: Slideshows from videos and photos.
• Flixtime: Video slideshows with sophisticated graphics.
• PhotoPeach: Free slideshow utility.
• SlideShare: Share your presentations with others.
• Screenr: Instant screencasts with a Web-based screen recorder.
• Storify: Make slideshows using social media content.
• Vuvox: Produce videos using your own multimedia.

4.  Security

• ESET Online Virus Scanner: Finds and removes threats; not intended as a full security suite, but a good option.
• LastPass: Keeps track of all your passwords in one convenient, secure location.
• VirusTotal: Identifies suspicious files or URLs.
• ClamXAV: Free virus scanner for Mac computers.
• Virscan: Free Web-based file scanner; upload a file and it will scan it for infections.
• Avira: Free antivirus protection program for home computers.
• Avast: Free protection against viruses and spyware.
• AVG Rescue CD: Helps you identify deep-rooted virus/spyware infections and get your computer working again.
• MalwareBytes: Scans your computer for spyware, malware, and viruses.
• Microsoft Security Essentials: Free antivirus protection from Microsoft.

5.  Image and Video Management and Manipulation

• Aviary: Similar to Photoshop; all sorts of image manipulation/editing tools here.
• JayCut: A free online video editor.
• Splashup: Free image editor and photo manager.
• SmugMug: Free photo management tool.
• Vixy: Download videos and convert them into playable formats for your computer.
• Miro: Converts video files for playback on computers and mobile devices.
• Talon: Instant screenshot utility; also available as a Google Chrome extension.
• GIMP: Offers many of the same features as Adobe Photoshop; free image editing program.
• Pixlr: Online photo editor with menu of advanced effects.
• Rsizr: Re-sizes images fast.
• FotoFlexer: Advanced Web-based photo editor.
• Picnik: Browser-based photo editor with menu of special effects.

6.  Organizational Tools

• Evernote: Jot notes, take pictures, and organize your thoughts and online life in one place.
• Springpad: Save, organize, and remind yourself with Springpad's easy to use interface.
• Toodledo: Type in what your day looks like, and Toodledo organizes it into a personalized to-do list.
• Toggl: Tracks time spent on task so you can more easily bill it.
• iClippy: Captures data from anything you copy and paste (text, video, images) and puts it in one convenient place.
• Zootool: Organizes all your Web bookmarks into a searchable index.
• MyNoteIt: Geared towards students; a great way to organize notes and share with others.
• Remember the Milk: Management of all online or offline tasks.

7.  Calculators, Graphs, and Financial Management

• Mint: Similar to Quicken, Mint offers one of the most robust financial management dashboards on the market.
• Instacalc: For any mathematical computation you might need. Includes scientific notations.
• Gliffy: Create free diagrams, graphs, flowcharts, and technical drawings.
• Web 2.0 Calc: Scientific calculator with standard functions.
• Create a Graph: Easy online graphs for simple projects.
• GnuCash: Free accounting software for home and business use.
• Hourly Rate Calculator: Helpful for freelancers who are trying to figure out how much to bill clients.
• Buxfer: Free online money management with an intuitive dashboard.
• Yodlee: Track spending, pay bills, and control your budget.
• eCalc: Scientific calculator available online and as a download.

8.  File Management, File Sharing, File Conversion, and File Organization

• WobZip: Unzip compressed files, either from your computer or online.
• Zamzar: Fantastic tool for file conversion with dozens of file formats available.
• WebFTPer: Browser-based FTP (file transfer protocol) tool; manage your website files from anywhere with an Internet connection.
• Movavi: Free file conversion tool that converts multiple files at the same time (limited file size/length).
• Ubikuo: Storage of online notes available anywhere with an Internet connection.
• Dropbox: Free file hosting service that allows users to access their files from anywhere.
• eSnips: Upload, share, or download files, photos, videos, or music.
• Mediafire: Free hosting and sharing for any file.
• YouConvertIt: Free file conversion for wide variety of file types.

9.  Project Management and Project Collaboration

• Pirate Pad: Streamlined notepad application that enables anyone anywhere to collaborate on a project in real time.
• Mindmeister: Free brainstorming tool with collaborative features; free but does include tiered pricing options for more features.
• Bubbl.us: Highly functional brainstorming tool that can be used in tandem with other people.
• Mindomo: Collaborative mind-mapping tool; real time sharing and file uploads.
• Meeting Wizard: Arrange and schedule meetings between multiple people groups.
• Writeboard: Collaborative web-based text document creator/editor.
• Vyew: Free real time meetings, collaboration, annotations.

10.  Lists, Calendars, and Productivity Tools

• 30 Boxes: Track birthdays, friends, and tasks with this interactive calendar tool.
• TaDa List: Web-based list maker; make lists and share lists.
• Monkey On Your Back: A to-do list for what you would like other people to get done.
• TimeXChange: Task tracking with time/project features.
• Todoist: Personal project tracking and management.
• Tom's Planner: Personal project management via charts.
• Evernote: Organize your notes, photos, videos, etc. in one place for easy access.
• LiveBinders: Collect online "resources" and organize them easily.
• Doodle: Create and manage events for multiple participants.
• Upcoming: Track event calendars in your local area.
• Google Calendar: Make multiple calendars, share events, track workflow.

Source: http://websearch.about.com/od/web20officealternatives/tp/101-Free-Online-Alternatives-To-Popular-Desktop-Software.htm

Textmarker: Mark text temporarily or permanently in Firefox

By Martin Brinkmann on July 27, 2015 in Firefox - Last Update: July 27, 2015 3

Textmarker is an easy to use browser extension for Firefox that allows you to mark text on web pages you visit temporarily or permanently.
Web browsers don't come with options to highlight text on web pages, at least not in their default state.
This may sometimes be necessary or desired, for instance when you use a resource regularly and want to make sure that the most important information are highlighted for better accessibility.
With Textmarker for Firefox, things could not be easier. To highlight text simple select it using mouse or keyboard, and hit m afterwards to use the first configured color for the highlighting.
You may hit 2 or 3 instead to mark with different colors instead, and if you don't like the default color scheme for a shortcut, you may modify it in the options.



There you may modify the background color but also other parameters such as formatting options, a different text color or size and font.
Textmarker adds an entry to the context menu of the mouse which you may use instead to highlight text on pages you visit in Firefox.
Changes are temporary by default but can be made permanent with a tap on Ctrl-Shift-S. If you think that this is too much work, you may change this directly in the options so that all changes are saved automatically and persist across sessions.



The control options page provides you with options to enable or disable select features. You may disable mouse support there for instance, or disable one of the markers or other functionality that you don't require.
As you can see on the screenshot above, additional shortcuts are provided, for instance to undo the last action or to use the built-in Wikipedia look up option which opens the term you have highlighted on Wikipedia in a new tab in the browser.
Another interesting feature is the extension's built-in bookmarking functionality which scrolls the text automatically to the lowermost bookmark on consecutive visits. This can be useful if you are reading a book online or access a large text on a site that you cannot read in a single session.
Closing Words
Textmarker is a useful add-on for Firefox that adds text highlighting to the browser. While that would be great itself, its the extra features like bookmarking or permanent highlighting that make it shine.

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/27/textmarker-mark-text-temporarily-or-permanently-in-firefox/

Major Vulnerability In Adobe Flash Found, Here’s How To Disable It In Your Web Browser

By Ben Reid | February 3rd, 2015

n news that won’t shock too many, a major flaw has been discovered in Flash. Yet another zero-day vulnerability for the video plugin software to add to the collection, this particular variant leaves PCs susceptible to hijacking, and if you want to protect yourself by quickly disabling flash, we’ll be showing you how to do so below.
Despite its ubiquity, Adobe’s Flash Player has come under huge scrutiny over the past decade, and seems to typify everything bad about a piece of software. It’s resource-hungry, buggy and sluggish, throwing up vulnerabilities like confetti, and the latest – CVE-2015-0313 – has left Adobe with its third exploit to patch in just two weeks, but with large parts of the tech community shunning Flash in their droves, we’re going to show you how to disable it once and for all.



Firefox
Step 1: Open up the Firefox browser.
Step 2: Hit the Settings icon represented by three horizontal lines in the top right-hand corner.
Step 3: Click Addons, then Plugins.



Step 4: Next to any Shockwave or Flash-related objects, you’ll see a drop-down menu. Click on it, and set it to ‘Never Activate.’



Internet Explorer
Step 1: Open your IE browser.
Step 2: Hit the Settings icon represented by the gear-like image in the top right-hand corner.
Step 3: Select ‘Manage add-ons’ from the drop-down menu.



Step 4: Under the ‘Show:’ drop-down, select ‘All add-ons.’



Step 5: Finally, select Shockwave Flash Object, and in the bottom right-hand corner, select ‘Disable.’



Opera
Step 1: Open up Opera.
Step 2: In the URL bar, type “about:plugins.”
Step 3: Navigate down to Adobe Flash Player and select ‘Disable.’



Chrome
Step 1: Open Chrome.
Step 2: In the URL bar, once again type “about:plugins.”
Step 3: Navigate down to Adobe Flash Player and select ‘Disable.’



Safari
Step 1: Open Safari.
Step 2: Click on Safari in the Menu bar and then ‘Preferences.’



Step 3: Now click on ‘Security.’
Step 4: Click on the ‘Website Settings…’ button next to ‘Allow Plugins.’



Step 5: Select ‘Adobe Flash Player’ from the left hand-side menu and then select ‘Block’ in the ‘When visiting other websites’ drop-down menu.



There’s no fix for the (latest) 0-day vulnerability as yet, but irrespective of Adobe’s plans to release one in the very near future, your best bet is to disable Flash indefinitely and continue about your business.
The Internet has evolved to the point where enabling Flash is no longer a necessity for day-to-day browsing, something which was further cemented by YouTube in its latest move to ditch Flash completely, and by following the steps outlined in the tutorials above, you’re actually safeguarding yourself from the continued, inevitable issues that arise with this antiquated piece of software.
You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the Web.

Source: http://www.redmondpie.com/disable-flash-in-chrome-firefox-safari-other-web-browsers-to-keep-your-pc-safe-from-vulnerabilities/

How to disable Adobe Flash in Firefox and Chrome

I have been annoyed by ads, audio, and YouTube videos in web pages for a long time.  I have tried a bunch of Firefox add-ons with mixed success. But this week I found a simple solution. Just tell the flash plug-in to ask permission before it loads. See the answer from the Mozilla forums.

Some pages have 3, 4, 5 or more adobe flash advertisements running at the same time, which slows the browser down tremendously. Then, if you happen to have multiple tabs open, the browser crawls to a virtual standstill, and many times, stops responding at all.
I would like to be able to choose whether or not a page can run flash content - not have it be something that runs all the time for every page, with the only option being to kill the plugincontainer process in taskmanager - which kills even the Adobe Flash items you might want to view; such as a youtube video.
Why is there not a way to turn Adobe Flash off in the browser? I have updated both Firefox and Adobe Flash but nowhere is there an option for turning it on or off depending on your needs.
Can a control be added to the Internet Options, that you can set, to have a page ask before it is allowed to run Flash Content? Having that kind of control would GREATLY enhance the enjoyment of browsing multiple pages. Any information on how to do this, would be appreciated.

Answer: hello, this is already possible in firefox: go to

firefox/tools > addons > plugins and set shockwave flash to ask to activate.

then the plugin will stay disabled per default but can be activated on a per-site basis...

Source: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/988836

Chrome
Step 1: Open Chrome.
Step 2: In the URL bar, once again type “about:plugins.”
Step 3: Navigate down to Adobe Flash Player and select ‘Disable.’





Source: http://www.redmondpie.com/disable-flash-in-chrome-firefox-safari-other-web-browsers-to-keep-your-pc-safe-from-vulnerabilities/

Use Internet Explorer's Built-in "Flash Block" Feature

It's no secret that using Flash Block in Firefox can help protect you from drive-by browser attacks, but what you might not know is that Internet Explorer has a Flash Blocker, of sorts, built right in.

Over at the Winhelponline blog, they've written up a guide to activating the hidden feature, which uses a built-in tweak that is normally used to kill ActiveX controls on specific websites, but can be reversed to only allow a plug-in to work on sites you specify. To make the change for yourself, just head into the Tools -> Manage Add-ons screen and double-click on Shockwave Flash in the list. Once you're there, click the Remove All Sites button to remove the default * option, which allows all sites to use Flash.

Once you've made the change, you'll be prompted anytime you visit a site that uses Flash, and you can enable Flash for just that single site. It's not as elegant of a solution as the Flash Block add-on for Firefox, but if you're stuck using Internet Explorer at work, it's a great way to keep yourself safe—not to mention blocking annoying Flash animations.

How to Disable Adobe Flash Animations for All but White-Listed Sites in Internet Explorer 8 [Winhelponline]

 

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5533694/use-internet-explorers-built-in-flash-block-feature