Module 4 - Downloading Tools/Plug ins Task

1. Adobe PDF Reader

I already have Adobe's PDF Reader on every computer i own. I find this program one of the most used programs i have simply because it allows me to PDF anything i want. This is great because i can share my documents with other people that have all kinds of PDF viewers. It is user friendly, fast & has many built in features to collaborate your electronic documents. I mainly use this program for PDF'ing invoices, CV's, letters, spreadsheets, & financial data. When preparing something in word or excel it is easy to convert to a PDF file and send to a client, this also enables the client to see it in a clean format rather than opening the actual file use to create the document.

2. Shockwave player
So i clicked on the "Check this page" on webct to see if i have a flash or shockwave application, to my surprise it asked me to install the program. I really should invest in a good one so i installed the Adobe Flash Player . So i installed it, really quick & easy to do! I have to say though Adobe's website is incredible, just looking at there flash demonstration entices you to have their product! This program will come in handy when i download my favourite shows which i have always wanted to do but never got around to it :)

3. Media Player
I already have Windows Media Player which i think works great, again it is easy to use & loads really quickly. So i downloaded Real Time Player for this experiment. This website is also really hi-tech and up their with Adobe. SO i downloaded the Basic Real Player which was really easy to do. In a matter of minutes i had this brand new spanking player on my PC. When comparing to Media Player they both offer the same features & interact with many other programs. I think i like the look of Windows Media Player better when it comes to the actual play, stop, etc panel. Although i really like the Real Player features with it's built in online movie library, i love the fact that it is all right there and you don't need to go searching for movies. The only difference between the full featured player and basic is that you can't burn from this player which is fine because i use Nero for burning anyway. It also gives you 500 movies instead of 200 in the library but hey 200 movies is pretty good! And for what i'd use it for limited audio & visual control would be suitable for my needs.

4. Search Managers/Combiners
So i'm thinking..... A search manager, to be honest i've never used one before and do i really need it! Well let's download it and see what the fuss is all about... I chose Copernic for this experiment. Downloading the program was quick & easy to do, now to test the program to see if it works. Ok so i'm going to search for my concept project file which is currently in Microsoft word. Lets see if it can find it?
Yep, it quickly assembles the search results with your different criteria. So i tried a few more files and i have to say it is pretty accurate and so quick. I think this would be really good to use at work when searching in a client directory or my email directory to be able to find a file quickly, i always seem to have this problem and it takes me forever to find files sometimes, with Copernic it enables the user to gain access quickly & efficiently. Not bad at all!!! I don't think it will benefit using this program for private use but would definitely gain productivity time for business use. I also like the fact that it separates web results from desktop results, it is user friendly. However i have heard of scenarios where people have used search programs and were unable to locate the file or email even though they know it is on their hard drive! Has anyone experienced that and if it is true then why bother with a search program that doesn't do it's job.

5. Bookmark Manager

When learning about this in our topics i always thought that they would not be useful for me as i rarely would need to manage my bookmarks. But i guess we can only try... so i downloaded BookMark Buddy. This program managers your bookmarks & favourites which enables you to find bookmarks quickly & filter by date, rating & site changes. I think the best feature that this program offers is that it checks the status of your bookmarked sites in the background to see whether they have been updated or move since the last time you used it. In my personal experience this gets me everytime, i go to use a bookmark from my favourites and all of a sudden it's gone. This would be the only reason why i would use this program! The only other feature i like is that it maintains your lists based on what you recently visited, favourites etc. Other than that i don't think i'd use this program on a day to day run, i'm to lazy & don't have enough bookmarks to manage...

6. Offline/Browser Copier

I have never used an offline copier before but i would think that it would be very useful when working on uni projects & searching for information. The fact that it can save complete copies of your sites & almost anything online for later study is GENIUS. For example when researching & preparing for my concepts project i had countless websites running at the same time, but if i had to finish up and wanted to remember & keep all this information, this offline copier would be able to store all this information for me to be able to work on it later and offline. This program is extremely efficient for business & personal use and i would recommend anyone to use it.

Out of all the programs i downloaded today i would have to say that the flash player & offline copier would be the ones i'd use most. Flashplayer for lifestyle reasons & offline copier for university & studying reasons. From this experiment today i have definitely learnt some great tools to take away with me to make me a more efficient user in the online & offline environment of the internet.