All the software listed here is FREE to download and use and while, in some cases, there are paid for 'improved' versions these are not necessary. There are links to download locations in the menu to the LEFT.

OpenOffice (For PC and Mac) - Full Office style package, compatible with Microsoft Office. All updates etc. are free. It has a facility to save your document as a PDF like the ones I have used for the Newsletters etc. The download file unpacks itself then installs the program.

Paint.Net is a graphics manipulation program with some features like Photoshop, including Layers.

Google Picassa is useful for keeping track of photograph collections and has tools for basic editing. New version includes Face-recognition software which picks out faces and lets you name them. It then picks out other examples of the same face from other pictures.

Screenhunter is quite useful as it's a screen capture program. This means you can use it to 'capture' any area of the screen for use as a normal picture. Quite handy if you want to get examples of what happens on screen when you are putting together an instruction booklet, or if you just want to get a sample of a picture from a document which wont let you save it any other way.

7-Zip is a compression program. This means you can use it to 'squash' files into smaller 'zipped' versions for sending via e-mail. You can also use it to 'unzip' compressed files which get sent to you.

Audacity is a program which allows you to capture, edit and save audio files in various formats.