I'd love to hear feedback on what you think about covering some Mac freebies. Of course, the majority of Yewell's Jewels will always be PC coverage in every article (this is PC Update after all), but I think the Mac is becoming more relevant every day.

First up, for Windows, is ClearType Tuner. This technology has been around for a while (since the late 90's), and is used in Windows Vista by default. In XP however, it's only automatically turned on when using Office 2007 and IE 7. ClearType uses antialiasing to take away the jagged edges of text, making it appear much smoother, which makes it easier to read. It works on CRT monitors, but the most dramatic improvements are seen with LCD screens. To make your text easier to read in XP, go to www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx.

Next is SyncToy. If you've ever needed to keep files on your PC synced between folders, this is a great free utility. Essentially, you tell SyncToy that you want two folders to be linked to one another, then you can tell it how you want the files in those folders to be treated. You can have changes made in either folder be updated to the other, or changes only updated one way from one folder to the other. It's also a great tool for when you plug in a USB key - it will automatically transfer files from a specified folder to your hard drive. A quick side note, and you've probably heard it hundreds of times over, but just for the record, "please don't put off backing up your files!" (HINT: you can use SyncToy to sync folders across a network). The official URL for SyncToy is ridiculously long, so just google "synctoy 2.0 download" and the top hit will take you there (it should be the official Microsoft site).

Finally for Windows, is Zoomlt. This utility is extremely useful if you find yourself doing presentations, or explaining something onscreen to someone, and the area of the screen you want to emphasise is too small to get your point across (Zoomlt isn't just for presenters, though.) You toggle Zoomlt by pressing CtrI-1 (or you can change it to something else), and then you use your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom the screen in, and out. Moving the mouse around also changes the area you see onscreen. Another very cool feature is that you can enter a drawing mode, allowing you to mark-up the screen with a pen tool, which helps emphasize what you're looking at even further.

Zoomlt is a really slick and useful little tool. Google "download zoomit" and the top hit should be the Microsoft site download. OK, last, but (hopefully) not least, is Yewell's Jewels first attempt at covering some Mac applications (or "apps"). Where I work, we're 99% Mac users, so I've had to adjust to the Mac world (I used PC's exclusively until about 3 years ago). I think the best way to start is with the "teach a person to fish" approach, by recommending a site to find ALL the most used applications (both free and paid) for the Mac. Go to www.osx.iusethis.com. Users there democratically "vote" for all the apps they're currently using. The more votes each app has, the more popular it is.

Apps aren't rated, they're just listed by the number of users in each category. You can sort by new releases, top apps and so on, as well as use tags to find what you're looking for. Each app listed displays information including a brief description of what it is/does, the license it uses (you can't beat "freeware" or "GPL" for the price), the latest version of the software and its release date, the link to the official download and user comments. If you're new to the Mac, or wanting to see what's being used out in the wild, I wholeheartedly recommend checking out this site.

Well, that wasn't so bad, was it? So, with that out of the way, is there anyone interested in my top Jewels for the Mac? There are some great ones!

Note: Ryan Yewell © Permission to copy or quote extracts from this article may only be done with the written permission of the author.

Reprinted from the December 2008 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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