August 2010 - Useful Cheap Apps

Christchurch TCANZ Meeting Report

"Useful Cheap Apps"  A presentation by Emma Harding and Cathy Gillespie - August 25th 2010

The TCANZ August 25th meeting was well attended, with 14 members assembling at the Den bar ready to eat, drink, network, and be informed.

It was great to catch up with the regulars, and also see some new faces, especially the GDID Students and those new to TCANZ.

Our planned speaker was unable to attend, but Emma and Cathy stepped in with a series of quick presentations on some useful and cheap software applications they had found. This led on to an interesting discussion on how to check links within Word documents (Answer: PDF the document then use an Adobe add-on - although if anyone knows of any Word tools, please let us know). The group also talked about the pros and cons of using Microsoft Sharepoint as a document management and intranet tool.

As a bonus, Ian Anderson demonstrated his wizzy new Swiftpoint mouse.

Summary of software products covered in the demonstrations:

• Axialis Icon Workshop - Used to create icons for your websites or helpfiles
• Wrensoft Zoom - A full-text search engine for your website, intranet, CD, or DVD
• Xenu's Link Sleuth - Checks for broken links on web sites and it's free!

Cathy:

• Dimdim - Webinar software
• Xmind - Mindmapping software, with a free version

We hope that everyone enjoyed the meeting and took away something useful, or at least made some new contacts within the techcom community. Watch this space for details of the next branch event.