Windows only: Your scanner probably came with OCR software. Chances are, though, it’s both awkward and space-hogging. FreeOCR is an slim, efficient app that has just four main buttons, and performs well at converting scanned images and PDFs into edit-ready text. More »
Mac OS X: LittleIpsum is a handy menubar app for generating Lorem Ipsum text on demand in various shapes and sizes. More »
Textbooks are ridiculously expensive, and publishers love to pull tricks to force the purchase of new editions whenever possible. This school year, save loads of cash using these textbook-buying methods.
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Mac only: If you’re a big fan of apps like WriteRoom or TextWrangler, free utility QuickCursor will let you use them for more projects by instantly moving text from your current application to your favorite text editor. More »
Tagxedo is a word-cloud generator that pulls out all the stops with customization of over a dozen variables for truly unique and catchy word clouds. More »
Windows: If you’re looking to replace Notepad with a lightweight alternative that has some extra bells and whistles, Xint is a capable replacement.
Notepad is ubiquitous but rather underpowered, Xint is a freeware alternative that sports a host of added features to make text editing easier. You can specify the kind of programming language you’re working in for syntax based color-coding, code completion, and expression evaluation. Even if you don’t frequently work with code Xint has Twofish-based encryption, active URLs, hot keys, and quick formatting macros.
If you check out Xint and you’re not sold, make sure to check out our Hive Five on best text editors to take a peek at some powerful Notepad alternatives. If you’re not sure how to replace Notepad as your default editor, check out this guide we shared on swapping out Notepad. Have a favorite Notepad-alternative of your own? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Windows: What’s the most popular and powerful editor on Windows among text aficionados? Notepad++, by a hefty margin. Want something a smidge less menu-rich and, well, different? Notepad GNU is a very clever, open source alternative.
Notepad GNU has a lot to recommend on its own, including optional background transparency, loads of HTML and other code-minded plug-ins, a menu that can quickly send a file to a browser or other app (even Notepad++), and all the text tweaking tools you need without the Office integration nonsense you don't. It doesn't offer everything that Notepad++ does, but that's kind of the point—it's a different layout and setup, and one newcomers might find pretty useful.
The one drawback, for English speaking users at least, is the hit-and-miss translation of some of Notepad GNU's more obscure features. You'll be able to grope your way around in the linguistic dark, most likely, but if you speak Russian and like the app, by all means—offer to help with the translation.
Notepad GNU is a free download for Windows systems only. It comes packaged in a RAR container, oddly enough—you can easily unpack it for free using 7-Zip.
Among the many changes in OS X 10.6 was a simplification of the font smoothing options to a yes or no toggle. If your monitor text isn’t quite right, Macworld offers up a quick terminal tip to get nitty-gritty control.
You should only undertake this fix if you believe Snow Leopard has made your font rendering somehow worse than Leopard. In the Macworld writer’s case, that’s because his Hackintosh-ed Dell Mini 10v screen doesn’t support the kind of pixel smoothing that OS X presumes it does; you may have the same experience with older, or off-brand, monitors.
The fix is a terminal command with a single, three-setting variable:
Just open Terminal (in Applications -> Utilities) and paste this command, then press Return:
defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2The 2 at the end is equivalent to the old “Medium – Best for flat panel” setting in 10.5. You can also use 1 for light smoothing, and 3 for strong smoothing.
It’s also worth noting that the fix won’t apply to currently open applications, so you might want to re-open a browser or text editor to test out the difference.
