Nifty stuff you can do free on PC
By Kim Komando
If you want more from your computer, check out Microsoft's free downloads. You'll find links to the following five great free programs on my site at www.komando.com/news.
Photo Story turns photos (of your vacation, perhaps) into a slide show, complete with captions and music, that you can play on your computer, share via e-mail or burn onto a CD.
Photo Story lets you add transitions and effects. You can also pan or zoom in on your photos, then add notes and music. You can even narrate your slide show.
Photo Story is easy to use. A wizard walks you through the process, step by step.
You probably have videos of vacations or your daughter's dance recital, and they could probably use a little editing.
Editing your video with Windows Movie Maker is as simple as dragging and dropping clips, making it easy to remove the boring parts. You can then spruce up the video with effects, transitions, titles and audio.
Unfortunately, Movie Maker only supports some types of video. You may be able to convert video into those formats with your camera's software or capture it with an analog connection.
Keeping data in sync on multiple computers can be tedious. SyncToy will let you keep your laptop data synced with your home computer via your network or by backing up your data to a removable hard drive.
You start by pairing folders, and then you select your options. To synchronize files, open the program and click a few buttons.
Maybe you need an easy way to share photos with your aunt in Boston, or maybe you need to access your home files from your laptop. With FolderShare, you can access documents from any computer. All you need is a Web browser.
Install FolderShare on two computers and you can synchronize documents. Changes are made as you work. You can set up the synchronization settings and forget about it.
To share files with friends, they must have FolderShare. You select the folder or files to share, add their names to a list and send them an invitation. They can then download your files.
If you need help creating documents or presentations, you can download templates. Microsoft offers them for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and for Office programs.
You'll find templates for budgets, resumes, cards and much more. A template contains formatting and boilerplate text. You can customize it by changing or adding text and pictures.
Some of the templates require recent versions of Office, so check that your version is compatible.
Contact Kim Komando at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.
