Software that has made you more productive?

[DavidNZ]

I wonder what bits of software folks have used that has made them that much more productive. I don't mean the old standards, such as Office 2003 or Photoshop. I'm thinking more along the lines of utilities or enhancements.

I'll start. For me, Copernic Desktop Search has been superb. Good case in point: finding keywords across a MASSIVE collection of journal articles (in pdf format) is simple with Copernic. I've used Copernic for quite a while now, but only recently got it index my actual work files. Before that, I used it to index email, and even that was great in terms of finding out who said what, when.

Anyone else?

[K0LO]

Sure, David. My two favorites that I've added this year are Acronis True Image and Microsoft SyncToy.

TrueImage has finally given me a backup solution that works and has, in practice, saved me from my own stupid mistakes by allowing me to replace an entire hard disk image in less than 20 minutes (both Windows and Linux partitions).

SyncToy has allowed me to keep certain folders on my laptop in sync with those on my work desktop without having to remember which files I've changed. I have it set on autopilot (using a Scheduled Task in Windows) so that every night it syncs my work desktop with a network fileshare. I manually sync my laptop with the same network fileshare periodically (since the laptop isn't on 24/7). I can do this no matter where I'm at with the laptop as long as I have internet access to the network fileshare. Using SyncToy I can work on a file on either machine and be confident that I'll always end up with the latest version of of the file on both machines.

[DavidNZ]

Interesting, thanks k0lo. Have always wondered about Acronis. I know it generates an image file (or basically one file that is, in effect, an image of your drive), but can that file reside on an external HDD with other files (i.e., music, misc docs, etc.)? Also, is it neccessary to have a floppy drive to install, run and restore with Acronis?

SyncToy is quite nice. I've used something similar for years: Synchronize it! - just went to version 3. I use it to sync my 'work' folder on the X40 to three external USB HDDs.

[dsvochak]

True Image FAQ (with link to the User Guide):
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/pr ... e/faq.html

An image file can be save to almost any media. The program will run within Windows. For a complete restore a floppy isn't necessary if the machine can boot from CD. One feature not clearly mentioned in the True Image FAQ is that images can be mounted as drives and individual files can be copied etc. which is useful if you accidently delete needed files.

Back to the original topic: While not new, Paperport is the software that has made me more productive. (Especially when you have a clerk to do the actual scanning). A briefcase is a lot lighter when documents are digitized. And a computer search is quicker than flipping through paper pages.

[K0LO]

You can also store the TrueImage recovery program on a bootable USB thumb drive. No need to be a hackmeister to do this either; the program sets up your thumb drive to be bootable and copies the needed files over to it.