One of the first things I do when I get a new PC after starting in a new contract is to add the little software utitlities I can't live without. Here are some of them.

If you've got something you use that's a must-have let us all know about it using the comment form.

Green Parrot's Action Outline:

How many times have you cut some text/code in to the clipboard planning on using it later and then accidentely overwritten it by copying something else and thus losing the original code? I seem to do it all the time and, as far as I know, there is no way back.

What I used to do to avoid this is have "temporary" .txt files on my Desktop and place code in to these. The trouble is that this is time-consuming and messy. What we need is a handy little tool that we can use to quickly paste lots of text, adding them all in to distinct categories so that we can quickly find them again. All hail Action Outline, our saviour.

This handy little tool lives in the System Tray as a little icon. You can configure it like I have so that pressing something like Windows Key + A opens it up. You can then paste text in and simply press Escape to save the content and minimize it back in to the tray area. Whenever you need to get some of this text back you simply open it up again and there it is.



This is not the only way you can use it. As it happens, I am using it right now to write this article before I bother to login to codestore and start to pretty it up. I use it for alsorts! Give it time and I'm sure you all will too.

Moon Software's Multimedia Explorer:

If you've got loads of different gif and jpeg files knocking around your hard drive whose file names mean absolutley nothing and you have to open them all the time to remind you what they are then this is the tool for you.

Multimedia Explorer is kind of like Windows Explorer in appearance apart from that it only shows you multimedia files and has a window that lets you view the file.

I can't live without it and it is usually one of the first programs I install on a new pc. Try it here:

http://www.moonsoftware.com/

BradSoft's TopStyle:

I'd never managed to find a decent Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) editor until I found TopStyle.

The program has been written by the bloke who left Allaire, after writing HomeSite for them.

The fact that I shelled out the money to buy it is proof enough of its worth and indeed quality.

Try it for yourself: http://www.bradsoft.com

Ethereal:

Ethereal is a TCP/IP analysis tool. Specify any valid domain name and port number and it will monitor all traffic between that domain name and your machine.

This allows you to see packets of information as they pass through. Spy sessions can be saved and loaded for off-line viewing.

Why? Good question! Well apart from giving a Domino developer an interesting glimpse at what is going on behind the scenes it can also come in useful when something weird starts to happen. I've only ever found it truly useful once or twice but, when you do use it, it can save hours of pulling at your hair.

You can read more about it and download it here