Download Ghostwriter for Windows. At the time of writing this, only the portable version is available. Extract the zip file where your want to install the program. Create a folder called dictionaries in the application folder. Create a folder called data in the application folder. I am not sure if this is necessary, but you need it if you want to make the application fully portable. The next step is to download Hunspell dictionary.

For images meant for the internet, it is very important to keep the file sizes as small as possible. This often makes PNG-8 a better option than Snagit’s default PNG-24. Why PNG-8? The 8 in PNG-8 refers to the number of bits used to store color information. With 8 bits we get only 256 colors but the file sizes are much smaller. At first glance, this compares very poorly with PNG-24 which supports millions of colors.

Faststone image viewer can be used to create images that use only one bit per pixel. That is, the image will contain only pure white and pure black. Unlike grayscale images, a 1-bit image will not have any shades of gray. This can be useful if you want to scan and print old documents. Even if you use the black and white option in your scanner software, with old documents, you will most likely end up with a gray background.

Virtualdub does not have a dedicated fast-preview option. The only way to fast-preview, without giving up on normal preview, is to hold down the arrow key. I find this a little inconvenient and slow. Here is an Autohotkey script to simulate fast-forward and fast-rewind in Virtualdub. It uses the aforementioned key hold-down method but Autohotkey seems to be capable of sending keystrokes much faster than the physical keyboard; at least it does on my computer.

By default, IrfanView supports all the major image formats. It also supports various non-image formats natively; for example, text files. It is possible to add support for even more formats via plugins. What all this means is that IrfanView will attempt to display many files that are either unsupported, non-image or both. If you attempt to open an unsupported file in IrfanView, you will see the following error message. With unsupported files, you have the option of installing the plugin mentioned in the error message, thus adding support to the file type in question.

HTL is the original Blu-ray format, LTH was developed later to reduce costs. The reason for the low cost of LTH is that its production process is similar to that of DVDs. Which is Better? Generally speaking, HTL discs are considered better. They are more resistant to UV light and moisture. However, it is possible that a specific LTH model is better than a specific HTL model. For example, an LTH disc manufactured by Taiyo Yuden might be better than an HTL disc manufactured by Ritek or CMC.

VirtualDub can be used to save individual frames or a sequence of frames as images. Video players like VLC, Media Player classic, etc have this functionality as well but VirtualDub supports smoother seeking than your average video player. Also, most video players do not support saving a sequence of images. tip: By default, VirtualDub does not support many containers or formats, it is primarily an AVI editor. Install the VirtualDub FFmpeg input plugin to gain support for most of the video formats and containers.

Setting up an FTP server is a relatively easy way to share files in your local network. It is more difficult to set up an FTP server for remote transfers. This article focuses on local FTP transfers. Download and install Filezilla Server can be downloaded from here. For the most part, there isn’t anything to be gained by deviating from the default settings. The only major decision you need to make is whether you want Filezilla Server to be auto-started with Windows or not.

A default Winrar installation adds a large number of items to the explorer context menu. As you can see, the Winrar items are in a flat format. Cut, copy et al. have been pushed way down the list. Switching to a cascading format will shrink the Menu to a more reasonable height. Cascading format means a sub-menu for Winrar items. Go to the Options menu and choose settings. Select the Integration tab and tick the Cascaded context menus check box.

Compressing or re-compressing images can bring significant improvement in web-page load times. Outside the Internet, compressing images individually may not be worthwhile. Enter FastStone’s batch compression feature, it allows us to compress hundreds of images with a few clicks. This article focuses more on JPEG files since JPEG compression settings are highly configurable in FastStone. A short section on PNG compression can be found here. It describes the PNG-8 option, which is a must try, even though it does not work for all images.