Software Survey Responses

Thanks to everyone who shared their software worlds ... I thought it was fascinating. One response that I recognized immediately came from Alex Melnikoff who explained why he loved one piece of software ..."this up-to-date software makes me feel happy when I am doing my job!" That is so true ... for most of us information workers, our tools are the software we use, and when it's elegant and efficient, there's a real satisfaction in using it. (Of course, when it's balky and irritating, it's a whole different story!)

Mindmanager gets the most nods for "loved" software, and Matt Vance won the "most-software-I've-never-heard-of" award. If there had been a "most-hated-software-I-can't-live-without" award, it would probably go to Outlook, a software that's so close, yet so far away from being great.

One surprise -- no one mentioned project management software. Hope you find something new to explore.

Joyce Wycoff

Software Responses:

** From: Gary Elling
I'd be lost without "MindManager" by MindJet. I've used it for several years.

It provides a collecting point for web links as I surf the web. I just drop the links into the mindmap and annotate or screen scrape what I find. Later I can reorganize topics and create sub-maps as needed.

** From: Lynne Snead
Simple.

PlanPlus, Mindmanager and Word. In that order.

** From: Stephen Penberthy

Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:
- Internet Explorer (hey, I'm in research...)
- Microsoft Outlook (for Email, Calendar, Tasks [to-do] management, and Notes)
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- I rely heavily on my Handspring Visor PDA which runs PalmOS; I am a power user of my PDA, and the electronic format has allowed me to do things that my paper planner would not (for example, searching,
etc.)

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:
- MindJet MindManager X5 (Bus. Edition)
- Inspiration 7.5
- Microsoft Visio (drawings, schematics, diagrams, etc.)
- Google toolbar (for power searches, but I also love the integrated popup blocker)

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:
- Ad-aware from Lavasoft (I use it to scan for and remove advertising racking artifacts on my PC. I use this both at home and at work. Currently available as freeware, but *pro* versions are available for a cost).

- I love MindManager and Inspiration. In R&D, I am always exhorting my team to think creatively, and these software tools allow us to accomplish this using the creative language of visual maps.
- Music CDs (yes--a CD is software). I enjoy listening to music through headphones while I work on certain mundane tasks (such as status reports) to help make them more pleasant.

** From: Brent Hild
Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:
-Excel (or I guess you could argue MS Office) -Internet Explorer - A good game

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:
-Word
-Powerpoint
-Visio

** From: Bettina von Stamm
Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:
Word, outlook, internet explorer, palm, excel,

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:
Powerpoint, procite, netobjects fusion, notron

** From: Alex Melnikoff
Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Outlook/The Bat!
PowerPoint
Winword
Excel
SPSS

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:
Winword
Explorer

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:
Quite frankly, they are all critical!

Also, tell us which piece of software you "love" and why (briefly, please).
Excel
SPSS - `cause I am sociologist and this up-to-date software makes me feel happy when I am doing my job!

** From: Catherine Curtis
Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:
Home: Outlook, IE, Word
Work 1: QuickBooks Pro, Word
Work 2: Lotus Notes, Powerpoint, Word

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:
Home: Excel, Photoshop
Work 1: Excel
Work 2: Excel, Photoshop

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:

I need it all!

Also, tell us which piece of software you "love" and why (briefly, please).

I actually enjoy all of them, for different reasons, with the possible exception of Photoshop. I love what it does but it is not intuitive for me at all. The others have become like breathing...

** From: Matt Vance

I love this type of question. I look forward to reading other responses. Most of my responses are open source or freeware.

Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:

ArsClip - a utility that remembers multiple clipboard entries and can paste boilerplate text

WebMon (freeware) - monitors web pages (or parts of pages) and displays alerts when they change. I use it to monitor for updates on news, auctions, job postings, software versions, prices of items I am interested in buying, etc.

NoteTab Light (freeware) - an excellent text editor with lots of features

Trillian (shareware) - an instant messaging client that can connect to multiple services (including AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo!) at once

Mozilla Firebird (open source) a non-bloated, yet extensible version of the mozilla browser

ATnotes (freeware) - Post-its for the computer desktop

HoeKey (freeware) - a very powerful hotkey utility with a terrible user interface

PMWiki (open source) - a server-side web-based "open-editing" collaboration tool; for a better explanation of wikis in general, see http://c2.com/cgi/wiki

Ultr@VNC (open source) - a variation of VNC (a multi-platform computer remote control utility) that includes file transfer. I use it to remotely access my home computer from work.

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:

FreeMind (open source) - a simple, yet very useful mind mapping program

Quick Copy 2 Printer (freeware) - a utility that allows you to use a scanner and printer in combination like a photocopier

Scanner (freeware) - displays a pie chart of your disk space usage that you can zoom into to find where all your space is going

IrfanView (freeware) - an image file viewer with lots of features

longPlayer (open source) - a utility that randomly queues up MP3s and lets you rate them as they play

HFS (open source) - a small, easy to use file server that I use for transferring files too big to send via email

Nero - the best CD/DVD burning software that I've found

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:

TotalRecorder - a program that can record any sound your computer makes. I use its timer features to record obscure radio shows over the Internet to take with me on my portable MP3 player. It is a great program, but it now has more competition, so I would probably shop around before buying it again.

Also, tell us which piece of software you "love" and why (briefly, please).

I love ArsClip because it is one utility that has every feature that I've ever wanted it to have. WebMon is another one I love because there aren't many programs like it and it has saved me lots of time and money. One program that I no longer use on a regular basis, but that I love simply on principle is Furthurnet which allows you to download and trade legal live recordings of musicians that allow taping.

** From: Maria Thompson
1. Google, Google AND Google. I couldn't live without it, AND I love it!

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:

2. I would not be able to survive without Microsoft Outlook email and calendar. Though there's lots of improvements that could be made to both tools, I don't really have a choice in whether to rebuy, since everyone I work with and interact with has it, and the email formatting options available help us communicate more productively with visuals and attachments.

** From: Paul Bruggink
Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:

Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Outlook
Internet Explorer

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still
critical to my work:

Microsoft PowerPoint
Supertree Sensitivity

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:

Crystal Ball
Microsoft Visio

Also, tell us which piece of software you "love" and why (briefly, please).

Microsoft Excel, because I can do just about anything with it.

** From: Jack Hipple
Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:

Palm Pilot, MS Word, MS PPT, MS Outlook (EM)

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:

Quicken, TurboTax, Adobe Reader, Innovation Workbench,

Important software that I use and would probably rebuy but would think about it first:

Solitaire,

Also, tell us which piece of software you "love" and why (briefly, please)

Palm Pilot-helps an inherently unorganized person approach some form of organization

** From: Jeffrey Cufaude

Absolutely critical software that I use daily or almost daily:

The evil Microsoft Office for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint Pagemaker, Adobe Acrobat

Very important software that I use less frequently but is still critical to my work:

Filemaker Pro
iMovie
iPhoto
Quicken
Keynote (Apple's equivalent of Powerpoint)

** From: Joyce Wycoff

Critical Software used daily:
Google (love the google bar and autofill)
Word
Outlook
Mindmanager
Act
TypePad -- my blog software
1ShoppingCart -- eCommerce

Critical but used less frequently:
Adobe Acrobat
PowerPoint
Excel
Filemaker Pro
Snag-It! (screen capture)
Contribute (website editing)
Digital Image Suite 9 (the idiot's version of Photoshop)
Inspiration

Might not buy again:
Photoshop
Publisher (of course it comes with the bundle, so ...)
The Brain

*Love*
TypePad -- from newbie to blogger in minutes!
Mindmanager
PowerPoint
Digital Image Suite 9 (Was Picture-It!) -- this software is
intuitive, fun, often surprising, and powerful ... I do, indeed,
*love* it!

Comments

[Max Dumais]

Sorry I'm too late for your survey but....

MindManager gets my tick and also...
Project Kickstart for early stage project management - see http://www.stepup.com.au/product/kicks/project.htm

AnyZing online and realtime conferencing see their suite of products at http://www.anyzing.com

The Brain is a relational database management system and can be viewed at http://www.thebrain.com

Hope you find these interesting.