50 Ways to Make Your Software Do More

Five Essential Multimedia Add-Ons

1. Picasa to flickr: This plug-in for Picasa is free, handy, and platform-independent. It uses a simple Java applet to let you zip files from the popular image editor directly to the equally popular Flickr photo-sharing service.

2.The Filter: Your party starts in 15 minutes and you forgot to make the music playlist. No problem--seed this iTunes and Windows Media Player add-on with a handful of tunes you like. Not only will it generate a killer party sound track, but it will dredge up hot tracks that you might even have forgotten you had.

3. EvilLyrics: This free download gets rid of the junk code that accompanies most lyrics search results by looking for lyrics in the background whenever you play a song in iTunes, WinAmp, Windows Media Player, or another application. The results aren't perfect, but they're on target more often than not.

4. ffdshow: Dodge the hassle of juggling multiple video formats by turning to this versatile plug-in, which supports most video players and provides all the video codecs you are likely to need.

5. Plugin Galaxy: This collection of free effects and filters for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro offers a range of warping and blurring effects, plus handy features like a "page curl" for image corners, all accessible within a single interface.