Leigh Anne Jones

Weekly Speller is an old-school app that does a straightforward job with spelling practice. Ron Swerdfeger created it for his own kids to use, and its bright colors and visually uncluttered look suggest that its natural audience would be children in the K-3 range. However, older students could use it, too, since the advantage with Weekly Speller is that users can add their own spelling lists to it.

Weekly Speller’s game modes combat the drudgery of practicing spelling words with party colors and activities.There are six play modes in Weekly Speller: Word Scramble, Join Letters, Sentence Complete, Sentence Correct, Word Search, and Words. In the Word Scramble mode, letters float around the screen and the object is to click on the letters in their proper order. Join Letters is a game that presents you with a spelling word, as well as the letters in the word in mixed-up order. As soon as you begin the game, the letters in the word turn into question marks. Your job is then to click and drag the correct letter into each space. In Sentence Complete mode, the program shows you the spelling word as well as a sentence with a blank space where that word should go (“Let’s play _____ and seek.”) As you begin to type the word (or, alternately, click each letter in the alphabet that appears at the top of the screen in big, brightly colored boxes), the word disappears and you’re on your own. In Sentence Correct mode, you must correct a sentence that contains a misspelled word (e.g., "That doll will soon belng to me.") The Word Search mode creates a simple word search puzzle out of your spelling word list. Users may choose from six difficulty levels, but even at the highest level of difficulty, though some words are spelled backwards and some are upside down, there are no words on the diagonal. Finally, the "Words" mode just shows you one of your spelling words and then waits for you to type it. As soon as you begin typing, the word disappears, and it's up to you to finish typing it correctly. Throughout all these modes, a variety of recorded voices cheer your successes and point out when mistakes have been made. Most of these sound like kids' voices, and some have been modified to sound as if robots or aliens are speaking.

GoodGuide.com is a free database for consumers who wish to determine, before they buy, how safe, healthful, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible various products are. These are the things that most of us buy on a regular basis, from household items like shampoo and pet food to cars and electronics. The site provides an overall aggregate score (using a 0 to 10 rating system) for each item, compared to other products of its type, and breaks out individual scores in categories such as Controversial Ingredients, Fair Trade, Energy Efficiency, and Labor and Human Rights. Using the GoodGuide Transparency Toolbar, a free browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox, online shoppers now have on-the-fly access to the GoodGuide product ratings system while shopping at Amazon.com.

The GoodGuide Transparency Toolbar pops up during online shopping to help make informed decisions about the environmental and social impact of products.The GoodGuide Transparency Toolbar, which appears at the bottom of the browser window only when you are shopping at one of its supported sites (currently, just Amazon), takes your own values into account when presenting scores, based on criteria you establish during setup. It’s easy--users just identify the issues that matter most to them, choosing from a short list. If you indicate that any problem in the area of Labor and Human Rights might be a deal-breaker for you, for example, that product will be flagged a “Fail.” Green dots indicate a passing grade while red dots represent failure; the deeper the shade of green, the better, while the darker the red is, the worse the score.

GoodGuide.com is a free database for consumers who wish to determine, before they buy, how safe, healthful, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible various products are. These are the things that most of us buy on a regular basis, from household items like shampoo and pet food to cars and electronics. The site provides an overall aggregate score (using a 0 to 10 rating system) for each item, compared to other products of its type, and breaks out individual scores in categories such as Controversial Ingredients, Fair Trade, Energy Efficiency, and Labor and Human Rights. Using the GoodGuide Transparency Toolbar, a browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox, online shoppers now have on-the-fly access to the GoodGuide product ratings system while shopping at Amazon.com.

The GoodGuide Transparency Toolbar, which appears at the bottom of the browser window only when you are shopping at one of its supported sites (currently, just Amazon), takes your own values into account when presenting scores, based on criteria you establish during setup. It’s easy--users just identify the issues that matter most to them, choosing from a short list. If you indicate that any problem in the area of Labor and Human Rights might be a deal-breaker for you, for example, that product will be flagged a “Fail.” Green dots indicate a passing grade while red dots represent failure; the deeper the shade of green, the better, while the darker the red is, the worse the score.

Toddlers imitate what the big people in their lives do, so when they see big kids and adults using computers, they want to use them, too. For those who are brave enough to turn the computer over to a small child, DonationCoder founder Mouser's new Little Voice Commander (free/donationware) could be a good program to start with.

Little Voice Commander shows photos to reflect what your toddler's approximation of English says.This simple program encourages toddlers to speak and experiment by showing pictures of words they are likely to know, such as "dog," "apple," or, well, "baby," whenever a word is spoken or when a key on the keyboard is pressed. A sound file also speaks the word out loud. Press K, see a kite, hear "kite." The pictures typically arrange themselves into a mosaic; sometimes these images are repeated. The translation of babyspeak into American standard English depends on Microsoft's speech-recognition engine, making it necessarily an inexact business, but that's part of the fun. For example, imagine a child saying "No!" and being rewarded with pictures of snow.

Note: This review addresses version 4.0 of the software.

This attractive $70 photo editor can do everything from simple fixes (red-eye removal, exposure) to special effects (vignettes, brush, paint, and text effects, stamp tool and flaw removal) to elaborate projects (stylized greeting cards, scrapbook pages, party invites, CD covers, even a T-shirt transfer). Step-by-step tutorials are built into the software.

--Leigh Anne Jones

There must be a lot of calendar geeks, because Calendar Magic is a perennial favorite, even though it's more of an educational tool than a scheduling tool. Any interest in calendars beyond the January half-price sales is amply rewarded by this program, which offers an astonishing 23 calendar systems for use, study and comparison. There are also numerous tools that calculate and convert data, from a global distance calculator to a pregnancy calculator.

Approximately 16 functions in the program deal with calendar- and date-related information. You can also chart the positions of the sun and moon relative to your physical location. Four tools deal with time: an alarm clock, a stopwatch, an addictive reaction timer, and another that reveals the current time almost anywhere on the planet. Five more tools manage your personal notes and event reminders, while another ten are primarily concerned with mathematical calculations and conversions. Kids in particular will enjoy the "Magic Square" calculator. One final button is mysteriously labeled, "For later use."

You could pay for other programs that provide some of the features in Calendar Magic, but you won't pay for Calendar Magic, because it's freeware. --Leigh Anne Jones

Frustrated writers, particularly students from elementary school through college, will appreciate WordQ + SpeakQ ($279, 30-day free trial), a software duo for writers with learning disabilities or attention disorders. Once it is open, WordQ sits in the corner of the screen, waiting for you to start writing--in virtually any program you choose. With a microphone activated and the SpeakQ component installed, you can talk to it as well.

The WordQ + SpeakQ bundle gives struggling writers a hand.The WordQ + SpeakQ duo appears as a small toolbar that sits on top of your other open applications. The toolbar has five buttons: Options, Mic, Words, Speech, and Read. As you type, WordQ predicts, in a small box nearby, what words you'll use next. A short list of suggested words will appear in the box; hover over one of the words to see a list of synonyms or a sentence that uses the word in its proper context. With a passage of text selected and the Read button toggled on, WordQ will read what you've already typed in a clear voice (several different languages and dialects are available). When you listen to the program read your words back to you, you'll be more likely to catch any spelling and grammatical mistakes you're making. Actually, WordQ will read almost any passage of text you select, whether you wrote it or not, including text from a web page.

Frustrated writers, particularly students from elementary school through college, will appreciate WordQ + SpeakQ, a software duo for writers with learning disabilities or attention disorders. Once it is open, WordQ sits in the corner of the screen, waiting for you to start writing--in virtually any program you choose. With a microphone activated and the SpeakQ component installed, you can talk to it as well.

The WordQ + SpeakQ duo appears as a small toolbar that sits on top of your other open applications. The toolbar has five buttons: Options, Mic, Words, Speech, and Read. As you type, WordQ predicts, in a small box nearby, what words you'll use next. A short list of suggested words will appear in the box; hover over one of the words to see a list of synonyms or a sentence that uses the word in its proper context. With a passage of text selected and the Read button toggled on, WordQ will read what you've already typed in a clear voice (several different languages and dialects are available). When you listen to the program read your words back to you, you'll be more likely to catch any spelling and grammatical mistakes you're making. Actually, WordQ will read almost any passage of text you select, whether you wrote it or not, including text from a web page.

The Monkeymen Calendar is ready-made for people who like to have an up-to-date printout of the month's schedule posted on the refrigerator or tucked in a sheet protector at the front of a binder. It's very easy to use (install the trial and you'll be able to watch a 90-second video tutorial). Type in your scheduled events for the month in question, add a few items to the to-do list, customize the overall look with a few clicks, and print it out. No fussing with templates or PowerPoint.

The calendar is visually appealing with a choice of 16 unique backgrounds (ranging from subdued steel-blue to high-energy monkey faces) and colorful "stickers" you can use to represent special events such as soccer games, birthday parties, and vacations. You can also custom-create your own stickers quite easily. You'll rely on those stickers, too, because the text you type in is quite small and somewhat hard to read. At least the To-Do List items are big and bold. A photo in the top right corner can be switched to one of your own, or to another of the stock images supplied by Monkeymen.

Cute Reminder prides itself on being different. In use, a small, colorful module docks on the edge of your screen, waiting for you to mouse over it and call it into action. There are four buttons on the module, which stand for Ideas, Notes, Reminders. There's also a Control Center that offers access to more traditional calendar, scheduling and reminder options, as well as the Help file. Ideas, Notes, and Reminders are sticky notes for the desktop that come and go seemingly at whim.

For me, this program became less cute when I tried to use it. Despite having watched the Quick Start tutorial, I couldn't figure out how to finish up with a Note I had just written, other than to stop writing and just leave it sitting there, which seemed weird. So I opened the Help file, and when I did, my Note disappeared.

I wondered what had happened to the Note. I wanted to know if it had been saved. The Help files told me, "One of the important functions of Cute Reminder is the backup of your information." Agreed. "Cute Reminder will save your information into the History, which is easily accessible." Great. "Reminders are saved immediately when created, changed, postponed, or deleted except of recurring reminders, which are never saved into the History."

InfoStore is a data management utility for lists and notes that combines the functions of a simple word processor with a database program. It makes use of a tree-type directory structure that stays in view (unless you tell it to go away), so you can modify it as you work. This just feels right when you're trying to quickly sort lots of pieces of information into categories.

There are two ways to store information in InfoStore: Notes and Lists. A Note is just a blank text field that you fill in however you like. The List function is more formal. It relies on data fields that you pre-define and fill in to compile information. You can import a rich-text format file as a Note, while a spreadsheet file converted to CSV will import as a list.

By the same token, notes can be exported in RTF, while lists can be converted to CSV or plain text. An Infostore user guide PDF is available at http://www.mhsoftware.co.uk/infostore.pdf

UnZip Me is a free utility that does exactly what it promises to do: It extracts zipped files, pops them into a folder, and then, if you like, opens an Explorer window so you can get to the directory they're in. I used UnZip Me to extract compressed program files, display fonts, and a large collection of new baby pictures that were e-mailed to me by a proud grandmother. All I had to do was open the program, browse to the item I wanted to unzip, click the button that says, "UnZip Files," and then click another button that says, "Open Directory."

You can't use UnZip Me to zip, or compress, files you're working with. It's only good for UNzipping things. But if all you need is a light-duty tool for extracting compressed files, UnZip Me should suit you fine.

--Leigh Anne Jones