And when it comes to finding good freeware, it’s hard to go past the Gizmo’s Freeware site for recommendations.

Gizmo’s Freeware has released a 42-page PDF document, entitled ‘Nine Great Freeware Programs That Should be on Every PC’.

It was initially available to its readers with Facebook accounts, with plans to release the document to its non-Facebook users a week later, but due to complaints from the latter group, it’s now available to everyone.

To access the PDF, Facebook users can go to Gizmo’s Facebook page (make sure you’re signed into your account) and click on the Like button. You’ll then be directed to the download page for the report.

Gizmo’s non-Facebook-user fans can access the report here.

The real bonus with this document is that as well as identifying none great freeware programs, it also steps you through their installation and usage — a real plus for the average PC user, as freeware isn’t always the most intuitive.

However, with so much great quality software available these days, it’s almost impossible to keep on top of it all.

Fortunately, the excellent Addictive Tips site has come to the rescue to guide you through the maze with a list of its Editor’s pick of the 150 Best Windows Applications for 2010.

Check out the list here and give a few of them a try. You won’t be disappointed.

One problem with finding a screensaver, if you don’t want to create one from one of your own pics, is finding a site that firstly has appealing images and secondly doesn’t download malicious payloads or annoying toolbars.

The NewFreeScreensavers site delivers on both fronts, plus (as the name suggests) the screensavers won’t cost you a cent.

While you can’t always believe sites when they claim that their downloads are virus-free, I’ve used a few of the screensavers on this site on my own computers and have never had a problem with any nasties as a result.

There are plenty of images on offer — check out the Christmas ones on page seven for the upcoming holiday season — with something to suit everyone.

You can download each screensaver individually or you can download a whole page at once.

You can also sign up for a free newsletter to be notified of new screensavers added to the site.

NewFreeScreensavers

Earlier this year, I posted an 24-hour offer from the Giveaway of the Day site for a free copy of AnyBizSoft’s PDF to Word Converter (see here),

Well, if you lucked out then, here’s another chance to get a copy of this handy software, but only if you’re a Facebook user.

AnyBizSoft is currently offering a free licence for its PDF to Word Converter 3.0.0 for Facebook users who ‘like’ its Facebook page.

AnyBizSoft’s PDF to Word Converter 3.0.0 usually sells for $US29.95 and you can read more about it here.

Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory enables you to create flash slideshows, online photo albums with music, or flash banners with transition effects.

Normally valued at $US49.95, you can download a free copy until August 30 by going to the Wondershare Facebook page,  clicking on the Like button, and entering your name and email address. You’ll then receive an email with your registration code.

Remeber, you need to already have a Facebook account, or sign up for a new one.

Wondershare Flash Gallery Factory

However, if you then need to edit that screenshot to illustrate a point, such as highlighting an aspect of the image by circling it, or adding an arrow from explanatory text to a particular element, you have to save the image and then do thois editing oin an image editing program such as Photoshop.

That is, until Awesome Screenshot for Google Chrome came along. It lets you capture the visible screen or the whole Web page, then crop it, add a rectangle or elipse to highlight part of the image, add text, add arrows and straight lines, draw freehand on the screenshot, and blur selected areas of the image, all within the Awesome Screenshot application.

When you’ve completed your editing, click on the Done button, then right-click on the resulting edited image, click on ‘Save image as…’ and choose a file destination. You can click on the Awesome Screenshot icon, which you’ll find to the right of the address bar, then on Options in the dropdown menu to make your image format preference — .JPG or .PNG.

This is the perfect tool if you are compiling a step-by-step guide that involves screenshots, and it will same you heaps of time by being able to do all this editing inside the screenshot program.

Awesome Screenshot for Google Chrome

If you’ve got the need for a desktop publishing program, but can’t rustle up the cash for one of the big guns, do yourself a favour and try out PagePlus SE from Serif Software — it’s an excellent program and, best of all, it won’t cost you a cent.

If you find you really like the program, but want the added features in the commercial version (PDF export, built-in spreadsheet, mail merge, photo optimiser, Web publishing and Pantone colours), you can upgrade on the site for just $US9.99.

While you’re on Serif’s free software site, check out its other offerings. They’re first-rate.

PagePlus SE

A quite cool little freeware program that will transform your little ‘hunters and peckers’ into speedy touch typists is Rapid Typing Tutor. It’s just as suitable for adults wanting to sharpen their keyboard skills, but its bright interface and engaging lessons make it particularly appealing to kids.

The Rapid Typing Tutor site also has entertaining typing games for the kids, lets users take a typing speed test online with the chance of making it onto the champions board, and generously provides links to its pick of the eight best other free typing tutor programs.

The Rapid Typing tutor software lets you choose from a range of keyboard layouts, displays onscreen animations of correct technique to illustrate each lesson, features colourful graphics, tracks your progress, and supports individual settings for multiple users.

Rapid Typing Tutor

Perhaps you have PDF ebooks that you need in various formats for your different portable devices — with PDFZilla, you can convert then to whatever formats you need.

There are a number of free software programs around that will let you do this job, with varying degrees of success, but until 7pm (AEST) tomorrow, you can download PDFZilla, a full-featured commercial PDF conversion program, from the Giveaway of the Day site for free (normally sold for $US29.95).

It’s a 6.57M download and supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista.

PDFZilla is a desktop application that quickly and accurately converts PDF files into editable Microsoft Word documents, rich text documents, plain text files, images, HTML files, and Shockwave Flash SWF files.

PDFZilla supports most of popular formats: DOC, RTF, TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, HTML and SWF formats. PDFZilla also supports batch conversion and individual and partial page selection.

You’ll find a tutorial on how to use PDFZilla here.

Giveaway of the Day