Free Timesheet Tracking Software

From freelancers to lawyers, keeping track of the amount of time spent on different projects can be a necessary evil for many in the working world. So if you bill by the hour an easy-to-use program like HourGuard Timesheet Software to make this chore easier could be just what the doctor ordered. Reviewers at CNET have even called HourGuard among the best time-tracking programs available.

"We liked that HourGuard Timesheet Software lets you create base tasks and subtasks, making it easy to record what you're working on in detail. The program even has an intelligent tracking feature that stops the timer when it detects that you're no longer working, ensuring that you don't waste time making corrections after realizing that you've left the meter running."

– CNET

You can read the complete review or learn more and download your free copy of HourGuard timesheet recorder software from our website today.

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New Barillo Barcode Generation Software

One of our most rapidly growing software areas is our business software suite. In the last year, we not only made significant improvements to our existing business software but also introduced several new business applications including Reflect CRM Software and Copper Point of Software. Now we're starting 2011 in the vein with our first new product of the year: Barillo Barcode Software.

Barillo is a free barcode generator that allows you to create graphic files for EAN-8, EAN-13, UPC-A and UPC-E barcodes. Barillo makes creating labels even easier by allowing users to set the image size needed and export to a variety of different graphic file formats.

The first barcodes were created to label railroad cars but after being introduced to grocery stores to use in the automatic checkout process, they became almost universal and are now being used by businesses everywhere to satisfy the need to accurately identify and track items. With barcodes being so widely used, we are excited to add Barillo to our range of business software utilities to help customers using products such as Inventoria Inventory Management Software since barcodes are so key to maintaining a successful inventory tracking system.

In the future we’ll be adding additional barcode types to Barillo, as well as directly integrating the Barillo Barcode Generator into related software including Inventoria and Copper for easy access to this vital feature when and where you need it.

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Solving A Musician's Tuning Stress

As a musician for 16+ years, I encountered many challenges while learning to play the violin. One of the most frustrating and embarrassing aspects of learning an instrument was learning how to tune it. As a child, I was given a few tools to experiment with but none compare to PitchPerfect Tuning Software.

I started out with a pitch pipe, which was really more like a quiet whistling toy than an aid for tuning my instrument. It was especially difficult to use, because one must simultaneously blow into the pipe, play a soft smooth note and adjust the violin pegs to tighten or loosen the strings accordingly - all at the same time. This tuning approach was incredibly time consuming and somewhat inaccurate. I would typically give up after struggling with this method for about 5 minutes and proceed to play my violin in tune or not; much to the dismay of the audience who suffered through concerts.

My next tool was an electronic tuner, which was a pretty nifty device. You fed it a couple of AA's, bowed across the strings softly and it showed little indicator lights telling you when you were too sharp or flat. It was a nice enough contraption, but I'm sure you can see where the problems began when the batteries would wither. The machine would gradually begin to point you in the wrong direction and your strings would no longer match up with the person in the chair next to you. Eventually the poor gadget would cease to work altogether and it would OF COURSE happen to be on the day of a big competition or a show and you would flit about minutes before stage time, begging everyone nearby for their tuning device (heaven forbid they still used a pitch pipe; sharing spit with strangers is never pleasant) and frantically tune yourself before going on stage.

As you can tell, it was very stressful growing up in the age before laptop computers and smart phones, but now it's as simple as a quick (and free!) download to my iPhone and laptop and I have an easy and accurate way to get my violin in tune wherever I may go. The PitchPerfect Instrument Tuner has a clean interface and easy-to-read note identification that comes in handy not only for tuning, but perfecting and identifying individual notes.

If you like PitchPerfect, you should try out TempoPerfect metronome software and our other software for musicians, so you never miss a beat.

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Image Editing Turned Scrapbooking Resource

Along with a brand new user interface, the latest release of PhotoPad Image editing software brings with it many new tools, my favorite of which is the collage tool. Collage does exactly what you’d expect, making a digital college out of your images, but does it better than you might anticipate supporting an unlimited amount of images, orientation and background color options, random skew and (the best part) export options for web, HD and print. Better still, once you’ve set up your collage, PhotoPad separates each image into its own layer so you can optimize and edit individual photos while still keeping your layout. When you're satisfied with your creation, save it for the web or print it for your photo album. It's easy to get carried away with the ease and benefits of the collage tool, and if you’re into digital scrapbooking, this could be an absolute life saver. Best off all PhotoPad is free, so download PhotoPad today and try it for yourself. We would love to know what your favorite feature is. And if you like PhotoPad, you might also want to take a look at other graphics software.

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Do You Know What Open-Source Software Is?

At the end of July, WavePad Sound Editor was highlighted as the Download of the Day by the good people over at Think Digit. We are always thrilled when WavePad gets recognized, and they did a great job of highlighting the amazing features in their review while recommending you download and try the audio editor. But one of the things they said made me pause. The intro says, "There are a few very good reasons why we love WavePad – it’s simple, it's free, it's fast and it’s open-source." This is an absolutely wonderful quote except for one thing: WavePad isn't open-source. There is a lite version of WavePad that is available for free for non-commercial use in addition to the Master's edition, and I can't help but wonder if people equate free software with open-source, especially when there are technology writers out there who are falling into this trap?

What is Open-Source?

The most basic definition of open-source is that the source code of an application is made freely available. This allows outside computer developers to make improvements or customizations to that source code and create new versions of the software. There are additional requirements for software to truly be open-source, and if you are interested in the topic a good place to learn more would be at the Open Source Initiative. So you can see that because NCH Software doesn't make any of the underlying code of our programs available, even though we have several free software applications, we don't meet the criteria of being open-source software.

So while it is true that we aren't open-source, we are still very proud of our WavePad audio editing software and we are open to suggestions if you have any ideas you want share with our development team. And in the mean time maybe today is a good day to download WavePad and find some of your own reasons to love this wonderful little audio editor.

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New Free Business Card Designer Software

We are really excited to announce the newest addition to our software library, CardWorks, a completely free business card design application. CardWorks comes complete with a range of business card templates you can use to create the perfect business card for your every need. So whether you are a job-hunting grad doing networking rounds or a part-time freelancer working from home, you can easily select and customize a business card design to fit your personal or corporate brand, giving your clients, customers and business contacts easy access to all your pertinent contact information.

In addition to the templates that are built into the application we are working on creating a diverse business card template library that we will be continuing to add new designs to. These additional templates will also all be available completely free to download and use with CardWorks.

One of the coolest features in this program is that not only can you select a template design for your business cards, but you can also change the color scheme on any one of the templates. This greatly multiplies the number of possibilities, giving you additional control over the final design, and making it that much easier for you to find a perfect fit for your business.

Learn more about this exciting new application at: www.nchsoftware.com/businesscard. We hope you will give it and our other business software products a try.

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Create PDF Files From Any Application - Just Print

The newest addition to our utility software products is Lightning PDF Printer which allows you to print your documents directly to PDFs through the print menu of your other software applications. So creating PDF files as easy as printing.

Lightning PDF installs a printer driver so that you can select Lightning PDF as your printer from any application. Then you can print to a PDF document instead of sending documents to a physical printer.



PDF files are the standard for document sharing in business, so the ability to easily create a PDF file for electronic distribution and sharing is a necessity. Lightning PDF is a free and easy way to create PDF files and eliminate potential compatibility issues when sharing documents.

We are excited to add this PDF Printer to our line of utility products and there are more useful utilities in the pipeline that will be making their debut soon, so be sure to check back for the latest on what's new.

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Convert Any Media File to any Audio File with Switch Audio Converter

Our Switch Audio File Converter is one of our more popular applications, allowing you to convert audio files between a wide range of audio file formats including: mp3, wav, wma, acc, dvf, midi and more. If you have audio files on your computer that you want to put on your mp3 player that aren't mp3s you need an application like Switch for mp3 conversion first. With the batch audio converter feature you can convert thousands of files from multiple formats all in one go.



As proof of its popularity, Switch Audio Converter was rated number one from Top Ten Reviews. Read their review or watch the video spotlight.
Have a Mac? Read the Mac Review from BrightHub.

Did you know that you can extract audio from video too?
With Switch, not only can you convert audio files, but you can use it for extracting audio files and sound bites from DVDs and other video file formats as well. It is as easy as adding the video file to your list of files to convert, pick your format and destination and click convert. The process is the same if you are converting wma to mp3 or mov to wav.

Best of all, Switch is free. We make the standard version of Switch free because we know you will love it so much you will want to upgrade to Switch Plus which supports additional encode-to formats for serious audio professionals. Whichever one you decide to use, we hope that you will agree that if you need to convert and audio file, Switch Audio Converter from NCH Software is the best choice.

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I'm Grateful For

Just came across a nice blog entry about NCH Software from a customer. A linguist who has set up a blog all about things that she is grateful for, and we were honored enough to make the cut recently. You can check out her entry at http://imgratefulforww.blogspot.com/2009/07/nch-software.html.

We do offer several products that are either completely free, or have free basic editions. We do this largely in the hopes that people will be encouraged to try our other products, or will like them so much that they will upgrade to the paid versions as well as recommend our software to others. We are grateful to see that there people out there that appreciate these products, and we hope you all continue to enjoy them.

Some of our free software includes:
WavePad Sound Editor
Switch Audio Converter Software
Prism Video Converter Software
VideoPad Video Editor
Express Talk Softphone
Axon Virtual PBX
Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software
And many more.

Check out our complete line of over 80 software applications at www.nchsoftware.com

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