HeatWare.net » Software – General

What is .docx file and how to open it for free

sood — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:57:27 +0000

.docx is the Office Open XML file format that was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft uses this XML-based format to store all text, formulas, graphics, etc for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The ultimate goal for this switchover is to facilitate extensibility and interoperability by allowing third-party vendors to read these files. So how to open a .docx file?

If you have Office XP or Office 2003, you must download the Compatibility Pack from Microsoft. Click here to download.
If you do not have any Microsoft Office product, first download the free Word Viewer application and then the Compatibility Pack from the bullet item above.

And there you have it, a 100% free and legit way to open .docx files!

Download & Read Kindle books for free on your PC – Part 2/2

sood — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:12:27 +0000

In Part 1 of this series, I showed you how to download a lightweight Windows application from Amazon.com that allows you to read Kindle books. In this article, I will show you how to download thousands of Kindle books absolutely free!

How to Download Thousands of Kindle Books for Free!

Download, install, and run the Kindle PC software as described in Part I.

Go to Amazon.com and view all Kindle books sorted by price from lowest to highest. This will list thousands of free books! For your convenience, you can simply click on this link to take you there. Here is what the page looks like:

Browse through the list of books and when you find one you like, click on the link to pull up more details.

Click on the “Buy now with 1-Click” button as shown below.
Note: You must have registered your Kindle PC Software and logged into Amazon.com in order to see this option

You should receive a confirmation similar to the one below:

Now open the Kindle PC Software and it will show the new books you “purchased”

That’s it!

(Bonus)

If you are interested in reading some classics such as: The Invisible Man, War and Peace, Treasure Island, The Jungle Book, and more, check out this list of free classic Kindle books.

Download & Read Kindle books for free on your PC – Part 1/2

sood — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:48:17 +0000

Everyone by now knows about Amazon’s uber-popular Book reader, Kindle. This featherweight 10 ounce device allows you to wirelessly purchase books online without requiring an internet connection. Until now, books purchased for the Kindle could only be used on the device. However, Amazon.com just released a PC version of the Kindle book reader – and its free!

This software is compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP with a Mac version coming soon. The 5.8 MB download is snappy and installation is a breeze. The only requirement is that you are registered with Amazon.com. Here is what the interface looks like when you first open it:

As you can see, the interface is very clean and intuitive. Now here is what it looks like when you are reading a book:

Some of the functionality that you have with the actual Kindle device has been ported to this application. For example, while reading the book you can:

Increase & decrease the font size
Change the number of words by line
Quickly jump to different sections of the book
Bookmark pages
Show Notes and Highlights from an actual Kindle Device

This concludes Part 1 of 2 in the series “Download & read Kindle books for free on your PC”. In Part 2, I will show you how to download thousands of full books for free, including classics that you grew up reading!

Free Photoshop Alternative for Windows – Paint.NET

sood — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:25:10 +0000

Paint.NET had a major release today of version 3.5 of their software. Until today, I had not heard of this application which surprised me quite a bit. I had thought that the best free photo editor for Windows was GIMP (although I am not a huge fan of it). This is not a GIMP vs Paint.NET comparison, but one advantage is that GIMP can open Photoshop .psd files.

The interface for Paint.NET is very quick, clean, and intuitive. At first glance, it may just look like Windows Paint on steroids, but I wouldn’t even put them in the same category. This software offers features that come with the expensive Adobe Photoshop software but is easier to use and better yet, FREE!

Some noteworthy features include:

Layers – this feature usually found on more expensive photo editing tools
Active Online Community – Their message board has over 18,000 members where you can find numerous of step-by-step tutorials with pictures. Also, you can download many user-created plugins to expand the functionality of Paint.NET for free!
Automatically Updated – You don’t have to worry anymore if you are missing out on some new features or bug fixes. Paint.NET will automatically install upgrades with a click of a button.
Unlimited History – Every action you perform can be reverted. No more being stuck with unwanted changes you made!
Small footprint – Can you believe that a full-fledged photo editing software is only a 4.8 MB download?! Wow!

Download Paint.NET v3.5!

ACSLS 8.0 GUI Screenshots

sood — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:58:07 +0000

Sun recently announced the release of ACSLS 8.0 last month. The major new feature in this release is the addition of a web-based GUI interface to monitor and manage your libraries. This includes the ability to:

View system alerts
View ACS, LSMs, Volumes, Drives
Perform operations such as mount and dismount
View historical usage graphs and charts
and more!

I am sure many of you are very curious as to what this user-interface looks like to aid in the decision whether to upgrade or not! Well, below are various screenshots of the GUI!

If you do have ACSLS 8.0 installed and are experiencing problems logging in, check out this post regarding the authentication failure message in ACSLS.