New Free Personal Finance Software

If you have multiple bank accounts and credit cards keeping track of all your spending can be difficult. Your money may be spread out, but that doesn't mean understanding of your personal finances needs to be disjointed.

MoneyLine personal finance software isd a brand new and free way for you to track all your bank accounts and spending in one, centralized location. Now tracking your finances couldn't be easier. With MoneyLine you can download statements and transaction details directly from your bank(s), reconcile accounts—or digitally balance your checkbook, log money transfers, and categorize purchases to help you stay organized and see where your money is going.

You work hard for your money, so make sure you know where that hard earned cash is going. Make managing your spending and balancing your checkbook less of a chore. Give MoneyLine a test drive and be sure let us know what you think and if there is anything else we can do with future releases to make managing your personal finances easier.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival April 2, 2013

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Shaun Farley presents Creative Uses of Reverb posted at Designing Sound, saying, "Reverb is used to create realism and adding appropriate reverb will instantly help dialogue fit better into a scene. However, reverb can also be used in many other creative ways, here is a small collection of examples."

Denise Young presents 10 Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument posted at Au Pair Care, saying, "There are many benefits to playing a musical instrument that go beyond improving hand-eye coordination and instilling a sense of responsibility in your child."

Ken Theriot presents EQ Basics posted at Home Brew Audio, saying, "Equalization&emdash;or EQ&emdash;is a big part of mixing and mastering music, but for those new to audio engineering it may be difficult to grasp. Here are some of the basics for using EQ effectively."

stayonbeat presents Free VSTs for Music Producers and Artists posted at stayonbeat.com.

Lee Pritchard presents Why you should remove breaths from voice over audio posted at Media Music Now, saying, "The problem is that once audio is produced with compression and EQ the breaths will actually become more prominent, making de-breathing essential."

Michelle Brown presents 10 iPhone Apps for Music Maniacs posted at Nanny, saying, "Apple and the app developers for the iPhone App Store are bringing instruments and equipment right to your mobile device, allowing you to use them anywhere and at any time."

Sydney Bell presents 10 of the Best Mash Ups posted at Longhorn Leads, saying, "Mash-ups are the combination of two songs sites like YouTube have boosted the art to mind-boggling popularity."

Peter Kirn presents Makey Makey + Fruits and Vegetables = Music posted at Create Digital Music, saying, "Simple circuits have long been able to make use of sensors in real-world items, but the Make Makey interfacing has made those circuits silly-simple. The project grew out of research at MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten. Here see Massive Attack's Teardrop, as covered by artist j.viewz on fruits and veggies using the Make Makey system."


You might also be interested in:

• Using EQ to Boost the Bass in Audio
• Several Ways to Quickly trim and Cut Music and Audio Files
• FFT Spectrum Audio Analysis Software
• Mixing Audio Voice Overs With Other Audio
• Add DirectX and VST Audio Effect Plugins to WavePad

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Software Easter Eggs

It's the time of year when stores are lined with pastels, jelly beans and chocolates shaped like eggs and rabbits, but in the software world an "Easter Egg" isn't a colorfully dyed hard-boiled egg. A Software Easter Egg is a fun little surprise hidden inside of the software program. These features are typically un-documented, so you have to be in-the-know to uncover them.

One particularly famous example is the flight simulator that was hidden inside the 1997 version of Excel. So, in addition to crunching numbers you could brush up on your piloting skills. Find more software Easter egg examples on the Lifehaker Easter egg top 10 list.

NCH doesn't have any of these kinds of Easter eggs hidden in our programs which we have tried to streamline as much as possible to keep everything as easy and straight forward as we can, but in the spirit of hunting for—or finding—hidden features, here are some lesser known, or less used features you may want to try:

1. Resize zip files to meet email size restrictions, or split large zip files into pieces with Express Zip software.
2. Record video from anywhere with Debut video capture software. Most recording programs focus on a single source, but with Debut you have the best of all worlds with support for a multitude of video sources.
3. Send recurring invoices and statements in addition to one-off invoices Express Invoice invoicing software which can save you time with managing long term clients and accounts.
4. Practice transcription, we provide dictation practice files that can be downloaded individually for Express Scribe, or KeyBlaze typing tutor has audio dictation exercises already built in.
5. Convert videos to 3D with VideoPad video editor for some extra dimension in your home movies.
6. Broadcast DJ mixes by connecting Zulu DJ software with the streaming power of BroadWave audio streamer to share your remixes online.
7. Be sure to turn on Auto Complete in FastFox instant text expansion software to get the power of auto complete suggestions everywhere you type from emails and word documents to your web browser.

Smart Text Auto Complete Software

With FastFox instant text expander you can improve your typing speed and productivity not only with personalized keyboard shortcuts and shorthand abbreviations, but FastFox also learns what you type the most often and will make suggestions for completing phrases as you type with a popup alert in the corner of your screen. Just like the regular hotkey shortcuts, the auto complete feature will work while you type in any application, so you can select, insert and finish text phrases on the fly.

Bring the power of auto complete to all your typing with FastFox word expander software.

Best Video Converter Software

Software Review Boffin has put Prism Video Converting Software at the top of the list when it comes to video converting. The reviewer put Prism to the test over several days noting that it worked flawlessly, and that the software is "so proficient that support will seldom be necessary."

"Prism Video Converter Software will within minutes perform, its as quick as a speeding bullet the review team at Software Review Boffin thought. Time is money and this product will not weigh you down!"
  � Software Review Boffin

Read the complete review of Prism Video Converter from Software Review Boffin, or simply download today for flawless video conversion whenever you need it.

Do You Think Employees Working From Home Are Productive?

What do you think about Yahoo's new position on banning working from home?

Yahoo has made headlines all week, and there has been a flurry of articles, responses and reactions to the Marissa Mayer's announcement. As CEO Mayer is implementing a policy that asks all current remote employees to come in the office or quit because of the cultural assumptions that those remote employees get less work done.

Do you agree? Do you think employees aren't as productive if they are working from home?

NCH Software actually makes a software program designed to be a bit of a compromise allowing employers to monitor hours and tasks remotely. FlexiServer employee monitoring and attendance software is meant to help give the employer peace of mind that employees are being productive. And as you can see in the reactions online, there are a lot of remote workers crying out that face-time doesn't equate with productivity.

What are your thoughts? Monitoring software may be one possible compromise, are there any others? or do you agree with Mayer that all employees need to come into the office?

Do More with Video - Blog Carnival March 4, 2013

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Video:

Jason Brubaker presents How To Avoid Filmmaking Headaches posted at Filmmaking Stuff, saying, "A filmmaker has a gazillion things to do, but it is important to make sure the legal clearance paperwork doesn't get dropped. You need to have legal clearance for everyone and everything associated with your movie."

Lance Carr presents Shooting Better Home Videos posted at The DIY Video Editor, saying, "Part one of a six part series of articles on shooting better videos."

Matthew York presents Video Is Everywhere! posted at VideoMaker, saying, "there�s some seven billion people on the planet; more than 311 million in the U.S. YouTube tells us that in 2011 it had more than one trillion views � approximately 140 views for every person on Earth."

You might also be interested in:

• Video Editing Excellence
• Making Picture in picture videos with VideoPad
• VideoPad Video Editor for Mac
• video capture software for Mac OS X
• New Video Editing Features in VideoPad version 3.00
• Record Video Screencast Tutorials
• Photo Movie Maker Software
• How to Rotate Video
• Video Surveillance for the Home

That concludes the first edition of Do More with Video. If you have a video story to share from home movies to video production submit your video blog posts for the next edition.

VideoPad: Video Editing Excellence

We are very proud of the fact that even though VideoPad hasn't broken into the top three on TopTenReviews' list—yet—they have awarded our video editor for excellence. With each new release we strive to add more of the advanced features professionals crave, and just as importantly stay easy to use. That user-friendly quality that allows everyone to make movies is in a large part what TopTenReviews has noticed and is recognizing:

"Using VideoPad requires little effort. Before we even looked at the manual, we were able to create a video. To add transitions, effects and more, all you have to do is drag and drop them in place ... Overall, VideoPad has some excellent features. It can import files directly from many types of devices and it has 3D and green-screen capabilities. It is easy to use and has basic editing tools."
    �  TopTenReviews

If you haven't tried VideoPad video editing software yet, why not download a copy today. We think you will agree that VideoPad is both an excellent and easy video editor. Those of you who are already VideoPad users remember you can always send us suggestions on how we can make VideoPad even better. With your help those other video editors better watch out, because we plan to keep moving VideoPad forward and raising the bar on video editing excellence.

Quickly Cut Music and Audio Files

WavePad music editing and cutting software provides several easy options for cutting music and mp3 files. Whether you want to trim off silence or cut out a section to use as a ringtone or split long recording into smaller audio files, here is a look at how you can cut, trim and split sections of you mp3, music and audio files.

1. Trim
   To trim, or cut off, the beginning and end of a file, simply select the region you want to keep, then you can use the shortcut CTRL+T or, choose Trim (delete all but the current selection) from the Trim drop down menu on the Edit tab. Here you can also see other choices for trimming down an audio file, including Trim start and Trim end that will respectively delete everything from either before or after the current position.
2. Auto Trim
   If you are deleting silence from start and end of your audio you can save yourself the step of finding the start and end points and selecting a region. Instead use Auto Trim to scan the audio file and remove the beginning and ending regions that are below the Auto Trim threshold.
3. Split
   To keep the sections on both sides of the current position as individual files, instead of trimming move over to the Split drop down menu, which is also on the Edit tab.
4. Auto Split
   Just as WavePad can detect silences at the beginning and end of a song, it can also detect silences in the middle of a file. So, if you recorded a whole set you can select Split file at silences from the Split drop down to separate the recording at each silent section so you can edit and save each song individually.

Everday Text Expansion

What do you type the most? your email address? your mailing address? maybe your phone number? or your web address? Are there any words you struggle to remember how to spell causing you to slow down and correct misspellings or typos? Or maybe you frequently browse to webpages just so you can copy and paste the links to make sure you get them correct.

We are all constantly typing, from emails to forms online, and some of the things we are typing we have to type all of the time. FastFox text expansion software lets you save those words or phrases so you can not only enter them in faster, but also avoid typos. Think of it like auto complete that will work anywhere on your computer, or like a super powered clipboard that can save much more than just one snippet of text at a time. You pick your own shortcuts and what they are short for, then whenever you type the shortcut it will be automatically replaced. So, typing something like :em could be all you need to type to enter your email address, or you could just type :sig to add a signature to the end of an email, a comment you're making on a forum. Anywhere you type, if you enter one of your text shortcuts FastFox will automatically replace it with the expanded text.

The possibilities are endless, you don't need to be a typist or transcriptionist to find things that would make useful text shortcuts, just think, what do you type the most often? Once you've created shortcuts for those common items and phrases you will wonder what you ever did without them. Spend less time typing with this fast, everyday solution.

Software Sweethearts

With so much software, what's not to love?

VideoPad & Express Burn

This dynamic duo will guide you faithfully from beginning to end of any video project. Use VideoPad video editing software to capture, import, edit and add effects to your videos. Finish up by burning the video to DVD with Express Burn. Create a heartfelt video recording for your beau this Valentine's Day.

WavePad & MixPad

This pair is the audio software dream team. Use WavePad audio editor to record and edit a song first, then incorporate with other tracks with MixPad for your multi-track mixing needs. They work together seamlessly to help you create your own love song for your valentine this year.

Express Dictate & Express Scribe

If ever there was a practical match, it's this one. Express Dictate digital dictation software allows you to record dictation, and send to a transcriptionist, while Express Scribe makes transcription easy with features like variable speed playback, and file management.

Looking for the perfect match? Save by bundling related programs pairs and purchasing them together.

Boosting the Bass in Audio Files

Want to boost up the bass in your music? The Equalizer in WavePad music editing software is your answer. Open your song in WavePad and select Equalize on the Effects tab. Equalizing allows you to adjust the level of frequencies in your audio amplifying ranges of sound frequencies. So you can change the volume of just the higher or lower (bass) frequencies in a song, as opposed to simply amplifying a song which will affect all of the frequencies.

Unlike a graphic equalizer you might see in a studio, with a multitude of knobs and dials for certain frequencies, the WavePad equalizer displays a graph of the frequencies going from the low frequencies at the left to the high frequencies on the right giving you very finite control of the frequency ranges you want to control. Move a point up on the graph to make the frequency stronger and lower a point to make it weaker.

To familiarize yourself with the equalizer take advantage of the presets to get started, but don't be afraid to play around with them and to adjust their settings to see how they affect your songs. To boost the bass start with the Low Pass filter presets. If you hit play you will hear the higher frequencies drop down, giving a boosted effect to the bass. Chances are the result won't be exactly what you wanted on the first shot, but this will provide a good starting place to make further adjustments. Changes aren't applied until you actually click Apply, so you can continue to tweak the graph as needed without fear.

Other preset filters include a High Pass Filter which is the opposite of the Low Pass Filter lowering the bass instead of the higher frequencies, a Band Pass Filter to maintain the frequencies in a specified range and lower the regions above and below that section, and several more that you can experiment with on your own, or go to the help for more details on the settings of each of these presets.

Try WavePad sound editor today to boost your bass and pump up the volume of your music.

Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival February 4, 2013

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Matt presents Play the Rings of a Tree Trunk Like a Record posted at Make: Blog, saying, "What would the trunk of a tree sound like if a cross section of it were played like an LP?"

Mary presents Music resources for small churches posted at The Mustard Seed Journal, saying, "links to sources of instrumental music for hymn singing and more."

Mel presents Audio reporting tools of the trade: then and now posted at journomel.com: Examining where journalism is heading, saying, "a shift from using many one-use devices to one device with many applications."

Darren presents C25K Podcast Music � Make Your Own and DIY! posted at PromoGuy dot Net, saying, "How you can create your own C25K podcast and get running!"

profmaja presents Why I Put a Recording Space in My Classroom posted at Day in the Life of a Backwards Musical Mind, saying, "A space for my students to work on their rhythm projects and promote excitement towards doing their best."

Jessica Clark presents 10 iPhone Apps for Recording & Editing Audio posted at Kenney Myers, saying, "Here is a list of 10 interesting applications that I have looked into recently for recording and editing audio."

Chris presents Epic Musical Mashup posted at Mental Floss, saying, "video artist Crumbs Chief mashes up an insane number of musical dance numbers, matching them to the mashup track 'Come Again (Beatles vs Rare Earth vs Beaties vs Daft Punk vs Cypress Hill vs Boston)' by the Kleptones."

Floppy music DUO - Imperial march by Pawel Zadrozniak:



You might also be interested in:

• WavePad Sound Editor Makes a Cameo on NBC's Chicago Fire
• Speaker Recording Software for Windows and Mac
• How to Record an Audio Book
• An Audio Swiss Army Knife

That concludes this edition of Do More with Audio. If you have an audio story to share or advice, tips or tricks to share, we hope you will submit your audio posts and articles to the next edition.

Software from A to Z

A: Audio Software	B: Business Software	C: Converting Software	D: Dictation Software
E: Easy Software	F: FTP Software	G: Graphics Software	H: Hardware
I: International	J: Jamming Software	K: Keep (Protect & Save)	L: Live Broadcasting
M: Mobile Software	N: New Programs	O: Optimize	P: PDF Software
Q: Quick	R: Recording Software	S: Social Sharing	T: Typing Software
U: Utility Software	V: Video Software	W: Web Access	X: eXpress
Y: YouTube Software	Z: Zip Software

New Mac VideoPad Video Editing Software

VideoPad has been praised for being an easy-to-use video editor, and is one of the most popular programs NCH Software provides, but until now it has only been available for Windows. Today however our Mac customers can rejoice that VideoPad Video Editor is now ready to start making movies on OS X too.

VideoPad joins Prism Video Converter and Debut Video Capture to make a very useful video software toolbox for Mac users. Ensuring that platform support won't get in the way of anyone's ability to record, edit, or watch videos.

Where You Download From Matters

Software download sites are a dime a dozen. As a software publisher we want our programs available on download sites to make them as easy to find as possible, but people should know that all download sites are not created equal. It has become an increasingly common trend for download sites to wrap their own extras around the products that you download. These extras could offer you other applications to try, or install toolbars to create revenue for the site.

Some software download sites have been more open about if they are including anything else with a download than others. For example CNET, one of the largest download sites, has posted information about their download.com installer which has met mixed reviews.^{(1) (2) (3)}

CNET is has been a bit more up front about what they are adding than some providers. However, as a whole this trend has caused a great deal of confusion for users. NCH offers an toolbar in our standard installers which is optional, but if a download site installs a toolbar of their own and then a user opts out of the toolbar NCH has offered there is an incorrect perception that the opt-out decision was ignored.

With Google controlling 90% of worldwide search traffic,⁽⁴⁾ they are in a position make difference and in the interest of computer users they have been updating their software principles. The changes going into effect in February are designed to address some of the problems related to toolbar, but especially with some rules only applying to advertisers it is still important for users to realize that where you get your software from matters. Going directly to the source and downloading program like WavePad audio editor and VideoPad video editor from NCH Software directly will ensure you won't get any unwanted extras from the third party download site.

Keyframing and More VideoPad 3.00 Improvements

The release of VideoPad Video Editor v3.00 has some exciting changes that long-time users should be happy to see, including additional video tracks and sequences, and keyframing, while remaining as easy as ever, keeping the learning curve to the bare minimum.

Keyframing is one of the new features we really think you will enjoy. Keyframing allows greater control over an effect�s usage in a video, including the rate at which it is applied, intensity, and even the animation of an effect or overlay on the video. From the Video Effects dialog, you can show the animation controls button by clicking the keyframes icon to the right of the Applied Effects heading. Add keyframes to the effect�s timeline and position them higher or lower to change how the effect is shown in the final video. Use the preview to make sure your effects look just the way they should.

Keyframing gives advanced users a lot more control and flexibility in their editing, and many of VideoPad�s newest additions streamline the editing workflow to help anyone new to video editing work like a pro with their first project. To help get people started we have updated the VideoPad tutorial to introduce you to the interface and the video editing basics you need to make your movies look their best.

Create Videos From Photos

Take photos from your camera or hard drive and transform those photos into videos in no time. With PhotoStage photo movie maker you can quickly bring new life to your digital photos.

Use the quick create option to add all the photos in a folder into a slideshow to get you started. Simply drag and drop to rearrange photos. Add effects, captions, music and narration for that little something extra to truly turn your photos into something special.

New iPad Express Invoice App

Now available in the iTunes store is the brand new iPad version of Express Invoice, providing a new portable and easy invoicing solution for business people on the go. Create and send invoices, quotes and estimates, automate recurring invoices and payment past due reminders, plus access up-to-the-minute statements and reports all from the convenience of your iPad.

Sales and business people who are always on the move and spend more time with customers than at their desk won't want to miss out on the convenience of the express invoice iPad app. And for a more comprehensive solution including support for multiple users, multiple businesses and remote access, be sure to check out the desktop versions of this popular invoicing software.

Speaker Recording Software for Windows and Mac

Everyone knows you can use a microphone for recording audio, and a quality microphone is the best tool for a lot of different types of recording, but if you want to record something that you are listening to on your computer putting your mic next to your speakers is not going to get you the quality audio you can get with SoundTap Streaming Audio Recorder.

With SoundTap you can directly record audio from your computer, so you are capturing the same audio you hear being played through your speakers and saving it as an mp3 or wav file. So, with SoundTap installed on your PC or Mac you can record high quality digital audio from all kinds of places including:

• Record internet radio streams
• Convert formats with their own players to mp3
• Record VoIP phone calls or conference calls
• Save audio from streaming webcasts
• Grab the audio in online videos

And the list continues, so download SoundTap today to record sound from your computer and happy recording!