Cool Software

Andrew Field — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:44:16 +0000

The team asked me to do an occasional post on the Print Soup blog. I told them that as the president of PFL, I’m a generalist, not a specialist, and that others know more about design, printing technology, and even Montana recreation (nice assignment, Tim!) than I do. So they told me to write about things that interest me, figuring that I probably have some shared interests and perspectives with some of our tens of thousands of small business customers. As I left the room, I think I heard Chip mumble “we can always delete his posts…” So here goes. Thanks for reading.

Well known blogger Furqan Nazeeri raved about a piece of software called Flowchart.com. Which got me thinking. Once in a while someone comes up with a piece of software that is intuitive, useful, and priced right. I think great software should be usable with little or no instructions or training. Guessing as to how to do something should get you the right result most of the time. BaseCamp doesn’t quite meet that standard, but it is pretty good, and a heckuva lot better than MS Project for anything but the largest projects. And the price is right.

I started using SnagIt a year or 2 ago, and it absolutely rocks. A great use is including screenshots in emails about website changes, or even Excel snags when discussing numbers. I probably dump snags into 3 Word, ppt or emails a day. And no, I have nothing to do with the company, I just love their software. 90% of the time I use it instead of Photoshop or Illustrator. Before you flame me, I want to be clear that I’m a businessperson, not a design professional, and I realize SnagIt doesn’t replace Photoshop, AI, etc. It is just a handy tool for everyday business tasks.

Using a snag for quick, clear email communications.

I’d be happy to hear about your favorite software tool.

Print Soup » flowchart.com

Cool Software