Computer Software

When you buy a new computer system, software usually comes bundled with it. And if it's a new PC, chances are good that you'll get some version of Microsoft Office. There are, however, thousands of other software titles available, to do everything from organize your files to animate your doodles. Here are a few of the most interesting ones.

If you have several e-mail addresses, you can manage them more easily with EPrompter. This software can collect mail from up to 16 different accounts and store it in one place for you, while maintaining your separate in and out boxes. If there's information in those e-mails that you don't want to forget, the makers of Post-It notes can supply you with an electronic version that you can stick on your desktop instead of on your actual computer.

Microsoft offers a free add-on to enhance your PowerPoint presentations. This utility allows you to add a voice track or a video to a static image. For those huge projects spread out over dozens or even hundreds of documents and web pages, global search and replace doesn't really live up to its name, since you have to run it for each document. Software called "Actual Search and Replace," on the other hand, can do them all with one click.

Software for Fun

Replay Radio software acts like a TiVo for radio. You can set it to record specific radio programs or you can choose from their database of more than 200 stations and let it record automatically. There's software for karaoke, for 3-D doodling, and for automatic bidding on e-Bay. And the best part is, many of these are free!