Thursday, July 28, 2016

Free Web-Based Tools For Content Creators

Friendly note: This collection is now eight years old, has become somewhat unruly, and isn't pruned or cleaned regularly. Some links may well now be dead, or even lead to less friendly sources that have taken them over. Proceed with appropriate caution and please feel free to leave a comment if a link has gone over to the dark side, thanks.

Spelling, Grammar and Style

  • JSpell: A free browser-based spelling (and basic English grammar) checker. Also has French, Spanish, Italian and German modes.
  • Java Word Counter: Quick and dirty way to get an idea of a word count of a piece; be aware Google Docs and some other online editors may give you a different (usually higher) count than this will. (See also Wordcounter and Count Wordsworth  )
  • UK Spell Checker: Easy way for US writers to convert a piece to British English conventions
  • Readability Score: Gives a rough idea of the education level (expressed in terms of grade) needed to read a given piece.




Search Tools
  • Archive.org: Searchable out-of-copyright and public domain text, videos and audio files.

Sources of Royalty-Free Images, Music and Sound


Sources of royalty-free music

AI Generators: Midjourney

Free Image and Video Tools


JPEGView: Small image viewer, superior to the default one included with Windows  (thread of other alternatives)

ShareX: Excellent open-source (totally free) video and screen capture tool

Bandicam: Excellent, very easy-to-use video and screen capture tool, but the free version places a watermark on videos, and the paid annual subscription is a little pricey


Contracts and Invoices


Free Publishing Platforms

  • About.me - Free basic one-page websites 
  • Let's Encrypt - Free SSL certificates for websites 
  • PeerTube - Alternative to YouTube that is peer-hosted and uncensored

Communications


General Advice & Resources

Tricks for accessing paywalled sites - the classic is to put a "." after the ".com" part of the URL, but a lot of sites are onto this now. Still, if it blocks client side this can still work if you add the ".", refresh the page then quickly hit ESC or the "Stop" button in the browser before it loads in the blocking layer. 

Another option is to plug the URL into archive.is, and your local library card can often get you access to these sites if you log into the library website first 

Incorporating / Forming an LLC

Issuing A DMCA Takedown 

Who Pays Video Game Writers?

Ways to Build Mobile Apps Without Programming 

K-Lite Codec Pack - Allows you to play all sorts of video files in Windows

IRS Taxpayer Bill of Rights

Tips for dealing with plagiarism

Extended file management tool



Social Media


Sourcing and Collaboration

 

Virus Scanning / Protection

VirusTotal - Online scanning

MalwareBytes - Offline scanning

ProtonVPN - Reputable free VPN service (from ProtonMail), will usually slow down your traffic somewhat and can't be used for streaming, but works in a pinch for securing hotel/restaurant wifi etc. connections if you need to do logins on them

UBlock Origin - web browser extensions for blocking tracking and ads


Alternative Operating Systems and Tools

WPD Windows Privacy Dashboard: shuts down unwanted Windows updates and telemetry -  Optimization tips

W4RH4WK - A Windows 10 debloater/privacy enhancer

Windows 10 Pro Superlite (buyer beware, not screened for malware)

Pop! OS - Small and simple Linux distribution designed for newcomers to the OS

Simple options for running Linux on an Android device


SD Card / Portable Drive File Recovery Tools

These tools generally cannot recover your original file structure and file names, but will extract the files in their original (and usable) format

PhotoRec

Sony DataRescue

HDD Raw Copy Tool


DVD Ripping


MakeMKV 


Handbrake


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