Easy-4-Free Software

Weebly

2009-10-23T23:44:00.000-07:00

I just found a great site to create FREE websites easily and quickly! It's called Weebly. No Ads, no non-sense, and drag & drop system!

You can even download the site as a .zip archive. I have not seen an easier system for a do-it-yourself website!

www.weebly.com

Church Software

2009-01-27T19:42:00.001-08:00

Below are some handy tools completely free of charge that are useful in a Church or public performance environment.

OpenLP - Worship Service Projection
http://www.openlp.org
This is software that is the "Open Source" equivalent to EasyWorship. It allows you to set up a presentation of slides containing worship lyrics, video clips, and bible verses. Set up much like EasyWorship, you have your "preview" and "live" columns, and whatever is live goes out to the projector.

OpenSong - Lyrics and Song Management
http://www.opensong.org
OpenSong is a free, open-source software application created to manage lyrics, chords, lead sheets, overheads, computer projection, and more.
OpenSong releases are available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux operating systems.
-description from opensong.org

BPBible - Bible Software
http://bpbible.com
Much like commercial Bible applications, BPBible has many useful featurs such as commentary, and dictionary support, Bible search, scripture tooltips, cross verse searching.

Graphics Software

2009-01-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

As a graphics artist I'm always looking for the best in design software. Of course what many people don't know is the incredible amount of free software that is available online. When I say FREE, I mean FREE. If you are like me, and want to be productive, but don't want to be forced into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for graphics software, then you've found the right place! Listed below are the top FREE graphics programs available on the net. These are listed as the top because I have personally tested them and use them on a regular basis!

Paint.NET - Photoshop alternative. (Recommended!)
http://www.paint.net/
Nice program that has layers, brushes, and selection tools in a similar layout to photoshop. One feature I miss is the layer effects, although you can change the opacity of layers. Great program!

GIMP - Another Photoshop alternative.
http://www.gimp.org/
This program has many of the features photoshop has. Its interface is kind of confusing at first because all of the toolbars are floating, there is no program window. Will open photoshop formatted files.

Inkscape - Illustrator alternative.
http://www.inkscape.org/
Vectored image creator/editor. Will export and open .pdf files! The program is kind of slow occasionally. It has a great tracing program that converts images to vectors. I use it often to trace company logos and make them scalable for large applications.

Blender - 3D object and animation rendering.
http://www.blender.org/
For those of you interested in 3D animation and movie making, this software is fully capable of rendering full 3D scenes. It is quite complex, and will require some learning...but I have made some great 3D scenes with it.

Icon Sushi - Icon Maker
http://www.download.com/Icon-Sushi/3000-2195_4-10547564.html
Ever wondered how to make your own .ico icon file for your programs. This nifty little program will take .bmp, .psd, and various other file formats and convert them into icons! It is a little finicky at times...but gets the job done!