Portable Apps Suite: A Powerful (and Free) Alternative to Software Bloat More Office-Style Apps and Reaching for the Web Wayne Kawamoto
More Office-Style Apps
With good office-style applications already in the mix, Portable AbiWord, a repackaged version of the AbiWord word processor, mostly seems redundant and
brings little more to the table. It's a good word processor, but when it's running from a flash memory card, it tends to run slowly.
As you would expect in a competent word processor, Portable AbiWord lets you easily manipulate fonts — changing styles, colors and more and highlighting text for modification. There's spell checking and automatic spell checking to identify misspellings as you create them. There are features for setting page numbers and also for creating tables of contents and listing bullets. The program supports the standard word processing formats that include Microsoft Word, RTF, and text — pretty much all that you need.
AbiWord creates and works with tables, and offers features for performing mail merges and tracking revisions. It's a good program, but most users will likely prefer the word processor found in OpenOffice.org.
To organize appointments and tasks, Portable Sunbird offers a handy calendar and computerized task list that you can carry with you, a repackaged version of Mozilla Sunbird. You can easily view the electronic calendar in month, week, and other views, and immediately change between them. By simply clicking on a day, you can view your appointments. When you pass the mouse cursor over an appointment, the program automatically displays a summary.
For more detail or to modify an event, you only have to click on it. Each task and appointment offers its own dialogue box that manages details such as who, where, and how long and you can enter in notes and assign predefined categories. Throughout, the program serves an intuitive and graphical interface.
The only thing that's missing is an address book to track contacts. While Portable Sunbird won't come close to replacing a contact manager such as Sage Software's ACT!, it's a decent program for managing your schedule and tasks. And it can help make sense of your busy days.
Reaching for the Web
The suite's web browser is Portable Firefox, a compact version of the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser. Portable Firefox offers a fast, full-featured web browser that's easy to use. In fact, if you didn't know that you were running the portable version of Firefox, you would think you were running the standard version.
Beyond basic browsing, the software adds pop-up ad blocking, integrated searches, and automatic updates. Like its full-fledged version, there's tabbed browsing, a hallmark of Firefox that allows you to open several windows and conveniently switch between them by clicking a tab. The beauty of the system is that as a movable app, Portable Firefox allows you to take your bookmarks, extensions, and saved passwords with you, wherever you use it.
The suite's e-mail client is Portable Thunderbird, a repackaged version of the well-known Mozilla Thunderbird. Again, as with Firefox, the portable version looks and feels much like its full-featured counterpart. And being portable, you can carry all of your e-mail contacts, accounts, settings, and addresses with you.
Portable NVU is a repackaged version of the NVU web editor and provides tools for building and maintaining web sites. Like other web editors, the program offers clear icons for performing the tasks of adding images, working with text, creating tables, and more. There's a mode to build a page as well as preview it, just as it would appear in a browser. It's a competent and well-organized program.
On the other hand, compared against mainstream web editors such as Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dreamweaver, NVU doesn't create pages in a visual WYSIWYG manner and offers few templates for beginners to use as a start for their pages. As a result, the program is mainly for experienced web designers who know what they are doing, already understand HTML, and for some reason aren't working with FrontPage or Dreamweaver.
Portable FileZilla, a version of FileZilla, brings a solid FTP client to the mix. While there may be higher order features that users look for in their FTP clients, this one definitely covers the basics.
Finally, Portable Gaim offers a portable version of the Gaim instant messaging (IM) client. The multi-protocol instant messaging client supports AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! and more. For security, the program supports the Off-the-record plugin to encrypt messages.
The program allows you to simultaneously log onto multiple IM networks and multiple accounts. It offers file transfers, away messages, typing notifications, and MSN window-closing notifications. It supports Buddy Pounces, which alerts you when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle by sending a message, playing a sound, or running a program, depending on your preferences.
Portability also allows you to bring along your IM settings and buddy lists and use the program on any computer.
