On this page, we have links to online tools that we think are very useful for small businesses. To be included on this page, the tools must be totally free to use or purchase and must also meet at least two of the following criteria:
- easy to use
- replacement of expensive software
- great functionality in an online format
Build your own social network
Ning enables you to build and use: forums, user groups, personal profiles, online messaging, blogs, video and photo displays and more, for as many people as you want. Hundreds of thousands of people all round the world are building communities. If you pay fees, you can customise its look to fit your brand and get some extra services.
Office software suite
Download a complete office software suite for: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. Compatible with Microsoft Office files. Totally free. Highly-regarded.
Desktop publishing / page layout
Create newsletters and brochures using Scribus, an open-source page layout product that is gaining kudos as being as good as expensive commercial programs such as InDesign (PageMaker) or Quark Express.
Colour generator
Load an image into this tool online and get a list of colour specifications back that match it. It’s useful for coming up with a website color palette that matches a key image a client wants to work with.
Online file conversion service
Simply load your file into the zamzar website, select the type of file you want to convert it to and back comes the new file. Converts .docx (Microsoft 2007) to .doc, .jpg to .tiff and .xls to .csv, along with many, many other useful conversions.
Photo editing and image creation
GIMP is a tool for editing photos and creating images. This open-source product packs in all the features that its very expensive commercial competitors have. Totally free. Highly-regarded.
Build and style your own online content provider
Yahoo Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web. If you like to play with the latest online technologies and you are looking for new ways to provide targeted information to customers, you’ll want to have a look at Yahoo Pipes.
Open files without software
If you’ve got a Firefox web browser, we’ve found a great add-on that lets you open and view a file (such as a document or an image) without having the software needed for that file.
