Free software offered by Google under Google Pack just got bigger with the addition of StarOffice.

According to PCPro on Monday:
Not content with taking on Microsoft Office with its online Docs and Spreadsheet service, Google has now included StarOffice in its free download suite. StarOffice is, curiously, the paid-for cousin of the open-source OpenOffice, which has been selling for around $70 on Sun's website. StarOffice includes extra features, fonts and templates over OpenOffice. Sun also offers customers three free support calls during the first 60 days of ownership. "Google Pack includes a free, non-expiring version of StarOffice 8 that includes all the major functionality of the paid consumer version, except for the Adabas D database," says a Google spokesperson. "We believe that users will benefit from access to a free, full-featured office suite for the desktop." ...However, it poses yet another problem for Microsoft, which is struggling to match Google's vast range of popular online services.

Hi everybody -

I used to use Allaire HomeSite as an HTML editor. I wasn't crazy about the bloated size, slow load times, or the annoyances that came with it, but it had a few features that made it super-valuable. The biggest were its handling of snippets and keyboard shortcuts.

A snippet was a custom text block or a pair of custom text blocks. Think HTML or BBCode tags as a start. For example, you could define a snippet to start with the (tr)(td) tags, and end with the (/td)(/tr) tags. Then whatever you had highlighted when you applied the snippet would be placed inside those tags, effectively making it into a table row.

This went hand-in-hand with ultra flexible keyboard shortcuts. There were intuitive defaults; Ctrl-B was mapped to the (b)(/b) tags, Ctrl-I was mapped to the (i)(/i) tags, etc. But I could also assign Ctrl-T to my table row snippet if I wanted. Any keyboard shortcut could be re-assigned this way, to either a program command or a text snippet. (My other faves were Ctrl-Space to insert the non-breaking space escape code and Ctrl-Quotes to insert the quotation mark escape code.)

Once set up, using the snippets and shortcuts made editing raw HTML almost as easy as regular word processing.

These days I use Notepad + + as my default HTML editor, and while I think it's mostly terrific, it doesn't have these two killer features (that I can see.) It has other stuff I consider essential, though, like color-coding of HTML code, flexible and capable search & replace, etc.

Does anyone here know of a text editor akin to Notepad + + that also has full keyboard customizability and text snippet support? I figured if anybody knew of such a beast, it would be someone here!

Thanks in advance!

Basic Info

App Name	xplorer² [pro] (a.k.a xplorer2, x2, x²)
App URL	http://www.zabkat.com
App Version Reviewed	1.7.0.4 [Unicode] (30.Jun.07)
Test System Specs	Windows XP, 60GB HD, 1GB RAM, P4 4GHz
Supported OSes	Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista (!)
Support Methods	Email support. Also has a large active user forum
Upgrade Policy	"Although there is no explicit "free for life" upgrade policy for xplorer2, all upgrades were free since 2004. At any rate I wouldn't base my selection on the future so much as on what the software can do *now* to help me with my file management tasks"
Trial Version Available?	Yes - 21 day trial
Pricing Scheme	$29.95 - 1 User License
Reviewer Author Donation Link	Click Here to Donate Now
Screencast Video URL	screencasts and screenshots of xplorer² in action doing various operations.. check these out!

Intro
xplorer² (x² from now on) is a windows based file manager. What exactly is a file manager? A file manager is some thing you use to arrange and organize your (computer) files.. If you are using Windows you are probably familiar with Windows Explorer - the stocked file manager that comes with windows.. it is heavily integrated in to the windows system. You may know from usage of Windows explorer is that is a) too slow, b) missing a lot of functions and c) lacking great customization - such as being able to hilite certain file types, save layouts, adding toolbars, etc.

Welcome to x²! One of the first things you will notice with x² is that it has 2 panes (2 window areas you can work with - at the same time).
2 panes you say? Yup, 2 panes.. you would be amazed at how much of a time saver this is when working between many folders.. Instead of switching between 2 or more Window Explorer windows, you can be in one x² window, working with folders side by side.. drag and drop (as well as cut and paste) operations are so much faster and easier!

x² can also use tabs.. Just like FireFox can have many tabs under one window/instance.. x² can have many tabs open on each pane..

Hi all.
I am currently nearing the end of my education, and though i am versed in various programming languages, my choices tend to be rather old fashioned. What I'd like to know is what everyone considers to be the best language to learn for the sake of employability. C and/or C++ does not get you employed very successfully anymore unless you are an expert, which i would not consider myself to be. I am not interested in Java, though i could tolerate dotnet if necessary. Particularly, i would welcome the opportunity to learn C#, were i to find an IDE that was not by Microsoft and not written in Java. Any suggestion is welcome, for the sake of others as well as myself.

Thanks, Ehtyar.

OK, not sure if this has been asked before (if so feel free to close topic), just its for a project I am doing, and the fact that I am looking to try new (good) software, so here goes.

What are the top 3 programs/games you use on a daily basis?