My indispensable Windows XP tools

As I’ve recently moved to a new firm, I thought I’d set out what I found I needed to install to make me most productive. In no particular order:

1. Dual monitors — big 24″ screen mostly centred in front of me for work on documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, doc review etc; 19″ monitor slightly offset to the right with Outlook permanently filling the whole screen. Once you’ve tried this system it’s hard to go back and others seem to agree that it adds greatly to productivity. Best thing in my setup is being able to see out of the corner of my eye whether an incoming email is worth breaking the train of thought for or whether it can be left till later — it’s just not the same if you have to switch to Outlook to check what the notifier just told you. And now that monitors are pretty cheap, it’s easier to justify.

2. Firefox — probably lots of people reading this will need no persuading. I haven’t used IE for…well, a very long time. Favourite extensions include:
* Tab Mix Plus — allows easy tab management, inc Undo Close Tab (which I seem to use a lot), and Open All Tabs in the same place when you re-open Firefox (a real boon).
* del.icio.us — for all your bookmark needs.
* [twitterfox](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081) — checking and sending tweets
* ForecastFox — do I need to wrap up or take umbrella when I go for a coffee?
* DownThemAll — download manager
* Ubiquity — “An extension that allows for the use of dynamic commands in Firefox”. Hard to describe succinctly but useful.

3. Fineprint — absolutely indispensable, a software printer that allows you to control printing much more subtly and powerfully than normal. Basically, you print to it as if it were a normal printer, then it prints to whatever physical printer you decide, once it has processed (as automatically as you wish) any extra commands. That sounds a bit of a mouthful, but it is invaluable for (a) printing 2-/4- or 8-sheets to a page, (b) double-sided (depending on printer) and (c) deleting ‘wasteful’ pages, especially on Web pages and emails where you often have an irritating 2 lines of garbage that demands an extra page. This is a mature app and one I simply could not be without.

3. PDF Factory — from the Fineprint stable. Basically does the same thing but ‘prints’ to PDF. Top notch.

4. Evernote — “allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.” What more can I say? I keep receipts here (print email to PDF with PDF Factory, then send to Evernote), caselaw, To Read items, plan travel etc etc. ThinkWasabi has a great series of 1001 Uses of Evernote (in Spanish).

5. RoboForm — similar to 1password for Mac, this app securely remembers all the details you care to give it and can spit them out at your command. Can be used to automatically log on to website, fill in your personal details in web forms etc etc.

6. ActiveWords — Again, a top app. It takes a little setting up but once your favourite words are in, it saves a load of time. I use it mostly as a word or phrase ‘trigger’ though you can also use it to launch programs etc. So, for example, I use the phrase “In the circumstances, …” quite a lot in correspondence, so just have a trigger “itc” which automatically expands to the full phrase. Can also be used for whole chunks of text that you might use a lot (e.g. different email sign-offs or your website address) or the rather long name of that firm you work for!

7. ClearContext — an add-in for Outlook that really expands its usefulness. Auto-assign items to folders (very handy), quickly setup rules based on an email, see all contacts involved with a particular folder/project etc etc.

8. Clipmate — another old favourite of mine and, again, something I cannot live without, even though I only scratch the surface of what it can do. Essentially, a clipboard extender.

9. A good text editor — this is a bit more difficult, but I sometimes need something a little bit more than the Windows offering (which I can’t even remember). I use Textmate on the Mac and am currently trialling e-editor, which is a sort of Windows clone of that brilliant editor.

10. Highrise — from the 37 Signals stable. Not really an app as such, but an online CRM service.

Once I have all that set up, [I am rolling](http://www.eventsounds.com/wav/rolling.wav).

Anyone have any other suggestions?