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Jul 12

2007 CyberNet Awards: Most Productive Apps

This article was written on December 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

The 2007 CyberNet Awards is wrapping things up by highlighting what we believe to be the Most Productive Apps of 2007. One of our favorite things to write about are programs that can help increase productivity, and it’s only fitting to close with this award. A big thanks to all the developers of the following programs, because without them I don’t know how I would get anything done!

The 2007 CyberNet Award for Most Productive App goes to…

–3rd Place: Foxit Reader–

This is an absolutely incredible PDF reader, and after using it you’ll likely never go back to Adobe Acrobat Reader. The reason why this has made me more productive is because of the incredible startup speed. It normally takes just 1 or 2 seconds to startup, compared to Adobe Acrobat’s 10 or 15 seconds (when you don’t let Adobe pre-load its software).

It doesn’t sound like much, but maybe you’ll see the significance once we put it into perspective. Lets say you open your PDF reader 3 times a day, and by using Foxit you save an average of 10 seconds on the loading time. Personally I know I open more than 3 PDF’s a day, so I think that is pretty conservative. That’s 30 seconds each day you could save by using Foxit, and in a year’s time that equates to over 3 hours of saved time! Even if you just open it once a day that’s one hour that you would save in a year.

–2nd Place: Launchy–

Launchy is arguably the best application launcher available, and the fact that it’s free makes it even better. They really upped their game with the new Launchy 2.0 that was just released a few weeks ago, which added a more unified experience by integrating settings into a single window. It also included some new skins which really makes the app look astounding.

I know that many of you rely on Launchy each and everyday to assist with finding the programs and documents you use the most. Having to hunt through the Start Menu or Windows Explorer to find what you want can waste so much time, but Launchy helps regain the time that would otherwise be lost.

–1st Place: Microsoft Office 2007–

I couldn’t help but give Microsoft first place in this category. Their new Office 2007 has made me a hundred times more productive thanks to the intuitive Ribbons that have replaced the old-fashioned toolbars. I find myself using features I never knew existed, and it looks so darn good. Yeah, I’m a sucker for eye candy.

I first started using Microsoft Office 2007 over a year ago when it was still in the pre-release stage. It took a few weeks to get accustomed to where some of the options had moved to, but in the end I find myself saving loads of time. A big thanks goes out to the developers who came up with the idea for “live previews,” because that alone deserves a gold medal. And the Mini Toolbar is sheer genius.