Madcap Flare is no doubt a powerful tool, but falls short on usability. It’s a great tool for technical writers who use it fulltime, day in and day out, but for other content creators within an organization who just want to get in and quickly add or change content, Flare can make life very difficult.

Help and Manual on the other hand looks and feels a bit more like Word and one of its key strengths comes from the fact that the entire UI workflow is organized around the document’s table of contents (TOC). This of course is where Flare is both weak and strong. Flare is weak here because the UI is not organized around the TOC, forcing authors to constantly jump between windows just to find their place, but is strong because it allows for multiple, separate TOC’s to be created on a per-target basis (a target being a specific output such as a manual in a specific format). However, while Help and Manual only operates around one TOC, it’s easy enough to tag different nodes (usually the top level ones) for different targets to contain multiple TOC’s within a single TOC, thus simplifying navigation between different TOC’s while authoring.

Related to the main TOC’s are “mini-TOC’s” which are small TOC’s embedded into a topic which contains child topics. This makes it easier for users to jump to child topics from within a parent topic. Flare creates these automatically, while H&M requires that they be created and maintained manually. However, this manual process does provide an author with ability to customize the mini-TOC in any way they want.

Another big difference is in relation to “targets”. As mentioned above, a target is specific output such as manual in say PDF format. You might then create another target for HTML output and so on. Flare has the formal concept of a “target”, while H&M calls this a “build”. To build multiple targets in Flare requires the creation of a special target which builds other targets, while in H&M builds can be grouped together into “build tasks”. Both tools can handle conditions which are simply variables that can be configured on a per target/build basis if required. It’s hard to say which tool presents this better. Both make them easily accessible though Flare makes options like glossaries more granularly available through definitions on a per target basis.

When it comes to PDF files, H&M in our opinion wins hands down. Their Manual Designer utility makes PDF layout dead simple and completely visual, eliminating the need to deal with indentations, hanging indents, and other parameters which normally require trial and error to get right. The downside is that this visual editor requires good hand eye coordination to get accurate results and the utility itself feels a bit old (like a Windows 3.1 program). However configuring and correcting layout problems in PDF’s is very simple with its WYSIWYG interface.

Tables in H&M are still a bit primitive, lacking the ability to set border styles on a per-row or cell basis, and not allowing build conditions to be set on individual rows. However, table creation is dead simple and operates much like it does in Word 2007, making it dead simple for non-tech writers to add and configure tables.

At a more general level, if you were to put both Flare and H&M in front of a non-technical writer we have no doubt that they would be up and running with H&M first. While there are some more advanced features which may be more involved to implement in H&M, it’s a small price to pay for a single sourcing tool which anyone in your organization can get up and running with.

ObjectDock is a slick application docking bar which looks, feels, and operates very similarly to the application docking bar in the Mac OS.

Installation and configuration is very simple. Once installed, simply right click on the bar to add applications or to reposition the bar. The bar can be setup to show when the mouse is placed at the bottom of the screen and hidden once the mouse moves away. The bar can also be positioned on different screens for those who use a multi-monitor display, and can even hide the start bar for you to make your PC feel even more Mac like.

The “large” icons embedded into applications are displayed when possible, but icons can easily be changed along with a host of application-specific settings. Each application can also be configured to open as minimized, maximized, or at its last known position/location.

The animations of the bar itself are silky smooth and function at the perfect speed out of the box. In fact just seeing the application icons scale up and down smoothly when passing the mouse over the icons is fun in and of itself. Of course they an also be tuned along with a whole slew of other settings to provide the optimal experience.

There are a few downsides I found however. One was that the animations become slightly choppy when overlaid on rapidly changing screens such as video. Secondly the command line shell does not seem to recognize any of my environment variables when launched from ObjectDock. Third, the object bar becomes a visual distraction when doing a mouse drag operation (e.g. when highlighting multiple pages of text in word). Finally, clicking an icon for an application already running will simply set focus to that application. To launch another instance of a running app you need to right click on the application’s icon and tell ObjectDock to run that application. However these are small issues for such a great application.

One of the best aspects is that the application is free, at least for personal use, but even at $19.99 the licensed version is still worth every penny.
So if you’ve always admired the Mac OS user interface or would like to make your work PC feel more like your Mac, be sure to check out ObjectDock at: http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/.

We’ll start by looking at the software for which there really is only one name to know: Camtasia by Techsmith. This screen recording software has become the de-facto standard for software video tutorials over the years because their feature set has simply nailed it. A few key features worth mentioning are its ability to select areas of a screen to record, splicing of video snippets including adding and removing frames, screen zooms, audio recording and overlaying, output to multiple video formats, and mouse highlighting, to name just a few.

While Camtasia is also perfect for recording audio, we actually recommend that audio be recorded separately from the screen capture work, for the simple fact that it’s way easier to focus on demonstrating your software without having to worry about what you’re saying. This eliminates a ton of stress in trying to remember what to say and when, while operating complex software correctly. More generally when the narration is done separately and overlaid, we’ve found things go a lot more smoothly. To support this, we recommend you grab a free audio recording utility called Audacity, which you can use to record, edit, and adjust all of your narration recordings. Once recorded, you can then import the clips into Camtasia.

While on the topic of audio, don’t be too afraid of your own voice. It’s common for people to be squeamish when they hear their own voice, but to others it sounds just fine. Just be sure to enunciate and even over enunciate, and to not rush your narration, as that will provide the best audio for users to follow. In fact if you’re recording narration separately, then you can use the screen recording as a guide for how fast to speak. If you’re narration turns out to be a bit too fast or slow, fear not because you can always insert pauses or remove video frames with Camtasia to make your video coincide with your speech. Also for narration, don’t get too hung up on a formal script. If you need one, try to keep the information to concise bullet points, or even better, just follow what’s happening on screen and speak naturally and off the-cuff. This will make for a more relaxed narration effect that users will appreciate.

Both video and audio are best done in small snippets, usually in lengths of 30 seconds to 1 minute, and then spliced together in Camtasia. This makes it easier to go back and modify certain segments of the video or audio if something appears incorrect after the whole video has been assembled. Thankfully Camtasia has an auto-numbering system which automatically increments the video snippet filenames after recording the screen, another win for this great piece of software.

Things get a little bit trickier when recording data which changes when operating the software (e.g. when updating a value on screen). So be sure to have lots of test data on hand, and if possible, figure out before hand how to reverse or recreate data transactions in case you need to go back and re-record a small segment showing this.

One final point: always keep your video tutorials up to date as your product changes. There is nothing worse for a user than following a video tutorial 75% of the way through, only to discover that that one critical button no longer exists. So re-record the video or that portion of the video (another reason to record in snippets) if the software changes. If that’s not an option, then at the very least include a note along with the video or even embed an overlay within the video (another feature of Camtasia) explaining how that functionality works in the new version.

By following these tips, you will reduce your stress in creating the video and provide your audience with the best possible instructional content.

Founded in 2010, Commodore USA, LLC has recreated the C64 with the vision of bringing back the infamous Commodore computing experience in the modern age, complete with the “character” that the original computer seemed to have.

From what we can tell, Commodore has mimicked the Macintosh model, in other words, package modern, state-of-the-art PC computing hardware in a proprietary shell, and provide a customized version of Linux as the operating system. In this case the “shell” is a remake of the original C64 chassis filled with the latest PC hardware and I/O ports, with the keyboard and circuitry all integrated into one unit. They have even gone so far as to mimic the original look and feel of the keyboard including the click of the keys, which was a major part of the C64’s original character. The company’s website also states that localized versions of the keyboard will be made available.

Spec wise, the system is currently comprised of the following: 2.13Ghz 64-bit Dual Core D2700 Atom processor, GeForce GT 520, 4Gb of DDR3 memory, DVD RW/Blue Ray reader, card readers, USB slots, Bluetooth connectivity, 1080p HD playback, 802.11n wireless, HDMI, DVI, LAN, full audio (not disclosed on website) and support for SATA drives.

But probably the most important part of any computer is the operating system and availability of applications. The new C64 includes Commodore’s new 64-bit operating system called Commodore OS Vision which is based on GNU Linux. This OS takes the best attributes of both the original Commodore 64 as well as the features found in later versions of the Amiga operating systems and packages them together along with the latest advances in OS features and technology.

While critics have been quick to point out that the OS is really just Linux with a nice user interface, an observation we don’t disagree with, the development team must still be applauded for their efforts in bringing back a sense of fun and polish which has been lost in modern day PC’s, not to mention the rich set of applications they’ve included.

The OS includes emulators to run classic C64 8-bit era software as well as Amiga programs. And like the new Macs, the system can also run the latest versions of Windows and distributions of Linux, both natively and as virtual machines within Commodore OS Vision. Best of all the OS can also be downloaded for free and run on your standard PC (we have successfully tested it on a VMWare virtual machine).

While the original system was best known for games, the new C64 can be used for both games and productivity. Included is an MS Office compatible suite and desktop publishing programs as well as a wide variety of open source software, not to mention full internet connectivity and browsing capabilities. For those who need programming capabilities or are raising the next generation of star programmers, the unit supports the latest programming environments including BASIC, Java, C/C++, PHP, Perl, VB.NET, C#, Python and HTML to name a few.

While it’s not clear from the website just how widely publicized or accessible this system is, there is no question that they will have a loyal following of computer users from the 80’s. In fact they even encourage you to say “I’m a Commodore” or “I’m an Amiga” to poke fun at the advertising slogans of “competitors” in recent years. So if you want to return to a time of “fun computing” or perhaps introduce your kids to an era of computing that existed before the world of disposable PC hardware, then check out Commodore USA’s website at: http://www.commodoreusa.net//CUSA_Home.aspx.

Usually this scenario occurs when there is a lack of time to create separate deliverables for the presentation and the course materials. In such a scenario it becomes difficult to make a great presentation and at the same time it’s also difficult to produce great take away materials for the students, since PowerPoint slides are not the best medium to store in-depth technical information. So there will need to be a compromise.

The best approach in this case is to treat the PowerPoint presentation like an e-learning module, minus the audio. This means striving to eliminate verbosity where possible through summative statements while packaging information in consumable chunks. The rule of sticking to three points of learning or less per slide should still be followed as this will help to reduce information overload on each slide.

Visuals should play a key role here and in fact simple animations like uncovering information or popping up arrows to important aspects are a great way to add a bit of interactivity and to help deliver the information in a more organized fashion. The trick is to not go over overboard with animations as they can create distractions. With every animation ask yourself what purpose it serves in simplifying information delivery. If it doesn’t contribute to this goal, then leave the animation out.

Another tip is to try and use a template style which doesn’t visually interfere with the content, however difficult this may be. Often times companies will mandate a certain template for branding reasons, so if possible try to eliminate, reduce the size, or fade out the branding as much as possible. When it comes to delivering really technical presentations, the audience usually doesn’t care about your company branding and is more interested in learning something. So reducing emphasis on branding here will help the audience focus on your content. The most ideal slide would have nothing more than a company logo in the one of the corners and perhaps a banner of colour on the top or bottom. But whatever the slide contains branding wise, ensure it is consistent between slides.

When it comes to note taking, there is nothing worse than forcing the audience to make notes on important points that should have been included in your slides. So, use PowerPoint’s note section at the bottom to include the bulk of the information that you would normally put in take away materials, but try to keep it short and succinct. The information should support and supplement whatever is being shown on the slide but should not include other, irrelevant details. Note: be sure to include detailed information here but try to eliminate verbosity. Since this is take away material, the reader doesn’t want to see brief notes that were really meant to remind the presenter on what he or she wanted to say.

If you’re still finding that there is information overload, then you will need to either spread the information across more slides, split the presentation into separate “basic” and “advanced“ presentations, and/or point readers to your company’s documentation. In fact the latter choice is the most preferable so that you can leverage all of the hard work that has gone into the creation of the supporting documentation and in doing so you will also help to promote it.

As a final check, be sure to walk through the presentation from start to finish as if you were an audience member trying to learn from it. Does it introduce all of the core concepts or does it make assumptions about the readers’ knowledge? Just as important, does it have a proper flow and does each piece of information build on previous information? Probably the best test is to have someone else try to follow it, as there is nothing more valuable than feedback from someone else who represents your target audience.

So should you find your presentation needs to serve multiple purposes (i.e. a presentation and course materials) due to a shortage of time or budget, use these tips for a “middle ground approach” to ensure your slides will still be as effective as possible.

Applications which fall under the category of having been “written by programmers for programmers” exhibit common attributes. The advent of object oriented languages and more recent technologies like reflection have made it extremely easy for programmers to expose the underlying class structure in the user interface. Things like property grids and object inspectors which are automatically populated by reflection, are often used as temporary user interface elements until a more suitable user interface can be created. The problem is that such elements are often never removed usually due to budget or time constraints and so the user is left exposed to the underlying objects which the system is made of. In many cases care has not been taken to hide or at least disable the modification functionality of such entities, so users have unprecedented access to changing things they should not be touching. If you’re using a modern language like C#, then keep an eye out for things like property grids which are exposing too much to your users.

In addition to excessive system exposure, elements like property grids typically expose the names of classes and namespaces, another element the user should never see. When this happens, these underlying names often become part of the user’s vocabulary when interacting with the system. Unfortunately class names are often chosen based on their underlying functionality and can therefore leave the end user confused as to what exactly the names mean, especially if they’re trying to figure things out on their own. For example, consider a factory class called DataFactory – do you really want your users exposed to this?

Another popular user interface element is the data grid which, like the property grid, can be easily hooked up to a data source providing excessive detail and control by the end user. Third party controls are particularly prone to abuse because they offer a rich set of functionality and are generally very easy to hook up to other components like databases. However, if someone has not thought out the business logic, it can be extremely easy to expose way too much to the user through these controls. In fact the entire workflow may not correlate to the business logic or may allow the user to circumvent the business logic altogether. We’ve seen a few small software companies save a ton of money through the use of such user interface libraries, only to be inundated with problems and support issues later on when the realization was made that they exposed too much to the user. So always remember that while buying components may be cheaper than developing them, they are no substitute for a well thought out, user-centric design.

The application layout itself is another common problematic area, often influenced by development tools. Programmers love their integrated development environment (IDE’s) that they use to develop software. IDE’s these days are fancy, offer a seemingly endless array of options and sub options, and more generally provide “full” access to all of the functionality that a user of the IDE could want. If your software development process did not follow a user-centric approach, then there is a small chance that some of the design features of an IDE may have creeped into your product. Things to watch for here include reams of small tool windows, window docking requiring pinning, sub tabs, and other intricate (and often difficult) window layout operations, excessive use of treeviews and property grids, and very “compiler-like” elements such as console windows displaying cryptic commands. Certainly any of these elements can have their place in the right piece of software, but care must be taken to ensure they are applied appropriately based on the business logic and technical abilities of the user.

One of the biggest problems with very “programmer oriented” programs is that they are very difficult to change once the application is in circulation. Users may have become accustomed to the workflow, as difficult or incorrect as it may be, so introducing a proper design may be too drastic for your users to handle or require excessive support during transition. Certainly some technical documentation or video tutorials here will help the user make the migration, but the transition and learning time are still a price that both you and the user and going to pay.

The solution to these problems is of course to analyze your user interface, check to see how it exposes the business logic, and to start redesigning it around your end users and their workflows. Certainly none of this will be easy, but breaking down and tackling these issues will eventually give your users a user interface that was written “by programmers for users”.

1) Quickly launch a taskbar item with the keyboard: the Windows taskbar allows you to add shortcuts to commonly-used applications, eliminating the need to find the application icon on your desktop or navigate through the start menu. What’s really cool is that Windows has automatically setup keyboard shortcuts to these taskbar icons. Simply hold down the Windows key and press one of the number keys to launch the desired app. The number key to press corresponds to the icon of the application you want to launch, ordered from left to right.

2) Quickly launch a new application instance: launching another instance of a running application should be quick and simple and now it finally is. In Windows 7, simply locate the running application in the start bar, hold down alt, control, or shift (any of the three will work), and click the middle mouse button on the application in the start bar. A new instance of the application will be instantly launched. Note that this of course doesn’t work for applications which enforce a single instance.

3) Calculate your mortgage with Calculator: with Windows 7 came a major overhaul of the calculator application most notably the addition of new modes like scientific, programmer etc. You may not however be aware that it does other complex calculations like calculating your mortgage payments or your vehicle’s fuel economy. To access these calculations go to the View -> Worksheets menu in Calculator and select the desired calculation.

4) Get detailed Windows diagnostics: if you’ve ever been forced to shut down a frozen application then you are already familiar with the Task Manager application in Windows. Task Manager is also great for viewing information about the performance of your computer, but no where near as great as a built-in program called Resource Monitor. To launch Resource Monitor, type “resmon” into the “Search programs and files” box. Resmon provides you with even more detailed and granular information such as network, CPU, and disk usage on a per process level. Such details include the ability to see which particular files are being hit the hardest and the specific DLLs in use by applications which are consuming the most CPU time. The graphs for the various metrics can also be tuned to show performance from particular applications.

Before we get to the answer (alluded to in this article’s title), lets first look at what makes today’s keyboards so convoluted. First up is the layout. One of the biggest pet peeves amongst users today is the seemingly random changes manufacturers make to the layout of the keys. The most typical candidates for convolution seem to be the slash characters (“/”, “\”) which manufactures like to move from their normal position to over beside the left shift key and the enter key. They seem to like this as it allows them to change the shape of the enter key, often enabling it to span two rows of keys. This also comes at the expense of a shortened left shift key and having to reprogram your mind just to find the slash characters. In fact when I purchased my laptop I chose the model solely on the keyboard layout. The model I chose was the only one in the store that not only had a normal layout but also a properly-sized left shift key.

Related to the layout is the problem of non-standard key sizes, presumably so that the keyboard can be sized and styled in different ways. Many manufacturers now like to modify keys such as delete, home, enter etc, so that such keys can be grouped in odd layouts. Function keys are also often targets for resizing, usually having a reduced height making them more difficult to press. While this is understandable on laptops for size constraint reasons, it’s not acceptable on full-size desktop keyboards.

And on the topic of function keys, another common problem is that today’s function keys are often overloaded so that they can handle multiple functions such as adjusting volume and screen brightness. This in itself is actually a great feature, but many manufacturers offering this actually set this new functionality to be the default behaviour. So for example, when you go to hit F2 to rename a file, you instead change the speaker volume. In some cases you can change the default behaviour on the keyboard or through the BIOS, but you really shouldn’t have to change anything to get the keyboard to behave as you expect it to.

Similarly manufactures will also modify character keys to produce three or even four different characters. Again this is a great feature, but more often than not the non-standard character has been set as the default (e.g. on the keyboard that came with my PC, pressing the number three key will produce the symbol for the British pound).

If overloaded keys weren’t bad enough how about missing keys? The Macbook is particularly bad for this as Steve Jobs actually removed keys to make the keyboard look nicer. Critical keys that are missing here include delete, insert, page up/down etc. While there are shortcuts to perform these tasks, these are again non-standard things you must learn just to use the keyboard.

Changing standard behaviours of any product is generally considered to be bad usability practice and the example of keyboards is no exception. It can not only be annoying but can actually prevent you from getting your job done. As an analogy, it’s kind of like changing the functionality of the pedals and steering wheel of your car. Imagine if the brake pedal had two different functions depending on what “mode” it was in!?

So is there a solution? Well, as this article’s title alludes to, I’ve been using the Logitech K120 keyboard for quite some time now and couldn’t be happier. Out of all of the keyboards I’ve seen it was one of the few (if only) keyboards available on the market with a basic 104 key layout (the extra keys being the two windows keys and a key to mimic right clicking). Every key is where you’d expect it to be and there are no keys with overloaded functionality to complicate things. The shift keys are a proper size and the slash keys sit where they have sat for decades. Also the key size and the feel of the keys are very good, and for around $20 you can’t beat its price.

So if you’ve found yourself with a keyboard that requires an instruction manual or a course to figure out how to use, I recommend you grab yourself a K120 from Logitech, as it is in my opinion one of the last “proper” keyboards available on the market.

To start with, keep the language simple and understandable. That may sound cliché, but in today’s busy world we don’t have time to read between the lines. If you’ve ever visited a corporate website where you couldn’t figure out what the company actually did, then you’ll appreciate this tip. A reader does not want to consume jargon about an organization’s core values. In fact I once visited the website of a public corporation that had so much information about their stock price and its history, that I couldn’t actually figure out what services or products the company provided. So remember, visitors want to view a site which is centered around their own requirements and needs, and content should be constructed accordingly. In fact point # 2 on the following website has a great little diagram showing the intersection between web content and the reader’s needs, in this case using the content of a university website as an example: how-persuasive-is-your-website?

What the diagram shows is that it’s easy to get lost in talking about ourselves instead of about the reader. Switching to a user centric approach is in fact is not all that different from developing software with usability in mind. Again it all centers around solving real user problems instead of building features (or content) just for the sake of it.

Now when it comes to content there is always the temptation to make it sound formal and professional. However organizations are finding it more effective these days to use a more conversation and welcoming tone which is all about putting the reader at ease. Think about the last time you came across a website that just “spoke” to you as if the writer was having a conversation with you in person. Would you rather read that kind of content, or some “pre-canned” formal writing which almost makes you feel like you need to conform to the ideas and goals of its author? On a side note, a conversational tone will also complement your social media efforts which are (or should be) very focused around engagements with your readers.

Now, while it’s great to make the content sound personal don’t go overboard either. Limit any humour since not everybody shares the same sense of it. Also eliminate rhetorical questions and long stories, especially personal ones. Keep the content succinct and to the point because people only have so much time to read these days. This may be hard to do, because in the past our school system has always taught us to elaborate in our writing and to write a certain amount of content (e.g. a minimum of 5 to 10 pages) even when the writing could be more effective with less. Perhaps if our schooling taught us to be reader centric, we would all have simple and to-the-point websites.

Another tip for content is to break information into chunks. In general people find it harder to read big chunks of information online than they do offline. If you have excessive information, take advantage of the web’s interactivity. Architect the information in such a way that users can choose where they want to find additional information via hyperlinks. A well organized information set will guide the reader to the information they are looking for and if you’ve kept their interest long enough, hopefully they will take any actions that you want them to take (e.g. call you for more information, download your demo software, read more, etc.).

The use of imagery and pictures is another important tool as this can set the tone for what your content is all about. Small images along with your article titles can immediately draw the reader in while larger images can be used for bigger sections of your website. Just be sure that the image actually relates to the content and provides a clue of what the reader is about to consume (e.g. think about the “jobs” section from all of those corporate websites filled with pictures of happy office workers (that don’t actually work at the company). Don’t those images make you want to work there too?). Remember – people do judge a book by its cover so take full advantage of this.

In order to accomplish all of this you will first need to understand your audience before you can understand how to center the goals of your website around their needs. The best approach is to think of things from the reader’s perspective, most notably the reader’s goals. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and list the items that a reader would want to know when visiting your site. Then ask yourself what is the shortest and simplest way that a reader would want to consume that information?
Once you understand your reader, you can then set about breaking up information, deciding on visuals, and laying out the navigation for your website. In doing so you may just discover the site and its content, is comprised of a just a fraction of what you though it would be. Whatever you discover, remember that it’s all about the reader.

Trick# 1: Quickly preview documents in Explorer – you may not be aware of it, but Windows 7 Explorer is capable of previewing a number of file types including Word documents, PDF files, and others, the moment you click on them. To access this feature, simply click on the “Preview Pane” icon, located near the top right corner of Explorer above the file listing. The icon looks like a white window with a light blue strip down the right side. Once enabled, simply click on any Word or PDF file to instantly see the content to the right of the file listing. Note: this works best on a wide screen monitor, since the preview pane will take some screen real estate away from the file listing.

Trick# 2: Have Windows record your crash: if you have ever wanted to record the steps you made to cause a program to crash, then this trick is for you. Go to the start menu and enter “psr” into the “Search programs and files box”. This will launch the “Problem Steps Recorder” which is a small screen capture utility. Press the “Start Record” button and then proceed to perform the steps you wish to record. When complete, hit the “Stop record” button, and the program will save a detailed webpage containing screen shots and descriptions of each action you performed during the record. The output goes to .mht file (contained within a .zip file) which is a standalone html file that can be opened in an internet browser.

Trick# 3: Assess your computers power efficiency – this one is particularly useful for portable devices like laptops. Start the command line editor and enter “powercfg -energy -output ” where “path\yourfile.html” is the fully qualified pathname of an output file. This will then generate a detailed power consumption report for your computer.

Trick# 4: Quickly add paths to the command window – if you work with the Windows command line editor you are probably aware of how archaic it is when it comes to working with paths. Many times command line applications require you to enter the fully qualified path of a filename as a parameter. So instead of trying to type the path, simply locate the file in Windows Explorer and then drag and drop the file onto the command window. The fully qualified path will be instantly entered for you in the command line editor.

Trick# 5: Crop images directly in Office – ok this isn’t a Windows 7 specific trick but close enough. Office 2007 and up allows you to crop images without having to use an external image processing program which can save you a lot of time. Within your Office document, simply select the image, select the Format tab, and select Crop in the Size group on the far right. Office will then provide eight handles along the sides and corners of the image allowing you to crop the image. Once complete, simply click outside the image to end the cropping session.