In a series considering the essential services the average person should expect from a computer, and some of the choices that are available, this week we turn to common 'behind-the-scenes' utilities. The intention is to build up a picture of what a well-functioning and reasonably up-to-date computer looks like. We have previously considered an Office Suite, a web browser, email and Internet security.
Most computers interact with files from other computers – be they documents, images, emails or whatever. This has led to a number of background utilities that help smooth this interaction. Probably the most widely known example is the PDF, a way of “fixing” a document so that no matter what type of computer is used to view it, the document appears in exactly the same format and layout as its creator intended. PDF stands for 'Portable Document Format', created by Adobe and to this day continuing to be enhanced and refined.
To read a PDF document, you need a PDF 'reader'. All computers should have a PDF reader, and the most obvious is the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Freely available from computer magazine CDs or from Adobe's website (adobe.com), it is straightforward to install and just means that whenever you try to open a PDF directly from the filing system, from an email, or from a website, the PDF will pop up for you to read. You can then print it, save it, email it etc. Acrobat Reader is integrated into the system to make it very easy to handle PDFs.
Current operating systems (eg. Windows XP, Mac OS X) are building more and more of such functionality into themselves, but it is worth remembering that for any given task there is nearly always a wide range of alternative solutions and there may be a utility that is easier or better for your purposes. So while Windows has its Picture and Fax Viewer for displaying images, you are likely to benefit from something a little more sophisticated.
Another background utility that you should have is a file compressor/decompressor – WinZip is one of the most popular and best known. This utility makes it possible to download a single compressed file which you can then 'unpack' to see any number of files inside, thus simplifying the process of moving a collection of files from one place to another and speeding it up too.
Other utilities that should be available include Java (some websites use a particular type of webpage programming that requires your computer to run the Java 'engine' for the webpages to work properly) and Flash (mostly for websites that have those annoying Intro pages with moving graphics, but there are other valid uses for Flash). You should probably get TweakUI if you run Windows, too, it provides easy access to a range of customisations for Windows that make it that little bit better for the way you do things. All of these are free downloads.
