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Software Suggestions

The staff at the Ed Tech Center recommends the software applications listed below, for faculty who wish to incorporate technology into their teaching. We offer workshops and demonstrations on some (but not all) of the applications listed on this page: check the current workshop schedule for details.

Please note: EdTech cannot officially support any of the "freeware" or "Shareware" applications listed here: please see the manufacturer's documentation for assistance with these applications.

Course Development

Program Availability Platforms Descriptions
Blackboard Windows, Mac

Image Editors

Program Availability Platforms Descriptions
Adobe Photoshop NUnet Windows, Mac The industry standard for creating and manipulating Web images.
Graphic Viewer Freeware Windows, Mac A good basic image viewer/editor.
IrfanView Freeware Windows only A basic image viewer/editor for Windows users.
GraphicConverter Shareware Mac only A basic image viewer/editor for Mac users.

FTP Software

Program Availability Platforms Descriptions
WS_FTP LE NUnet, Freeware for educational use Windows only A standard FTP client for Windows, free for students and staff of educational institutions.
FTP Explorer Freeware Windows only FTP client with drag-and-drop support.
SSH Secure Shell Client Free for Non- Commercial Use Windows only Secure Shell and SFTP client. Preferred choice for FTPing information to and from NU servers.
Fetch Freeware for educational use. Mac only A standard FTP/SFTP (as of version 5) client for Mac users, which includes drag-and-drop capability. need new link
Fugu Freeware Mac only Mac OS X SFTP client. More secure application for transferring files to and from servers.
Cyberduck Freeware Mac only Mac OS X SFTP client. More secure application for transferring files to and from servers.

File Compression

Program Availability Platforms Descriptions
Stuffit Shareware Windows, Mac, more. Good all around compression tool, you can get "free" expanders, but the compressor costs a minimal amount.
WinZip NUnet, Freeware Windows only Standard file compression & decompression software for Windows users.
MacZip Freeware Mac only File compression/decompression software for Mac users. In OS X (10.3 and up) you also can control+click and create zip archives.

HTML Editors

Program Availability Platforms Descriptions
Macromedia Dreamweaver NUnet Windows, Mac Full-featured HTML editor; the industry standard for Web page development.
Netscape Composer Freeware Windows, Mac This basic HTML editor comes free with Netscape Communicator. (We recommend version 4.7x at this time, until the bugs are worked out of 6.x)
HTML Kit Freeware Windows only Nice HTML editor, with various bells and whistles (such as a "preview" mode similar to a WYSIWYG HTML editor). Requires a little getting used to, but offers lots of options.
Note Tab Lite Freeware Windows only Nice "update" to notepad. Simple to use, with menus to help you write code.
BBEdit Commercial Mac only Great HTML and text editing tool. Worth every penny. There is a "lite version" but it's no longer being updated, so it doesn't have all the features of the newest BBEdit - see below.
BBEdit Lite - 6.1.2 Freeware Mac only Freeware version of BBedit (listed above). Older version, not as many tools, but still a great HTML editing tool.
TextEdit Installed with Mac OS Mac only This tool *will* let you type html into it... you need to change a couple of setting in the preferences however. 1) New Document Attributes: Plain Text 2) Rich Text Processing: Ignore rich text commands in HTML documents AND RTF documents too, and then you'll see your HTML tags.

Virus Protection

Program Availability Platforms Descriptions
Norton Anti-Virus Free of Charge for NU community from InfoCommons. Windows, Mac Norton Anti-Virus is offered/recommended from IS to help protect your from virus' and other unwelcomed things you might "contract" from the internet. Faculty may obtain the software by contacting the IS Help Line at x4357. Students may also obtain the CD from the ResNet Resource Center.