There are a number of brands that have become synonymous with the type of product they are selling. Examples of this are Hoover for a vacuum cleaner, although I think that one is probably a little old these days. Coke for all cola drinks is another example and then closer to home there is Google for web search and the iPod brand has become pretty much synonymous with digital music players these days. My kids call my very old iRiver MP3 player “Dad’s iPod” for instance, despite it looking absolutely nothing like the real thing.

Are there examples of this ubiquitous branding in the computer software world? Microsoft Office perhaps? One good example I think is probably Corel’s WinZip compression software. People talk about Win Zipping or Zipping a file rather than compressing it. WinZip is probably the original compression utility for Microsoft Windows OS. It is a pretty powerful and easy-to-use tool that quickly zips and unzips your files to help conserve disk space and greatly reduce e-mail transmission time. Compression software is something that you really need and I always expect it to be there on a new computer, and surprised when it isn’t. There are plenty of freeware options for those who are cost conscious, but I will normally purchase a copy of WinZip to install whenever setting up a new Windows computer.

What do you use for file compression?

Productivity software applications! What on earth are you talking about you say. Well productivity software refers to that group of software that includes word processors, spreadsheets, calendar and email applications etc. In other words all the computer programs that are supposed to make you and perhaps your business more productive. Often of course these programs, especially to start with when you are a new user, are anything but productivity enhancers as you struggle with new concepts and a seemingly infinite number of options and features. Of course if you use these applications regularly, and many people do at work, you will eventually reach a certain level of proficiency and the application will begin to help rather than hinder your work. This learning experience unfortunately can often be a frustrating experience, and in future posts we will look how some of these productivity applications are evolving as a result of the Internet.

The godfather of productivity applications is of course Microsoft Office, which has become the de facto standard for creating documents. Office will in fact provide all that most individuals and business will ever need to write letters and do the budget, and as such is a good choice. In fact most people will assume you have Microsoft Office and will often send you documents in the formats the application creates, without checking with you first.

But are there any alternatives? Well yes, Corel WordPerfect Office provides a nice alternative. Although it is now an also ran against Office, it is just as capable and does have one nice feature which is the ability to look at the style codes in the word processor which makes it easy to troubleshoot any problems with your document. Anyone who has struggled with Microsoft Word happily changing fonts, text size and styles seemingly at random will appreciate this. A second alternative if you are a Mac home user is the Apple iWork 08, which is Apple’s equivalent to Office, and although the functionality is not on a par with Office would be more than adequate for most Mac users.

Happy productivity! If you are a student always make sure you purchase the academic or student version to save money.