Software : Updated: Best free web design software: desktop and mobile

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• Updated: Best free web design software: desktop and mobile
• Updated: Best browsers 2016: The top 11 candidates for your PC
• Updated: 5 best free email clients for Windows
• Updated: Top 5 best free YouTube converters

Updated: Best free web design software: desktop and mobile Posted: Simple WYSIWYG (what you see if what you get) web design programs make creating basic sites as easy as using a word processor. The next step up combines a WYSIWYG approach with more detailed low-level control of what you're doing, which is very useful when you're looking to create a more impressive site (although you may have to spend some time learning the basics). There are plenty of high-level applications aimed at more experienced users, who like to be able to focus on the HTML, CSS or scripts. Or you might consider an online solution, enabling you to build or manage your site from anywhere. (Just beware – the free versions often have annoying limits and restrictions). Whatever you're looking for, though, we've found a free tool which can help – just keep reading to discover our pick of the best free software for web design. Mobirise Website Builder Mobirise Website Builder opens with an appealing, minimalist interface - more like a mobile app than a regular desktop application - and enables you to create sites that will look just as good on smartphones and tablets as they do on your PC or Mac. The main design process is quick and easy. It's just a matter of adding the blocks you need to your page – menus, headers, text, sliders, image galleries, videos, maps, tables, forms, footers and more. Everything can be customised in many different ways, and there are buttons to preview your site in desktop, tablet or mobile views. When you're finished, the completed site may be exported locally, to an FTP server or Google Drive. Mobirise Web Builder has some problems – sites didn't always behave as we expected, it can generate messy HTML code, and the management tools struggle on sites with a lot of pages. It works well most of the time though, produces good-looking sites, and is free with no strings attached. Definitely worth a try. Available for: Windows, OS X Download Mobirise Website Builder PSPad PSPad is a powerful programmer's editor which also has a pile of helpful web design features. Coders will appreciate the syntax highlighting, CSS editor, auto correction, search and replace across files, matching bracket highlighting, and more. There's plenty for less expert users, too, like a spellchecker. PSPad also offers smart HTML previews of your site, and the ability to work with several documents at once, then save them all as a "session" for easy restoration later. And it also includes an FTP client to help you edit files directly on the server. PSPad will require some time to master, but if you're interested, take a look – it's a superb program, entirely free, and there's a busy forum to help out if you have any questions. Available for: Windows Download PSPad TOWeb Launch TOWeb and you're presented with over 120 responsive templates to start your website. They're not exactly leading-edge designs, but you get plenty of layouts and colour schemes to explore. It's easy to customise the template text and images, and a sidebar offers plenty of surprising extras. You're able to watermark pictures, password-protect individual pages, allow visitors to post comments, add buttons to your social network sites, and more. There are also plenty of advanced options available, and at any time you can see how the site will look on a mobile device, tablet or desktop. The free build has some major catches: it only supports one website, with a size limit of 10MB, and the pages will have ads. Still, if you can live with that, TOWeb's core editor is strong enough to justify the download. Available for: Windows, OS X, Linux Download TOWeb KompoZer With its last update having been made way back in 2010, KompoZer probably isn't the best choice for building modern, responsive websites. Despite that, the program's reliable code and lengthy feature list mean it's still one of the most popular free HTML editors around. There are various templates available online to help you get started, or you can build pages manually by entering text, inserting images, tables, web forms and more. Novices may find some tasks more difficult than they'd like, but one advantage of KompoZer's age is that there's a vast number of tutorials available online, so a quick search will probably answer any questions. Still, KompoZer is probably best for more experienced users, who will appreciate powerful tools like the CSS editor. Available for: Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux Download KompoZer Webflow Webflow is an excellent online web design tool which can create great-looking responsive websites, no coding required. An attractive set of modern templates gets you up-to-speed immediately, but there are also plenty of ways to customise sites to suit your needs. Webflow's code automatically reformats to suit the viewing device (desktop, tablet, mobile), however you can take full manual control if required, hiding specified content on some device types. It's a superb system – the best designer here – but the free version has some big limitations: Webflow branding, 1K page views, webflow.io subdomain, you can only do a single project, with no HTML/CSS export, and no support beyond the forum. We would say try it anyway, just to see how a good designer should work. But if you need an entirely free option then Webflow may not be for you. Available for: Online only Try Webflow CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor If you've ever used another HTML editor then CoffeeCup will seem familiar right away. Site map here, HTML code there, enter new code as required and watch any changes in the preview window – it's all very straightforward (as long as you're familiar with HTML, anyway). CoffeeCup also has a strong set of high-end features: good site and project management, a library to store reusable code snippets, easy integration with multiple tools, spellcheck, a thesaurus, meta tag generator, code cleaner and more. Issues include a distinct shortage of templates, and the free edition leaves out some major features (responsive design, FTP upload). Still, if you're looking for a coding tool rather than a WYSIWYG designer, and you're willing to spend time mastering its features, CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor could still be a great choice. Available for: Windows Vista+, OS X Download CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor SynWrite SynWrite is a freeware text and coding editor which you can run from a USB stick, yet still finds room for an extensive set of development features. An excellent editor supports syntax highlighting, auto-completion, auto-closing of tags, search and replace across files, and a whole lot more. A strong selection of project, file and page management tools help you keep control of even the largest and most complex of sites. If this isn't enough, easy integration of external tools and a lengthy list of plugins help you extend the program further. Sounds complicated? Yes, it can be, but don't be put off entirely. You don't have to try out every feature at once – or ever, really – and you could get started just by using the program as a powerful Notepad replacement. Available for: Windows Download SynWrite openElement openElement doesn't make a good first impression, due mostly to uninspiring templates and a cluttered, intimidating interface. There's a lot of power here, though, with support for adding all kinds of elements to your pages: image galleries, animations, videos, forms, maps, social media bars, CAPTCHAs, Google Analytics, scripts, multiple menu types, databases, and – you get the idea. Whatever you use can be further tweaked and customised to suit your precise needs. Beginners – or anyone looking to create a website in a few minutes – should probably stay away. There are far simpler alternatives around. But if you're an advanced user there's a lot of functionality to explore, and it's all entirely free, with no annoying catches or restrictions to get in your way. Available for: Windows Download openElement

Updated: Best browsers 2016: The top 11 candidates for your PC Posted: Introduction Note: Our best browsers round-up has been fully updated. This feature was first published in September 2013. In the early days of the internet, browser choice was, well, limited. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator were the big names, and everyone else trailed in their digital wake. Fast forward 20 years and it's a very different story. Microsoft, Google, Mozilla and Opera all have their own powerful products, and there are many excellent smaller browsers around, each with their own unique set of tweaks and enhancements. Which is best? That's a tough call, and depends very much on personal taste, so the best approach is to simply try as many as you can. And to help you get started and better focus your search, we've picked out 11 of the best web browsers around. Also check out our round-up of the best VR web browsers Vivaldi 1.0 Vivaldi is a feature-packed Chromium-based web browser, inspired by the original Opera and aimed squarely at power users. If you always have too many tabs open, Vivaldi could be a great choice. Thumbnail previews help identify the tab you need, and a hibernate option frees up RAM while keeping tabs open. Dragging and dropping tabs into groups called 'stacks' saves space and keeps you organised, and it's easy to manually save open tabs as a Session for speedy recall later. Side panels give you quick access to bookmarks and downloads. You can add notes as you browse, and link them to a site. It's even possible to view a second site in a side panel, perfect for side-by-side browsing. There are speedy shortcuts for many common tasks – opening a closed tab or blocked pop-up, cycling through search results, controlling page zoom – and it's all supremely configurable. Some users say all this extra functionality has reduced performance, and there are problems installing some Chrome extensions, but there's no doubt that Vivaldi delivers a lot for a first version. Give it a try. Available for: Windows XP+, OS X 10.7+, Linux Maxthon 4.9.2.1000 Maxthon is a popular browser, highly rated by users (4.5/5 at Google Play and the App Store) and it comes with some appealing features. The browser runs on almost every conceivable platform and can automatically sync favourites and settings across all your devices. Maxthon uses both IE's Trident and Safari's WebKit rendering engines, giving it great compatibility with just about every site. Adblock Plus is included with the package, and several other advanced features come as standard. It's possible to download all the media files on a page, block malicious and phishing websites, skip video ads, take screenshots of complete web pages, save and manage text notes, and that's just the start. If you prefer lightweight browsers, this might not appeal. Maxthon is also short on extensions, with 'only' 769 when we last checked, and most of those hadn't been updated for some time. Still, the core browser is so good that you might not care, and if you use it across multiple platforms then Maxthon could be a good choice. Available for: Windows, Linux, OS X, Android, iOS, Windows Phone K-Meleon 75.1 K-Meleon is a highly configurable Gecko-based browser for experienced Windows users. There's no dumbed-down, stripped back, over-simplified interface here. Instead K-Meleon has a stack of toolbars, menus and options, absolutely crammed with features. The Privacy options are a great example. A single menu gives you options to selectively block cookies, Java, JavaScript, Flash, popups, images, ads, animations, page colours, frames or HTTP referrers, as well as viewing or clearing your browsing history and setting advanced privacy permissions. There's also integration with IE's favourites (not just import – it reads the current shortcuts), mouse gestures, a powerful macro feature, easy session management, email and news reading integration, and more advanced settings and configuration options than you'll see anywhere. It's not all good news. For starters, K-Meleon doesn't support most Firefox extensions. Also, configuration can be awkward (you have to edit text files), and development is slow, with months going by between significant releases. This hasn't stopped K-Meleon getting an impressive 4.8/5 rating at SourceForge, though, and if you need something really customisable – and can live with the complexity – it still has a great deal to offer. Available for: Windows XP+ Brave 0.9.1 Brendan Eich is the creator of JavaScript. The co-founder of Mozilla. And the man behind a new browser called Brave. Eich's Chromium-based project is still in beta, and distinctly short on features. There's no extension support, no bookmark import, a feeble bookmarks manager, lots of missing menu items, very few configuration options, and – well, you get the idea. What you do get with Brave is integrated ad and tracker-blocking. That works so well that the browser can already outperform Chrome in some situations, which is probably why the (extremely short) page load time is prominently displayed in the address bar. Brave will soon go even further, via an option to replace blocked content with safer, less obtrusive ads. The website gets most of the revenue, Brave takes a share, but users will get paid 15% via BitGo (a Bitcoin wallet). Are Brave's ads really going to be better than the originals, and will your earnings make it worth the effort? We're not sure, but this is definitely one to watch. Available for: Windows 7 64-bit+, OS X, Linux Midori 0.5.11 Fast, lightweight and easy to use, Midori is a popular Linux browser – it's the default browser for a number of distros – which is also available for Windows. The interface is minimalist and uncluttered, offering just the core navigation buttons. Everything works more or less as you'd expect, and you'll be navigating your favourite websites in seconds. Midori has a few neat touches you'll notice right away: the Speed Dial site launcher screen and the Duck Duck Go default search engine. There's an RSS icon in the address bar when feeds are available, and it's handy that the tabs from your last session are reopened when you next start the program. It doesn't take long to find the other core essentials: bookmarks, history and download management, private browsing and so on. This is all very much basics-only. The Import Bookmarks option won't find other browsers – it imports from an XBEL or HTML file only. There are only a few preferences or settings, and extension support is extremely limited. Midori isn't going to be the power user's choice, then, but if you're looking for something small and simple then it might be worth a try. Available for: Windows, Linux Cent Browser 1.8.9.28 While some browsers try to change the world, Cent Browser is a little less ambitious – it's just aiming to build on the open-source Chromium, and make it a little better. Convenient touches include the ability to set a minimum width for tabs, to prevent them getting too small (you can scroll the tab bar using the mouse wheel to find what you need). There's also a QR code generator, a 'Boss' key, a pin feature to protect tabs from being closed, and a right-click option to search for selected text in your favourite search engine. New navigation features include configurable mouse gestures, and additional memory optimisations might ease the load on your system. This doesn't always work quite as you'd expect, and there's not much documentation to help point you in the right direction. But overall Cent is a likeable browser with some convenient enhancements and extras. Available for: Windows Opera 36.0.2130.66 First released back in 1996, Opera has a strong record of innovation, and many of the features we take for granted in other browsers – tabs, mouse gestures, Speed Dial's thumbnail site launcher – were perfected in Opera first. Opera's move to Chromium in 2013 means the browser isn't as distinctive as it was, but there's still plenty to explore. Visual bookmarks with customisable thumbnails help you organise and find your favourite sites. Opera Turbo compresses web pages to improve performance. The technology doesn't work with HTTPS pages, which limits its usefulness, but it can still be handy in some situations. Well-implemented mouse gestures expand your navigation options. There's also optional syncing of all your browsing data (bookmarks, open tabs, passwords, and typed history), and all this is packaged in a super-streamlined, minimalist interface. Opera's big problem has always been a distinct shortage of extensions (there's only a fraction of the number available for Chrome or Firefox), but a new ability to load Chrome extensions gives users many more options. Put it all together and Opera is still an excellent all-round browser. If you've not checked it out for a while, download a copy immediately. Available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone Chromium 51 Chromium is the open-source browser which powers Google Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, and many other applications. The program looks and feels just like Chrome – it boasts a familiar interface, essentially the same menu options, plus you can even browse and install Chrome extensions. Most of the differences are under the hood. Some may cause problems (no built-in PDF reader, Flash player, reduced media codec support), but there are pluses, too: less of Google's tracking and reporting code, the ability to install extensions outside of Google's store, plus of course you'll get new features a little quicker. For most people these aren't going to be compelling reasons to change. If you're worried about Google 'spying' on you, just spending a moment tweaking Chrome's privacy settings will make a real difference. Still, if you really don't need all that Google integration then Chromium is a likeable browser. If nothing else, keep a portable copy around and you'll be able to check out new features as they arrive. Available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS Microsoft Edge While most browsers pile on the features to try and win you over, Windows 10's Edge is clean, lightweight, and seriously stripped-back (check out our hands-on review for the full details). The interface is simple – a single toolbar with just a few buttons. Even a total computer novice will be up-to-speed quickly. There are one or two potentially useful extras. Web Notes allows you to add notes to a web page and share them with others, there are thumbnail previews for tabs, and Reading View reformats pages to remove distractions and make them easier to read (unfortunately it doesn't work with many sites yet). What you don't get, unfortunately, is support for any extensions. They are in preview builds of the browser already, though, and due to launch with the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 later this summer. There are also very few configuration options. If you like to tweak and customise your browser, this isn't the package for you. Edge's simplicity, lightweight design and promising future mean it just scrapes into this list – and it's noticeably faster than IE, too – but if you need to do anything faintly advanced then it's best to look elsewhere. Available for: Windows 10 Firefox What makes a good browser interface? Everyone has their own ideas, but we think Firefox mostly gets it right – it's good-looking, easy-to-use, yet with plenty of powerful functionality just a click or two away. Better still, and unlike most of the competition, you don't have to live with Mozilla's design choices. There are hundreds of free themes which do everything from tweaking a few colours and graphics, to giving the browser a brand new look and feel. The core browsing experience is good, too – we like the scrolling tab bar – and handy extras include the likes of Firefox Hello (video chat and screen sharing), and Pocket integration (save content from web pages and view it later on any device). Firefox doesn't deliver the best performance, memory usage can still be an issue (though it's much better than it was), and while there are plenty of extensions available, Chrome has many more. Despite that, Firefox remains a great browser, and major improvements – including the possibility of running Chrome extensions – are on the way. Sounds good to us. Available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS Google Chrome It's only been around for eight years, but Chrome's appealing mix of features, speed and usability has seen it leave most of the competition behind. The browser's streamlined interface takes up the minimum amount of screen space, but there's plenty of functionality when you need it: excellent tab handling, syncing of browser data across all your devices, convenient tab muting, a task manager to monitor resource use, simple parental controls via 'supervised users', and a host of tweaks, settings and configuration options. If you need more, that's not a problem, either – Chrome has the largest and best selection of extensions around. There are issues, however. Chrome can be a resource hog, slow to start, using multiple processes and grabbing much more RAM than the lightweight Opera or Edge. There are also privacy concerns over the various ways Chrome can pass your data to Google. And benchmarks show it's no longer the clear leader for browsing performance. Factor in Opera and maybe Firefox's upcoming ability to run Chrome extensions, and rivals are clearly catching up. The browser wars aren't over just yet. Available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, iOS

Updated: 5 best free email clients for Windows Posted: You might detest email, but if it's part of your everyday life you need a trusty email client that won't break or falter. Windows 10 comes with its own Mail app, but this might not offer the right balance of security and features for you and isn't available for older versions of Windows. Luckily, developers have created many free email clients that do the job. Here are the best five. Mozilla Thunderbird Created by Mozilla, the same developer behind the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird is minimalistic in design, offering simple options such as Get Mail and Write. Setting up an email account is quick and easy, needing only your email address and password (no server settings here) with options to import your calendar and contacts alongside your mail. Thunderbird filters out junk emails effectively, as would be expected from a renowned web brand. In fact, having Mozilla as the developer of Thunderbird is one of its greatest strengths; regular updates and bug fixes are forthcoming and support is good. The clear and well designed interface sets Thunderbird apart, with over 1,000 add-ons (integration with social networks, design tweaks, and so on) as a bonus. Mozilla makes sure Thunderbird's 10 million users are never short of new features, with updates delivered at a similar rate to the Firefox browser that preceded it. Download Thunderbird eM Client Offering an interface reminiscent of Microsoft Outlook, eM Client – a clumsy name – offers a host of email services tied up in a streamlined way that works well and is, above all else, no frills. All of the options – Delete, Write New, Reply All, and so on – are presented at the top, with the three column layout offering a clear view of your emails, inboxes and email accounts. Of the five, eM Client offers the best mix of simplicity of design and power, easily importing emails and offering an Outlook-style experience. Updates are sporadic, but do offer useful security features every so often, such as the addition of support for Google's oAuth authentication. One of the only drawbacks is the lack of a big commercial developer, which means development can be slow. Download eM Client Inky Offering a more casual twist to email, Inky is a fantastic option if you want to use multiple accounts in one place. The interface is simple, with a two-column system offering easy access to all of your accounts, as well as your calendar. Inky works with every major email service available and offers support for custom settings, enabling anyone to add any account if they know the server's inputs. Alongside this, Inky also has cloud syncing (via a proprietary account), which means that your email is updated across all of your devices. You can even sort messages by relevance so that those from close contacts have an added drop of blue ink alongside them, and each one automatically shows up at the top of the unified inbox. Inky's ability to seamlessly make multiple email accounts into one – at least for appearance's sake – is impressive, and earns it a place on this list. Download Inky Claws Mail Unlike all of the other email applications on this list, Claws Mail is a throwback offering an interface reminiscent of Windows XP. For those who don't like the mess of unneeded animations or the swoosh of a tiled interface, Claws Mail's straightforward interface that makes a refreshing change. Don't let the utilitarian aesthetic fool you though. Underneath, Claws Mail has all of the features and functions of a more elegantly designed email client, with support for multiple email accounts and email threading. It's email convenience without the clutter. Download Claws Mail Outlook For the 420 million users of Outlook, Microsoft's application has always been the best option. Built by Microsoft for Exchange and Outlook accounts, the program offers extensive enterprise-level options and syncs calendars, contacts and notes seamlessly between Windows devices. The Windows 7 version of Outlook is starting to look slightly outdated compared to the slick Windows 10 app, but it still does a great job and is the best client for those who rely on Microsoft's email service and run an older version of the operating system. Even though the Windows 7 edition hasn't been updated for some time, the Outlook for iOS and Android apps are now an adapted version of Acompli, the email company Microsoft bought last year. Outlook.com, the web-based version of the service, on the other hand, has been completely redesigned the style of the popular cloud-based Office 365 productivity suite. Download Outlook

Updated: Top 5 best free YouTube converters Posted: YouTube is a great resource for viewing videos, but at some point you might want to download them to a computer or mobile device. You might want to watch them offline, burn them to a DVD for archiving, or convert the audio to an MP3 for entertainment while driving. So what's the answer? Hunting down a YouTube conversion tool would be a good start, and luckily there are plenty around that won't cost you a penny - such is the magic of freeware. We've listed some of the best free YouTube downloaders converters here. Have we missed a program off our list? Let us know in the comments section below. eTube Catcher aTube Catcher is an appropriately named YouTube conversion tool that will catch any video downloads you throw its way before converting them to your chosen format. It supports AVI, FLV, MOV, WMV, MPG and MP4, in addition to less common formats such as PSP, which is used for Sony's handheld games console. The installation process is speedy, and once up and running you'll be presented with a colourful Windows 10-like grid that clearly presents the available options. From there you can dive straight into its video conversion utility for converting to another file format, or you can convert videos to MP3s for audio playback on devices. Once you've chosen a format, drag in the files you want to convert and right-click Start to set them going. You can prioritize certain clips to have them converted first, or simply leave it to work on the queued files from top to bottom. Download aTube Catcher Free YouTube to MP3 Converter Free YouTube to MP3 Converter is a freeware program that converts videos from YouTube to other popular video formats - including WMV and AVI - in addition to audio ones formats such as MP3. The program lets you queue up multiple files for conversion and features a clean interface that clearly displays what files are waiting to be converted. It's a particularly useful tool for musicians who may want to download guitar backing tracks to jam along to, or similarly you could grab a karaoke backing track to burn to a CD ready for that weekend party. Download Free YouTube to MP3 Converter Freemake Video Converter Freemake Video Converter features an attractive design and supports more file formats than you can shake a stick at. You can convert to more than 200 available formats after downloading a video - including AVI, MP4, WKV, WMV, DV, RM, QT, TS and MTS - and you can choose to rip and convert audio to MP3 too. Freemake claims that a few of its features are unique - including integrated CUDA and DXVA technology that apparently converts videos faster while using less CPU resources. It's certainly one of the fastest on our list, but its speed will ultimately depend on the power of your PC. Download Freemake Video Converter YouTube Downloader YouTube Downloader can download and convert videos from some of the most popular video websites - including Facebook, DailyMotion and College Humor - in addition to YouTube. It features the ability to convert videos into most popular video formats - from MP3 and MP4 to WNV, FLV, MOV, 3GP and AVI. The program's makers claim that the latest version is faster and more stable than previous releases, and it also has the handy feature of resuming downloads automatically if your internet connection goes down temporarily. Download YouTube Downloader Free Studio Developed by DVDVideoSoft, Free Studio comes with a massive 25 video conversion options that can convert your files automatically once they've downloaded for viewing on different devices. It's particularly useful because it bundles multiple convertors into a single program, saving you hunting for several solutions when converting to different formats. It's a flexible program that allows you to work with HD video file types in addition to high quality MP4 video. It also comes with an advanced screen capture tool that allows you to record a section of the screen, flip it and rotate it before saving the edited output to disk with the option of saving to another device. Download Free Studio

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