Office

138. Acrobat.com
https://acrobat.com/
Web
Adobe's taking on Google Docs head-to-head with Acrobat.com, a blanket site for online productivity apps (Buzzword word processor, Tables spreadsheet, and Presentations), not to mention ConnectNow meetings (see Conferencing). All are good looking because they're built in Flash and look, well, flashy, with their flying menus and pretty fonts.

139. Backpack
http://backpackit.com
Web
37Signals has been making Web apps for over a decade, and the company knows what it's doing. It even gives away Backpack to prove just what this collaborative project management space can do. Inside your sharable Backpack is a board to show who's doing what, pages where you can keep notes and lists and even images, a calendar, reminders, even a collaborative writing space that saves new versions each time anyone changes the text. This is not your old elementary-school backpack. The free version is limited to one project, but it can have unlimited users.

140. Dia
http://dia-installer.de/index_en.html
Windows | Linux | Portable
Want to diagram something, but don't want to pay for Visio? That's where Dia gets its inspiration, providing all the flowcharting goodness you can stand. Grab the portable version at PortableApps.com to keep it on your USB drive.

141. TypeWith.me
http://typewith.me
Web
Google bought the code for the site EtherPad, which once offered shareable text documents that didn't even require a sign-up account. Then Google made it open-source. The result is TypeWith.me, an instant collaboration spot with all of EtherPad's old functions.

142. Evernote
http://www.evernote.com
Windows | Mac | Web | Mobile
The ultimate note-taking app? It may be. Evernote lets you save anything you see online, your private notes, public notes—just about everything. You can synchronize your Evernotes on the desktop app, the online version, and Evernote for mobile phones (iPhone, Android, and Blackberry). You get a little more for subscribing (like more upload space), but you can get plenty out of Evernote for nothing.

143. Google Docs
http://docs.google.com
Web | Mobile
Finally out of beta, Google's cloud-based answer to Microsoft Office continues to innovate. Google Apps' word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, and online forms, were already fast and easy to master (since they don't have all the extras you'd find in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and now Google lets you upload any file you want to store in your Docs account. As Google buys more products like Picnik, who knows what might find its way into the Docs suite.
• Read PCMag's review of Google Docs.

144. Jarte
http://www.jarte.com/
Windows | Portable
WordPad isn't just a low-end word processor included with Windows. It's also a complete word-processing engine built into the OS. Jarte (pronounced jar-TAY) uses that engine with a unique interface, including tabs. It can also be run from a USB flash drive and fully supports MS Word formats, even DOCX.

145. Notepad++ 5.6.8
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Windows | Portable
A classic update to the anemic Notepad that has come with Windows since the beginning, this editor is about much more than text, it's about code, with color-coded syntax highlighting for programmers in languages from HTML to C and tabs for opening multiple documents at once.

146. OpenOffice.org 3.2
http://www.openoffice.org/
Windows | Mac | Linux | Portable
The open-source office software suite that includes all the tools you find in expensive off-the-shelf products like those from Microsoft, OO.o (as it's known in shorthand) does Microsoft one better by supporting all operating systems (Mac users should check out NeoOffice for a more Mac-centric interface). Furthermore, OpenOffice does just about everything you can imagine in an office suite (including extras like math and drawing applications), it works with MS Office files, and it has one amazing über-feature: It's free for everyone, all the time, for any purpose. Period.
• Read more about OpenOffice.org 3.2.

147. OrangeNote
http://orangenote.littlesoftware.ca/
Windows
OrangeNote uses the Windows Presentation Foundation (or WPF) graphical subsystem that's part of .NET. This is a techie way of saying it looks cool displaying clips of text notes saved in its database, which you access via an icon in the system tray. Hotkeys you create make it easy to clip items and access them later; in fact, OrangeNote can keep track of everything you copy to the clipboard. Copy whole documents to the clipboard and OrangeNote stores them away, like an emergency backup.

148. PaperRater
http://paperrater.com/
Web
This online spelling and grammar checker goes a little farther with the documents you upload, by checking for potentially plagiarized text that might get noticed by a wary professor.

149. SlideRocket
http://www.sliderocket.com
Web
A complete platform for creating presentations found entirely online, SlideRocket lets you upload PowerPoint files so you can access them anywhere, or just create your own online, in collaboration with your colleagues. The free version is limited to 250MB of storage; pay monthly or yearly to upgrade to more space and features.

150. Springpad
http://springpadit.com/
Web | Mobile
Recently relaunched, Springpad (like Evernote) is all about saving snippets of the Internet (plus your own documents, pictures, and more) into a personal notebook for future reference. What it does different is bolster that saved info with extras it pulls from the Web. Springpad's iPhone app lets you take it on the road.
• Read about Springpad at AppScout.

151. Zoho
http://www.zoho.com/
Web
Zoho's massive suite of productivity and collaboration apps is unique in how it takes on the leader in online apps (Google) while still being fully in favor of working with Google's tech and even as a partner. Most of the Zoho apps have a free component that you'll get more from by subscribing.