As knowledge workers, we know how important it is to have the right tools in our arsenal to make our jobs easier and more efficient, right?
Having the right tool at hand can significantly enhance our productivity and throughput. It’s worth the time investment to learn and master a tool that can save us time and effort throughout our careers.
So here are my go-to tools.
If you know one that does the job better, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
NotePad++ | Notepad++ is my favourite source-code editor for Windows users. It offers syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, customizable snippets, and code folding. It has support for a wide variety of programming languages and allows you to configure the ones that are not already available. I’ve written about how you can do this for SQRs, PeopleCode and DMS. |
Visual Studio Code | VS Code from Microsoft is another powerful source-code editor for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It offers robust debugging capabilities, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, efficient code refactoring options, and integrated Git functionality. |
OpenCobolIDE | OpenCobolIDE is an simple IDE for COBOL programming that utilizes the GnuCobol compiler. It offers native COBOL syntax highlighting and code completion capabilities. The IDE also includes a convenient tree view of divisions, sections, paragraphs, and more, which is fully synchronized with the code folding panel. |
WinMerge | WinMerge is a free and feature-rich file comparison and merging tool for Windows. It offers a visual comparison of files and folders. It is lightweight and fast. |
BeyondCompare | If you can shell out a few dollars, BeyondCompare is an even better tool for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It offers features such as visual comparison of text, binary, and image files, folder comparison and synchronization. It also supports multiple comparison rules, syntax highlighting, and custom file filters. |
Postman | Postman is one of the tools I’ve been using more and more for the last several years. It’s my preferred tool for REST API development and testing. It also supports test automation, and collaboration capabilities for teams. |
SoapUI | Even though SoapUI now supports both SOAP and REST web services, I use it only when working with SOAP web services. It offers support for data-driven testing, security testing, and performance testing. |
MobaXterm | I have tried many SSH tools and have settled on MobaXterm – a comprehensive remote terminal and networking toolbox for Windows. Its features include SSH, RDP, X11 forwarding, file transfer etc. |
FileZilla | FileZilla has been my trusted FTP and SFTP client for a long time. It offers a user-friendly interface, supports drag-and-drop functionality, and provides secure file transfer with encryption options. |
Chrome developer tools | Chrome Developer Tools come in very handy when you are working with PeopleSoft branding. It includes features such as the Elements panel, Console, and Network panel, enabling you to inspect, debug, and optimize web pages and JavaScript code for improved performance and quality. |
PS Utilities | PeopleSoft Utilities is a Google Chrome Extension that can enhance your productivity. For example, it allows you to create and access favourites for frequently used pages across different environments. I use it to toggle trace settings, inspect page fields etc. |
| CFO Tool | The Cumulative Feature Overview tool from Oracle has been a great help since the time it was delivered as an Excel spreadsheet. The tool has since been online and lets you compare features released in different versions of PeopleSoft. |
Greenshot | Greenshot is a free and lightweight screenshot capture tool for Windows and macOS. It offers various capture modes, including full screen, window, and region, along with annotation and image editing features. |
Snagit | If you want a better tool and are ready to spend some money, Snagit is the way to go. It also comes with image editing software that offers a wide range of features for editing, and sharing screenshots and video recordings. It includes tools for capturing scrolling screens, adding annotations, creating GIFs, and more. |
| snipboard.io | This is one of the easiest ways to capture and share screenshots |
Camtasia | Camtasia is where I go when I need to do longer screen recordings. It allows you to capture and edit screen recordings, add annotations, effects, and animations, and export videos in various formats. A great tool for creating engaging and polished videos for presentations, tutorials, and marketing purposes. |
Screencastify | Screencastify is a screen recording and video creation tool that is browser-based and works as a Google Chrome extension. It offers features for capturing, editing, and sharing screen recordings, webcam videos, and voiceovers. The interface is easy to use and it integrates with Google Drive and YouTube. |
WinRaR | WinRAR is my preferred tool for compression. It allows you to compress, encrypt, and extract files and folders. It supports various file formats, offers advanced compression algorithms, and includes features such as password protection and error recovery. When you are working with large files like the ones you see in PUM images, this tool is much faster than the Windows native one. |
Internet Download Manager | I began seriously thinking about download management software only when I started downloading PUM images. Internet Download Manager would easily be my best software purchase ever. It accelerates download speeds and offers advanced features for managing and organizing downloaded files. It integrates seamlessly with web browsers, supports pause and resume functionality, and includes features such as download scheduling and batch downloading. |
FileLocator Pro / Agent Ransack | FileLocator Pro (also Agent Ransack) is a powerful desktop search tool that lets you quickly search for files and folders on your computer or network. It offers advanced search options such as Boolean expressions, regular expressions, and filtering by file types, sizes, and dates. |
Gimp | During your Tools upgrade, you would generally be doing some image manipulations – getting the size of the logos right etc. GIMP is an excellent image editing software that can help you with these tasks. |
Balsamiq wireframes | Balsamiq is a great tool for creating wireframes and mockups for web and mobile applications. It offers a simple interface with a wide range of pre-built UI elements that can be easily dragged and dropped to create wireframes and mockups quickly. This is especially helpful when you want to put together how a PeopleSoft page would look and run it past the key users. |
Evernote | Evernote has been my favourite note-taking app for well over a decade. It helps you capture, organize, and access information across different devices and platforms. It allows you to create and store notes, ideas, web clippings, images, and audio recordings in a digital workspace that can be easily synced and accessed from various devices. Evernote offers features such as tagging, searching, and sharing, making it one of the best note-taking apps around. |
Trello | Trello has been very helpful as a visual project management tool – especially on many of the personal mini-projects I take up. It uses boards, lists, and cards to help teams collaborate, organize tasks, and track progress. |
Dropbox | I use Dropbox for file hosting and sharing. It provides a seamless way to sync files across devices, collaborate on documents, and share files with others. Dropbox offers features such as file versioning, file recovery, and selective sharing. |
