Brought to you by guest blogger: Dave Kootman

I would like to share with you some great software that you can use both at home and at school.  I will be reviewing different software that will make your life easier as a teacher and a computer user.  The best thing about all the software I will be reviewing is that it is FREE!

            The first program to be reviewed in this column is 2020 by ByLight Technologies.  2020 is essentially a screen shot capturer and photo-editor in one. A screen shot is a still image of the content currently on your monitor.   On a Windows PC, by default the only way to get a screen shot is by pressing the Print Screen (Prt Scr) key, which copies the image to your clipboard.  You can then edit the image in a word processor or a photo editing program.  That can get confusing and time consuming, so…

            2020 is a program that runs in the background when opened and allows you to capture any image on your screen that you select.  Under the “Capture” tab I usually select “capture rectangle” to select the exact image I want.  Once the image is captured, you can add arrows, highlight text, annotate or even use cool filters, similar to Photoshop.  You can save in many formats, including JPEG.  This is a great tool for creating tutorials or even just changing the file size of your images. 

            You can download 2020 here:   http://www.photo-freeware.net/2020.php

Take a look at this picture.  It’s a great example of how you can highlight text and make annotations with 2020.