Libraries for the Blind and Print Disabled

The intent of this page is to share news regarding computer software that most of us use. Forthcoming release dates are posted along with links to free software and/or free software updates. This is a page for us techies!

NOTE: The page is Microsoft/desktop PC heavy but that is not the intention. Feel free to expand this to Apple, Linux and mobile technologies.

--- //[[dan.malosh@state.mn.us|Dan @ MN1A Regional]] 2013/08/19 14:00//

• Apple iOS 8.1.3
• BARD Mobile app for iOS
• Hindenburg Audio Book Creator - 30-Day Trail

• NLS's BARD Mobile app for Android (May 2015?)

Offline installers are executable files that can be downloaded and used to install on computers without Internet connections. They are nice when the file is very large - like a Service Pack upgrade from Microsoft - or when a particular program is having problems downloading - like Adobe Flash not downloading because of Active X problems in Internet Explorer.

• Adobe Photoshop updates: 13.x for PC – 13.x for Mac
• Irfanview (Free, “poor man's” image editor)

• Apple iTunes (comes bundled with QuickTime)
• Apple QuickTime (if you wish to only install QuickTime but not iTunes)
• Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 (For computers running Windows XP and Windows Vista)
• Microsoft Windows Media Player 12 (For computers running Windows 7 and Windows 8)
• VLC Media Player

• Windows 8: 8.1 Update (Released: April 8, 2014)
• Windows 7: SP1 (Released: March 18, 2010)
• Windows Vista: SP1 (Released: February 4, 2008) – SP2 (Released: April 28, 2009)

• ExtractNow (Free tool for unzipping multiple zipped folders quickly)

• BARD Mobile app for iOS
• Gutenberg Cartridge Duplicator (For use on Fedora/Linux platforms to mass-produce Digital Talking Book cartridges)
• DTBC Write Protect (For applying write/erase protection to Digital Talking Books)

• Adobe Acrobat updates: 9.x – 10.x – 11.x
• Adobe Reader 11.x

NOTE: Adobe Acrobat is software you purchase to create PDFs. Adobe Reader is a free program used to view and fill out PDFs.

• JAWS updates
• NVDA (Free screen reader)
• Window-Eyes (Free screen reader for users with Microsoft Office 2010 and newer)

• Adobe Flash
• Java

• Apple Safari
• Google Chrome (See also "Alternate (offline) Google Chrome installer (Windows)")
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (For computers running Windows XP)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 (For computers running Windows Vista)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 (For computers running Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1)
• Mozilla Firefox (FTP site)

• Apache Open Office (Free alternative to Microsoft Office)
• Microsoft Office 2010 Service Packs: SP1 (Released: June 27, 2011) – SP2 (Released: July 16, 2013)
• Microsoft Office 2013 Service Packs: (None available as of 8/18/2013)