Since switching to Mac, I've abandoned almost all of the programs that I used on Windows with the exception of Microsoft Word. This is mainly because Word is so widely used by others that I've effectively been "forced" to install it even though I hardly use any other application in Microsoft Office. This is annoying for two main reasons: Office is expensive and takes up over 500MB of my hard drive. However, there are a selection of free and highly accomplished alternative word processing applications for Mac, some of which not only handle Word documents, but that you may even find improve on Word itself.

Writer Part of OpenOffice which is a cross platform multilingual Java based office suite that's designed as a free replacement for Microsoft Office. Writer is the word processing component and allows you to open and edit Word documents (including .docx), export to PDF and even use it as a WYSIWYG editor for creating web pages. Some prefer to install NeoOffice which has taken OpenOffice and customised the interface for Mac.

AbiWord A better solution than Writer for those working on slower Macs. Like Writer, it allows you to open Word documents, save to .doc format and export to both PDF and HTML. The disadvantage is that it doesn't support .docx format and may sometimes alter the formatting in Word documents so that they appear a bit messed-up. For those working on older Macs though, it's an excellent alternative.

Bean Designed specifically for Macs, Bean is based on Cocoa so it looks great. Bean can also open and save in Word format but note that it can't handle footnotes, images or pre-defined styles and is only partially compatible with Word's file formats. In addition, it doesn't work with .docx, hyperlinks are imported as text and exporting of tables doesn't work well. However, in terms of speed and interface, Bean is excellent.

Google Docs Google's online office suite is handy replacement for opening and saving Word documents. All you need is a Google account to get started. Google Docs features a clean interface, autosave feature, spell check and it can save your documents either to your account, publish it as a web page or automatically e-mail it as a Word document. You can even invite others to collaborate with you on a document.

ThinkFree Online The ThinkFreeOffice suite isn't free but it's online counterpart ThinkFree Online is. It only allows you to open and view any kind of Office document, including .doc and .docx and then embed, convert, share, upload or search them for free. You can perform basic functions for free but you have to sign-up for extra features such as the offline file management "Power Tool".

One of the very few things that annoys me about my Mac is the way the screen dims, blacks-out or goes to sleep when left idle for a few minutes. Of course, I understand it's done by Apple in order to preserve the life of the Mac but it's rather annoying when you're watching a YouTube clip and suddenly the screen dims or when you're trying to watch a film and the screen goes to sleep. Some users also make the point that they don't necessarily want their Macbook to go to sleep when they close the lid such as when they're downloading. Therefore, here are five of the very best apps to kick your Mac's ass:

Caffeine - Simple and effective, Caffeine installs a coffee bean in your top menu bar that you click once to activate and prevent any kind of sleep mode on your Mac. Click again to turn it off - simple as that! It doesn't however stop your Mac from going to sleep when you close your Macbook which leads me onto the next app...

InsomniaX -  Stops your Mac going to sleep under any circumstances, even when the lid is closed on your Macbook. Note that with the latest generation of Macbooks, you can run them with the lid closed as long as you have an external mouse and keyboard attached. Use it with caution though - it's obviously not a good idea to leave a Macbook running with a closed lid for very long periods of time - Macs need a rest too sometimes!

Sleepless - Prevents your Mac from going to sleep without changing the system settings manually. You can schedule hibernation and sleeping times on Sleepless and its also been recently updated to prevent sleeping when closing Macbooks. Again, the developers warn that it should be used with care in order to avoid frying your Mac!

iWannaSleep - Takes control of when your Mac goes to sleep. Great for if you like to listen to music as you go to sleep but don't want your Mac to also fall asleep. You can set the time after which iTunes is stopped, the computer is put to sleep, shut down or when a custom AppleScript is run.

Midnight - Great widget that gives you sleep control from your dashboard. Midnight can either put your Mac into its standard sleep mode or into hibernation mode. Standard sleep is where your Mac reduces its power consumption to a minimum by stopping its processor but preserving RAM while Hibernation copies RAM to your hard drive.

When I started my favorite file transfer app, SmartFTP this morning I discovered to my horror that the software is no longer free. Now, I've been something of a loyalist to the program for years now so I thought about paying for a full licence. However, I then remembered how much I begrudge paying for something that I've been getting for free for years. So I decided to look elsewhere for my FTP needs and came across three cracking alternatives that won't cost you a bean (for now, at least).

I imagine most SmartFTP users will flock to Filezilla as their first choice replacement. The open source software has built something of a reputation for its reliability, speed, and ability to manage large file transfers. What's great about the program is that you can set both local and remote filters for things like images, explorer files or CVS and SVN directories or even create your own. FileZilla also includes a tool to compare directories in terms of file size or modification time.

Core FTP Lite is another popular free FTP client. It's pretty easy to handle thanks to its straightforward drag-and-drop interface, and there's a bunch of cool features such as auto retry of failed transfers, bandwidth control throttle, remote file searching and .htaccess/.htpasswd editing. Core FTP is probably best known for its superb security features though, and the free app supports a wide range of security protocols.

Both of these aforementioned tools make for decent alternatives to SmartFTP. However, for sheer convenience I ended up plumping for FireFTP, a neat Firefox plug-in that gives you handy access to FTP servers from within your browser. While perhaps not as fully-featured as the other two stand-alone apps, I reckon FireFTP has more than enough for the average home user and the ability to call upon it at any time from your Bookmarks Toolbar makes it a real winner for me.

One way Microsoft attempts to protect it's software from piracy is via product keys. In the case of Vista, this backfired spectacularly but If your PC came already installed with Windows XP, you should have received a recovery disk with the product code clearly visible. If you didn't, or if you had to install XP yourself but have lost the product key, then you won't be able to reinstall it without the key.

Annoyingly, although the Product Key is stored on your computer, Windows scrambles it so that you can't read it. One handy solution is Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder to recover and decipher the product key for you. However, if Windows XP came packaged with your computer and is not the retail version (with box), the key recovered by these tools may not be that of your own machine but the OEM's bulk install key.

In which case, it's worth trying RockXP which may be able to recover your individual keys although there's no guarantee it can help. The advantage of this program however is that it can also recover product keys for many other Microsoft programs including MS Outlook and MS Office.

Ever since my Desperate Dan Cow Pie Eater badge arrived in the post in a black plastic wallet when I was about nine I have been an avid fan of the comic book. OK, so I was a Dandy when it was cool to be a Beano but then Dandy always came with a Wham bar and Korky the Cat. And my brother got The Beano. Still I guess you're not interested in any of this if you're not from the UK. And even if you are chances are you're getting a bit bored. I expect you're one of those Manga people. Or a Marvel. In fact I bet you've never even tried Space Dust. Whatever your taste, there are plenty of great apps to read and create your very own comics.

• Comic Life - Use photos to turn your life into a comic book
• Comic Book Creator - Excellent comic creator: drag in images, add effects
• ComicRack - Read real comic books on your PC
• ComicBase - For serious comic collectors - manage thousands of editions
• ComicReader - Huge collection of titles like Dilbert and the brilliant Calvin and Hobbes
• Manga Studio - Hee-hah whoa-yah, create incredible flying Manga cartoons
• Daily Garfield Reader - Unlimited doses of the fat, lasagne-loving cat, and Odie!
• iComic (Mac) - Download your fave comics off the web, read them offline
• Comic Book Lover (Mac) - View, read, organize and add to your immense collection