The following items may be useful to current IDS students in the development, research, and authoring of their thesis.
Writing Software
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Free, drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office
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Open source (You can get it for free without stealing it).
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Windows, Mac, Linux
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Writing environment using unique full-screen writing to allow you to stay on task.
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Import all of your sources into the one project to have everything you need at hand.
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Not free (reduced price for students)
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Windows, Mac, Linux (beta)
Data Backup
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Fully encrypted, reliable data storage and backup, essential in areas where viruses, theft and weather threaten your computer.
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Ability to sync and share files
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3GB free storage (must use referral link above, otherwise 2GB)
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Students pay half the regular price for storage.
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Free client
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Windows, Mac, Linux
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Store files in a single ‘Dropbox’ folder to be uploaded to the cloud
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Sync files between computers
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Highly recommended to be used with an encryption solution below.
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Offline backup, encryption and compression software
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Runs from a USB device or hard drive
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Windows, Linux (with Wine)
Data Encyption
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On the fly encryption
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Encrypt entire disks, partitions, or make encrypted virtual ‘container drives’
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Excellent documentation
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Free, Open Source
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Windows, Mac, Linux
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File encryption software for individual files
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Compress, encrypt, decrypt, store, send
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Free, Open Source
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Windows Only
Transcription Software
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Allows for speed control of audio file during transcription using keyboard media keys.
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Free version (Pro version not free)
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Windows, Mac
Reference Management
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Citations manager, allows you to save citation information, and sync it to Zotero servers.
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Plug-in for MS Office and LibreOffice allows direct insertion of citations and bibliography (automatically formatted).
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Available as a Firefox add-on or a Standalone Program (beta – recommended).
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Free
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Windows, Mac, Linux
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Online citations manager, allows you to save citation information and generate bibliographies.
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No need to install, works from your web-browser.
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Available free to U of T Students
Qualitative Data Analysis
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QDA software allowing you to code documents in .pdf or .txt format.
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Poor support for PDF formatting
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Open source (You can get it for free without stealing it; note that development has halted on this product).
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Windows, Linux (requires compilation)
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QDA software
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Text, PDF, and image support
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Built-in transcription software
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Open Source
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Mac, Linux
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Professional QDA Software allowing you to code documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, audio, video and pictures.
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Not free (reduced price for students)
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Windows, Mac (via Bootcamp or a VM)