Must Have PC Applications for an MBA Student.

MBA is a chapter in life which not only transforms your personality, communication, leadership and managerial skills but it also changes the way your “Desktop” looks like. While in MBA, the icons of “Call of Duty”, “Counter Strike” etc. are replaced by “PowerPoint”, “Excel” etc. It is a significant task of choosing the applications to be installed on the computer for the further use in MBA program because the absence of any expedient application on the last moment may lead you to kick a hole in your screen. Let’s talk about the must have computer applications for MBA.

  1. MS Office Suite 2013: Well, Who doesn’t have it? But the 2013 version of MS Office has cutting edge compared to its predecessor version. Specially, when it comes to the life line of an MBA i.e. PowerPoint. With all the novice animation and transition effects, text box alignment feature it really blows life into your presentation.

 Now if you are a part of any club or you have a creative bug in you to satisfy then another family member of this suite i.e. Publisher 2013 is for your rescue in times of promoting an event. With all the pre measured templates of Brochures, Posters, Business Cards, Banners etc. you just have to worry about inserting text and images which by the way expands the boundary of your creativity.

  1. Simple Mind: Perplexed with the always changing view points of the characters in the case studies? Or is it really hard to come to a conclusion at the end of case studies because of numerous What-If Analysis? Simple Mind is the one who frees the victim of the above mentioned situations. With the help of this great tool you can now summarize the information visually in the form of mind maps. It is like brainstorming virtually. It aids to literally picture the problem in hand and makes it really easy to solve. Not only this but it also allows you to export the images in your presentation and text documents.
  1. Ever note: There are times in MBA when you are bombarded with so many tasks that there are high chances that few of them might slip through the cracks. In such a mess Ever note is an app you should look upto. Available for free, this app can store everything you are afraid losing track of. Be it To-do list, a meeting, or an assignment reminder it covers it all. Though you can find one such app under MS Office Suite too which goes by the name One Note but Ever note is a multi-platform app which keeps everything in sync between your gadgets.
  1. Dragon Naturally Speaking: Suppose you have an assignment in hand which demands an excerpt from either a text book or any other offline article. Wouldn’t it be better if you just have to read it rather than typing the entire article? Yes, the Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech recognition application which helps you to type the text without even touching the keyboard. Hence, saving a big chunk of your time. But watch the accent!

 

  1. Plagiarism Checker: “All my assignments are Unique. Just like everyone else’s.” If you also face this trauma on the submission day then here is something for you. Even if our entire work is “First Handed” but there comes a line or two which are co-incidentally the true copy of a line or two over the internet. When it is generalized over your entire work by any professor it is labeled as “Plagiarized” and rejected by the professor. Though no applications are used to check plagiarism but surely some websites can help you correct this “co-incidence” before the submission. They are http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/, http://www.plagiarismsoftware.net/, http://www.plagtracker.com/, http://www.duplichecker.com/
  1. Adobe Suite: The first and the essential group member from Adobe Suite is Acrobat Reader. Unlike Adobe Reader, it helps you to create forms in pdf format and take print outs which can be used for many purposes. If you belong to the marketing stream then ‘I don’t know Adobe Photoshop’ is not an excuse for you. No one knows this must have app completely but at least knowing the basics of Photoshop can make you touch the sky especially when you are inclined towards subjects such as Branding and Integrated Marketing Communication. Worst Case Scenario: if you are unable to comprehend this app then IrfanView (another image editing software) is there for you.

Though Windows Movie Maker always saves us when it comes to showing a video alongside a presentation but Adobe Premiere Pro, the advanced video editing app can profoundly match your presentation with the Video.

  1. Readability: It may so happen that you are in a middle of a presentation and you need to present some data or intelligence which is available online. You try to open that webpage but internet ditches you at the end moment. Now either you leave that part or explain the same with the bits and bobs of what remains in your mind. But with this add-on (extension)in your web browser i.e. Readability, you can change any webpage into a “clean view” for reading at any point in time irrespective of the fact that whether or not you are connected to the Internet.
  1. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS):If you are one of those who doesn’t jump to conclusion before a research then this application is a must have for you. With expertise in solving research methods such as Frequencies, Cluster Analysis, ANOVA, Cross Tabulation, etc. the applications is a bit technical to fathom. At IBS, every student comes across this researcher tool during the second semester under the discipline Business Research Methodology. More about it is explained if one opts for Marketing Research in third one.
  1. Prezi: Even if you are fed up with the Powerpoint 2013 and want to walk one step ahead in presenting then Prezi is what you are looking for. It is a cloud based software where you can tell your story or present your thoughts on a canvas virtually. With some of the amazing 3D and Z-Axis effects, you can create your presentation online and once done you can download your work and present in the lecture. Though it takes a little while for the file to open but once opened and started it surely attracts everyone in the lecture theatre towards it.
  1. Free USB Flash Drive Recovery: Let’s admit thatit has happened with all of us atleast once. We plug our flash drive in the USB port but we don’t find the file which we were supposed to present in front of our class. Either we call off our efforts or use the backup drive. But in case you ever forget to take the back up of your work this application will surely help you in that mess with recovering the accidentally deleted file or a corrupted file.

There are available plethora of applications in number of genres over the internet but locking the right one for your desktop and even your cell phone is a hard nut to crack. Imagine your computer is crammed with uncountable applications which were available for download but just not that one which could help you in a ruin. After all “An Application in need is an Application indeed.”

Contributed By : Hasan Ali Gumani (Class of 2014, IBS Hyderabad).

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