Useful Useless Tools

So I was getting my daily dose of Lifehacker, and I saw the headline Combine Several Word files into one without copy-and-paste. So, I clicked through to read the article and found that a free Microsoft Word add-on was the genius behind the scenes. I thought to myself, "What a great tool!" A few weeks ago I had to painstakingly combine two similar resumes into one document.

So, I downloaded the item and began to install it. But shortly afterward, I stopped. I realized that I would never ever use it. It's not that I would not find cause to use it, but that by the time I need it I will have probably forgotten that I have it. And I began to reflect on the other "great" add-on tools that I've downloaded but never use.

Mouse Gestures and Download-Them-All for Firefox. Stuffit Expander for archiving. Rainlendar. The list can probably go on as I am sure I have forgotten others. But the point is that when I have a use for one of these niche tools to serve a need that seldom arises, I either do it by hand before I remember that I have the tool, or I just plain forget about it.

A few nifty tools are great when used. What I really need is a program to remind me to use all of these other programs when I need them. I'd just probably forget to use that too.