Carputers News and Computer Tips

We frequently get requests for help with using different software and applications.  For example, users changing to Microsoft Office 2007 from earlier versions sometimes find it difficult to locate familiar features and commands.

There are several good, free sources of just-in-time training guides and “cheat sheets” for popular software applications on the web. Here are our picks:

The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business maintains a great, publically-accessable Computing Documentation Library full of handouts and ”cheat sheets” for many software programs.

CustomGuide is a software training company based in Minneapolis, MN. They offer several FREE Quick References for popular programs and operating systems.

OpenOffice.org user guides for Version 3 (their latest version) are available here.

As discussed in our Lotus Symphony posts, ”cheat sheets” in the form of reference cards are available here.

If you have any others to add, leave a reply below or contact us!

Individuals and small businesses that would like to have their own website will find that there are many free online resources available. These make it easy to build and maintain simple blogs and websites.  In most cases, no knowledge of coding or programming is required.

The makeuseof.com blog recently listed several free web design options.  The Smashing Apps blog also recently wrote about 13 Free Online Tools to Create and Host your Website.  Be sure to read the comments, which give additional options and tips, on both of these pages.

Edit 06/19/2009:

The makeuseof.com blog has picked their Top 4 Web Tools to Create Free Websites Instantly.

In April, 2008, we posted a .pdf to .doc Converter Comparison. Here’s a new free converter for Windows - Free-PDF-to-Word.com. In addition, the ConvertPDFtoWord.net and PDFUNdo.net websites will do this online if you happen to be on a non-Windows computer, or on a Windows machine where you cannot install software.

The Digital Inspiration blog recently posted a great guide on How to Do Everything with PDF Files.  Another of our favorites is this Mashable post from 2007 listing 40+ Tools to Rip, Mix and Burn PDFs.

Edit 12/12/2009:

Here’s another bookmarkable compilation page courtesy of the Codswallop blog:  PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.