Carputers News and Computer Tips

The newest version of this free office suite was released June 10.  As shown in the screenshot below, it will now open/import Microsoft Office 2007 files and templates:

Here are links to our previous posts on using and configuring this very capable free office suite:

• Our first IBM Lotus Symphony post, from about a year ago…

• Our post about major IBM Lotus Symphony updates

• IBM Lotus Symphony “how-tos” can be found here.

Edit 06/19/2009:

Amy Vernon wrote about Lotus Symphony 1.3 over at HotHardware.  She notes that according to an IBM press release there are several large companies that are using this free alternative to Microsoft Office…

Edit 10/30/2009:

Courtesy of the Lotus Symphony wiki, here are all of IBM’s Lotus Symphony education offerings.  These include Getting Started pages, Online courses, Reference Cards, and short “show me” videos.  We’ve mentioned some of these in previous Lotus Symphony posts.

Samer writes for the freewaregenius blog:

Avira Antivir, Avast, or AVG… are (all) very worthy contenders that can hold their own or surpass any heavyweight for-pay antivirus; however Anitvir and Avast are definitely in the first tier, while AVG is a close second tier.

We concur with this analysis, and are currently recommending Avira Antivir for home users.

And, as always, if you need help or advice with antivirus or any other computer-related issues, contact us!  We’ll be happy to be of assistance!

Edit 09/05/2009:

Can You Trust Free Antivirus Software?  This article from a recent issue of PCWorld Magazine also rates Avira highly.  They also have a ranking chart for side-by-side comparison.

From the Speckyboy Design Magazine:

In this article you will find a range of free editors that can be used by graphic designers, photographers, animators, artists and even kids.  Some have basic functionality for the amateur or learner, others are very powerful and suitable for the professional.

There are selections for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. We are big fans of IrfanView, and agree with this article’s statement that it is “simple for beginners and powerful for professionals”.  There are many other winners here, too.

Edit 04/29/2009:

The 1stwebdesigner blog recently featured 28 Online Photo Editing Websites to Have Fun With.  These make for easy embarrassment of family and friends (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing sometimes…)

Edit 07/24/2009:

The ReadWriteWeb blog recently featured Free Alternatives to Photoshop With All the Bells, Whistles, Filters, & Layers - seven free resources that pack the punch of Photoshop’s bells and whistles without the price.

Edit 10/30/2009:

GuideToArtSchools.com has a great post listing their choices for The 11 Best Free Photo Editing Programs.  As a bonus, they add their choices for the Top 5 Free Online Editing Programs at the end of the main article.  In addition, The Best Free Photo Editing Software Applications were picked by Rhonda Callow over at brighthub.com. Jessica Dolcourt recently shared her Favorite Free Image Tools for Windows over at Download.com.

Whether or not you like (or use) this browser, this is neat: 

We’ve used it since it first became available as a beta and like it a lot!  Here’s where you can download it and find more out about it.

We posted almost two years ago on word processors.  Recently, the FreeLine blog did their own comparison of the six latest and greatest free word processing programs out there.  Their picks?  IBM Lotus Symphony, Google Docs, and SoftMaker Office 2006. 

Another interesting tidbit from this comparison which was news to us - Novell has a custom version of OpenOffice.org 3.0 available for download.  What makes their version different from the mainstream version of OpenOffice.org? 

OpenOffice.org Novell Edition for Windows contains enhancements and bug fixes, especially for interoperability with Microsoft Office and other word processing programs, that are not available in the standard edition. These enhancements include:            

• Microsoft Excel*: Compatibility: Improved Excel compatibility for certain built-in functions (e.g., CELL, INFO, INDIRECT), hyperlinks and filters, improved ergonomics, and support for “R1C1″ style addresses. Improved performance on certain text functions such as SEARCH.  Natural sorting option in cell range sorting.
• Excel VBA Macro Interoperability: OpenOffice.org Novell Edition eases the migration of many macros from Microsoft Excel.  Although not all macros can be successfully migrated, this interoperability offers more than the standard edition, which does not support migration of macros.
• Data Pilots: Data Pilots are interoperable with Microsoft Office PivotTables*.  OpenOffice.org Novell Edition substantially improves the Data Pilot feature, making it possible to edit pilots after creation.
• Enhanced Fonts: Licensed fonts from Agfa* Monotype* which are metrically identical and visually compatible with some of the key Microsoft fonts.  This allows OpenOffice.org Novell Edition to match fonts when opening documents originally composed in Microsoft Office, and very closely match pagination and page formatting.
• EMF+Support: The ability to render EMF+ formatted graphics
• SVG Support: The ability to import scalable vector graphics.
• Import File Formats: Microsoft Works, WordPerfect* text and graphics, T602 files, OfficeOpen XML, and more.
• Groupwise® Integration: OpenOffice.org Novell Edition includes improved integration with ODMA (Open Document Management Architecture) services, for example for GroupWise.  If you have the GroupWise client installed on the machine, OpenOffice.org Novell Edition will offer to open documents from GroupWise, or save documents in GroupWise.

Yes, OpenOffice.org Novell Edition opens Microsoft Office 2007 (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx) files!

Free registration with Novell is required to download OpenOffice.org Novell Edition.  For those who regularly share files with MS Office users, this might be the way to go.

Here, in .pdf format is Novell’s FAQ for OpenOffice.org Novell Edition.

Here is a direct link to download the suite in .iso format, without registration.  This page provides instructions on how to burn .iso files to a CD via many popular CD burning programs.

Edward Mendelson writes for PC Magazine:

Even though OpenOffice.org… can’t do everything (Microsoft) Office can, it can do a lot, and it has some of its own tricks that even (Microsoft) Office can’t manage.

Mr. Mendelson’s article makes a nice addition to our series of OpenOffice.org posts.  Tip #5 in his article is a shorter version of our post on Configuring the OpenOffice.org suite for use in a Microsoft Office world… 

As we’ve said before - you can’t beat the price!

Matthew DeCarlo writes for Techspot:

With this guide, we will be providing you with a list of useful applications that we feel stand above all others in what they attempt to do, and when all is said and done, your PC will be ready for nearly any everyday task you throw at it.

For those wishing to “cut to the chase”, here are all of their picks in one table.  More discussion (along with more suggested apps) can be found in the comments.

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.