Carputers News and Computer Tips

We blogged on this about a year ago.  Recently, v3.co.uk made a full, commercial version of Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 available for free download.

Nero has also made a free version of Nero 9 available, though this version is somewhat feature-limited.  Download Squad’s Lee Mathews doesn’t care for it, and we can agree with the negative aspects that he pointed out about this application.

UsefulUtils Discs Studio is a free and lightweight disc burning software program for most Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The website is in Russian by default, but clicking the British flag in the upper right corner will change the page to read in English.  This program has a ton of features generally not found in other free burning software.

We love GMail!  We’ve used it since it became available, and recommend it highly.  Recently, Google put together and posted a series of tips and a printable guide on becoming a GMail Ninja:

Learn tips and tricks to save time, increase your productivity, and manage your email efficiently. Start with the tips that are right for you, based on how much email you get each day.

Looking for even more tips?  Techradar recently featured 14 tips and tricks to buff up your Gmail skills.  If Gmail is your preferred client, these tips will help you get the best from it.

Is GMail not your thing? There are many other free email providers.  Here’s a comparison of free online mail services from the Freeware Elite blog. 

As always, we’ll be happy to help if you have PC-related questions or issues.  Contact us if we can be of assistance!

Edit 09/05/2009:

Courtesy of Lee Mathews and Download Squad, here are 11 useful Windows apps that tie in to your GMail account.

Edit 12/24/2009:

Here are 20 Essential Gmail Tips You Probably Don’t Use (but should!) courtesy of MaximumPC magazine.

Ashampoo Office 2008 is a “rebranded” version of SoftMaker Office 2008.  We blogged about SoftMaker Office 2006 last year, and noted that the freeware 2006 version did an excellent job with word processing and spreadsheets but did not include a presentation (PowerPoint-like) application.

Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2008 corrects this with a very capable presentation application that can also utilize templates originally created for PowerPoint.

Softpedia posted an article earlier this spring detailing how to buy a copy of Ashampoo Office 2008 for $4.99.  From that article, here is a direct link to Ashampoo’s offer.

The second link on the left side of that Ashampoo offer (the first black button) says “Download 30 days free full version HERE”  Clicking that link in turn takes you to a CNET download.com page where the installation file can be downloaded and saved.

According to the Planete Beranger blog, A full license key to turn this 30-day version of Ashampoo Office 2008 into a full, non-time limited version can be obtained from Ashampoo by filling out this form using a valid email address.

Once you’ve obtained your key from Ashampoo via email, go ahead and run the installation file you downloaded from CNET download.com.  Enter the name, email address, and serial number you received from Ashampoo in their reply email when prompted.  After the installation is complete, download and install SoftMaker’s service pack from here, which will make sure your Ashampoo/SoftMaker Office 2008 installation is fully up-to-date.

Here’s how to make this very capable office suite save files in Microsoft Office (.doc, .xls, .ppt) formats automatically. You’ll need to do this in all three (TextMaker 2008, PlanMaker 2008, and Presentations 2008) programs.

After installation, click on Tools, Options… in the menu bar…

…and and then click on the Files tab at the top of the Options window.

The drop-down menu labeled Default file format (as shown above) allows the default file format to be set to your choice of Microsoft Office-compatible formats.

TextMaker documents will then be saved with a .doc file extension, PlanMaker spreadsheets will be saved with a .xls file extension, and Presentations will then be saved with a .ppt file extension automatically by default so they can be shared with Microsoft Office users.

Hopefully these links will all last.  Either deal - free or five bucks - is pretty hard to beat for what you get.  Take advantage of it before Ashampoo does away with it.

Edit 07/19/2009:

InfoWorld says:

“ SoftMaker Office 2008 shows superior compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, while OpenOffice.org 3.1 falls flat”

The For Free On Internet blog also has a recent post about how to get Ashampoo Office 2008 for free.

Edit 10/12/2009:

Here’s a video review and tutorial for Ashampoo Office 2008 courtesy of infopackets.com:

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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.

Apologies for our lack of blog updates of late, but we’ve been busy.  Individuals and small businesses are repairing and upgrading PCs rather than replacing them.  Given the state of the economy, this isn’t suprising.  We’d like to think that our increased activity is a sign of our quality of service.  Our customers seem to think so.

We’d like to thank all of our regular and new customers for their support.  Thanks also to all who have contacted us, even if we haven’t yet done business.

If you’re having a computer issue, don’t hesitate to contact us - we’ll work you into our schedule quickly and do what it takes to get your PC up and running smoothly again!

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!