Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook

For many years, I suffered under the grips of the only real word processing and spreadsheet program out there: the Microsoft Office Suite. At least it was better than Microsoft Works, ha ha. But Word and PowerPoint always crashed on me a lot. I learned to save my documents at every single change or line of new type (so MS Office did do one good thing for me– gave me a good habit). But the constant crashes and the burden it put on my laptop processor had me longing for something else.

I found it with OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org, like Firefox, is an open source program. This means that the making and the “engine” of the program is not a stealthy secret hidden in the confines of large file cabinets in Seattle, Washington. Open source means that everyone can see what the code is that makes up the program, and you can even contribute to it to make it even better. Ah, the beauty of the Internet.

I first became familiar with OpenOffice.org several years ago, when I had dial-up service. It took f o r e v e r to download. I am happy to say there have been many improvements to both OpenOffice.org and my internet service (now DSL).

OpenOffice.org is a great bundle of free software. It is split up into several smaller packages. I’ll give you a run down of what’s included, with a very, very brief summary description of each. Click on the links to learn more at OpenOffice.org website.

Writer is the word processor and desktop publisher. I use this the most. You can use it to make diagrams, letters, documents, indices, etc. Anything MS Word can do, OpenOffice.org can do better. OpenOffice.org has the added benefit of allowing you to save your files in PDF format with the click of a button. With MS Office, I had to download and configure a separate program to do that.

Impress is similar to MS Powerpoint. You can make slide shows and other multi-media documents with this.

Math is for stuff like… well, math. It can handle all those funky equations that mathematicians and my homeschooled kids need to use. Thisis something we were unable to do in MS Word, which was a continual frustration. I love OpenOffice.org Math!

Calc is a spreadsheet program. It’s very nice and more advanced than MS Excel. I like it much better.

Draw is a very fun program. My kids love it. I love it, too! I often use this program to concoct cover sheets and other image-based documents.

Base is a database program. I haven’t used it that much. Even though I love the computer, I still use a good old pencil and notebook for a lot of things. I’m getting there, though! I have yet to tranfer mounds of paperwork and archived administrative files onto computer. I’ll use Base when I do.

These are a lot of excellent features, all part of the OpenOffice.org package, and the best part of it all is that it is free! I love my OpenOffice.org. Give Microsoft a run for its money and try it out.

With the advent of internet phones, there has been an upward surge in voip deals. The internet voip is being used in every way imaginable. There is voip software for commercial as well as personal use. There has been an equal increase in skype download rate.