Archive for November, 2005
Free Alternative To Microsoft Office
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Free Alternative To Microsoft Office
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Anyone who ever priced the Microsoft Office Suite knows it
represents a significant investment.
A quick check of the CompUSA.com website shows Microsoft
Office Standard costs $399 and Microsoft Office Professional
will set you back $449. Now, this doesn’t discount the value
of the software.
In fact, the functionality in MS Office represents the true
workhorse of home and small business computing, namely: word
processing (Word), spreadsheets (Excel), presentations
(PowerPoint), and desktop database applications (Access).
However, with the cost for such functionality at a premium,
it comes as no surprise that a viable alternative emerged to
challenge Microsoft’s position atop the office application
market.
OpenOffice.org offers a suite of office software
applications free to download for anyone with a computer,
including PC’s operating with Windows or Linux.
Open Office also offers a free version for Macintosh
computers.
Open Office offers its software freely to anyone who wants
to download it.
Their all-volunteer organization, sponsored in large part by
Sun Microsystems, operates with the noble goal of making
productivity software available worldwide in 36 languages,
particularly to economies that simply can’t afford the cost
of other office solutions.
The Open Office software publishes in the Open Document
Format to make data universally available (instead of using
proprietary file formats that, for instance, make it hard to
share between Microsoft Word and Word Perfect).
Open Office contains several main components, each of which
help the user with specific tasks.
Writer – This software offers a full-featured word-
processing program enabling the user to type letters,
brochures, faxes, even entire books. No matter what you need
to type, this program lets you do it. It also offers such
features as spell check, auto-correction, and thesaurus.
Calc – Calc offers a spreadsheet program enabling the user
to create cells containing text or digits, execute simple
and complex calculations, database functions, and more. Calc
is perfect for accounting spreadsheets, inventory and more.
Impress – Impress enables the user to create “slideshow”
presentations containing text and images for use in sales or
group presentations. Impress also allows the user to create
impressive slide transition effects and eye-catching
animation.
Draw – Draw gives the user the ability to create simple to
complex drawings using vector graphics. Users can create
drawings by hand, or incorporate an array of existing
shapes, arrows, lines and other graphics.
Though it does represent an excellent alternative to
expensive office software suites, Open Office is not without
a few drawbacks.
Since they make the software available free of charge, tech
support for the free version only lasts 30 days. Also, by
its nature, the software is a “work in progress.”
As such, you will find bugs periodically that should get
reported to the Open Office website so they can fix them.
However, despite these drawbacks, Open Office software rates
a “must look” if you need word processing, spreadsheets and
other capabilities we’ve naturally come to associate with
home and small business computing.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
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“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
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Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.
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Dealing With Idea and Information Overload
Video: Dealing With Information & Idea Overload
"Information Overload" can cause massive confusion in you… "Idea Overload" can paralyze you into not taking ANY action!
Here’s my BEST strategy for quickly dealing with the avalanche of ideas and information that bombard all of us on a daily basis…
Google’s Next Step: Are Print Mail Order Catalogs Dead?
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Are Print Mail Order Catalogs Dead?
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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One of the great joys of the holiday season involves
receiving the stack of catalogs that invariably clog the
mailbox at the end of my driveway.
Not withstanding the hernia I get from carrying them to the
house, or the three acres of rainforest timber it took to
print them, holiday catalogs provide a never-ending
opportunity to look at stuff I don’t want to buy.
Unfortunately, when I do finally decide what I want to buy
for those on my holiday shopping list, I find the one
catalog I need mysteriously absent from the 6-foot stack.
Fortunately, a new service at Google makes hunting through
catalogs to find the perfect gift for yourself or others an
absolute breeze.
Log on to http://catalogs.google.com/ and test out Google’s
latest offering in an attempt to organize all information on
the planet.
At the time of this writing, Google’s database of catalogs
boasts over 6,000 catalogs covering everything from golf to
music to footwear.
The index allows you to browse catalog content either by
entering keywords in a search box, or choosing categories in
their directory-style listings.
If you want the latest L.L. Bean or Harry and David catalog
(or any other), you can perform a search for a specific
catalog by name.
If Google doesn’t carry a specific catalog, you can click
the “Help Google Add More Catalogs” link on the main page of
the catalogs directory to suggest they take a look at it.
I personally think Google is very serious about developing
this service because they do something here I’ve never seen
them do before: they provide a physical mailing address and
invite you to actually “snail mail” them a catalog you want
added.
I decided to put the service to the ultimate test by
searching for what, at least for me, represents the ultimate
catalog purchase from 2003: the singing trout (a.k.a. the
“Boogie Bass”)!
If they could find that honey of a holiday gift, the service
gets my seal of approval.
Of course, in a nanosecond, Google found it in multiple
catalogs along with such holiday gems as the “singing fish”
and the “TV Caddy.”
On a serious note, a search for “Ford F250 accessories”
yielded some very helpful information on catalogs where I
can get parts and goodies for my truck.
So, this service goes way beyond searching catalogs with
only the “As Seen On TV” gadgets, and gets into some serious
niche product information.
Back before the Internet, search engines, and online
research, catalogs actually represented an inexpensive way
for vendors to publish product information targeting a niche
audience.
It makes perfect sense that the Web’s largest search engine
should start cataloging catalogs and combine print
publications with online search.
The only drawback to Google’s new catalog browser is that
you can’t circle the items you really want (writing on your
monitor tends to damage it) and then strategically leave the
catalog where Santa (or your wife) can conveniently find it
and catch a clue as to your greatest wish.
But, you can always send Santa a web link to the items on
your list!
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> Money-Making Ezine Articles
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Video Bytes From The Web
Jim Edwards here with an article (below) that relates to the
3,000 mile trip I took this week…
As you read this article today (Thursday), I’ll most likely
be teaching the “Website Video Secrets” Workshop that Mike
Stewart and I are doing in Los Angeles.
www.WebsiteVideoSecrets.com
If you learn nothing else from me this year… learn this:
online video is now HERE and it’s a real FACTOR in online
business.
Why do I say this?
Several facts:
~ The recent release of the video iPod (which makes
downloading video easy for non-techies);
~ The continued growth of Google Video (which means streaming video
and bandwidth costs virtually nothing);
~ The release of Flash 8 and the widespread acceptance of
FLV video;
~ and about a dozen other factors!
Bottom Line: 2006 is the year online video explodes!
Feel free to share this article on your blog, on your
website, in your autoresponder, or in your newsletter (see
simple reprint instructions at the end).
To your success,
Jim
PS – If you haven’t already registered, there are still some
seats available for the FRE.E tele-conference next Tuesday
where I’ll grill Alex Mandossian for his “tele-seminar
secrets”… how virtually anyone can make money sitting on
your butt, at home, talking on the phone!
Claim Your Seat Here:
=> http://www.JimInterviews.com/sell-from-your-seat.html
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Video Bytes From The Web
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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** Handheld Video **
Apple Computers recently announced the addition of a small
video screen to its new iPod, the perennial favorite
portable MP3 music player.
Apple’s announcement comes as no surprise to many “expert”
market watchers, but their stock did go up about 10% within
days of the announcement.
Though certainly not the first handheld video player on the
market, it carries the power of Apple’s iTunes distribution
channel behind it.
That means instead of getting a video player and then
searching for content to play on it, users of the new video
iPod can easily download and play their favorite videos, TV
shows and more from the already hugely popular iTunes
service.
For information marketers and small business owners, this
means a whole new world just opened up for video content
distribution.
Home video enthusiasts will also benefit because of the ease
with which you can now share high quality video with friends
and family.
The iPod plays not only Apple’s proprietary QuickTime video
format, but the newer Mpeg 4 video format which offers a
much higher compression rate (and smaller video file sizes)
than previous formats.
Though others partially paved the way, the age of handheld
video finally arrived.
** Video Title Gem **
I recently found a piece of software that just plain rates
“cool” when it comes to creating title screens and sequences
for your digital videos.
With just a few mouse clicks it enables you to create title
sequences that look like you spent hours in development
time, instead of less than 10 minutes!
Log on to www.blufftitler.us for free examples of what the
software can do, along with a free trial download.
You can also view a 20 minute tutorial on how to use the
software (a video quick-start guide) at www.mediablitzed.com
Once you complete your title sequence, you can save it in a
number of different formats which you then import into your
digital video editor for inclusion in your finished movie.
** Google Video Maturing **
Several months ago I reported that Google launched a video
service at http://Video.Google.com where they solicited
users to upload their video content.
At the time, with the exception of local and national news
content, very few actual videos showed up for playing
online.
After a recent check of the service, the lack of videos
certainly reversed itself.
Though not overflowing with video content, the Google Video
service does carry a significant number of videos now and a
search under your main keyword topic should produce at least
a couple of related videos.
Since the search engine can’t actually search the content of
a video or audio file, the one drawback to the system stems
from that fact that the search engine must decide what
represents a “relevant” search from text that accompanies
the video.
This text typically ranges from just a few words to an
entire transcript of the video.
As such, a search for “employment tips” results in video
from the Employment & Career Channel along with the Long
Beach City Council hearings on development impacts on
employment.
However, once Google gets the search aspect of video ironed
out, watch for this service to explode in popularity.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> Money-Making Ezine Articles
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your
ezine, blog, autoresponder, or on your site so long as you
leave all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.
Feel free to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.
Earn up to 50% on every purchaser you refer!
Affiliate details are available here:
http://www.ebookfire.com
If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.
© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC
My BIG Prediction For 2006
In fact, I predict this will be THE BIGGEST THING that shapes the direction of the ENTIRE Internet next year when it comes to marketing ANYthing (including on eBay).
Do you know WHAT it is?
Do you know WHY I say it’s going to happen? (It has to do with Google, Cisco Systems, Apple and "Welcome Back Kotter" re-runs!)
Get the full story in FULL MOTION VIDEO right now…