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Getting your PC up to scratch doesn't have to break the bank - in fact it needn't cost you a penny!

Free office software

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1) Open Office

If you need a word processor and the ability to create spreadsheets and presentations, a free alternative to Microsoft Office is Open Office. This offers all of the above plus drawing and mathematical tools and a database manipulation facility.

This works on linux as well as Macs and Windows.

2) Google

Alternatively, if hard disk space is at a premium, Google Docs is a free, online-only software package comprising word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form applications.

It accepts most popular file formats - meaning you can open and amend existing files - and also allows multiple users to collaborate online on the same document, which means no more sending and resending email attachments.

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Tips on this task (8)

  • hzplj9
    Love rating 2
    hzplj9 said

    Go to www.gimp.org for a free photo editing program. Does what most people need without buying 'Photoshop'

    GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It

    is a freely distributed program for such tasks

    as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

    It has many capabilities. It

    can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching

    program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image

    renderer, an image format converter, etc.

    GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be

    augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The

    advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to

    the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

    GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX

    platforms. But basically the same code also runs on

    MS Windows and

    Mac OS X.

    Report on 15 November 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • philippasutton
    Love rating 7
    philippasutton said

    An additional point about OpenOffice is that its file formats are compatible with Microsoft Office - so if you have to share files with people who use MS Office, then - at any rate for Excel and Word - you can just save or open documents from them. (Note: I'm not sure that this is the case with Office 2007 formats - but you can get free conversion utilities from Microsoft, which will put them in 2003 formats.)

    Report on 26 November 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • Mike10613
    Love rating 414
    Mike10613 said

    Windows Live messenger is free and that gives you 25 Gb of online space to share photographs and documents either publicly or with friends. Photobucket and imageshack give you free space for hosting your photographs and that can save space on a small website. If your ISP gives you free web space, you can link it to an image hosting site and have a personal website with photographs without running out of space too quickly. Google also give away free web space and you can put adsense advertising on and make some money. http://sites.Google.com . You can also get a Googlemail account for several for free. that is otherwise known as Gmail; but called Googlemail in the uK and Germany because of a dispute over the name. NVU is a free ware web design program that is handy if you're using web space provided by your ISP. Get that from http://www.nvu.com . You don't need a web design program with the sites Google provide. An adsense account and Gmail accounts are a good idea though. 

    Report on 07 December 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • dom6620
    Love rating 0
    dom6620 said

    hi people

    hi people

    here are some programs i find useful paint.net , ccleaner,ttsreader

    paint.net :does what it says on the tin .

    ccleaner :cleans your computer of old files and a lot more .

    and

    ttsreader :reads and pauses documents and makes them into mp3 so you

    can listen to long documents on the move are in the back ground when

    you are doing something else.it is very good for proof reading

    documents too.

    happy xmas everyone

    Report on 29 December 2009  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • ShazzaG
    Love rating 2
    ShazzaG said

    Auslogic disk defrag is great too (free) and so is revo uninstaller (free) thats great for removing programmes and all the directories that come with them entirely.

    Report on 03 January 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • tacamo
    Love rating 0
    tacamo said

    Lotus Symphony from IBM is also worth considering as a freebie :

    http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home

    Report on 26 January 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • BeBob Esq
    Love rating 0
    BeBob Esq said

    You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download.

    Their software also don't need to run on Java or .NET, like so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small and efficient.

    You may try these links:

    http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm

    or

    http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuiteexcalibur.htm

    or

    http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm

    Report on 31 January 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love
  • apb123
    Love rating 3
    apb123 said

    Buy a mac

    They are much cheaper in the long run. The software is mainly included for free, no antivirus hassles/costs etc, you'll save time because they work well and rarely break down (none of that spending a weekend trying to get windows to work!). Also my mac is 5 years old and still going strong and you would never get that with a PC which generally people upgrade every couple of years.

    Report on 18 April 2010  |  Love thisLove  0 love

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