Back to School Tools
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Open Source/Freeware, Software |
It’s hard to believe but the summer’s almost over and next week it’s back to school for most students. There are staples that make a PC useful for a student and there are some cool software packages that make learning easier and more enjoyable.
Projects require research and historically that meant encyclopedias among other things. Today there are a plethora of online encyclopedias including encyclopedia.com and wikipedia.org. Wikipedia has taken a bit of a beating recently with content being falsified but the old stalwarts like Britannica and Columbia are all online. A Google search for the keyword “encyclopedias” is a great place to start.
On the subject of research and at the risk of digressing, the latest build of Google Earth 4.2 (http://earth.google.com) released August 21, 2007 is definitely worth a look. The Wikipedia description of Google Earth reads: “Google Earth is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole, Inc. It maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS
3D globe.”
The newest version of Google Earth includes Sky which takes Google from the ambitious mission of mapping the Earth in an easy to use software package to mapping the entire universe. But Google Earth is more than just a mapping and planetarium application, with a large number of add-on KML files available, you can do anything from monitoring global warming to following in the footsteps of Bob Marley.
Regardless, the main staple in producing a project or paper is of course Microsoft Office simply because it is the most familiar office suite out there. The basic versions of Office include a Word Processor (Word) and a Spreadsheet (Excel). In most cases the Student & Home Edition would be the best buy at around $180.00. The Student & Home Edition includes PowerPoint, a presentation package, as well as Word and Excel.
If you are buying a new computer you can also opt for Microsoft Office Basic which includes Outlook (email, calendar, tasks, etc.) rather than PowerPoint. Office Basic cannot be bought off the shelf however, and must be purchased with a new PC.
A free and very capable alternative to Microsoft Office is OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org). OpenOffice.org 2.2.1 – the most current version – includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation software, drawing software, and a mathematical equation editor. Don’t let the price tag fool you, this is full featured software and the term “you get what you pay for” just doesn’t apply to it.
Once a project is completed it needs to be submitted. Often that means printing a hard copy and submitting it to a teacher or instructor. Sometimes it makes sense however to submit a project by email or by another electronic means. Often the best bet in that case is to write the project to Adobe PDF format. PDF files can be opened on practically any computer even if the program the original document was made with is unavailable.
The standard for creating PDF files is Adobe Acrobat which starts at $299 US. There are lower cost alternatives however ranging from free – PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com) and CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com) are excellent examples – to more robust but low cost packages like DeskPDF (http://www.docudesk.com) and CutePDF Professional (http://www.cutepdf.com).
And once the marks come in and the accolades for such incredible work subside, you’ll surely want to backup your work for posterity’s sake. A great way to backup this type of data is with rewriteable CDs or DVDs or if you want to be sure your masterpiece won’t be overwritten, to CDR or DVDR. I find Nero (http://www.nero.com) to be about the best software around for the purpose.
Happy studying!
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