Free Office Software article discussion

Former_MSE_Becca

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I have now added LibreOffice to the article, replacing OpenOffice:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/free-office-software#libreoffice

Please keep the suggestions coming in :j

MSE Becca

RussJK

Media Player Classic: Home Cinema:
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

Where VLC plays anything, MPC: HC is more likely to play it quickly.

It was the player of choice for netbook owners trying to view HD 720p content, as it was one of the few with hardware acceleration and gave some control over renderers and codecs. VLC have since developed their own experimental hardware acceleration which returned it to being my primary player, but MPC: HC is still faster.

pc10pc

a good, free alternative to autodesk's autoCAD and autoCADLT is draftsight by dassault systemes.
opens and creates .dwg files and I find it a good replacement for LT

blueskyabove

Mozilla Thunderbird: as an alternative email client/programme to Outlook (with the Lightning add-on for the calendar function). Very good and easy to set up.

7Zip: as an open source alternative to WinZip. Handles all sorts of zipped up files and is very quick and reliable.

Freemake: open source video converter with other functions. Excellent interface and simple to use. Much easier to use than Handbrake.

Freemind: open source mind mapping software. Been around a long time and works well. Good for planning complex tasks and/or developing ideas.

Eraser: open source software for securely erasing confidential data from your hard drive/USB stick etc.

Primo PDF: Excellent free software for producing PDF files from almost any software - it acts like an extra printer. There is a paid version but you don't need it to get the basic pdf functionality

ASAP Utilities: Use as a plug-in to Excel to add a huge number of automated procesess and functions which save time and effort.

OpenProj: Open source project management software which works and looks very much like Microsoft Project

Recuva: Software for recovering deleted and lost files. From the same people who do CCleaner.

Revo Uninstaller: Free version: very good at properly uninstalling software which the Windows uninstallation process does not always do.

Everything: A tiny and incredibly quick tool which rapidly indexes your hard disc(s) and can almost instantly help you find anything you have saved, wherever it is.

mr_fishbulb

RussJK wrote: »

Media Player Classic: Home Cinema:
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

Where VLC plays anything, MPC: HC is more likely to play it quickly.

It was the player of choice for netbook owners trying to view HD 720p content, as it was one of the few with hardware acceleration and gave some control over renderers and codecs. VLC have since developed their own experimental hardware acceleration which returned it to being my primary player, but MPC: HC is still faster.

I've ended up with loads of media players on my machine. I have VLC and MPC (not the home cinema version) but the one I use most frequently is KMPlayer - http://kmplayer.en.softonic.com/

The video looks best on my 24" monitor and there are so many config options. Probably a bit overwhelming for the casual viewer though.

mr_fishbulb

blueskyabove wrote: »

Freemind: open source mind mapping software. Been around a long time and works well. Good for planning complex tasks and/or developing ideas.

I've used this and actually prefer XMind (also free) - http://www.xmind.net/

You have some good apps on that list.

blueskyabove

Try Concrete 5 for producing a web site.

RussJK

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

I've ended up with loads of media players on my machine. I have VLC and MPC (not the home cinema version) but the one I use most frequently is KMPlayer.

I'll have to give it a go!

janaltus

A friend of mine has used IBM's Lotus SmartSuite for many many years but finds it no longer works on his Windows 7 PC and with his current hardware. I did some research to see if we could partition his hard drive and stick Ubuntu and some acceptable software on it instead. Whilst doing so I came across IBM Lotus Symphony http://www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home. It claims to be a suite of applications for creating, editing, and sharing text, spreadsheet, presentations and other documents, and is currently distributed as freeware.

I don't know if Smartsuite databases work with Symphony. In fact, I have no knowledge or experience of this software at all, which apparently works on Windows, Macs and Linux, so I make no claims myself. But I'd be interested to read any reviews, preferably before I suggest my friend tries it on his PC!

Jai_M

Amongst alot of other free software...

Vlc - mainly for flash vids (*.flv's)
GOMplayer - for video's
WinAmp - for audio

Ace Mega Codecs Pack - i'd say it plays 95% of video's i use (comes with media player classic)

Programmers Notepad (free replacement of notepad, allows tab'd windows.

For CMS (Joomla, concrete , blogs and the like) try opensourcecms.com (try the 'programs' before you install them)

Windows explorer replacement - (2xExplorer) - 2 panels, great for drag and drop, and the 'find' is faster than windows.

And then of course, there is the free version of visual basic from microsoft, if you want to create your own applications

The 'tool' I tend to use, more than any other, and usually on other peoples pc's is MALWARE Bytes. Although the full version is not 100% free, the free version does run a malware scan and has a removal process. Coupled with Spybot S&D and AVG free, it's recovered so many pc's from the dark side.

A free virus tool (online) is trendmicro's housecall.

A Free screen recorder, for making youtube screencasts, BB flashback express. Needs email registration after 30 days, and still free for basic version.

Browsers: Opera/firefox. Opera (mobile/mini) also on my phones.

Online FM radio stations try : radiosure. It erm, allows stream recording too, enuff said.

Bittorrent : bitcomet - version 0.60 though, after that too many ad's on it.

re: lotusnotes, i've not used it. however if you still have an XP(or alike) install cd, you could always use something like virtualbox to run XP inside windows 7 with the non working software.