Ben is trying to setup a small office and would like options to expensive software. He asks: “I can’t afford to purchase expensive software titles and would like to know what my options are?” Well Ben, you’re in luck. There are many options to software titles like Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Illustrator; to name a few.
One of my personal favorites is Open Office. Open Office is a completely free suite of professional utilities which are perfectly compatible with Microsoft’s Office. Of great importance to you is Open Office will read and write MS Office documents. I have never run up against a Microsoft document it can’t open. Open Office contains a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation software, graphics and database applications.
I personally use PDF Writer and a little program called PDF995 for turning text documents into PDF documents which can be read using Adobe Acrobat. The nice thing about PDF files is they can’t be manipulated after they’re written. If you’re going to be e-mailing proposals to clients I suggest turning them into PDF’s prior to sending them.
Another personal favorite is DriveImage XML which is disk drive backup software. Once your computer is setup the way you want it’s a good idea to make a carbon copy of the drive periodically. Backup scheduling is a subject which I talk about a lot. In any event, I use DriveImage to make backups of my hard drive in the event of a catastrophic failure. I can be up and running within a couple hours – not days.
By getting out of the mindset that brand name software titles are the best solution you could save your company almost $500.00 per computer. Freeware and open source titles offer similar functionality for free. Anyone who knows me also knows that I rely on free and open source titles for my business. I have found limitations, but nothing that I can’t work around. Good luck with your new business.
Evelyn has a question about high speed internet: “My husband and I are taking a trip by RV and want to know how to take our internet with us.” Evelyn, you mentioned owning a laptop computer in your e-mail. Making it totally wireless is quite easy.
I suggest contacting the company you use for your cellular phone and finding out the plans available to you. Depending on the company, you should be able to subscribe for $40.00 to $60.00 per month for coast-to-coast service. Many of my customers prefer the convenience of cellular broadband and have completely cancelled their wired providers.
Setting up cellular broadband on your computer is relatively easy. Once signed up you are given a USB device which attaches to the laptop. Contained on the USB gadget is all the software necessary to install the device. Internet connectivity is completely automatic and connection should happen as soon as the software starts. As long as your signal is adequate to receive service; you will have an internet connection.
It is my understanding that broadband cards are billed separate from cellular service. Because of this I would suggest shopping around for price. You should be leery of plans which offer low cost service with a per minute or per hour charge. Definitely seek a plan which offers an all-inclusive monthly rate.
Tech-Tip of the week: Don’t click on internet advertisements. A recent study states that one out of 250 internet advertisements is infected with garbage.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can e-mail him at Jeromy@LocalComputerWiz.com or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)