OpenOffice: The good, bad, and the great – A...

Special guest post by Bri Castellini When I got my first laptop, for my sixteenth birthday three and a half years ago, I needed a word processor. Because I got a MacBook, Microsoft Word didn’t really make a lot of sense (plus, it’s super expensive!), and so my dad HelpMeRick helped (hah) me make the switch to a free, open source word processor. I started out with a program called AbiWord, but the formatting was...

How to fix a row or column in any spreadsheet R...

I don’t use spreadsheets too often, but I do help folks learn how to use them somewhat frequently. Many long-time spreadsheet users overlook this simple technique to fix a row(s) and/or column(s). Why would you want to fix a row or column? The video demonstrates the why behind this tip quite well, but by learning to fix a row or column, you can scroll through a long spreadsheet without losing track of the row or column...

Yet another reason to ditch Microsoft Office for w...

This news story has flown mostly under the radar of most computer users for weeks. In a nutshell, it’s a patent infringement suit brought upon Microsoft by a Canadian company called i4i. The suit alleges that Microsoft knowingly used proprietary technologies in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007. Last week, a judge in Texas, ruled in favor of i4i and ordered Microsoft to remove Microsoft Word from being sold and fined them...

2 laptop suggestions for college students

Millions of high schoolers will be graduating soon and will be leaving for their respective campuses (campii?) at the end of the summer. These students will more than likely go to college with a computer…probably a laptop. I would like to suggest two possible laptops ideas for these students. Both of my ideas involve good systems that will allow college kids to word process, chat, email, listen to music, watch...

Windows 7 – First Impressions

I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any...

What is Open Source?

Open Source software began soon after computers became main stream in offices and then homes. In a nut shell, Open Source refers to software developed under a set standard of rules that developers agree upon to make the software freely available, no penalties for copying or sharing the programs (in fact, it is encouraged to share the software), the source code (programming) must be made available to anyone, and the software...

Adobe Reader 9 update – DON’T DO IT!

Adobe released version 9 of their PDF (Portable Document Format) Reader program. Once the king and almost sole PDF reader on the market, it, like so many other mainstream programs, has become bloated beyond recognition. This software bloat slows down the performance of even the fastest computers, and for this reason, I firmly stand against software bloat. I added Adobe Reader to my do not use list almost two years ago....

“If it is free, it must not be any good.R...

This statement was uttered by an imbecile. A customer of mine told me last week that he heard this quote from a tech person from some company after a discussion of AVG Free. The week before this customer’s computer was almost crippling slow primarily because it had one of the newer versions of Norton Internet Security installed. After taking Norton off the system (approximately 20-25 minutes to do so) and adding AVG,...

Microsoft Office function without the MS price ...

This is the first of what we hope to be many Macintosh video tips here at HelpMeRick.com. We posted a similar tip to this one a few months back for Windows and Ubuntu users, but this one applies to Mac users only. In this tip, I describe to you how you can use the free NeoOffice product from neooffice.org to seamlessly create Microsoft Office compatible documents. Of course, the software also allows Mac users to open any...

Print Envelopes with One Click – Video Tip

Using Microsoft Word and a little customizing of the Word toolbar, this tip will get you printing envelopes easily. If you write business letters with the recipient’s address in the body of the message, Word will pick up the address and insert it into your envelope when you use the envelope tool. Click on the Tools menu and then Envelopes and Labels. From there, you can print your envelope and set your default return...

OpenOffice Tip for Ubuntu, Mac & Windows User...

With Microsoft putting out less-and-less usable software and better-and-better options becoming available online, there is no reason to shell out hard earned money for Microsoft Office. If you aren’t quite ready to move your data and applications online (search our site for Web 2.0), then OpenOffice.org’s free office software is a wonderful option. If you are an Open Office user or plan on becoming one, you still...

Ubuntu – Day 14 – Final Report

  I can’t believe it has been two weeks already that I’ve used Ubuntu Linux exclusively. If I had to sum up the experience in one word, that word would be “satisfying.” And my regular readers/listeners know that I can’t sum anything up in one word, so I will use this format to provide a complete synopsis of my Ubuntu thoughts. Minimum Requirements Ubuntu and its derivatives can run...

Ubuntu – Day 11

We are continuing to have problems with sending the newsletter out since our web host changed what they allow us to do. Rest assured we are working diligently to find a good solution for everyone. Remember that in the interim, we post the newsletter here on the site and you can read or print it from here. Please accept our apologies while we work on this problem. I’m using the Ubuntu version of OpenOffice to work with...

Converting FIleMaker Pro database files to OpenOff...

For Susan in Alaska, here are some forums dealing with converting FileMaker Pro databases to OpenOffice Base format that you can use in any operating system including Ubuntu:   Filemaker Pro to Base? File Maker Pro Database to Open Office Database Filemaker Pro to Base? Filemaker Pro database – access from OO? ...

Opening WordPerfect documents in OpenOffice

One of today's callers was having problems getting WordPerfect documents to open in the OpenOffice Writer word processor. The best thing to try is: Have the most current version of OpenOffice installed Start OpenOffice Writer Click File –> Open Change the file type to WordPerfect, then find and double-click the document Here are some resources for more information on opening WordPerfect docs in...