Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: Atheling on January 24, 2015, 05:19:42 AM
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Hi,
I've recently been very kindly sent some very interesting files containing Colonial rules that I mean to use but my new laptop does not have Microsoft Word/Office nor Excel on it! Microsoft seem very keen for me to pay for these per annum which I think is a complete rip off.
And a good photo editing programme too!
Does anyone out there know of any alternatives that will accept the files?
Cheers,
Darrell.
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Some free alternatives:
http://www.techradar.com/au/news/software/applications/best-free-microsoft-office-alternatives-5-suites-to-save-you-money-1139295
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/
I've used OpenOffice a few years ago, they're completely fine once you get used to them (as much change from one version of Windows/Office to another I guess).
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Some free alternatives:
http://www.techradar.com/au/news/software/applications/best-free-microsoft-office-alternatives-5-suites-to-save-you-money-1139295
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/
I've used OpenOffice a few years ago, they're completely fine once you get used to them (as much change from one version of Windows/Office to another I guess).
Thanks, very useful indeed 8).
Darrell.
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I'm having a bit of trouble getting my head around all of this! o_o o_o
Is there anyway I could transfer OpenOffice from my old Laptop to my new one safely?
Darrell.
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I'm having a bit of trouble getting my head around all of this! o_o o_o
Is there anyway I could transfer OpenOffice from my old Laptop to my new one safely?
Darrell.
I would suggest you get a fresh download of the latest version and install it anew. Simply "copying" installed programs, especially of this complexity simply does not work due to the way the software "anchors" itself to your operating system.
I support Open Office wholeheartedly. A very good program with pretty much everything the casual user will ever need, and I heard they ironed out most of the file format kinks, too. Installation is pretty straightforward, as well.
Another option - Microsoft used to offer free "reader" versions of their office programs, i.e a small program that lets you display and print the respective files. These lack editing functions, and it's been some years since I last saw them.
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Have you tried emailing the files to someone who could then save them as a PDF file instead of a word file for you. Then you could view them easily. Also check online for "word to PDF" file changers. There are a few out there that you could use easily. They aren't perfect but they do a good enough job. neither of these options might work depending on what the file looks like though but still could be an option.
Edit:
Another option is, if you have a gmail account, uploading the files to google drive which will then change the format for you to one you can view online and then print if necessary.
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Have you tried emailing the files to someone who could then save them as a PDF file instead of a word file for you. Then you could view them easily. Also check online for "word to PDF" file changers. There are a few out there that you could use easily. They aren't perfect but they do a good enough job. neither of these options might work depending on what the file looks like though but still could be an option.
That seems like a long way around the problem. I'd need to have access to the files straight away when needed really.
Darrell.
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I was meaning they could email you the pdf back which you could view at your leisure. Still that's not a "now" fix though. :)
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Are you needing to write on the files as well?
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Are you needing to write on the files as well?
Yes. :)
Darrell.
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The latest openoffice version seems to be here
its a case of getting used to slightly different icons etc,still you have used it already so..
https://www.openoffice.org/why/index.html
If its a case of tranfering word or other format documents to/from your old machine also - do they not both have a usb port for connecting external storage (usb drive - smart phone or something) then just copy on to that - take it over to new machine - plugin and copy accordingly?
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Darrell,
It's quite simply actually but perhaps we're muddying the waters here.
Download Open Office on you new laptop.
Install.
You can't (usually) just copy programs, they have to be installed.
Copy all the files you want from your old laptop, complete with their directories onto a USB stick/ external drive/CD.
Added bonus is immediate backup of those files :)
Then copy those files on your new laptop. Done.
For file management I'd recommend the ( free) Total Commander.
Willie
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Darrell,
It's quite simply actually but perhaps we're muddying the waters here.
Download Open Office on you new laptop.
Install.
You can't (usually) just copy programs, they have to be installed.
Copy all the files you want from your old laptop, complete with their directories onto a USB stick/ external drive/CD.
Added bonus is immediate backup of those files :)
Then copy those files on your new laptop. Done.
For file management I'd recommend the ( free) Total Commander.
Willie
Thanks Willie. I'll do just that. 8)
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And a good photo editing programme too!
Wow, who would have thought setting up one of these newfangled machines would have been so complicated?
Darrell.
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Photoshop is the industry standard for both professionals and regular folk. Pricy though. Used to be they had a cheap cut-down version called "Elements", but I don't know if that's still a thing or not. There's others, but most do one or two things better than PS at the cost of doing everything else a bit less.
The king of the free software realm (on laptops/desktops, that is) is GIMP:
http://www.gimp.org/
It's a bit clunkier than Photoshop, but almost as capable. Biggest downside IMO is some little bits here and there don't work properly outside of the Linux version (the usual GNU/Linux passive-aggressive dev syndrome).
If you've got a smart phone or tablet there's a kabillion apps either for free or for chump change, some of which are quite good. They're usually specialized to one specific task or another, but it's easy to grab 'em by the handful, so if you have the hardware, this is actually the best option for an amateur these days IMO. I was given an iPad mini for Christmas, and I'm quickly finding that having a handful of photo apps on that is waaaaaaayyyyy simpler and more comfortable than using GIMP on my desktop.
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It's actually Photoshop Elements that I'm having the compatibility issues with.
I've downloaded Picassa just for now. I'll certainly be seeing to it that I get something less basic very soon.
Darrell.
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Personally I use
Paint.net
for photomanipulations.
Its free which is nice!
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I quite like paint.net. It allows you to layer images which is always great and has some good tools. Great for a free program
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follow bobs advice its exactly what I would have said too.
So, just to recap, paint.net allows you to re-size the pics?
Darrell.
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So,
Did Open Office work out for you? I had a good experience with Open Office. I had an old laptop that was getting buggy so I switched to Linux and open Office (formerly Windows and MSOffice). Worked great for a while, but it turned out it was bad hardware and not bad software as I had assumed and the whole computer died a couple months later. Still, I highly recommend Open Office as an alternative to Microsoft. I even recommend Linux as a fine operating system (even for computer simpleton folks like me) if all you need to do is basic office type functions and web surfing. If you want gaming and other programs, stick with windows or Apple.
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So, just to recap, paint.net allows you to re-size the pics?
Darrell.
Yes, it does that
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So,
Did Open Office work out for you? I had a good experience with Open Office. I had an old laptop that was getting buggy so I switched to Linux and open Office (formerly Windows and MSOffice). Worked great for a while, but it turned out it was bad hardware and not bad software as I had assumed and the whole computer died a couple months later. Still, I highly recommend Open Office as an alternative to Microsoft. I even recommend Linux as a fine operating system (even for computer simpleton folks like me) if all you need to do is basic office type functions and web surfing. If you want gaming and other programs, stick with windows or Apple.
Well, to be blunt, it didn't. I downloaded it and ended up with a miriad of Trojan's in my (one month old laptop) so I had to clean it all out and start from the beginning.
I've now successfully downloaded Picassa which I'm happy with except I cannot find the function for reducing the number of pixels in a picture! If you can help with that it would be great?
I'm going to go on Martyn's Money Saver (etc) site for a link to Open Office very soon. :) do it right this time!! :)
Cheers,
Darrell.
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Count me as another happy user of OpenOffice! With 5 different windows machines running, free open source was the only way to go. The whole suite can do pretty much any of the basic functions of their respective programs; I've used the word processing extensively, and the spreadsheet program sporadically and I've been pleased with both. (I have not done any kind of advanced formulas or programming with the spreadsheet program, just adding/subtracting ranges)
https://www.openoffice.org/ is the official website, complete with free download.
As for Photo editing, Adobe LightRoom can do a host of basic, handy functions (Exposure, white balance, crop, resize, to name a few quickly) even though it is primarily a cataloging tool. It is more expensive than free, but if your photo library is out of control I found it to be worth the money. It easily takes me a quarter of the time to review and rate my photos after a game night.
Good luck!
Jevenkah
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Count me as another happy user of OpenOffice! With 5 different windows machines running, free open source was the only way to go. The whole suite can do pretty much any of the basic functions of their respective programs; I've used the word processing extensively, and the spreadsheet program sporadically and I've been pleased with both. (I have not done any kind of advanced formulas or programming with the spreadsheet program, just adding/subtracting ranges)
https://www.openoffice.org/ is the official website, complete with free download.
As for Photo editing, Adobe LightRoom can do a host of basic, handy functions (Exposure, white balance, crop, resize, to name a few quickly) even though it is primarily a cataloging tool. It is more expensive than free, but if your photo library is out of control I found it to be worth the money. It easily takes me a quarter of the time to review and rate my photos after a game night.
Thanks for the direct link 8).
You know, I do feel kind of dumb when it comes to being savvy about technology... I always seem one step behind (phones etc) and i've never really understood PC's/Laptops o_o o_o o_o.
I think I need to pull my finger out as now with Windows *.1 it's all Apps etc!! o_o o_o o_o o_o o_o
Darrell.
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If resizing is all you need, MSPaint is all you need. I know I talked about other stuff earlier, but that was before I knew how simple your needs were.
Just as a heads up: OpenOffice is is on life support right now dev-wise, and may not have a future. Well, technically OpenOffice proper has been dead since 2011, and what you get from openoffice.org is actually Apache OpenOffice, which is a sort of quasi-fork, which is currently stalled/flagging.
LibreOffice is the most up-to-date and well supported fork (to the point where it's the default option bundled with major Linux distros now). Support, updates, and dev team is healthier with LO than with AOO, and a chunk of the LO dev team is made up of ex-OO/AOO devs.
https://www.libreoffice.org/
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If resizing is all you need, MSPaint is all you need. I know I talked about other stuff earlier, but that was before I knew how simple your needs were.
Thanks but I'm used to using Photoshop so resizing is one thing but I use a whole host of others.
Darrell.
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Just wanted to clarify. I think it was actually Libreoffice that I used as well. I was running it on some version of Mint, though I don't recall which.
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Just wanted to clarify. I think it was actually Libreoffice that I used as well. I was running it on some version of Mint, though I don't recall which.
I don't have a scooby about Mint or what it is?
Darrell.
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Mint is a linux distribution - an alternative operating system to windows, I can add more but you don't need it right now.
You already have an operating system on your machine - so currently its probably a level of complication you don't want.
Just work through what your doing, keep to the direct links to software you want to try/use and you will gradually learn and get what you need.
openoffice is fine, libreoffice is newer and still actively developed, but Either will do what you want on the system you have.
Places like
http://sourceforge.net/
can be useful for finding open source software for any operating system including windows variations. Some of its good, some not, but you can see from peoples comments, the number of downloads etc how good/bad something is and whether its useful to you.
Keep on going as you are, its all good stuff to learn :)
things like gimp, paint.net etc can feel complicated at first, but its more just learning how to use them than anything, they will do what you tell them to do :)
Theres lots of documentation to when your googlefoo is working & plenty of people on here that can drop the odd hint to it seems.
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Thanks- really informative- and appreciated 8).
Darrell.