Free

A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

By terry Leave a Comment

Recently, one of my subscribers wanted to know about a free program to let him fill in PDF forms.

I made a quick check and realized that the free PDF reader Foxit Reader would do this. While Foxit Reader also has a Pro Pack available to add additional functions, the free version does almost everything that most users need.

More importantly, it does it without the baggage of Adobe Reader and its huge memory requirement, the huge delays in starting up (unless you let Adobe Reader preload and take up a bunch of your memory all the time, and its automatic updating, which caused me problems.

I’ve been using Foxit Reader for a couple years, off and on, but now it’s my main program for reading PDF files.

Before responding to the subscriber, I checked the Foxit website and found that I was using a version that was several iterations old. I had v2.0 installed, while the current version is v2.3. Needless to say, I downloaded Foxit Reader 2.3 and installed it. I also realized this was a good time to write about Foxit Reader.

Continue reading A Look at Foxit Reader | Foxit Reader Review

Filed Under: Free, Other, Software, Specials, Storage, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Vista, Windows XP

OpenOffice to the Rescue

By terry Leave a Comment

Subscriber Helen wrote about a software problem:

Terry, while my computer was being worked on I was told I had word pad but needed the code to be able to open it. Can you help me open it in order that I might be able to use it. I do not like notepad which I am able to open. Helen

I responded to Helen, hoping to clarify the problem.

The computer repair person probably told her that she had Word installed, meaning Microsoft Word, rather than saying Wordpad. Wordpad is included in Windows at no extra cost.

Continue reading OpenOffice to the Rescue

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Filed Under: Free, Office, Office Suites, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

Wikipedia – the Free Online Encyclopedia Edited by You

By terry Leave a Comment

What is Wikipedia? It’s the free encyclopedia. More interestingly, it’s a free online encyclopedia that is edited by its readers.

You may have already heard the name “wiki”, which is the name for a type of web site that is created by its visitors. Many wikis allow anonymous editing, at least to some extent.

More wiki’s require users to create accounts before giving them creation or editing permissions. Others restrict editing capabilities to authorized users, but use wiki software because of its ease of content creation and handling.

Continue reading Wikipedia – the Free Online Encyclopedia Edited by You

Filed Under: Free, Other, Terry's Computer Tips, Web Sites

Google Earth – A View from Space

By terry 1 Comment

In the Using Google Maps article, we saw how we could find a location on the maps. Then, we saw that we could see a satellite view and even a hybrid view with the map superimposed over the satellite view. We could zoom, too.

Google has another neat satellite-view program. This one is Google Earth, which is free and is part of the free Google Pack software package.

There’s not much I can say about Google Earth. That’s because I don’t know where to start…

Let’s try some bullet points:

* You start in space, looking at the Earth. You can turn the Earth with the pointers, or by dragging it, or by double-clicking on a spot.
* Double-clicking on a spot on the globe makes you fly to it — the globe turns, smoothly scrolling the display. Your double-clicked spot is now in the center.
* Double-clicking on the spot again zooms closer. But, it’s easier to control zooming with the scroll button on the mouse.

Continue reading Google Earth – A View from Space

Filed Under: Free, Other, Software, Terry's Computer Tips

Why I Recommend Firefox…

By terry Leave a Comment

I guess it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten on the Firefox versus Internet Explorer subject in my newsletter. For a while last year, I beat it to death…

But, recently, in responding to a reader’s question, I mentioned that I recommended Firefox over IE for web browsing. His response was “You Do?”

The reason that I recommend Firefox over Internet Explorer boils down to security while web surfing.

First, there’s the ActiveX issue.

ActiveX is a proprietary Microsoft technology that allows a web site to download a program to your computer via Internet Explorer � and to automatically run that program.

While Microsoft uses the innocuous term “ActiveX Control” for the program, you need to understand that this is a full-fledged program that can do anything on your computer — just like any other program can.

Unlike Java and JavaScript, ActiveX doesn’t run with any special security controls. That’s why people like Trend Micro can provide their marvelous online anti-virus scanner HouseCall to get rid of viruses. Windows doesn’t block their “ActiveX Control” from being able to work properly.

Unfortunately, the adware and spyware guys love this same feature — and use it to easily install adware, spyware, or usually “downloaders” (special programs that do nothing but download and install the programs that their masters wish you to run) onto your computer.

Before Windows XP Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer would blithely accept any ActiveX control that a web site wanted to give you.

Continue reading Why I Recommend Firefox…

Filed Under: Firefox, Free, Security, Software, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Web Browsers, Windows XP

OpenOffice 2 – the free office suite

By terry Leave a Comment

OpenOffice.org is a free software office suite, available from the website of the same name. Most people just shorten the name to “OpenOffice,” but the “.org” is really part of the software’s name.

But, a lot of people like to drop the “.org” and refer to the free suite as OpenOffice.

Why is that part of the name? Good question.

Why should I use it? Because you can!

Filed Under: Free, Office, Office Suites, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability

Picasa the Free Photo Editor and Organizer from Google

By terry Leave a Comment

The Picasa photo editor and organizer will surprise you with its unique interface and its amazing power. With Picasa, you can easily edit photos with basic fixes, as well as adding any of 12 lighting and color effects. You can organize your photos, write captions on them, and even order prints.

One way you can make more dramatic images, especially if you’re moving from a high-pixel photo to the much lower resolution of a web page, is to crop you photo to get only “the important stuff”. The reason I specify a high-resolution image for starting is that, if you want to print it later or expand it to be a Windows “desktop” background.

Picasa is extremely intuitive and, I found, a pleasure to use � especially when compared to most of the graphics editing progams available today.

Read more in my article Picasa � the Free Photo Editor and Organizer from Google and download the free Google Pack which includes Picasa from there.

Filed Under: Free, graphics, images, photos, Software, Storage, Terry's Computer Tips, Usability, Windows XP