MOMETEK's Guide: Microsoft

Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Windows 10 - Pros

My last post onWindows was about the installation. I'm sure that everyone would like to know the pros and cons of Windows 10. This blog covers the Pros. I'll be doing the Cons in my next post.

Windows 10 - Installation

By Microsoft Corporation [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

So, I'm back, and what better way to start off again, than to do a few posts on Windows 10. There's a lot to cover, so there will be several posts, including installation.

About a month ago, I reserved my free copy of Windows 10. Since I already had Windows 8.1, I figured there was no harm, well other than a few bugs here and there.

I'm normally not an "early adopter". Somewhere between Windows 95 and XP I had decided to just get the latest when I purchase a new computer. Since I had kids, I found that I was more inclined to spend money on food for them, rather than on software to replace what already worked just fine.

Not to mention the time involved on devising work-a-rounds for the inevitable bugs that happen with new software.

It was just easier to wait a year when all of the early adopters have called attention to the bugs, where Microsoft would then finally send a service pack or update that took care of the problems.

Granted, I would get the new computer pre-slowed with the new patches, but at least it was stable.

So getting the upgrade so soon, for all intents and purposes, is something new to me. I figured that since I already have Windows 8.1 pre-installed, why not?

It was easy... Maybe a little too easy.

If you've seen me complain on Facebook, it is usually about the flaky internet, which is why I was attempting to schedule the update for a time that I can be at the Library. The library's internet was a bit slower, but much more stable. I hadn't backed up my files and I knew that if the internet flaked out, I would be in serious trouble.

So, while I was waiting on clothes to dry at the Laundry room by the clubhouse, I went through the scheduling steps. So far, so good, and self-explanatory.

As soon as I was ready to click on schedule, which was right next to the "update now" button, Michala walked in to ask me for something. I don't recall what happened but as I turned, I must have bumped the wireless mouse as I clicked on the laptop mouse to continue.

No ~~idiot~~ confirmation dialogue box.

Let's face it, we've all (at least once) installed or deleted something that we shouldn't have. We all have had our idiot moments, and I had mine when I installed Windows 10.

Things started to shut down and I realized what I did. I immediately moved my laptop closer to the window to make sure it had a better connection and prayed that it would not crash.

It didn't crash fortunately and the install was pretty straightforward. Some things did have to be reinstalled, but my files were not effected.

If you choose to install Windows 10, make sure you back up your files, just in case AND make sure you have a stable internet connection. I "lucked out".

Monday, January 27, 2014

Free Publishing Software

I typically use Microsoft Publishing ever since my husband was able to acquire Microsoft Office for only $10 from his old job, but it won't be long when it's so out of date that the latest Windows won't run it.

I'm not quite sure if Office 2010 will work with Windows 8 and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. So lately, I had been checking out some alternatives. LibreOffice is similar to OpenOffice, except it runs much faster and it's a pretty decent substitute as it's much easier to install both in Linux and Windows.

Neither have a decent publishing app.

A few weeks ago, I had been setting up my new memory stick with portableaaps and I came across the portable version of Scribus.

Typically, I have a bias towards free software, but Scribus is a distant substitute for MS publishing. I decided to try to make myself a basic business card, and I still haven't been able to change the text color. Granted, it may be there, staring me in the face, but would it have killed them to put a color option in the right-click menu? You know, right click > color then a dialog appears with the color wheel.

I don't expect Scribus to be exactly like Microsoft office, but there's a lot of people who need software like this who don't have the time to read an entire manual just to change the text color. And I don't need a complete college course on typography just to design a simple business card.

That said, it does seem to have a lot of potential. When I get the chance, I can learn it and it's probably a very useful program.

If you are interested, you can check it out here at scribus.net

I've added the link to my Free Software page.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Blog Promotion with Zemanta

Image via CrunchBase

My experience with Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ had been awful when it comes to getting shares or even hits. I think it’s partly luck as my post gets pushed down by a wave of cute kitten memes, political rants, and timewasting, but very interesting videos. It’s also partly because I don’t feel comfortable spamming people with links to my blog.

I had better luck with a plugin called “Zemanta”. It inserts a sidebar that allows you to quickly find images for your blog as well as articles that are related. When you click on the articles, sometimes, you get clicked-back. Almost all of my comments came from these links.

I had stopped using Zemanta as it is a bit flakey with Windows Live Writer (WLW). WLW is something I use when I want to blog offline. I can’t get to blogger when I’m in the car and there’s no free wi-fi around. When I get home, I usually would connect to the internet, allow Zemanta to load, add all of the extras, then publish it to my blog.

At one point, WLW started to crash before I could type anything, so I finally just turned off the plugin. Sure enough, my legitimate hits went down.

A couple of days ago, I tried Zemanta again on live writer and found that it worked – somewhat. It seems that when WLW cannot connect to the internet, which happens frequently, it crashes.

That said, I manage to get a few more posts up using Zemanta (mostly on my newer blog) and sure enough, my legitimate clicks went up again.

Even if I have to edit my blog later in blogger online to include Zemanta content, I will continue using it.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

An Impressive Free HTML WYSIWYG editor

English: M in blue square (similar to seen on ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft surprises me again. Since I do web design as a hobby (at the moment), I am constantly on the lookout for legitimate freebies (as in, not “pirated” software). Enter Microsoft Expression Web 4 and Microsoft Expression design 4.

Expression Design 4 is a basic vector graphics editor. I typically use SWiSHmax as it does export to PNG but ED4 does have some interesting features. Because I haven’t use it much except to make a logo for my husband’s website, I don’t have much to say about it, except that it’s free and seems easy to use. Maybe I’ll be able to get into more depth in another post.

I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s comparable to Dreamweaver, but it is the best free WYSIWYG out there so far and unlike FrontPage or Word (both from Microsoft that can do webpages) it doesn’t add useless code.
It’s also not that difficult to learn as I figured it out pretty quickly without looking anything up or checking the help files. I did have get a little confused when adding styles to objects. The odd thing is, you right click on the CSS properties box on the left-hand side, and create a style, but then, the right-click no longer works and you have to click on “New style” on the right to create a new style.

It wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your HTML and CSS as there were a few times I gave up on using the design mode and switched to code, but it does have an instant code feature. Just start typing and the list of tags, objects, or properties show up.

Overall, it’s an impressive freebie and I would recommend it for the not-so-beginner web designer. If you want to learn HTML and/or CSS, you might want to check out W3Schools.com.
.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Free Microsoft Office Stuff?

Windows Live SkyDrive (Photo credit: 阿國)

My mother's computer is old and probably could not handle Microsoft Word 2010, which is unfortunate, since some of the writing contests that she really wants to enter require a Microsoft Word compatible document. OpenOffice is a great program, but sometimes converting it to MS Word does not work out so well.

So, I decided to look into SkyDrive, again.

The last time I was on SkyDrive, I could not edit my documents online. So I had decided just to use it as a backup drive only. Handy, as I know full well what happens when you don't have a backup. I was fortunate enough that my husband had bought an adapter for laptop hard drives, allowing me to move my documents to the desktop. So when I heard of "SkyDrive" from Microsoft and how at the very least, OneNote can synchronize with the drive, I was elated.

I've switch computers twice since then (once from a netbook to the desktop, then from the desktop to my new laptop) and it was nice that I didn't not have to worry about my office documents.

After I had the discussion with my mother, I thought about trying SkyDrive again because I heard that they added new features that allow you to not only view your documents, but to edit them. I was not disappointed.

Now, you can create (or edit) a Word document, Excel workbook, PowerPoint presentation, One Note (my favorite), and an excel survey. The web version is missing some features, but for basic Word documents (such as typing up the next American Novel) or a paper that's due tomorrow.

For the purpose of the blog, I did a "test" word document and just typed up a paragraph. I was surprised on the fact that the look and feel was similar to Word 2010, it didn't lag at all, in spite of the fact that I have a lot of background programs running. Typically, I have to shut a few down to go onto Facebook.

I haven't used it enough to give a decent review, but I thought it was good enough to mention now as I do know there are plenty of people who cannot afford to shell out $100 for Microsoft Office, especially, in this economy. You will be hearing from me on SkyDrive again.

Related Articles

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Free! From... Microsoft?

Microsoft has changed. When I was growing up, getting anything free from Microsoft was as fictitious as Santa bringing in free gifts. Well, almost. One of them is real (explain that to your kids).

Recently, I had downloaded free "Live Essentials" and I was impressed by the quality of the programs. The old adage "you get what you paid for" is no longer true. I've already blogged about Windows Live Writer which I switch back and forth with Scribefire - depending on my mood. Live Writer is pretty decent as it supports many blog formats including Blogger and Wordpress, two of the most popular blogging sites. Unfortunately, (and this is the real reason why I switch), Live Writer does not support Tumbr or Posterous.

Recently, as I was hunting for a better free, web design software, I came across this gem from microsoft: Visual Web Developer It's a bit over the top for just making templates (as in templates for modx) but if you are interested in starting a whole new website from scratch, this would be an excellent product for you to try it. So far, I'm impressed. It has so many features that I haven't discovered yet. I don't think I will be using it much, yet, as it's a bit over the top for what I need.

As a matter of fact, I'll probably stick to Kompozer - which, by the way, was aquired by Mozilla. How much do you want a bet that we will finally start seeing some improvements? They've already improved their website.

Another little know WYSIWYG editor is Amaya. Amaya is made by w3.org which sets the standards for website design. If you are within their standards, then the majority of your audience can view your website the way you intend them to view it.

The problem with Amaya and Kompozer is that it's difficult to be "cutting edge" Both don't support HTML5 tags, but you can always put the tags in anyway. It just won't show up in the preview.
I have a page with some freebies for you to check out. These are all programs that I have used and like. It's here: http://mometek.blogspot.com/p/free-software.html.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Free Stuff: Windows Live Writer

I decided to try out Windows Live writer, since it does work with blogger. Perhaps I won’t have to load my browser to use Scribefire – which, by the way, is excellent for blogging, except you do have to load your browser, which means that if you have a lot of plugins (as I always do), it may take a while to load.

Posting directly from blogger isn’t so bad either, but once again, you still have to wait for the browser to load.
Writer on the other hand is free for Windows user and you have to at least have XP service pack 2 according to their website. This is good, you don’t have to pay for an upgrade to Win Vista or 7 to get it. You can download the whole package here, or you can download just the writer here.

So far, it’s been pretty easy. Setting up is a no-brainer. When you first load live writer, it asks you for your blog username and password. Then you just have to wait.

Now you are set to go. Not only is it easy to set up, but you can manage multiple blogs. So far I have this blog and my WordPress Blog set up. Yes, I finally set up a WordPress blog just to see how Writer handles it. Haven’t gotten around to it yet. As a matter of fact, I haven’t tested many features at all. I just wanted to see how quickly I can get a blog post up.

So there you have it. If nothing else at all, you can at least post from Writer very quickly and easily – and of course, it’s FREE.

I'm still testing Windows Live Writer so in the near future, I may come back to this topic.