Don't Spend a Dime: The Path to Low-Cost Computing Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't Spend a Dime is the book I have been looking for... for a lot of us, software and updates can be a little expensive and the free stuff... well, should I trust it? How does it work? How does it compare with the leading "for sale" software? Where can I find it?
James Floyd Kelly gave answers to all those questions and more in my major areas of computer use: Office Software, email, graphics, photo editing, malware protection, and backup. He also covers quite a few more areas that I don't really use like gaming and social networking.
It is written in very readable "non-geek" language that most can understand. I recommend it to all who think "there is something wrong with free".
And, BTW, I am in no way affiliated with the author or publisher. I just happened to run across it when searching for every day low cost computer solutions. And I am glad I did.
I am a very conservative reviewer... it would have to do my laundry and self-install to get 5 stars.

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Don't Spend A Dime is responsive to, and well-suited for the domestic economic situation. The book's value proposition is devastatingly simple: For $25, you can save hundreds of dollars in software costs by learning to take advantage of zero-cost software that is freely available on the Internet. The book and its message appeal powerfully to the first-time computer buyer who may have just spent his or her budget on hardware only to find out that hardware alone is not enough.From senior citizens to students, from corporate drones to small business-people, readers of all types can benefit from the research that author James Kelly has put in to choosing the solutions described in this book. James has done the research and presents best-of-breed solutions in every common software category, from digital photo management to word processing, from blogging to social networking. Don't Spend A Dime doesn't confuse readers with choices. Instead, the book presents a clear and simple menu of software solutions that will get the job done. All the author's choices are reasonable, and readers can feel secure in following the author's straightforward and well-defended advice.Written in the comfortable, knowledgeable tone that make James Kelly's Lego NXT books the best in their category, Don't Spend A Dime is the book that will open the average person's eyes to the joys of zero-cost computing. James Kelly takes the PC and turns it from a bottomless, money-pit into a center of creativity. Don't Spend A Dime gives the power and promise of technology back to those who can least afford it, but who perhaps most need it.

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Beginning OpenOffice 3: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional) Review

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(More customer reviews)Beginning OpenOffice 3 walks the reader through using the most common features of OpenOffice, arguably one of the most powerful and complete office suite available. And best of all, it is free! Many companies and individuals are discovering it for the first time as they deal with the need to exchange files with others who are using the newest version of Microsoft Office. Given the choice of upgrading all their systems to the newest version or simply downloading OpenOffice 3, many are examining it as a viable option. OpenOffice 3 can open and edit files created with the newest version of Word and save them in a format the Microsoft Office can open and use.
This brings us to the purpose of this book. How do you find out how to use the features to achieve the results you want? One of the best things about this book is the approach the author uses. The entire book is project oriented so you learn by creating projects and solving problems in a real world scenario. The book covers all the different software components - word processing, spreadsheet, database, illustration, and presentation software. The author does an excellent job of focusing on and detailing the most common needs of a typical office. You can literally start from no knowledge of office suite software at all and learn how to become a proficient user in relatively short order.
The chapter on the word processing module starts from the very basics of opening a file or creating a new one. From there the author leads the reader through formatting, creating and using templates, paragraph styles and other common needs. Then he moves the reader through creating a newsletter, inserting graphics, word wrap, changing styles in a page and other advanced topics. This section ends with understanding how to automatically create footnotes, endnotes, table of contents and style sheets.
The section on the spreadsheet module covers creating a spreadsheet, adding formulas, linking formulas to other cells, and multiple other common tasks. In addition it covers creating charts and graphs and making them easy to understand. The chapters on the presentation and illustration programs are much shorter but the programs are much less complex by design. Presentation software needs to be able to create a slide show, change slides on a predetermined time scale, and add bulleted points and other basic actions needed to provide a solid presentation. The illustration module also is designed to create or edit items for inclusion in newsletters or other publishing needs. It is basically somewhat more powerful than paint but much less than Adobe or similar illustration packages.
The database module is covered well with enough detail to learn how to use it but not so much as to get the reader lost in multiple foreign key linking and the like. The author does a very good job of explaining the use of multiple tables and linking them for efficient database creation. He also covers the creation of input forms, queries, and reports and other functional requirements of database management.
Once you have a basic understanding of the different modules the second section of the book involves putting them all together to share content by building a web page with a database, ability to input information over the web and create queries and reports via the web browser.
The writing is concise while still being detailed enough to provide highly functional information. Using it I was able to create a complete web based database for the processing of financial information for grant requests for a local foundation. Granted I already had an extensive understanding of most of these areas but it was quick and easy to build it based on information supplied in the book.
Beginning OpenOffice 3 is highly recommended to anyone interested in learning how to use this powerful office suite.

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Downloaded over 90 million times, Open Office is a free open-source alternative to Microsoft Office and iLife that runs natively on Windows, Mac OS X and most Linux distributions. The software includes a word processor, spreadsheet application, database, presentation software, and graphics. While there are similarities to other closed-source office applications, there are always questions that arise from using new software, and this book will contain the solutions for new and current users of Open Office 3.Microsoft's forthcoming Office suite release, currently titled MS Office 2008, has been delayed yet again, so there's a real opportunity to introduce Open Office to an audience that is ready to ditch their alliance to Microsoft.

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