Technology is great (when it works) and it’s even better when it’s FREE!! Here are five great ways to get the most out of your computer and save BIG MONEY at the same time.
Software can be expensive, especially for ministries on a budget. Wouldn't it be great if there were free alternatives to many of the programs that most of us use every day on our computers? Here's our list of some of the most useful programs we've ran across in a while.
- Skip Microsoft Office AND Adobe Acrobat. WHAT??!?! Doesn’t everyone use it? Yes. But there is a great alternative to Microsoft Office’s strangle hold on the office suite market. It’s OpenOffice.org (www.OpenOffice.org ). OpenOffice.org is a free office suite that includes a word processor (like MS Word), spread sheet program (like MS Excel), presentation program (like MS PowerPoint), a database program and a drawing program and can save files in PDF format. It is available on Windows, OS X, Linux and more.
Your Cost: FREE
Your Savings: Office: $399-$499 new, $239-$329 upgrade, Adobe Acrobat: $299/Standard, $449/Professional
- Protect Yourself. Hackers lurk everywhere on the Internet, waiting for an "in" into your personal and financial information. You need a firewall. Firewalls are simply software (or hardware) that restricts access to and from your computer unless you want allow it and personal editions can cost $40-$60. But, you can download and install Zone Labs firewall called Zone Alarm basic for FREE! Go to www.ZoneLabs.com , then click on Home/Office products then scroll to the bottom right of the page. Available for Windows.
Your Cost: FREE
Your savings: $40-$60
- Protect Against Viruses (viri?). Millions of people are still installing anti-virus software from McAfee or Norton when their is a great and free version (for personal use) alternative. Grisoft is giving away a personal version of their anti-virus software that protects your computer as well as the big guys, is easier to install, use and maintain. Download it from free.GriSoft.com Available for Windows
and Linux
Your Cost: FREE
Your Savings: Contents of your entire hard drive
- Find, Organize, and Share Your Photos. Digital photos are great but keeping track of them and finding them is a challenge. That is unless you use Picasa. Google, being the generous people they are, are giving away an full featured program that allows you to maintain all of your photos and share them with everyone you know. Get it at: http://picasa.google.com Available for Windows and Linux.
Your Cost: FREE
Your Savings: Your sanity, and oh yea, and about $50.
- Edit Videos Online. You know that when you can record video on a cell phone, video is everywhere. Now you can edit it online for, you guessed it, free! Check out Jumpcut.com . Register, upload, edit and share. You're ready to go. Will this replace Final Cut? No. But if you need some quick editing for your personal home videos, here you go! Most platforms, most browsers.
Your Cost: FREE
Your Savings: $99
Okay, if you've dumped your other programs and installed the above programs, we've saved you nearly $1,000. See, who's got your back? You pals at MinistryWarehouse.com
Got more ideas? Share them on our message boards.
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