Do you need to get an office up and running without blowing a big hole in your budget? Then take a look at these office essential programs, all FREE, that give you plenty of high-end features, without the high-end pricetag.
Click on the logo to visit each program’s website.
The applications are:
Click on the application name to go to that section.
1) OxygenOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation program and more
2) Lightning for Mozilla Thunderbird for E-Mail Management and Calendaring
3) GIMP for Photo Enhancement
4) PrimoPDF to Create PDFs
5) GnuCash to Track Income and Expenses
6) Nvu to Create a WebSite
7) Avidemux for Video Editing
8 ) Scribus for Desktop Publishing
9) Inkscape for Image Editing
10) FaxZero for Faxing
OxygenOffice Professional is a free and open source enhancement of official OpenOffice.org. (Visit OpenOffice.org here.) The OxygenOffice Professional Team has modified the source of OpenOffice.org and bundled lot of extras with it. Here are just a few of the extras you get with OxygenOffice Professional: More than 3,400 graphics are included, both clip art and photos. These pictures are integrated into the gallery and can easily be placed into any OxygenOffice document. Several templates and sample documents are included, as well as over 90 fonts. The extras are integrated by default in the installation of OxygenOffice Professional, but they are optional, so the user can decide what parts to include and what parts to leave out. These extra templates, fonts, and graphics are free for both personal and professional use. Additional tools like OOoWikipedia, which can search the free on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, are also included. Version 3.0.1.3 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
Lightning is a free calendar add-on for Thunderbird. Or download Sunbird. It provides the same features as Lightning in a free standalone program. Get Mozilla Thunderbird here. Get Sunbird here.
GIMP is one of the most powerful general-purpose image editors around, the upgrades make the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) eminently comparable to Photoshop. Older features include channels, layers and masks, filters and effects, tabbed palettes, editable text tools, perspective clone, improved printing, and color operations such as levels. New improvements include GEGL integration for 32-bit color support, dynamic brushes, and more options for the free select tool. It even has regex-based pattern matching for power users.
Create PDF using PrimoPDF – a free tool for high-quality conversion to PDF, comprising a user-friendly interface that enables printing to PDF from virtually any Windows application. Additionally, PrimoPDF provides the ability to optimize PDF output for screen, print, ebook, and prepress, secure PDF files with 128-bit encryption, and add document information (e.g. title, author, subject, keywords) to converted PDF files. Full support for 64-bit machines, double byte character and non-TrueType font support, and improved PDF output also now available.
GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL. It uses a check-book like register GUI to enter and track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. GnuCash is designed to be simple and easy to use but still based on formal accounting principles.
GnuCash 2.2.6, a.k.a. “Stay@Home v3,” is the sixth bug fix release in a series of stable releases; it also adds support for aqbanking3 and calculation of unrealized gains/losses on liabilities in balance sheet, amoong other new features.
Read the GnuCash How-To Guide from PC Mech here.
NVU – Finally! A complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a “new view”) makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.
Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.
For occasional faxing, free is a very good price. Free faxing is what you get at FaxZero, where they will send a .DOC (Word) or PDF document anywhere in the USA for free. The fax cover page will have an ad included on it. Restrictions include a maximum of 3 pages per fax, not including the cover page, and 2 free faxes per day.
Here is an example of the cover page with ad.
You can also get free receive-only faxes from jFax here.
Also, Windows XP, as well as Vista Ultimate, Business and Enterprise versions include Fax and Send a facsimile program bundled with the operating system.
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