Practical Free Alternatives to Commercial Software

Description

Get all the things done you're used to doing with pricey software at a fraction of the cost. There are hundreds of free programs out there that work just as well as the commercial programs people pay hundreds of dollars for. This book tells you how to find and use the most popular and useful of these. The Open Source movement is a system where programmers can share code and collectively improve programs.  As a result they can produce programs that are just as good, if not better than their commercial alternatives.  For example, LibreOffice comes with a database, Microsoft Office does not.   This book shows you where to get and how to use the best Open Source programs giving you not only access to high quality software, but saving you money as well. Add Practical Free Alternatives to Commercial Software to your library today. What You'll Learn Use the free spreadsheet program Libreoffice-calc to balance your checkbook, do an expense account, and other tasksPerform presentations with Libreoffice-impress instead of PowerpointPhoto edit with The Gimp, a high powered image editorEdit videos with OpenshotCreate video DVDs with DVDStylerWho This Book Is For Home or small business PC users who want to save money on software Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Web Browsing with Firefox (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 1-26 Front Matter ....Pages 27-28 Getting Started with LibreOffice Writer (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 29-50 Writing Business Letters with LibreOffice Writer (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 51-63 Writing a Report with LibreOffice Writer (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 65-87 Working with Spreadsheets in LibreOffice Calc (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 89-117 Creating Presentations with LibreOffice Impress (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 119-138 Using LibreOffice Base for Database Management (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 139-164 Front Matter ....Pages 165-165 Getting Started with GIMP (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 167-186 Drawing with Inkscape (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 187-219 Using Dia Diagram Editor (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 221-246 Using GnuCash (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 247-273 Editing Audio with Audacity (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 275-301 Editing Videos with OpenShot (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 303-332 Creating DVDs with DVDStyler (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 333-344 Front Matter ....Pages 345-346 Using Gmail (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 347-357 Using Google Docs (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 359-373 Using Google Backup and Sync (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 375-388 Using Google Sheets (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 389-404 Playing Games (Steve Oualline, Grace Oualline)....Pages 405-416 Back Matter ....Pages 417-425