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3 Best Online Powerpoint Alternatives

Prasanth Chandra — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:00:59 +0000

Just imagine a situation where you need to create a presentation on an unfamiliar computer that doesn’t have PowerPoint. What would you do? Would you think of skipping that presentation? I have a good answer for these questions.

Below are some of the best alternatives for PowerPoint that would help you create the presentation you need. These are online presentation editors, which can be used on any computer with Internet.

AjaxPresents

AjaxPresents is a wonderful substitute for MS PowerPoint. AjaxPresents is a web based presentation editor which lets you view, edit, create and save Microsoft PowerPoint files. The best feature in AjaxPresents is that it enables you to save your PowerPoint slides in Open Standard Presentation files (.odp).

To use AjaxPresents, all you need is a computer with an Internet connection and Mozilla Firefox. Once you meet those requirements, you can use AjaxPresents on any computer, anytime and anywhere. Apart from this, AjaxPresents offers a wonderful file sharing feature. You can save a PowerPoint file with AjaxPresents, and you can use a link to share that particular file. It also enables others to comment, edit and save those files on their computers.

Google Docs

When we are talking about free editors, then how can we forget the popular and efficient Google Docs. Google always comes to help you whenever you are in need of any computer related help. So, whenever you are in need of a free PowerPoint editor, you can use Google Docs. Using PowerPoint editor in Google Docs is very simple. It provides you with just about the same features as MS PowerPoint.

You can create, open, share and save your PowerPoint files. To access it, all you need is a Gmail Account. It even enables you to import files from your computer. Its interface panel is so simple that it hardly takes any time to understand all the functions and features of Google Docs. Google Docs is highly recommended because of its simplicity and flexibility.

Zoho Show

Zoho Show is a very wonderful web application which offers all the features that any usual PowerPoint editor would do. The comprehensive user interface in the brand new version of Zoho Show has all the options spread on the screen. This makes it very easy to use. Zoho provides you some great shapes, symbols and fonts to help your presentation become more attractive. It also offers close control and detailing of the text and images used in your slides. You can even save these PowerPoint files on to your computer, and you can also import files to Zoho.

The best feature about Zoho is its integrated chat feature. You can chat with the collaborators of your slides, so tyou can give an online presentation. Isn’t that innovative and wonderful? So, if you are looking for new shapes and colors to style your presentation, then Zoho Show is definitely worth a try.

Do you use a PowerPoint alternative? If so, which one do you use?

By Prasanth Chandra from PCsPlace.com , a Tech Blog with Tips & Tricks, Tutorials about MS-Office, Software, Web 2.0. Catch him on Twitter @pcsbox and Facebook

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Top 5 Free Microsoft Excel Add Plugins

Prasanth Chandra — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:08 +0000

Microsoft Excel is one of the most used office applications. It has a lot of features which can be used to analyze, share, and manage your data easily. However, some features like formulas, complex menus and toolbars may make it a bit tough to use.

To make it easier to use, we can use add-ins or plugins. Excel add-ins will improve the functionality of Excel and will help you perform different operations better than before. Here are 5 Best Microsoft Excel Add-ins or plugins.

Change Units

Change Units is an unit convertor add-in for MS-Excel. It is used for providing parse able units conversion as well as conversion to and from standard metric units. It is easy to use, since it directly converts any combination of units to any other combination of units in a single step. The syntax is flexible and easy, and the interchanged values are updated instantaneously. This add-in can be freely downloaded here.

Cells Assistant

Cells Assistant for Excel is an add-in that enriches the built-in Special Cells dialog and gives easy access to other functionality of Microsoft Excel. Cells containing conditional formats, formulas, comments, values can be searched and selected with a one click on the Cells Assistant toolbar. You can save a lot of time in editing cells. This add-in can be freely downloaded at this link

Trim Spaces

The extra spaces in Excel worksheets are hard to remove manually. This add-in helps you remove leading and trailing spaces in selected cells. Using it is very easy, you just need to select a cell(s), click the “Run” button of the add-in and no excess spaces are left in your Excel worksheet. This add-in can be freely downloaded it here

Excel Utilities

This add-in is a bundle of frequently used features. These include some nifty shortcuts and selection tools. The wide variety of features available in this add-in are name box sizing, locate specific number format, and a utilities toolbar. The best feature is the one click access button which will simplify operations like Conditional Formatting, Data Validation, Goto Special, Paste Special and Define Name dialogs etc. Download it here

Ultimate Add-in

Ultimate Add-In is a collection of utilities which will allow you to create bookmarks, find duplicates, increase the number of undos (up to 100), protect multiple sheets, remove worksheet/book protection, named range manager, multiple Sum If generator, conversion tools and loads (200+) more.The below screenshot shows the different functions it can perform. Download Ultimate Add-in

If you know any other free Excel Add-ins with better features, share them through your comments.

By Prasanth Chandra, Check Out his Tech Blog PCs Place. You can find him on Twitter @pcsbox and Facebook

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How to Schedule a Meeting Using Microsoft Outlook

Prasanth Chandra — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:24 +0000

To schedule a meeting at work is not very difficult, provided it’s at your workplace. All you have to do is pick up the phone and pass on the message, right? You could also send an internal mail or message and walk up to the people for a confirmation.

But, what if you have to schedule a meeting where associates from all over the country are required to meet at a particular date? The task gets daunting, doesn’t it? People might not be available when you call them up, your message might end up in a voice-mail box, and even if you do get them, verbal communication is not considered the most effective medium.

So you fall back on your trusted e-mail client to push the message across. But then, there is more to Microsoft Outlook than just Send/Receive. There are tons of features built into this nifty utility, which can help you manage your work-related tasks.

Thankfully, there’s a way to reach out to multiple recipients and schedule meetings. You can also keep a tab on the run-up to the meeting, and make changes, either in the agenda or the timing.

How To Get There

To schedule a meeting using Microsoft Outlook,

Click on the Calendar tab.
Select the date when you want the meeting scheduled.
Right-click to open up the dialog box with options such as ‘New Appointment’, ‘New Recurring Meeting’, ‘New Meeting Request’, etc.
Click on ‘New Appointment’ and a new window will open.
In this window, you will be presented with options such as Appointment, Schedule, Reminder, etc.

Enter Names

Now, let’s get the names of people from the Address Book. Click on ‘Address Book’; this will open it up. Double-click on each of the contacts to add them to the recipient list. Click ‘OK’ once you are done. Selected contacts will be displayed beside the ‘To…’ tab. Clicking the ‘To’ tab also brings up the Address Book.

Where And Why?

Write the ‘Subject’ and ‘Location’ in their respective fields. This gives the recipients the purpose of the meeting and the location of the meeting at a glance.

What Time?

To assign the ‘Start’ and ‘End’ times for the meeting, click on the drop- down menu, or click on the Schedule’tab, and then set the time. This will reflect in the Start/End Time drop-down menu.

The agenda for the meeting can be described in detail later, while you are drafting the mail, which will get sent to everyone. But once you are through with the above settings, you don’t have to worry about the scheduled time, place, and recipients.

Hit The Send Button

When you mail this schedule to the recipients, the task will get added to their calendar. They, however, must accept the schedule. If any of the recipients declines the request, he/she will be out of the loop. You can also make this a recurring task, if the meeting takes place at regular intervals. When this is enabled, the recipient will be reminded in advance every time the meeting is due.

By Prasanth Chandra from PCs Place.com

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20 Best Free or Freemium Alternatives to Popular Paid Software Programs

LesliePoston — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:00:58 +0000

You know that Adobe and Microsoft are, if not the best, at least some of the most widely used software. Because these programs are standard, and your clients and friends use them, they are on your radar – but they cost a fortune! How can you get the job done when you are working on a shoe string budget?

There are other heavy-hitting software titles just like them out there that you can use. Today, we are going to run through the best alternatives to that expensive software everyone else uses.

Microsoft Office Alternatives

Google Docs

The first, and biggest, contender in this category is Google’s free online office suite known as Google Docs. Sharable office computing in the cloud, it includes word processing, spreadsheet functionality and presentations, as well as stat-tracking forms that integrate with spreadsheets and docs. Not quite as robust in some ways, it still is the main winner. It exports to a variety of formats, including HTML, DOC, PDF, XLS, PPT and more.

Open Office

Open Office is another contender, but one that isn’t as easy to use as Google Docs. It takes a bit of skill to get used to the interface of this open source office suite, and feedback is mixed on it as a viable alternative. Part of what you give up when you move away from proprietary software is the ability to call tech support, and better documentation and a shorter learning curve might help more people choose Open Office.

Neo Office

If you have a Mac, you might find Neo Office a better option. It is also open source, and has a few of the same integration and learning curve issues as Open Office. however, it has a bit better documentation and few more vocal users who love it and are willing to share their knowledge.

Both Open Office and Neo Office offer export to various file formats to enable use with clients or colleagues who continue to use Microsoft products. Open Office and Neo Office both have some issues handling the new DocX files from Microsoft, so you may have to ask your clients or colleagues to save “down” to the regular Doc and XLS formats.

Zoho

In the semi-free category we have up and comer Zoho. Zoho offers its solutions free to individuals, at a discount to non-profits and at a fee for businesses. It is a much more robust overall system than just Microsoft Office, and offers accounting, CRM, wiki, meeting and other solutions above and beyond an office suite.

It’s document, spreadsheet and presentation solutions are, again, not quite as robust in features as Microsoft Office but it has some winning integrations that might make it a viable replacement, and a much lower price point to enter into if you are a business on a budget, as it works on a pay as you use it model, not a huge buy every few years.

gOffice

gOffice (not to be confused with the aforementioned Google Docs) is another tool that has word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and DTP integration. It is very basic, so it may not do all that you want, but it is good in a pinch.

Adobe Creative Suite Alternatives

Aviary

Aviary is a freemium product suite that blows Adobe Creative Suite away, in my opinion, for being fun to use and easy to learn. If you haven’t played with the free beta yet, or jumped to one of the paid solution tiers, you might fall in love with it when you finally do.

It also adds another element that Adobe lacks – a collaborative, social aspect where you can build a network of designers. Aviary also introduces designers to the concept of branding and Creative Commons copyright, two things designers need to learn to integrate that Adobe offers no real education on or help with.

Seashore

Seashore is an open source alternative specific to Adobe Photoshop. It doesn’t touch on any of the vector graphics or web content offerings that the full Creative Suite handles. Even so, it’s quick to learn and has enough photo editing capability for the average casual user to embrace.

GIMP

GIMP is another standby, and one that offers nearly as many options for editing that Photoshop does. Some people consider GIMP not enough of a substitute for Photoshop, but it actually does quite a bit of the same things and is handy for photo and image manipulation and editing.

InkScape

One of the nicer Open Source answers to Adobe out there is InkScape. This open source vector graphics program goes head to head with Illustrator and does a pretty nice job competing. It gives you one of the few reliable alternative options for vector graphics that is free.

NVU

NVU is the alternative to Adobe’s Go Live and Macromedia (now Adobe’s) Dreamweaver. Not quite as complex as Go Live or Dreamweaver, NVU has a short learning curve for the average user who just wants to whip out a web page without having to shell out hundreds of dollars.

The folks at NVU have also made a companion program – Kompozer – that handles some of the features that NVU did not. Both are compatible with Linux, Windows and Mac OS.

Picasa

Another alternative from is Picasa. This image editor is designed to be a basic alternative for Photoshop, and works with the rest of the Google family of products, like Google Docs.

Adobe Acrobat Alternatives

PDFreDirect

PDFreDirect is a freemium product that lets you view, edit, create and protect PDFs. The free version offers almost all of the same functionalities as Adobe Acrobat, and the paid version is a nice complete substitute (however, for most people the free version is more than adequate for their needs). Unfortunately, this program is Windows only – sorry Mac and Linux.

PDFescape

If you have a Java Script enabled browser you can use PDFescape to read, fill out and print PDFs online. They also offer PDFtypewriter for creating and editing the PDF files using Java. a bit clunky, but if you don’t run windows or need to handle a PDF on the fly, a good solution.

PDFedit

If you like to do more manual manipulation, PDFedit may be the answer for you. This tool allows you to edit, read and script PDF files online. The ability to script may appeal to some who want more control.

XPDF

If you are a Unix user, XPDF is the tool for you. It lets you do everything from write to edit, extract images and tons more.

Skim

Skim is a tool for Mac OSX that lets you annotate and read PDFs. The notation feature can be quite handy for shared documents and collaborative uses.

PDFpen

My favorite solution for PDFs (and faxing) for the Mac is not altogether free. It does offer a free trial, and a low price point, but to get all of the cool features you may want to upgrade to the paid model. It is made by SmileOnMyMac, the people who brought us TextExpander (another favorite tool of mine) and is well worth the price as a complete replacement for both Adobe Acrobat and a fax machine.

The solution for PDF is called PDFpen (the upgraded version is PDFpen Pro) and if you add the PageSender application you can go as far as to boot your fax machine for ever, a huge cost saver. I’ve been fax and Acrobat free for quite some time thanks to having these tools on my Mac.

Conclusion

Those are just a highlight of the most popular free and low cost alternatives to some of the most expensive, but widely used, proprietary titles out there. Did i miss your favorite? Tell me in the comments.

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You Don’t Have To Be A Slave To Microsoft Office

LesliePoston — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:00:42 +0000

Microsoft has enjoyed some serious marketing success with its Microsoft Office software suite. Even though there are many other options out there, most people immediately assume they have to purchase and install the expensive, clunky software on their Mac or PC.

Luckily, you no longer have to buy and install Microsoft Office to get your work done or be compatible with other people and companies – there are now lots of reliable free and low cost options out there.

Open Source Office Solutions

The first place to turn for a Microsoft Office alternative is Open Source software. There are two main contenders here: Neo Office and Open Office. Both offer all of the feature rich options you want in an office software suite, without the cost or proprietary issues of Microsoft Office. Some users have a problem with the Open Source aspect of the software, as it does not offer the phone support and safety net of a branded package.

The wild west feeling of Open Source isn’t for everyone, but if you are not afraid to fly without a customer service net, you may love the Open Source movement. Each of the two office software suites offers compatible programs to the entire Microsoft Office suite, including a word processor, spreadsheet tool, presentation tool and more.

Online Solutions

If you don’t want to install software at all, but prefer to live life in the computing cloud of online applications, then the online-only office software solution is for you. Google Docs is perhaps the most famous of these (accessible by anyone with a GMail account), allowing you to create, maintain, edit, and share documents and spreadsheets online.

There are others in the online office software field, like Peepel, Zoho and ThinkFree, for example, which also adds some social elements to the user experience. The benefits to these are that they don’t take up valuable hard drive space, and are accessible anywhere – no need to remember that pesky external hard drive or flash drive. These solutions are ideal for people who own a MacBook Air, netbook or other devices with limited space.

Low Cost Alternatives

If you have a Mac, you are in luck with iWork. This software solution rivals and exceeds Microsoft Office, and it much more pleasant to use. Toss in the fact that it costs over $350 less than Microsoft’s software suite and you have a winner in the Mac space, complete with tech support for the people who were leery of using Open Source.

What is a non-Mac owner to do to compete? You can look for programs that handle specific functions, like WriteItNow or a specific spread sheet or presentation program, and build your own Office software suite for less money than Microsoft’s, or you can go back to the online solutions and try computing in a cloud.

Wrap Up

All of the software solutions and online solutions have one thing in common: they all do what Microsoft Office does, and they do it without breaking your bank. I left Microsoft Office a long time ago and I’ve never looked back. All of the solutions here will read Office files in Office formats like .doc and .xls, and all will save as or export to Microsoft formats as well. Once you make the switch to the alternative option of your choice, you won’t look back either, and your wallet will thank you.

Leslie Poston is a writer, social media guide and tech junkie. In addition to writing about all things tech, she conducts social media training sessions to help you bring your company into World 2.0 using social media and technology and is the founder of Uptown Uncorked.

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Learn About the Slide Master in PowerPoint 2007

Kyle Judkins — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:00:53 +0000

A few days ago, I wrote a guest post for LyteByte about using the Slide Master in PowerPoint 2007. I wanted to let all of my readers know about it, because the Slide Master is such a great tool. It allows you to edit the format of all the slides in an entire presentation from one place. If you want to learn more about it or to just check out LyteByte, follow the link below.

Take Control of PowerPoint 2007 with the Slide Master

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Use Track Changes for Group Editing in Microsoft Word 2007

Kyle Judkins — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:00:46 +0000

Track changes is one of the great features of Microsoft Word that is often overlooked or not even known about. This feature allows you to edit and change documents with the option of accepting or rejecting the edits. Group work greatly benefits from this feature, because everyone can now see the changes that are being made.

Using track changes is easy, but you must first turn them on. Go to the Review tab in Word, and you will see the track changes box. Just click the drop down menu and select Track Changes. This will turn on the changes.

Once turned on, you can edit any and all parts of the document. The great thing about track changes is you can accept them or reject them. If you decide you don’t like the changes, you can easily take them away and go back to your normal document. Here is an example of how the editing will look.

It is easy to accept or reject the changes just go to the Changes area within the Review tab. Here you can accept some of the changes or all of the changes if you trust the person doing the editing.

I hope this will make your editing a little easier in your next group project.

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How to Change the Default Program for Opening Files

Kyle Judkins — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:00:17 +0000

From time to time, you may have your defaults change either by you or some strange force. What once were you’re Word files may now only open with Notepad or Adobe, because the settings somehow randomly changed. This guide will show you how to get things back to normal and hopefully answer a few questions I got yesterday.

The first thing you want to do is locate the file you want to open. I have saved a file called Fake file in My Documents that I will use in this example. You want to Right Click on the file you want to open. Then, select Open with… from the menu.

This will open up a list of programs to choose from. You should be able to find the program you are looking for somewhere on the list, but if you can’t, you can browse for the right program. Once you have found the right program, highlight that program by clicking on it. Then, check the box at the bottom that says “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.” Now, click OK.

This should make sure that all of the files of that type will open with the selected program in the future.

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How to Quickly Sum Columns in Microsoft Excel 2007 Using AutoSum

Kyle Judkins — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:00:57 +0000

One of the great things about Microsoft Excel is the fact that there are always multiple ways to do just about everything. Today, I’m going to show you a shortcut you can use to quickly sum columns in Excel.

First, you want to make sure that your column of numbers has no blank spaces in it. The blank spaces will throw off the shortcut.

Now, click on the cell below the last number in the column.

Once this cell is highlighted, you need to click the AutoSum button on the very right side of the Home ribbon in Excel.

This will automatically put in the equation to sum the column. All you need to do now is hit enter.

The AutoSum button can also be used to automatically find the average, min, max, or count of the column of numbers. Just open up the drop down menu on the AutoSum button and pick the one you need.

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How to Change the Default Settings in Microsoft Word 2007

Kyle Judkins — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:00:36 +0000

Word 2007 has some interesting default settings to say the least, and I’m sure that I am not the only one that would like to change them. Today, I’m going to show you how to change those awful settings to something that suits you better.

First, you want to open up Word 2007, and open the font settings box by clicking on the bottom right corner of the font options part of the home tab.

Now that the font settings are up, change all of the settings to what you like and click the default button in the bottom left corner. It will ask you if you are sure, but of course you are!

Next, you will open up the paragraph settings by clicking on the bottom right of the paragraph options in the home tab.

You should have just opened the options window for paragraph. Change the settings to what you want and click the default button.

No longer do you have to change the settings every time you open Word 2007.

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