Note: This page has been singled out for an update. Microsoft Office is now available for a monthly fee instead of a purchase. Microsoft Live! office tools are now in operation and offer free online (limited function) creation and editing of Microsoft Office documents. Google Docs has also become more powerful since this page was composed. While we research these alternatives please feel free to Google them.
Microsoft Office.
As CRTs the Department doesn't supply us with a laptop with Microsoft Office on it. A laptop alone can be hard enough for a CRT to afford, let alone another $400-$800 worth of software. This can make it really hard to make use of any resources that we are handed by full time teachers. Even the presenters at our PDs often don't even think about the fact that we don't get this stuff like full-timers and we get a wonderfully generous amount of PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents that are all but useless to us unless we can get access to a computer at the school.
Microsoft Office.
As CRTs the Department doesn't supply us with a laptop with Microsoft Office on it. A laptop alone can be hard enough for a CRT to afford, let alone another $400-$800 worth of software. This can make it really hard to make use of any resources that we are handed by full time teachers. Even the presenters at our PDs often don't even think about the fact that we don't get this stuff like full-timers and we get a wonderfully generous amount of PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents that are all but useless to us unless we can get access to a computer at the school.
How do you take these documents and use them if you don't have Microsoft Office? We have a couple of solutions for you.
First
off, you can buy Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office Home and Student
will only cost you about $210 when bought from a chain store with some
buying power. This gives you Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and
OneNote which is all a CRT normally needs. Most new laptops come with a
trial version of Microsoft Office installed and it is cheaper again to
activate the already installed office with a Microsoft Home and
Student Product Keycard at about $170. Product Keycards are simply a
card with a product key just like you get from a boxed version. The
difference is that you don't get the box, the booklets and the
installation disc. Home and Student is normally for personal use only
but all Educational users may use it, not just "students". This
includes school Faculty and Staff and, after querying Microsoft, this
includes CRTs.
OpenOffice.org.
There
is another solution if $170-$210 is still out of your price range,
and a free solution at that! We have done some research for you about
the various Microsoft Office alternatives there are out there.
OpenOffice.org
is an open-source (free) Office Suite capable of reading and editing
Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. It is one of the few
free office suites offering the power of Microsoft Office components
that has a British English dictionary. This is NOT a trial version of
commercial software with an expiry date or limited functionality, it is
the world's leading free productivity suite. It is fully functional and
offers word processing, spreadsheet, drawing, database and presentation
software.
You
can download OpenOffice.org using the following link. This is a 150
megabyte file and we understand that because of data allowances and
download speed issues it may be unrealistic for some people. Please
feel free to email us and we'll see if we can arrange a way for you to
avoid the download!
Another
program called Java is required to run OpenOffice.org, and of course
being Australians we need the right dictionary so the spellchecker works
correctly for us. This installer package includes Java and the British
English dictionary so it's a "one step" process.
OpenOffice.org is
not the same as Microsoft Office and it does take a little bit to learn
a new way of doing some things but it's been designed to make it easy
to make the transition as easy as possible. In the end you'll find it
an excellent addition to your personal resources if you simply can't
afford Microsoft products!
Skydrive.
The
last option is also free and is attached to the Hotmail service from
Microsoft. It is called Skydrive and is an online document service. On
this page we will deal only with the Office online "apps" although
Skydrive is a very powerful free tool for educators and students.
Skydrive is a free service which allows the creation and editing of certain Microsoft Office document types online. These are Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. To be able to edit an existing document of these types, simply upload it to your Skydrive and open it in your web browser. The most interesting inclusion for CRTs is PowerPoint which is not included in Microsoft Office Home and Student package.
These are not the full-feature and lack the power of the commercial products but they are solid enough for everyday uses requiring these programs.
One of the benefits of course is that the documents are created online. No matter where you go or what computer you use, as long as you have the internet you can work on your documents or download them to a new computer. You can also provide links to them in emails instead of including documents as attachments etc.
Skydrive is an excellent "on the go" solution provided you have access to the internet.
You get Skydrive by signing up for Microsoft's free Hotmail service which you can do here.
Google Docs is Google's version of Skydrive with a similar range of features. Of course we recommend Skydrive instead because of it's use of Microsoft Office products ensuring compatability with all of your documents.
You can sign up for Google Docs here.
Skydrive.
Skydrive is a free service which allows the creation and editing of certain Microsoft Office document types online. These are Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. To be able to edit an existing document of these types, simply upload it to your Skydrive and open it in your web browser. The most interesting inclusion for CRTs is PowerPoint which is not included in Microsoft Office Home and Student package.
These are not the full-feature and lack the power of the commercial products but they are solid enough for everyday uses requiring these programs.
One of the benefits of course is that the documents are created online. No matter where you go or what computer you use, as long as you have the internet you can work on your documents or download them to a new computer. You can also provide links to them in emails instead of including documents as attachments etc.
Skydrive is an excellent "on the go" solution provided you have access to the internet.
You get Skydrive by signing up for Microsoft's free Hotmail service which you can do here.
Google Docs.
Google Docs is Google's version of Skydrive with a similar range of features. Of course we recommend Skydrive instead because of it's use of Microsoft Office products ensuring compatability with all of your documents.
You can sign up for Google Docs here.
Best of luck from the Wodonga CRT Support Network!
