U3A Highvale Which Tool?

Although you could possibly do just about any carpentry job with a hammer and a saw, having and using the right tools for the job results in a much better outcome. It is the same in computing. So which tools (applications or programs) should I use?

Notes: To make a quick note where formatting is not important it is easier and quicker to use a text editor program such as Notepad (WindowsOS), TextEdit (MacOS) or Notes (iOS). These programs only offer very basic text formatting but are quick to load and their saved files are small. “Notes” is also available on MacOS and a note made within Notes on one device (Computer) can be made available automatically on another device (iPhone, iPad). Writing a document: When creating a fully fledged document, such as a report, a multipage letter to a friend or a formal letter to an organisation, it is best to use a such as , (MacOS, iOS) or one of the many other word processors. MSWord is the most common word processor but can be expensive and complicated to use. There are cheaper alternatives such as “TextMaker” or “Writer” from LibreOffice. Calculating numbers: Many times we wish to produce a document that contains calculations, such as when keeping a budget. In these cases a Spread Sheet is the right tool to use. MSExcel is the most common and available on most operating systems but Apple offers Numbers and LibreOffice has Calc. Presenting facts figures and diagrams. Again, Microsoft offers the most used piece of software for presentations, namely PowerPoint. Apple has Keynote on both iOS and MacOS. These programs can be used to give professional presentations or to simply set up and run a slide show of your holiday snaps. Office packages: The above three categories of software, word processor, spread sheet and presentation, are usually bundled into an Office Package. This is best known as MS Office (Windows, MacOS, iOS, etc) but LibreOffice contains these three too with the added benefit of being FREE and somewhat easier to use. In recent times online versions of programs within an Office package have become available. These use a web browser to offer the capabilities of a word processor, spread sheet and presentation program. Google Office has Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms and Microsoft also offers online versions through Office365. Apple has iWork for iCloud as their online versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Be aware though that the online versions usually store your documents online where the likes of Google will scan your documents to better create a personal profile of you. Publishing: Unlike a word processor that is great for writing a lot of words with the occasional image included, desktop publishers enable greater manipulation of text and images to create booklets, pamphlets, cards, etc. Apple Pages has both word processor and desktop publisher modes, unlike MS Word. MS Publisher used to be readily available but was never a great package. Adobe InDesign is the ‘industry reference’ but expensive, whereas Scribus is FREE.

Reading email: Although many people use a web browser to read email online, a better option is to use an email program which will enable you to store, create and read emails when offline. Microsoft Outlook was originally designed for use in a business context with a special mail server (Exchange Server) but today Outlook is also the name of their online email offering. Apple offers Mail, both for MacOS and iOS, and the Mozilla Foundation offers the FREE Thunderbird email client. Looking at webpages: As we already know, webpages are looked at through a web browser with the common ones being Chrome (Google), Firefox (Mozillla), Safari (Apple) and Edge (Microsoft). Internet Explorer is no longer maintained by Microsoft and should not be used any more (if ever). Other browsers can offer differing ‘bells & whistles” such as Opera and TOR, which offers total untraceability and privacy. Searching for information on the Web: Google originated as a search engine company, allowing people to search for and find information on the World Wide Web. Thus “Google It” became the term used for searching for web information. But others are available such as Yahoo, Bing and for total privacy – DuckDuckGo. Photo management and editing: Apple is best known for making software easy to use and Photos, included for free with MacOS, is no exception. It allows you to organise photos into folders and perform basic modifications to exposure, colour balance and cropping amongst others. Microsoft offer Photo Editor for free download from their online store. Adobe is the leader in photo editing with Photoshop but they also offer the free Adobe Bridge software for more basic photo management. There are also a number of online photo editors such as Pixlr.com and canva.com. Once you have a collection of photos you may wish to create a photo album and here there are a number of online services such as Snapfish, Canva, and Kmart Photo Centres. Apple also produce photo albums from your Photos collection. Video production: iMovie comes standard with MacOS and iOS to make great movies out of raw camera video, but there are a number of other video production programs such as Lightworks and Filmora. For more professional results, at a price, there is Adobe Lightroom. Image production: Adobe Photoshop is not just a photo editor but can also be used to artistically create images. GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop and used by many professionals too.

PDFs: Although most, if not all, word processors have the ability to save documents in pdf format, they are unable to edit a pdf document. The pdf format was created by Adobe and they are still the standard, through Adobe Acrobat. There are many pdf editors on the web with a wide range of capabilities and prices. To simply read a pdf document, use the free Adobe Reader program.