Free substitute for Microsoft Office - OpenOffice.org

Hi Staff;

Many of you, like myself, do not have Microsoft Office on your home computer.  Many of your students are the same way. 

You can download and install a FREE (and legal) substitute for Microsoft Office called OpenOffice.org. 

It's a rather large download, but better than spending 200 bucks, in my opinion. 

You can open MS Office documents with OpenOffice.org, and you can also use OpenOffice.org to create documents and save them in a Microsoft format.

Here's a 3 minute video showing you how:

Wrap Text around an image in MS Word 2007

Word 2007 has some neat options for inserting images, clip art, or shapes into the text. This video will show you how to do that, and even wrap your text around them.

Office 2007 – How to change the default font size

Hi Staff;


Here's a short 1-1/2 minute video showing how you can change the default font size in Microsoft Office 2007.


Your default font will probably be Calibri size 11. Most of the world has a size 10 font by default, and probably in Arial font. If that doesn't bother you, no change is needed.


 

By the way, I wrote this blog post right from Word 2007. For a reminder on how to do that, click here:



http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us/jumcfarland/2009/05/01/how-to-blog-from-word-2007/

Here's the video:

How to Blog from Word 2007

Hi Folks, I just stumbled upon this gem a little while ago. You can write your blog post from Word 2007 and publish it WITHOUT even opening up a web page.

 

In fact, I wrote this current blog post right from Word, and sent it straight to my blog.

 

Most of us are MUCH more comfortable writing documents in MS Word than we are on our blog, so this makes it much easier to display that message, in less time.

 

Here's a quick 3 minute video to help you get set up.

 

Office 2007 for beginners

Here are some newbie tips for operating Office 2007

Backup your documents (school related)

Hi Staff;

 

Here's another reminder of how to backup your documents from your hard drive.  This is a MUST before summer break, especially if you are getting new computers.

You may want to create different folders within your M Drive naming the original source of your documents, such as

• My Documents


• Desktop


• Internet Favorites


• 
  

  Email Archive

  
  

DO NOT "DRAG AND DROP" THE "My Documents" FOLDER FROM YOUR DESKTOP TO YOUR DISK DRIVE.  This only creates a SHORTCUT to that folder.  You must go INSIDE the folder and actually grab the contents of the My Documents folder and copy those.

 

How to make a ScreenCast from your monitor

Are you having a difficult time explaining how to install a certain program to your friends, just by describing what it should look like?

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It's like teaching my parents how to write an email.... over the phone.  This is why all of the Tech Support jobs are going overseas, is because they have more patience than us.

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Why not show them exactly how you are doing it, right on your screen?

(No, we are not condoning this type of support with the School Techs....our job is to meet with you face to face.)

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I've also added a page to my blog called LIVE Support:

http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us/jumcfarland/live-support/

I can be contacted via any method, and we can hop on right there and show you how to do something.

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NOTE:  These extra programs aren't really "supported" by the Tech Service Department, meaning it won't be a priority of ours to set this up for you.  This is just a little fun accessory you can try out sometime.  But this is not part of the "School Tech" duty.

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This could be used by School Techs if there's just no better way.  I actually had in mind the "Techie Teachers" in each school that wanted to show a procedure to their peers, without having the time to schedule the lab for a quick meeting.

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Here's a 5 minute video showing you the FREE method of setting this up.

(Webertube may be undergoing some maintenance at this time)