Posts Tagged ‘free’

Here are some tools to give thanks for!

How To Say That Name:  For those visitor cards with names you don’t know how to pronounce, run them through this website for some help.

Stinto Disposal Chat:  Want a quick way to chat with a few folks online but don’t want to sign up or download anything?  Use Stinto – set up a chat room very easily, send out the url, chat, and then walk way.

DialMyCalls:  Want to send out multiple voicemails at once as part of a phone tree?  The free service has a maximum of 25 users.  It’s smart enough to wait for voicemail to pick up before recording the message.

Tatango:  Instead of mass voicemails, how about mass text messages?  This free (but ad-supported) service will allow you to disseminate information quickly.

Found a post titled “15 Useful Project Management Management Tools” over at Smashing Magazine.  Among the list are tools that range from easy to use to some that are rather complicated.

I would recommend scanning the list to see if there is software that would either help your personal planning, staff/committee planning, or planning for the entire church.

Found an excellent guide to how Google Docs work.  Their advantage lies in that documents are stored online rather than your computer.  There is no software to download and it is free.  Welcome to “Cloud Computing”, where the web is the “Cloud”.

Even if you don’t plan on using Google Docs (or don’t want to) it’s a quick read to learn more about the future of the web.

Stereotypical So What?: Google Docs can save time and money while increasing mobility.  Additionally, multiple users can access a document, thus allowing potential for collaboration.  Whether it’s just for you or for a committee, Google Docs can make church life easier.

With budgets tightening, software purchases can be burdensome.  Especially Microsoft software.

Enter OpenOffice.  I’ve used 2.0 for several years and it’s fantastic.  It’s a full suite that rivals the Microsoft Office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, presenter, etc.  Oh yeah, it’s free.  Gotta love open-source software.

The interface is a combination of Office 2000 and 2003, which makes transition easier unlike the new interface of 2007.

The best thing about OpenOffice is that it can open and save Microsoft documents.  In other words, you can both open .doc files and save .doc files.

One of my more favorite features is the ability to save documents as a .PDF.  Score!  You can save even more money by not buying Adobe Acrobat.

It may not be for everyone as it does some things slightly differently than Microsoft.  However, for me the effort to best the small learning curve is totally worth the cost.  Free.

Read a review and see screenshots of 3.0, set to release possibly next week.  Or, better yet, download it and check it out.

Stereotypical So What?: With an easy to learn interface, powerful software, and compatibility with Microsoft, good stewardship compels those with tight budgets to explore OpenOffice for their office productivity needs.