Zotero 1.5 and OpenOffice 3.0: Getting it all to Work

Software 5 Responses »
Oct 252008

Those of you who have upgrade to Zotero 1.5 (still in Beta) and/or OpenOffice 3.0 may have noticed some problems with integration. Zotero has a plugin for OpenOffice and MS Word that integrates your Bibliography with your documents, but the default plugin does not work with OpenOffice.

That problem has been fixed: download the new (patched) version from here. This new version will work with all versions of Zotero and OpenOffice. The technically-inclined can read about the details here.

This patched plugin is a temporary fix, a prelude to a fully rewritten plugin (which will be a serious upgrade) due out soon. Read the technical details about the future of OpenOffice and Zotero integration here.

Stay tuned; I’ll keep you posted!

Posted by Tommy at 10:05 am Tagged with: , , , ,

Some Extensions for OpenOffice.org

Software No Responses »
Oct 222008

Here are a handful of handy extensions for the previously mentioned OpenOffice.org, a free suite of office products similar to Microsoft Office.

Posted by Tommy at 9:04 pm Tagged with: , ,

Free Office Software: OpenOffice 3.0 Released!

Linux, Software 4 Responses »
Oct 132008

In honor of the release of OpenOffice 3.0 I thought I would make it my first post in the Don’t Pay for Software Series.

What is OpenOffice.org?

It is an office document suite, similar to (but better and free-er than) Microsoft Office or (for those of you who still use it) WordPerfect. Now don’t be nervous because it is free; there are good reasons to choose free software. It’s not free because it sucks, its free because it’s managed by a community of dedicated enthusiasts. The company that finances these enthusiasts makes money selling services and hardware, not software; the software is merely a means to an end, which means you get to have all the benefits of a professional grade office suite without all the cost.

Why OpenOffice.org?

What if you already have Microsoft Office? Are there any benefits to OpenOffice not available from the mainstream flagship office suite? I’m glad you asked. There are several. First, it’s free. Now this may not matter to you now, since you already have shelled out the money for MS Office, but what about when it comes time to upgrade? That time will come, you know, and before you know it. Then you will have to shell out that money all over again for what usually amounts to only a slight improvement over the original.

There are other advantages as well. Ever try to send a document to someone only to find they could not read it? Maybe they were not willing to pay all that money for Word, and now you have to convert it for them. This is all because Microsoft has a history of not supporting standards. That is changing, but it has not changed yet, so all your data is saved in a format that only Microsoft’s products can read. OpenOffice.org, by contrast, can read all your old MS Office files, but by default saves all of its information in “OpenDocument” formats. The code for these formats is made public, so any program can theoretically access them. Also, OpenOffice can automatically export all your documents as PDFs.

This is the main advantage that OpenOffice has over MS, but I would like to reiterate: in addition to this advantage, OpenOffice does almost everything else MS Office can do, and much of it can be done more easily!

What’s New in OpenOffice 3.0

Well, lots of things. Read about all of them here.

There are four features that I am especially excited about.

First, the new Welcome Screen. Aesthetics matter, and here MS Office has us beat hands down. But the Welcome Screen helps, and it also allows for easier document creation and template management. And with Windows at least, you also get a handy little quick-launch button in your taskbar.

Second, better document editing and commenting in Writer. This feature really helps OpenOffice compete with MS Word. Previously these features were pretty primitive, but now OpenOffice supports multiple editors (each editor gets a different color) and true comment display in the sidebar. This is really a plus in my book.

Third: a new, intuitive, and hugely important extension manager, similar to that implemented by Firefox. Extensions are were Open Source software really shines. Because the code is not secret, anybody can look at it and, if they’re good enough, improve upon it. Rather than add all these improvements into the original program, it is much easier, much faster (the powers that be have to approve any code changes to the base system), and much safer to provide those improvements through easily managed extensions. OpenOffice.org makes this process easy, with a dedicated extension manager that allows the user to easily search for, add, and remove functionality at will. My favorite extension so far is Zotero Integration, which allows you to automatically generate formatted citations and bibliographies in your documents. Another handy extension is the PDF Import Extension, which allows you to directly edit PDF files.

Finally, OpenOffice Impress (the equivalent of PowerPoint) is now ready for prime time. With dedicated table creation and other new features, this component of the suite is finally competitive. There is also a new extension available that allows you to use Impress with two screens, one for them, the other with notes and other helps specifically for your. Read about that here.

For a full review of OpenOffice.org, with some attention given to the Mac version, check out this post.

Alternatives

There are several Web based alternatives to OpenOffice. Google docs is the most obvious, but also check at the Zoho suite of products. These are both free. The best thing about these products is that they offer you access to your documents anywhere in the world. All you need is an internet connection; no software required. Also, both offer real-time collaboration, so you and a colleague can work on the same document at the same time and both see what the other is doing; all changes are saved and completely undo-able. Nice. Aside from these features, though, they are not yet as feature-rich as their desktop alternatives.

The other alternative I will mention is IBM’s Lotus Symphony. This Office Suite is based off of OpenOffice, actually, but an older version (the 1.0 series). It bundles that older version with a set of IBM tools for document management and collaboration. In general, however, I have found it less stable and feature-full than the “vanilla” OpenOffice, and it does not import Microsoft documents as accurately.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage with OpenOffice is the lack of any email/productivity manager, such as Microsoft’s Outlook. This is actually not a huge problem since Mozilla’s Thunderbird will do the job quite nicely. Add the Calendar Extension and you have everything Outlook has to offer (combine it with Gmail and Remember the Milk, and you have an always-in-sync online version as well). A full post on this is coming soon.

Conclusion

So I would suggest giving OpenOffice.org a try. You have nothing to loose. Their main page is here. Versions are available for every operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux).

Posted by Tommy at 9:00 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Beyond PowerPoint

Software, Webapps and Websites 1 Response »
Oct 072008

There are several web-based applications that allow you to create and distribute presentation documents, without the need of expensive software such as MS Office. Here is a helpful list to get you started.

Personally I use OpenOffice’s Impress. Prior to the upcoming 3.0 series, Impress was (in my opinion) OpenOffice’s weakest link. But OpenOffice.org 3.0 shows considerable progress in this area. You can now download Release Candidate 4 of this amazing and free suite of software, which is very stable in my experience. As far as impress is concerned,

I have been particularly impressed by the new dual screen mode for Impress, made available by the Sun Presenter Console extension. This allows your presentation screen (what other people see) to be different than the screen on your computer monitor (what you see). The computer monitor console lets you see your current slide, the next slide in the queue, notes, and other handy information (like how long you’ve been yammering). You can find more details about that here.

Posted by Tommy at 11:30 am Tagged with: , ,

Don't Pay for Software

Software, Webapps and Websites 3 Responses »
Oct 062008

I am still a little surprised that people are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars on computer software when there are often dozens of free alternatives available. Most of us use computers for pretty basic tasks: emailing friends, browsing the internet, editing photos, listening to music, writing letters, and maintaining blogs. All of these tasks—and many others—can be performed using excellent free software that is easily installable and maintainable.

Why you should not be afraid of “Free”

Consumer Reports recently ran an article instructing its readers to be suspicious of free software. There reasons were sound, but only apply to a certain kind of “free.” There is certainly a lot of “free” stuff on the internet that can cost you in the end, but there are also a lot of excellent resources as well; the trick is being able to tell the difference.

I think the other reason people are afraid of free software is that they assume it’s “second class.” Since it’s free, it can’t be very good. Again, this applies to some software, but not the kind I’m talking about. Think about it this way: who would you rather buy a car from? Do you pick the used car dealer, primarily interested in his bottom line? Or do you pick the enthusiastic hobbyist, the guy (or girl) who refurbishes old cars because he loves it? All things being equal, the second individual is probably the more trustworthy.

So what do you mean be “free”?

There are three kinds of free. The first type of free software is “free” software—notice the quotation marks. This includes malware (software that pretends to be useful, but actually damages your computer), shareware (software that pretends to be free at first, but then cuts you off after a certain amount of time, or holds back on you until you pay its premium), and crapware (software that really is free, but sucks). Of these, shareware is the only one worth talking about, and even here you should be careful. While I don’t particularly care for the shareware model, there are some useful programs in this group.

The second kind of free software is free in the sense of “free beer.” Many programmers and organizations develop software for their own personal use, and while they want to maintain absolute control over their creation, they nevertheless offer it to others out of kindness (or self-promotion, or for some other non-monetary motivation). So this includes all software that is “closed” (the programmer does not release the source code) but does not require payment.

The third kind of free software is free in the sense of “free speech.” Free-speech software is (almost) always also free-beer software. The difference here is that in addition to being free to use, those who produce the software also publish the “source,” the internal nuts-and-bolts that determines how the software functions. This is useful for other programmers—anyone can improve or add functionality to the software, without having to ask permission or pay a fee. Firefox is a good example here; it is free to use and also free to modify, which means there are plugins that can do almost anything right in the comfort of your browser. This is the best kind of free because, in addition to keeping money in your wallet, you are not ultimately dependent on any one individual or organization, and so your software is less likely to go out of date or be unusable.

The Recommendations: Free Software you Should Download or Bookmark

Over the course of the next few weeks I will be posting about free software to get you started, organized by function. All the software will be at the very least “free beer” software (unless otherwise noted). Most of it will also be “free speech” (open-source) software. I will also include a number of web-apps, which are generally “free beer” services.

The following is a list of the types of software I will discuss in the forthcoming posts. You can check back here, as I will edit this page when new posts are available, or you can always subscribe to the blog and get updated automatically!

Posted by Tommy at 10:54 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Microsoft Office at 90% Off

Software 10 Responses »
Aug 222008

If you did not catch the last sale, here’s your chance. Microsoft recently released this press release with the details.

Here’s the run down: anyone with a .edu email address is able to get 90% off Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate addition. That’s $60 for Microsoft’s flagship Office product. This is truly a great deal. Ultimate Edition includes everything; you even get Outlook’s business contact manager (complete with SQL server).

If you don’t have a .edu email address, ask for one. Most college’s offer .edu addresses to alumni. And just to be clear, even though the press release implies that this offer is only for students, Microsoft has agreed that anyone with a .edu address can qualify.

Go to http://www.TheUltimateSteal.com to make your purchase. Check out this post for more information, which includes notices about similar sales occurring early September. A list of what you get is available from Microsoft here, or you can check out the (Full Price) produce page from Tiger Direct here.

Finally, without wanting to take away from the importance of this sale, I would feel a little remiss if I did not mention that OpenOffice.org offers a full office suite for free, and is really excellent software (I have both MS Office 2007 and OpenOffice.org, and prefer the latter for a whole host of reasons). I will post more about OpenOffice.org soon, so stay tuned. In the mean time, don’t feel quilty about Office 2007–it’s an incredible offer.

Posted by Tommy at 3:18 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Turn Any Printable Document into a PDF

Software 1 Response »
Aug 012008

If you use Openoffice.org or run a Linux operating system, saving any document as a PDF is easy. There is also a plugin for recent versions of Microsoft Office that can do this. But what about exporting web pages, or documents created by other software? For this you will need a “Print to PDF” driver. A “Print to PDF” Driver works exactly like any other printer, only instead of actually printing your document it generates a PDF in a folder of your choosing. This is very easy to set up: here are the details.

Linux provides the same functionality. Most distributions include a driver that does this: just go to your printer settings dialog, “Add” a printer, and look for an entry like “Print to PDF.” I’m sure MAC users have something similar, so perhaps one of our MAC readers could post a comment regarding how to set that up.

Posted by Tommy at 10:07 am Tagged with: , , , , , ,

How to Type in Greek Part II: Setting Up the Microsoft Greek Polytonic Keyboard

Biblical Greek 14 Responses »
Jul 072008

Now that you have a full appreciation of Unicode it’s time to setup windows to type in Greek (and Hebrew, for that matter).

Getting Started

First, open up your favorite document editor. I’m using OpenOffice.org, a free, powerful, and interpolatable solution to Microsoft Office. For testing purposes we need to use a Unicode font that supports the full set of Greek characters. If you’re using Vista, you can leave it on Times New Roman. Everyone else (and Vista users too, just to be safe), should set their font to either Palatino Linotype or Arial Unicode MS (I prefer the latter). Start typing. Still English. Now the fun begins.

Adding Keyboards

Access your control panel and select “Regional and Language Options.” I am using Vista, so the name’s might be changed for XP or 2000 (and if you’re using ME or 98, it’s time to either upgrade or switch to Linux). Click on the “Keyboards and Languages” tab, which will open a new window. Click the “Add…” a keyboard/language button, which opens up yet another window. Browse for “Greek,” and then select the “Greek Polytonic” keyboard. Other keyboards will not work; you need Greek Polytonic. Click Ok, then Apply. Notice the Greek keyboard has been added to your list.

You will need an easy and convenient way to switch between keyboards, so click on the “Language Bar” tab. Choose any option other than “hidden” (I suggest docking it in the taskbar). In the “Advanced Key Settings” tab you can set special keyboard shortcuts for switching between keyboards, in accordance with your preferences.

There are other keyboards you might be interested in. Notice that I have two keyboards under “English.” The “United States-International” keyboard allows me to type words like “Bëla Fleck,” “Käsemann,” and “vis-à-vis” with particularly pretentious accuracy. I also have a Hebrew keyboard installed, which requires some comment. The Hebrew keyboard included in Windows is terrible; the layout is counter intuitive, and it lacks vowel pointings. You will have to install another keyboard, which can be downloaded here. The download includes instructions for installation and a keyboard layout in PDF.

Now that our keyboards are installed, you should see a new little bar in your already-busy taskbar. This is your language bar, which you can use to select the language you want to type in, as well as the keyboard you want to use for that language (if you set up more than one). Select “EL”, which is the Greek setting (remember, the Greek word for Greek is ελληνος).

Typing in Greek

Now go back to your word processor and start typing. You should see some Greek characters now. If not, check your language bar again (sometimes switching applications causes the system to revert to your default language).

The Layout of your New Keyboard

Now you need to learn how to use your new keyboard. There will probably be some keyboard-concepts you are not familiar with, the most important of which are called “dead keys.” Dead keys are keys that only function in combination with other keys. The standard English keyboard does not use deadkeys, so if you are used to that keyboard, this might take same getting used to (as will the “US-International”) keyboard. With a little practice, however, you will be a master, and might even consider switching to a dead-key enabled keyboard as your default (as I eventually did).

To get started, press the ” key in your Word Processor. Nothing happened. That’s because Microsoft is waiting for another key. Now type “a”. You should see something like ἁ. Dead keys are used by the Greek keyboard to create all those diacritical marks necessary for typing in ancient Greek. Don’t worry, they’re all there, you just need to find where to find them.

Take a look at the following diagram. This is a keyboard map for the Polytonic keyboard. The keys in yellow are all dead-keys and will therefore only work in combination with an appropriate secondary key (and only “legal” Greek characters can be produced–the fabled λ with a smooth-breathing is still only a fantasy).

Now try this one. Notice that the Right “Alt” key (and ONLY the right one) is greyed-in. This indicates a new keyboard state. When you hold down the right Alt key, the keyboard “shifts” to allow access to different keys, which are shown in the keyboard map. Again, the yellow keys are dead keys, so the key combination “alt-q” followed by an “a” results in the following character: ᾴ.

There are four total keyboard states, two of which you already use: (1) Standard and (2) Shifted. Now you add two more: (3) Alt and (4) Alt-Shift. Remember, it is only the right Alt that does this.

A Full Keyboard Map

Microsoft used to have full documentation of the Polytonic Keyboard layout online, but it no longer appears to be available. Rather than distribute the whole document, which is needlessly long and complicated, I have copied their map images (which I believe are public domain) and placed them in my own PDF cheat sheet. Download it here!

One more note: you may be wondering how to access keys that used to be easy to get to, such as the “;” key, which is now a dead-key. The answer: certain keys can only be accessed by typing a dead-key followed by a space. These are usually keys that are not often used, so it’s not really a problem. A map for these keys is provided on the second page of the above PDF.

Conclusion

All this sounds intimidating, but you will get used to your new keyboard quickly, and you will be proud of your efforts. No more searching that horrible “insert symbol” dialog. No more dependency on software like Bibleworks for Greek characters. Dead keys are your friends!

Next up: the best fonts for Greek and Hebrew.

Posted by Tommy at 8:00 am Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Firefox 3.0 Released!

Software 2 Responses »
Jun 172008

The much anticipated release of the excellent web browser Firefox 3.0 is available for download. Curious what all the fuss is about? Wondering if you should switch from Internet Explorer (you should, by the way)? Check out the discussion here and here for the best Firefox analysis. Wondering what’s new? Check out this list or a more in depth visual tour.

Convinced? Help Mozilla (the organization behind Firefox) set a record for most downloads in a day by downloading now! Once you have your very own copy, you can start adding extensions and customizing to your heart’s content.

In honor of this milestone in Web development, I thought I would provide some of my favorite extensions. Check them out!

Zotero of course. I have already posted a brief introduction. If you do any amount of research, Zotero is a must for organizing bibliographical material. It also generates citations in a variety of formats, including Chicago and SBL. If you are having trouble getting start, make sure you check out their online screencast, and I plan on developing my own tutorial for SBL/OpenOffice support in the near future.

Ever wish you could access your most-used internet bookmarks anywhere? Or maybe you want to share them with friends and family? Or post automatically generated links to your favorite posts on a blog (as I have in the sidebar to the right)? Well then del.icio.us is for you. The interface takes a little getting used to, and the website has the kind of interface only a techie could love, but its worth the effort. More to the point, it has a brilliant Firefox Extension.

If you’re a longtime use of Firefox, you probably already have a collection of favorite extensions. Some of them might not yet be updated for Firefox 3. Don’t worry, you can still use them: just download Nightly Tester Tools to override Firefox’s default functionality.

Gmail is wonderful, but it is even more wonderful when you install Better Gmail 2, which adds some customizable functionality to gmail’s site.

If you’re a blogger, you definitely want to check out Scribefire. Like Zotero, it runs inside Firefox, allowing you to browse and blog at the same time; no more switching tabs and juggling windows!

Well that’s enough to get you started. I would love to hear what everyone else finds helpful. Post your ideas in the comments!

Posted by Tommy at 4:17 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Open Source?

Software 6 Responses »
May 222008

Many potential readers of this blog may be unfamiliar with the concept of “Open Source” software. There are a variety of possible definitions (depending on your preferred open source licensing schema), but what essentially qualifies software as being Open Source is the availability of its underlying source code for reading and editing. Why is that important? Because if you know how something is built you can always rebuild it, or build something similar that does the same job. Put it another way: ever feel like your information has been hijacked by software companies? What if you stopped using Microsoft Office, or you want to distribute your writing to someone who can’t afford pricey software? Sure there are workarounds, but those workarounds (1) require the use of open formats (that is, they presuppose the existence of Open Source software) and (2) require you to take extra steps to have unrestricted access to your own data.

Practical Advantages of Open Source

I have long preferred using software that supports open standards out of the box, such as the free and multi-platform openoffice.org, for practical reasons. In addition to the points mentioned above, open source code allows for easy third-party modification, which has resulted in the overwhelming success of software such as Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird. Need a feature not included in the original? Just Google, click, restart, and you’re ready to go, and all free of charge.

Ethics and Open Source

But the issue may be more than practical. Westminster professor Vern Poythress has made an ethical case for the superiority of open computing. This is a very interesting read. There are, of course, certain qualifications that must be made, such as for security software and other areas were privacy is necessary for proper program performance, but Poythress’s suggestions provide an interesting perspective on the current debate. As a side note, Dr. Poythress puts the open source mentality into personal practice–he has released almost all his writings for free reading on his website.

Recent Moves by Microsoft

Microsoft has recently come to appreciate the advantages, if not the necessity, of opening up their format standards. Many (including myself) question the company’s commitment, but yesterday’s news is in their favor, as is their recent commitment to begin opening up their API. The fear that open code leads to less revenue has apparently been thoroughly debunked, and Microsoft may have some catching up to do with regards to their business model in order to compete.

At the very least, this saga is an interesting example of the application of Christian ethics. No area of life is neutral; all most submit to God’s Lordship.

Posted by Tommy at 5:05 pm Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
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