Audacity: Audio Editor

Source: Audacity

Yes! Another open source product with so many functions that you can imagine, its Audacity!



This is an audio editor with many functions just like a professional audio editor. It allows you to convert audio files to wav for editing and converting them back to mp3, but you may need to download their encoder. And its very simple.

Despite the simple interface, they actually have options for you to reverse your audio and there are also many plugins available for download. One good example would be to allow you to remove the voice of the singer in the mp3 and to get only the music behind it.

This program itself also comes as installer for Windows, Mac, Linux. So no worries about what platform you are in, they are there for you.

To get more information check it out here : Audacity

Audacity (Source: Audacity)

Google Documents: Online Office Suite

Source: Google

Now I am going to introduce to you the Google Documents, an online Office Suite web application.


This is an online web application. Thus there is no need to install anything onto your computer. You can use it on the go and its Free! *You need to have a Google account and internet connection and web browser to use it.

They are not only an online office suite but also come with extra features like online collaboration and cloud storage. Meaning when you create a document, you store it online in their Google server instead of your local pc, in another word ,it does not take up any space in your hard disk.

After you have created your document, you can then share it with everyone and also let them edit it. Thus a very good tool for students to use for their project work. They also allow you to upload you Microsoft Word Documents for online collaboration as well, but need to convert to Google Docs format.

*In my own opinion, the conversion sometimes will change the original alignment of the document itself.

For more tech savvy user, they also allow users to embed the document in website for viewing as well.

So check it out here Google Docs Tour

Screen shots:

Creating office documents(Source: Google)

Collaborate your work with others(Source: Google)

Store all your files online (Source: Google)

Open Office : Office Suite

Need to create word documents and power point slides but do not want to pay for Microsoft Office?

Open Office is your answer!

Source: OpenOffice.org

Open office is one of the open source office suite, that allows you to write word documents, design power point slides, create spreadsheet, create database and draw. They also allow you to save the documents so that they are compatible and can be open with Microsoft documents. However sometimes the alignment of the placement in your original document may be a little different after the conversion. But best of all its free.

Open office is available for different OS, such as Windows, Mac and Linux. Most linux nowadays already comes with pre-installed  open office.

Open Office can be downloaded at http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

Some Screen Shots from Open Office.org

Writer: Word Processing

Calc: Spread Sheet

Impress: Presentation Slides

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draw: For Drawing Images

Base: Creating Database

So enjoy and have fun with Open Office!

Open Source Software

Open source software are free.


They are software that are build by a committee or sometimes by an organization. The source code of these software are also release for anyone to edit and redistribute. However the main focus of open source software is that they are free to use.

Some of the examples of the open source software are:

Linux : Operating System.
Mozilla FireFox : Internet Browser
Open Office : A suite of software for you to type word documents etc..

However, there are always pros and cons in using open source software.

Advantages of Open Source Software is that there is no cost required to use them. You can always distribute them to your friends and relatives.


The disadvantages is that sometimes there may be a lack of support for these software, and you can only look for help with the community for people with experience in that field.


In paid application, the company who developed the application always have a team of developers always there to help when ever you need assistance. But all these comes with a price.


In conclusion, open office software are free and great to use, unless you are using an application that may require long term and strong support and do not have much technical knowledge, its best that you stick to paid software.


Edit: More information on open source concept can be found  here
Wikipedia: Open Source

Hi!

Hi All,
First of all, welcome to SG Tech Assist. This blog is mainly going to be talking about technology and PC related content. You can email me problems you face from your computer and we will try our best to resolve it and share the problem with everyone.

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