A free substitute for Microsoft Office from Kim Komando

http://www.komando.com/downloads/category.aspx?id=10270&utm_medium=nl&utm_source=dotd&utm_content=2011-09-15-article&utm_campaign=end

A free substitute for Microsoft Office

9/15/2011


Microsoft Office is the gold standard for productivity software. It's used by everyone from students to major corporations. That popularity is definitely reflected in the price tag.

What if you can't afford Microsoft Office? Perhaps you just need something for a short-term project and can't justify the investment right now. Good news: There are several free alternatives to Office. Depending on your needs, some work just as well as Microsoft's productivity suite.

LibreOffice is an excellent alternative. It offers six programs, and you'll find most of them instantly familiar.

For example there's Writer, which is a Word clone. Then there's Calc, which is a spreadsheet like Excel. There's also Impress, a presentation program similar to PowerPoint.

Those are the options you're most likely to need. A drawing program, a database program and an equation program round out the offerings. All of these combined make for an excellent replacement to pricier suites.

LibreOffice is also compatible with the most popular document formats. It can read .DOC from Word and .XLS from Excel, for example. That only scrapes the surface of what it offers.

Cost: Free

Link: www.libreoffice.org

System: Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS X


http://www.komando.com/newsletters/  Sign up for Kim's Free Newsletter. She shares some great information !!!

Change your perspective and then take a nap !

Do you ever need something to help you change your perspective ?
I find that I need to check in with some of these coaches from time to
time -- they have some great articles on their blogs that might be
just what you are looking for.  If you find one that you like, then
save the web address as a favorite or sign up to get email updates.
You can always unsubscribe, if you need to -- or just delete the
most recent email and see what they have to say later.

Ann Vertel
http://annvertel.com/best-of/
Carrie Wilkerson (The Barefoot Executive)
http://blogbarefoot.com/

Brooke Castillo    http://www.brookecastillo.com/
Brooke teaches you how to do Self-Coaching -
Session 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_otisZVT8A&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Session 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EKSDHwaQNg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Session 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgWFqDapetk&feature=related

Session 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkYAmjXq8HU&feature=related

Session 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNte4tGfYP8&feature=related

I'll add more to this post later -

And when you are ready for a break  ---
Do you sleep well when it is raining ?  You never have to wait for the rain to come -
just pull up this video -- 60 minutes of relaxing rain.  mmmmm....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0BIVizaAiY

Oh, if you want this video to repeat continually, just type     repeat      after youtube in
the web address -- this web address would be
http://www.youtuberepeat.com/watch?v=q0BIVizaAiY
you can do that for any youtube video that you want to play continually.

Email management = Time Management / Email Charter

http://emailcharter.org/index.html

We're drowning in email. And the many hours we spend on it are generating ever more work for our friends and colleagues. (Here's why.) We can reverse this spiral only by mutual agreement. Hence this Charter…

10 Rules to Reverse the Email Spiral

1. Respect Recipients' Time This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email will take to process. Even if it means taking more time at your end before sending. 2. Short or Slow is not Rude Let's mutually agree to cut each other some slack. Given the email load we're all facing, it's OK if replies take a while coming and if they don't give detailed responses to all your questions. No one wants to come over as brusque, so please don't take it personally. We just want our lives back! 3. Celebrate Clarity Start with a subject line that clearly labels the topic, and maybe includes a status category [Info], [Action], [Time Sens] [Low Priority]. Use crisp, muddle-free sentences. If the email has to be longer than five sentences, make sure the first provides the basic reason for writing. Avoid strange fonts and colors. 4. Quash Open-Ended Questions It is asking a lot to send someone an email with four long paragraphs of turgid text followed by "Thoughts?". Even well-intended-but-open questions like "How can I help?" may not be that helpful. Email generosity requires simplifying, easy-to-answer questions. "Can I help best by a) calling b) visiting or c) staying right out of it?!" 5. Slash Surplus cc's cc's are like mating bunnies. For every recipient you add, you are dramatically multiplying total response time. Not to be done lightly! When there are multiple recipients, please don't default to 'Reply All'. Maybe you only need to cc a couple of people on the original thread. Or none.

6. Tighten the Thread Some emails depend for their meaning on context. Which means it's usually right to include the thread being responded to. But it's rare that a thread should extend to more than 3 emails. Before sending, cut what's not relevant. Or consider making a phone call instead. 7. Attack Attachments Don't use graphics files as logos or signatures that appear as attachments. Time is wasted trying to see if there's something to open. Even worse is sending text as an attachment when it could have been included in the body of the email. 8. Give these Gifts: EOM NNTR If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, just put it in the subject line, followed by EOM (= End of Message). This saves the recipient having to actually open the message. Ending a note with "No need to respond" or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity. Many acronyms confuse as much as help, but these two are golden and deserve wide adoption. 9. Cut Contentless Responses You don't need to reply to every email, especially not those that are themselves clear responses. An email saying "Thanks for your note. I'm in." does not need you to reply "Great." That just cost someone another 30 seconds. 10. Disconnect! If we all agreed to spend less time doing email, we'd all get less email! Consider calendaring half-days at work where you can't go online. Or a commitment to email-free weekends. Or an 'auto-response' that references this charter. And don't forget to smell the roses.

The Problem ---

http://emailcharter.org/problem.html

The Solution ---

http://emailcharter.org/solution.html