Microsoft Office - $60 for students! (... and free alternatives for non-students.)

If you are a student enrolled at an academic institution, and you have an email address ending in .edu, you can get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95. That includes 10 full-version applications. The offer is good until April 2008.

Of course, if you're not a student you'll have to fork over hundreds of dollars for the same product. But there are other options besides Microsoft.

ThinkFree Office advertises itself as the "free online alternative to Microsoft Office." Includes word processing, spread sheets and presentations. As I noted in a previous post, working online is often slower than using a program installed on your computer.

OpenOffice is another free suite of applications. It's the open-source version of Star Office. It resides on your computer, but the instructions are not that user-friendly for non-techies. Still, if you've used a word processor before, you will probably know what to do with OpenOffice. Anyway, it's free, so you have nothing to lose by trying it.


Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Thinking about redecorating? Before you start moving furniture and collecting paint chips, use one of the online decorating sites to experiment with floor plans and colors.

At DesignMyRoom you can try different furniture arrangements, appliances, colors and styles in 3-D perspective. Save your plans online at the website, and share them with others. ("Mom, what do you think of these purple walls and orange countertops?") There are also professionally designed prototypes that you can adapt to your own home.

FloorPlanner.com shows only 2-dimensional, flat drawings, but it has a nice, clean interface, easy to navigate.

Better Homes & Gardens offers a variety of interactive decorating tools. All the ads are distracting though. Make sure your browser's popup blocker is enabled.

For decorating ideas check out the websites of home and architectural magazines, home improvement stores, and appliance and furniture manufacturers.

Most of the decorating websites hope to sell you the furniture, flooring and appliances that you use in your virtual floorplans. You're not obligated to buy them there - in fact you can probably find a deal that is almost as good in your local brick-and-mortar stores. (You can view their weekly specials at their websites.)


Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Need help paying for medicine?

If you or someone you care about has trouble paying for medication, there is help. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance is a coalition of drug companies, health care professionals, patient advocacy organizations and community groups.

This website is a portal to almost 500 public and private patient assistance programs.

If you are not eligible for these programs, you can still save money on your meds by consulting cost-comparison charts at Rxaminer.

Consumer Reports also has helpful information in their Shoppers Guide to Prescription Drugs series.

And psychologist Ken Pope, Ph.D., has put together a collection of resources for finding affordable health insurance as well as free or low-cost medicine.

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Tips for keeping track of passwords

A recent article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer warned about using obvious passwords when signing onto websites. Typcial no-nos are your name, address, birthday, pet's name or any other word/letter combinations that others could guess.

The writer suggests a few options, including this one: Think of a phrase that you will easily remember. Then take the first letter of each word in that phrase, and combine them all into a password.

For example, for the phrase: "Chocolate is my number 1 favorite food" - The password from that phrase is cimn1ff. This contains both letters and a number, as required by many secure websites.

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Even so, keeping track of your passwords can be a challenge. I know a couple of people who write them on paper notes stuck to the sides of their monitors!

Roboform is a much better idea. It stores and encrypts your passwords, logs you in automatically to secure sites, automatically fills out registration and checkout forms, and more. There's a free and a"Pro" version - but the free version will probably have everything you need.

Unfortunately Roboform is available only for Windows.

Mac users: You have have Keychain.app within your OS X operating system. It stores your passwords, but does not do any of the other functions found in Roboform. The Mac alternative to Roboform is 1passwd. It costs $29.95. A free program, with limited features is PasswordVault Lite. They also offer Standard and Pro editions for a fee.


Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

400 Online Productivity Tools

The folks at mashable.com have come up with a list of over 400 online resources, listed by category, for getting your work done.

Many of these resources are adequate substitutes for programs that you've been been using offline - e.g., word processing, calendar, contact manager, etc. Instead of opening a program on your computer, you access it online via your web browser.

The list at mashable.com includes the following categories: Word processing, web portals, calendar services, contact management, communication, charting and diagrams, mapping, file storage, RSS readers (very extensive list), mobile RSS readers, other RSS services and plugins, social networking tools, and keyboard shortcuts.

Most of the online resources listed at mashable.com are free. And because they're online, you can access them (and your documents) from any computer with an internet connection.

Although you can't beat free and convenient, there is a downside. I've found that even with a cable internet connection, online productivity programs can be sluggish. For example, saving pages in word processing takes a few more seconds than with the word processor that resides on your hard drive.


Pauline
teachmeinternet.com