Online Software

Google Docs & Spreadsheets is not new to me. I have been using it for drafting notes or save Docs for later as a e-mail attachment. It works out great --if I'm using computers other than my own, I don't need my flash drive. It is so much safer than a flash drive; I have lost 2 of them with my files on it and both times I haven't back up my files for a few days... More to this issue--every time I lost my flash drive, thinking about who took it will have my files, and that scares me.

I took a 5 credit class for MS Word in college, but for personal usage or most professional usage that knowledge is overkill. All the functions on Google Docs are all in MS Word too, but I bet a lot of us don't know how to check on your revisions history and I'm not talking about undo button. Google Docs made it easy to use better than MS Word in some cases. When you save the file, there are more file format options. I love the choice of saving it as PDF file.

Part I don't like-- No spell check? Am I missing something here? The Formatting Tool Bar doesn't have all the tools I need to get the work done quickly, often have to work around it. Other than that, it is a very good alternative Word Processor and Spreadsheets.

I tried Zoho too, and like it much better than Google’s. Zoho has a lot of more software you can choose from, and they worked very well. Zoho Writer is easier to use and it has more function to offer than Google Docs, so is Zoho Sheet. I may not give up on Google yet, but I’ll keep playing with Zoho.

My Search Engine

I had a good time create My Custom Search Engine. I have also put the search box on my Blog as you can see on top of this page. But when I started to use it, it’s not as good as I expected. I have it set to search only the web sites that I included and it searched OK, I’m kind of disappointed. So far, I haven’t seen a great search result yet, but I’m still playing with it. Maybe when I learn more, it will be better or at least let’s hope so.

Image Generators

I have tried You as a South Park Character, and You as a Simpsons Character, it was fun to create the characters as I like. But to save the image was really hard. I have followed instructions, it didn’t work, so I save the screen to word then print it, scan it, cut out the part I like then save it as an image. Did the homework—to put the images on my blog, but how about copyright issue? Is it OK to post them on my blog?

Wiki or Not

Wiki is computer users “open source” dream came true. It is easy to use, it is flexible just like you wished. Information on variety of Wiki in many languages are overwhelming, since anyone can add to it or change it, the information adds up and changing fast daily. You can download Wiki software for free, or you can use a service that hosts the Wiki for you. I like the idea of sharing information—when you share, you gain more!

However, open source has its own problems--Wiki admit its weak points: Disorganized, too open, not enough control, vandalism and spam…Most of us already know how to choose information from dependable sites, and Wiki sites in some cases, wouldn’t be a “dependable” information source for me. But small group Wiki has more control over their pages—they also control who can change and add to the web pages…they maybe a great source of information.