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If you are looking for a Free alternative to Microsoft Office, then Open Office will be the best solution for you.

Why To Use OpenOffice ?

Besides other advantages of using OpenOffice, some good characteristics and features of using OpenOffice are:

• Its Free
• It supports different platforms like Windows, Linux (Ubuntu) etc.
• It feels you like you are in the Microsoft Office environment
• It supports the ISO/IEC standard OpenDocument Format (ODF)
• It supports most of the Microsoft Office files format like XLS, XLSX, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX etc.

From some of the commonly used programs of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice has also introduced related software like OpenOffice Word Processor as a competitor of Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Spreadsheet as competitor of Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Presentation as a competitor of Microsoft Powerpoint etc.

OpenOffice Word Processor

Similar to Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Word Processor aka OpenOffice Writer can be used to write documents, which can be read and saved in the file formats like DOC, DOCX, ODT etc.
Even the documents can easily be exported to PDF format, without need of any third party tools or plugins.

OpenOffice Spreadsheet

Similar to Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Spreadsheet aka OpenOffice Calc can be used to maintain worksheets or spreadsheets, which can be read and saved in the file formats like XLS, XLSX, ODS etc.
From most of the basic features of Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Spreadsheet can be used for preparing spreadsheets or worksheets, drawing charts, inserting objects etc.

OpenOffice Presentation

Similar to Microsoft Powerpoint, OpenOffice Presentation aka OpenOffice Impress can be used to create different types of presentations, using several templates, which can be read and saved in the file formats like PPT, PPTX, ODP etc.
Even the documents can easily be exported to PDF and SWF formats, without need of any third party tools or plugins.

Download OpenOffice

You can download OpenOffice from the following website:
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

For more details on OpenOffice, check out the official website of OpenOffice:
http://www.openoffice.org/

Mozilla Thunderbird

OpenOffice has not released any software as competitor of Microsoft Outlook yet. But there are other free software, which can be used as an alternative to Microsoft Outlook. Mozilla Thunderbird is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Outlook, for Windows, Linux etc. For more details about Mozilla Thunderbird, you can check out another of my post at:
http://www.webtechquery.com/index.php/2010/03/mozilla-thunderbird-free-alternative-to-outlook/

While updating Ubuntu through Update Manager, an unwanted update applied to Firefox, where Firefox is nomore Firefox, but Namoroka.

Namoroka Problem

Well, Namoroka may be good, but for me, some of the addons which were installed on Firefox, stopped working, because they are not supported by Namoroka. May be we will be seeing the addons support for it in the next release or so, but if you think that addons and extensions are more important than Namoroka, then here is a solution for installing Firefox (Firefox 3.5), so that we can move from Namoroka to Firefox.

How To Install Firefox 3.5

To install Firefox 3.5, follow the steps below:

1. Download Firefox 3.5 file from the following link:
   Firefox 3.5
2. Extract the downloaded tar.bz2 file in any folder like: /home/programs/
3. Goto your Desktop, and Right Click anywhere in the screen, and choose Create Launcher…
   (A popup window of Create Launcher will appear)
4. Input the Name field with whatever the name you want to call your Firefox shortcut link, like Firefox 3.5
5. In the Command field, give the full path of firefox file, which is saved under the extracted firefox folder, like if we take the above path, then the path will be:
   /home/programs/firefox/firefox

This is it.

Now you can use Firefox, not Firefox Namoroka, by double clicking the Launcher, we’ve just created. Even it could be replaced with the panel shortcut, from Namoroka to Firefox.

If you are searching for an Alternate MSN Messenger for Linux, Ubuntu etc., then there is a good alternate messenger aMSN I’ve found, after emesene, which will make you feel like you are using MSN Messenger in Windows. As mentioned on the aMSN website, it is actually a free open source MSN Messenger clone.

aMSN Features And Plugins

Some of aMSN features are:

• Offline Messaging
• Multi-language support (around 40 languages currently supported)
• Sign in to more than one account at once
• Full-speed File transfers
• Group support
• Chat logs
• Timestamping
• Event alarms
• Tabbed chat windows

You may even find more features in the aMSN website

Plugins of aMSN could be found in the folowing website, including aMSN Plus! , msntranslator etc. at:
aMSN Plugins

How To Install aMSN

If you are using Ubuntu, then you can simply goto

System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager

And find the package or software as “aMSN“
and start using aMSN, after successfully installing it from Synaptic Package Manager.

Or you can install the other Linux versions (including Ubuntu) from the following website:
http://www.amsn-project.net/linux-downloads.php

aMSN is also available and could be downloaded and installed for Windows, MAC OS X

Also check out emesene, which is also a good alternative to MSN Messenger for Ubuntu / Linux etc. :
http://www.webtechquery.com/index.php/2010/04/msn-messenger-linux-ubuntu-debian-fedora/

As viruses are very common nowadays, especially the ones which come from the websites, and safe browsing is what everyone wants to have. So, if you are doubtful about any website and want to check its current status, then Google is there to provide you the Safe Browsing Status, if the website you are going to visit is suspicious, or if the website is hosted as malware.

To get to know about the Safe Browsing Status of any website, you have to visit the following link:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=www.webtechquery.com/

This link will show you the status of WebtechQuery. To check your desired website, just modify the above link with your website address instead of WebtechQuery. Like, if you want to know the Safe Browsing Status of Google, then your link will be:
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=www.google.com/

After finding many of the extensions and add-ons for Google Chrome, I got to know that finding Google Chrome Extensions for disabling images is quite difficult as compared to make it disable directly from the Chrome options.

How To Disable Images In Google Chrome

For Disabling the images from Google Chrome, simply click on the Toolbar icon, choose Options.
Goto the Third Tab “Under The Hood“, and choose Content settings. There, choose the option Do not show any images and Close the window by pressing the Close button.

You can also use Exceptions button, where you can put your whitelisted websites, so that the images will not be blocked by hitting those whitelist URLs.

If you want to order an iGoogle Gadger for Free, just like on the blog WebtechQuery Gadget, where iGoogle Gadget was created with the name of WebtechQuery Search, then you can send me an email with your web address and logo (optional), to get an iGoogle Gadget for your website.

Why To Order Google Gadget For Free

This will help you adding your Search Gadget on iGoogle, so that iGoogle users can add it to their iGoogle homepage, and search on your website using that Gadget. This will also help you in making your SEO stronger, in case your Gadget becomes famous.

Send Your Details For Ordering Free Google Gadget

Before sending me the email, you have to make sure that your site supports searching feature, as the provided Google Gadget will only be able to redirect the users from the Gadget to your website’s search page.
Please note that this free offer will be a limited time offer, so whoever wants to order for a Free iGoogle Gadget, send me an email at webtechquery@gmail.com

Create Your Own Google Gadget

Or if you are interested in creating your own Google Gadget, then you can view another of my post:
How to create a Google Gadget for iGoogle?

If you are unable to connect to FTP server in Ubuntu (Linux), then the most easy way is to use Mozilla FireFox FireFTP. You don’t need to install any separate software for uploading and downloading on your FTP server. Simply install this addon in your FireFox, and you will be able to upload and download files from your FTP server.

Why FireFTP

From some of its great features, the amazing feature of FireFTP is that it is Cross-Platform. It works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux. As it is an addon of FireFox, so there is no worry of its availability on different platforms. The other good feature is that it is Free.

Download FireFTP

You can download FireFTP through its official website FireFTP, or search for FireFTP on FireFox Addons website.

If you have a website or a blog, and you want your visitors to share your contents on their social networks aka Social Bookmarking, like Twitter, Facebook etc., then AddThis is an efficient way to share your content and make your SEO more stronger. Though AddThis is not the only web tool, which provides such facility, but this is the one which other big portals have also been using on their websites.

Share Your Web Content On Social Networks

You can AddThis on your WordPress, Blogger / Blogspot, MySpace or any other website. There are around 255 networks where visitors can share and bookmark your website’s contents and posts.

How To Install AddThis

All you have to do is, goto the website AddThis, choose your web service, i.e. WordPress, Blogger etc., choose from the selected buttons or links which you want to show on your website for AddThis, and Get Your Button (or the code which you have to insert on your web).

Mozilla Thunderbird is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Outlook, for Windows, Linux etc.
Just like Open Office as an alternative to Microsoft Office, you can now move to Mozilla Thunderbird as an alternate to Microsoft Outlook.

Why to use Mozilla Thunderbird ?

• Its free
• Its far more light weight than Outlook
• It supports add-ons, plugins, themes, even calendar for reminders etc.
• It now supports tabbing, means now you can open your emails in new tabs, instead of new windows.
• It supports different operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS X etc.
• It supports feature to import your Outlook settings to Mozilla Thunderbird
• And many more

Download Thunderbird

Check out the latest version of Thunderbird on its official website:
Thunderbird Official Website

Thunderbird Calendar, Lightning Calendar

Thunderbird also supports Calendar known as Lightning Calendar, which is actually an extension for Thunderbird, you have to install explicitly. Through Lightning Calendar, you will be able to manage your daily schedule tasks or events, directly within Thunderbird.

Check out the following website to download Lightning Calendar or search for it on Mozilla :
Lightning Calendar

You can also sync your Thunderbird Calendar with Google Calendar through Provider for Google Calendar addon. For details on Thunderbird Add-ons, check out the next topic.

Thunderbird Add-ons & Themes

Like Mozilla Firefox add-ons and themes, Mozilla Thunderbird also supports different add-ons and themes to make your Thunderbird more powerful, and advanced.
Check out the Official Mozilla Addons website for Thunderbird:
Thunderbird Addons

Give it a try and you will enjoy using Thunderbird as an alternative to Microsoft Outlook. If you have something to say or want to share your experience, advantages or disadvantages of using Thunderbird, or any other free alternative to Thunderbird, post your comments here.

Most of the latest mobile phones now support computer connectivity, not only as a temporary hard drive (USB drive), but also the management of phone books, SMS messages (sending and receiving), applications etc. through computer software.

From some of the features, one has been focused here, and that is Sending of Bulk SMS through Computer Software.

If you have a mobile phone which supports mobile management through computer software, and if you have a cheap sms packages sim, and want to send bulk messages to your family, friends, colleagues etc. on a single click, without sending SMS one by one from the phone book, or choosing different groups for sending bulk SMS, then here is a good solution.

All you need is a USB Data Cable or Bluetooth may also be supported. Simply download and install one of the following software, available for free:

1. MyPhoneExplorer (Windows)
2. FMA (floAt’s Mobile Agent) (Windows)
3. Wammu (Windows / Linux)

Out of these three, Wammu supports Nokia, Siemens, Alcatel, Sony Ericsson etc., while FMA and MyPhoneExplorer are only for Sony Ericsson.

If you have any Sony Ericsson mobile, then I prefer to use MyPhoneExplorer, as it has great functionalities in it, while for others, go for Wammu.