Software for home computers
A collection of free software packages to download and use on home PCs. School ICT relies heavily on the use of the Microsoft Office suite of applications. The software in this list will aid compatibility for those without Microsoft Office installed at home.
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!!! ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE Adobe Reader allows the viewing and printing of PDF files. PDF (Protable Document Format) files are read-only, non-editable versions of documents that will display and print identically, regardless of the type of computer/printer being used. |
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View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed. Please note: This is a free program, but it will not let you create or edit Word documents. |
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Open, view, and print Excel workbooks, even if you don't have Excel installed. Please note: This is a free program, but it will not let you create or edit Excel workbooks. |
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Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions. Please note: This software is free, but will not let you create or edit Powerpoint presentations. |
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OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages (including Microsoft Office). It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. OpenOffice.org is widely regarded as the best alternative to buying Microsoft Office for a home PC. Important note regarding file formats: We highly recomend that any students completing work at home using OpenOffice.org save their work in the relevant Microsoft Office file format (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.), rather than the default OpenOffice format. The file format can be selected when saving your file for the first time (or whenever you use the Save As feature). |
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Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. Although not as powerful as Adobe Photoshop, Paint.NET is handy (and fast) tool for performing quick, simple tasks such as cropping and resizing images, annotating with text, etc. |
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!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even several less common formats. It comes bundled with the universal media player 'Media Player Classic' (not to be confused with Windows Media Player) which will be able to play virtually any video or audio file on your computer. |
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http://www.codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_full.htm |
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Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Amongst other things, Audacity can be used to:
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GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics and calculus in one easy-to-use package. |
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Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. |
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