The last Word

Freeware and open-source software have become big buzz words lately. But before you start scrambling around the Web for those freebies, have you ever asked yourself: Do I really need more software, free or otherwise? I asked myself that question some years ago when I got a new desktop computer and realized lately that the software that comes with most operating systems, whether Windows or even Linux-based ones, will do for everyday tasks for most people, except of course if you're an accountant who works with spreadsheets or an architect who works with CAD programs. With Windows, you already have Calculator for figures, Notepad for plain text documents, WordPad for rich-text documents that need some formatting, MSPaint for altering or creating images, Outlook Express for emailing, Internet Explorer for Web surfing, Windows Media Player for music and movies. For years, I used Word for all my writing and editing. I have nothing against Word. It has its uses. And that was the first word processor I ever used in 1986, when being high tech meant using five-inch floppy disks to boot up a mouseless computer and Word was still a simpler DOS-based program. But in 2004, when I was a tabloid columnist and freelance article contributor, it struck me that I had no use for all the features that Word has added through the years. The Word menu looked too cluttered for me. All I needed was a program that could handle RTF files and had a word counter and a spellchecker, both of which WordPad just didn't have. That's when I stumbled into the world of free software. I got on the Web to look for a simpler replacement for Word, along with some journal program I could use offline. I found a lot of stuff that I tried out, and after a lot of installing and uninstalling, and sometimes even stalling, I finally found what I wanted. To replace Word I installed RoughDraft, a tabbed RTF and plain text processor by Richard Salsbury, that uses a free dictionary-thesaurus called WordWeb. (They're separate downloads because they were made by different programmers – RoughDraft by Richard Salsbury and WordWeb by Anthony Lewis.) I also installed iDailyDiary. I probably should have stopped right there. But then I got carried away, fascinated with all the free stuff that I kept stumbling on. Worse, I started to wonder if I could learn enough programming to create my own software. And that's how I got hooked on programming. I started grappling with Java and C++. Ii didn't take me long to look for compilers. The Java Software Development Kit is free, of course, and so was the Borland C++ command-line compiler. But then the next thing I knew I was trying out a lot of programming text editors. That's how I managed to mess up my computer several times, with all that installing and uninstalling and the occasional stray virus creeping into my system every now and then. Anyway, after hours spent reinstalling my OS, I finally settled on two text editors – Crimson Editor, which I use for programming and writing articles for the Web (like this one) and Notepad2, which I use for HTML (because when I started learning HTML using only Notepad it felt like I was digging a hole in the ground with a spoon). (Crimson Editor was designed by Ingyu Kang and is now open-source software maintained by the Emerald Editor Community. Notepad2, an open-source software based on the SCITE, is maintained by its designer, Florian Balmer.) And finally, after going through pretty much the same trial-and-error process, I found the Opera browser, which I've been using for years now, and IrfanView, a simple image-manipulation program that loads instantly and takes up little memory. Belatedly, I have come up with my own criteria for picking up software, free or otherwise: Keep it simple Generally, big programs with a lot of big features load up slowly and use a lot of memory, which slows down your machine. You can check a program's memory use with the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete. I also hate a program that's cluttered with icons and a lot of menu items for functions I don't even want to use. And sometimes, some shortcuts aren't really shortcuts, because you have to press a lot of key combinations. It would be easier to just use the mouse. Beware of bugs Most freeware are still in the early stages of development and tend to have bugs. That's why they are constantly updated. So you have to keep checking their Web sites for updates. You also have to spend some time testing the software and see if it does what you need it do efficiently. Will it fill your needs and fit your work style? This is self-explanatory. It's also very subjective, which is as it should be. You have your own way of doing things. It's up to you to find the tools that would suit you. Despite all that freeware, I found that I just can't give up on the proprietary stuff. For one thing, they already came bundled with my machine. For another, they're pretty reliable. So besides the Windows built-ins like MediaPlayer, I also use some of the MS Office programs – Outlook for emailing and OneNote, which has since replaced my old diary program and which I use for all my writing and reading notes. The thing is, I'm still stuck with Word. Some of the editing jobs that come my way come in the form of Word documents, because they have complicated formatting. And, of course, a lot of people insist on using Word for even the simplest documents.