If you’re using Office 2008 for Mac, you may want to look at alternatives…

If you’re using Office 2008 for Mac, you may or may not be aware that the product officially went out of active support on 09-Apr-2013. That means that Microsoft is no longer going to provide updates, security patches and fixes to the software. However, don’t panic.

The software is still usable. You can continue to use the software as long as you wish. HOWEVER, in a connected world, the likelihood that you’ll catch a a virus, worm or other malware targeted at Office 2008 users drastically increases.

There are a couple of alternatives, including subscription, pay and free options.

• Upgrade to Office 2011 for Mac

Office 2011 for Mac is equivalent to Office 2010 for Windows and will be supported by Microsoft until 12-Jan-2016

• Purchase an Office 365 Subscription

If you have more than one compatible computer in your house that needs access to Office, an Office 365 subscription allows you to install Office on up to 5 different computers, either Windows PC’s or Macs. This will get you Office 2011 for Mac today and allow you to upgrade later.

• Switch to OpenOffice.org or to LibreOffice

Both of these are decent office replacements and both are free. Both provide decent alternatives and offer a general sense of compatibility to Microsoft Office. More complex formatting, however, may not survive revisions in one of these alternatives AND MS Office, so don’t be surprised if your elaborate tables or other figures get wonky after saving in one, the other, or both.

A new version of Office for Mac is expected either later in 2013, or early in 2014.

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Desktop publishing isn’t easy, even with today’s advanced tools. Finding the right look and feel for your publications as well as your web pages and other projects isn’t always easy, and quite frankly, matching unknown fonts can be really difficult. Thankfully, WhatFontIs.com provides you with some interesting alternatives when you don’t have the typeface you need. WhatFontIs.com is a web app that works in just about any web browser on any PC, any platform.

I’ve heard many people say that desktop publishing is more art than skill, and I believe them. When it comes to laying out pamphlets, fliers, programs and other kinds of collateral, if you don’t understand design life can get challenging quickly. Completing projects can also get difficult when you don’t have the right typeface or font to help you get the job done. Thankfully, WhatFontIs.com can solve that problem quickly and easily.

All you have to do is follow a simple process:
1. Take a screenshot of the font you wish to identify
2. Open your browser and surf to www.WhatFontIs.com
3. Register on the site
4. Upload the screenshot you took in step 1
5. Allow WhatFontIs.com to suggest a matching font

If you can’t take a screen shot, WhatFontIs.com can also use a URL with the image you want to use, but that can take a while, especially if you don’t have a fast broadband connection

I like WhatFontIs.com. It’s a great resource as it suggests both free and for purchase fonts, or just one or the other, if you wish. I had some problems with the screenshots I uploaded, however.

I found that the simpler the shot, the better chance you have of the site finding a matching font. The best shots were one line of text. Multi-line screen shots just confused the site, especially if you were using exotic fonts. Best to use the KISS principle here.

I also found that the site’s didn’t recognize or match up all the letters in the screen shot, even after it required you to type them in next to the broken down screen shot. That confused me a bit.

Open WhatFontIs.com

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I need what I need, and not a token bone thrown at me. I’m just sayin’…

The interwebs have been agog lately with a number of different rumors and “confirmations” that Microsoft has heard the wailing and cries of its people. It’s said that the release of Windows 8.1 – or Windows Blue as its been code named – will bring back the Start button to the Windows 8 interface.  Unfortunately, a new undercurrent has been heard recently as well: The Start Button is going to do what it did in the Windows 8 Developer Preview – Bring up the Windows 8 Start Screen and not a Windows 7 Styled Start Menu.

My friend Preston Gralla sites a story from The Verge in his analysis.  He says that it its “true, it would be a [major] misstep for Microsoft.”

I agree, but it wouldn’t be the first time that MS thought it knew better than its customers.

Gralla says that, “Microsoft [appears] to have a death wish” when it comes to Windows 8. Users have been asking for a return of the Windows 7 Start Menu. No one is asking for a Start Button that gets users to the Windows 8 Start Screen. Users that want a quick way to get to the Start Screen can swipe in from the right edge of the screen, hit the Windows Key on a Windows compatible keyboard or hover the mouse over the lower left corner until a thumbnail of the Start Screen appears and then click on it.  Putting the Start Button back just to get the user to the Start Screen is silly.  We don’t want the Start screen.

We want the Windows 7 Start Menu.

The Windows 7 Start menu was simple. It was easy to use.  More importantly, its search results were much more accurate than its Windows 8 counterpart; at least that’s the current perception from most users.  Windows 8 Start Screen search results display data differently than displayed on the Windows 7 Start Menu; and the results sort and display is also confusing users.

Unfortunately, especially on a non-touch enabled PC, the Start Screen isn’t what users want. Windows 8.1 will likely give users the ability to boot directly to their Desktop instead of the Start Screen, which is something that users DO want.  However, giving users a Start Button that doesn’t do what users want it to do is confusing and, well, rude. If Microsoft is going to listen to its Windows 8 critics and change the way the OS works, then it needs to listen.

If The Verge’s report is accurate, Microsoft’s solution seems half-backed and empty.  Windows XP and its Start menu have been around since 2000. It’s over 13 years old. Changing that type of use behavior in the enterprise is NOT reasonable; and I honestly think Microsoft is going to miss the boat again if it doesn’t open both ears and listen to what users want from it.

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Creativity is an awesome outlet. Some of my most relaxing times are when I am busy creating something, be that writing, drawing, sculpting or painting. As computers are one of my most favorite things, being able to combine my creativity with my love of technology is pretty cool. Its for this reason that I really like Cinema 4D Studio. It’s a graphics tool for your Windows PC.

Cinema 4D Studio is a great tool for professional, 3D artists. If you want to create advanced 3D graphics but need a helping hand, then this may be a great choice for you. Cinema 4D Studio adds advanced character tools, hair, a physics engine and an unlimited client network for rendering. The results can be stunning. Cinema 4D Studio can tackle just about any project you throw at.

Cinema 4D Studio’s character tools make it easy to create character rigs and advanced character animations. Adding hair or fur to characters is fast and simple. You can easily grow, comb, style and animate hair and fur easily. The physics engine makes it simple to perform complex collisions and interaction between any number of objects.

One of the app’s best features is Network rendering. As any graphic artist knows, rendering can take quite a long time, even on the more advanced and more powerful computers available today. Network rendering allows you to take advantage of all computers on your network and can help render your animations faster.

While Cinema 4D Studio is designed for advanced 3D, the extra tools found in it are still user-friendly and intuitive. Generating advanced 3D affects such as hair is pretty easy and fast. The app does much of the work for you. For example, hair will automatically swoosh and sway as you move your character around; and making thousands of objects collide with each other only takes a few mouse clicks to set up.

While the app may be great, its completely out the consumer price range at nearly $4000 USD, as of this writing. Unless you’re a serious graphic artist, or unless this app is something that your company can purchase for you, this isn’t something a regular user will purchase.

Download Cinema 4D Studio

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PC security is probably the most important issue you’ll bump into today. One of the most important things you need to do to keep your computer safe is to track and secure all of your passwords.  This is probably the biggest reason why I like applications like KeePass. It’s a password manager for Windows.

Today, nearly everything you do on your computer has a password that you need to remember for it. Windows has a network logon, your e-mail account, your website’s FTP password, and then there are countless online passwords for websites, like your bank, Facebook, and Twitter. The list is endless. You should also use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets it, you have a serious problem.

KeePass is a free, secure password manager that helps you to manage your passwords. You can put all your passwords in one database and lock them with one master key or a key file. With KeePass, you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole AES and Twofish encrypted database.

KeePass is a pretty cool app. While there are a lot of password safes out there, KeePass is free, and very easy to use. It you don’t have an app of this type, then its probably a good idea to give this one some very serious consideration. Having your accounts hacked is not cool; and forgetting your password to an infrequently used, but important, asset is problematic. KeePass keeps track of them all, and does it for the right price.

download KeePass

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Windows systems are notoriously hard to keep optimized. Installs and registry modifications are done and often leave a lot of orphan data on your hard drive.  This often leads to issues not only with hard drive space, but with performance as well. This is the major reason why you need to have an application like Wise Care 356. It’s a Swiss army knife application for Windows, and it’s very good at what it does.

I’ve been looking at Windows utilities for years. There are many of them out there, but there are few that provide the breadth of scope and ease of use of Wise Care 365.  With Wise Care 365 you get a dead easy to use, lazing fast, and an overall healthy PC shortly after install.  As a tune-up utility, Wise Care 365 is comprehensive and full-featured, practical and economical. It will keep your PC in tiptop shape and at peak performance.

The app consists of five parts – PC Checkup, System Tune-up, Privacy Protector and Wise Utilities. PC Checkup is new and checks the whole running condition of your PC.  It rates its health on a scale of 1-10, with 10 high score, and then shows you quick-fix solutions. Wise Care 365 includes both Wise Disk Cleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner.  It takes just one click to use, and your old, tired PC will transform into a brand new and blazing fast one after Wise Care 365′s work is done

Wise Care 365 is an awesome utility. It’s something that most Windows users should have and the free version can do a lot without having to worry about registering the app to get a functioning utility. If you don’t have this app, then you need to do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s not only worth your time and effort, but it’s well worth the expense.

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I have a passion for music. It’s a major part of my life and I like to carry it with me where ever I go. Organizing my music collection just got easier. Zortam MP3 Media Studio is a music organizer for Windows that may just be the right tool for you, too.

Zortam MP3 Media Studio is an all-in-one MP3 organizer. It has a number of modules such us an MP3 Organizer, an ID3 Tag Editor, an MP3 Player, an MP3 Normalizer, and an MP3 to Wav converter. With Zortam MP3 Media Studio, you can batch auto tag your MP3 files using Zortam song database. Batch auto tag processing gets cover art, lyrics and other song info from our database and automatically auto tag new MP3 files. Within few minutes, you tag all of your MP3 files with cover arts and lyrics.

If you have a mobile device, you can sync your content to it. Supported devices include iDevices like the iPhone, iPod or any Android mobile phones. On your PC, Zortam MP3 player enables you to play your tagged MP3 files with cover art and scrolling lyrics along with different visualization effects. An advanced CD Ripper is also included ripping your CDs to MP3 files. As I mentioned earlier once ripped, Zortam MP3 Studio will automatically tag them with cover art and lyric from Zortam’s database.

Zortam MP3 Studio will also manage your MP3 play lists. With it, you can quickly search for specific music files, rename files using ID3 tags, synchronize ID3v1 and iD3v2 tags, search for duplicate MP3 files etc.

Zortam MP3 Media Studio is a decent alternative to some of the old standards out there, like iTunes and Windows Media player. It comes with mobile device support built in and will even sync to your iDevice, if you wish. The interface isn’t bad, but its very busy, and large. If you’re looking for something different than what most are using, Zortam MP3 Media Studio may be just what you’re looking for.

Download Zortam MP3 Studio

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Keeping your Mac apps up to date is easy.  If you’re using Snow Leopard or later, you’ve got the App Store. If you’ve bought software through it, it tells you when they’ve been updated and helps you get the updates installed.  If you’re not using the MAC App Store, there are other products that do similar things. On the PC side of the world we’ve got SUMo. It’s an app update utility for Windows.

SUMo stands for Software Update Monitor.  It keeps your PC’s apps up-to-date and safe by monitoring the most recent version of your favorite software and then checking for new versions on a periodic basis.  Unlike an app’s built-in auto update features, SUMo tells you if updates are available before you run or need to use your software.

SUMo is a GREAT app. I’ve been using similar tools on the Mac side and was very please when I found SUMo for my PC’s. I have five of them at the house, and with at least 6 PC users, keeping everything up to date on all of the machines isn’t easy. SUMo makes it much easier. The fact that the app is free, makes this a no brainer and a must have for any and all that PC’s that you have in your house, too.

The app comes with support for more than 20 language translations, and is certain to work on your computer and version of Windows.  If you don’t have SUMo working for you, then you’re clearly missing out.

download SUMo

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