best applications for college use.....?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vince Tucker
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Vince Tucker

I'm have Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and i'm in
college this being my Freshmen year and i realize now more
than ever that i'm definitely gonna be using the computer
a lot to write documents, reports, thesis, etc so i wanted
to ask what people thought are the best programs to use
for Windows 2000 in college? What did you use the most
when you were in school. I could really use the tips b/c
all my friends are "A" students while i hang around a "c"
average and i really need to improve. Any helpful tips on
computer use in college?
thanks,
vince
 
For e-mail, I telnetted into a PINE server.
For writing papers, I used a Brother word processor that typed out the pages
with its built-in electric typewriter when it was finished.
For mathematical classes, I used a Hewlett Packard 48GX calculator.

[:

Use Microsoft Office. It doesn't matter if it's good for college or not,
but the experience that you'll gain from using Microsoft Office products
will be incredibly helpful when you're out of college. 90+% of the
businesses in the world use Microsoft Office, so it does no good to learn
something obscure. (I don't know about the 90+% as a fact. It's just my
estimation.)

Ray at work
 
Any of the office applications will work well. Word,
excel, power point, etc. They all work well especially
with some practice.
I am not guaranteeing an A, but with some hard work, you
can geta B. Just kidding. Good luck in your studies.....
 
What did you use the most when you were in school.
Click to expand...

You mean aside from Napster? ;)
Like others have already mentioned, MS Office is a great place to start. MS
offers an academic version, which I believe is the same as the "Standard"
version, only cheaper. The only problem with this is that you can't use it
after you graduate. I mean, you *could*, it won't blow up on you, but it's a
violation of the EULA. Depending on your major, there are other programs you
might find useful. For instance, one of my roommates was a Comp. Sci. major,
and he had a couple classes on web development and web design. For those
classes, he used graphics editing programs a lot. If you can afford
Photoshop, go for it. There are PLENTY out there, but one in particular I
really like as an alternative to Photoshop. Paint Shop Pro.... www.jasc.com,
I believe (although I might be mixing it up with something else....google
for it if that's not the right link). Most programs, aside from the Office
programs, will probably depend on your major, so definitely start there, and
find out from other students or your professors what programs they use for
class-specific things.

KB
 
I am familiar with Open Office and WordPerfect. I consider both good
programs, and Open Office ($0) speaks pretty decent Microsoft Office.

But Microsoft Office (97, 2000, and XP) is clearly the better--much
better--suite. I love the way it all plays together with its components and
with Windows.

And Ray is correct IMO: if you don't know Office when you enter the real
world, you will be significantly underprivileged.

In a few years, you will be underprivileged if you don't know Linux and
probably the Mac. But for now, the PC, Windows, and MSFT Office rule.

If you will need to do any graphics, I suggest an old copy of Microsoft
PhotoDraw 2000 Version 2, which came with Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
Edition. It can be cranky under XP and Win 2K, but it's worth it; works
great under Win 9X. Try eBay, about $115.

I also recommend the more modern Real-Draw Pro 3.0, $50 at
www.mediachance.com.

Both gfx pgms are supremely easy to use and produce flashy, elegant gfx with
little effort.

Since you are going to be writing, you will need the following, all free:
WordWeb (best electronic dictionary), possibly ReadPlease 2003 (text
reader--very helpful before submitting papers), RoughDraft (handy for
roughing manuscripts without the complexity of Word), and Simple Concordance
Program (like a Bible concordance--rarely needed, but worth its weight in
gold occasionally).

Acrobat can also be very handy, but is far from free.

As for indexing, footnotes, etc., Word is unequaled. I used Word to lay out
an entire 450-page book and its table of contents and index, and PhotoDraw
(and just a touch of Photoshop) to do the covers.

Btw, the plural of "thesis" is "theses" and your professors would probably
appreciate "I" rather than "i." (Sorry. "i" couldn't resist.)

Have a few college beers for me. :)

Ray at said:
For e-mail, I telnetted into a PINE server.
For writing papers, I used a Brother word processor that typed out the pages
with its built-in electric typewriter when it was finished.
For mathematical classes, I used a Hewlett Packard 48GX calculator.

[:

Use Microsoft Office. It doesn't matter if it's good for college or not,
but the experience that you'll gain from using Microsoft Office products
will be incredibly helpful when you're out of college. 90+% of the
businesses in the world use Microsoft Office, so it does no good to learn
something obscure. (I don't know about the 90+% as a fact. It's just my
estimation.)

Ray at work


Vince Tucker said:
I'm have Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and i'm in
college this being my Freshmen year and i realize now more
than ever that i'm definitely gonna be using the computer
a lot to write documents, reports, thesis, etc so i wanted
to ask what people thought are the best programs to use
for Windows 2000 in college? What did you use the most
when you were in school. I could really use the tips b/c
all my friends are "A" students while i hang around a "c"
average and i really need to improve. Any helpful tips on
computer use in college?
thanks,
vince
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Btw, the plural of "thesis" is "theses" and your professors would probably
appreciate "I" rather than "i." (Sorry. "i" couldn't resist.)
Click to expand...

I don't think they teach it that way anymore. That's the only explanation I
can come up with for the "i's" I see. <joke> Maybe it's a self esteem
issue, actually.

One more tip to the OP. No matter what any professor says, there are TWO
spaces after sentence-ending punctuation!

Ray at work
 
Depending on your major I would recommend MS Office (any
version)

MS Word: Write your reports, thesis, etc. (Recommend
getting a book on this and READ it. Look for things to
learn such as page numbers, inserting images, formatting,
indentation (Tab stops), etc.)

MS Excel: Accounting. I used it to keep track of my
checkbook and bank info.

MS PowerPoint: Not in use
MS Access: Not in use.

MS Outlook: Email (if your school does not supply you with
an email client.

Get a Anti-Virus and keep it up to date. <---Very
important!!!!


Be ready to troubleshoot your own PC problems at 2am in
the morning on the day your paper is due. Have a backup
plan in case your PC goes south. (ie printer down, where
can I go to print this?) Trust me. I've been there.
Good luck.


Internet Explorer (Comes with OS) to connect to your ISP
(Usually supplied by your school). Used for researching
topics on the Internet. (Check with your professors on
how to reference Internet sources in Bibliographies and
such.)
 
Or do what one of my college buddies did:

Stay drunk & flunk out. Buy Photoshop & design your own diploma. Print it at
Kinko's, frame it & hang it on your wall. Impress current boss (who's too
lazy to check references) & get fat promotion.

:-(
 
Vince,


I used M$ Office...

There are some other very good applications, but it leaves you out of the
center ring, so to speak, the reason being most of the profs. learned on
them also. Befoer it was around it was Word Perfect that is owned by Corel
now. It's good, but I would stick to M$ Suite.

If you want to try another, I suggest Adobe Acrobat. Adobe is a well
respected firm on teh internet for putting work on the net. They are .pdf
files and many governmental agencies say it's a plus. Adobe makes graphics
programs also. For the internet, Front Page by Microsoft works okay, but
there soem Slick web tools by others around now. To be in the forfront of
web developing, Macromedia flash programming is simple and is K.A. As for
graphics, Corel is kinda like HP; they went off and did it their way. But it
a good program; just takes getting into and some personal instruction will
do wonders. Adobe Photoshop and good; I just got started on Corel and got
used to their handles and nodes. They have funny little handles for you to
corve Vector graphics. Teo type images rastor and vector. Rastor blurs as
you blow them up, pixels distorting, but vectors are made from pints and
lines and stay clear no matter what. Photographs are rastor.


good luck,
don
------






I'm have Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and i'm in
college this being my Freshmen year and i realize now more
than ever that i'm definitely gonna be using the computer
a lot to write documents, reports, thesis, etc so i wanted
to ask what people thought are the best programs to use
for Windows 2000 in college? What did you use the most
when you were in school. I could really use the tips b/c
all my friends are "A" students while i hang around a "c"
average and i really need to improve. Any helpful tips on
computer use in college?
thanks,
vince
 
Sorry about all the misspellings. It's just my typing. I'm used to
dictation. I don't know whether I will get used to doing it myself. Even
took typing at LSU; it's not as bad as some other places. hahaha
I'm a grandpa now, so it doesn't make much difference. Hope you could
understand everything good enough for it to be of some use to you. Good
luck,
Was a great post. Got a lot of hits off it.

don
--------



Vince,


I used M$ Office...

There are some other very good applications, but it leaves you out of the
center ring, so to speak, the reason being most of the profs. learned on
them also. Befoer it was around it was Word Perfect that is owned by Corel
now. It's good, but I would stick to M$ Suite.

If you want to try another, I suggest Adobe Acrobat. Adobe is a well
respected firm on teh internet for putting work on the net. They are .pdf
files and many governmental agencies say it's a plus. Adobe makes graphics
programs also. For the internet, Front Page by Microsoft works okay, but
there soem Slick web tools by others around now. To be in the forfront of
web developing, Macromedia flash programming is simple and is K.A. As for
graphics, Corel is kinda like HP; they went off and did it their way. But it
a good program; just takes getting into and some personal instruction will
do wonders. Adobe Photoshop and good; I just got started on Corel and got
used to their handles and nodes. They have funny little handles for you to
corve Vector graphics. Teo type images rastor and vector. Rastor blurs as
you blow them up, pixels distorting, but vectors are made from pints and
lines and stay clear no matter what. Photographs are rastor.


good luck,
don
------






I'm have Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and i'm in
college this being my Freshmen year and i realize now more
than ever that i'm definitely gonna be using the computer
a lot to write documents, reports, thesis, etc so i wanted
to ask what people thought are the best programs to use
for Windows 2000 in college? What did you use the most
when you were in school. I could really use the tips b/c
all my friends are "A" students while i hang around a "c"
average and i really need to improve. Any helpful tips on
computer use in college?
thanks,
vince
 
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