Free Tools

This page contains information on some of the free stuff I have used to create my web site and the Essential Computer Skills curriculum.


OpenOffice.org - Office Suite

I use OpenOffice.org 2.X to teach Office Applications skills in my Essential Computer Skills curriculum. I have started using OpenOffice myself in recent years, for the following reasons. 1) It is FREE! You can download your copy from www.openoffice.org. 2) It is very similar to Microsoft Office, and will actually read and save MS Office documents (Word, Excel, etc.) so you can share documents with anyone who uses MS Office. This is a great alternative to spending hundreds of dollars for the latest version of MS Office.

NOTE: the download file for OpenOffice.org is over 90MB large. If you are using a 56K modem connection, this download will take over 4 hours. If you would prefer to purchase an install CD, you can order one online at The Open Source Community for only $5.95 at the time of this writing. (Or you can get it with my curriculum.)


KompoZer - Web Authoring System

"KompoZer is a complete Web Authoring System that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing." A free alternative to programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, this is the next version of Nvu, which is no longer being developed.

I learned HTML way back before there was such a thing as a web page editor, so I still end up editing a lot of my HTML by hand.  But now with this FREE web authoring system, if I want to slap a table onto a web page, or tweak my style sheets, I use KompoZer. This is a great alternative to the other 2 web authoring programs mentioned above, which retail for ... well ... lots of money.

Check it out and download it from here!


The GIMP - Image Editing

This is "a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring."

I discovered The GIMP when I was looking for something to create a snazzy logo for my web site. This is a great alternative to spending $Hundreds.99 for the latest retail version of Adobe Photoshop.

I am still a beginner with this kind of tool, but I did use it myself to create my Scotto's Place logo at the top of these pages, and also some various images for separators and stuff.

Check it out and download it from here!


ScreenHunter - Screen Captures

This is a great tool to capture a portion of your computer screen as an image. I use it quite often. The free version allows capturing the active window, entire screen, or rectangular portion of the screen, saving it to a file and/or the clip board. There are 2 reasonably priced versions which have lots more features.

Check it out and download it from here!


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