Month: December 2018

Recycled software

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Another way to avoid exploitation

Don’t pay for over-priced software that you don’t need!

This post is about how you can find a cheaper and more appropriate version of MS Office (which includes MS Word), if you really need it.

Recommended MS Office versions

  • MS Office Home and Student 2007 — possibly the best deal, but not common now. One license allows you to install on three devices.
  • MS Office 2010 Pro — widely used. For example, the current A5 flyers and A3 posters for the drop-in and podcast were edited with MS Word 2010 because that’s what I use to edit complex documents for commercial printing. MS Publisher 2010 is also very useful — and the last version of Publisher that can create documents in the CMYK format that commercial printers require.

More recent versions of MS Word are not superior, just more expensive.

How to buy a retail product key

This is how we got MS Office 2007 or 2010 on the drop-in laptops.

What you need to know about buying MS Office this way …

  • What you actually pay for is a licence key — a retail product that can be transferred and traded.
  • Always make sure that you are paying for a key, not a recurring subscription.
  • The software itself is a free download from the Microsoft server. Your retail licence key allows you to install and use the software legally — and you can move it to a new computer when you need to.
  • When you buy a retail licence key, the seller company provides full instructions on what to do with it.
  • By the way — if you have bought a Windows computer with MS Office pre-installed, you do not have a retail key. You cannot sell it or move it to a different computer.

Sellers

There are several UK sellers in this market. I’m not going to recommend any of them because you — as the buyer — must use your own judgement, not mine. I have been satisfied as a customer of Software Geeks (softwaregeeks.co.uk), but they have competitors and it might be foolish to ignore them.

Getting help

Although this procedure is quite straightforward, digital beginners can easily get lost. However, our drop-in volunteers can probably help you — provided you are already comfortable buying online with a credit or debit card.

If you are a Windows user, our volunteers might also point out that …

  • Open-source LibreOffice Writer (libreoffice.org/discover/writer) would probably meet all your word-processing requirements — and it’s free.
  • All versions of Windows since 1995 have included a simple word-processor named Wordpad — so if your needs are basic and you don’t need a spellchecker, you already have what you are looking for.

End-of-2018 party

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Celebrate survival — one more year

Friday afternoon, 2 pm, 21 December, at Whitmore Community Centre

What sort of party?

Look at some of the party videos on page Blasts from the Past — they just happened naturally — so that is what we have in mind at the moment. Music delivery by Haggerston DJ Sister Teresa.

Who is invited?

  • You and everybody else — past, present and future droppers-in, podcasters, volunteers, helpers, friends, family 🙂

Is party booze allowed?

  • WCC management say: “Yes – but don’t make a mess, and please take your bottles away with you”.

DWP home visits

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The DWP have published a flyer for people who have difficulty accessing their services. Here’s an extract …

DWP Partnerships Team aims to develop efficient and effective public services which support the most vulnerable in our communities.

DWP Visiting provides face-to-face contact, through home visits or appointments at suitable premises, for customers who are vulnerable and unable to access the Department’s services through any other channel, such as telephony, post or online.

We are also here to help vulnerable people who are unable to access our services independently. Our officers will quickly check your entitlements and complete all the necessary paperwork and forms.

And here’s a link to the document, which you can download and read yourself …