ETS/DR Looking To Upgrade Software

Friends,

I am migrating to a newer desktop computer, not without a host of fun and games, <sigh> but that's the way it goes. It was pointed out to me that some of the software I'm using is more than a few versions old. <~> One won't even run on Windows XP, or so it tells me. Some of the software needed was gotten through www.Techsoup.org as a non-profit at affordable prices, but so far these others noted below seem unavailable at the same sort of non-profit price structure. As there's very limited funds available for upgrades and the like, I thought I would take a shot at requesting software here. Some upgrades are totally out of reach, others are more affordable, but I can live with what I have rather than spend the money. Those Scots got nothing on me. <g> The following is the software I'd like to get with the current version I'm running. If you have upgraded to a current version and have a prior version (still newer than mine) or one of the alternatives where indicated that you can provide (disk with registration/serial number), or some other means to assist in this regard, please email me at [email]dritter@equipped.org.[/email] These are all programs I use for ETS work.

Adobe Acrobat 4.0 (Not the free reader!)
Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Act 4.0
Pagis Pro 2.0 (or any more current good OCR program)
ACDSee 5.0
Vegas Video 3.0 (or any newer full-featured video program)

Thanks much,

Regarding Adobe Acrobat: There is a program called pdf 995 that does a far better job generating pdf files from Windows, including directly from Word. You can use it for free and registering it only costs $10. I regularly use it on complex, technical documents (filled with math, figures, and tables) and it always provides better quality output than does Acrobat.

It's not on your list, but if you'd like a brand new, shrink-wrapped copy of Adobe Illustrator, let me know and I'll send it to you.

Fitzoid,

I believe I tried pdf995 and pdf995edit before, as well as some other PDF tools, and it turned out not to be 100% compatible with Adobe Acrobat. One thing we use Acrobat for is for drafting and commenting on various standards committees I work on. Seems that I recall it didn't work for that, but I will check it out again.

Regarding Illustrator. I suppose it comes under the never know when it could come in handy section. <g>

Thanks,

Or try open office, I've been using it for the last year or so. It will save directly to pdf.

Thanlks for the suggestion. We use Acrobat for a lot more than just converting Word and Office files. For compatibility reasons, I'm sticking with MS Office, even though I am no fan of MS. Every time I try to use something else I have even worse headaches. Even MS programs aren't 100% compatible, as I have unfortunately discovered with Powerpoint 2003. <sigh> YMMV.

Did you really mean Acrobat 4.0? (The current version is 7.0)

If so, I just found my old copy of 5.0, which I do not use anymore. It's yours, if you'd like it!

Also, instead of ACDSee, have you considered picasa? It's free, from Google, and very well-reviewed.

Yep! Hey, only upgraded from 2.0 a year ago. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />



That would be great, unless someone comes up with newer, thanks.



I'll check it out, thanks. Generally, changing software has to provide considerable benefit to be worth learning entirely new systems, but I've done it before.

FWIW, if the Acrobat 4.0 is working OK for how you are using it, I'm not sure I would change it. I use Acrobat a fair amount, but it turns out pretty much the only feature I am actually using is the ability to turn a document into a PDF. If you look at the "improvements" listed between the various versions, they are mostly new features that most of us never user.

I've used an old copy of 4.0 for a long time without problems. It's a very useful program, but the price is quite steep for how most people actually use it.

Also note that Acrobat 7.0 Standard has an upgrade and version 4.0 is a valid version to use for the upgrade. The upgrade is about $99.

-john

John,

We use Acrobat for a lot more than just converting documents to PDF format. If that's all we did, we'd probably use some cheaper substitute. $99 is a lot of money if we can get something for free. If we can upgrade, great. If we cannot, we'll continue to use what we have. The ETS Foundation does not have a large bankroll (heck, we don't even have a small one, how about "micro" sized? <~>) and we must be extremely frugal with what we do have, in part because of an obligation I feel towards those who are generous with their support. Less than 1% of those who visit the ETS site contribute anything to support the site.

I own Photoshop 6.0 and use it regularly on Windows XP. I've also spent some time with someone else's Photoshop CS2 (the latest version), and could see little real improvement. It has a new heal brush, and a prettier interface, which is nice, but it mostly it just seemed to be big, slow, & forever to launch.

I'm sticking with 6.0 on my machine. There isn't $150 worth of improvement in CS2, and it works perfectly with XP.

Depending on what you're doing, there is GIMP, the Graphic Image Manipulation Program. Someone actually has done a "hack" that makes all of the menu items look and act like Photoshop.

As a non-profit, you may wish to try Open Office, which can save to Word format, but sometimes the formatting is off.

FYI, the State of Massachussetts has deemed non-open sourced proprietary file formats are not permitted any longer in State Government, as there is no guarantee that corporate owned file formats are going to be universally acceptable in the future. I.E. (no pun intendended... Microsoft could design to require licensing of the .doc format)

If you decide to go Linux (which none of these programs specifically require Linux, most have Windows binary versions...), you might find that things run faster. It does however require some more intermediate knowledge to setup and run.

Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I prefer to stick with mainstream programs for which there is plenty of support online and localy, plus compataibility issues are a major concern.

The GIMP and OpenOffice are both mainstream programs and have plenty of community support. As far as compatibility goes you will have compatibility issues using a different version of MS word than someone else so you that will be an issue no matter what.

I think your definition of mainstream and mine differ somewhat. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Thanks.