WLPL Tech

Our public access computers should handle your Microsoft Office files without a problem. If you’re creating a file on our computers and want to use them in Microsoft Office at school, work, home or any other place that doesn’t use OpenOffice, it’s easy to save in a Microsoft format. You just need to use “Save As…” instead of just “Save”.

1. Go to the File menu and select “Save As…”

2. Enter the name for your file. You can also select where you want to save the file.

3. Click the triangle/arrow next to File type

4. Select the file type. In this case it’s for the Microsoft Word 97/2000 and XP versions.

5. Then click on the Save button.

Since things look a little different in Linux Mint, this post shows how ejecting a disc looks on the Mint desktop.

There is a CD icon on the desktop that looks like this when there is a CD loaded.

Click the icon with your right mouse button and select ‘Eject’ from the menu that pops up.

The public access computers in the lower level have a different Linux distribution installed on them. This one is Linux Mint 3.0. This is a copy of an earlier post with modifications for the new operating system.

Web Browser: We had Mozilla Firefox on the old computers and recommended using it over Internet Explorer. Firefox follows web standards more closely than Internet Explorer and causes fewer problems with viruses and spyware.

Word Processor: We had OpenOffice on some of the old computers. It uses an open standard document format that makes using your files easier on other systems. Microsoft Office products need a plugin to use the files created in the Open Document format, but OpenOffice products can save and read Microsoft Office formats. If you plan to use your documents on other computers, it would be a good idea to save in both the OpenOffice and Microsoft Office formats. That way you can use the files on a computer with Microsoft Office, but no Open Document plugin. OpenOffice Writer can use files from Microsoft Word. Other programs that come with OpenOffice are a presentation program called Impress and a spreadsheet application called Calc that are compatible with PowerPoint and Excel.

We have the icons for Firefox, Google Earth and Openoffice Writer on the desktop and in the taskbar. You can find the rest of OpenOffice and more in the ‘Programs’ menu.

There is a CD icon on the desktop that looks like this when there is a CD loaded.

Click the icon with your right mouse button and select ‘Eject’ from the menu that pops up.

The new computers are out and things are a little different. Instead of Windows, they’re running Linux. For most of you there won’t be a big difference. Two of the things you need to know about are the web browser and the word processor and other office software.

Web Browser: We had Mozilla Firefox on the old computers and recommended using it over Internet Explorer. Firefox follows web standards more closely than Internet Explorer and causes fewer problems with viruses and spyware. The new computers don’t have Internet Explorer.

Word Processor: We had OpenOffice on some of the old computers. It uses an open standard document format that makes using your files easier on other systems. Microsoft Office products need a plugin to use the files created in the Open Document format, but OpenOffice products can save and read Microsoft Office formats. If you plan to use your documents on other computers, it would be a good idea to save in both the OpenOffice and Microsoft Office formats. That way you can use the files on a computer with Microsoft Office, but no Open Document plugin. OpenOffice Writer can use files from Microsoft Word. Other programs that come with OpenOffice are a presentation program called Impress and a spreadsheet application called Calc that are compatible with PowerPoint and Excel.

We have the icons for Firefox and Openoffice Writer on the desktop and in the taskbar. You can find the rest of OpenOffice and more in the ‘Start’ menu.