Affordable Computing

SECOND DRAFT

Using a computer in your jobsearch is pretty much a requirement these days, the newspaper and a typewriter would be severely limiting.

Last week we discussed this at the Maple Hts Library Job Club, here are some notes in case you missed it.

Basic Needs

You need a Computer, an Internet Connection, Office Software, a Printer, and a Flash Drive.  If you are new to computers, check out the courses at the library.

Computer

Computers are run by Operating Systems (OS), Windows being the most common.  Other OSes are Mac OS, iOS (iPad), Android (tablets).  If you are well versed in an non-Windows system it can serve your needs, if you don't have a computer, you'll find the Windows platform most common and easiest to get help on.  Tablets (iPad and Android) while popular are more limited than their full service alternatives (Windows & Mac OS).

Anything before Windows XP is very old, Win XP SP3 is a reasonable alternative, Vista had problems and performance issues, Win 7 is current, the upcoming Win 8 is likely to suffer from the same issues as Vista did.

A refurbished desktop is likely the cheapest, but has the disadvantage of not being portable and leaving you tethered to your home.  Building your own desktop is only financially viable in today's market if you are building a high performance computer.  Low cost computers operate on very thin profit margins and are cheaper than the sum of their parts.  The one possible exception is upgrading an existing computer.  If you are short on memory or storage, these upgrades easy and cheap.  Upgrading a processor is more expensive and complex.

A refurbished laptop will be a bit more expensive, but has the major advantage of being portable.  Performance issues are a higher risk on refurbished laptops and you should carefully review that vs a low end new device.  Using an AMD chip will reduce cost. A Netbook, if you can find it, is a cheaper alternative than a laptop.  It doesn't perform as well, has a smaller keyboard and no optical drive, but it has longer battery life,

MicroCenter at SOM & Mayfield Rds is the most reliable source of refurbished equipment locally.  Microsoft marketing rules will often force dealers to use a new OS (Win 7) which could present a challenge to older hardware.

Internet Connection

These days broadband is a must, dialup may work in a pinch, but its performance will cause frustration. ATT DSL may be your cheapest option with its "basic" (slowest) DSL service (which is still 10 times faster than dialup).  The ATT DSL can be obtained with a "2Wire" router that provides basic wireless service (but it uses the less secure WEP standard).  Cable providers are faster and more expensive and typically do not provide wireless, causing you to buy a router and configure it.

When setting up a home wireless network be sure to enable security, at least WEP and hopefully WPA2.

Dialup requires a modem and many newer laptops don't have it.  Wireless is built into any newer laptop but could be added with a USB to an older computer.

Public Internet is abundant at restaurants, coffee shops and the library.  In a pinch you could work offline at home and go to a public spot to go online.

Office Software

Microsoft Office is the most widely used software and you should know how to use it as a basic requirement for most jobs today.  That may be reason enough to obtain it.  If you don't have a license  it will cost $100 for one computer or $150 for three computers.  Maybe a friend or relative has an unused license.  If this is beyond your budget you can use the free OpenOffice and it will be do what you need but will operate slightly differently.  You can use MS Office at the library for learning its specifics.

Google Docs is also an option, but I've found that its formatting can be more problematic than OpenOffice.  Google Docs also requires you to be online, while Open Office can be used offline.

MicroSoft also has a lightweight online version of it's Office Suite (I haven't evaluated this yet).  MicroSoft is also offering a lightweight version of Office on new PCs.

Printer

The dream of paperless remains a dream, so you will have to print at some point.  Limited printing can be done at the library or Employment Connections, but if your needs are consistently greater than 10 pages / day, then you may need your own printer.

Printers are cheap, but their SUPPLIES ARE NOT!  Your biggest challenge is to figure out the cost of ownership of the printer, not just its cost.  Basic inkjets will be cheapest.  All in ones that include scanning and possibly fax will cost more to buy and and will be about the same cost as an inkjet to operate.  Laser printers cost more than inkjets, the cartridges are expensive but typically last much longer than inkjet cartridges.

Other Software

Consider Open Source Software or freeware, it's free, and very competitive with commercial software.  Some examples are OpenOffice described above, GIMP is a full featured photo editor like Photoshop, Dia is a full featured diagramming tool like Viso, Paint.Net (PDN) a full featured paint program with layers, similar to photoshop but with emphasis on paint vs photo.  Pririform offers very useful Windows utilities.

Cloud Solutions can be useful for easy access from anywhere.  Look at Evernote, Dropbox, and Xmarks as useful tools for your job search.  Also watch for a post on this topic.

Storage

You should have some form of portable storage to transfer files when using another computer at the Library or Employment Connections.

Flash drives are cheap and easy for having portable storage so you can always have your resume and jobsearch documents handy.  You should backup your flash drive to your computer regularly in the event you would lose it.  You can also put a file in the root directory in case someone finds it, you can start the file with an exclamation point "!" so it sorts to the top and call it something like "!ReadMe1st.txt" or "!Owner.txt" or something similar.

Tablets

The Apple iPad with its iOS reinvented computing and showed MicroSoft what that a tablet computer wasn't just a laptop with a touch screen and some writing recognition software.  It has spurned a new industry, entered first by Google with its Android OS and likely to entered by MicorSoft with Win 8 Metro soon.

You can browse and even get a keyboard for a tablet, but it is a different platform than a PC with its own pros and cons.  These thin devices are using a mobile processor that can handle browsing and basic office functions but larger challenges of full featured PC software are not likely to do well.  Tablets are the ultimate in portable and can be used easily in the class room or during meetings.  Their app interface model allows quick and convenient checking of weather, social media status etc that requires a browser on a PC.  A netbook, which also uses another mobile (Atom) processor is also very portable and uses a keyboard rather than touch screen.  To get a portable full strength processor you'd need an ultrabook (another Apple innovation, the Macbook Air) but these are on the high end of the cost spectrum.

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File Viewers

Many people know you should have the Adobe Reader to read PDF files. Maybe it was pre-installed on your PC. If it is old you can visit that web site to get a new version.

One of the difficult transitional issues is MS Office 2003 vs 2007. If you have an older version of MS Office you may not be able to read files created in the newer version. This is why I recommend that you save files in the previous MS Office 97-2003 format. But you don't necessarily have control of what file format you receive. And if you receive a 2007 file from a perspective employer it may be embarrassing to tell them you can't read it (not even at the resource centers).

If you have MS Office XP or 2003 you can update your product to be able to understand the 2007 formats by following the directions here. A less intrusive solution is to install the MS Office viewers - Word, Excel, Powerpoint.

These viewers are very large and can not be efficiently downloaded over dialup. If you don't have a high speed link then goto a resource center or library, download these to a flash drive and then install them on your home PC.

Another thing you may want to do is a search on each viewer to see if their are functional or security updates for any of them. You can do this search from the top of the pages I have linked above. The very top search box is for the web, use the second search box under the heading "Download Center" after the "Search All Downloads" box. Click on release date to sort, new security fixes won't be high on the default popularity post.

Side note: I got this post idea from a page at the Ohio LMI site, but before I posted it, I saw that two of the links were backlevel to 2003, so I looked up the newer file viewers.

PDFs

The Adobe Portable Document is a widespread standard that ensures the recipient will see the file the same way you did. PDF is standard format that is device independent. It allows you to send files that everyone can read and that can’t be edited. The full Adobe product is comprehensive and expensive. An alternative is to use a PDF Print Driver to produce PDF documents.

One such product can be obtained at no charge from http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Download CUTEPDF Writer and Converter. Install the Converter first then CUTEPDF. You will now have a new driver and may choose it to create a PDF file. You will see a Save As dialog box to specify the name of the PDF file.

If you have the newest MS Office 2007 you can click Save as, then "Find Add-Ins for other File Formats" from any MS Office program. An Office Help menu will open and it will contain a link to the download page. The Microsoft Genuine Office validation will be invoked to ensure you have a properly licensed product on the PC you are downloading too. This requires that you use Internet Explorer and Allow an ActiveX to be installed. After your license is validated you will be returned to the download page and can download and install. Installing this update once applies to all Office products. You can then Save As in PDF or Microsoft's XPS format (competition to PDF). PDF is much more widely available than XPS.

The advantage of the PDF Print Driver is that it works with any product.

Computer Skills

Today, computer skills are needed for nearly every job. Not having basic computer skills is like not having a high school diploma. Luckily, there are many ways to obtain these skills at little or no cost. The trouble is many people who use a computer may have poor habits that are not up to workplace expectations.

There are so many stereotypes, don't be one of them. If you are a young video gamer, that doesn't make you computer competent. You may be an expert in your field or have many pre-PC methods for dealing with things, that doesn't mean you can avoid using PCs properly. Certain segments of Lawyers seem particularly prone to this, but when it takes 5 times longer to produce an unmaintainable document or when spreadsheets contain errors, an outside observer can see this is a serious business problem. Just because someone is an older worker doesn't mean they can't learn PC skills, nor should they think they can slide to retirement without needing them.

Basics

Everyone should be comfortable with the basics, USB connection, small flash (thumb) drives, mouse use, windows menus and shortcuts, cut and paste, task switching, etc. Take the time to actually learn these skills.

Internet

The Internet is a critical and very helpful skill. The Internet isn't just for surfing, its a powerful research and communication tool. Understanding how to do advanced searches, understanding major resources to go to first rather than a general search, and knowing about online networking (LinkedIn), publishing (Blogs), and forums (Groups) at a minimum will help you get the most from this tool.

The Internet is a very dynamic structure and new functions and techniques are introduced at an astounding pace. That means you have to keep learning and exploring it so you aren't using yesterday's methods.

If you are a long time Internet Explorer user, tabbed browsing may be unfamiliar. Get used to this feature.

Use the right tool

Do you swat flies with a baseball bat, drive screws with a hammer? No? Stupid? Then why do people use Excel for to produce tables of text? Or try to use Excel as a relational database (RDB)? Sometimes you have to bend the tool a bit, but knowing several tools and fully how to use them, helps you pick the best one and achieve the best results.

Word

Mastery of word processing is helpful as you create customized correspondence for your job search. But don't confuse word processing with a typewriter, it is much more.

Take the time to learn to use Word effectively. The outline feature (remember writing papers for high school) helps you organize thoughts, work on segments of the document, and restructure the document as needed. In order to use this feature, simply use the HEADING n styles and then you can view your document in Outline format. You can select how deep the levels are displayed.

Know how to find, use, and make your own templates and styles. Think about your document in advance, a little pre-planning can produce a much better document in less time. The big payoff is a more maintainable document.

When you format a paragraph, you can define a style based on it. Why is this better than the format painter? Well if you change your mind or need to adjust something, you just redefine the style and all the paragraphs of that style adopt the new format.

When positioning text, don't use the tab, space, and enter keys endlessly, use the options on the format paragraph to indent, hanging indent (for the lines other than the first), and the skip before and after. Use the P icon to show the control characters so you can see behind the scenes.

Excel

As you want to consider job offers, bills, budgeting, a spreadsheet is well suited for this task. Excel can also be used as a simple flat database for tracking issues related to your job search.

Just because you are using a spreadsheet doesn't ensure correct answers. If you tell Excel to do something wrong, it will !

Use formulas, don't calculate things outside of the spreadsheet. Hidden columns and calculations are OK, they can help ensure that the data and calculations are correct. Important variables should be in named cells, sheets should have meaningful names.

Learn and use auditing techniques. Data validation, cell protection, tracing precedents, =IF checking, cross totals, conditional formating and charts. There are many functions that are useful. You should become familiar with what's available.

Do you have several possibilities? Then setup control variables and use the Scenario Manager Add-In Tool to name, define, and select various scenarios rather than duplicating sheets and introducing errors and inconsistency.

Advanced Excel

Depending on your job field, advanced excel features may be useful. One of the advanced features are the flat database features (V & H Lookup, D Functions). If you are using these functions you should learn relational database functionality so that you can understand Excel's limitations and when another tool should be used. See Database paragraph below.

Another powerful and complex feature is the pivot table for summarizing and drilling down to detail of large data tables.

Become familiar with latest usage techniques such as management dashboard reporting.

Database

People often use Excel as a simple flat, tabular database. But real database technology is much more powerful. Sometimes this is called relational database (RDB) technology. The idea is that rather than a single row as a record, a database is made up of record segments that are connected by a key or ID. Why does that matter? In a "flat" database of rows the record segments can only have a 1 to 1 relation and all the info has to be in a row. In a RDB, the record segments are not confined to a 1 to 1 relationship, they can have a 1 to many, and the info does not have to be repeated for every row.

An Example -- Consider keeping track of orders. You have customers, who place orders, which consist of individual products or services. What would you put in the record or row, the entire order? If you did you'd repeat company info for each order and you'd have an unknown number of columns for multiple items on the order.

In a RDB, there would be four separate records linked together. Each customer would have a customer number (key, index, ID) that would contain info about the customer (name, address, contact...). Each order would have an Order Number, a customer number, and info about the entire order (shipping address, order date, fulfillment status). Each product ordered would link to the order number, shipping status (date, shipped/back ordered). The last record type would contain a product number and the product details like a description, price, quantity on hand.

Some of the major power of RDBs is the ability to write complex queries that feed report templates that produce just the info you want in the format you want it in. So what do you want to know? How many customers ordered a certain product? Which customers haven't ordered anything in a while? How often do customers order and which customers are over due to order? What products are most/least popular? Trying to do this in Excel would be impossible.

Microsoft's personal product is called Access and it is rather expensive. An alternative is to use OpenOffice's BASE component at no cost. Microsoft's business product is called SQL Server (Structured Query Language). A free business product alternative would be MySQL.

Status: Second Draft - Last Updated 12/07/08 2:40 AM

Alternatives to Microsoft

I personally don’t like Microsoft software and often look to Open Source or other authors for lower priced, better quality solutions.

Office

Microsoft has finally made Office more affordable so that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can be obtained for less than $150 (for personal use). These are the industry standards and are recommended if affordable.

If you are using the latest Office 2007, be aware that many companies have not converted to it, so you may want to save files in the previous Office 97-2003 format. If you are using the more popular Office XP or 2003, you can look at Microsoft's web site to find viewers to allow you to read the latest 2007 files.

However OpenOffice is a free alternative that not only proves to be fairly compatible, it also includes an Access like database (which would be very expensive on its own). OpenOffice V2 is compatible with Office for XP while the newly available V3 is compatible to the latest Office 2007.

Install OpenOffice in Microsoft compatibility mode so files can be exchanged with Microsoft users. One notable option missing in the OpenOffice V2 word processor is the Outline feature which is very useful for building larger documents and reports. There are also minor differences in functions available in the spreadsheet.

Email

Microsoft Outlook Express is the most frequently used email but has its short comings and security flaws. Eudora is the major competitor to MS Outlook and is a great alternative. To get the best spam reduction with Baysian Filters you will need the paid version of Eudora. The next best alternative is Mozilla Thunderbird at no cost.

Browser

Until recently MS Internet Explorer was very behind its competitors. Mozilla Firefox has strong security and a wide variety of enhancements. Opera is another very worthy IE alternative and has a unique email client built in.

NotePad ++

Microsoft’s NotePad application is primitive, this simple free notepad replacement has improved features, including tabbed files, remembering open tabs on next invocation, code highlighting, enhanced Search, and advanced TextFX.

Goto http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm