<p>Over the past 25 years we have had various experiences with computer software in our business.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Over the last couple of years we have investigated and used more free software that is often called &quot;<layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-0" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-0"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-0" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;">Open</layer></layer></layer> Source Software.&quot;&nbsp; And some softward is offered as a free initial gift, hoping you will upgrade. There are lots reason why companies and people might be&nbsp; motivated to promote free software.&nbsp; The main thing is that if it can efficiently help you get more work done, more efficiently.</p>
<p>In the summer of 2009,&nbsp; Cla Allgood was asked to do a presentation on &quot;Celebrating Water in the Landscape&quot;&nbsp; for the International Water Garden Society (IWGS) at their annual convention in Chicago.&nbsp; During the presentation, Cla volunteered to post on the Allgood Outdoors website the&nbsp; various free programs&nbsp; that he has used.&nbsp; Hopefull the following list might be of benefit to homeowners, hobbyist and other professionals.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Some of these programs are maybe a little clunkier than there slick commercial counterparts.&nbsp; But then they are free and no one is constantly changing them to make you buy the latest <layer style="background-color: Dodgerblue; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-8">version</layer>.&nbsp; That is part of the motivation at Allgood Outdoors, is to have a tool that does not have new learning curve to figure out the new buttons every 12 months.&nbsp; To our knowledge all of these programs are clean, meaning that they do not install any ads or other problems. The following programs are not in any particular order.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><big><strong>Open Office</strong></big><br />
<img height="113" width="626" alt="" src="/files/OpenOffice(1).jpg" /></p>
<p class="rtecenter"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-1" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-1"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-1" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;">Open</layer></layer></layer> <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-5" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-5"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-5" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;">Office</layer></layer></layer> - This software is a large program and is a &quot;free man's&quot;&nbsp; Microsoft <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-6" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-6" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-6"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-6" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;">Office Suite</layer></layer></layer></layer>.&nbsp; The standard installation will intall a word processor (like MS Word,) a spread sheet (like MS Excel,) a presentation program (like MS PowerPoint) and a graphics drawing program (like Corel Draw or <layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-1"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-1" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-1">Adobe</layer></layer></layer> Illustrator.)&nbsp; Like most <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-2" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-2"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-2" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;">open</layer></layer></layer> source software the program is developed by people who are trying to do a good thing and it is heavily backed by Sun Micrsosystem - a large player in the computer world.&nbsp; This program will save you about $400.00, the <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-0"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-0" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-0">price</layer></layer></layer> of a legitimate MS <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-7" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-7"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-7" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;">Office</layer></layer></layer> program.&nbsp; You can learn more about <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-3" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-3"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-3" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;">Open</layer></layer></layer> <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-8" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-8" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-8"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-8" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;">Office</layer></layer></layer></layer> and download the program here:<br />
<strong><big><br />
Gimp</big></strong><br />
<img height="143" width="200" src="/files/GIMPSmalll.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-0">Gimp</layer> - A very strange name. This program is a photo imaging program like <layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-2"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-2" style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Cyan; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-2">Adobe</layer></layer></layer> <layer style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-3"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-3" style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-3">Photoshop</layer></layer></layer>.&nbsp; Use the word &quot;like&quot; is being used a little loosely.&nbsp; It has very many abilitites and an experience user could produce anything that a <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-4" style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-4">Photoshop</layer></layer> expert could produce.&nbsp; The program just might have you push an extra button or two to make it happen.&nbsp; The main strange thing about this program (besides the name) is that it kind of has three different boxes that just float around on the screen.&nbsp; If you are the sort of person who does graphics everyday and will scream &quot;hurry up!&quot; at a microwave oven - then <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-1">Gimp</layer> may not be for you.&nbsp; But if you want to do some really cool things to photos, like see what certain tree would look like infront of yur house but you don't want to spend $350.00 on a <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-6" style="background-color: Chartreuse; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Chartreuse; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-6">full</layer></layer> <layer style="background-color: Dodgerblue; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-9">version</layer> of <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-5" style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Fuchsia; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-5">Photoshop</layer></layer>, then <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-2">Gimp</layer> might be ideal.&nbsp; There are many tutorials for <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-3">Gimp</layer> on YouTube if you wnat to see in detail what it can do.&nbsp; You can get <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-4">Gimp</layer> here:</p>
<p>Sketcher -&nbsp; This program is brought to you by Google.&nbsp; We were alkready using it before Google made a basic <layer style="background-color: Dodgerblue; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-10">version</layer> of it free to the world.&nbsp; This program is the program where you can really lift your designs up in 3D and then walk through them or fly around them to see how you fill about your ideas.&nbsp; If you wanted to you could save your Sketcher output as a JPG file and <layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-4" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-4" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;"><layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-4"><layer id="google-toolbar-hilite-4" style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;">open</layer></layer></layer></layer> the JPG up in <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-5">Gimp</layer> to add realistice touches.&nbsp; While Sketcher does not replace Autocad for us, it did replace 3D Studio which is at least a $2,000.00 program.&nbsp; Does it do everything 3D Studio can do - no way.&nbsp; But it does enough to get some excellent design visualization.&nbsp; You can get Sketcher here:</p>
<p>Irfanview - We are not sure what Irfanview replaces.&nbsp; But it is one really nimble program for handling photographs.&nbsp; You can rename a couple hundred all at once, you can make a simple slide show, you can rotate a picture, you can resize a picture.&nbsp; The program is really small and we often use this program as our default image handler.&nbsp; It also plays most videos.&nbsp; A whole lot of people use Irfanview, so we can't be too wrong about it.&nbsp; You can find Irfanview here:<br />
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Screen Grab Pro - This program comes from Traction Software and they hope you will upgrade to not free but still inexpensive enhanced <layer style="background-color: Dodgerblue; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-11">version</layer>.&nbsp; For us the free <layer style="background-color: Dodgerblue; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-12">version</layer> does a lot.&nbsp; The program basically takes a snap shot of you computer screen.&nbsp; You hit a button, drag a box anywhere on the screen you want and save it as a new image.&nbsp; This program get used a lot in conjunction with <layer style="background-color: Yellow; color: black;" id="google-toolbar-hilite-6">Gimp</layer> when we are pulling information off the internet or other images.&nbsp; We don't know how much money it saves, but it save aggravation weekly.&nbsp; You can find Screen Grab Pro Here:</p>
<p>Drupal<br />
Autocad statement<br />
Google Image Search<br />
Pipe Sizing<br />
Water Garden Supply Glossary</p>
<p>Animoto<br />
PicWings<br />
Google Tool Online<br />
Flickr.com<br />
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