Wordprocessing Software for Senior's

Retired people do not generally use Oracle Databases, PAYE, ACC or GST associated software so their Office software should not include Microsoft office, Open office of Corel office suites. They need something that can read the extensive range of different types of Doc's. One way is to use something like Abiword which just strips out the text, tables and pictures and displays them without using the formatting. This is more useful than a dialogue box saying 'Can't read this File'. Abiword is also a simple word processor that just writes text with different fonts and puts images in the Document.

It has all the usual basic features and can save your Document in PDF format so other users can display and print it correctly. There is no support for wordart or similarly useless features. Can be used as a portable application and is totally free for Windows, Linux and Mac computers. Will run well on old computers.


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Touch screen 'SWYPE'

Swype instead of Type. Start by pressing on the 'S' and slide past the 'W' without lifting your finger. Then slide past the 'Y', 'P' and then the 'E'. Now lift your finger. The computer will have worked out the word as 'SWYPE'. Much easier than pressing keys. A space between words is not needed as the pressing and lifting of the finger indicates the length of the word. This only works on a touch screen and is available for Nokia and Android devices. iPad will soon join them.

Portable Apps

These are Applications that can be run on any Windows machine but can be run from a Thumb drive. The program has its own library files and only requires Windows to give it access to the Video, Sound, Printer, Scanner and Network. Windows itself is not modified and the Registry not used. Only free software can be used in this way as the prgrams can be copied or shifted from PC to PC. It generates its own Onscreen menu. There are about 200 available applications including Open office, Firefox, Picassa and Irfanview.

Peppermint Ice

Designed to run everything in the cloud from a Thumb drive. Boot speed is very fast without any preliminary setup. Network, Video and sound all automatically detected. Used for Internet Browsing, E-mail, Document writing and Picture Editing. The Programs for these are held and updated on a remote server. Truly Maintenance free computing on a low powered PC. Install to a hard drive is an option.