Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Foto Flexer Review

Image Editor

The Image Editor I reviewed was Foto Flexer.  At first I was in more of a paint program concept and found that it did not allow some of the simple paint commands.  I than realized it was more of a photo editor.  Foto Flexer is an all on-line image editor.  You must upload your picture to the site or share one from other photo-sharing sites.  It will share with Flickr, Picasa, and numerous others.

The basics include auto fix, which did a OK job at fixing lightness and contrast.  Red Eye, crop, copy, and resize is included and works like any other editor that I have seen.  It offers some affects which add some flare to pictures.  Decorate has some normal functions like text, stickers, draw, erase, fill, and grab color, but no shapes like squares and circles.  A few animations are available for twinkling stars and like wise.  Some advance features are available, you can select and cut into layers for mixing of photos.

Annoying ads do keep popping up at the top, if you are in full screen it will change you back to part screen so you can see their ad.

Foto Flexer would be a good start at learning to use image editors and works well for basic fixes and playing around with pictures. It does lack the depth of expensive editors and would only teach the basics.  The best part is that it is free, with out any annoying request to upgrade.

Zoho Office Suite Review

Review of Office Suite

I decide to review Zoho, an on-line office suite.  At first I was going to do Google Doc, but I have not been that happy with their word processor.  It is great for storing documents written else where, but not that great for writing them.  I took this chance to review something new.  Zoho looks a little like Microsoft word, which I use regularly.  I wrote this review using Zoho Writer.  Zoho has three part.  Zoho Writer - Word Processor, Zoho Sheet - Spreadsheet, and Zoho Show - presentation program.

Zolo Writer is a basic word processor that does contain more functions than I expect for a free on-line service.  The Word like interface is easy to use.  Zolo has many formats, but not nearly as many as Word. The Insert tab does have some easy to use math functions that I have not found in Word. Two features that I see as a must, it has, Spell Check and Thesaurus.  Both seem easy to use and functional.  One feature I miss from Word is grammar check and the add-on that I have added like Text to speech, a great way to proof read your paper.  The Share tab shows promise and I will check this out when I post this to my Blog.  Overall Writer does not stand up to the expensive Word, but it is good little program at great cost, free.

Zolo Sheet is their Spreadsheet. It does the basic functions that a spreadsheet needs to do.  It has a large amount of functions and creates a number of graphs.  It also has some basic sorting and data functions.  This could be a good starting point for learning about spreadsheet use for basic needs.

Zoho Show is Zohos Presentation.  Of the three, Show has the farthess to go.  It still very basic. 

Zoho Office Suite does not stand up to Microsoft for a finished product.  I note that it is still in beta.  It is kind of like where Microsoft was a few years back.  Zoho does show more promise for internet sharing of files.  If you are looking for a professional presentation or document stick with the expensive product.  If you looking for a everyday, type a letter, add up some numbers, or presentation to show friends, than Zolo is a good free solution.


Friday, April 2, 2010

Google Site Website

Click on the Title to goto my website on a work-related project on the transition of the current syllabus for adjust of new avionics in the Cirrus Aircraft.

The website will be used to keep track of required work and a timeline to complete a syllabus change. The site themes included many good elements to keep track of problems, progress, and comments.

Thursday, April 1, 2010