After using PagePlus for over a month, I’ve had some time to acquaint myself with its quirks and advantages.

Advantages:

It’s free! You can’t beat a free program that provides the flexibility you need to do all kinds of publishing. There are a number of free templates that you can download online. The layout options, though different than Publisher, are fairly diverse and provide options for brochures, newsletters, etc. The program itself runs very well, never slowing down the computer like Publisher often does. There are tons of fonts to choose from and you basically have all of the text editing tools that you could think of.

Disadvantages:

It did crash when I tried to import a .wmf clipart file I found on the Net and again when I tried to import either a .bmp or .gif (I can’t remember which)…But I have been able to download .jpg files. Make sure you save often! Layering text boxes can be a bit tricky and frustrating. If you figured out Publisher, you should be able to navigate it nonetheless. The templates are a bit limited, but you can customize them if you have the patience.
There is more I could say, but this gives you a glimpse of PagePlus. It’s worth downloading and playing with it. The money you save by not purchasing Publisher makes it worth a slight learning curve.

I’m working on adding some more open source links. Since I’m a mere beginner in the world of HTML, the formatting is a bit rough at some points, but all in all, it’s a fairly user-friendly page. The spacing was just a little crazy at times.

If you happen to know of any open source links, please feel free to post them there. My particular focus is on the needs of individuals, non-profit organizations, and some small businesses. While image editing software can be a ton of fun, my primary interest is in finding ways to cut the costs of non-profits while keeping them from lagging behind technologically.

My favorite open source program so far is gmail. In fact, it’s so popular that I think it’s still invitation only. Let me know if you’re interested and I will send you an invite.  I also love the free pdf makers out there. It’s nice to be able to save $300 bucks when you don’t have to purchase Adobe pagemaker. Though Open Office is a briliant program, I work in an organization that uses Mircrosoft Office, so there could be some major hang ups when sharing files with one another.

Check out the Open Source section of this site for my list in-progress.