We've Moved!

Welcome to Frugal Guidance. This blog is no longer being expanded. But feel free to visit us at Frugal Guidance 2.. The new blog is a self-hosted Wordpress blog and will be expanding with new material, email lists, and even marketing a new version  of Andrew Brandt's book about job hunting on LinkedIn. We'll also be updating some of the material we presented here, too.

You may still browse our older posts, but please visit us for new material about technology, social media, job hunting and their intersection with frugality.

Our first new posts:

11 Job Hunting Tips, Gangnam Style

LinkedIn Endorsements, Cool Feature or a Really  Bad Idea?

Thanks to all who have visited us here, and we look forward to seeing you at the new site. Leave a comment and let us know that you stopped by.

And thanks to Google and Blogger for hosting this site.

Frugal Guidance 2.

Questions? Email me.

Andy

Packing boxes graphic courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Part 11, Free and Cheap Software for the SOHO Office

Zeal for Zoho for SOHO

Part B - Looking at the basic applications

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In Part A we examined the extensive list of Zoho applications and how Zoho can coordinate with Google apps. Now we review some of Zoho's specific applications for individual, small office, nonprofit and frugal workers.
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Zoho Writer


​Although Zoho’s Writer has been around for years, the newest version is still in beta testing , so it has more features, but they might not all be well documented. One apparent bug is that the Zoho menus on top of the page disappear when opening an older document, but reappear when you select a new document (at least in Chrome).


One of my favorite features in Writer is that the interface combines both icon-based ribbons (similar to those in Microsoft Office since 2007) plus the option of accessing the same features from a drop-down menu. This is something many users wish Microsoft had done when they rolled out their 2007 apps.


Another distinction from Google's Writer, is a bottom-of-the-screen bar which tells you the number of pages (and which page you are on), the version number, the author, how long since last modified, creation date, word and character counts, all updated whenever the document is saved (which is automatic or manual). This could make it easier to track versions to revert to an earlier one. The bar also has three icons: click on the cloud and it lists your collaborators and offers a chat box; another for contextual comments, and a third for tags. Zoho allows you to sort documents into folders (like Microsoft) and by assigning tags (like Google). 


There's also a small chat bar available, if you want.


Writer offers 27 English language fonts plus the graphical Webdings, equations, headers/footers, footnotes. You can directly insert HTML or view the entire document as HTML (which you can't do now on Google); you can also import or create HTML CSS stylesheets. Watermarks are a nice new feature, and you can select emoticons, which seems a little odd for a service geared towards business. Like Google, you can email the file directly if you don’t want to use the email app.


One of the few features Zoho doesn't include is a paragraph (or character) style sheet (which MS Word and Google Docs have). This may be an issue if you regularly work on long, heavily formatted documents.


The REVIEW menu includes spell check, a custom dictionary, word count, and a thesaurus, and accesses your history, too. (There is no grammar checker.) The SHARE options include a Post to Blog command. 


You can publish any document so anybody on the internet can access it, or invite selected users to read and/or edit it. (They don’t have to register with Zoho to read a document, but they must register to edit it.) 


The Doc Roll creates a embeddable link so you can post a link on your blog or website for a published document. There is a facility for Digital Signatures, and a separate Lock command so nobody else can work on your doc until you say its OK. 


VIEWS includes options for viewing the HTML code. The Page Format option lets you also assign some font and paragraph level spacing for the entire document.


Mailings lets you create mailmerge (or other merge) documents. Individuals are limited to sending 500 email documents per day. Enterprise accounts are unlimited.


There is a shared templates area, but there's not even a fraction of what you’ll find in Google or Microsoft. (But you should be able to open a template in Google Apps or Microsoft, save it, and import it into Zoho!) There are no graphic art search options as there are in Google or Microsoft and no word art (as in Microsoft -- but I find most of Microsoft's word art styles to be ugly).​


​​​You can export the documents from Zoho Writer to the following formats:

• Microsoft Word - both .doc and .docx files 
• OpenOffice Writer files 
• RTF (Rich Text Format) files, which you should be able to open in virtually any other word processor 
• Text only files 
• HTML (including links to your blog) 
• PDF creation (but not editing of imported PDFs)

You can import all the same formats plus graphics, up to 10 MB in size. Modern MS Word documents import fine, but some of the graphics may shift position.
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There is a bookmarklet you can add to your browser toolbar to take any text you find online and clip it to your Zoho Writer account. This appears to work similarly to Evernote's bookmarklet. 
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Currently, you cannot use Right to Left languages in Zoho Writer, but they say it is part of their road map for the future. ​
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Other Zoho applications
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In other Zoho apps, their Spreadsheet has a decidedly different interface than Google’s although (with a cursory look) it appears to support most of the same features. There is one toolbar for basic functions plus menus for publishing, sharing, and other tasks. It also let you embed a link in your blog or website to access a published spreadsheet.  You can create Macros and use VBA editing, too.


Zoho Mail is a good email hosting site. It’s main advantage over Gmail and Outlook is that it let’s you assign emails to folders, like Outlook, and also assign tags (like Gmail), so it’s very flexible. You can create rules for sorting, filing and responding to email. I like the fact  that, when sending an email from Zoho, you can attach any document from Zoho Docs, your own hard drive, and even from Google Docs! (I wish Gmail would let you do that.) Another nice feature is that you have links to all your available Zoho applications on the left hand side of the page, so you can switch back and forth easily. 
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Zoho Notebook has grown to include many of the features of OneNote or Evernote. It lets you store text, audio, video, HTML, and embed URLs, RSS, lists, Zoho writer docs, spreadsheets, and presentations, and files. You can also create text files and spreadsheets directly within the notebook with a mini-Writer or -Sheet interface. You can share notebooks with others and publish them, too. If you already use Evernote, you might not need Zoho Notebook, but it does have a few features that Evernote doesn't have: You can embed video in the free Zoho Notebook -- you need the paid version of Evernote to do that. You can create real spreadsheets in Zoho, Evernote just uses tables.
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If you use Zoho as your main workspace, combining the Notebook and the Writer clipping bookmark might be a nice way to centralize all your research in one location. But there are no desktop or phone applications for Zoho Notebook as there are for Evernote.
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Zoho just recently updated its CRM application, which you could use free as a contact manager on steroids. The new version includes the ability to import data from your LinkedIn contacts. I haven't had time to experiment with it, but it would be interesting to see if you could use the free individual version of CRM as an alternate LinkedIn database. (If any readers try it, please let me know how it works.) You can import and attach Google docs to Zoho's CRM records as well.
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Freelancers might like the Invoice application. Freelance HR professionals might want to take a look at Zoho'sRecruit and People applications if you're not already committed to another system.
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Conclusion
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If you are ready to take all your creative and business activity to the Cloud, Zoho has a lot to recommend it. If you prefer some of Google's applications (say, perhaps, its spreadsheet or Gmail), there's no reason not to have a Google application in one browser tab and Zoho apps in others. You can try all of Zoho's apps for free, and most stay free for up to three users. Some of the workgroup and internet communications features may not be feasible for that small a group, but Zoho's rates should be reasonable. Zoho also offers discounted rates for nonprofit corporations.
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If I was forced to select only one web app site for my online work, I'd probably chose Zoho, although the ability to mix and match other apps is great. With Google, Zoho, and many other software and specialized online applications available, corporations, web workers, telecommuters, and small and home office entrepreneurs  have many more usable choices than ever before.​​
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Keywords: Zoho, Writer, apps, office, SOHO, collaboration, business

Cost of Living Calculators & Comparisons

Thanks for visiting Frugal Guidance. The article you're looking for has been updated and posted on our new blog, Frugal Guidance 2 at http://andybrandt531.com.

The new title is: Essential Cost of Living Calculators (and more) for Job Hunters, which can be found at this link:
http://andybrandt531.com/2013/02/essential-cost-of-living-calculators/

Please visit and let me know what you think. Thanks.

Andy Brandt

The Top 13 E-card Sites forHoliday Greetings

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Frugalistas, if you need (or simply want) to cut back on spending for the holidays, first, look at your Holiday Cards. You don't need to spend a ton of money on full-color, gold-foil, embossed, musical, museum-art cards and matching envelopes. A simple hand-written note might be treasured and stand out in the stack of commercially produced product. 


However, if your handwriting is indecipherable, or you need to cut down on postage costs, ecards are the way to go. Here are 13 of the top e-card sites for the holidays. Some offer oodles of free cards, some just a few, some all-you-can-send for a reasonable fee.


Blue Mountain www.bluemountain.com/ Ecards and downloads, 7-days free membership


Care2 www.care2.com/ A nonprofit support site for activists, donations, and 25,000+ free ecards


123 Greetings www.123greetings.com/ Animated and musical ecards


Hallmark www.hallmark.com/ Ecards and print cards; unlimited ecards for $12/year


American Greetings www.americangreetings.com/ Ecards, some free, free trial before subscribing


E-Cards www.e-cards.com/ Just as the name says


Egreetings.com www.egreetings.com/ Free ecards


flyGreetings www.flygreetings.com/ Send ecards to up to 5 people at a time, free


cardfunk beta www.cardfunk.com/ Upload photos to add friend's/family's faces to customized cartoon cards, with sound and animation; free.


Pencake ecard.pencake.com/ Draw your own cards online with simple tools, or chose from other's creations; unfortunately drawing talent is not programmed in


Yahoo! Kids ecards kids.yahoo.com/ecards Free ecards for kids; plus thank you cards if Johnnie doesn't like writing them


Animated Cards by UpToTen.com www.animatedcards.org/ Specializes in cards for kids up to age ten


And for more adult and current news themes with a snarky sense of humor, you need to look at Someecards www.someecards.com/ .

If you know of another great ecard site, please share in the comments. 

Frugal Gifts for the Holidays

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free
'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. 

When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed
To turn, turn will be our delight
'Till by turning, turning we come round right.
-- From "Simple Gifts" by Aaron Copland, based on a traditional Shaker tune.

Whether you are frugal due to circumstance (unemployed), by nature (we won't say "cheap"), or by training, there are ways to find gifts for your family that may cost little or nothing. We also mention cheaper alternatives to more expensive gifts, and some creative tools for you and your family.


Let's get down to specific gifts:


For your job-hunting or just frugal significant other: 
Need a new planner, organizer, calendar for the New Year to organize that job search or work? Productive Flourishing  www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/ offers PDF pages for Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual planning guides. (Subscribe to the free newsletter to get access to all of them.) You can purchase a 12-month supply of guides for $12. Print them out and put them in a nice loose-leaf binder. You can also try it out yourself. Note, all the PDFs are for 8.5x11 inch sheets.


Another top-notch site for free PDF's of planner pages (in many sizes) is the D*I*Y Planner website www.diyplanner.com/templates/official. Even if your partner has a planner, you'll find many special pages you can add to it.

Need paper for a “classic” 5.5”x8.5” planner binder? Buy a ream of good quality printer paper and have the office store's copy shop cut the pages in half. (They usually charge $1-2 for the cut.)Want to use that paper with the common seven-ring binder? Go to the Franklin-Covey shop and buy an all-metal, polished 7-hole puncher for $25. franklinplanner.com/

Buying a computer for that job hunt (or upgrading an old one, or just need some software)? If you don't already own Microsoft Office, download and take the free LibreOffice suite for a test drive www.libreoffice.org/download/ (or the almost identical OpenOffice.org www.openoffice.org/ ).


Don't need an entire office suite, just a word processor? Try AbiWord www.abisource.com/. It's lightweight and will work on your college-student's netbook and Grandma's old PC, too.


Is Auntie Janie known for her organizing or creative writing? Freemind  freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page is a free mindmapping software program for brainstorming, organizing, outlining, and thinking.


Your daughter Susan is into journals/diaries and Uncle Ulysses likes fine pens? Rather than spend $550 on a good Mont Blanc, give a hard-bound notebook with good quality paper. The Moleskine notebooks www.moleskine.com/ are popular for writing, journaling,  organizing and sketching and are available with lined, graph, dotted or blank pages in several sizes.  If Ulysses writes with fountain pens or Suze is into painting, try the Moleskine with watercolor paper that doesn't bleed through; good for sketching, painting, and travel and artist journals. In spite of the marketing hype, the Moleskines are actually pretty good notebooks and have an entire Internet sub-culture devoted to using them for writing, getting things done, artwork, travel, making lists, meeting notes and much more.


Are the Moleskines too pricy? Check your office supply, art or book store for some of the other quality notebook options. Staples often offers a pocket-sized Moleskine-like notebook on sale for $3, about a quarter of the original's price. Some other quality notebook makers -- all available online, some in stores -- are: Rhodia, Clairfontaine, Ecosystem Life, Black n' Red, Exacompta, Global Art Handbook Journals, Piccadilly Journals, and Derwent.


Add a three-pack of Pentel EnerGel pens (I like the 0.5 mm tip) or some Pilot G-2 pens for economical and smooth writing.


Has Aunt Gertrude been bragging about her upcoming European excursion?  Check out the Moleskine City Guides (for major European and a few American cities) which are practical and a lot cheaper than a set of matched luggage (www.moleskine.com/moleskinecity/).


Is your nephew Bruce learning digital photography? Get some free high-quality photo editing software. Paint.net (Windows only) www.getpaint.net/ is a high-end photo editor and paint program. The GNU Image Manipulation Program, www.gimp.org/, with the marketing-challenged acronym GIMP, is actually a terrific, if complex, photo editing program (with lots of add-ons available), also free. 


Alternatively, printer ink cartridges and good photo paper are always appreciated by the photographer.

Cute little Timothy is grown and now texting on his Android phone or iPhone? A $25 gift card or check gets him some great software or games on the Android or Apple Marketplace.

And that computer geek in the household (you know who you are) will always appreciate a 16- or 32-Gigabyte USB flash drive (or a camera memory chip), usually reasonably priced and frequently on sale. Load it with free portable Windows software at pendriveapps.com/ or portableapps.com/ and techsupportalert.com/best-free-portable-programs.


And, for all my frugal friends, please accept these gift ideas as my holiday present with wishes for a happy and frugal holiday season and for a great job (or continued success) in the New Year!