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woody649 · 08-20-2023, 12:27 AM

An old girlfriend who moved across the country got in touch to ask my assistance in recovering her computer from a hard disk failure. She lost all of her programs and doesn't have the original media for most of the programs. She knows I'm a software junkie, so she has turned to me for help in getting her set up again.

Pre-retirement, she worked as a graphic artist for a small, specialty publishing company. Now that she has retired, one of her volunteer tasks is publishing a newsletter for the local garden club. She can probably accomplish that just using Word, but I thought I'd ask around about freeware DTP software. What's out there besides Scribus? Anything?

woody649 · 09-28-2023, 06:55 PM

Update, of a sort.

The former GF thought she had succeeded in reinstalling her old copy of Microsoft Word. Something wasn't cricket, though, and it self-destructed on her, taking with it whatever (somewhat lengthy) document she was working on at the time. She has now officially cut ties with Microsoft Office.

I had told her about FreeOffice, which is a free but only slightly crippled version of the German office suite, SoftMaker Office. She has installed FreeOffice and she likes it. And I have discovered that FreeOffice (and the paid big brother versions) have some tricks up their sleeves that Word doesn't do: TextMaker allows text boxes (yes, I know, Word does that, too), and you can link text boxes to flow test from a box on page 1 to a box on page 3. Just what we used to be able to do in the old Publish-It! DTP program I miss so dearly.

Having tried the Greenstreet Publisher program that is supposed to be the descendant of Publish-It! and been disappointed, it just may be that the answer for entry-level to intermediate-level DTP isn't a dedicated DTP program at all, but FreeOffice/SoftMaker Office.

08-20-2023, 12:27 AM	#1
woody649 Member Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 478	Is there any decent, freeware DTP software out there? An old girlfriend who moved across the country got in touch to ask my assistance in recovering her computer from a hard disk failure. She lost all of her programs and doesn't have the original media for most of the programs. She knows I'm a software junkie, so she has turned to me for help in getting her set up again. Pre-retirement, she worked as a graphic artist for a small, specialty publishing company. Now that she has retired, one of her volunteer tasks is publishing a newsletter for the local garden club. She can probably accomplish that just using Word, but I thought I'd ask around about freeware DTP software. What's out there besides Scribus? Anything?

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09-28-2023, 06:55 PM	#2
woody649 Member Join Date: Mar 2021 Posts: 478	Update, of a sort. The former GF thought she had succeeded in reinstalling her old copy of Microsoft Word. Something wasn't cricket, though, and it self-destructed on her, taking with it whatever (somewhat lengthy) document she was working on at the time. She has now officially cut ties with Microsoft Office. I had told her about FreeOffice, which is a free but only slightly crippled version of the German office suite, SoftMaker Office. She has installed FreeOffice and she likes it. And I have discovered that FreeOffice (and the paid big brother versions) have some tricks up their sleeves that Word doesn't do: TextMaker allows text boxes (yes, I know, Word does that, too), and you can link text boxes to flow test from a box on page 1 to a box on page 3. Just what we used to be able to do in the old Publish-It! DTP program I miss so dearly. Having tried the Greenstreet Publisher program that is supposed to be the descendant of Publish-It! and been disappointed, it just may be that the answer for entry-level to intermediate-level DTP isn't a dedicated DTP program at all, but FreeOffice/SoftMaker Office.