Portable Apps

Day 2

The Portable Apps is a great example for students of just how much software is legally available at no charge. Many are not aware of Open Source software, although that is changing. At our school we are no longer purchasing Microsoft Office licenses for the student computers, so students are now using Open Office regularly. Many students also use the Firefox browser rather than Internet Explorer. So installing these portable applications also provides an opportunity to discuss Open Source software as well.

The OpenOffice Draw program is a flexible and easy to learn package. One of the assignments I regularly give students is to open up a older computer, and make a drawing of all the components found inside. The next time I give that assignment I will have the students make a sketch and then go to the computers to use OO Draw to do a good copy. Since most of the components are rectangular in shape, the students would only have to master a few basic tools.

The page format menu allows the user to create a custom page size, so students can create a page large enough to make the drawing at actual size. When printing, the print options include "fit drawing to paper size". The end result should be a drawing the students can keep in their notebooks for study purposes that is both accurate and legible.

This drawing was created with CorelDRAW