Two free, full-blown alternatives to MS Office

Two free, full-blown alternatives to MS Office

As Microsoft’s Office has grown in size and complexity, more than a few users have wondered whether there’s a viable alternative — especially when it comes time to pay for an upgrade or new copy.

There are very few alternatives. Two — Open Office and LibreOffice — provide the core functionality of classic versions of Microsoft Office and are completely free!

Open Office and LibreOffice are nearly identical productivity suites that, unlike Office 2013, live and work entirely on your PC’s hard drive — there’s no prodding you toward cloud storage or app rental. Both suites use traditional toolbars (no Ribbon interface) and come with six business apps: word processor, spreadsheet, presentation creator, drawing/desktop-publishing tool, database manager, and mathematics tool. Did I mention they’re free?

Office’s long, long road to Version 2013

To understand the context for Microsoft Office alternatives, it helps to look at Office itself. The newly released Office 2013 — and Office 365, its by-subscription counterpart — is actually the 15th major iteration of Microsoft’s flagship productivity suite. As you might imagine, the current version bears almost no resemblance to the original.

That first Office version debuted in 1989 and included just three tools: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Over the next decade, Microsoft pumped out a new version of Office roughly every year— and each revision piled on new functions and features. Office was in nearly constant flux.

Many of these new additions were keepers. For example, an email client and a database manager have remained part of every Office version (though not in every edition of every version) since they first appeared. But there were also misfires, some of them spectacular. Who remembers Vizact and the Microsoft Binder — or the hugely disliked and maligned Clippy, the animated paper-clip Office Assistant?

In part, market trends — new technologies and new ways of working — drove the flood of good and bad Office features and functions. But the constant changes also made Office a cash cow, as the new features gave users a compelling reason to abandon their still-working older versions of the suite and buy the next new thing.

2003 — a watershed moment in Office’s evolution

Office 2003 (the 12th major iteration) offered literally tens of thousands of functions across its core components. It had just about everything most users could possibly want in an office suite. Figure 1 shows Word’s now-classic interface.

Figure 1. Office 2003 (Word shown) became an instant classic — a complete suite whose familiar toolbar interface gave easy access to its many features.

Office 2003’s success was a boon for Microsoft — but also a problem. If the suite exceeded most users’ expectations, how was Microsoft going to get them to buy the next version?

Dropping support for older Office versions wasn’t going to work; to its credit, Microsoft’s official Support lifecycle (more info) is 10 years for most software versions.

Continuing to pile on ever more features invoked the law of diminishing returns. Studies indicated that most users used only about 10 percent of Office 2003’s features. Microsoft’s own studies (MSDN blog) showed that just five functions — Paste, Save, Copy, Undo, and Bold — accounted for “around 32 percent of the total command use in Word 2003.”

Practically speaking, most users would never find (much less use) new features in the next Office version.

The answer, it seems, was to give Office a new UI. Office 2007 introduced the “Office Fluent user interface” (MS FAQ), aka the Ribbon. These tab-organized and changeable command sets — infamous to some — replaced the familiar toolbar (see Figure 2) of previous Office versions.

Figure 2. Word 2007's new Ribbon toolbar with context-sensitive tabs

Fully committing itself to the Ribbon UI, Microsoft enhanced it in Office 2010 and extended it to a few Windows 8 apps, such as File Explorer and Paint.

The Ribbon wasn’t the only change in Office, of course. Office 2013, for example, shifts the default file Save location from the user’s hard drive to Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud-storage service. Office 2013 also introduces a yearly-subscription variant — Office 365. (Originally focused at small-business users, Office 365 is now heavily targeted at home-PC users.)

Three excellent articles by Woody Leonhard give you the particulars on Office 2013 and Office 365.

• “Office 365 offers value, but it’s not Office” (April 28, 2011, Top Story)
• “Software SmackDown: Office 2013 vs. Office 365” (Feb. 13 Woody’s Windows)
• “Surviving your first hour with Office 2013” (March 7 Top Story)

The other side of the 2003 watershed

Not everyone is a fan of the Ribbon interface and the other Office changes — to put it mildly. I’ve never heard anyone — not a single person — say, “Wow, that new interface makes me want to spend several hundred dollars on the new version of Office!” or “I’m tired of instantly accessing my files on my hard drive; I’d prefer to get them only when I have Web access!” or even “I’d love to spend $100 a year, forever, to rent my software!” (To be fair, that $100 per year is for up to five PCs in the same home.)

Seeing an opportunity, several companies began offering office suites and productivity products that retain — and even improve on — the strengths and popularity of Office 2003. The two best known are LibreOffice and Open Office. Both are free, open-source, suites; they’re also very similar because they share common roots: a well-regarded, commercial office suite (and competitor to Microsoft Office) called StarOffice.

The history of LibreOffice and Open Office is convoluted, but here it is in a nutshell:

Sun Microsystems acquired StarOffice in 1999. The next year, the company gave the suite a new name — Open Office — and publicly released its source code. Open Office became the first, free, open-source, Microsoft Office work-alike. Sun continued to develop Open Office for the next few years.

In 2009, Oracle Corporation acquired Sun. Unfortunately, Oracle didn’t seem to know what to do with Open Office; shortly after the acquisition, a group of Open Office developers defected and created an independent fork (version) of the Open Office source code. They called this variant LibreOffice.

In 2011, Oracle decided the best thing for Open Office was to turn it over to the open-source Apache Software Foundation. Although nearly everyone still refers to the software simply as “Open Office,” its formal name is now Apache Open Office.

Which brings us to today.

Close productivity-suite cousins remain close

As mentioned earlier, LibreOffice and Open Office still share many similarities. Both are free; both use toolbar icons that will be familiar to Office 2003 users; and both install, run, and save files on the local hard drive. The two suites run on all current Windows versions plus operating systems where MS Office doesn’t: Mac, Linux, Unix, and other platforms. Best of all, both suites score well in independent reviews. For example, CNET gives LibreOffice and Open Office 5/5 stars.

LibreOffice and Open Office share the same six application modules:

• Writer: a word processor analogous to Microsoft Word
• Calc: an Excel equivalent
• Impress: a presentation creator similar to PowerPoint
• Draw: a vector-drawing tool; somewhat akin to Visio but with desktop-publishing features
• Math: a mathematics tool, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor
• Base: a database manager — a substitute for Access

Neither LibreOffice nor Open Office includes a built-in email client or calendaring app, but there are plenty of free, open-source tools for those functions, as any Web search will show you. Microsoft’s OneNote users can either purchase it separately or switch to the popular, cross-platform Evernote (site).

Although the two suites are similar, LibreOffice is a bit more evolved, mostly because Open Office’s development slowed while it was owned by Oracle and its future was unclear. As a result, LibreOffice is now at version 4.0.1.2 while Open Office is at version 3.4.1.

The difference in development momentum shows up in various ways. For example, LibreOffice now supports more file formats than Open Office does — an important point I’ll come back to in more detail in a moment. LibreOffice also supports 113 different languages to Open Office’s 25. One indirect indication of how these suites have diverged: Most Linux distributions now ship with LibreOffice.

You’ll find some inconsistencies in the two suites’ toolbar layouts. But the differences are mostly thailand cosmetic — some tool icons are in slightly different places or have a slightly different look. Figures 3 and 4 show the main toolbars for the Writer app in LibreOffice and Open Office, respectively.

Figure 3. Based on the classic Office 2003 toolbar, LibreOffice's enhanced menu system provides easy access to its many tools.

Figure 4. Open Office's toolbars and menus differ only slightly from LibreOffice's.

Up close: The six modules and what they do

Figures 5–10 show the six modules in LibreOffice. (Open Office’s modules look and function much like those of LibreOffice.)

By default, LibreOffice Writer (see Figure 5) and Open Office Writer save text documents in an .odt format. But they can also open and save to .docx, .xml, .doc, .rtf, .txt, .ott, .sxw, .stw, .fodt, and .uot (United Office Format text) formats. Both suites can also create .html webpages and export directly to .pdf.

LibreOffice’s Writer also can export to .xhtml; Open Office’s version cannot.

Figure 5. Word 2003 users should feel right at home with LibreOffice (or Open Office) Writer.

Both versions of Calc (Figure 6) use .ods as their default file format, but they can also handle .xls, .xml, .xlt, .csv, .dif, .dbf, .ots, .sxc, .stc, and .slk file formats. Like Writer, both Calc versions can export to .pdf and .html tables. They also offer a method to automatically define a series of graphs based on the layout of the data — something Excel doesn’t do.

LibreOffice’s Calc also supports .xlsx, .fods, and .uos file formats, and they can export to .xhtml.

Figure 6. You can use Calc to open and edit most Excel spreadsheets, but formatting might be slightly different.

The default file format for Impress (Figure 7) is .odp. Other supported formats include .ppt, .pot, .otp, .sxi, .sti, .sxd, and .odg. Impress presentations can be exported to Adobe Flash (.swf), .html, and .pdf.

LibreOffice’s Impress also works with .pptx, .pptsx, .potm, .pps, .ppsx, .sxd, .fodp, and .uop formats — and exports to .xhtml.

Figure 7. PowerPoint users should find the transition to Impress relatively easy.

Both versions of Draw (Figure 8) can use the .odg, .otg, .sxd, and .std formats and can export to Adobe Flash (.swf), .html, or .pdf.

LibreOffice Draw also supports .fodg and exports to .xhtml.

Figure 8. Draw combines the vector-graphics capabilities of Microsoft Visio with desktop-publishing features somewhat like those in Microsoft Publisher.

The LibreOffice and Open Office versions of Math (Figure 9) are virtually identical. Both allow formulas to be embedded inside other documents, such as those created by Writer. Both use the .odf, .sxm, and .mml formats, and both can export to .pdf.

Figure 9. Analogous to Microsoft Equation Editor, Math is a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulas.

As with Math, the two versions of Base (Figure 10) are essentially identical. While both use the .odb format by default, they can also function as a front end to a number of different database systems, including Access databases (JET), ODBC data sources, and MySQL/PostgreSQL. Both let you enter raw SQL code or create and query your databases via the graphical interface and toolbar.

Figure 10. Base is a database management program analogous to Microsoft Access.

Pick the right suite by simply trying them out

Given that both LibreOffice (site) and Open Office (site) are free, you’ve little to lose by trying out both. Wikipedia has good articles on both products (LibreOffice page and Open Office page), covering their history, development, and current features.

Is either of these open-source MS Office substitutes right for you? If your office-suite needs are relatively modest, the answer is most likely yes. On the other hand, if you’re regularly collaborating with businesses that use Office 2010 or 2013 and exact reproduction of spreadsheets, presentations, and text documents is essential, it’s safer to stick with Microsoft’s suite.

I’ve used both Open Office and LibreOffice on various PCs over the years. I found both suites easy to use, with learning curves measured in mere minutes. I currently have LibreOffice installed on a portable PC and use it regularly.

I think LibreOffice is currently the better choice. It nicely does what I need done, quietly and without fanfare. It supports more file formats, including those used by the newest versions of Microsoft Office, and it has more developer momentum behind it. But that’s me; Open Office might work just as well or better for you.

A test drive is the key. Start by going to the LibreOffice download page and/or the Open Office download page. Installing and setting up either suite is relatively quick and easy.

Remember that these suites are alternatives to MS Office — not clones of it. As such, they work similarly to MS Office, but not necessarily identically. So, during your test drive of either suite, be sure to create, save, import, and export files of the types you typically use. Verify that your macros (if any) work properly, and that the suites support any complex formatting that you routinely use. It won’t take long: In short order — tens of minutes or so for each suite — you’ll know which (if either) fits your needs.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office that isn’t cloud-oriented, that uses traditional toolbars, and that’s totally free, you probably won’t go wrong with LibreOffice or Open Office!

Old dance steps meet new(er) mambo music!

Laurel and Hardy never danced to Santana’s version of “Oye Como Va” in their movies — nor in their lifetimes, given that Santana produced its rendition of the song five years after Stan Laurel died. But thanks to skillful editing, we can imagine how the two comedians would have danced to “Oye Como Va” on the set of “Way Out West” — if the song had been written in 1937. Both Laurel and Hardy and Santana’s signature song are timeless. So it’s entirely fitting that they mesh together so perfectly! Play the video

What survives an upgrade from XP to Win7?

With Microsoft’s XP support in its final months, a reader asks for advice before moving his XP setup to Win7.

Plus: What to do when an .iso file just won’t burn to disc; problems due to differences among Windows versions and editions; and still more reader-suggested .pdf tools.

Seeking help upgrading from XP — to Win7

Reader Cliff Brodie is about to finally retire his aging XP system.

• “I’m upgrading from XP. I decided to buy a new PC with Windows 7. I realize that Microsoft will support Windows 7 only until 2020, but that’s plenty far off for me. What programs and files can be transferred from XP SP3 to Windows 7?”

I’ll answer your question, Cliff, but first let me point out that Win7 offers a free XP Mode that lets you set up a complete, working, XP SP3 virtual machine inside your Win7 setup. XP Mode works almost exactly like your current, standalone XP SP3 setup. It runs just about any XP-era program, including many that won’t run natively under Win7. For more information, see the Sept. 22, 2011, Top Story, “Using Windows 7’s XP Mode — step by step.”

Keep that in mind as you read the rest of this item. Now to your question.

What you can transfer from XP to Win7 depends on whether you use Microsoft’s free tool or paid, third-party tools. (Of course, no matter what tool you use, you should make a complete backup first, just in case something goes awry with the transfer.)

Let’s look at Microsoft’s free tool first.

XP’s built-in File and Settings Transfer Wizard isn’t compatible with Windows 7, so Microsoft provides Windows Easy Transfer (site) to assist users with XP/Win7 upgrades. Microsoft says the application transfers the following items from XP (and Vista) to new Win7 setups:

• Files and folders: By default, Windows Easy Transfer will copy everything in XP’s Documents, Music, Pictures, and Shared Documents folders. You also can select files and folders to transfer from other locations via Easy Transfer’s advanced options.
• Email settings, contacts, and messages
• Pictures, video, and music: According to an Easy Transfer FAQ, pictures include any visual format, such as .jpg, .bmp, and .gif; music includes playlists and album art (although you might lose access to media protected by Digital Rights Management).
• Internet settings and favorites
• User accounts and settings: Easy Transfer can migrate desktop backgrounds, network connections, screen savers, Start menu options, taskbar options, settings and drivers for network printers and drives, and accessibility options.
• Program settings: Easy Transfer does not migrate the programs you installed in XP. You must manually reinstall the programs in Win7. The tool will, however, migrate your program settings; so once you’ve installed your apps in Win7, they should work as they did in XP.

Two important notes on Windows Easy Transfer: First, it can’t help you with apps that are incompatible with Windows 7 (as you might expect, given that it doesn’t transfer apps in general). However, the Win7 Compatibility Center site lets you look up compatibility information for many common, commercial applications. But remember: If one of your XP-era programs won’t run directly under Win7, it almost surely will under Win7’s XP Mode. (On the other hand, unless it’s custom software, any incompatible app you might have is probably due for an upgrade anyway.)

Next, if you’re running a 64-bit version of XP, you can’t use Easy Transfer to migrate files and settings to a 32-bit version of Win7. (x32-to-x32, x64-to-x64, and x32-to-x64 transfers work fine.) Migrating from XP x64 to Win7 x32 is a completely manual upgrade; you’ll have to copy your files to an external drive and then move the files back to the new Win7 PC.

Commercial tools such as Laplink’s PCmover Professional (U.S. $60; site) can do much more than Windows Easy Transfer can. In fact, PCmover Professional is the only tool I’m aware of that automatically moves all compatible XP programs, files, and settings to Win7, leaving them installed and ready to use.

PCmover can’t, of course, overcome XP/Win7 software incompatibilities. But if software you’ve installed is compatible with both XP and Win7, PCmover Professional probably can move it for you, intact. At $60, Laplink’s utility isn’t cheap, but it comes with a 30-day, money-back guarantee. More important, it could save you a few hours of work.

The above just scratches the surface — there’s plenty more upgrade information available online. For example, these key Microsoft resources offer step-by-step assistance in making the move from XP to Win7:

• “Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7” (site)
• “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor” (site)

These Windows Secrets articles are a gold mine of upgrade information:

• “Get your system ready for a Windows 7 upgrade,” Scott Spanbauer’s Oct. 1, 2009, Top Story
• “More tips for avoiding Windows 7 upgrade bumps,” Dennis O’Reilly’s Oct. 8, 2009, Known Issues
• “Avoid early Windows 7 upgrade surprises,” Woody Leonhard’s July 2, 2009, Woody’s Windows
• “How do I upgrade from XP to Windows 7?,” Windows Secrets Lounge thread

So, you can rest easy. Windows Easy Transfer and PCmover Professional are good tools that can get most or all of your files, settings, and/or programs transferred to your new Win7 machine. And if you have software that’s incompatible with Win7, it almost surely will run in XP Mode!

Downloaded .iso file won’t burn to disc

Charles Smart ran into an odd snag when trying to create a DVD from a downloaded .iso file.

• “I found your article, “Putting Wi-Fi router’s security to the test,” [Dec. 20, 2012, Top Story] intriguing. So I decided to test the security of our router in our Mature Persons’ (not seniors’) Computer Lab.

  “Apparently, I’m able to download the file (a ‘Windows Disc Image Burner’ box appears), but when I click on the Burn button, I get the message, ‘The selected disc image file isn’t valid.’

  “Why isn’t my disc image file valid? What should I do to burn the image to the disc?

  “I’m using Windows 7 Professional, and the DVD-RW disk has a capacity of 4.7 GB.”

I suspect a security setting is either blocking or modifying the .iso file to “protect” you from the downloaded software. Or your burning tool itself could be malfunctioning.

You might try these options:

Temporarily disable your anti-malware tool(s). Don’t go to any other site or do anything else online while your protection is disabled; just complete the .iso download and immediately re-enable your AV protection.

Download through a different browser. Different browsers use different built-in protective measures to guard against malicious downloads. For example, if you used Internet Explorer, try Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. (We don’t recommend using the recently released IE 10 just yet.)

Use a different burning tool. If the native Win7 tool fails, try a different tool such as Free ISO Burner (site) or ImgBurn (site).

Use an entirely different PC. If none of the above helps, there might be something fundamentally incompatible in your setup — or with parts of the setup you can’t control (such as a router or firewall that someone else manages). You might bypass the problem by doing your download-and-burn on a different PC and/or in a separate location.

Hope this helps, Charles!

Not all variations of Windows are equal

Reader Geo T encountered trouble with one of the options suggested in the Feb. 14 LangaList Plus, “Picking the right way to schedule Windows tasks.”

• “You discussed using the Group Policy Editor, but it’s available only in the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. It’s not included in the Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium editions.

  “I have Home Premium. Now what?”

You’re right; the Local Group Policy Editor isn’t available in your edition of Windows 7. Fortunately, “Picking the right way to schedule Windows tasks” listed multiple other methods to accomplish the same thing. I’m 100 percent certain the first two methods discussed in that article will work in every version/edition of Windows from XP onward — including yours.

Finding recommendations and how-tos that work with every supported variety of Windows isn’t trivial. There are currently 38 different versions and editions of desktop Windows in play. For example, XP comes in seven 32-bit and two 64-bit editions, and there are six 32-bit and five 64-bit editions of Vista and Win7. Windows 8 has three 32-bit and three 64-bit editions plus an RT version for ARM processors.

And that count doesn’t include Server editions and ultra-specialized editions such as Windows for embedded systems. Nor does it include region-specific variants, upgrade vs. full-retail editions, and download/disc-based variations.

I wish every part of every answer here could apply equally to all Windows versions and variants, but that’s just not possible. My apologies.

Re: free .pdf readers — a flood of suggestions

The recent discussion of .pdf readers in the Feb. 21 LangaList Plus triggered an outpouring of suggested alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.

Most readers recommended the free Nitro Reader (site). For example, Australian reader Robin Howells wrote:

• “I’ve tested a host of PDF readers and have used Nitro Reader for years. You can do everything you’d expect with Reader, and then some — create PDF files from any source easily; sign them securely; collaborate with anyone, anywhere. It’s not a space and resource hog like Adobe Reader.”

Well behind Nitro Reader, but with a significant — and vocal — following, is the free SumatraPDF (site).

Reader Lionel Modra’s letter represents this group:

• “Another PDF reader is SumatraPDF — 5MB download, 10MB installed (on W8 x64). It’s quick, allows copying text from the PDF to other apps, shows bookmarks (when present), etc.”

Thanks to Robin, Lionel, and the many other readers who wrote in!

Malware hitches a ride home on a thumb drive

Lounge member WindowsWasher took some files to be printed at a local UPS store and brought back four Trojans from the store on his thumb drive.

This could definitely happen to you. If it does, you should do what WindowsWasher did first: an immediate security scan of the thumb drive. His friends in the Security & Scans forum suggested a few more safeguards.

The following links are this week’s most interesting Lounge threads, including several new questions for which you might have answers:

Office Applications
General Productivity	Are Microsoft’s free Office Web Apps good enough for you?
Word Processing	After 10 years, dare I advance to 2013?
Spreadsheets	Need a workbook BeforeClose event
Databases	Exclude second course from query in MS Access 2007
Visual Basic for Apps	Can’t save/close worksheets in Excel through VBA code
Microsoft Outlook	Outlook.com and IE 9
Non-Outlook E-mail	Gmail notification?
Windows
General Windows	Sharing SkyDrive storage
Windows 8	Backing up Windows 8
Windows 7	Adding file to task bar in Win 7
	I hosed WinSxS
	Program not printing
Windows Vista	As slow as a greased snail
Windows XP	Quilter’s laptop needs update from ME to XP to run quilting programs
Windows Servers	Windows server in hung state
Internet/Connectivity
Internet Explorer	IE 9 and Yahoo not playing well on one computer
Third-Party Browsers	Best ad-blocker add-on for Firefox?
Networking	Two wireless networks connected to my router: Select on signal strength?
Social Media	Google Sync question
Other Technologies
Security & Scams	Thumb drive got virus/Trojan; want to make sure I’m OK
Maintenance	Windows permissions: Why won’t it let me do what I want?
Hardware	Let’s talk turkey about hard drives
Other Applications	Copy and backup software

starred posts: particularly useful

If you’re not already a Lounge member, use the quick registration form to sign up for free. The ability to post comments and take advantage of other Lounge features is available only to registered members.

If you’re already registered, you can jump right in to today’s discussions in the Lounge.

Edit, spruce up, and share your videos for free

The digital photography revolution has an unintended consequence: our PCs are filling up with hundreds of bad photos and many hours of boring home videos.

It’s easy to toss out pointless still shots, but cleaning up videos takes a bit more work; some free video editors can make the task relatively easy — and cheap.

Recording our lives in digital sound and light

These days, we’re recording our lives like never before — mostly still images, but, as YouTube makes all too clear, hours and hours of video, too. Thanks to digital camcorders and the now ubiquitous smartphones, we’re tempted to shoot everything that moves: kids’ sporting events and school performances, pets romping joyfully across a beach, the pleadings of our significant others to “please point that stupid camera somewhere else!”

In most cases, these videos never rise above the level of the worst home movies. They’re posted as short clips to YouTube or Facebook — viewed once and never watched again; interesting to the camera operator, perhaps, but likely to bore friends and family.

That’s too bad, because videos — more so than still images — can be entertaining records of family life. And with the right video-editing software (some of it free), you can pick the best shots; clip out the dull parts; enhance the images; add professional touches such as wipes, titles, and music; and even include narration (although I’d shy away from narration unless you have a voice like Morgan Freeman). You can also integrate still and moving images or make automated slide shows.

Once you’ve created something truly worth watching, burn it to DVD for safekeeping and sharing or upload it to YouTube (where it might now get more than two views) or some other online service.

Video editing has a reputation for being expensive, complex, and time-consuming. And it can be all these things — especially when compared to photo editing. A comprehensive editor such as Adobe Premiere Elements 11 costs U.S. $73, and you’re not going to learn how to use it overnight. However, with a bit of practice and the right software, basic video editing can be relatively quick, cheap, and easy. I’ll describe two video-editing applications that fill that bill: Microsoft’s Movie Maker and NCH Software’s VideoPad. I’ll also discuss Avi to Dvd Free Converter, a simple tool for burning a video file to DVD — and a useful companion for VideoPad.

One more note: Be careful when installing some free video editors. Don’t accept the default installation options; you might end up with unneeded and potentially intrusive software. Some even want to change your browser’s homepage and default search engine. When asked, just say “No!”

Movie Maker — for making really simple movies

Once upon a time, Windows came with a reasonably powerful, reasonably easy-to-use video editor called Movie Maker. With Windows 7, Microsoft removed Movie Maker from Windows and offered it as part of its Windows Essentials collection (site) of downloadable, free programs. (Many hardware vendors continued to include the app with new Win7 computers.) Then the wizards of Redmond overhauled Movie Maker, turning it into a program that anyone could use … or at least anyone without high-art ambitions.

The current version of Movie Maker requires Windows 7 or 8. It also requires Direct X 10 and .NET Framework 3.5; if you don’t already have .NET 3.5, the installation process will ask whether you want to install it. (Movie Maker will automatically install the DirectX 10 components it needs.)

You won’t have any trouble getting started with Movie Maker, because Microsoft has reduced its video-editing environment to the absolute basics (see Figure 1). You’ll see a small preview window on the left; the rest of the screen holds thumbnails of each clip you’ve dragged into it. Drag another file, and it, too, is added to the movie you’re creating. You also drag clips around to change their order.

Figure 1. Microsoft kept Movie Maker's video-editing workspace extremely simple.

Editing clips is limited primarily to clipping out the parts you don’t want to keep. To break clips into smaller segments, place the cursor within a clip, right where you want to cut it; right-click, and select Split. Then delete or move these smaller clips.

If you’re doing a lot of editing, that point-and-split process can become ponderous. Let’s say, for example, you want to use just a few seconds of video within a long clip. Movie Maker’s simplistic layout doesn’t make it particularly easy to find the part you need.

On the other hand, Movie Maker does a good job of sprucing up videos. You can easily add music or narration and insert titles and captions via intuitive icons on Movie Maker’s ribbon. (You can also create slide shows with photos.) Movie Maker offers a large selection of transitions — fades, dissolves, wipes, etc. — to help you transition smoothly from one scene to another. You can also speed up or slow down a clip to add a bit of humor or drama.

As with all video editors, Movie Maker saves your work as a proprietary project file that contains only instructions — the actual images and sounds remain in their original files. When you’re finished with editing, you export the new movie into a common video format. Movie Maker supports .mp4 and .wmv files. It will also burn movies to a DVD.

Movie Maker can also upload your work directly to several video-sharing services — or at least it can in theory. My attempts to upload to YouTube and Facebook failed; uploading to Vimeo worked fine. The alternative is to export movie to a video file and then use the sharing service’s own uploader.

Bottom line: Movie Maker is fine for quick, simple, video-editing projects, but it lacks most of the enhanced tools found in higher-end applications. On the other hand, it’s completely free.

VideoPad: The free — almost — video editor

NCH Software’s site is somewhat obtuse about this, but VideoPad is not at heart a free program. There’s a low-cost Home Edition that will set you back U.S. $30; the Master’s Edition costs $70 (both editions discounted at the time this story was written). But if you look hard enough on the company’s website, you’ll find a more limited, but still quite powerful, free trial version on the Video Software page. When you download (link) and begin to install the free version, keep an eye out for prechecked offers for other applications — such as the especially annoying Ask browser add-on.

VideoPad (Figure 2) offers the basic tools required of any thorough video editor — including ones Movie Maker gave up. One pane displays as thumbnails all video, photo, and music files you might wish to use. In another pane, you can examine any one clip, mark off the part you want, and insert it into your project. A third pane contains a playable preview of the project.

Figure 2. The free (trial) version of VideoPad offers a complete selection of video-editing tools, but export options are limited.

Below these three panes, you can view the entire project as either a timeline (Figure 3) or a storyboard (Figure 4). Each view provides different but useful information. For instance, the timeline shows the length of each shot visually, while the storyboard displays larger, easier-to-see frames.

Figure 3. VideoPad's timeline view

Figure 4. VideoPad's storyboard view

Like Movie Maker, VideoPad lets you add music to videos. But it goes way beyond the other program’s capabilities. You can edit audio and video separately, which opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Imagine cutting from your daughter’s violin recital to stills of her rehearsing, then back to the recital — without interrupting the music.

Like Movie Maker, you can add narration, titles, captions, and transitions — although VideoPad lacks the Microsoft program’s helpful visual interface. For instance, in Movie Maker you select transitions from visual presentations; VideoPad just shows you names. The program also lets you speed up or slow down clips.

The free version’s limitations become a nuisance only when you want to export and share your work. Try to burn a DVD, create an .iso file (so you can burn the DVD later), or upload to a popular site — and you’ll be prompted to buy the professional version.

However, the free version will let you export to quite a few video formats, including such popular types as .avi, .wmv, and .mp4. You can then upload these files yourself to any video-sharing site.

Avi to Dvd Free: The name almost says it all

If you want to share videos with someone who’s still not comfortable watching movies over the Internet (yes, these people exist), you might want to burn it to a DVD. As mentioned before, that’s not possible with the free version of VideoPad.

Here’s where Binglesoft’s Avi to Dvd Free Converter (site) can be of help. This program does exactly what its name suggests — plus a little bit more. In addition to converting .avi video files and burning them to DVD, it can also convert .wmv, .mp4, and other formats. You can also save to .iso to burn to DVD at a later time.

The program is remarkably easy to use, although you do have to go through a Convert step before you burn. But by default, it automatically goes from one to the other, so it’s still basically a one-step process.

Figure 5. Avi to Dvd Free Converter offers a one-click convert-and-burn button.

These aren’t tools for professional film editors. But with them, you can select the best of your home movies — and still photos — and turn them into DVDs that people will (you hope) enjoy watching.

My thanks to cinema pioneers Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton, who unwittingly provided some of the material — now in the public domain — that I test-edited while working on this article.

Microsoft makes an about-face on Flash in IE 10

Adobe’s Flash is a favorite target for malware, but Microsoft is now setting IE 10 to run browser-based Flash by default.

Plus: Updates for Internet Explorer, Silverlight, Visio, and OneNote — and a slew of fixes for Office 2013.

MS13-021 (2809289)

Microsoft makes IE 10 more Flash-friendly

This week’s top security headline isn’t the critical update (discussed below) for most current versions of Internet Explorer; it’s the Internet Explorer development team’s about-face on how Flash runs in IE 10. And it’s not a change for the better, in my opinion.

When Microsoft shipped Windows 8 and Windows RT, IE 10–based Flash ran by default only on listed sites that met Microsoft’s standards for the touch-centric “Metro” UI. Now, as noted in the March 11 IEBlog post, an updated IE 10 will allow Flash to run automatically on all sites except those listed as incompatible.

Microsoft believes the change will give Win8/RT users a better “New Windows” experience — especially on Windows RT tablets. For users, however, it raises the potential risk of infection from Flash-based, zero-day attacks. (In IE 10, Flash updates are handled via Windows Updates. You can’t go to Adobe’s Flash site and update it yourself.)

The day before Microsoft made the change, Brian Krebs posted an interesting and helpful blog on how to set up Flash as “click-to-play” in popular browsers. His blog included a description of IE 10’s original Flash white list. Now, that part of his blog is no longer accurate.

What to do: KB 2809289 (MS13-021) — the security update for all versions of Internet Explorer except IE 10 SP1 for Win7 — is rated critical and should be installed immediately. The change in how IE 10 handles Flash might be included in that update.

Another round of Adobe Flash updates

Speaking of Flash, all users of Adobe’s media player should look for yet another update. On March 12, Adobe released Flash 11.6.602.180 for Windows and Mac. (I recommended updating to Version 11.6.602.171 two weeks ago in the previous full Patch Watch.)

Adobe Security bulletin APSB13-09 states that the update will be pushed automatically to Google Chrome and IE 10 for Windows 8. (Linux users should update to Version 11.2.202.275.) There’s also an update for Adobe Air to Version 3.6.0.6090.

What to do: Keep Flash updated. In contrast to Java, you’re more likely to need it for many websites. You can check your installed version of Flash at a Flash Player info page. As usual, watch out for offered Chrome installers or other software when running the Flash and Adobe Air installers.

2670838

IE 10 offered but not automatically installed

Windows 7 users who regularly check Windows Update will see Internet Explorer 10 listed but not prechecked for installation. That’s because IE 10 still has its problems. In the March 7 Patch Watch, I discussed reported compatibility problems between specific video-graphics cards and IE 10–preparation update KB 2670838, which resulted in BSoDs.

If you ran into this problem, you might be happy to know you’re not alone; the list of incompatible systems and video cards is growing. MS Support article 2670838 describes the fault and lists the impacted hardware.

According to the support article, some systems (such as the Dell Inspiron 14R N4110) have no new drivers available and thus should not have KB 2670838 offered to them. For other systems (Dell’s Vostro 1450, for example), there are new video drivers that, once installed, should let KB 2670838 install successfully.

As mentioned above, all this effort is to allow the installation of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7. That upgrade must have KB 2670838 in place.

What to do: If IE 10 isn’t listed in Windows Update and you don’t see KB 2670838 either, it’s likely you need to track down new graphics drivers. Given these problems, I’m still not ready to give IE 10 for Win7 the all-clear.

MS13-027 (2807986)

With physical access and a USB device, I own you

Law #3 of Microsoft’s “Ten immutable laws of security” (site) states, “If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore.” This law comes to mind in MS13-027 (KB 2807986), which fixes kernel-mode driver vulnerabilities that give attackers full access to a locked system simply by inserting a malicious USB device, as described in a March 12 MS Security Research & Defense blog.

KB 2807986 is rated important for all non-RT versions of Windows. That, along with some recent kernel-update installation issues, puts this update on a low priority for now. The fact that the update is unchecked by default in Windows Update (see Figure 1) is evidence that Microsoft is throttling its release.

Figure 1. KB 2807986 is unchecked by default in Windows Update

What to do: Put KB2807986 (MS13-027) on hold. I’ll provide an update in the next Patch Watch.

MS13-022 (2814124)

An upgrade for Microsoft’s Flash alternative

Silverlight is a Microsoft browser plug-in that plays video media. It might have been installed if you visited some Microsoft sites or subscribed to streaming services such as Netflix. This Silverlight 5 update is rated critical and prevents exploits via malicious websites. We could see attacks using this vulnerability within the next 30 days.

What to do: Install KB 2814124 (MS13-022), if offered, as soon as possible. (If you know you don’t have Silverlight installed, you can ignore the update.)

MS12-023 (2553501, 2687505, 2760762)

Three updates for the price of one Visio

If you use Visio as I do to create network diagrams, or it’s part of your Office 365 desktop deployment, look for three updates that address a Visio security flaw. KB 2687505 is for Visio Viewer 2010 and is rated critical. You might see this update even if you don’t know whether you have Visio installed.

KB 2760762 is for Visio 2010 SP1 and has no severity rating. KB 2553501 is for something called the Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 2.0. (I didn’t even know I had a “Filter Pack” on my computer!) According to a Microsoft Download Center page, Filter Packs “are components that allow search services to index content of specific file types, letting you search for content in those files. They are intended for use with Microsoft Search Services (SharePoint, SQL, Exchange, Windows Search).” There you have it.

What to do: Given that these updates fix known vulnerabilities, I recommend installing KB 2553501, KB 2687505, and KB 2760762 (MS13-023) soon, if they’re offered.

MS13-025 (2760600)

Microsoft’s OneNote 2010 gets OneUpdate

Users of Microsoft’s excellent note-taking application could be attacked if they open a malicious OneNote file. The attacker could then acquire sensitive user information such as usernames and passwords. The update is rated important for all OneNote 2010 SP1 users.

What to do: Install KB 2760600 (MS13-025).

Early adopters get lots of Office 2013 updates

Users of Windows 8 and Office 2013 will see 16 nonsecurity updates, released this Patch Tuesday. The specific updates include:

• Lync 2013: KB 2760556
• Office 2013: KBs 2727105, 2752094, 2768016, 2768333, 2768349, and 2768355
• OneNote: KB 2768011
• Outlook 2013: KB 2727079
• PowerPoint 2013: KB 2727013
• SkyDrive Pro: KB 2768356
• Visio 2013: KB 2752090
• Windows 8: KBs 2781197, 2790907, 2811660, and 2812822

What to do: Because these are all nonsecurity updates, I’ll give my usual recommendation: Wait a couple of weeks before tackling them.

MS13-024 (2780176)

SBS 2011 needs a bit of updating TLC

For admins running Small Business Server 2011, there’s an important update, KB 2687418, for SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1.

A reminder: After installing SharePoint updates, admins need to run the PSCONFIG command to complete the patching process, as documented in a Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog post.

What to do: See MS13-024 for information on this update. Because there is no immediate risk of attacks, I recommend installing these updates during a regular server maintenance window.

Regularly updated problem-patch chart

This table provides the status of recent Windows and Microsoft application updates. Patches listed below as safe to install will typically be removed from the table about a month after they appear. For Microsoft’s list of recently released patches, go to the MS Safety & Security Center PC Security page.

Status recommendations: Skip — patch not needed; Hold — do not install until its problems are resolved; Wait — hold off temporarily while the patch is tested; Optional — not critical, use if wanted; Install — OK to apply.