a rather long post today folks but I've tried to cover quite a lot of material, with more to follow soon.

Office Software

When deciding to start a business on the Internet, the question of what software will be required is both vitally important and far ranging. If your budget allows the purchase of big label state of the art software products then by all means use them if you feel it's worth the expense, in my experience however there are many low cost or free alternatives that the savvy business person could make use of and make use of the savings to increase spending on things like advertising and product development.

A must have for any business is a good office suite, for most computer users the first name that springs to mind is Microsoft office. This is a good product widely used throughout the world of computers and business, bur it is expensive, particularly with the constant upgrading to get new features (or patches to correct errors). There is however an excellent alternative option for Microsoft office in the shape of the open source office suite 'Open Office' www.openoffice.org.

This is an excellent product having all the same main features as MS Office, as well as a few that Microsoft have not included yet, and best of all the software is totally free. The Open Office program contains the majority of tools that any business user is likely to require as can be seen in the following feature list.

Word processor compatible with MS Word.
Spreadsheet program compatible with MS Excel.
Database program.
Presentation program.
Drawing program.
The ability to save documents in PDF format.
Creation of web pages.

This means that Open Office has most of the tools that any online business person is likely to need, I use open office myself to do the majority of my business work, especially when writing tutorial and course material as I can save directly to PDF without having to use any other software programs.

If you already have or can afford the expense then Microsoft office would meet many of your needs, although this software is expensive it has an advantage in that most people working in business have already learned how to use at least the basic functions, since it seems to be the industry standard office suite (anyone who has previously used MS office will have no trouble adjusting to Open Office as the functions and interface are very similar).

An important aspect of any online business will be the ability to send and receive email, now many people who have been used to working with email have been used to working with MS Outlook or Outlook express. Although outlook is a fine tool and is perfect for controlling email and contact management it is again an expensive option, if an email program with basic address book capabilities is all that is needed then mozilla thunderbird is an excellent choice, it is available free and integrates nicely with the mozilla firefox web browser I use these two products almost exclusively for email and web browsing due to their ease of use, their features and most especially the fact that they are less vulnerable to security problems than outlook, outlook express, and Internet explorer see http://www.mozilla.org/ .

Although I have not used it I have heard many excellent reports on Pegasus mail as an alternative email program you can find out more at the official site http://www.pmail.com one aspect of this program which may be worth considering is the claim that this email client is completely immune to all security threats which currently affect MS outlook and MS outlook express.

There a number of other programs that are required for online business purposes which can be obtained for free or at low cost we will take a look at the ones you are most likely to need.

Although I recommend Open Office as an answer to many tasks required for the home business owner it does have some limitations, one of these being in the creation of web pages. Even though this program does a good job of creating simple web pages it cannot compete with a dedicated web creation program.

The creation of well designed and professional looking web pages is an essential skill for anyone hoping to run a business online, the problem here of course is that very few of us are trained website designers. Although I seriously recommend that anyone hoping to do business online learn at least the basics of HTML and website design I realize that this can take time, and you want to get your business running ASAP. There are however a number of website creation programs which will allow you to create a website without knowing HTML, costs for these programs can vary considerably but there is one free alternative I can recommend as I make Use of it myself. I have listed some of the software I have used myself below and would recommend any of these programs. The right one for you will depend on a combination of budget and experience.

Note: WYSIWYG pronounced 'wizzywig' editors are designed to allow users to simply add text and graphics to their web page just as if they were using a word processor, the conversion to the correct HTML code is done by the editor without the user having to know HTML. These editors are great for absolute beginners, but do tend to have some limitations, however for most purposes they should be fine, if you really need to add some special effect into your web page that the editor can't handle you will need to learn HTML or find a friend who can do the coding for you.

NVU – an open source WYSIWYG editor, completely free and can be downloaded from http://www.nvu.com/ this editor is designed to be used by the total beginner if you can use a word processor you can use this program. It also has an excellent help system which includes a glossary of Internet and web design terms, so now you actually get a chance to find out what all the 'geekspeak' really means.

Microsoft Front Page – a WYSIWYG editor from Microsoft, relatively expensive and has a tendency to add 'extra' Microsoft specific code to your website, this can cause problems for users using web browsers other than Internet Explorer. Extra code also has the disadvantage of adding to your file sizes leading to slower loading times for your pages. I currently have a copy of Frontpage 2000 and although it is a useful tool I tend to use other website software instead, newer versions may have solved some of the problems but I have not used them so cannot comment.

Dreamweaver – the Rolls Royce of WYSIWG editors and with a price tag to match, very popular with professional web designers, it does tend to add some extra code but is not considered as bad as some editors for this. The learning curve for dreamweaver is quite steep but the results can make the effort of learning to use this software well worthwhile.

Eversoft First Page 2000 – an HTML editor for those with at least a basic understanding of HTML (or at least those who are trying to learn) this is a great editor for people who prefer to work with HTML code directly, it is completely free and has some great features, including the ability to have the toolbars set up according to your ability.

Eversoft First Page 2006 – this is the updated version of First Page 2000 and includes the ability to create your page in a WYSIYG mode, I have not had this software for very long but am becoming very impressed by its abilities, unlike its predecessor First Page 2006 requires paid registration to remove startup and finish nag screens and to unlock its full functionality, however the basic features that it provides even without registration are certainly more than enough for the beginner and even the moderately experienced web page builder see their site at http://www.evrsoft.com/ .

HTML-Kit – another free editor for those who prefer working with HTML code this editor has a large range of functions and has the ability to have a number of 'PlugIns' added to it to give additional features, although not my favorite code editor (First Page 2000 is still tops for now) it is still a very good editor and one I would happily recommend, http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ .

We'll take a break here, and give you a chance to digest some of the information above, I'll have another post up soon with more software that you are likely to need for running your online business.

Regards Graham.