Open Source software offers many advantages for those who wish to use it. The most obvious is that these programs are available for us to use at no cost! Another advantage is that they often perform as well as or even better than their higher-priced commercial cousins.
Two popular open source programs are OpenOffice.org and WordPress. Both are great programs.
But there is one problem: How do you learn to use them?
Most have some instructions included with the program. These have two issues, in my opinion:
They vary in usefulness from "not at all" to "pretty good."Some people, including me, simply prefer to have a real honest-to-goodness book available.So what does one do when he wants a "real" book to hold, page through, and study?
The popular bookstores (my favorite is Barnes and Noble, as it has a local store) have shelves full of books on how to use programs by Microsoft and other popular commercial software makers. Unfortunately, they have very, very, few books on how to use open source software. (Linux is one notable exception.)
There are many books available but where do you find them?
Online, of course!
Often there is an "official" book available on the provider's site. It's probably a good idea to check that out first. Next, you can Google something like "books on using your program" and probably be presented with several choices.
It might take a bit of searching, but there are lots of very useful books out there which will help you use these great programs! Spend a little time searching for the one which you believe will be most useful to you.
The author is an evangelist for open source software programs. He loves the programs but is frustrated by the difficulty in finding books which tell him how to get the most from these programs. His solution: Write articles like this one and create a website which has already done part of the job of finding good books on the subject. You can see it here: http://savings4.us/