Comments on: Guest Post: Jim from Kenyan Zone

By: Mwangi - the Displaced African

Mwangi - the Displaced African — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:34:28 +0000

@oliver: In my exuberance, I Googled Creative Suite and apparently the software is used to do the following:

graphic design, video editing, and web development

If that’s the case,then if I were to go piece by piece I would recommend:
a) Web development: Wordpress, hands down, no question, its so customizable and malleable there really is no question what software to use to publish online so check it out at wordpress.org
b) Hmmm, in film school we had recommended to us the uber-expensive, Final Cut Pro which is awesome.
Here I guess it depends on what your needs are, for basic video editing I have used Window’s free movie maker software, if you are using a mac their free version is way better
c) For graphic design, unfortunately here I have no clue as I am not a graphic designer and not a part of the industry.

Anyway, hope this information helps………

By: Mwangi - the Displaced African

Mwangi - the Displaced African — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:28:19 +0000

@oliver: Pardon my ignorance, but what does a CS site do? Describe it in terms of the output e.g. MS Word is a Word processor, Wordpress is a website publishing software, Ubuntu is an Operating System Open Office Calculator is an Excel Spreadsheet creator (well there is a deeper level to that, but I’m sure you see where I am going) etc etc etc

Once you let me know that I will glady do some research and see if I can find and recommend some open source solutions.

My recommendations even before I fully understand your needs though, check out http://www.sourceforge.net, check out Google and their various applications and find out if there is a forum associated with the Creative Suite community (preferably based in Silicon Valley or with most of its members from there) and inquire there as to whether Open Source solutions exist)

If all these recommendations don’t work, including the ones I send you once I understand what you are asking then allow me to recommend that you partner with people overseas, use websites like Elance.com or Getafreelancer.com to get your own version of a Creative Suite software created cheaply. You won’t have to pay great amounts and once its created you will have your own version customized to your needs.

Just a few quick thoughts. But definitely let me know what a Creative Suite does

By: oliver omotto

oliver omotto — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:19:54 +0000

Thanx alot Mwangi.

One other querry, i have been using Creative Suite editions because they come as a package: photoshop, in design, illustrator image ready etc its a one stop shop.

Now does Open office have a similar brand?

Secondly, we find it hard to catch up with CS programs, they launch a new edition almost every year. I had CS2 then it was CS3 now everybody is talking of CS4! We in developing world just cant be able to budget for such rapid changes.

Thanks for the info so far, i will recommend the site.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:06:00 +0000

@oliver: You are more than welcome. It is actually possible to do absolutely everything now for free thanks to Open Source solutions like Ubuntu, Sourceforge and their various software packages, Wordpress OpenOffice etc etc etc so its a good time to be online me thinks. Thank you for visiting the site.

By: oliver omotto

oliver omotto — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:47:10 +0000

Hi, this is good information. I am a media studies teacher in Kenya (A levels) and we use Photoshop for educational purposes and training students on photo editing. The challenge to most institutions has been inflated costs. I will suggest GIMP to my students and observe how it works. Thanks

By: gal africana

gal africana — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:13:24 +0000

Thanks, its as easy as pressing the import button…silly me. I think I’ll have to find a local WP geek to make things easier…for now I’ll stick to the evil I know that is blogger.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:33:16 +0000

@gal africana: I loooked it up and according to a friend of mine, if you want to transfer posts from blogger to Wordpress:

If you are using WordPress 2.2 or higher then you can go to your wordpress admin panel, click on Manage, click on Import, and then click on Blogger. Follow the steps displayed from there.

NB: We are up to Wordpress 2.5.1

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:58:29 +0000

@gal africana: At the moment I am on Wordpress and I host this site with a hosting company that blends seamlessly with Wordpress and it’s absolute heaven. The things that truly make Wordpress fantastic are:
a) Free themes: Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of free themes to choose from,and most of them look professionally designed.
b) Plugins: Subscribing to comments, there are plugins that allow someone to print documents, there are plugins for adsense, plugins that allow me to paste audio files (like for the podcast).
Though I definitely agree that technically it takes a tad bit longer to get the grasp of Wordpress, for my personal circumstances I can’t even begin to compare the two.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:53:05 +0000

@Caustic: Me thinks when I get the point where I will need to edit pictures, the Gimp will be the way to go. The way you feel about Gimp is how I kinda feel about Open Office + Google Documents, I don’t see now why I would ever shell out money for Microsoft Word when I am able to manipulate and transfer documents seamlessly both on and offline.

By: gal africana

gal africana — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:45:09 +0000

Is wordpress really better than blogger? I’ve considered moving house for a while but I find the WP technical support online daunting…like I cant find info on how to move all my posts and comments to WP.
Live and learn…been using VCW for photo editing and comparing it to the usability of photoshop makes me a not happy camper. Will promptly check out GIMP.