Tom’s Tech Tip: One Office Alternative for Certified Legal Nurse Consultants
Full disclosure, the word “Office” in the title means “Microsoft® Office” not a tree house, tea house or any place you can sit and do your legal nurse consulting work. And alternative means free or at least less expensive. For years MS Office has been the gold standard, or at least the only standard for word processing for legal nurse consultants. Word®’s reach is so pervasive that many Apple® users were forced to pick up “Office for Mac” and Microsoft is extending further into mobile by upgrading its Office apps for iPads.
But if you’re a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who’s not ready to take your legal nurse consulting business over to Apple, there is one alternative that I like and it’s called LibreOffice and it’s a great freeware product that is pretty much compatible. In fact, I wrote this Tech Tip using LibreOffice Writer. It looks and feels like Word and allows you to save your legal nurse consulting work product in a variety of formats: .doc, .docx and .odt (Open Document Text format) just to name a few. I use LibreOffice “Draw” to do flow charts and organization charts and find it simple and intuitive (usually). I haven’t tried the PowerPoint® alternative “Impress” or the Excel alternative “Calc” but I do have them installed. If you want a free alternative to Word, LibreOffice is a great one.
Another good free alternative is Google Docs® brought to you by Google. If you’re already a gmail user or are a member of Google Plus® you’ll have easy access to a fine suite of free office productivity products.
Finally, if you still want to use Word in your CLNC® business but don’t want, or need, the full version of Office with all its bells and whistles, you can purchase the “Home & Student” version on Amazon.com – it’s got the basic functions you’ll need for your legal consulting career and comes at a substantial cost savings.
It doesn’t matter what word processing software, calendar or email product you use – just be sure to concentrate on using it well and turning out the best legal nurse consulting work product you can.
Keep on Techin’,
P.S. Comment and share what office productivity software you use and why.
LegalNurse.com is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
The National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®) is the largest and oldest association of legal nurse consultants.
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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
Keep on Techin’,
