RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
available on the website for a fee. However, the Acrobat Reader (needed to read
PDF files) is available on the website free of charge: http://www.adobe.com
PDF files are a common way of making documents available on the Internet and
CD-ROM, as they can be read by any computer using the free Adobe Acrobat
Reader software.
Other software Database software is discussed in Section 6.10. There are many
other types of software that can be used for different functions. For example,
desktop publishing (DTP) software such as PageMaker or QuarkXPress can be
used to produce attractively presented materials, such as newsletters and display
materials. PagePlus is a cheaper alternative, but less commonly used. Therefore
before investing in it, you should ensure that your printer can access files
produced using this software. Spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or
LotusNotes is useful for preparing budgets, schedules or tables. Web publishing
software, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage, makes
creating attractive websites much easier.
TIP: New or second-hand?
If funding is not available for a new computer, it might be possible to
use one that has been donated or passed on from another department.
However, computer technology evolves quickly and an older machine
may not be suitable for the tasks you need it to perform.
Check that the size of the hard disk, processor speed and memory
(RAM) are sufficient to run the software that will be used, at a fast
enough speed. Check the specifications of all the software you need to
run – often, newly available software will not run on older machines.
Add up the software specification figures for disk space, and compare
this, plus figures for processor speed and memory, with the capacity of
the computer. Computers running at or near capacity will often crash,
losing unsaved data and wasting time.
When preparing funding proposals for computer equipment, it is useful
to bear in mind that a higher capacity computer is needed for most
resource centre work than for general administrative work. If the
resource centre already has a computer and another computer is needed
for administrative work, it makes sense to obtain a new computer for
the resource centre. Pass the resource centre computer on for
administrative work (having first checked that it can support the
software being used for the administrative work).
SECTION 6: COMPUTERS, ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND DATABASES
9