One small job for a developer ...one giant help for teacher-kind: I have developed a toolbar for Microsoft Word called Teacher's Pet which can be used to create classroom material. The toolbar incorporates a range of useful VBA macros and it is freely available for download from my website at www.teachers-pet.org. Since I began two years ago, the tool has been downloaded by some 41,000 teachers and the website is now visited by between 200 and 300 visitors per day. A search on Google for the words "free teacher software" gives a measure of the site's popularity. However, not all of my visitors download the toolbar and, judging by the regular emails that I receive, the reason for this is often that they do not have Microsoft Word - perhaps because, being teachers, they cannot afford such a suite. I have also received many direct requests for me to create a version of the Teacher's Pet for OpenOffice. This is something I would gladly do if I had the time, money or skills to achieve such a task, and this is why I am writing to you. The Teacher's Pet is a small tool which would require little effort to convert to OpenOffice for a programmer (which I am not). If someone were willing to arrange for the Teacher's Pet to be converted to OpenOffice, then you can be sure that I would actively encourage my visitors to download the OpenOffice suite and would fully credit OpenOffice for their support in making such the tool available to teachers. I see this not only as a great opportunity for those teachers who are currently unable to make use of the Teacher's Pet, but also as a great opportunity for OpenOffice to boost there presence in the Education sector. I hope this suggestion appeals to you. If you can offer any advice on how best to pursue this issue further, it would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Chris Lacey www.teachers-pet.org Skype: teachpet
-----Original Message----- From: Louis Suarez-Potts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 19 January 2006 05:58 To: Chris Subject: Re: Teachers-Pet.org Hi Chris, On 2006-01-18, at 13:27 , Chris wrote: > Louis, > > I am not sure if you are the person to whom I should be sending this > letter. If you are not, I apologise but would greatly > appreciate it if you forwarded it to the appropriate person. Let's see if I am :-) > > I have developed a toolbar for Microsoft Word called Teacher's Pet > which teachers can use to create classroom material. The toolbar > incorporates a range of useful macros and it is freely available > for download from my website at www.teachers-pet.org. okay... > > Since I began two years ago, the tool has been downloaded by some > 41,000 teachers and the website is now visited by between 200 and > 300 visitors per day. You need only search for the words "free > teacher software" in Google to see that the Teacher's Pet is > currently the most popular free software for teachers available on > the web. > > However, not all of my visitors download the Teachers Pet and, judging > by the regular emails that I receive, the reason for this > is often that they do not have Microsoft Word - perhaps because, > being teachers, they cannot afford such a suite. > > I have also received many direct requests for me to create a version > of the Teacher's Pet for OpenOffice. This is something I > would gladly do if I had the time, money or skills to achieve such > a task, and this is why I am writing to you. Hm. > > The Teachers Pet is a small tool which would require little effort to > convert to OpenOffice for a programmer (which I am not). If your > organisation were willing to arrange for the Teachers Pet to be > converted to OpenOffice, then you can be sure that I would actively > encourage my visitors to download the OpenOffice suite and would > fully credit OpenOffice for their support in making such a tool > available. The way it works is a developer or group of them do it. Then it is done. In the case of OOo, which has such corporate interests, the corporate execs may allocate resources. But then they are marching to the beat of their own drummers. The overall community can suggest things that are important to do, but we can't just arrange for things to be done. So, this leaves us with marketing. What you can do, then, is to inform the developer community and others of your app/toolbar and how they can intervene. We can help by providing the marketing gravity (for lack of a better term) that will draw developers in. > > I see this not only as a great opportunity for those teachers who are > currently unable to make use of the Teacher's Pet, but also as > a great opportunity for OpenOffice to boost there presence in the > Education sector. I'm sure it is, but the point is persuading other developers. > > I hope this suggestion appeals to you and I look forward to hearing > from you soon. It does; does my response clarify things? best Louis > > Kind regards, > > Chris Lacey > www.teachers-pet.org > Tel. +36 30 409 7221 -- Louis Suarez-Potts Community Manager OpenOffice.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
