温故知新

最近在写许多文字。。。多数属于研究方面的文字。。。写一个2页的proposal，写manuscript准备发表的文章，整理老板要出的书。。。还在思索可不可以开始把毕业论文的架构编辑出来。。。

是的，我很相信未雨绸缪，最不能接受临时抱佛脚，或最后一分钟的工作。。。让自己有充分的准备，筹集各种所需的资源、技巧、知识等，最后出来的东西才会令人满意。。。其实这样做真的不比最后一分钟来得有效率，也就得花上比别人多的工作量。。。这甚至有可能白做，计划总是在更动，突发状况总是不能掌握在自己手上。。。

话说回来，虽然天天在用MS Word打字，有太多的功能却少为人知的（至少我不知道）。。。翻开网络上的资讯，才发现自己在编辑的技巧上花上了太多的时间和精神。。。写出来东西看上去并不很专业的成品。。。做为一个科研人员，写作其实应该也是重要一环。。。姑且不论内容本身的精湛度，要处理一篇长篇的review article或是thesis dissertation并不是三两下子的事。。。从格式，里面的references，figure，table，编辑效率就在这里展现了。。。还有许多专业的画graph，画图的软件，都成为一个专业科研人所需要掌握的技巧，帮助分析，发表文论。。。

在academic界，有许多人喜欢用Latex或Openoffice处理文件，原因在于这些是免费资源，以抗衡微软那资本主义式、庞大、昂贵又耗费电脑硬体资源的MS Office系统。。。

我还是比较喜欢自己熟悉的软件作业。。。但所谓熟悉，其实还有许多需要温故知新。。。有许多功能，可以方便自己，帮助自己的工作变得更有效率。。。就算是开起来普通不过的Word，还有许多功能和技巧可以让自己看起来更专业。。。

把我常用的软件列下，作为自己和各位的参考。。
1）Firefox with Foxmark add on
2) Thunderbird with lighting and provider for google calender add-on
（虽然Outlook也很好用，但看上去显得比较复杂，所运行的硬体资源也比较庞大，thunderbird就显得轻巧实用）
3) Ms Office (Word, PPT, Excel)
4) EndNote X1
5) Origin Pro8
6) Acrobat Pro 8
7) Photoshop CS2
8) Core FTP
有空再update这个list。。。

还有一些open source的软件看起来也很好用。。。
1）http://www.openoffice.org/
OpenOffice.org (and NeoOffice on the Mac).
OpenOffice.org is an open-source office suite that includes a word processor, a spreadsheet application, a presentation application, a drawing application, a database application, and an equation editor (NeoOffice is a modification of OpenOffice.org that runs natively on Macs). It reads and writes Microsoft Office files with 95% fidelity, and it natively saves files using the open document format, an open standard that can used by other developers. 100% free for any purpose, OpenOffice offers this tradeoff: it’s a bit slower and a lot more stable than Microsoft Office, the prevailing commercial office suite. Unlike MS Office, however, OpenOffice is completely cross-platform. It can run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems, as well as some lesser-known operating systems.

2）http://www.gimp.org/
The Gimp.
Gimp (the Gnu Image Manipulation Program) is an open-source image editing application. In functionality, it is similar to Adobe’s photoshop. It surely lacks some of Photoshop’s advanced features, but even professional designers will find more features than they’ll ever use in the Gimp. It runs on Linux, Windows and OS X and it is very stable. Anyone who creates documents — for print, for the web, etc. — will occasionally need a high-quality image editor, and for most users, the Gimp fills this need.

3）http://www.inkscape.org/
Inkscape.
Inkscape is to Adobe Illustrator what the Gimp is to Photoshop. It is an open-source vector drawing application with about 90% of the features of Illustrator, but 100% of the features that most users actually need. Vector drawing applications are used to draw illustrations, logos, diagrams, etc, a frequently overlooked need of those that create documents. Inkscape is cross-platform, stable, and developing rapidly.

4）http://www.r-project.org/
R may not be useful to as large an audience as the above-mentioned applications, but many professionals, researchers and students will find it useful. R is an open-source implementation of the S statistical programming language. It can be used as a statistics package, and performs many basic data manipulation and analysis tasks out-of-the-box, including data import/export, recoding, summary statistics, t-tests, regression analysis and the production of high-quality graphics. It can also be extended by installing optional packages, or by writing new packages and functions. Those that find themselves using Excel to manipulate and analyze data might benefit from learning R, which produced more accurate results, makes it easier to perform repetitive transformations of data, and has far more features for exploring data.