OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Beware! Saving in Word format, and mail merges, don't mix.

Mail merges don't work if you're saving your OpenOffice document in Microsoft Word format.

Whether you're doing this manually, or doing it with the window under Tools > Options > Load/Save > General, saving in Word format will strip out the mail merge fields' connection to the database.

So you can save in .doc by default, but you need to save the mail merge documents, whether they're labels, envelopes, or other documents, in OpenOffice.org native .odt format.

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Creating Keyboard Shortcuts in OpenOffice, including Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts to Styles, a GREAT Feature

One of the complaints people have when switching from any software package to another is that the keyboard shortcuts that they're used to don't work anymore.

However, in OpenOffice.org you can set your keyboard shortcuts pretty much any way you want. You can even assign shortcut keys to styles. This means that:

• You can blow through formatting quickly without using the Styles and Formatting window
• You can set up styles, put them in the default template that your users use, then just give them all quick reference guides that might look like this:

         

        Text with hanging left indent   In WordPerfect was [whatever]  In OpenOffice Ctrl F4
        Heading indented from left and right   In WordPerfect was [whatever]  In OpenOffice Ctrl F6
        Back to normal text   In WordPerfect was [whatever]  In OpenOffice Ctrl Q

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut to a Task

1. Create or open a document in the program where you want to apply the shortcut. You'll be able to choose that program, such as Writer, or all of OpenOffice.org, as the context in which the shortcut will work.

2. Choose Tools > Customize, Keyboard tab.

3. Select the program, such as Writer, or OpenOffice.org, at the top.

4. Use the Category and Function lists at the bottom to select the feature you want to assign a shortcut to. You have to be willing to spend some time looking but you'll eventually get a sense of where things are.

5. Find the keyboard shortcut, in the Shortcut Keys list in the top half of the window, that you want to assign. If it's already assigned to something, that's fine. Select the keyboard shortcut you want.

6. Click Modify. The shortcut will be assigned to the item.

7. If you want to remove a shortcut key from an item, select it in the Keys list and click Delete.

8. Click OK.

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut to a Style

You might find it easier to just use a keyboard shortcut for styles, than to double-click them in the Styles and Formatting window. (Format > Styles and Formatting.)

To use a keyboard shortcut for a style, you do pretty much the same thing.

1. Create or open a document in the program where you want to apply the shortcut. You'll be able to choose that program, such as Writer, or all of OpenOffice.org, as the context in which the shortcut will work.

2. Choose Tools > Customize, Keyboard tab.

3. Select the program, such as Writer, or OpenOffice.org, at the top.

4. In the Category list, scroll to the bottom and select Styles. Expand the + next to it and select the category of style: Paragraph, Page, etc. Then in the Function list select the specific style. Select the shortcut you want from the Shortcut Keys list and click Modify.

5. Click OK.

Remember, the style has to be in the document where you use the shortcut key, otherwise of course it won't work.

Giving the Configurations You've Made to All Users

Shortcut keys are stored here in XP:

openofficedirectory\soffice.cfg\modules\swriter (or another module) \accelerator\en-us\default.xml

If you want everyone to have the same shortcuts, you can modify that file, then copy it to other machines or user directories. This is the directory on XP; different for Vista. (Grrr.....my impression of Vista is, OK, it's pretty because it looks like Mac, but I am sure sick of the blue screen of death.)

In Vista, it's

\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org2\user\config\soffice.cfg\
modules\swriter (or other module)\accelerator\en-US\current.xml

If you're having trouble finding the location, just make a change, then search your system for files that were recently modified, or contains a word in the change you made.

Here's what it looks like.

xlink:href=".uno:StyleApply?Style:string=HangingIndent&
FamilyName:string=ParagraphStyles" accel:shift="true" accel:mod1="true"/>

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TechTarget Article: Compatibility Tips for Word and OpenOffice Writer

I've written an article for TechTarget.com about how to create documents to convert as well as possible between Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer.

http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1186330,00.html

It's essentially about how, when Word documents don't open all that well in OpenOffice Writer, it's often because...well, the original document wasn't in great shape. The article talks about how to use tools appropriately to make documents that are well constructed no matter what application you're using, and how well constructed documents convert better between office suites, operating systems, and other environments.

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Expanded List of Tips for Tweaking Word Documents or WP Documents That Don't Look Perfect in OpenOffice Writer

I realized that I don't really have all the tips for compatibility between OpenOffice.org Writer and Microsoft Word in one spot. Here we go. These aren't all of the things you could ever try but they're my classics.

• Before converting the document, see what you can do about creating it well in a way that will convert well. If you create documents well, they'll convert well.
• If people are having problems with your document, find out if they really need to edit the document at all. If they just need to print it or have it on hand, then use File > Send > Document as PDF and all formatting problems are moot. Ditto if the problem is on your end -- if you don't need to edit the document you've received, then ask for a PDF version.
• Don't overlook the idea, with legacy documents, of A) keeping a couple licenses of Word around so you don't have to bother converting 0r B) contracting out the conversion work.
• Check the page formatting. Choose Format > Page and adjust the page size, margins, and page orientation.  Make the page margins smaller  if you're having trouble fitting everything onto the right number of pages.
• If text formatting is decidedly odd, select and choose Format > Default to remove formatting and start over.
• Change the font and/or font size. Select the text and choose a different font and font size from the dropdown lists at the top left of the toolbar.
• If graphics are behaving oddly, right-click on each and choose Anchor > To Page. Then reposition the graphic. You might also want to slightly shrink the graphic so it will fit better, or increase the size.
• For lists, select the list and click the numbering or list icon to turn off all numbering or bullets. Then reapply the list or bullets by clicking the same icon again.

• Adjust the default tabs. Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > General. Set the tabs slightly smaller or slightly larger and check the effect.
• Adjust the default fonts. Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Basic Fonts (Western). Specify the fonts and font sizes that fit best in your documents.

• Check the fonts that are used with your printer and operating system. You might want to set up font substitution. Choose Tools > Options > General > Fonts, and use the online help to apply the replacement table. Replace fonts you can’t use with fonts you can.
• Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Compatibility. If the printer metrics option at the top isn’t on, select it. Try changing the other settings in the window and see if those items help.

If you find that you have a set of formatting changes that works well going to Word and back again, make that your default template. Then every time you create a new Writer document, it will have those attributes.

• Create a document with the correct formatting attributes.
• Choose File > Templates > Save.
• Save the template in My Templates and call it Conversion.
• Click OK.
• Choose File > Templates > Organizer.
• In the left-hand pane, expand My Templates and select the Conversion template.
• Right-click on that template and choose  Default Template.

• If you want to go back to the normal default template later, open the Organizer again, right click, and choose Reset Default Template > Text Document.

More Brilliant People Saying that Office 2007 Is A Whole Different Program, So Why Not Just Use OpenOffice.org?

Baslow expresses what I've been talking about for a while.

The current Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org work in a roughly similar way. But the new Microsoft Office 2007 is essentially a whole new program, according to many reviewers including David Pogue. So when you're thinking about switching to Microsoft Office 2007, don't just think about the price -- think about the retraining effort.

So why upgrade to MS Office 2007? Pay nothing, and switch to OpenOffice.org, instead. You retrain for both, but the cost of OpenOffice.org is hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of dollars less than Microsoft Office, depending on how big your organization is. Saving a lot of money is, well, really good. It lets you spend that money on something that's actually important: education, cure for cancer, better pizza, or whatever your business or organization is about.

Here's my extended-dance-version blog post on this.

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Looking for Linux/OpenOffice.org Transition Stories

I've been writing articles on OpenOffice.org for TechTarget.com, and now I'm going to go in a new direction: writing articles about actual transitions from Windows to Linux, Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org, etc.

That means I need to talk to people who have done this! I'd like to document how you accomplished it, lessons learned, and of course to tell your story so that others can benefit and make a successful transition, as well. If you're in the middle of a transition, also, I'd like to talk to you.

Contact me at solveig@getopenoffice.org, or just post a comment here, if you'd like your organization to be featured in a transition story. You can be anonymous in the article, as long as you can provide enough information about your transition.

Thanks!

Solveig

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Nancy Drew Rides Again: Adding Two New and Wonderful Email Options to the OpenOffice Menu

First they take the simple but elegant mail merge option off the Tools menu, and now this.

There are two wonderful, extremely useful, much-requested features in OpenOffice 2.0.3.

• Email as Microsoft Word
• Email as OpenDocument Text

These are in addition to the existing ones:

• Send Document as PDF Attachment
• Send Document as Email

If you're working in some text document, the Email as Microsoft Word  option will take your current doc, make a MS Word version of it, start your default email program, and attach the MS Word copy to a new email document. 

The Email as OpenDocument Text option does the same thing, but the attachment is in OpenOffice text format regardless of the format of the current document.

Send Document as Email -- This one does pretty much the same thing, but it just uses the format of the document you're working in. If you're working in MS Doc format, the attachment is .doc and if you're working in OpenOffice,  the attachment is  OpenOffice.

Send Document as PDF Attachment -- This one does the same thing but creates a PDF copy of your document .

Can you see how incredibly useful these are? They're great for working with MS Office users within or outside your organization. Combine them with File > Send > Document as PDF Attachment and you're golden. (See this blog on setting up openoffice for easier use for inexperienced users for more info on that.)

But how do you get them on the menu? They're there -- you just can't see them.

Here's how. I'll show you how to add them to File > Send, and I'll also show you how to create a whole separate menu to add them to. If you're working with inexperienced users in your organization, the latter might be more helpful for them.

Adding the Two New Items to the File > Send Menu to Join the Other Similar Options
Choose Tools > Customize.

Click the Menus tab.

Select the File | Send menu.

Click Add.

In the window that appears, find Document on the left and the indicated menu item on the right. Click Add.

Select the other option, Email as OpenDocument Text, and click Add.

Close the window.

In the original window you'll see the two newly added items.

Click OK.

Choose File > Send and you'll see all the items.

 

Adding the Two New Items to the File > Send Menu to Join the Other Similar Options

Here's how to make a special menu to put these items on. It might be simpler for your users if there were a specific menu for these items.

Choose Tools > Customize.

Click the Menus tab.

Click New.

Type the name for the menu like Sending Out Documents.

Click OK. You'll see the new menu with no items.

Click Add.

In the window that appears, select Document on the left, and the four indicated items on the right. Select each of the four items in turn and Click Add.

Close the window. You'll see the items you added.

You might want to rename some of the items to make them clearer or comply with internal processes. Select the item, click and hold down on Modify, and choose Rename.

In the window, type a name you prefer, then click OK.

 

Rename any additional items.

Click OK to save changes and close the window.

Click on the menu you added. You'll see the items.

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The Microsoft Office 2007 Upgrade Is Going to Have a Big Learning Curve--and a Big Price. Now's the Time to Consider OpenOffice.org Instead.

(Originally published February 2006)

Office 2007 Is Just Another Upgrade...Right?
In a word. No.

This is going to be huge. Painful. Expensive. And that's before you get to the retraining costs.

Here's why.

Microsoft Office 2007 Is a Radical Redesign of the User Interface, and Will Require Plenty of Retraining

Here's the current Microsoft Word toolbar.

Courtesy of LInux Watch  and linked articles, here's a screen shot of MS Word 2003. Click to see a larger version.

MS Office 12 looks entirely different, and changes constantly as you move in the document. Click this image to see a larger version.

And again courtesy of Linux Watch, here's a screen shot of MS Office 2007. Click to see a larger version.

You can't just install this on all 500 computers at your organization and tell people there's a new version.

The Buzz on Microsoft Office 2007 Is the Retraining

Experts around the planet are leary of the radically changed new interface.

Here's an excerpt from an article on eWeek.

Heading the list of challenges facing Microsoft is the fact that Office 2007 has a new user interface, which could require extensive staff retraining at a significant cost, as well as a new file format, which has the potential to create compatibility issues, analysts such as Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research, told eWEEK.

"When you introduce something new, it disrupts, and this increases things like help desk costs and employee downtime," Wilcox said. "So, to get to the benefits that come with this, they have to get past whatever retraining will be needed around the new user interface and any hardships around the new file format, which are always disruptive. These are two big hurdles Microsoft has to get around."

Enterprise customers such as Robert Rosen, CIO for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and an eWEEK Corporate Partner, agree. The new user interface and file formats pose "major concerns and will slow up adoption significantly," Rosen said. "Since we don't know enough about the benefits of Office 2007, we have not yet developed any plans to move forward."

And another quote:

Jupiter Research's Wilcox told eWEEK that if there were ever an opportunity for StarOffice and OpenOffice.org, "this might be it, going head-to-head against Office 2007, because we have a new file format and a new user interface, which means a lot of extra cost," and which could torpedo many enterprises from upgrading.

In addition, a lot of Software Assurance contracts are expiring between now and the end of July, and Microsoft will be aggressively beating the sales drum. Those businesses might well be looking at their alternatives and options before signing a new contract, he said.

Here's Paul Thurott:

For the first time ever, Microsoft has dramatically changed the Office interface, replacing the standard menu-and-toolbar interface we've known since the earliest Windows applications with a new UI paradigm based on context-sensitive ribbons and tabs."

Here are quotes from Paul's article on the new office software, from Jacobe Jaffe, Group Product Manager on the Office team.

As a personal anecdote, I have a variety of PCs, and on one of those machines for a variety of reasons, I still have Office 2003 installed. I use Office 12 essentially full time, and for me to go back into 2003 is not so good. It's pretty painful, actually."

And Paul's follow-up comment--keeping in mind that he's an expert user.

But because this requires a different skill set to accomplish, I had to relearn how to do this. Long story short, most things are easier, but some power user features will require some more work....I'm nitpicking here, of course. The truth is, the Office 12 interface is so much dramatically better than previous versions, it's hard to find fault with it. On the other hand, I am a power user who uses Office all day long, and I slightly resent having to relearn certain skills. I'll get over it.

Mark Shuttleworth (founder of the Ubuntu project, second space tourist and freedom toaster guy), makes this point, posted by Justin here.

This might not be a direct quote but it's Justin's restatement of Mark's point.

"Office 12 has had substantial UI changes, since Microsoft is trying to distance themselves from the Open Office project. End result, users will require re-training. So which is easier? Re-train users in new Office 12? Or simply, start using Open Office which quite frankly looks just like MS Office today."

Here's another blog along the same lines, Ted's Radio Blog, with a similar conclusion at the end.

"Seven different versions. Dozens of applications, with various features disabled. Nightmarish new licenses. New servers. What a mess! All this to print documents, calculate spreadsheets and do other routine office work? I think Microsoft is overreaching here. They may sell to their captive audience, but new computer users whose machines come with Corel Office or OpenOffice are going to be hard-pressed to find a reason to switch. If you haven't tried OpenOffice.org, there's no better time than the present!"

Think about all those users out there.  Switching, if they all do, is not going to be easy. Take a look at just one part of it. Think about how the people who call you, the IT support folks, are going to react. Think about Laura in accounting or Bob down in contracts.

It All Comes Back to Economics 101

You're happy now with Microsoft Office.

But things change, and the cost can grow to outweigh the benefit.

What if this:


changed to this?

Think About the Cost and Benefit of the Upgrade to Microsoft 2007. Really Think About It.
If you feel that the new UI in this version could change your world and your users' worlds,  there might be a wonderful promised land of fabulous easy of use waiting on the other side of the River of Retraining. There might be. But ya gotta cross the River of Retraining first, and some of your users are going to rock the boat.

I'm not saying you shouldn't use Microsoft Office just because they're changing the interface. I'm saying, you're going to have to retrain people. As long as you have to retrain people, why not consider all your options?

Switching from your current Microsoft software to Office 2007 will require:

• A lot of money for the software
• Training and documentation
• Time and effort to install and convert documents

Switching from your current Microsoft software to OpenOffice.org will require:

• A lot of money for the software
• Training and documentation
• Time and effort to install and convert documents

 

<>

The Microsoft Office 2007 Upgrade is more expensive in money, time, and effort than switching to OpenOffice.org.

This Too: OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office Currently Look More Similar Than Office 2003 and Office 2007
Training your users to go from Office 2003, or before, to OpenOffice.org, might be easier than teaching them the whole new Office 2007 system.

Here's the current Microsoft Word toolbar, and the toolbar for OpenOffice.org Writer. Right now, they're really similar.  Click each to see a bigger image. See how long it takes to tell which is which.

And here's an OpenOffice.org screen shot. Not that different.

Retraining Aside: Do You Need the 2007 Features?

As a commenter on this blog, George Wenger, states, "The vast majority of users in a so-called "average" business setting already have no use for 90% of the existing features of Word, let alone a whole set of new features."

Your job is to make everyone else's job easier. When you walk by the software users in the hall, you want them to say, "Hey, Jim! I can do that mail merge now!" and maybe offer a high five. 

Does Marsha in Accounting or Bob in Contracts need ribbon toolbars and a new UI paradigm?

How many of the new features does your organization actually need? Have the support staff been begging you for this one?

"We're also enabling a new mobile scenario with OneNote Mobile," Jaffe told me. "So literally you'll be able to have a OneNote notebook available to you on a mobile device, like a Windows Powered Smartphone. You can take notes on your Smartphone, or read your [PC-based notes on the Smartphone. The pages in that Smartphone notebook align to the information you have in your PC version of OneNote. They sync up through ActiveSync."

And think about these questions:
- How many complaints will you get about how everything's different?
- What will the overall attitude be like when users come in Monday morning and their desktops are different?
- How much will you spend on training and documentation to get people up and running on Office 2007.

Here's a blog on this topic: Dave Rosenberg states that Vista gives you an opportunity to really compare the actual cost and the actual benefits, and he quotes Jon Oltsik from Enterprise Strategy Group.

"

Later this year, Microsoft will throw a $500 million PR and advertising party aimed at convincing users to upgrade their PCs to Vista. This provides a perfect opportunity for the Linux crowd to persuade CIOs to evaluate Linux and compare pricing. In this way, Microsoft will likely open the door to some unintended Linux desktop momentum.

I have every expectation that Vista will be a much better OS than XP, but do users really need it? Perhaps. Then again, many CIOs may conclude that the more prudent choice would be a Linux desktop and Open Office migration offering good enough functionality, at 10 percent of Microsoft's price."

Switching to OpenOffice.org Means You Can Have Your IT Cake and Eat at Least Part of It, Too
With OpenOffice.org, you can be the kick-butt IT guy who gives your users software that might even be easier to learn than Office 2007, and saves the company money. The VP's assistant Chris loves you, and the VP loves you. Doesn't get much better than that.

If after careful evaluation of 2007, the alternatives (OpenOffice.org among others), and what is involved in upgrading, you still think MS Office 2007 is the best solution for your users' needs, go ahead and upgrade. (Keep in mind that users do not need to be "cool."  ;>  They do need health insurance.)

But it might not be, and it's important to think about your choices. If your job is to deliver the best product for the best value and have your users be able to do their jobs well, please think about the choices.

References for switching to OpenOffice.org: See this post on the process of migrating a group of users who might be resisting the process, and this post on top ten reasons to switch to OpenOffice.org (besides the one covered in this post).

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Think PDF and Links! OpenOffice.org Might Be Your One-Stop Shop for Documents You Distribute (Repost)

Note: This blog has two related posts, on PDF in general and on Impress and links. Originally posted January 2006.

 

I'm going to make a bold statement. If you ever put any documents on the web, you might need only one application in your life: OpenOffice.org.

I'm not talking web design—I'm just saying, if you work for the city government and need to post long pages of forms for people to download, or if you need to publish reports that people can easily find their way around in, or if you're a technical writer and create user manuals with the usual thousands of links within the document and to other documents—you might be good to go with only OpenOffice.org.

What Makes Me Think OpenOffice.org Is Such a Great Publishing Tool?

This is because of three things.

1. In OpenOffice.org, you can create links. You can just type "Click here to go to the web page," select some text, and link it to any web site you want.

You can link any text or graphic to any heading, graphic, table, etc. within your document or within another OpenOffice.org document. (You can link to another PDF document, but not to another bookmark within a PDF document.)

You can automatically generate a linked table of contents, so that anyone clicking on an item in the TOC is taken directly to that heading in the document.

You can put links in headers and footers. Have a link that says "Back to top" that appears in your footer, and you've got great navigation.

2. You can make a PDF document from your OpenOffice.org document. From a Writer text document, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentation, or Draw drawing, with OpenOffice.org. Just choose File > Export as PDF. Or even easier, just click the PDF icon on your Standard toolbar.

3. In OpenOffice.org 2.0, the links you make in OpenOffice.org transfer over to and work in the PDF.

These are all very important and useful. Put'em together and you have huge power.

What You Need to Do in Your OpenOffice.org Document

Take a look. Here's a document I made using only OpenOffice.org, created the linked TOC automatically and the links between sections manually using only OpenOffice.org, and generated the PDF using only OpenOffice.org. Here's what I did in the document--I didn't do a huge amount of cross-references but I did do enough to demonstrate the power, I hope.

A. There's a table of contents that I generated automatically, and made hotlinked to each section, automatically. Click on a link in the TOC and it goes.

To create a hotlinked table of contents, in your Writer document choose Insert > Indexes and Tables  > Indexes and Tables. To make the hotlinks, click the Entries tab of the window, click to the left of the E and click Hyperlink, and click after the E and click Hyperlink again. Click All to put hyperlinks on all levels of the TOC. Click OK.

Click this image to see a larger version.

B. At the fine, innovative suggestion of Dave Richards of the City of Largo, I put a link in the footer that says “back to top.” This text is linked to the Table of Contents heading so that clicking that link in the footer takes you to the table of contents.  You could also add footers that say and link to "back to whatever you want." You could add headers and link them back to the original Head1. You could add a manual link at the end of any major or minor section to go back to the beginning of that heading.

To turn on the footer, choose Format > Page, click the Footer tab, mark the Footer checkbox, click OK. Then click in the footer text box that appears and click OK.

Click this image to see a larger image if you want.

Type the text you want in the footer text box.

How the heck do you make the link now that you're in the footer or header? That's next. To link an item in a header, footer, or anything else, see the next point.

C. I added links at the beginning, and to any interesting web sites, throughout the document, using the Hyperlink icon on the Standard toolbar.  Links such as "This section covers the following topics" with a bulleted list containing three links.

      Click this image to see a larger image if you want.

  Here's how to create a manual link to a web site, other point in the document, etc. Select the text that you want linked. Click the Hyperlink icon on the Standard (top) toolbar.

In the window that appears, think about what kind of link you want to make. To link to a web site, just click the Internet icon on the left, and type the URL. Click Apply.

To link within the document, click the Document icon on the left side. Then click the round stopsign type icon by the Target in Document field, and you get the navigator. In the navigator window, you can link to any heading, table, object, etc. in your document, or in any other document.

Click this image to see a bigger image if you want.

Note: You'll see that Headings, the TOC, and also other objects like tables and bookmarks show up. You can link to any of them.

• Headings are anything to which you have applied Heading1 paragraph style through Heading10 paragraph style. More specifically, it's whatever is set as the headings under Tools > Outline Numbering.
  
• You can click anywhere and insert a bookmark by choosing Insert > Bookmark and naming it. Then all those bookmarks automatically show up in the Navigator list and you can link to them.

Select the item to link to.

Click Apply.

Click Close.

Once you're back in the Hyperlink window, click Apply again. The same text, a little technical looking, will show up in the Text field at the bottom of the page. This is the text that will appear in the document.

If you want something different to appear in your document, just retype it and click Apply

Then click Close. You'll see the text in the document, linked to the item you selected.

With those three attributes, you can make a document that's extremely useful.

Exporting to PDF

The final step, once you do all this in OpenOffice.org, is to export to PDF.

Choose File > Export to PDF. Name the file. In the PDF options window, specify a page range if you want, and make any changes to the graphics quality. (If you can, keep the JPG compression as high as possible.) Then click Export.

Here's the PDF Options window.Click it to see a larger version if you want. BE SURE TO SELECT THE "TAGGED PDF" OPTION to make the links convert to links in the PDF document.

Click Export, name the document, and you're done.

Take that PDF copy of your document and post it to your web site, email it to whoever needs it, or just do whatever needs to be done to distribute it to the folks who need it.

Think Links and Think PDF! It reduces repetitive work, gives you and your organization extra powers, and will make you look very cool when you introduce this slick, labor-saving approach to distributing documents.

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When You Present Your OpenOffice Impress Presentation, Think PDF (Repost)

Note: This blog has two related posts, on PDF and links and on PDF in general. Originally published January 2006.

Do you give presentations?

On the computer where you give presentations, is the right software always loaded? Do you go through life with absolutely no problems showing your slides?

Most people don't.

You can save your OpenOffice.org presentation in Microsoft Powerpoint format, sure. That definitely works. Or use the portable OpenOffice.org. But sometimes you might need to present where neither OpenOffice.org nor Powerpoint is installed, you might not have access to a USB drive, and so on. There isn't, technically, an OpenOffice Impress Reader program. Not exactly....

What do you do?

Well, cleverly, you have already created a PDF of your presentation, which you can simply run using the Adobe Reader application available on every computer in the universe, except maybe a couple.

You won't have your animation effects or slide transitions, but as a riveting speaker with important things to say, you don't need that.

To make a PDF of your presentation, just click the PDF icon on your Standard toolbar (the top one). Name it in the window that appears. That's all.

Here's a snapshot of what it looks like in the Adobe Reader. Click on it to see it full size.

Here's a short presentation in OpenOffice.org, and the PDF copy I made using exactly these steps.

To show the presentation in Adobe Reader, you can use the Pages tab to show thumbnails and go from slide to slide, or just use your Page Up and Page Down keys on your keybard. View at 100% or whatever works.

You might not always need to do this, but it certainly does seem like having a PDF backup at all times could be a good idea.

Note: You can also export to HTML, and to Flash! Just choose File > Export, select HTML or Macromedia as the format, and follow the wizard.

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If You're Not Using PDF With OpenOffice.org....It Will Make You Happier Than You Thought Possible (Repost)

Note: This blog has two related posts, on PDF and links and on PDF and Impress presentations.  Originally published January 2006.

If you're not using PDF with OpenOffice.org now, or if you don't use PDF period, please read this. It's going to make your life so much easier.

PDF Is the International Document Language

Everyone doesn't have the same software. Some people are on Microsoft Office 95. Some people are on WordPerfect. Some are on Microsoft Office 2003. Some are on OpenOffice.org. Some are on NeoOffice, AbiWord, LaTeX, etc. Some people use Framemaker. Some use Quark, Publisher, InDesign,and other page layout programs. And don't even get me started on the different platforms.

What about printing companies? Does Kinko's or Colt Reproduction or your friendly neighborhood printer have your exact software, platform, and version? Probably not.

So when you have to send your annual report, or your resume, or your new novel, or the forms everyone in the city needs to fill out, to someone else to read or print.....sending it to them in the format of your own office suite, however common it might be, probably isn't a good idea. And the more people who have to download or receive your document, the less likely they'll all have the right software to read your document, if you send it to them in the format of the software you used to write it.

That's what Adobe thought when they came out with the Adobe Reader and the document format called PDF. Portable Document Format. When you have the Adobe Reader program on your computer, you can read any document in the Adobe PDF format. It's like the Esperanto of document formats, but good. Everyone uses it. Every computer in the universe, with the exception of maybe five or six, has the Adobe Reader software, so everyone can read any document in the Adobe PDF format. The Adobe Reader program is absolutely free, too. If you happen to not have it, you can go to www.adobe.com/reader and download it.

Making a PDF Version Of Your Document

OK, but how do you make a PDF? You've got your meetingminutes.odt or annualreport.doc file. How do you make it all PDF-y so that everyone can read it in this Adobe PDF format?

Well, in OpenOffice.org you just click the PDF icon on your toolbar. Name the new PDF copy in the window that comes up and save it. That's all. Click, type, click. You can now send your document to anyone in the world with a computer and they can read it.  Here's a document in OpenOffice.org (right-click on the link and choose Save Target As) Writer and the version I made in PDF.

You can also choose File > Export as PDF. That way you get more control as in Distiller. Be sure to select the Tagged PDF option if you want any links in the doc to be links in the PDF.

How You'd Have to Create PDF in Other Applications
If you're using another office suite or layout application, it's more involved to create a PDF. You can buy the Distiller program from Adobe for several hundred dollars if you want a really advanced program for creating PDFs. If you're using Microsoft Word, or anything else from Microsoft, you don't have the built-in capability to just click and make a PDF.

PDF Is Important. OpenOffice.org Has It: Free and Built-In

OpenOffice.org has something that's very important for working with other people. Microsoft (and most other applications) doesn't. What's up with that?

Well, that's for the industry-watching bloggers to answer. My point here is:

• PDF is important and a huge timesaver if you ever have to give your documents to other people.

• Making PDF is built into OpenOffice.org, and it's incredibly easy.

• Working with a professional printer is so much better with PDF. Sometimes it's the only way. If you need to print 200 copies of your report, spreadsheet, presentation, or any other document, it's much easier to make a PDF of it and upload it to www.kinkos.com, than to take a hardcopy down there. If you're writing a novel and want to self-publish it, it's easy to make a PDF and any printer can crank out copies.

Here's a note. The PDF document you create is not editable. If you need to send your report.ods to someone else who will make final changes to it, you'll need to send the file format they use. Choose File > Save As and pick a format in the type list. But you know what? Even people who ask for a .doc format all the frickin' time don't really need to edit the document you're sending them. They just don't know about PDF. PDF rocks.

That's why PDF is important, and how to do it.

• If you want to read about links and PDF, which takes the whole PDF/document distribution thing to an even higher level in OpenOffice.org, see this blog.
• To read some tips on using Adobe PDF format and presentations, see this blog.

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Everybody Loves OpenOffice.org (Especially When They Think It's Microsoft Office)

 

This is another story about change, and tangentially a story about Stevie Nicks.

I’ve already mentioned Louis, who when switching to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office, simply told his users that there would be a big upgrade. No mention of a different office suite program. ;> I love that story.

Here’s another story from the other side of the country. The school district’s latest levy had failed, so they had to cut a couple hundred thousand dollars from the budget. Naturally, there was a big meeting to talk about how to do this.

The school district IT director, Randy, was taking notes during the meeting, and his notes were being projected for everyone to see.

Randy said, “So, one way we could save a huge amount of money would be to cut Microsoft Office and switch to OpenOffice.org.”

Murmurmurmur…general objections…too hard…too different….it would never work.

"Well,” Randy says, “Here’s a question. What program am I using to take notes?”

There was a rousing chorus of “Microsoft Word, of course.”

"Nope,” replied Randy, with what I can only assume was just a hint of a satisfied smirk. (I would have smirked. Randy might be a better person than me.) “It’s OpenOffice.org Writer.”

Wow! No way! But it’s so much like Word!

Randy continued. “And you know what? For the last two years, you’ve been receiving Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents from me that I created in OpenOffice.org and saved in Microsoft Office format."

More murmuring, surprise, delight, etc.

And so they voted overwhelmingly to switch to OpenOffice.org and save a pantsload of money.

This is, by the way, took place recently in the  Seattle area, in Microsoft’s back yard.

It's yet another story showing that Change itself, uppercase, is often what we primarily fear; not the actual new thing that’s going to happen.  As the song goes, I've been afraid of changin' cuz I built my life (and my complex mail merges and spreadsheets) around you.

For those of you out there fighting the good fight and evangelizing OpenOffice.org, I think this story has some great lessons. Don’t try to convince people ahead of time. Just start using it within your IT department, or personally, and expose people to it without telling them what it is. Install it on people’s computers and let them play with it. Let the potential users enjoy sitting in the nice open source hot tub. Let them learn to like it without knowing much about it.  Let them come to the conclusion that....hey...you know, this isn't all that different, and we sure could save a lot of money switching to it...hmmm....

Try leading with the product, not with the idea of the product, or with Change.

Click here for additional tips on migrating users to OpenOffice.org, and click here for thoughts on how to make it easier for people to want to switch.

For those who are encountering resistance transitioning--I know that OpenOffice.org isn’t the same as Microsoft Office. It’s different. The Venn overlap is maybe 70%. But when you have to cut a couple hundred thousand from your budget, do you do it by cutting Microsoft Office, or by cutting salaries and books and benefits and other things that really matter? )

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Spending Your Money on Something Important (Repost)

Office suite software isn't really all that important.

What's important is pretty much anything else. What your organization is doing: research, services, saving lives, preserving order, education. Preserving the rain forest. Rebuilding New Orleans. Job retraining. Heck, you could argue that a good pumpkin pie is essentially more important than software.

OK, the office suite software helps you do all those things I listed and a million more. But I want to point out that our goal in our eight hours a day is not to use software. It's everything else.

All right. So now think about this.

OpenOffice.org is free.

Other office suites are not.

You switch to OpenOffice.org, and you or your organization is suddenly not spending $500, or $50,000, or $5 million on your office suite licenses.

Add up all the other people or organizations who are no longer spending that money on an office suite, and suddenly we're into some serious cash.

Think about how much your city police force spends on office suite software, and about how that money could probably do some good if it were spent on, say, salaries for additional police.

Think about what that research facility down the road spends on software. Compared to the money they spend for their equipment, maybe not much, but it's money probably better spent on upping the salaries for a few poor post-docs than on office suite software.

Think about how much money the federal government spends on office suite software. Now fantasize about how you would redirect that money if you were in charge.

(Almost makes $4,000 toilet seats pale in comparison, doesn't it? OK, toilet seats are already white, but you know what I mean.)

Amazon saved $17 million when they switched to Linux. Same principle--pay less for something that's not part of your core business.

Think about how much your state spends on office suite software for schools, and how many more teachers and books that money could buy.

A lot.

Education is one of the most important places to think about OpenOffice.org. Education is, to put it mildly, important. Plus, third graders aren't likely to complain that they're used to how Word does styles and they don't want to switch. They're open to anything new. And education isn't exactly overfunded. I live in Colorado which is either 49th or 47th in the nation in funding for education.

For educators, here's an interesting article on trends this year, including OpenOffice.org. 

For anyone thinking about upgrading to Vista, here's an important blog. Dave Rosenberg states that Vista gives you an opportunity to really compare the actual cost and the actual benefits, and he quotes Jon Oltsik from Enterprise Strategy Group."

So just think about the value. Think about how much money you're spending on your office suite, and what you could do with that money that would be more important.

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Draft Chapters for my OpenOffice 2 Book

It's time to report in on how the OpenOffice 2.o book is doing! I'm glad to report that I've got pretty much 90% of it done. I'm going to let it sit for a bit, do some other projects, then come back to it and finish up. I think "spring" will still apply since June 21st is the first day of summer. ;'>

First, thanks again to all who gave me great tips on items to include in the OpenOffice 2 book. I have incorporated the suggestions that I have room for (it's primarily a beginner/intermediate book). I'm hammering home styles, I'm trying to make it very easy for people to integrate templates, I'm talking about graphics and frames, lots of stuff on tables, autotext and shortcuts are definitely in, and I'm enhancing the chapter on working with MS Office. And of course I'm doing lots of mail merge tools, with tips on creating a separate Envelopes printer, as well as using the Secret Mail Merge Louis told me about. I'm also going to add Ross's excellent suggestion to try nested frames.
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/03/i_want_to_know_.html

Some topics are covered fully, some are going to be covered briefly either in the appropriate chapter or in a "How to get started on the top 20 things I didn't have room to include in this book" appendix. ;>

I'm now posting a couple sample chapters, in their DRAFT state. I'd like feedback, and I'd like to just send them out there for anyone to use, for those who ordered two years ago because Amazon posted the book WAY too early. ;>

Here are the caveats and review guidelines.

CAVEATS:

• This is DRAFT material. I've been back through it but it hasn't been edited or proofed.
• I haven't completed the chapter on working with Microsoft Office users. I need to research more specific problems and solutions, though I think the tips in the chapter will take people a long way.
• You can use  these chapters yourself but of course not reprint them, publish them under your own name, etc.

Feel free to just download and read. If in addition you'd like to comment, please follow these guidelines.

• It's too early for typos, so you don't need to worry about those.
• Tell me other things you'd like to know about.
• Tell me anything that's wrong.
  
• I'd love to hear about solutions you've come up with or tips you'd like to contribute.

Here are the chapters.

• Working with Microsoft Office
• Lists

Thanks! I appreciate all input. I'll most likely post additional chapters before it's published.

 

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Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready' (and the date slips again)

Microsoft Vista slips again! Now it's going to be ready (in theory) in early 2007. Hmm.

Is it worth the wait?

(Is it worth the money?  ;> )

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/03/22/vista-microsoft-ballmer_cz_dl_0322microsoft.html

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OpenOffice Pan-Galactic Post: Posts on Charts, PDF, Spreadsheets, Templates, Drawings, OpenOffice Training, Toolbars, and Much More

I've been having a problem that some of you might sympathize with--getting posts to show up in Technorati. So as a cheater, I've created this post that links to a bunch of posts that I don't think have been showing up. Not all of them like links to current discussions or issues, just the ones I think are  important that have been missed.

So I'm sorry this isn't new content, but perhaps somewhere in the last six months there's something useful that Technorati didn't let you see the first time around.

Templates, Writer, general setup and toolbars

• Creating and using OpenOffice templates, including converting Microsoft Word templates for use in OpenOffice
• Doing calculations in tables
• The styles posts on what they are, how to get styles from one document to another, how to create and update them, etc.
• The much-discussed topic of centering text vertically in a Writer document
• Starting page numbering on page 2 and related topics (relates to page styles)
• Tables of contents
• Searching and replacing for carriage returns (paragraph breaks), tabs, and other items, using regular expressions (regex)
• Creating your own toolbar
• Setting up OpenOffice under Tools > Options and Tools > Autocorrect. This is how to turn off word completion, stop automatic formatting, set defaults, increase icon size, and much more.

Calc spreadsheets and charts

• Calc spreadsheet data entry shortcuts
• Dragging a cell in a spreadsheet (see the end of the post)
• Charts in Calc and Writer; how to click in just the right spot and modify exactly what you want.
• Opening a CSV text file in Calc so that it opens as a spreadsheet. Useful if you export files from databases of other formats and want to create them as spreadsheets or databases in OpenOffice.
• Controlling what people can put into spreadsheets with error messages, online help for the cell, ranges of permitted data, etc.

Draw, Diagrams, Impress presentations

• Using the 3D shapes in Draw (I love this stuff)
• Using OpenOffice FontWork, which is kind of like WordArt
• Creating your own arrows and other line ends for UML diagrams and other purposes
• Using the OpenOffice Gallery to store graphics; this too is useful for UML diagrams
• Printing Impress presentation handouts

Web publishing and PDF

• What I did with the web tools, creating colors, image maps, etc. to redo my getopenoffice.org StarOffice and OpenOffice Training page
• PDF, with linked articles on PDF presentations, and using hyperlinked PDFs. That post is particularly interesting since you can generate PDFs from linked OpenOffice.org documents, and the links carry over to the PDF.
• Using the wonderful Web Wizard (that's the techtarget article, here's the blog link) for creating web sites from existing OpenOffice, Microsoft, and graphics documents. You can also use it for  PDF batch convert.

Mail merge, labels, envelopes, and databases

• The very very powerful Mail Merge Wizard.
• The less powerful but far easier Secret Mail Merge that you need to add to your toolbar.
• Creating OpenOffice.org databases from spreadsheets, text files, and your address book. Even Access databases are easy.
• A bunch of articles for TechTarget.com on creating databases from scratch in Base,  creating forms, doing reports, views and joins between tables , and all the fun new stuff in the Openoffice Base database module.
• How to do labels the regular way, and manually.

Openoffice training, change management, and general discussions

• My thoughts on training and its benefits.
• My suggestions for transitioning to OpenOffice.org, including the change management aspects.
• Why OpenDocument Format is important (parental advisory, contains references to tube tops).
• Switching to OpenOffice.org, or any open source product, means you can spend the budget leftover on something important. Education, firefighters--anything that's more important than using Microsoft Office.
• Office 2007 could be a big retraining job. Think about whether you'd rather spend money and time upgrading to Office 2007, or just time on switching to OpenOffice.

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