OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Any way you want it: OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheet keyboard shortcuts

I get a lot of requests from people switching office suites who want to know how a feature is done in Microsoft Office, compared to how it works in OpenOffice.org.

It usually ends up that the person wants a list of shortcuts. And I say "but you can have any shortcut you want in OpenOffice.org, it's incredibly configurable." I don't really like to give out lists like that because it gives the impression that it's fixed. If someone wants Ctrl 2 to make text double-spaced and they see it's assigned to the Heading2 paragraph style, they might think there's nothing they can do about it.

All this is kind of a meandering introduction to the following general topics:

You can have virtually any shortcuts you want in OpenOffice.org.

There are a zillion  features you don't know about that you can apply shortcuts to.

It's really easy to do. And once you've got it set to your preferences, you can easily give the file to your friends.

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You can have virtually any shortcuts you want in OpenOffice.org.
Choose Tools > Customize, and click the Keyboard tab. Those are the current shortcuts. But to change one, just select something in the Category list, something in the Function list, the Keyboard Shortcut of your choice, and click Modify. Bam, you have your new shortcut.  The world is your oyster.

There are a zillion  features you don't know about that you can apply shortcuts to.
Sooooo many features that aren't on the menus or toolbars, and possibly not on the right-click menus, are in the Keyboard tab.

As mentioned, choose Tools > Customize, Keyboard tab.

Select the first Category, and scroll through the Functions. Look at all that. You can set up any of those to use a keyboard shortcut you want, or you might see something you like that has a keyboard shortcut with it already.

The keyboard shortcuts are different for OpenOffice.org in general, and for Writer, for Calc, for Impress, and for Draw.

Here are just a few functions for Calc. The first screen shot shows that it's Ctrl Page Down to go to the next sheet, and Ctrl Page Up to go to the previous sheet. You can use this as is or change it.

Here are just a few functions for Writer

Here are just a few functions for Draw

It's really easy to do. And once you've got it set to your preferences, you can easily give the file to your friends.

All right. You've chosen Tools > Customize. You've clicked the Keyboard tab. You've scrolled through and found the feature for making line spacing doubled. And in the Shortcut Keys list you find Ctrl 2, the shortcut you want to use. It's already occupied by being assigned to Heading 2. That's fine. Just click Modify and it'll switch.



Here's what it looks like now, with Ctrl 2 assigned to double-spacing.



Now let's say you want to share this and any other shortcut configurations you've made with your friends, or all the folks you support in your job as an IT professional.

* Click Save.
* Name the file and click Save.

Then give the file to someone else and tell them to:

* Choose Tools > Customize, Keyboard tab.
* Click Load
* Find the file and click Open

Want to give this post a plug on FSDaily?

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Switching to OpenOffice.org: specific step-by-step tips to customize and make OpenOffice.org your own

I wrote this article for my friend Russell over at FanaticAttack.  Lots of comments (I clearly need to do better at publicizing my own blog! ;>  ).  Check it out; it's definitely one of my more explicit, step-by-step guides.

Excerpt....

Here are some setup tips to help you get OpenOffice.org humming.

Automatic Settings

Some of the default settings aren’t quite what I would recommend, but it’s very easy to make the changes.

First, choose Tools > AutoCorrect.

In the Word Completion tab, turn off word completion if it bugs you by unmarking the Enable Word Completion option. If you like it but want to change what key you use to accept the suggestion, you can do that too.

General Settings

A window you want to get to know: choose Tools > Options. I strongly recommend that you go through every option in that window since many are very useful. To get the options for text documents you need to have a Writer document open first; to get the options for spreadsheets you need a Calc document open first, and so on.

• I like to choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > View. Select Large as the icon size.
• You might also want to turn on backups. Choose Tools > Options > Load/Save > General and select Always Create Backup Copy. The backups are created at the location specified for backups under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths.
• If you find the color selection in OpenOffice.org lacking, you can create your own under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Colors.

Printing

Writer printing: Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer, Print: you might want to turn off the option for printing automatically inserted blank pages unless you’re heavy into the first page of a new section starting on the right-hand page.

Calc printing: Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Calc, Print: it’s best to turn off both options here. If you want to select two or more sheets to print when you’re ready to print, just select one sheet tab, then hold down Ctrl and click on each additional sheet you want to print.

Read more....

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Loss aversion, the placebo effect, and OpenOffice.org

When you switch a group of people to OpenOffice.org, the biggest problems you encounter are rarely about the software. It's all about change management.

I've been trying to untangle this problem for years, and I have a few techniques. Show people the fun, cool aspects of the program. Emphasize the money being saved (which usually doesn't help at all). Try to demo the program without divulging that it is not MS Office.

And then NPR comes along with two back-to-back stories that are directly relevant.

I'm sitting here with my tea listening to a story about loss aversion, how we will work harder to avoid losing something we want than to gain the same thing. (Kind of like how we feel the pain of losing money on the stock market more than we feel the pleasure of gaining.) I thought, wow, this is so applicable to the psychology of switching to OOo. So I started creating a new blog entry and bam, the next story is about how people get more benefit from a placebo when they are told it costs more. And that, obviously, is dead-on applicable to switching to OOo as well. I could hardly type fast enough.

Here's the first story. There's a site, www.stickk.com, where you can place a bet on whether you will lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date. (Let's leave aside the question of verification.) According to the NPR story, some people respond very well to a contract. ""There are a significant portion of people who have an explicit preference for commitment," says Karlan. The commitment, or the stakes, help people act in their own self-interest. The contract helps them stay the course."

Furthermore, they will work harder to avoid losing money than to achieve the benefits associated with becoming thinner (gaining something they want). "The results exemplify what behavioral economists call "prospect theory," or loss aversion. "What we know about incentives is that people work a lot harder to avoid losing $10 than they will work to gain $10," explains Ayres. "So something that's framed as a loss is really effective at changing behavior.""

 

So this explains why the obvious benefit of Openoffice.org, freeing up money you're spending on Microsoft Office, isn't that enticing to many people. Whereas losing their comfortable Microsoft Office or WordPerfect is very painful.

How to frame switching to OpenOffice.org in those terms? It has to be associated with losing something people love. For instance, if people were going to have to choose between paying Microsoft Office and something they want more, like health benefits or their free periods (these might not be realistic examples), they might be happier to use OpenOffice.org because by doing that they avoid losing their health benefits or free periods.

This sounds like heavy-handed mafia-type techniques, I realize, and I'm not trying to do that. I just think it's interesting that the pain is more intense from losing something we have than the pleasure of gaining something we could have. So I'm trying to think of ways to help people see more clearly that not only can they do what they need to in OpenOffice.org but that the money that's freed up can help them keep what they really would hate to lose.

Based on this, I think that when you present the campaign to switch, it would therefore be effective to try as hard as you can to present the entire budget with all the expenses, and the entire amount of money you have, and ask the decisionmakers what they want you to cut. Don't just make it about switching office suite software. Make it about having 3x things you are currently providing and 2x money, and ask what to cut. That helps make it clearer what's really important.

• Are the fabulous high school music program and those two great music teachers more important than using Microsoft Office?
• Is that new ambulance and Chris the EMT more important than using Microsoft Office?
• Is  finishing that new product that could help you demolish your competitors more important than using Microsoft Office?

This not only helps people focus on what's really important, but helps frame the idea of switching to OpenOffice.org in terms of avoiding losing something users want, which is more effective than gaining something.

Now here's the other story. People were given two placebos, supposedly for pain relief. Placebos, no effect in the chemical whatsoever. There was a back story for each placebo, and they even made fancy pens for one of them with the fake name of the placebo on the pen. One placebo, let's call it fendorexor, was a lot more expensive than the other placebo, which we'll call endorantec. When people were given the more expensive fendorexor, machines hooked up to the people indicated they experienced less pain than when they were given the less expensive endorantec.

This is very interesting. It's not just reported pain, it's actual observed-by-machines pain. People's brains not only fool them into thinking that a sugar pill can reduce pain, but that the reportedly more expensive sugar pill can reduce pain more than the less expensive sugar pill.

So the key benefit of OpenOffice.org can be the thing that makes people think it's not as good. Ironic, eh?

I'm not quite sure what to do about this. It's hard to sell the work involved in a transition without mentioning the price. But I think it's a good idea to emphasize other aspects of OpenOffice.org, like the open document format, the availability on multiple operating systems, no licensing issues, easy availability to students at home, etc.  And when you demo OpenOffice.org, do it first without mentioning the price. Or try to disguise what it is, show screen shots without the title bar. Downplay the price to users, emphasize the price with decisionmakers.

Anyone have any ideas on how to use this information to help facilitate switching to OpenOffice.org? Comments, please.

[Note: OpenOffice.org is not always the right tool, especially if you do business or other activities with organizations that are tightly and rigidly tied to Microsoft Office specific macros and processes. This blog is presented to help people manage the change management part of a transition that has been well considered and well planned, where the software issues have been ironed out and solved.]

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Read/listen more.....

Losing weight and loss aversion:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87931325

People like more expensive placebos:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87938032

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Free Presentations to Organizations Considering Switching to OpenOffice.org or StarOffice This Year

I can feel it. This year is already different. In the first month of the year, I have received a far higher number of requests for training and for consulting. Also, notably, I've received several requests for input on how to, and whether to, make the transition to OpenOffice.org or StarOffice.

I'm particularly pleased with the last item, since planning is essential to a successful, smooth transition to OOo or SO for  your organization.

If you're part of an organization that's looking at making the transition and you'd like some input from me, I'm happy--actually, eager--to give it. For February and March, I will give as many free one-hour sessions on tips for a successful transition to OOo and SO as I can fit into my schedule. I might extend this option longer, depending on response and other projects.

• If you're in the Denver metro area, I'm happy to come by in person.
• If you're outside the metro area, I can work with you on the phone, or present using the ReadyTalk multi-platform screensharing tool or your own screensharing tool.
• If you'd like to set up a paid in-person consulting visit of one or more days, please contact me.

Here's a thought about why transitioning to OOo or SO . Most people have only used one office suite in their lives, maybe two.  Switching to another office suite is going to be, for them, analogous to living in a small town all their lives and then making their first visit outside the country as an adult without knowing anything about what the trip will be like. It's not that the foreign country is so inherently hard to figure out, but that they've never done it before, and aren't used to all the unexpected differences. If they're  mentally prepared for a change, open to the idea of learning; and have some essential tools like a guide, some good shoes, and a couple weeks of basic French; the experience will be much better.

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Summary of new features in OpenOffice.org 2.3

Here’s a summary of the features from the 2.3 new features list that I considered the most useful or important to write about. This page  http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/New_Features_2.3 about the new features is an excellent guide, as well.

General

• This is convenient for anyone who prints to multiple printers, all over the world. You can load or ignore the printer settings for your documents. This means you don’t end up accidentally printing to the printer in building 4 which is on the opposite side of the country, just because you were on a business trip there last week and that’s where you last printed your document.
  

• If your document isn’t wider than the OpenOffice.org window, then it will be centered in the window, not left-aligned.
  

• Lots of locale information was added, for locations such as Tagalog, Frisian, and Hausa.
  

Writer and Web

• The HTML editor now has a preview feature. Choose File > Preview in Web Browser and the document opens in the default browser.

• I love this feature. You know how when you get a hyperlink but then want to retype it or reformat it, but clicking on it takes you to the target of the link? No more. You can select hyperlinked text all you want; you now have to Ctrl Click to open a link. This is very nice.
  

• The notes say that there is a new compatibility option on Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Compatibility: Do Not Justify Alignment in Lines Ending With Manual Line Break. However, I’m mentioning this because I couldn’t see it. The illustration shows the compatibility options that are there.
  

• When you open the Styles and Formatting window (Format > Styles and Formatting), you can set what kinds of styles you wanted to see: Applied, Custom, Automatic, etc. Previously, you had to reset this every time you opened a new document or re-opened OpenOffice.org. Now, thankfully, that category will stick. The setting is saved per application. However, the choice you make for Paragraph, Character, Frame, List, or Page doesn’t stick.
  
  

• When you right-click on text, you used to see Default as one of the options. Now you see Default Formatting, which is clearer. (Default Formatting is a great way to just clear out any extraneous formatting and apply the default style to the selected item.) This is a very nice feature regardless of the text; for one thing, it’s the best way to remove the hotlink from a URL.
  

• A new export filter lets you export to MediaWiki format. Choose File > Export and select MediaWiki in the file format list.

Calc

• This is a very, very smart change. By default, the print options for Calc are now set to Print Only Selected Sheets and Suppress Output of Empty Pages. If the Print Only Selected Sheets option is enabled, the Calc page preview shows only the displayed sheet and the message “There is nothing to print.” To change these options, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Calc > Print, or choose File > Print and click the Options button.
  

• Here’s another very smart change that will screw up all my documentation. :) The SUM icon on the main Calc toolbar has changed. Now you can select the range of numbers to add, click the SUM icon, and get the total in the first cell below the selected range. Phew. But if you liked it the old way, it still works that way, too.
  

• Graphics can be linked to macros. This should help with Excel compatibility.
  

• The Excel export filter now handles the cotangent functions COT, ACOT, COTH, and ACOTH.

• Calc now supports inline matrix/array constants in formulas. An inline array is surrounded by curly braces '{' and '}'. Elements can be each a number (including negatives), a logical constant (TRUE, FALSE) or a literal string. See this link for more detail. http://sc.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=features&msgNo=230

• You can now use dynamic ranges, rather than absolute ranges defined with $, in lists in Data Validity. Choose Data > Validity, and under the Criteria tab select Cell Range from the list.
  
  

• The GETPIVOTDATA function returns a result value from a DataPilot table, so it can be used in a cell formula.
  

Mail Merge, Databases, and Forms

• The infamous checkbox on the print message when you print a mail merge document, Do Not Show Warning Again, is gone. Phew! See this blog http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/10/how_to_get_the_.html for why that caused problems.
  
  

• This is nice. When you choose File > Print with a mail merge document, in the Mail Merge window, you can choose to save the document as separate documents or as one document.
  
  

• Unfortunately, in Base there is still no File > Export or File > Import feature. File > Export does appear, but it’s dimmed.

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Why Open Source Matters: A Larger View

When I teach, one of the most common questions about OpenOffice.org is "How can it be free?"

I answer with a hodgepodge of topics from "Sun wanted to piss off Bill Gates" to "you know how your printer is really cheap but the cartridges are more expensive?" to "well, when geeks go home and want to relax, they don't play volleyball, they code." And I vow to read The Cathedral and the Bazaar when I get home.

I'm traveling soon so I'll be able to fulfill that vow before my next training class. Before I delve into the official or popular views of open source software, however, I'm going to open up the chest of my own opinions. Here's one thought. Software development is an odd combination of useful for mass numbers of people, and fun for others to develop. Usually, things that are fun enough to do voluntarily are not that useful to other people.  There might not be as much of a benefit to millions of people from group collaboration in, say, acting or singing or lounging around in the back yard -- other more traditionally enjoyable activities. But there are enough people who enjoy, or are significantly rewarded by in nonmonetary forms, software development, to create a lot of usable software. And it's far more useful for the rest of us to have a free office suite, than for a bunch of people around the world to have united to read some great novels while sipping gin and tonics. ;>

So this is one way it's possible for open source software to be, metaphorically, delicious and calorie-free because, well, it's different. The context and assumptions of the nature of software development are different than other products and services.

Then there's others' opinions that I want to share and expand on. I came across this article/blog which I thought was another interesting angle on open source from a larger standpoint.

It's not really hot news; it's about the keyword that characterizes Web 2.0 and all the associated buzzwords: participation. But I haven't talked about that theme much on this blog, having generally focused on specifics like exactly what to choose to make an inter-subdocument cross reference show up. Thus I'd like to emphasize the link between OpenOffice.org and the big ideas.

The article mentions the attempts to create an online encyclopedia.

"Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales were running into problems on the other side of the Atlantic. Together they were working on Nupedia, an encyclopedia they planned to make available to the public, free of charge, via the Internet. They considered it the ultimate democratization of knowledge. Sanger and Wales found renowned academics who were prepared to write entries for the site as well as to edit others’ contributions. Great plan. But it had one drawback: It was impossible to get anything done. Two years in, Nupedia included only 24 articles. “The pace was horrible,” Wales says now."

And then they discovered wikis. They opened up the process and now of course wikipedia is the first place many of us look for information if we just want a definition, some background and examples....in fact, an online encyclopedia entry.

Open source information goes much farther back than that. The Professor and the Madman chronicles the development of the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED, begun in the late 1890s. Where did many of the entries, many excellent entries come from? An inmate of Broadmoor who was imprisoned for murder. On the up side, he was still a very intelligent man, and of course had plenty of time to write definitions. I don't want to imply anything about today's software developers ;> with this analogy, but simply to point out that a venerable, dignified, and very old mainstay of our culture was developed with participation from many outside sources rather than an officially appointed and restricted group.

Let's keep in mind that  the odds of any software project successfully producing the desired outcome, on schedule, are roughly on par with going on a diet before your high school reunion and getting to your ideal weight in time. The structure of a standard project doesn't seem to be that much of a benefit. "It's impossible to put a precise number on the failure rate," says Karl Fogel, author of Producing Open Source Software, "but anecdotal evidence from over a decade in open source, some casting around on SourceForge.net, and a little Googling, all point to the same conclusion: the rate is extremely high, probably on the order of 90 to 95 percent."

Obviously, open source software can fail too. But my point is that developing outside the cube farm is not the risk.

Free software  seems odd to a lot of people, I think, because it's just new. We get free entertainment through TV; free information all over the place on the Internet; and overpriced $5 1000-calorie macchiatos while we're enjoying the free stuff.

The simplicity and rigidity of money = value , in an environment of better communication and participation, can't be applied as uniformly anymore. Barter, whether actual or less obvious, has a role too: you're bartering your willingness to dig a little on the Internet for information instead of being handed a thick manual. (And for those who have read through thick software manuals, sometimes they're worth the price of the software....sometimes they're not.)

I've been sitting here, staring across the coffee shop (past my $2 iced tea) trying to come up with a splendid, eloquent final sentence that ties everything together. So far, no luck. I will go with something like "Open source is more normal than you think, and was providing many valuable, reliable, free products long before Linux came along."

A very important post for decision-makers considering OpenOffice

The most important thing to make sure you understand about a transition to OpenOffice.org is to run a good hard pilot program first.

But this is a very very close second.

The more tech-savvy you are, the more serious mistakes you can make in an OpenOffice.org transition.

It's very likely that you can't trust your own judgment. Not when it comes to evaluating how users will be able to make the transition.
Because the following, more or less, describes most IT directors or people in related positions who will evaluate and choose OpenOffice.org. And these attributes color how you consider other people's skillsets.

1. You are an experienced computer and find it inconceivable that people don't have at least basic computer skills.
2. You've used a dozen text editors and while you love vi and emacs, you don't really care which one you use. You have no emotional attachment to the current office suite.
3. You understand how office suites work. You have text, you format it; you have cells, you refer to them; they're all pretty much the same. When you learn a new office suite, you just transfer your existing knowledge to a new set of navigation.

If you run a 10-person geek-heavy startup company, all of these assumptions are fine.

If you run any non-software business, a city or county government, a volunteer organization, or anything else that is not a small techy company completely populated with intense techy people, then you probably don't really know your users' skill sets. If you don't take some time to triple-check your assumptions and realistically evaluate their skill sets, then formulate plans to address related issues, you're going to have some serious bumps when you transition to OpenOffice.org.

Note: This is not in any way meant to be condescending. People have all different skillsets, from computers to people skills to decouppage to athletics, and the person who is disinterested in, or struggles with, document margins is sometimes the one who knocks you out on the dance floor or gives the speech at the annual conference that has the salespeople on their feet, cheering. This blog is to help the people in charge of transitioning users to new software ensure that those users have the skills, confidence, training, etc. necessary to do their jobs.

How do I know this?
The usual ways. Observation. Reading posts and comments online.

And through my own experience when I started to do training. I had been a techwriter/course developer in high tech for 12 years when I started doing OpenOffice.org training. I used styles, I coded raw HTML, I'd used four operating systems, etc. I didn't think of myself as techy because I was usually surrounded by people who, for instance, had written the Java certification exam. But I was way more experienced in how to use office suites, especially word processing programs, than the folks I was training. So the class on how to use styles and master documents wasn't a great success. ;>  So I quickly backpedaled and refocused and rewrote the training materials to suit the audience, their experience, and what they needed.

Back to the main topic. First, let me emphasize this:

You can have a very successful transition to OpenOffice.org even if you have users with limited software skillsets.

You just need to work with your users as they are. And since you're very different from them, your unconscious assumptions are likely going to lead you astray.

Let's go back to the numbered list.

Issues Corresponding to the Three Assumptions, and How to Deal With Those Issues

1. You are a techy and you just don't understand how someone can not understand how things work. It's like being able to read, maybe, and not know how someone can look at a word and not sound it out.

Even if you field really basic questions from your users every day, they don't ask  you all the questions. And they just skip some of the questions they should be asking. Get a sense of what their skills really are. In a nonthreatening way, either send out a little questionnaire, have a short session where you put people through their paces on some basic skills, or just send out some of your non-threatening IT folks to observe people doing their jobs. You'll find that a lot of essentials, like being able to navigate a file system, are missing. A lot of people never learned to choose File > Open and go up or down a level to find a file.  Likewise, a lot of people never learned to right-click, they don't know how to do it and they don't know what a great way it is to figure out where a feature they need is.

You can offer people training (and of course having the authority to make it required means they'll come to it).  Possibly start with fundamentals of computers and go from there. You can do daylong sessions, CBT, little tips and tricks every Wednesday at lunch, give prizes to the department that does the most entries on the Internal Tips and Tricks FAQ, whatever. It's all doable. You just need to know what you're working with, and help people get the skills they lack and that can make them happier and more productive.

2. You have no idea how they really feel about transitioning. You think, what's the big deal? It's just another software program.

This is kind of related to #3, which I'll get to in a second. But hearing that they will be switching to an office suite they've never heard of (or even if they have heard of it) fills people with panic. Fear. Hostility, sometimes. It's fear of the unknown, fear of learning things they don't feel comfortable with, fear of losing skills and ability to do their job that they feel are tied to the software they use. All very normal and human and addressable but they are NOT the feelings you would have. 

How do you address fear and panic? Well, one very practical way that's kind of offtopic is to reassure them that any massive document conversion will be taken care of. Conversion is a big issue people panic about. Also, since it's partly fear of the unknown, show them the software. Have brief 15-minute presentations or CBTs where you run through the software and show just a couple features. Bold Italic Underline, and colored text one week. Send as PDF another week. Show a cool feature like the prefab graphics as a fun feature; people like graphics. Put a bunch of clip art in the Gallery and show that another week -- ditto.

Reassure them that you're not just going to slap it on their desks and make them use it without books or training.

Reassure them that there will be a transition period where they can work with it and learn it.

And for the people who are more angry and resistant than fearful -- well, that's a management issue, not a software issue. It's time for some tough love from the person's supervisor, with the appropriate proportions of carrot and stick for that person. (You need to have support for OOo from the top to make sure you can make this happen.)

This needs to be absolutely clear to everyone in your organization. If using a particular tool to do certain tasks in the person's job description, then that person has an obligation, both ethical and legal, to learn to use that tool to the best of their abilities. This applies to computers and whatever software is installed; hammers; backhoes; or whatever the tool is.

See the addendum at the end of this post for a suggested rough draft of the email from the CEO about the transition.

3. You see how similar OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office are. Going from choosing File > Page Setup to choosing  Format > Page Setup poses no problems for you.

But these are problems for users. Many people just concentrate on what menus and buttons to click to do their job; they don't generalize those skills so that they can easily reapply them in a new piece of software. They feel like they're starting over when they switch to a new word processor, even though the fundamental principles are the same.

This is why they panic at the idea of change. They think their ability to do their job is tied to their current office suite. They think if you take away MS Office or Word Perfect, they'll be no better than an intern off the street. Maybe they fear losing their job, or at least losing their self esteem at performing their job well.

So how do you deal with this? It's nothing terribly original, but when you realize that they aren't going to be able to generalize their skillsets to OpenOffice.org on their own, you can give them the resources they need to learn OOo.

DON'T JUST INSTALL OPENOFFICE.ORG ON THEIR COMPUTERS, THROW THEM A FEW CLUESHEETS, AND FIGURE YOU'RE DONE. This is a really good way to increase support calls by an order of magnitude, make people resent you and OpenOffice.org, and risk having the transition fail.

Essentially, switching some people from MS Office to OOo is like taking a macro and changing the name of the variables. Only the names have changed, but the macro is going to break.

• You have to make sure people know how to use the program before they have to start doing their jobs using the software. This might not involve a lot of training. If people do the same five tasks all day long, then find out what those tasks are, train them on those tasks, leave them documentation for how to do those tasks, and that could be all you need to do.
  
• If there are some tasks that are more difficult in OpenOffice.org than the other office suite, then try templates, styles, menu and toolbar modification, or consider just reassigning a few tasks to another person or group.
• Increase their confidence along with their skill sets. Show them something new and cool, like making a shortcut under Tools > AutoCorrect, Replace tab; or using the drawing tools under View > Toolbars > Drawing. When you make them feel good about their skills and the program, everyone wins.

As Weird as It Feels, You Have to Believe Things That Just Don't Seem to Make Sense (to you)

The key thing is, don't make assumptions about skills users have, even when they seem natural and easy -- to you. 

If you can use OpenOffice.org easily and if your 10-year-old son picked up Openoffice.org in about 15 minutes, that has no bearing on whether or not your users will be able to pick it up on their own in the same way.

It's tempting to believe that your users will be fine, since it's cheaper and easier to do a transition with techy users. It reminds me of the joke about the economist, the engineer, and the chemist who are stuck in a room with no doors or windows. The engineer and economist have various solutions, and the economist just says, "Let's assume that there's a door."  ;>

And I'm sure in some situations, some rare situations, I'm wrong. But in my experience, this is the case. Just be sure you know the real situation, the real users you're transitioning, and address them as they are.

And you, and they, will be fine.

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ADDENDUM: TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT EVERYONE IN THE ORGANIZATION WILL LEARN OPENOFFICE.ORG AND THAT MAKING A FUSS WILL NOT BRING BACK THE OLD OFFICE SUITE.

It's a good idea for someone with authority to send an email like this to all employees. A friendly but direct email from the CEO or whoever is appropriate stating something like this. Make it clear that there will be few or no  exceptions, there is no turning back, and that kicking up a fuss will not bring back the old office suite.

(This is all assuming that you did a good, thorough job of researching, testing, and piloting OpenOffice.org, ensuring that it is the right tool for the job.)

ACME  team members,

One of the essential attributes of a successful company is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and take advantage of new opportunities and tools. Based on the changing marketplace and emergence of new types of software, I and other members of the ACME team, decided to evaluate OpenOffice.org, a powerful and free open source office suite compatible with Microsoft Office.  OpenOffice.org has a text processing module like Word, a spreadsheet like Excel, a presentation tool like Powerpoint, as well as database capabilities and a drawing program. The programs look quite similar to Microsoft Office. To learn more, go to www.openoffice.org.

I have decided that ACME will switch to OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org is a good choice for ACME for many reasons, including its excellent feature set and the enormous amount of money we will save by not paying for Microsoft Office licenses.

The transition to OpenOffice.org will be phased, not immediate. We have begun the transition with a pilot program and will begin the official rollout on ________. The rollout will take approximately __________ and by __________, the company will be using OpenOffice.org as its official office suite.

I understand that making this change might seem alarming. Rest assured that the change will not be immediate. All employees will have the opportunity to use and learn OpenOffice.org for a minimum of ________ before being required to use it for work.  All employees will provided with information about the program to help you learn it, and the help desk will support it. You can also download and install OpenOffice.org at home if you would like to use it as your home office suite. I use it myself at home and am delighted with it.

The switch to OpenOffice.org applies to all employees.  (if there are exceptions add the following) The only exceptions are as follows:
- __________
- __________
- __________

To learn more about OpenOffice.org at ACME please go to:
- [create an internal faq site]
- [an internal site where you describe it a little more, including screen captures and videos of how OOo looks]

I am confident that all ACME employees have the ability to learn the new program and do their jobs with the same high quality of excellence that has made us so successful. Thank you for your participation in this transition.

Regards,


[name]

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The Slow Death of Microsoft (or at least some wasting away)

Pretty much everything in the business world evolves and changes. The Detroit auto industry, for instance, has gone through some changes. A lot of phonograph companies are no longer in business.

And so even though it seems impossible to think that Microsoft would ever be less than its current massive size and influence, it will happen. Not only because of history but because of the reasons in this blog by Quentin Stafford-Fraser.

I'm sure Microsoft will evolve, diversify, maybe go more into games, etc. But they're not permanent the way they are now. Nothing is.

From the blog. This of course is not an issue specific to Microsoft, but an issue with standard big corporate software development in the current model.

The third, and most telling, nail in Microsoft’s coffin was highlighted for me in a talk given by a former Microsoft employee who had recently moved to Yahoo. I can’t remember his name, for which my apologies. But I remember very clearly what he said.

He had developed a new feature for Outlook/Exchange in 2004. It was a cool feature and was due to be incorporated in the next release, in 2007. But then it was deemed to be a little too aggressive to include it so quickly, so it was postponed until the following release, which will presumably be in 2009/10.  Six years after he finished it! When he moved to Yahoo, he would implement a new feature and it was not unusual for someone to ask, “Could this go live this afternoon?”

 

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Publisher Users: Making Postcards, Brochures, and Other Cool Stuff With OpenOffice Writer and Draw, and Existing Microsoft Templates (Repost)

Reposted April 2007 because this post doesn't show up in Technorati searches.

Update: See The Linux Box for more ready-made OpenOffice Impress templates.

One of the biggest losses people experience when switching to open source is the loss of all those cool templates. They are, as the song says, a hard habit to break.

The good news is, you usually don't have to break the habit. (Unless you've been using Publisher, unfortunately, and you can't open Publisher files in anything—not even Word.) Here's how to keep on using the same templates you know and love; find new ones, or create your own in Draw and Writer.

You Can Still Use Your Own Word Templates and Any Others You Can Find

Here's where you might really start to enjoy the value of OpenOffice.org's compatibility with Microsoft Office.
You can still use all those Microsoft Office templates you got with the software. (Assuming the license doesn't forbid it--just putting that in just in case. ;> ) In OpenOffice.org, just choose File > Open, go to Program Files\Microsoft Office\templates (or wherever) and find the one you want. 

You can also set up OpenOffice.org to just find those templates. See this blog on templates. Go to the end.

And you can google around for more. I googled for “postcard templates” and came to this nice site from HP. The templates are available not just in Publisher but in Word. Click the image to see it larger if you like.

http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/office/direct_marketing.html

Follow a few links, and you get here. Click the image to see it larger if you like.

http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/office/stocklayout/stocklayout_overview.html

 

I decided to download the postcard template and the brochure template. I clicked on each; here's what it looked like to choose the brochure template.

Once the files were downloaded, I just went to OpenOffice.org, chose File > Open,  and opened them in OpenOffice Writer. Here's what the postcard template looks like.

 

I modified it according to my own information; it was relatively easy. Here's what that looks like. Here's the file itself. Right-click on the link and choose to save link as.

So that's really all there is to it. Use your own  or find new ones. There are a zillion free templates out there, and you can use the Word format templates (or Powerpoint, or Excel) in OpenOffice.org. Just google for the free ones, or ask friends where they are.

Making Your Own Postcards, Brochures, etc. in Draw and Writer

Now, that's not all the fun. If you want to create a postcard yourself, let's say in Draw, you can go ahead and do that, too. Or a brochure, or anything with specific measurements.

(You can do this in Writer to; I'm just showing it in Draw since the previous section was all about Writer.)

You need to know three  things.
- Choose Format > Page and click the Page tab to set the overall page size and orientation.

- Use the drawing tools like the text box and shapes to create the borders of the items in the document. Choose View > Toolbars > Drawing to bring up that toolbar.

- Select any item, right-click, and choose Position and Size. In the window that appears, click the Position and Size tab. will let you specify that the border of the postcard box, for instance, is 4x6. Remember to mark or unmark the Keep Ratio checkbox depending on whether you want to change one measurement of the object or both.

 

So let's do an example.

 

I'm going to create another postcard template. So I choose File > New > Drawing to create a new Draw document. I choose Format > Page, click the Page tab, and set the page size and margins.  I'll need a document that's like the first one or the second one, depending on what I'm printing on.

Option 1: A document with no margins, 6 across by 8 high (for two 4x6 postcards), and portrait orientation

Option 2: A document with half-inch margins, 7 across by 9 high (for two 4x6 postcards with two half-inch margins around the outside),  and portrait orientation

Next, I create a box to show me where the content should go. I just click on the rectangle tool in the Drawing toolbar and draw the box. I don't want a fill in it so I make the fill Invisible.

I right-click on the border of the rectangle, choose Position and Size, and click on the Position and Size tab. I choose 6 wide by 4 high, and unmark the Keep Ratio checkbox.

I put the edge of the box against the edge of where the postcard paper will end.

At this point, I make a template of it, so I can get at it again. See this blog on templates. If you want my document to download and make into a template,  here it is. Right-click on the link and choose to save link as.

 

Now I just make one version of the postcard, the way I want it. I put the content in the box, keeping in mind I need a bit of space between the text and the edge of the paper.

 

I copy the postcard and paste it, and drag the pasted version down to the bottom end of the document.

 

And now I just delete the boxes.

 

That's all there is to it. A little bit of work to set up, but the template takes care of that; you only need to do it once.

 

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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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Transitioning an Organization to OpenOffice.org: My Own Tips and Yours

This post is for IT managers or people in similar jobs, in charge of determining whether to switch to OpenOffice.org, and then planning and implementing the conversion.

Many problems with switching to OpenOffice.org aren't, at heart, caused by actual problems with the software.

There are hiccups, there are things you need to rethink, but bugs or lack of features in the software itself really aren't the issue most of the time. It's people, processes, perception, planning, and so on.
Many problems can be preempted or solved with strategic use of setup options in the software.

I'm going to keep this blog topic going, as I think of and have time to add more items. Please add your tips through comments.

• See also this post for more of a sequential planning-through-implementation checklist.
• See also this post for important information about how really can't trust your own judgment when determining what users need for the transition. The same post also contains a draft email of how the CEO should tell users in a direct but respectful manner that the transition is happening and no amount of complaining will do any good.

Technical Issues
Test, test, test. Before you even officially decide to switch, get a really solid representative sample of the current documents and processes that people complete with your current office suite software and database software (if you're going to be using Base) and make sure that everything essential works with OOo.

Users will tell you things that aren't true. In the test phase and during implementation, don't rely on users telling you that things don't work. Research it and make sure that it doesn't work; usually the item does work or is possible, just not in the way the user is used to.   For instance, to import content into a database, you just right-click in the table area of a database window and choose Paste. Not something that you would guess. With OpenOffice.org, most things are possible; many things are not obvious.

Mail merge is very different. You'll need to concentrate some effort on educating users on how to do this. It's not inherently difficult; it's just not very wizardy. Don't go live with OpenOffice.org before making sure that at least one person in every department knows how to do mail merges, including with envelopes and labels, cold.

Here are all blogs that I've filed in the mail merge category.

On a related note, consider using labels instead of envelopes. Unless your company pins its reputation on its ability to print addresses on envelopes, I'm pretty sure there isn't a business reason for using envelopes instead of labels. People will resist changing but, well, see the other sections of this blog for what to do about that.

Both envelopes and labels are certainly possible but envelopes have a few more tricky bits, especially because of how Word users are used to using them.

Here's the envelopes category of my blog.
Here's the labels category of my blog.

Publisher files aren't compatible with anything else.  This is Microsoft's fault, not OpenOffice.org. Your Publisher users will need to create new documents in Draw or Writer, depending on the type of document. You might want to keep one or two Publisher licenses around if this is a big issue. Consider creating a few commonly used templates for brochures, postcards, etc. to make the transition easier. You can make tri-fold brochures in Writer using frames.

There are a lot of very nice Writer and Word templates out there; just open the Word ones in Writer and you can generally use them as is.

You might introduce the more advanced users to Scribus.  Some former Publisher users absolutely love it.

See this blog, which talks about using OpenOffice.org instead of Publisher.

Suppressing the page number on the first page is far more complicated than it needs to be. You can train everyone, and/or you can create a template that has the first page number suppressed already.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/09/starting_page_n.html
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/12/merry_christmas.html

Change Management/Attitude
Understand what level of skills your users really have. It's often tough for an IT director to realize that many users have really core skills and aren't able to easily navigate up and down in an Open window; don't know to select first then format; don't know that there's a keyboard shortcut available instead of copying and pasting; etc.  Knowing your users' skill level will help you plan training.

This post covers this in more detail.

You MUST have the top brass on your side. This is essential, since you will get tremendous pushback from people who don't want to change. You will need a clear, definite message from the top telling people that this is happening and making a fuss won't bring their old office suite back. (This presumes that you did a good job in the initial evaluation and you turned up 90% of the issues, and know how to address them.)

See  this post  at the end for a draft email of how the CEO should tell users in a direct but respectful manner that the transition is happening and no amount of complaining will do any good.

Find the vocal people who don't like the software, and convert them. Show them the cool things they can do with the software. Tell them you value their experience with the previous software and would really appreciate their insight into how best to do tasks in the new software. Alternately, if they're a tough case, then it's time for their manager to get tough and tell them that using OpenOffice.org, and learning it, is now part of their job description.

Many people will tell you that things are so much easier in Word. This is not necessarily true. If you can, then politely ask the person telling you this to demonstrate the supposedly easier process in Word, preferably in front of a decision-maker or other higher-up. Also see above regarding users telling you that things don't work.

You might need to keep a few Excel licenses around if your financial people are addicted to macros or wield extraordinary power. This is OK.

There will be a period of unpleasantness. When you switch to OpenOffice.org, many of your users will be unhappy at first. Change is never popular, especially if you have WordPerfect users who have not had to change word processors since the 90s. You will need to tell a lot of people that yes, it is more complicated in OpenOffice.org to do X or Y, and that they'll just have to deal with it. Having support from higher-ups will help this go over, if not better, then at least with more effect. Remind people that their job descriptions do not include the right to use only Microsoft Office or WordPerfect, or at least that their job descriptions include the phrase "Other duties as assigned."

Make sure everyone knows that free doesn't mean bad. It's not easy to explain, but talk to users about how OpenOffice.org is not about making money; it's about people working together to get the features they need, and sharing them with others. Also, many people will think that your organization is just being cheap by refusing to spend money on software. You of course are trying to save money, at least that's a common goal, but reinforce that you now can spend money on things that are more important like benefits, smaller class sizes, or whatever is more important in your organization.

Specific Software Features to Use to Your Advantage
Don't teach them to fish if it's easier to give them reusable fish. Spend some time getting to know what you can do with templates and styles. Much of the formatting you can do is possible, but challenging for users who only have core skills. For instance, a common formatting feature is a left-hanging indent. Users might not be able to do this easily. Another item is text that is indented from both the left and right an inch or so. You could create styles with this formatting, call them OurOrg_HangingIndent and OurOrg_LeftRightIndent, for instance, and add them to a template that everyone can access. Here's a template with those two styles.

In particular, consider setting the default template for each user. Incorporate all styles that they might need, such as the ones I mentioned in the above paragraph, plus a page style that has no page number on the first page, and automatically uses a page number on the second page.

Customize menus and toolbars  Consider customizing the menus and toolbar. If you get a lot of calls from users looking for page setup under File > Page Setup, it might be easier for you to just add that option under the File menu rather than telling everyone several times that it's under the Format menu. Or create a new menu called Month-End Procedures that will open various windows users need to use for month-end procedures.

Along the same topic, consider removing some icons that might be confusing or lead users to try things you don't want them using. My 89-year-old father, not computer savvy, uses Calc to track financial information for taxes. I made it easier for him by taking off most of the icons.

Here's some info on how to customize toolbars and menus.

Create keyboard shortcuts for tasks and for styles  Set up keyboard shortcuts for people, or show them how to do it themselves. This will help especially with WordPerfect users who have memorized the keyboard shortcuts and find it difficult or slow to switch to a new program. If it takes three mouse clicks to get to the feature on the mouse, someone who's been getting there with Ctrl  G is going to be annoyed even though it really isn't that much work to do the menu selection. (Again, as I said at the beginning, it's not about the software causing problems.) So show them how to use Tools > Customize, Keyboard to set keyboard shortcuts. My blog on that topic is here.

Set up menu items to bring up templates or other documents. For instance, you might make a new menu called Personnel Department Templates and add items like Job Description Template, Org Chart Template, and so on. A blog on how to do this is forthcoming; I've got the macro but haven't fiddled with how to do it.

Add fun and convenience with the picture Gallery. Some users find it difficult to navigate a file system to find clip art or pictures to include in their documents. In addition, pictures are just fun and can help change attitudes surprisingly quickly. I highly recommend configuring the Gallery so that there are vast numbers of graphics available. Users can simply choose Tools > Gallery, select a category, then drag a picture into their document. My blog on adding graphics to the Gallery is here.

Show everyone PDF and the File > Send features. It's a very slick easy feature, people like it, and it's great for reducing issues you encounter when working with people who use Microsoft Office or other office suites.

Show advanced users the automatic TOC feature.  So many people still manually type their tables of contents. Agh! Just be sure that you've used the paragraph styles Heading1 through Heading 10 (or as detailed as you need, maybe Heading3) on the appropriate headings. Then Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and Tables, and click OK. Bam, instant TOC .  You can also make a linked one and the links remain when you export to PDF. Any links that you create in any way in the OpenOffice.org document will remain when you export to PDF. Just be sure to choose File > Export as PDF, and in the first tab of the PDF options window, be sure that Tagged PDF is selected.

Here's the PDF/Publishing blog, including how to make the linked TOC. Advanced users or web people will love this.

Conversion Process
Test, pilot, rinse and repeat. You absolutely must do a long research process. Test documents. You might discover that several departments are using Quattro Pro and have documents created in the 80s. Be sure OpenOffice.org can open these and if it can't, then have a plan for outsourcing re-creating them. (Before you do that, be sure that these documents even need to be conveted in the first place.)  If your company uses an app that produces a spreadsheet or CSV file, be sure that OpenOffice.org can open it. Talk to every department and give them an exhaustive list of questions. Make sure they know that it is crucial they give you complete and accurate information.

Trust, but verify. With emphasis on the verify part.

Do one thing at a time. If you're switching to Linux, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and Thunderbird, switch to one application at a time. Once everyone's solid, then switch your OS. (Thanks to Dave Richards of the City of Largo for this one.)

Create a plan, publish the plan, and stick to it. Give people a transition time when they can learn and start using OpenOffice.org, and a cutoff time when you take MS Office or WordPerfect off their machines. For you and your IT group, of course, you have a public cutoff date and an internal cutoff date maybe 1-4 months later, to give yourselves some flexibility.

 

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50 Open Source success stories in Business, Education, and Government

Success stories! If you're considering switching to any open source program, read on.

http://www.crmchump.org/2006/10/in_a_world_wher.html

Here's one story.

Golden also mentioned the implementation of SugarCRM Oregon Department of Human Services. The service provider needed a CRM put into place quickly, due to new HIPAA regulations in electronic billing. Believe it or not, Oregon DHS was sold on the idea when an IT engineer surfed the internet, found open-source SugarCRM, downloaded it onto a laptop and showed it around the department the next day. After “a couple of days” configuring, Oregon DHS went live with the system via the same laptop.

And get this, especially the end.

CRMBlog recently reported the story of the implementation over at Learning.com, a developer of online technology integration and assessment tools for public schools. Within six months of installing NetSuite, Learning.com had achieved results in acceleration of its business processes by a crazy 1500 percent and ultimately doubled business in 2005. And best of all, Learning.com reportedly required no extra personnel or personnel costs in making the switch.

Click here to read more.

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Importing Fonts Into OpenOffice.org 2.1

OpenOffice.org will just pick up whatever fonts you've got on your system. As someone who's worked with a lot of desktop publishing projects and who's mostly on Windows, I have a lot of fonts.

But let's sa