OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Printing Exactly the Records You Want to Print for a Mail Merge in OpenOffice Labels, Envelopes, or other Documents

Used to be, it was hard to just print the records you wanted to print in a mail merge, in OpenOffice.org mail merges.

Bob  Jones   121 Ludlow
Marie Hanson  1688 Oak
Kathy Bates  88 Pearl

What if you're mad at Marie, though, as well as Jean, John, and Xavier,  and just want to print a holiday letter to Bob and to Kathy and the other 119 people in your list who you're still speaking to?

You had to either go through the HUGE and complex mail merge wizard, or just print a letter each for Marie, Jean, John, and Xavier, and throw them away.

However, in 2.something of OpenOffice.org, you can just Ctrl - Select the records to print.

1. Make your mail merge document: labels, letter, envelopes, whatever.

2. Choose File > Print and say Yes, you want to print a form letter. NEVER mark the checkbox.

3. In the window that appears, you can scroll down to view the database and table you're using at the left side. This isn't necessary but it might help you feel more organized.

4. Click on the light gray box next to the first record you want to print.  Hold down Ctrl and click on the light gray box next to the next record you want to print. And so on.

You'll see that at the left side,  Selected Records is now marked.

5. Now just select Printer or File to print as you normally would, and click OK. The normal printing window will appear if you select Printer.

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Repost to make some blogs searchable

Technorati has done it again -- I have a three week gap of unlisted posts. I've reposted them but that usually doesn't work, so I'm listing them here with links and some keywords.

OpenOffice Impress Master Pages: The Disappearing Act

Impress is....well, it's not always as solid as the other OpenOffice.org applications. However, there are ways to deal with it.

I'm going to post about two particular Impress issues: the disappearing master page, today, and on Friday, the wackiness surrounding creating two new master pages at once.

Master pages are the backgrounds for your presentations. A template or presentation might have one or more master pages in it.

(Read more)

OpenOffice Impress Issue: Applying Formatting to the Wrong Master Page

I posted about the disappearing master page Wednesday. Today I'll talk about the wackiness surrounding creating two new master pages at once.

Now, this isn't that big an issue. Basically, the rule is, just create one new master page at a time. Create it, apply it, save the presentation, maybe go get a cup of coffee or eat lunch. Then if you need to, go ahead and create another new master page from scratch in that same presentation or template.

Why?

Because when you've got two or more new master pages being created at once, some of the formatting, especially the bullets, of the second one you create will be applied to the first one.

(Read more)

Lots of Extra Settings for Firefox

This is another tip I've cribbed from Dave Richards, of the City of Largo. 

The reason that Firefox took off where Netscape floundered is that they had the guts to just take stuff out and make it what most people need: a nice little no-fuss browser that loads fast. (Bill Joy also has a good quote about how it takes real guts to cut features -- wonder what he thinks about Java now. )

So that's what Firefox is. However, there are many features, some very useful and some perhaps more obscure, like the number of threads to keep open for downloading graphics. If you want to get at them, just type about:config in a Firefox browser window.

(Read more)

Support ODF; Support Democracy in Texas!

Texas is discussing open document format, the format used by OpenOffice.org and not so much by Microsoft.

Read more on Sam Hiser's blog.

http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/03/support_odf_sup.html

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I posted about the disappearing master page Wednesday. Today I'll talk about the wackiness surrounding creating two new master pages at once.

Now, this isn't that big an issue. Basically, the rule is, just create one new master page at a time. Create it, apply it, save the presentation, maybe go get a cup of coffee or eat lunch. Then if you need to, go ahead and create another new master page from scratch in that same presentation or template.

Why?

Because when you've got two or more new master pages being created at once, some of the formatting, especially the bullets, of the second one you create will be applied to the first one.

(Read more)

Texas is discussing open document format, the format used by OpenOffice.org and not so much by Microsoft.

Read more on Sam Hiser's blog.

http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/03/support_odf_sup.html

OpenOffice Impress Issue: Applying Formatting to the Wrong Master Page

I posted about the disappearing master page Wednesday. Today I'll talk about the wackiness surrounding creating two new master pages at once.

Now, this isn't that big an issue. Basically, the rule is, just create one new master page at a time. Create it, apply it, save the presentation, maybe go get a cup of coffee or eat lunch. Then if you need to, go ahead and create another new master page from scratch in that same presentation or template.

Why?

Because when you've got two or more new master pages being created at once, some of the formatting, especially the bullets, of the second one you create will be applied to the first one.

(Read more)

Support ODF; Support Democracy in Texas!

Texas is discussing open document format, the format used by OpenOffice.org and not so much by Microsoft.

Read more on Sam Hiser's blog.

http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/03/support_odf_sup.html

Kathy Sierra Is a Good Friend Who Wants to Help People Kick Butt....Nooses Are Not an Appropriate Reaction (For Her or Anyone Else)

I haven't seen Kathy in a month or so and she's kind of busy right now. So to do what I can to be supportive and comforting, here's a big public cyberspace hug to try to visually offset the nasty stuff.

I am going to go out on a limb (a big, 100-foot thick limb) and say that the things my friend Kathy has experienced go WAY beyond what we want to allow in a "trolls will be trolls" free speech world.  Also, as she says, death threats are actually against the law too. Just as no matter how funny you think the bomb joke is at the airport -- yep, actually saying it is against the law.

So no matter what kind of nasty hatred is bubbling up inside of you, you don't Photoshop her picture with a noose, and you don't make horrible comments about wanting to kill her, laced with violent sexual language.

Here's her post about everything that's been happening.
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/as_i_type_this_.html

Slashdot is talking about it.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/27/174231

The BBC is talking about it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6499095.stm

Thomas Duff has an excellent post on the subject, on the ludicrousness of sayin it's all OK because it was just the virtual, online persona who does this.
http://hostit1.connectria.com/twduff/home.nsf/d6plinks/TDUF-6ZQEXN

Here's an EXTREMELY justified post from Michelle Malkin, saying where was everybody and their outrage when someone posted this comment.  http://www.haloscan.com/comments.php?user=atrios&comment=114610797516989866#7765885 

"Let's sexually torture, rape, murder and dismember the Malkin family."
           The Aluminum Sombrero | 04.27.06 - 8:16 am |

Here's Michelle's post.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007191.htm

Here's Jeff Goldstein's site. He went through some real nastiness with someone who also made threats.
http://www.proteinwisdom.com/
Here's some background from Michelle.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005507.htm

You might wonder why someone like Kathy who talks about how to make great products would be the target of something like this.  Or how someone could start typing these awful things about anyone else and not have common sense and decency step in and stop them from at least clicking the Post button. It's tempting to say that it's just crazy, that these people are mentally ill, but I think that excuses  him, or them.  I think they're awful people, period, who know it's wrong but do it anyway. I think we should hold people responsible for their actions.

You might also think, "That's just the way it is. The online world is full of shitheads. Kathy should just ignore it."

Bullshit. That is the way it is, yes, but since when is accepting a current situation that is hateful, the right thing to do?  At various points people have used the same rationale to argue that people should just accept racism, sexism (an element of the attacks on Kathy),  and a thousand other issues.  Would you want your mother or your daughter or your sister to see herself with a noose around her neck and for someone to email her saying  this?

"fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob"

No? Then it's something to fight against, not accept as inevitable. Fight with what? Take comments like that off your blog. Criticize rather than ignore people who do it. Etc.

Kathy's a wonderful, supportive friend. I was her maid of honor.  She fed me ice cream and gave me  top-quality girl talk the night I broke up with my ex. She can't get going in the morning without her coffee; plays poker but always thinks a straight should be higher than a flush; has a lovable but less-than-bright dog; goes to music festivals;  and loves her job.

The people  who think they should be able to say these things aren't going to say "Oh, was that wrong? I'm sorry." They're going to continue to be trolls, by and large.  But the rest of us can take the stand that it's wrong to threaten to slit people's  throats and torture them, and refuse to tolerate it.   

http://onlineprojects4teachers.com/wordpress/?p=208

Hey, in 20 years we turned smoking from something cool to something disgusting.  Public opinion is powerful, and it's a power that can be used for good.

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Sample Project for Joining Tables, Regarding Primary Keys

If you don't spend every day hip deep in databases, you might not always be clear on the whole primary key thing, and how to join them.

I want to clarify that this will work.

Let's say you've got two tables.

One is a table with city residents' IDs and names, street numbers, street names, etc.

The other is a table with street names and the days on which garbage is collected.

You need to send people a letter telling them what day their garbage is collected on. Thus you need to link the two tables.

The primary key on the first table, the ID field, is different than the primary key on the second. The primary key on the second could be the street name since the street name is unique in that table.

1   Oak    Monday
2  Elm     Monday
3  Main  Tuesday

and so on.

To create the query, you don't need to link the primary keys. You can link the two tables simply by connecting the two Street Name fields when you create the query.

1. Open the database file containing the two tables.
2. Click the Queries icon at the left.
3. Click the option to create a query in design view.

4. In the window that appears, select the first table name and click Add.

5. Select the second table name and click Add.

6. Click in the second table, on the common field, in this case the StreetName field, and drag your mouse to the other table's StreetName field. (If this doesn't work, drag from the first table's field to the second table's field.)

7. Now create your query. Double-click the name of any field you want in the query. In this case it might be Name, Street Number, Street Name, and Garbage Day.

Run the query by clicking the Run Query icon.

The results will appear.

Save the query and close it.

Now create your mail merge. You can create a new Text Document and choose View > Data Sources. Open the database containing the query and under Queries select the query you created

Drag the fields you want into the letter. You might want it like this.

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Creating Calculated Fields in OpenOffice Base

When you make a database, you of course have it chock full of data.

Contractor name, Contractor pay rate, Number of hours the contractor worked, etc.
Invoice ID, Item price, Number of items purchased, etc.

Now, let's say you want to figure out something based that data. The pay rate times the hours to equal the total amount paid, for instance.

To do that, you make a query.

1. Create a database. (File > New > Database, select the first radio button in that window and continue.)
2. Create or add a table.  (Choose the Wizard or design view.)

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3. Open the database file. (File > Open and find the .odb file.)
4. Click the Queries icon at the far left.

5. Click Create Query in Design View.

6. In the window that appear, select the table that contains the fields you need to calculate and click Add.

7. The table will appear in its own separate window. Add all the fields that you want in the query -- you might all of them. To add a field, double-click it. It will appear in the design area at the bottom.

8. To add the calculation, click in the top cell of the first blank column. Type fieldname*fieldname

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For instance, to multiply the contents of Payrate by Hoursonjob,   type
Payrate*Hoursonjob

In the cell below that, the cell to the right of the Alias label, type the name you want to use to refer to this calculated field, like TotalPaid.

Then click the Run Query icon to run the query.

You'll see your results, with the calculation.

For any of the columns, including the result, you can apply currency formatting. Right-click on the column heading and choose Column Format.

Select the format you want and click OK.

The formatting is applied.

Now you can:

• Just view the data
• Run a report based on the query
• Create a mail merge of some sort based on the query

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Support ODF; Support Democracy in Texas!

Texas is discussing open document format, the format used by OpenOffice.org and not so much by Microsoft.

Read more on Sam Hiser's blog.

http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/03/support_odf_sup.html

---

Lots of Extra Settings for Firefox

This is another tip I've cribbed from Dave Richards, of the City of Largo. 

The reason that Firefox took off where Netscape floundered is that they had the guts to just take stuff out and make it what most people need: a nice little no-fuss browser that loads fast. (Bill Joy also has a good quote about how it takes real guts to cut features -- wonder what he thinks about Java now. )

So that's what Firefox is. However, there are many features, some very useful and some perhaps more obscure, like the number of threads to keep open for downloading graphics. If you want to get at them, just type about:config in a Firefox browser window.

Right-click on an option if you want to modify it. To learn about each option, you'll need to google. Here's one page.

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OpenOffice Impress Issue: Applying Formatting to the Wrong Master Page

I posted about the disappearing master page Wednesday. Today I'll talk about the wackiness surrounding creating two new master pages at once.

Now, this isn't that big an issue. Basically, the rule is, just create one new master page at a time. Create it, apply it, save the presentation, maybe go get a cup of coffee or eat lunch. Then if you need to, go ahead and create another new master page from scratch in that same presentation or template.

Why?

Because when you've got two or more new master pages being created at once, some of the formatting, especially the bullets, of the second one you create will be applied to the first one.

Yep.

Let's say you're here under View > Master > Slide Master happily editing away. You've created one and formatted it, then you immediately create another one.

There's the new blank master page

You choose Format > Page, Background tab and choose a nice background for the master page.

So far so good.

Now you get crazy and apply pretty new green bullets to the 2nd master page.

But -- hey, the new bullet formatting didn't take effect. Not on this slide, at least.

That's because the new bullets got applied to the first master page. Somehow Impress thinks you're still working on that one, likely because it hasn't been applied to any slides.

Dangit.

So: Whenever you create a master page, choose View > Normal, apply the new master page to at least one slide, and save. Then you can go back and create another new master page. This still doesn't work perfectly -- the bullet formatting, when I tried it, didn't show up in the second master page. However, it didn't get applied to the wrong master page, and it did show up when I applied the 2nd new master page to a slide.

Again, as mentioned in the previous post, save everything as a template.

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OpenOffice Impress Master Pages: The Disappearing Act

Impress is....well, it's not always as solid as the other OpenOffice.org applications. However, there are ways to deal with it.

I'm going to post about two particular Impress issues: the disappearing master page, today, and on Friday, the wackiness surrounding creating two new master pages at once.

Master pages are the backgrounds for your presentations. A template or presentation might have one or more master pages in it.

All right. So you want to create a new master page. Go ahead, but you need to care for it very very carefully. Here's the short version. Create a new master page under View > Master > Slide Master by right-clicking in the lefthand pane, creating a new master page, and designing it. Then choose View > Normal to go  back. Now, you MUST apply that new master page to at LEAST one slide, or your wonderful new master page will go Poof. (Not always, but enough for it to be a big issue.) Also, choose File > Templates > Save and save whatever document you created the master page in.  Then the master page(s) in that presentation will be available in all future presentations you create or edit.

Now, here's the detail.

Just Creating a Master Page From Scratch

You're dying to create your own master page from scratch, to format presentations exactly the way you want. Here's how.

1.  Open or create your presentation or template.

2. Choose View > Master > Slide Master.

3. Now you're in the master page view.

4. Right-click in the left hand pane and choose to rename the default  new master page. Not required but it's nice when you have a lot of them later.

5. Give it a name and click OK.

6. It's renamed.

7. All right. Format your master page, go nuts. Choose Format > Page, Background tab to change the background color. Add graphics, right-click on each and choose Arrange > Send to Back to put them in the background behind the text. Whatever you want.

8. Choose View > Normal to go back to normal view.

9. You see your master page.

The Disappearing Act

10.  Now, what if you now think, hey, I like this thing I designed, but for the first few slides that I have here, I'm going to apply this other master page. You might do this by right-clicking on another master page over there in the right-hand pane, like the nice green one, and choosing Apply to All Slides.

11. Guess what. Your beautiful master page that you worked so hard on is gone. Yes, even if you saved the presentation.

How Do You Prevent the Disappearing Act?

You MUST apply that new master page to at LEAST one slide, and keep it applied. Or your wonderful new master page will go Poof. (Not always, but enough for it to be a big issue.) So even if you don't intend to apply your new master page to the first slide, keep it applied there until you apply it to other slides.

Also, as soon as you've created your master page, choose File > Templates > Save and save whatever document you created the master page in. 

Then the master page(s) in that presentation will be available in all future presentations you create or edit.

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