OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Creating a presentation quickly from a directory of images in OpenOffice Impress

Once I installed this extension, it took me about six seconds to create a presentation based on a directory of graphics, one slide for each graphic.

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/node/419

Download the extension, don't unzip it, then choose Tools > Extension Manager as always to add it.

Then choose Tools > Addons > Create Photo Album.(If that doesn't show up, restart OpenOffice.)

Point to the directory where your graphics are. That's it. You get a presentation.

Only thing is, the randomly chosen slide transitions are a little annoying, so click the Slide Transitions item, select No Transition (or something you like), then click Apply to All Slides. And you can use that pane also to change the amount of time on each slide, or to switch it to manually going from one slide to another.

 

Applying borders to nonconsecutive cells in Calc 3.2 spreadsheets

In OpenOffice.org 3.2 you can apply borders to nonconsecutive cells using the toolbar.

Currently if you try to select multiple cells that aren't together and apply borders on the toolbar, you get an error. (You CAN apply border formatting from the Format > Cells, Borders tab currently.)

In 3.2, though, there's no problem using the toolbar icon.

The somewhat variable helpfulness of the Function List in OpenOffice Calc, and how to get the full syntax

 
I'm a big fan of the function list palette, as a list of functions. Choose Insert > Function List and the palette of all functions will appear. Much easier to use than the wizard just as a reference. In the dropdown list at the top of the function list palette, select the category of functions you want to view.

Then just double-click the function you want, or click the little F(X) button in the palette, and the function and syntax will appear.

But look what appears, for instance, for =AVERAGE.

That's just not that helpful period; the average of one number is itself, plus who wants to find the average of a number?

If you look at the function wizard (click the F button next to the function entry field on the toolbar) or look at the help or do something else I'll show you in a second, this is the syntax. You could do a range or just list the numbers.

 

Likewise the syntax for =CONCATENATE from the function list is this

 

(not helpful, though not strictly wrong)

and the actual syntax that would be helpful is this.

 

Sometimes the function list does give you the full accurate helpful syntax as with HLOOKUP.

 

Here's what I recommend.

* Use the function list as a reference to jog your memory. Is it AVERAGE or AVG, that kind of thing.

* Then use the function wizard to get the real synta

* Or the help

* OR (fastest) type in the function as shown.

   * First you get a popup with the name and the basic syntax. 

   * Press Enter. Then you see the full syntax.

   * Don't press Enter, it will disappear. But you can use it as a guide to the syntax, and drag, click, or type to enter the appropriate cells/ranges/values.

Another approach is to use the function list, click to add it and its maybe-not-complete syntax to the cell where you want the formula, then click between the parentheses. The same little popup that you get with the previous approach will show then too.

The key point here is, the function list doesn't always give you the whole story on the syntax. Get the full story another way.

Exporting a particular graphic to a file in OpenOffice 3.2

In the upcoming (developer version available) version of OpenOffice.org 3.2, you can right-click on a graphic and save it to a file.

Copying multiple sheets at once in Calc spreadsheets

If you try to select several sheets in a spreadsheet, then right-click to copy, all but one come unselected. It's not possible to copy multiple sheets that way.

However, if you Ctrl Select or Shift Select the sheets by clicking on the sheet tabs, then choose Edit > Sheet > Move/Copy, then right-clicking doesn't disrupt the selection.

First, select the sheets you want to copy. Click on one, then hold down Shift and select the last one (select all sheet tabs between first and last) or hold down Ctrl and click on each specific sheet tab that you want. The sheet tabs will change color very very slightly, will be come slightly lighter, when they're selected.

Then choose Edit > Sheet > Move/Copy.

 

The option to Copy will already be marked and dimmed so you can't change it. Select the sheet after which you want the copies to appear.

 

Click OK and you'll see the copies.

How to output to files all the graphics that are pasted into a document in OpenOffice Writer

You've been there. You have a document full of graphics and you'd like to be able to save them all as individual separate graphics files. Mountain.jpg, picnic.jpg, diagram.jpg, etc. But it's a pain, and there are a LOT of them.

Here's a way to use the web wizard to make it a lot easier. I think this should work also in Calc and Impress, I just haven't tried it.

I just got an excellent comment on this -- you can also change the file extension to .zip, unzip it, open it up, find the graphics directory, and there are all your graphics without this process. Copy them out. Then zip up the file again and change the file extension back to .odt. If you're comfortable with that, that's the faster process.

So here's a document.

Choose File > Wizards > Web Wizard.Click Add to add the document with the graphics. Choose to export to HTML.

It doesn't particularly matter what options you choose; just pick some layout and export it to HTML.If you might ever use the exported version then pick the appropriate layout for the pages.

Pick the output directory.

The exported files will have a graphics and a content directory. You want the content directory. Go to the directory you exported to, open contents, and you'll see all the graphics.