OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Making a Specific Template Come Up When You Create Any New Document, in OpenOffice.org Writer, Calc, Impress, or Draw (repost)

This is a very useful feature, I think, so I'm reposting it.

Anytime you can help people do something without actually have them do anything is great for them and great for you.

Templates are a great way to save time. Set up templates with the styles, graphics, etc. that people need, and they don't need to re-create them. (Or create them in the first place.)

However, getting users to use the templates is another step. For them, choosing File > New > Templates and Documents might not be something some will want to do or remember to do every time.

What if one of the templates you've created is one that many or all users use all the time as the basis for new documents?   You can make it come up when users just choose File > New > [type of document] by setting it as the default template. I.e. the user uses the template but doesn't even need to select it.

First, create a new document and make it how you want it: create styles, apply styles, include canned text, whatever.

Choose File > Templates > Save. Select a category and name the template. Click OK.

Choose File > Templates > Organize.

Open the category your template is in, in the left side.

Right-click on the template and choose Set as Default Template.

Click Close. You're done! Choose File > New > [type of document] and you'll see the effect.

To switch back to the normal original boring blank document, repeat the steps but this time choose Reset Default Template > [type of document]

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Updated the 10th: An Impress PDF presentation on OpenOffice.org 3.0 features

I created this presentation  for a client, about the 3.0 features in OpenOffice.org. I'm going to do a more detailed article but I thought I would post this since I've done it. Here's the solver.ods spreadsheet you can use to fiddle with.

I got pretty excited about some of them, especially the 3-up layout with lines already in there, and the far easier Impress handout printing.

And for those who like a good cross-reference, you don't need to create them first; you can just point to a heading in a list and select it, to make the cross-reference.

Also very exciting is the PDF editing, which does some very Adobe Acrobat type things. It's in an extension you can get here.

In the words of Douglas Adams, share and enjoy!

The OpenOffice.org Web Wizard, for mass-converting docs to HTML or PDF

I wrote this article  for TechTarget about the fabulous Web Wizard and its uses for mass PDF conversion and quick web publishing of existing documents. This is a "classic" post but it's a great feature that bears re-posting about.

Persuading people that OpenOffice.org is the right choice? Accentuate the negative.

I blogged about this item recently.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2008/03/loss-aversion-a.html

It's about how people are more inclined to fear loss than to be motivated by gain. (And also about how a cheap placebo is less effective than an expensive placebo.)

That was pretty depressing because it seemed like people are hard-coded to not be interested in Openoffice.org (free, and gaining money in the budget to do other things with), when they could clearly benefit from switching from MS Office.

(Caveat. Of course, not everyone should switch from MS Office to OpenOffice.org, but pretty much everyone should consider it.)

However. I'm listening to NPR again and here's the flip side.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93872977

People are motivated by fear, by loss. Not just to buy a certain brand of deoderant but it just works. Firefighters who during training are shown  or told about the wrong decisions by previous firefighters, ended up performing better than firefighters who were just shown the right decision-making process. Mothers who were told that formula was bad for their babies were more likely to breastfeed than mothers who were told that breastfeeding was good for their babies.

Microsoft certainly does this but without as much emphasis on truth/the whole truth/and nothing but the truth as one might hope.

And when you think about it, it makes sense. Why bother to get up off the chair that's on fire if all you're told is that it's cooler over there on the other side of the room? "You're going to die" is the key information.

So that's one major thing. Emphasize the danger, the disadvantages, of the current choice.

The next major thing I took away from this NPR show is that it's all about "what is everyone else doing." Which is not surprising, but it's very effective. You know the sign you see in hotels, saying please leave your towel on the rack if you want to reuse it. The sign says we should save hot water, save the environment, etc.  Hotels in a study increased their towel reuse by guests significantly simply by changing the sign so that it says that 43% (or so) of hotel guests reuse their towels. People look to their peers for approval and guidance of what to do.

Here's a by no means complete but useful list of many implementations of OpenOffice.org. And let's not forget that Sun, Novell, and IBM all have heavy involvement with OpenOffice.org/StarOffice/Symphony.

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Major_OpenOffice.org_Deployments   Plus my home town library in Kalispell, Montana; the library uses Userful kiosks. Not a major deployment ;>  but it's another stat.

Once you've done the first two things, then of course you need reasons for switching to OpenOffice, or whatever you're trying to explain. And we have those in spades for OOo.

Migrating WordPerfect Files to OpenOffice.org

A techy colleague offers this advice for mass conversion of WordPerfect documents.

http://libwpd.sourceforge.net/

There is a utility called wpd2sxw which runs from the command line.  You use a script to loop through all files and then write out the appropriate file name.   MS Windows doesn't script well, it's easier on Linux. 

90 things that are the same in Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org

I've put together three articles, showing tasks that are the same between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org.

• Word/Writer
  
• Excel/Calc
• Powerpoint/Impress
  

My article on transitioning to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office

I really thought that I had posted this article, but I have not seen it in a quick page through.

http://www.fanaticattack.com/2008/switching-office-suites-from-microsoft-office-to-openofficeorg.html

It is a big, big article with most of what I recommend about setting up and switching, with the primary focus on individual users. But it applies to transitioning groups, as well.

See also this blog post, which has some really specific info about how to distribute clip art to many users on a network.

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