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Special Edition Using Star Office 6.0
First, PC makers rarely have financial inducements to preinstall open source applications, especially when it eats into their upsell margins. Second, people have a misconception that documents produced in MS Office can only be read by MS Office (a fact which leads Richard Stallman to call for an end to all Microsoft Word attachments ). Third, subsidized prices and the wide availability of instructional material ensure that teachers use these commercial products for class and give assignments requiring them. Finally, consumers switching to an open source product need confidence that the open source application has equivalent functionality and adequate documentation to reduce the learning curve.
Fortunately, a first-class user guide on OpenOffice.org/StarOffice has been written, and that book is Michael Koch's Special Edition Using StarOffice 6.0. This book, actually a second edition, covers the new version and gives fuller treatment to StarOffice writer and the HTML editor. Despite the use of "StarOffice" in the title, this book actually covers both StarOffice and OpenOffice.org in depth.
An an aside, let me compliment Que editions for the legibility and usability of layout. (Que also produced the excellent Ed Bott's Special Edition Using Microsoft Office XP). Nice readable texts, lots of boxes, tips and cautions. Every chapter finishes with a helpful troubleshooting section.
Two immediate reactions: 1) Gosh, I didn't know OpenOffice/StarOffice could do all that! I was pleasantly surprised, for example, to learn the number of graphic capabilities the program has. 2) This book covers functionality in considerable depth, with enough content to satisfy the newbie as well as the advanced user. In addition to documenting the office software, the book also includes reference sections on StarOffice Basic, using data sources, building forms and macros. It also includes a chapter on Adabas, the database that comes as part of the StarOffice package (but not with OpenOffice.org).
Koch benefits from the fact that users already start with a good conceptual framework of what MS Office products are supposed to do. The biggest conceptual challenge in moving from MS Office to Star/OpenOffice is getting used to the idea of applying styles to text instead of just clicking on an icon for formatting. MS Office actually has terrific styling capabilities (and a usable interface for managing styles),but Microsoft's friendly GUI discourages users from thinking about document structure. Contrast that to OpenOffice.org, which nudges the user more firmly towards styles. Managing the different layers of styles in OpenOffice.org can be tricky and confusing, so Koch spends a considerable amount of time and space on that. Another chapter on sharing and exchanging information with MS Office users goes into exquisite detail about compatibility and formatting losses when converting documents, as well as the StarOffice XML file format.
Cordelia of Buffy the Vampire Slayer once said, "There are books about computers? Isn't that the point of computers, to replace books?" Perhaps I am just cheap, but when evaluating a user guide, I often ask whether the online help isn't good enough. Or whether newgroups/websites/forums are adequate. Or whether the user interface is intuitive or allows you to discover a solution by just playing around. Dozens of heavy thousand-page books clutter my apartment, leading me to wonder whether the convenience of a gigantic dead-tree reference guide outweighs the increase in clutter. Every time I move to another apartment, I keep lugging those gigantic SQL and C++ books I haven't consulted for years, but feel compelled to keep around. (Contrast that with the very portable and handy Oreilly's Linux Server Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools, (reviewed on Slashdot), which covers most sysadmin tasks AND can be stashed in a backpack without causing whiplash).
For the last two months (in which I used OpenOffice.org thoroughly), I performed a little experiment. Where was the best place to find answers to my OpenOffice.org questions? I tried consulting the online help, then the book, then the newsgroups and openoffice websites. Here are the results:
- Adding page numbers. The book had the best information, though what do you look under in the index? I eventually found it under "Numbers, Writer" (?!). Online help was useless. (The answer is to insert a footer and then insert a page number field in the footer).
- I just created a hyperlink in the HTML editor. But the underlined style is bleeding to the text after the link. How do I stop that? Neither the book nor online help provided the answer, although the newsgroup did after 24 hours. (The answer is to press the End key or to select Format >> Default)
- How do I create an HTML style with the stylist which specifies the background color of a table cell? (No answer from anywhere, although Koch admits that that the StarOffice HTML editor is "temperamental").
- While drawing a flowchart on the Draw program, how do I save the entire image as a jpeg and not just the highlighted part? (By grouping the components together, the book helpfully advises. The online help offers nothing).
- On a spreadsheet, what is the keyboard shortcut for bringing the cursor back to the left column? (Keyboard shortcuts are easy to find in the book. Couldn't find it in the online help).
Generally, the book had the most reliable and in-depth information. That was especially helpful when trying to perform a complex action (like creating a table of contents). But the majority of my inquiries had to do with using the interface, not functionality. Often the sheer size of the book made daunting the simple task of finding a function on a dialog or a keyboard shortcut.
That is the paradox of super-sized application manuals. Surely one doesn't read them from cover to cover. But after an application reaches a certain level of complexity, the software interface is no longer intuitive, and you pretty much need a book just to find things in the interface. As one who does technical writing, it may sound funny to say, but often my favorite thing about these super-size manuals are the screenshots. I can't tell you how many times I've browsed through a book and come across a dialog box I never knew existed. On the other hand, when application manuals reach a certain size, navigating through "book interfaces" becomes almost as difficult as navigating through the software interface or help system.
Online help is good when you know what you're looking for (i.e., when you have a specific search term to look for). Books are good when you don't know what you're looking for. With books, the reader can flip through pages in the general vicinity of a topic and randomly stumble upon the right information. Books allow the user to bypass the outlined hierarchy of online help and learn the appropriate terminology for describing the task (which then makes it easier to find things in the online help).
A recent visit to a technical bookstore and a large chain bookstores showed no books on the shelf for StarOffice, but dozens of books on Microsoft Office, That is too bad, because Using StarOffice 6.0 provides much-needed in-depth coverage on an application whose user base will grow as tight budgets cause companies and public sector agencies to examine open source alternatives.
* PDF conversion (as well as docbook and Flash) export are available on the OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta 2 build.
Other OpenOffice.org Resources:
Kaaredyret has the best English language OpenOffice links page . ooodocs.org has a lively Forum for OO users. Or if you want, you can look at a PDF of the official Staroffice Documentation (400 pages)
ROBERT NAGLE (aka idiotprogrammer )is a technical writer, trainer who doesn't think that open source documentation sucks . He works for Texas Instruments in Houston, Texas. You can purchase the Special Edition Using StarOffice 6.0 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
MS office is so prevalent because companies require shared calendaring; thus pretty much Outlook. Everything else comes with outlook, and is thus readily available for use.
No offense to the various free options; but they're just not there yet. At least not there enough to get people [who by nature resist change] to change.
A dorky low-end database with a really quick learning curve and good reporting capabilities.
Yes, Access sucks horribly - but walk into any mid-size office and I bet you'll find at least one 'mission critical' Access database or (worse yet), applications written with a VB frontend and Access backend. IMHO, this is what's missing to make it really competitive.
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
Because education is not necessarily to do with computing. I know some highly educated people who would stare at me blankly if I showed them a regexp, for example. Why? Because it's not their domain of knowledge. They, in turn, could perform the same trick on me.
My then-girlfriend-now-wife put herself back through college a few years ago, to become a qualified dispensing optician. The first year I could keep up with her courswork easily without going to the classes - fairly simple algebra/geometry plus a bit of jargon learning to do. The second year, I had to study the books carefully to give her any help. The third year? Forget it, I was way out of my depth.
Being highly educated doesn't necessarily equate to being interested in computing.
Cheers,
Ian
There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.
OpenOffice has basically no visibility. If you don't read one of a few technical websites, where the hell are you going to hear about it? Educated people don't necessarily read NewsForge, and they aren't going to see advertising for OpenOffice in Time or whatever they are reading. Word of mouth works, but it is slow to start.
When OpenOffice comes preloaded on the PC Aunt Bettie and Uncle Lou buys from Dell (educated people buy from Dell, you know), or it gets advertising during Friends, then people will hear of it.
As to why people who have heard it aren't using it... Well, sorry, but it does -not- read all MS Office docs correctly. I blame OOo for that no more than I blame Mozilla for not supporting ActiveX, but it's still true. As long as people are still sending MSOffice files around and expecting you to be able to read them and/or modify them, then Open Office is going to have a big hurdle to overcome.
The enemies of Democracy are
Regardless of what anyone thinks of StarOffice (or cousin OpenOffice), having a "Using" series book about it is almost like free advertising. The series has sold umpteen million copies (I own about 65 "Using" volumes myself) and is just about guaranteed to be on major bookstore shelves as well as at office supply stores and some warehouse clubs. So a lot of people will see the book who didn't know SO existed, or hadn't paid it any attention.
And as always, choice is good, and more useful when you're aware of your choices.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
This article nicely summed up a talking point:
"Did you know that Open Office can convert word files to PDF for free?" is a great one.
Another would be:
"Did you know that that program Mozilla gets rid of pop up ads?", or;
"Did you know that Google, the largest search engine, uses that open source Linux?"
The more these are posted and said, the more managers and decision makers will notice. They are simple and memorable (and as Microsoft has noticed, they don't even have to be true.) For good fun, use Microsoft's techniques against them.
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
PC manufacturers are leaving cash on the table by not offering OpenOffice as an alternative office suite.
Regardless of its zero-cost to the manufacturer, any PC maker could easily include an 'installation fee' to add a small - but significant - margin to the MSRP of their product. FWIW, a PC manufacturer who installed OO and charged a small fee (which would still be much less expensive than office suites by Corel, MS, etc) could theoretically make better margins on the open-source office than their proprietary counterparts. They would also be able to offer an even more cost-effective PC solution for their clientele. I can see Dell jumping on this in a heartbeat.
Plus, if the PC maker is really savvy, they could also sell support contracts for OO, thus increasing their revenue even more.
Outside of the fact thats it's free, OO is nowhere near ready for use in a business setting. Anything more than a simple letter gets screwed up in the word processor, and the WP is the most advanced part of 00. If you have anything embedded in an MS document, you can almost say goodbye upon opening it. When you have a busines, you don't have the option of telling clients "Hey, could you resend that in Word 2.0 format, my word processor is incompatible with any version of Word put out in the last decade." That's just not an option. Hey, I hate MS as much as most of you, but I wouldn't shoot my business in the foot or lose my job over my zealotry, right or wrong.
And don't even think about defending the spreadsheet. It might be OK for balancing your checkbook, but don't try graphing, as it's horrible. Also, even moderately advanced spreadsheet functions (that I use very often) are missing from MS Office. As for compatibility, graphs often lose their axes among other problems.
The presentation software has similar problems - font issues (admittedly, much of the font problems were in Linux, so it's hard to isolate), images getting trahsed, other embedded stuff getting completely lost, etc.
Bottom line is OpenOffice is NOT READY for a business setting. I tried like hell, I really did. It's klunky, it's bloated, slow as hell, and the UI is an absolute joke, and how sad is that considering their competition in the matter is frigging MICROSOFT!
There are other options if your goal is running an office suite under linux (obviously these don't help you if you're trying to avoid MS): codeweavers crossover is a little buggy, but if they've made it more stable since I gave up on it, well, it's better than OO and has no compatibility problems. I would suggest VMware - you'll need a lot of RAM to run it well, but that's cheap, and it's pretty much rock-solid.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
I had been tasked with trying out OpenOffice and to invisibly infect(introduce) other users to it.
;)
Here's what I found.
OO Spreadsheets often because corrupted being opened on Excel (VERY BIG DEAL), Autofilter's werent' up to speed on real world datacrunching, Speed SUCKED on every day tasks (launching saving and just general workability since the average user opens Word or Excel at least 10 times a day), and Our Sales Quotes to customers which needed to look their best, looked like shit when opened by their versions of Word (verified by nice pics sent back to us)
Yes I stress tested and used things which probably have no right being in OO, but I've been searching for a true MS co-Alternative, not a Office Suite Replacement based on "propriatery Open source" (as seen by MS-centric users)
In summary, OO is great and ready for the casual user, but no where near ready to be interchangable in the corporate office with MSoffice.
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
Canadian Bred with American Buttering