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Free OpenOffice.org Training Videos

Rollie Hawk writes "Having trouble converting your family and office mates into OpenOffice devotees? NewsForge (Owned by the same people that bring you Slashdot) can now help you convince the visual learners around you that they can do it. NewsForge is releasing a series of free video segments that demonstrate OpenOffice in action from installation to day-to-day use. According to the site, these clips will play on any browser on any operating system as long as Flash is available. One practical topic that should be particularly interesting to the would-be business converts is 'making a slide presentation in a hurry.'"

12 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. My mom will be getting this link... by httpamphibio.us · · Score: 4, Funny

    It doesn't matter how many times I've told her over the phone, how many times we've gone over it in person, how many times she's taken notes... my mom can't remember how to do even the most basic things. Opening and saving she has down... but copy and paste? Double space? Changing the font? Oof! Too difficult!

    Hrm... but now that I think of it, she probably won't be able to figure out how to bookmark the site, and even if she does she probably won't remember how to find the bookmark.

    Oh well... nevermind...

    --
    sig.
  2. Shame method by saskboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you're having trouble convincing someone to learn a new word processor, you can sometimes convince them using the "shame method".

    I tell them that if my 85 year old, blind grandmother could learn to email, then can learn how to use Open Office. Sure she wasn't blind at the time, and was only 77 when she learned to use a computer, but some people just need to hear that someone older and frailer than they are, could do something they've never tried. It worked to convince my grandpa how to use the computer. My grandma learned first, and he got kind of jealous that she knew how to play cribbage on the machine and he didn't, so he put his mind to learning it too.

    90% of teaching is convincing the person that they are capable of learning.

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  3. Good idea by karvind · · Score: 4, Funny
    Now I can watch the training video while the openoffice opens. It may take a while you know. No wait that is adobe acrobat reader. Sorry my bad.

    /ducks.

  4. Re:Very useful, but... slow? by saskboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Open up OO.o 2 and go to:
    -Tools.

    -Options

    -Java

    Disable Java, and it will open about twice as fast. I hear it disables macros or something that most users will never use. Hopefully in 2.1 they'll disable Java by default, and load it up slowly in the background after the application is open and being used.

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  5. YouTube by Life700MB · · Score: 4, Interesting


    They really should make use of tech like YouTube.

  6. Re:Making a slide presentation in a hurry by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 3, Insightful
    > 1. Fire up PowerPoint on Windows PC.
    > 2. Quickly layout presentation using the unparalleled tools of PowerPoint.

    PowerPoint is nothing short of social malware.
    I wish I had a nickel for every PowerPoint presentation I've suffered through that was created to cover the fact that the speaker had nothing of value to say.

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  7. Shitty videos by ClippySay · · Score: 5, Funny

    / Training people for free means we      \
    | clippies are gonna lose our jobs! It's |
    | untollerable! Clippies worldwide,      |
    \ unite!                                 /
            \     ____
             \   / __ \
              \  O|  |O|
                 ||  | |
                 ||  | |
                 ||    |
                  |___/

    --
    cpu0: Microsoft Clippium ("GenuineClippy" ChromedMetal-Class). Paperbinding, lockpicking, fish-hook-hack support.
  8. Program to make those 'videos'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Great thing to help users by recording this kind of videos :)

    Do anybody knows what program was used to mae thos videos?
    Might be some ViewletBuilder opensource/free replacement?

    Regards,
        Ego

    1. Re:Program to make those 'videos'? by seeken · · Score: 4, Informative

      probably this vnc to swf recorder:

      http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/

      --

      Surfing the net and other cliches...
      (Who Meta-Meta-Moderates the Meta-Moderators?)
  9. Google clippy says by Wisgary · · Score: 4, Funny

    / Did you mean:  \
    |    Untolerable  |
    \    Intolerable /
            \     ____
             \   / __ \
              \  O|  |O|
                 ||  | |
                 ||  | |
                 ||    |
                  |___/

  10. MPEG4, please! by c0l0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are people (like me) who refuse to install Flash (well, at least until GPLFlash is done and does not ruthlessly crash my browser on load any more ;)) on their systems, so an alternative download for (non-interactive, if applicable) MPEG4-encoded, via a free codec like XViD, for example, versions of the files would be highly appreciated, methinks.

    --
    :%s/Open Source/Free Software/g

    YTARY!
  11. I can't wait! by bcrowell · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't wait to watch these helpful videos! Now could somebody just point me to a free training video explaining how to play a video on Linux? Or if that doesn't exist, maybe somebody's written some documentation in OpenOffice format?