Product Description

The OpenOffice.org Guidebook for OpenOffice.org 2 and StarOffice 8 is the ultimate insider's guide to learning to use and love the office suite. The book provides not just great, simple information about how to use the program but the hidden tips and tricks you'll need to make life easier. The author, Solveig Haugland, the author, has been teaching OpenOffice.org for five years, and has developed this book to address exactly what people really need to know, written in a clear, conversational manner.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #621330 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 520 pages

From the Author
I'm delighted to be able to publish this book. It's a combination of topics that I've learned are the most important to people, gathered from four years of training, of questions and discussions in my blog, and from my own use of the product. The most important thing about a book is not to simply document how the software works, but to teach people how to do their jobs, using the software. That is my goal with the OpenOffice.org Guidebook.

Note: This book replaces the OpenOffice.org 2 Resource Kit. That is the title given to it by Prentice Hall. I am self-publishing the book, and have renamed it as the OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook, a name I think is more representative of my goal to guide users through the most important and useful parts of the software.

From the Back Cover
The OpenOffice.org Guidebook teaches you not just how to use the program, but how to use it well. From setup tips to little-known copy and paste tricks, and with well-illustrated instructions for charts, mail merges, presentation effects, and more, the book provides you with the information and insight to master OpenOffice.org and StarOffice. Imagine an office suite that's powerful, easy to use, compatible with other suites like Microsoft OfficeTM, and is absolutely free! That's OpenOffice.The OpenOffice.org Guidebook is the perfect companion to this office suite, or to StarOffice, the commercial version of OpenOffice.org from Sun Microsystems(TM) The Guidebook also includes resources from the author's training materials and years of experience delivering training, as well as answers to questions submitted to the author's top-rated blog, openoffice.blogs.com. Setup tips include controlling automatic formatting and setup options, templates, and working with Microsoft users. Writer text document chapters include formatting, tables, graphics, printing to PDFs, envelopes and labels, complex page layout, lists, and the key to excellent documents, styles and templates. Excel spreadsheet chapters include formatting, data entry and calculations, the Function AutoPilot, linked spreadsheets and cell references, subtotals, sorting and filtering, and advanced printing setup. Impress and Draw chapters include creating presentations, managing and creating templates and master pages, applying effects, printing handouts, creating and exporting drawings, technical diagrams, and creating colors. Base database chapters include creating databases, queries and views, and mail merge setup and printing. Get even more out of the OpenOffice.org Guidebook online. Visit openoffice.blogs.com and click the link for Book Resources to find additional content, templates, and more.

About the Author
Solveig Haugland has been creating learning materials and technical documentation since 1991, and has been working with OpenOffice.org and StarOffice since 1999. Her classes and blog are presented with the key goal of helping people use the office suites to get their jobs done as well and efficiently as possible. It's not about using the software -- it's about doing what you need to accomplish.

Customer Reviews

The best OpenOffice available!
If you're an OpenOffice user or an aspiring one, then spoil yourself with Solveig Haugland's [...] 2 Guidebook. This book ruined my day when it arrived. I had things to do, places to go. But once I opened it up, I couldn't put it down. I don't remember blinking for the first few chapters. Or so it seemed. Solveig has a reputation of being one of the upper-tier brains in tech; that is, she's one of those unique people who can economically explain complex operations in a clear, step-by-step manner. What takes others 57 steps and 400 words to explain, she can reduce to 5 steps and 75 words, only you remember it! Think back and this is what your best teachers did when you were in school. The book is supplemented by her prolific OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas site which not only teaches you the ins and outs of OpenOffice.org, but it's where she gets a chance to interact with users and gain feedback on topics beyond the book. She even includes a section on "everything that didn't make it in the book." That alone is a challenge to readers, but these topics are also covered on her blog above. So if you are or you know an OpenOffice.org user, this book would be an invaluable resource to have at their left hand.

Above All, A Practical Guide
'Practicality' describes this book best. It is full of useful tips for situations that arise in 'real work.' It is not an academic or theoretical treatise, nor is it a true 'manual' in the sense of feeling the need to describe every option in every drop-down box.

The index is extremely well-done; it is easy to find the solution to a given working problem quickly and efficiently. For instance, I was working on an ebook that required numerous changes in page numbering throughout the book. This would have taken an hour or more on my own; with the Guidebook, I reached 'misson accomplished' status in about ten minutes.

To set the level here, I am no OpenOffice/StarOffice beginner; I have used the products back to the day before Sun bought out StarOffice and when the print manuals were completely, and only, in German. Yet, in just the first five pages of the Guide, I found two new tips, and it just got better after that. The 'demystification' of the use of styles is alone worth more than the price of the book.

The Guide is best for someone with some experience with office suites; complete beginners need to start with a tutorial book first. But if you have any level of knowledge, from rudimentary on up through expert, and want a large number of practical tips on how to really work effectively with OpenOffice, get this book at once.

Outstanding & Professionally Written Book
I must say, I was instantly impressed with what an excellent book this is for "Real World" OpenOffice.org users! A book that's written for people, such as myself, who already know how to size a window / what a spreadsheet is / how to save a file /etc. Instead, Solveig did an excellent job in showing how to optimize OpenOffice.org by getting right to the point of what I need to know.

There were other things about this book that also impressed me:

1) The first think I personally look at upon comtemplating buying any type of computer book is:..... the INDEX ! Like many in this downsized workplace of today, I don't have the time to go on an "Easter Egg Hunt", trying to find the "candy" I need. The book's superlative index immediately won me over.

2) Ample Illustrations; Truer words were never spoken than "a picture is worth a thousand words". Again, the illustrations appeared to be applicable, sharply focused, and honed in on "where the function is at". Again, an excellent job.

3) A Business like writing style: I had previously purchased Robin Miller's book, "Point-And-Click OpenOffice.org", and it reads like it's intended audience is Mrs. Murphy's 4th Grade Class ! Solveig's writing style, on the other hand is user friendly, in a way that doesn't insult the intelligence of her readers. Again, I like that.

Bottom line: This is a book worth buying because it clearly explains just how much OpenOffice.org can do in a manner that instills confidence in the reader.