OpenOffice 3.0 Now Available

[Matthew Schenker]

Good Morning,
I'm a big fan of the open-source community, which has brought us terrific developments like Firefox and Thunderbird, Ubuntu -- and the software that this forum runs on!

A highlight of the open-source world is OpenOffice, a free application that absolutely replaces Microsoft Office.  Yes, no question, with OpenOffice you do not need Microsoft Office.  Just keep reading the last two sentences -- it's really true.

With OpenOffice, you get an excellent word-processing application, an amazing spreadsheet application, as well as really good presentation software and a great graphics program, and more.  You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on Microsoft Office.  You really, honestly don't!

OK, that's enough of a sales pitch for OpenOffice.

I've been using this application for about two years.  I use it for my professional work, sending documents back and forth to my editors.  Did I mention that it has totally replaced Microsoft Office?  I don't even have Microsoft Office installed on my computers, and haven't for...well, about two years!

Version 3.0 of OpenOffice has just been released, and it is even better.  To everyone out there who is still using Microsoft Office, seriously, check this out.

Here's a link:http://www.openoffice.org.

Stay in touch,
Matthew

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Does anyone know how to get this software to enter page numbers in a document?  I can find in the program help boxes how to number bullets and subparagraphs but not pages.  When I click on the numbering icon, a "1." appears in the header box at the top of each of the three pages. 

I'm trying to create cut lists to complement my description of my Entertainment Center project and would like to add page numbers to the tables before converting them to PDF.

Dave R.

 

[mwhafner]

I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but here are the directions from the help page  -

Inserting Page Numbers in Footers
1.Choose Insert - Footer and select the page style that you want to add the footer to.
2.Choose Insert - Fields - Page Number.
If you want, you can align the Page Number field as you would text.
You can also add a page count to the footer, for example, in the form "Page 9 of 12":
1.Click in front of the Page Number field and type "Page ", click after the field, enter a space and then type "of ".
2.Choose Insert - Fields - Page Count.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

MW,

Thanks for your help.  My PC is running Open Office Writer version 2.4.  When I open either "Header" or "Footer", all I see a single drop down to the right of the main drop down menu.  That secondary drop down only offers "default."  And that only opens a blank box into which text can be inserted.  No other choices are apparent from these display screens.

I am now trying to upgrade to version 3.0.

Dave R.

 

[Steve Jones]

I've been running 3.0 for a few weeks now (beta release) and love it.

For example to get page numbers on a letter simply use menu: FILE/WIZARDS/LETTER/FOOTER and check the box "Include page numbers"

Steve

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks, MW and Steve J.  for your efforts to help me.  I think my road to any success with these various software applications packages is going to be very long, tortuous, and full of holes and digital mines.  Very time consuming and frustrating.

I just completed downloading and installing OA 3.0.  I did not remove version 2.4 at this time.  This was a very slow download and install.  The virus check required nearly 5X the normal time to check everything on my PC.

I opened my 3 page text document (mostly a table), and tried MF instructions for inserting page numberin a a footer.  No success.  And no functioning "undo" button.  As before in version 2.4, all that shows up in the side drop down menu under header or footer is "default."  None of the choices MF mentiioned appear.  Where do they hide this stuff?

Does it make any difference because I inserted a Table within my document?  That step was straight forward, easy to use in version 2.4.

Steve J.,

I also tried your instructions which worked as you listed them, but I am trying to create a document that is a cut list for the Console for my Entertainment Center, not a letter to someone.  I unchecked all the boxes excepting the page numbering and those other boxes still showed up in the template, at least before it was saved to my PC.

I just want to be able to ordinary documents and label them as I choose, and number their pages.

I've spent nearly as much time trying to document my Entertainment Center, as building it, and the majority of that learning things PC.  This is overwhelming compared to simply designing something and then actually building it. 

Frustrated in NE Ohio...

Dave R.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

I have played more with the footer and fields insertion commands.  I now have a footer box in which there appears:
Page  Page numbers of Statistics.
But not in the colors I added here.

Am I correct that none of the page numbers don't show up in any screen display until the document is printed?  If that is true, that is far from being the most useful software design!!  I don't know of any other popular word processer software that hides the numbers until the document is printed.

Dave R.

 

[Steve Jones]

Dave,

Sorry you're finding this frustrating, couple of further thoughts that might help...

First you mentioned no "undo": With the default menus showing you should see an orange arrow curving up and to the left, (about 2/3rds over, in the row of icons below the menu bar at the top of the window)  this (believe it or not) is the "undo" button, it keeps track of several levels of functions including typing and even quite complex actions and not only lets you undo the last one but the tiny arrow to the right drops down a list of the last few actions to let you pick which one to undo.

Back to the original problem, I gather you know where you want the page number to go, you just want it to number automatically (The auto page numbering on printing simply inserts numbers before page breaks but can't show you where they will occur because placement will change based on printing options, IE printer selection, paper selection, etc) - to do it the way you want is simple.....

Put the cursor at the place you want the page number and select:
Menu: INSERT/FIELDS/PAGE NUMBER

Hope that helps.

Steve

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks, Steve.  The "undo" curved arrow button was quite prominent in the top bar of version 2.4, but not in version 3.0. 

Do the page numbers display on your PC?  They do not on mine (Dell Inspriron E1505 running VISTA Home Premium with all updates current)

Dave R.

 

[Steve Jones]

Dave,

If I insert the page number field the way I last described I see the number immediately. I'm running Ubuntu so I'm not sure what it looks like under Windows, but I would assume it should be the same.

Steve

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Steve, no page numbers show up in VISTA, just the field boxes that will be filled when the document is printed.  The good news is that your instructions worked for me.  Attached is one of the PDFs I created showing the page numbering.

Cut List

Thanks, again, for your help!

Dave R.