Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
those companies generously donate their employees' time to OO.o. All others are purely unpaid volunteers. I definitely agree with the generous donation part. I want to say something about how special purely unpaid volunteers are. Just to reinforce this very positive statement. Many people have discovered during this recession that money has absolutely no affect on their skills or who they are. Money says nothing about how intelligent you are, how capable you are, and how good you are. Money just says you have a job and you are getting paid to contribute to society. Having a job and making money doesn't make you a better person. Truth be known, our society is running at very low capacity. We have in some ways a very inefficient economy. The biggest resource on this planet is people. Everyone is intelligent and capable. For a company to restrict its ability to accomplish projects only to people it can afford to hire is to severely restrict that company's ability to accomplish its projects. There are huge numbers of people who want to be involved to help solve problems and complete projects. To limit a company's ability by only depending on people it can pay is to restrict it's ability to move ahead very rapidly. The other restriction we are overcoming is the ability to organize people from a variety of backgrounds to work efficiently together on a project. This project is an example of how resources are beginning to develop to organize a variety of people and their talents and direct them towards a common goal. This project is the future. This project begins to tap a huge resource of very capable and talented people. Now we must find some way to free people from being concerned about survival. We must remove the fear of not having a place to live or food to eat. Make it so people are no longer concerned about their survival and instead, can concentrate on giving the best of what they have to society. Science has proven the health costs to society of people from poverty is far higher than that of either obesity or smoking. Over 80 percent of the people in jail come from poverty. It is far more expensive to society to sustain poverty than it is to eliminate it. The costs of the social problems arising from poverty are immense. Let's build a world which runs efficiently for a change. There are huge numbers of untapped resources available. Let's build a world where everyone is involved. Let's build a world where everyone is able to contribute their talent and abilities to the best of their ability without being afraid of not having food to eat or a place to live. Let's look after each other. Let's build the kind of world we all want to live in. Alan On 3/3/2010 11:05 PM, Claire Wood wrote: Thanks for the replies. It is something that is relevant in the UK, luckily once I explained the situation, the nice man at the dole office let me off, but it might not be the same for someone else so maybe a standard letter when you initially sign up would be a good idea. Then everyone knows where they stand. certainly did and I'm sure anyone else in the UK would find it equally funny. They wanted me to get a form signed by OOo to say that I was a volunteer. (You have to declare that you're working voluntarily and not getting paid so that it doesn't affect your benefits while you're searching for work.) I had to explain that it couldn't be done because the person that would need to sign it was probably on the other side of the world! It served to show that systems in this country need to be dragged into the 21st century and account for people using the internet. Hm, are they fine with an e-mail or a fax? I don't know you very well, so I can't write anything, but if someone asks me for a reference, and I know him from my work within OOo, I'm happy to write a few lines. However, of course, no official organization stands behind that, so I don't know if they would accept it. Florian This sounds like something the Council might want to handle, with a boilerplate letter, (assuming I have the facts straight) something like: Subject: Unpaid volunteers OO.o employs and pays no one. The few people who do get paid for their work here are employed by sponsoring companies, such as Oracle; those companies generously donate their employees' time to OO.o. All others are purely unpaid volunteers. (This to go out over the chairman's signature, as email or fax.) -- /tj/ - To unsubscribe, e-mail:dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail:dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Hi, Florian, Claire, On 3/3/2010 04:59, Florian Effenberger wrote: Hi Claire, Claire Wood wrote on 2010-03-02 14.17: Maybe Florian could look at that and give us feedback, as he is probably a more frequent user of Base than me. I do think that some things for Base and Calc which are written with novices/intermediate users, actually expect the user to have had previous experience with similar applications, which might not be the case. oh, I'm sorry - I don't use Base at all, and the request came from a third party. I just forwarded it to this list, because I thought it might fit, and I pointed the sender to the archives and invited him to subscribe to d...@doc :-) On a slightly lighter note, which you might find hillarious - I certainly did and I'm sure anyone else in the UK would find it equally funny. They wanted me to get a form signed by OOo to say that I was a volunteer. (You have to declare that you're working voluntarily and not getting paid so that it doesn't affect your benefits while you're searching for work.) I had to explain that it couldn't be done because the person that would need to sign it was probably on the other side of the world! It served to show that systems in this country need to be dragged into the 21st century and account for people using the internet. Hm, are they fine with an e-mail or a fax? I don't know you very well, so I can't write anything, but if someone asks me for a reference, and I know him from my work within OOo, I'm happy to write a few lines. However, of course, no official organization stands behind that, so I don't know if they would accept it. Florian This sounds like something the Council might want to handle, with a boilerplate letter, (assuming I have the facts straight) something like: Subject: Unpaid volunteers OO.o employs and pays no one. The few people who do get paid for their work here are employed by sponsoring companies, such as Oracle; those companies generously donate their employees' time to OO.o. All others are purely unpaid volunteers. (This to go out over the chairman's signature, as email or fax.) -- /tj/ - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Thanks for the replies. It is something that is relevant in the UK, luckily once I explained the situation, the nice man at the dole office let me off, but it might not be the same for someone else so maybe a standard letter when you initially sign up would be a good idea. Then everyone knows where they stand. Claire On 3 March 2010 11:42, TJ Frazier tjfraz...@cfl.rr.com wrote: Hi, Florian, Claire, On 3/3/2010 04:59, Florian Effenberger wrote: Hi Claire, Claire Wood wrote on 2010-03-02 14.17: Maybe Florian could look at that and give us feedback, as he is probably a more frequent user of Base than me. I do think that some things for Base and Calc which are written with novices/intermediate users, actually expect the user to have had previous experience with similar applications, which might not be the case. oh, I'm sorry - I don't use Base at all, and the request came from a third party. I just forwarded it to this list, because I thought it might fit, and I pointed the sender to the archives and invited him to subscribe to d...@doc :-) On a slightly lighter note, which you might find hillarious - I certainly did and I'm sure anyone else in the UK would find it equally funny. They wanted me to get a form signed by OOo to say that I was a volunteer. (You have to declare that you're working voluntarily and not getting paid so that it doesn't affect your benefits while you're searching for work.) I had to explain that it couldn't be done because the person that would need to sign it was probably on the other side of the world! It served to show that systems in this country need to be dragged into the 21st century and account for people using the internet. Hm, are they fine with an e-mail or a fax? I don't know you very well, so I can't write anything, but if someone asks me for a reference, and I know him from my work within OOo, I'm happy to write a few lines. However, of course, no official organization stands behind that, so I don't know if they would accept it. Florian This sounds like something the Council might want to handle, with a boilerplate letter, (assuming I have the facts straight) something like: Subject: Unpaid volunteers OO.o employs and pays no one. The few people who do get paid for their work here are employed by sponsoring companies, such as Oracle; those companies generously donate their employees' time to OO.o. All others are purely unpaid volunteers. (This to go out over the chairman's signature, as email or fax.) -- /tj/ - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org -- Best wishes Claire Wood
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Hi Florian I think initially when you first start using OOo you're better referring to the PDF documents or the Wiki rather than the help file as they're more up to date. I know that the Base documentation is currently being updated. Not sure if I've been of help at all. Claire On 2 March 2010 05:12, Florian Effenberger flo...@openoffice.org wrote: Forwarding this (anonymized) to this list, and pointing the original poster to it Original Message Subject: OO helpfile Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:23:54 +0800 To: Florian Effenberger flo...@openoffice.org G'day Florian, Sorry to bother you, and probably not your area of interest, but frustration drove me to it. I have been trying to get to grips with Base, and had to rely on the helpfile to get me through it. As a total beginner parts of it was confusing and other parts pointed me in totally the wrong direction. My biggest frustration related to Queries. In the helpfile it describes the syntax for entering the conditions. ie If searching for text, us ' (single quotes) to indicate text. After many hours trying unsuccessfully to get this to work (as it was the only method described in the helpfile), I finally found that this only applies if you do it in design mode. I'm sure the majority of first time users like myself would feel that using the wizard would be the easier method initially. In the helpfile there is no mention that, when using the wizard the single quotes are not required, and infact prevent the query from operating. Now that I am aware, I know what to do, but I would like to prevent many others (based on the uptake of OO) putting themselves through the same frustration. I implore you to try and get the helpfile ammended to indicate such a simple (but important) difference between the functionality of query condition entry using the design mode, and the wizard. Cheers for now! - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org -- Best wishes Claire Wood
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Florian Effenberger wrote: Forwarding this (anonymized) to this list, and pointing the original poster to it Original Message Subject: OO helpfile Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:23:54 +0800 To: Florian Effenberger flo...@openoffice.org G'day Florian, Sorry to bother you, and probably not your area of interest, but frustration drove me to it. I have been trying to get to grips with Base, and had to rely on the helpfile to get me through it. As a total beginner parts of it was confusing and other parts pointed me in totally the wrong direction. My biggest frustration related to Queries. In the helpfile it describes the syntax for entering the conditions. ie If searching for text, us ' (single quotes) to indicate text. After many hours trying unsuccessfully to get this to work (as it was the only method described in the helpfile), I finally found that this only applies if you do it in design mode. I'm sure the majority of first time users like myself would feel that using the wizard would be the easier method initially. In the helpfile there is no mention that, when using the wizard the single quotes are not required, and infact prevent the query from operating. Now that I am aware, I know what to do, but I would like to prevent many others (based on the uptake of OO) putting themselves through the same frustration. I implore you to try and get the helpfile ammended to indicate such a simple (but important) difference between the functionality of query condition entry using the design mode, and the wizard. Cheers for now! I agree with Clare Wood. Specifically, the Getting Started Guide contains a chapter on Base, Getting Started with Base. That is what someone unfamiliar to Base should download and use. The entire Guide should be downloaded from http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOo3_User_Guides. Dan - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Claire Wood wrote: I think initially when you first start using OOo you're better referring to the PDF documents or the Wiki rather than the help file as they're more up to date. The problem is that there is little user-oriented documentation on Base. Getting Started with Base is very good and is the best place to start, but most people don't discover its existence. I know that the Base documentation is currently being updated. Being updated is over-stating the case. The Base Guide is being written, and most of it isn't even in an early draft state yet. And I don't think it's fair to say that the user docs -- especially those on the wiki -- are more up to date than the help file. --Jean - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Jean To be honest, I'm in agreement with Florian. On the whole I've only used the help file twice since signing up as I don't find it helpful. I think in places it's too descriptive rather than giving users concise instructions about how to do what they want and I ended up reverting to a mixture of the pdfs, wiki and figuring it out for myself. I'm sure there's things I've missed as I tend to try and have a bit of knowledge about everything, rather than concentrating on one thing, which is probably where I fall down. I did have a crack at updating the Getting Started Guide (chs 1-8) on the Wiki a few weeks ago and spent a few days working on it solidly, actually testing the existing instructions to find out whether anything had changed and updating them accordingly, including screen captures, but I agree that it probably needs looking at again after the Base documentation is complete by an expert. Maybe Florian could look at that and give us feedback, as he is probably a more frequent user of Base than me. I do think that some things for Base and Calc which are written with novices/intermediate users, actually expect the user to have had previous experience with similar applications, which might not be the case. I mean just to give you a good example, there's a crisis in the UK at the moment because job centres (which are run by the Government) are great for catering for what I would call the true working class (and I hope I don't offend anyone by using that term) but aren't equipped for helping middle managers, IT workers and those from a middle class background. Instead you have to rely on agencies and they're not best equipped for helping to cross-train people in the current economic climate. Someone somewhere in this country will make a mint I'm sure by helping them. Anyway, I'm unemployed at the moment and I went into my local job centre last month as usual to sign on and had to declare that I'd signed up for this project as a way of updating my skills and my portfolio. Even though the UK Government has made a commitment to some opensource applications, the people in the job centre, who are government workers, not only didn't know what open source was, which took me aback, but they'd never heard of OOo, so I had to explain what it was and that it was an alternative to MS Office Suite. The person I was talking to had hardly used MS Office, nevermind any other application, so I suggested to him to have a look in his spare time and gave him the OOo address. On a slightly lighter note, which you might find hillarious - I certainly did and I'm sure anyone else in the UK would find it equally funny. They wanted me to get a form signed by OOo to say that I was a volunteer. (You have to declare that you're working voluntarily and not getting paid so that it doesn't affect your benefits while you're searching for work.) I had to explain that it couldn't be done because the person that would need to sign it was probably on the other side of the world! It served to show that systems in this country need to be dragged into the 21st century and account for people using the internet. Regards Claire Regards Claire On 2 March 2010 05:57, Jean Hollis Weber jeanwe...@gmail.com wrote: Claire Wood wrote: I think initially when you first start using OOo you're better referring to the PDF documents or the Wiki rather than the help file as they're more up to date. The problem is that there is little user-oriented documentation on Base. Getting Started with Base is very good and is the best place to start, but most people don't discover its existence. I know that the Base documentation is currently being updated. Being updated is over-stating the case. The Base Guide is being written, and most of it isn't even in an early draft state yet. And I don't think it's fair to say that the user docs -- especially those on the wiki -- are more up to date than the help file. --Jean - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org -- Best wishes Claire Wood
Re: [documentation-dev] Fwd: OO helpfile
Hi all, please feel free to submit issues regarding the installed Help using Issuezilla: http://qa.openoffice.org/ooQAReloaded/ooQA-ReportBugs.html If you don't speak Issuezillanean you can e-mail your issue to me. As an exception you may post the issue on this mailing list. Unfortunately, we must limit our efforts to improve the installed Help in a way to keep word count low. Therefore it is so important to have good and extensive guides on the web, for example, on the Wiki. We try to include links in the installed Help that lead to good instructions on the Wiki. Everyone can write and edit documents on the Wiki, the results are available instantly and can be translated by OOo volunteers as they please. Uwe -- u...@openoffice.org - Technical Writer StarOffice - Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Hamburg, Germany http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/ http://blogs.sun.com/oootnt http://www.sun.com/staroffice - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
