I have responded to more than one note below.
Rick Barnes wrote:
... to keep things simple by removing redundancy in all of the guides and using a central source of information that each guide would point to (the Math guide). It would seem odd if the Writer guide had a strong write up of the Math component and the Impress or Draw guides simply deferred details to the Math guide...wouldn't it?
No, it would not seem odd to me. Here is my reasoning:
I want to have a chapter on Templates and Styles in each of the guides. The information on these topics in the Writer Guide will be more detailed than in the other guides (comprising 4 chapters in total), because more people (esp. new users) use Writer. So, for example, the Writer Guide has Daniel's "Introduction to Styles" chapter, which I would not include in the other guides. But a chapter analogous to one of my other styles chapters from the Writer Guide should be included.
The difference is, in each guide the styles information is actually different. Like in Calc you would have cell and sheet styles and impress slide styles and such. For Math, there is not difference.
IMO, and this differs from others, there should be no math guide. Daniel's chapter seems to pretty much cover everything. I, if were OOo kind, would not give it its own link in the start menu as I see little use for it as a stand alone program. The info should be in the writer guide, perhaps in the Impress guide and just reference to the writer guide for the rest of the guides.
If, however, we make a separate math guide, then the amount of info in each individual guide should be extremely cut down. I am for low redundancy.
I think this raises a philosophical question though, how much redundancy should there be. Like I went into a very long description of the picture and draw toolbars in the calc graphics guide. However, those toolbars function EXACTLY the same in every other component, so should that explanation be copied to all of the guides since it is the same info? To someone that is going to print this stuff out, that seems like a waste of paper.
Any other thoughts?
... Presentations, especially those written in academia by and for students frequently use equations and formulas (I've seen them often in Finance, Engineering and Computer Science course presentations)...I've used formulas more in presentations than in text documents (but that was as an instructor...
Thank you for your observations. I'm still in the information-gathering stage, so that definitely helps me see things from a different point of view and get a better idea of how to proceed.
I'd love to hear from some other people about how they (or the people they work with) use Math.
I use it in Impress (actually I use MS Formula editor in PowerPoint, but I think Impress 2.0 might be able to work for me) and in Writer.
-- Peter Kupfer OOo user since 'OO4 http://peschtra.tripod.com/open_office/ooo_front.htm
