On Tue, 2006-03-07 at 12:31 -0800, Rick Barnes wrote: > On Mon, 2006-03-06 at 16:35 -0500, Homer Whittaker wrote: > > Rick: I have just spent 1/2 hour attempting to get my spreadsheet to > > print a landscape depict. Have changed and tried most everything I > > could get my hands on. Frequently, things greyed out when I did make > > the changes, of course. > If I change the Page format (Format >> Page >> Page(tab) to landscape > my sheets all print in landscape layout. I tried this both on Windows > XP and Linux (Gentoo) using OOo 2.0.1. What OS are you using? > > > Guess what I am thinking, and attempting to say, is that a computer > > newbie or even an experienced Windows Excell user will have problems > > making it work. > I am quite experienced with Excel...and although it is a slightly > different way of doing things I have mastered it. OOo must cater to > the ways of differing OSes (Solaris, Windows, MacOS and Linux) so many > times there is a compromise. OOo's Page styles, however, are just a > different way to do things...which needs to be accepted and learned if > you are an Excel user. > > The OOo help explains this well look under the topic "Spreadsheets >> > Printing >> Printing Sheets in Landscape Format" > > Here is a copy: > > "In order to print a sheet you have a number of interactive options > available under View - Page Break Preview. Drag the delimiter lines to > define the range Duhhh! That helped. But I still end up with a great deal of white space, above and below, the Name Tags. However, it is printing, and I have a starting point.
I would like to comment on your discourse in the paragraphs above. I gather you are a Windows person and I do not know if you work in Linux, BSD, or other Unix off shoots. I have been working with various flavors of Linux for the past few years and my comment concerning your comment would be how does one get the information to an average user. If you get too verbose then the "average" user is not going to stick around to see if the program is any good or not. In my experience the average user is not at all technical and has no interest in the technicalities of Windows versus Linux. The average user wants to press the icon button and have it work. You may be able to determine if the actual Excel program commands are simpler to make it work or not. I do not have a Windows machine available to try out the differences in the command structures. Going back a few years, if I recall correctly, the Windows spreadsheets where rather intuitive. Type it out and you could usually find a command icon to do the job for you. Two or three levels down was okay, but not too far down please! My point being that the Linux, BSD, or MAC command presentation cannot be any more complex than the Windoz commands in Excel, or whatever. Sorry if I am rambling but if it took me several hours, off and on, to make a simple spreadsheet work, what is the average user with only one operating system under his belt going to do? Homer Whittaker
