Old news, but for anyone who missed it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/12/07/DI2005120701796.html Transcript OpenOffice.org Robin Miller Author Friday, December 16, 2005; 12:00 PM Author Robin Miller was online Friday, Dec. 16th to discuss the OpenOffice.org suite of office productivity software and his new book "Point and Click: OpenOffice.org." Miller introduces readers to OpenOffice.org 2.0, an alternative to Microsoft Office's perceived hassles, upgrades and cost. OpenOffice.org 2.0 runs through Windows or Linux and offers word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing and databases. What's more, it's free. In his new book, Miller provides software and instruction for the basics of OpenOffice.org, as well as Firefox and Thunderbird. Robin 'Roblimo' Miller is editor in chief for Open Source Technology Group (OSTG). He has written extensively about computers and the Internet for OSTG's sites as well as for Time New Media, Online Journalism Review and the Washington Post, among other sites and publications. He is the author of "The Online Rules of Successful Companies," and "Point and Click: Linux." A transcript of the discussion follows. ____________________ Robin Miller: Aloha from Florida. I'm Robin Miller, better known as 'Roblimo' to Slashdot readers and other Internet junkies. My mission today is to blatantly promote my latest book, 'Point & Click OpenOffice.org!' from Prentice Hall, available through virtually every English-language bookseller on this planet. I wrote this book for ordinary people -- people like me and my Florida neighbors -- instead of for geeky computer experts. It's an easy-to-digest introduction to the free OpenOffice.org office suite, which is in some ways not quite as good as Microsoft Office and in many ways is better. OpenOffice.org (which I'll call OOo from now on) is free. It's also easy to use even if you've never used full-strength office software before. You know all those ads you see where it says, "Must submit resume (or manuscript or whatever) in Microsoft .doc format?" OOo lets you do that *without* spending money to buy Microsoft Office. It also has a pretty good drawing and image processing utility built in, which MS Office doesn't. Not shabby considering the price, eh? :) As far as my book: It includes Windows and Linux versions of OOo, and tells you where to download the Mac version. After that, you'll find plenty of pictures that make learning easy. PLUS, in the back of the book there's a CD with about 75 minute worth of videos that will step you through most common OOo actions, one at a time....
