Open Office 1.1.3 on Debian "Sarge" GNU/Linux, Gnome 2.8.3.
Open Office was installed using Debian's canonical tools.
Attempting to edit an RTF format file with OpenOffice.org Writer.
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When I click on "help" I get the following rude message:
"The requested document does not exist in the database !!".
<rant>
This is rude, in fact patronising, because:
(i) I asked for help, not for a "document";
(ii) I don't know what "the database" is, and don't feel I should have
to bother finding out.
(iii) The "!!" at the end, whatever it's supposed to mean ("hah hah!" or
"hey, isn't life wonderful?", or "make sure you don't miss this!")
has no effect other than making me feel even angrier than I otherwise
would.
(iv) The message gives no help for fixing the problem: I would, at the
very least, expect the message to tell me the name of the missing file
and where OO was looking to find it - something like:
"File /usr/share/doc/OO-help.hlp not found."
</rant>
Could somebody please tell me what file I'm missing? If any maintainers
are reading, could you please improve this message in the next released
version. TIA!
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Whilst editing my file.rtf, I've attempted to create some character
styles, using <format>/<styles>/<catalog>/<new>. The one I've called
"acm-normal" appears in the style-selection-box (i.e. that drop-down list
near the top left of the screen), as it should. The one I've called
"acm-bold" fails to appear there. I can't apply that style to any text.
That seems to me to be a bug.
Both of these styles use the font "Arial Narrow" (yuck!), so as to
maintain compatibility with Microsoft systems. The only other attribute
I've set in these styles is font-size 10. (I also set "acm-bold" to bold
text, though how to use this style is currently a mystery.)
I have applied "acm-normal" to several of my paragraphs. When I then
edit this style (changing the font size from 10 to 12), only the current
paragraph gets the bigger font size, not the other ones also marked with
this style. This seems to me to be another bug.
Sometimes, when I apply "acm-normal" to some text, OO decides that I
don't really want the font I asked for, but "Lucidabright" instead. This
is infuriating. I haven't characterised exactly when this happens.
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In short, with all due respect to everybody concerned, this program feels
like an early beta version - I would be grateful for being persuaded I'm
mistaken here. I'm hoping that it's only buggy in those few areas I've
tried to use and works fine otherwise.
Also, I don't particularly want to become an expert on this program. I
don't really want to hack it, or methodically characterise bugs in it. I
just want to be a user, get my (urgent) editing done as soon as possible,
then go back to hacking my own project.
Help me, please!
Thanks in advance!
--
Alan Mackenzie (Ittersbach, Germany).
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