Scott Meyers wrote:
Joe Smith wrote:
The best resource I know of is the one you're using right now:
user-to-user Q&A, either here, or one of the web forums:
UCF: http://user.services.openoffice.org
OOoForum: http://www.oooforum.org
I read this list via the Gmane newsgroup interface, which I find vastly
preferable to any web-based interface, in large part because it's a
whole lot faster and makes much better use of screen space. Can you
give me some sense for the relative pros and cons of relying exclusively
on this list versus adding the above fora to the mix?
I wasn't promoting one over the other, I only wanted to say that all
three (and others) are good "information lodes". Use Google to mine
them; when you need to ask a question, use whichever you're most
comfortable with.
I find the web forums more comfortable because you have some richer
presentation options (formatted text, screenshots, attached files) that
can facilitate discussion, and there are never problems with
unsubscribed posters or broken threads.
I also like being able to go back and edit my posts, either to fix
something that's wrong, or to add a clarification or PS.
The forum also provides a good interface to old discussions. Gmane does
not keep messages forever, and it's really painful to try and pull
coherent information out of the OO.org archives. I'm not sure what
Nabble's retention policy is.
> One of the
> drawbacks I've noticed to this list is the very large percentage of
> posts that have to do with questions about installation, checking
> spelling, and MS compatibility. The web options seem to offer more
> focused fora rather than throwing everything together.
The forums are a little more organized, so you can follow a more
specific area, e.g. Writer, but in that case you still have a lot of the
volume dealing with "checking spelling, and MS compatibility" ... of
Writer. Most of the volume is the same FAQs.
> Is there perhaps a newsgroup interface to the web discussions?
It's possible to implement, but there doesn't seem to be enough interest
to make it happen.
There are RSS feeds available, although I dropped them because the
volume was too high. It was easier to just read the forum. It would be
more useful to monitor one of the lower-volume forums.
I see Michele mentioned the User Guides--another excellent resource
which I meant to add. Great stuff for beginning to intermediate use.
<Joe
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