If you've still got friends, family, or co-workers who are addicted to PowerPoint, get them to install OpenOffice, and then follow the free video tutorials at LearnOpenOffice.org. Your karma will increase dramatically. ...

OOoMacros is a repository for OpenOffice macros and add-ins. It also features documentation about producing macros of your own and extending OpenOffice further. (Check out all of our posts on OpenOffice.) ...

Debian users! Are you interested in living on the bleedingest bleeding edge? Are you an OOo fanatic? Are you willing & able to use & deal with buggy buggy buggy software? Do you want to try out OOo 2.0 beta debs before anyone else? Are you feelin' brave? And lucky? If you answered "Yes" to ALL the previous questions, then head over to http://people.debian.org/~halls/openoffice/test/ooo1.9-java/, download the debs, & install 'em. OOo 2.0 will be placed into /opt/openoffice1.9.62, so it shouldn't interfere with your current install of OOo. Oh yeah - if this borks your machine, wellllllll, I am NOT responsible. Remember the Debian motto: "If you break Debian, you get to keep both pieces!" ...

There's a new Knoppix in town, & this is the best one yet! Knoppix 3.8.1 dropped a few days ago, and you can download the 700 MB ISO from a variety of places (PLEASE use BitTorrent!). New stuff includes: kernel 2.6.11 (no more 2.4), write support for all virtual directories using UNIONFS so you can install software even without writable file systems (!), support for Centrino2 wireless (awesome!), the ability to create a permanent /home on a hard drive (even if it's formatted as NTFS), KDE 3.3.2, Gimp 2.2.4, & OpenOffice 1.1.4. That's quite an upgrade! I've been using it for over a week, & it's really nice. A nice review of the new Knoppix can be found at O'Reilly. Kyle Rankin's "Knoppix 3.8 and UnionFS. Wow. Just Wow." focuses on, uh, UNIONFS. It's a good piece. Read it. (Check out all my previous posts on Knoppix.) ...

I'm not really a clip art kind of guy - as I used to tell my Web Design students, "You know what the problem with putting clip art on your web pages is? It looks like clip art!" - but when it comes to text documents, clip art is a different matter. Used in moderation, it can be a nice way to spiff up a flier or newsletter. If you use OpenOffice.org, be aware that you can install additional clip art that will work with that software. If you use Debian, run the following command: apt-get install openclipart openclipart-openoffice.org openclipart-png openclipart-svg If you use an RPM-based system, head over to the Open Clip Art Library site and download a package appropriate to your system. Finally, if you installed MSFT Office & want to use that clip art with OOo, read Importing MS Office clip art to the OO Gallery. Quite handy! (Check out all of my posts on OpenOffice.org.) ...

NewsForge has an overview of the upcoming OpenOffice.org 2.0 on its site: "First look: OpenOffice.org version 2.0 beta". If you use OOo, or recommend it to others, or even if you use Microsoft Office, you owe it to yourself to read it. The good: a ton of new features, especially for Writer. Word count (finally!). A better installer (at least for Windows; since I use Debian Linux, installation is just an apt-get install openoffice.org for me). Better, more "normal" toolbar behaviors. Renaming "AutoPilot" to "Wizard" (the reviewer doesn't think it's necessary, but I think it'll help Windows users). The recent file list now shows 10, not 4, items (thank you!). Tables can now break across multiple pages (thank {diety}!). The adoption of the OASIS file formats (supported by everyone except … you know who!). Better mail merge, which I've complained about before. The bad: Charting still sucks. Some changes in OOo tools that limit functionality in order to be more like MSFT Office (wow ...

Linspire, the OS that yanked big bag MSFT's chain, is now at version 5.0. Although I've never used it (Linspire employees, send me a copy, & I'll review it!), I'm hearing better & better things about it. This new release includes some of the following: 2.6.10 kernel, KDE 3.3, built-in VPN (HUGE - the only other distro that has this, to my knowledge, is Xandros 3.0), X.org 6.8.2, AOL dialer (yeah, it support AOL … & that's all I' ll say about that), Intel Centrino compatibility (very nice), OpenOffice 1.1.3, and Lsongs Music Manager and Lphoto Photo Manager (in other words, rip offs … uh, I mean, homages to ... iPhoto & iTunes). That's a really nice list. If you're interested in finding out more, read the press release, check out the longer list of features, or buy it at the Linspire store - it starts at only $49.95. And if you wanna read a review of the new Linspire 5.0, check out "First Look at Linspire 5.0". It's actually a pretty good review for being so quick ...

Back several months ago, my buddy Robert got an invitation to help out with a political campaign. Attached to the email was a document in MSFT Word format. Below is Robert's response. What do you guys think of it? I appreciate getting notices informing me of what is happening in the local political races. However, I am a bit concerned about distributing that information via Microsoft Word, especially given Word's track record for containing viruses and other malicious code. Because of that reputation many virus blockers and spam filters either strip Word attachments or simply drop messages completely. A better choice would be to distribute documents either using an open standards format (such as Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF)) or using Open Source software which uses those open standards (such as OpenOffice.org, a Microsoft Office replacement that is not susceptible to malicious macros). Although you are not allowed to copy or distribute the software, Adobe's Acrobat ...

If you're using KDE, open the Konqueror file manager & find a text file. Right-click on it & pay attention to the Actions menu. Go check that one out. You may have only one or two things in the Action menu, or you may have several. I have the following: Rename with KRename Sign file Encyrypt file Create Data CD with K3b Print That list is generated by KDE servicemenus. Basically, servicemenus pay attention to the file you click on, & then offer actions possible for that particular file. See what happens when you right-click on an MP3 file, an OpenOffice.org doc, or a JPG. Many of the choices in the Action submenu will be the same, but you will always get unique actions for each different file type. It's really easy to install a new servicemenu: just download it and then copy the file to this location: ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/ Let's say you download the fantastic "print openoffice ...

The big F/OSS news this weekend has been Massachusetts' Enterprise Technical Reference Model, published Friday, which requires state agencies to switch to open document formats over the next 18 months. Specifically, the document requires that text documents be archived OpenDocument XML, the OpenOffice.org document format. The move is seen as both a victory for open source software and a blow to Microsoft, since Office doesn't support the format. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't absolutely thrilled. The thing to remember here, though, is that the reference model specifies a file format, not a software suite. While the gut reaction is that OpenDoc means OpenOffice, the format is an open standard, and there's nothing at all to prevent Microsoft from adding OpenDoc support to Office in the next 18 months. And this is as it should be. The purpose of open standards is to allow end users access to and control over their information. Open source projects should and normally do support open ...

Peter Besenbruch on the Libranet list tried out the Xfce windowmanager, and then wrote up a good overview of his impressions. I'm a KDE guy myself, & it looks like Peter is too, but it never hurts to try another environment out, as it gives you a better sense of the good & bad things of your chosen GUI, and it's also just good to know about all things Linux. Here's what Peter had to say about Xfce: ...