Taming OpenOffice.org

A former MSWord user asked about using footers in Writer. The method is easy, but it’s not obvious to someone coming from Word. I’ve now put my response on this page, where I gathered together some explanatory information on the subject.

Aside: Page styles are one of the best features of Writer, IMO. Once I got used to the way they are done, I found them much easier to use than Word’s sections. (BTW, “sections” in Writer are a slightly different concept, which confuses many people at first.) In fact, I find many things much easier to do in Writer than in Word, including almost anything to do with page layout and formatting.

Neither Writer nor Word are desktop publishing (DTP) programs, but both can work well for that purpose if the document isn’t too layout-intensive. I used Word for DTP for years, but when I switched to Writer I found everything much easier to do. The methods used in Writer suit my preferences and ways of working much better.

You can now read and comment on the first draft of “Self-publishing using OOo 3 Writer” online. The book starts here.

Comments are moderated (to eliminate spam). I will be travelling during the next week, with limited internet access (perhaps only once a day), so do not be alarmed if your comments do not appear quickly. If you prefer not to comment in public, please feel free to send me an email instead.

You can still request a PDF version of this draft.

A complete first draft of my book Self-Publishing using OpenOffice.org 3 Writer is now available in PDF (3.5MB). If you want a review copy, please contact me directly and ask for one.

I hope to get the website copy of the book updated and ready for online comments within the next few days.

You can help by telling me about anything that

• doesn’t make sense
• is out of logical order
• is covered in not enough detail
• is covered in too much detail for the audience of the book
• needs more or better illustrations
• is missing from the book but you think should be covered
• is covered in two places but should be combined into one place
• or anything else that you think would make the book more useful for the audience

At this point, please confine your comments to the content, not the inconsistencies of formatting or screen captures or bad page breaks or similar, most of which I am well aware of but unwilling to spend time fixing until I’m confident that I won’t be rewriting or deleting whole sections.

Solveig Haugland has another fine tutorial in her blog: How to insert graphics in OpenOffice Writer that are reasonably manageable. It is much more detailed, with more examples, than the corresponding section in the Writer Guide.