A Tale of Two Office Suites

users
#41

Okay, here's a weird one.

I'm using a Sony Vaio Win7 laptop. I've been wanting to play with Linux, so I installed Ubuntu 12.10, using the full dual boot install (not the Wubi) complete with a partitioned hard drive.

Ubuntu came with LO 3.6.2.2. I've done nothing to the Linux LO installation other than to change some screen colors and put my name in the General/User Data area.

I'm wanting to direct my document path in the Linux LO to my Win7 document directory on the Win7 partition. When I try to change the paths in Tools/Options/Paths, absolutely nothing happens. I can select the Win7 document directory, but when I click <ok> I get no change. In fact, it won't even let me change any of my paths to anything other than what's already there. I can't even change them to a Linux directory.

It's as if my paths are locked in place, but I can't find anyway to unlock them to allow me to change them.

Any ideas?

Virgil

#42

Hi :slight_smile:
In 10 years of OpenOffice being just 1 product under Sun i only bumped into 2 people in daily life ("word on the streets" or "word of mouth") that used it.  Both were considered "somewhat strange" and "difficult".  I never saw any articles about it in the press, not even in obscure magazines focussing on IT issues (also difficult to find anything about Gnu&Linux tbh).  In 10 years of using other people's public access machines i found OpenOffice just 1 time and even then it was only downloaded, not installed (so the managers thought it was rubbish and didn't work so they bought MSO to replace it (note they didn't bother to find out why it wasn't working)).

Nowadays i see articles about either LO or AOO (or both) almost every month, sometimes every week, in various magazines in my local supermarket.  I bump into people every few weeks that have heard of it.  Users are not considered in such derogatory ways anymore, or at least not so often.  In IT training it's more common to hear the tutor mention "and other office suites".  On public access machines it is more normal to find OpenOffice fully installed.

Also it seems that we have more devs in LO than contributed to OpenOffice in an equivalent time-frame.  I thought someone said more in LO in 2 years than had contributed to OOo in 10years.

So, do i think we should amalgamate and return to just one product?  Lol!!

To me i think the idea of re-combining makes sense initially.  The old argument about a "fragmented market".  However this argument is only applied in IT circles.  Do people say that there should Not be so many flavours of ice-cream?  or that there should only be 1 company allowed to produce ice-cream?  Outside of IT "fragmentation" is considered a driving force and it's seen as good when companies compete with each other.

Regards from

Tom :slight_smile:

#43

Go inside of the directory and then click Ok, so instead of maybe
/media/Windows and then clicking on "Documents", navigate inside of the
Documents folder and click ok. Several others have issued similar
complaints about how paths are handled and I believe it's a bug report
that's being looked into.

Regards,
Joel

#44

Hi :slight_smile:

I'm guessing that you make sure the Windows partition is mounted when you try to edit the paths?  Although if it rejects a mounted Linux partition that you know is already mounted then it kinda points to that not being the problem.

Easiest way to check a partition is mounted is just to open your file-browser and see if it's listed in the "Places" sidebar.  I often switch between "Tree" and "Places" in there.  Each has their own advantages at different times.  If you are using Gnome or something then it tends to have a "Places" on the top-taskbar or you might be able to see the drive in your "My Computer".

Regards from

Tom :slight_smile:

#45

Hi :slight_smile:
Brilliant!!  Ctrl z is much easier than faffing around deleting spaces.  Alex i found the same as you except if i typed a space after the close brackets and maybe some more text and then went back to delete the space-before-the-close-brackets.

So, now we are finding tons of ways to avoid it but i think Barry's is the best yet.  I tend to have a little finger hoovering over the "a" key that can easily reach the Ctrl key which moves my 3rd-finger quite near the Z.  So, it all works really easily if you keep your fingers roughly in touch-typing position.  Plus it means you don't have to switch off any of the auto-correction stuff which can be pretty handy.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#46

Hi :slight_smile: Brilliant!!  Ctrl z is much easier than faffing around deleting spaces.  Alex i found the same as you except if i typed a space after the close brackets and maybe some more text and then went back to delete the space-before-the-close-brackets.

I don't speak British so maybe I misunderstand but you don't consider doing a close-bracket+type-more-text+backspace mambo 'faffing around'? I'll have to look up the word!

So, now we are finding tons of ways to avoid it but i think Barry's is the best yet.  I tend to have a little finger hoovering over the "a" key that can easily reach the Ctrl key which moves my 3rd-finger quite near the Z.  So, it all works really easily if you keep your fingers roughly in touch-typing position.  Plus it means you don't have to switch off any of the auto-correction stuff which can be pretty handy.

won't re-ignite the discussion about turning this off altogether but will only note that I do a

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
...

type list much more than I type a copyright symbol which I have had few, very few, occasions to use.

but I always (from now on) say, faff and let faff.

F.