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Is there any documentation for LibreOffice Base?
There is the beginning of the Base Guide available at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications.
Three chapters are presently available: Chapter 8 of the Getting Started Guide as well as chapters 1 and 2 of the Base Guide. The last of these is still in draft form. There is the LibreOffice FAQ which are at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq.
--Dan
As well as existing guides by Andrew Pitonyak and others.
Mark
Hi 
Some 3rd party guides can be found listed on the LO Publications page
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#Base
but i agree with Dan that the Getting Started chapter about Base, the first 2 chapters of the official guide
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#LibreOffice_Base_Guide
and the Faq
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq
are probably the best places to start.
I think the guide that you are thinking of, by Andrew Pitonyak, is his excellent macro guide? I'm not sure he has done one for Base but if he has and if we haven't listed it then it would be excellent to add or if there are other guides by other people then they might be good to add too. Some 3rd party guides cost money and/or if you want to buy the official LO guides in printed form then they can be bought from Lulu (as linked to from the Publications page).
Regards from
Tom
Hi
Thanks :) I just added it to the list in the Publications page
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#Base
Regards from
Tom
Could we have some links for the locations for these please. I personally would like to have a list of these resources for personal references. Perhaps others would also.
--Dan
I think one of the guys who is writing the Base documentation for OpenOffice, and converting it to LO, is a very busy person and it is taking him a lot of time to do the work for OpenOffice and does not have as much time to convert each finished chapter to LO. It also takes other people to look over the work and proofread and test out what is stated. There seems not to be enough Base people who are able/willing to help with this hard process.
It seems that Draw and Base are the two "more difficult" modules to write guides for, with Base being the hardest.
Question: How many people do you know use Base, or have tried to use Base? Then ask the same for Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, and then Math. I rarely use anything other than Writer or Calc, for LO's suite.
Question: How many people do you know use Base, or have tried to use
Base?
Whilst there is some quite valid criticism of Base, I don't think answering
this question says as much about Base as it does about the general usage
of databases. They are less familiar than word processors, spreadsheets or
drawing packages.
Mark
thanks to all for your answers and consideration
K
I use databases at work, primarily MS SQL Server. My observation is to
be good at using databases (Base included) takes more time and effort up
front than most realize. Most people have a very rudimentary
understanding, if any, of databases. Often, they think of and use
spreadsheets as databases, which only works at a very rudimentary and
simple level (table of contact information for mailing list generation).
Any marginally more sophisticated use and spreadsheets fail as databases.
Database design is less obvious to most. I think most people do not
understand that databases are a type of model of the real world. The
accuracy of the model for the user's needs is what is important and this
not always easy to determine or model.
Beyond the conceptual problems with databases, they use a querying
language. Most (all?) relational databases like Base use a variant of
SQL. So to move beyond the wizards and have more control and
understanding one eventually needs to learn some SQL, another level
learning with more time and effort.
Word processors, spreadsheets, presentation packages, drawing packages,
etc. conceptually tend to follow how one would do the task manually.
Fundamentally, writing a document in Write at its most basic level is a
much nicer way of typing it than on typewriter. Because the program can
do more than just display the text, such spell check, auto format, auto
number lists, etc., the program adds considerable value beyond simply
typing. The early word processing programs had one feature that
typewriter could never do; save the document for later editing without
have to retype it in part or in entirety.
I'm only catching bits and pieces of this conversation but if someone is
interested in doing documentation on base I'd recommend joining the
documentation mailing list. I'm sure they could use some help
Regards,
Joel
Hi
i think the point was that if more people use a thing then more people care about how well it works.
If we start with the premise that only a fraction of people that use a thing are likely to be involved with fixing it (or even just reporting a problem) then it helps to have more people using it because that may lead to more people being involved in fixing it.
Once you start adding in extra factors such as average skill level of the different users of the different apps then Base is still heavily out-gunned by Writer and Calc. I kinda disagree about Draw tho. I think Impress needs a lot more help than Draw. Draw has some quite fancy features and i've been really happy using on the rare occasions i've needed something other than Gimp. Impress is embarrasing. Base is more important than either of those imo but gets a LOT less attention, except on this list 'recently'.
Regards from
Tom
Hi,
When I open a document in writer (by menu/open or recently used or new), it
opens a frame with full window size. bingo.
When I open the same document via a basic makro using
loadComponentfromUrl(sURL, "_blank", 0, args())
it opens in a frame maximised vertically but not horizontally.
All further open commands (menu/open AND basic) give the same reduced window
frame. I assume that somehow an internal variable has been changed by the
loadComponentfromUrl command.
of course I fiddled around with the parameters/args() of loadComponentfromURL
and the KDE windows configuration, does "_blank" start a new (wrong) parent
frame?, never Problem up to 3.4.
Any idea?
Walther
Is there any documentation for LibreOffice Base?
In german language, yes.
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/images/d/d4/06_BH_Gesamtband_V35_einseitig.pdf
It's probably in the process of being translated.
Sincerely,
Wolfgang
Hi
Hopefully someone more experienced will give a decent answer but until then it might be worth acquiring Andrew Pitonyak's Macro Guide
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications#Programmers
There are a few chapters and things in official documentation (and therefore free) but i suspect you have already gone through those.
Regards from
Tom
Hi,
I am new to Open source *.* (OS, environment, office, Banshee, wvdial, the works....)
I recently moved my excel spread-sheets to calc.
I am still going through files/features-check post the translation.
Most of the data, formula, and formatting are okay, fonts are better.
In the charts I observed:
1. The full worksheet as chart in excel are converted to embedded charts in those sheets (no full charts).
2. Legends are peculiar. They are named as "column?" and not any text string that I would like to give.
Is this the way Libre Calc is implemented or I can get back to chart as worksheet in itself and legends of my
liking without being restricted to the first column/ first row?
Also, is the system info below sufficient for posting here or anything more is advised?
Any pointers would be great help.
Thanks,
Viral Orpe
Hi everybody,
I agree with Mark.
The question itself is interesting but an answer does not explain anything relevant.
Let us turn the question around:how many people should use LO-Base if there was a LibO-version available that is ready to use, reliable, and free of problems (bugs).
If
its installing instructions should be complete, consequent, and placed
in one easy to find place
the program's every single detail should work -- functions, features,
processes at a level (e.g.) similar to MSAccess (2003) --the ability to build decent reports included (and the embedded db-engine and its guides up-dated and supported)
the guiding documentation (& help) should be logic, understandable and
in every detail correlating with the program
With the exception of heavy industrial systems the need and possibilities of up to medium complex databases in everyday life at home are unlimited -- only limited by the decision to start creating.
There are really nothing difficult in creating such "home databases"-- no need to be an "Einstein", if only good guidings are available. Creating database applications is also a very interesting form of brain training -- and the feeling when succeeding is a "yippee". If you know how to use Writer/Word and Calc/Excel (esp. as "databases") you are almost half way. What you still has to do is to study and learn some few basic theories about and how to create the tables and the queries(experiment manually, not with wizards, if you want to learn and understand);creating the forms and the reports is just a matter of following instructions.
If you want LibO to be a popular competitor to MSO (& MSAccess), then the rest is only a question of marketing.
As far as I have experienced LibO-Base (v. 3.4.5), there are only a few details left to fixed before LibO should be almost perfect.
About contributing
A basic rule in quality systems (ISO9000) is that if you want improvement you must first identify the problems (faults, weaknesses) -- and then follow up by a plan and an improving activity.
LibO might be a very fine and usable suit -- especially if also its Base module (docs included) should work properly, at least as promised in introductions.
Mr Dan Lewis is doing a good and valuable work when updating and completing the Base's documentation and it is obvious that without any help his project will take a long time.
Last winter I started to read and follow up experimenting Dan's docs with the intension to send my comments as points of views. And hadquite a lot already done.
At this list I several times also mentioned some quite basic problems/faults both in Base's docs and especially in the modules's features.
I never got any kind of response, I don' t know if my proposals were noticed, nor do I know if the mentioned things have been fixed.
So I skipped working any further on experimenting LibO-Base and its docs. (I am now back to OO and tries to learn MySQL)
You may take this as some sort of a contribution too.
Best regards
Pertti Rönnberg
I am going to stick my head above the parapet and say it should have an
embedded database functionality that is secure and reliable. That is an
essential requirement for entry-level users that have only ever used Access.
I am going to stick my head above the parapet and say it should have
an embedded database functionality that is secure and reliable.
Since recently, LO comes with a native driver for PostgreSQL. That's
probably the best thing that the LO developers have done for quite
some time. Since it makes LO Base actually useable *and a lot better*
than Access (which is unusable with PostgreSQL).
That is an essential requirement for entry-level users that have only
ever used Access.
Reliability? As an essential requirement for Access users?
Huh?
Access is a pathological data shredder.
Sincerely,
Wolfgang