Getting Started Guide_Setting up Libreoffice

The OOo/LO template exposition concerning the contributor names included the
advice to use Shit+Enter (similar to <br /> in XHTML) as a forced line break
between names, so that question of the original poster need not have been
made--assuming that the instructions in the template exposition were
followed.

People reviewing chapters in the user guides probably won't have read
the exposition in the template, because they will have had no reason
to open the template and discover that there is useful information
there.

When you have finished revising the expostion, we can copy it into a
planned chapter of the Contributors' Guide. That way people are more
likely to discover and read the information.

But again, there is no harm in asking...

As to pasting: the unformatted paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) is often more useful
when pasting the clipboard contents from different documents, especially if
different apps were used.

Thanks for the reminder. I forget about that keystroke combination, a
very useful one.

--Jean

There was no really good reason (on legal copyright grounds) not to use the Windows XP screen captures because Microsoft would routinely insert their boilerplate copyright notices, although Microsoft would never waste its time and effort going after those who used screenshots with any Windows O/S theme. Even for a competing product like OOo/LO.

Eventually, I might repackage (and rewrite them a bit) the LO documents according to my own specifications in US Letter page size. When doing so, I might reinsert the XP silver theme (or, perhaps, use another theme) for any screen captures, primarily to get some practice using some proprietary screen-capture apps.

Gary

And just to make sure everyone knows what I'm referring to: it's the
XP-Silver theme *for Ubuntu* (a theme that provides a somewhat
WindowsXP lookalike screenshot), NOT the Windows theme of a similar
name.

--Jean

And if you use CTRL+ALT+Shift+V then you insert unformatted text immediately and won't get the popup window (or dialog) asking you what you want to insert.

I hope this is useful to some of you

Sigrid

The OOo/LO template exposition concerning the contributor names included the
advice to use Shit+Enter (similar to<br /> in XHTML) as a forced line break
between names, so that question of the original poster need not have been
made--assuming that the instructions in the template exposition were
followed.

People reviewing chapters in the user guides probably won't have read
the exposition in the template, because they will have had no reason
to open the template and discover that there is useful information
there.

When you have finished revising the expostion, we can copy it into a
planned chapter of the Contributors' Guide. That way people are more
likely to discover and read the information.

But again, there is no harm in asking...

As to pasting: the unformatted paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) is often more useful
when pasting the clipboard contents from different documents, especially if
different apps were used.

Thanks for the reminder. I forget about that keystroke combination, a
very useful one.

--Jean

Actually, Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted, or however it reads, does the same functioning. The keyboard shortcuts are just far more productive, timewise. So, the docs should always include them along with their UI versions.

Gary

And if my memory holds... If you simply do the simple Ctrl+Shift+V, another Enter clears the dialog box. I do it pretty much automatically, without thinking about it or even looking at the screen while doing them.

Gary

HI :slight_smile:
True. It's good to ask. Otherwise i guess we would never learn those tricks
that 'everyone' knows but few really do. I think there are too many for anyone
to know them all already and hearing of a 'new' useful one is great :slight_smile:
Thanks for the Shift Ctrl V :wink:
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:
It's good to avoid potentially exploitable weaknesses. People with knowledge
and training in Law, experience or knowledge of relevant legal cases in various
countries and even people that have only read the various MS Eulas pretty much
all seem to advise TDF to avoid screen-shots of Windows in official
documentation. Often i don't have a clue about the issues they talk about but I
think it's worth taking notice of consistent advice.

Also, it's easier to take the advice (to avoid screen-shots of Windows) than
fight against it and then have regrets if it turns out to be true later.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

I have not read nor edited most of the resource material.

Perhaps, it would help if the reviewers were advised to submit their reviewed copy on the latest template copy, which contains useful exposition. Especially if the review covers the entire document.

The document properties might help with determining if the latest, most-current template was employed for the particular document being reviewed or technically edited.

Gary

The sky is not falling, as Chicken Little imagined.

I disagree, primarily because literally many thousands, if not millions or billions even, of documents contain such Microsoft screen captures. MICROSOFT DOES NOT CARE... Why should they? They even give away much of their software nowadays.

Removing the Windows XP silver screenshots was needless busy work that wasted time and effort, which could have introduced errors in the process. The old saw: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Gary

Hi :slight_smile:
Gary you don't seem like someone that is qualified to give legal advice such as
that. I'm not sure you would accept responsibility and pay costs if your advice
if damages were incurred as a result of taking your legal advice. Sadly we do
not live in a simplistic children's story book.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Microsoft makes its money from selling products--not suing people. Besides, the desktop computer will become a relic for most users within five or ten years--probably already, to a degree. Even the laptops will go the same route.

Microsoft has bigger fish to fry in evolving its business model in order to remain competitive than to worry about trifles like screenshots of its (unsupported, even...) XP silver GUI employed in documents. The legalese you refer to is simply the routine boilerplate wording that virtually all developers and others employ on their copyright pages. I am bemused (and Jean and others probably too) that time and effort was spent needlessly on changing the former screenshots.

Gary

As you seem to be a current worker bee, you might want to examine the work-in-process, revised version 3.3.3 chapter template that I am working on. It contains edit tracking of the changes so far, plus some comments that were inserted via the Insert menu. You can then see how an edited version of a document should appear.

My defaults for edit tracking are to employ green underlines for additions, red strike-throughs for deletions, and bold blue for most format changes. Some format changes do not show up in the edit changes with LO or OOo. So, for those that do not appear, an editor should employ comments, which will appear at the right side of the document. Some of those untracked changes are those involved with vertical table alignment, for example.

In the event you want to move material around in a document being edited, plus use edit-tracking on a moved paragraph, entire subsection, or whatever, there are two ways to do that. (1) Employ two versions of the document, with edit tracking employed in each document--make the edits in the first, and afterward move the material in the second document. (2) The second means is to turn off edit tracking for the moves and afterward restore edit tracking again. Then, use comments to describe just what got moved and from where. The point to remember is that if you move content after it was edit tracked, the move will destroy the edit-tracked changes (accepts them, by default). That may not be desirable.

I generally park things being worked on in one or another of my (mostly way incomplete) forum websites. The forums serve as chronicles of sorts, so that I know where the stuff was parked, plus copious notes and such in topic messages. Also, anybody (registered...) could comment on them, although I generally do not make notice much of any forum, other than an e-mail signature or rare explicit links from e-mails. The revised template was parked there recently, and can be accessed at: LO templates <http://technicaleditor.livernoisyard.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=56>, where the template and its AutoText BAU file can be downloaded.

Gary

Hi :slight_smile:
Lol. Why all this change of direction? and why did this suddenly occur moments
AFTER Jean left for a couple of weeks?

Ignoring the advice of legal experts based on a quick read of a children's fairy
story does not make any sense to me. From a quick google search
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._TomTom
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Microsoft_v.TomTom%282008,_USA%29
MS sued a company for using fat32, not even the more advanced Ntfs, and won.
Fat32 is pretty much the standard system used by the vast majority of people on
external storage devices. Being unaware of court actions and being unaware of
the strategy MS uses (such as buying-up software patents) does not make us safe
from those issues.

It would be really paranoid to think that Gary might be an MS employee but he is
using fairly standard tactics that would normally be designed by a competitor to
disrupt a community-led group.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Quoting Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk>:

Hi :slight_smile:
Lol. Why all this change of direction? and why did this suddenly occur moments
AFTER Jean left for a couple of weeks?

Ignoring the advice of legal experts based on a quick read of a children's fairy
story does not make any sense to me. From a quick google search
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._TomTom
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Microsoft_v.TomTom%282008,_USA%29
MS sued a company for using fat32, not even the more advanced Ntfs, and won.
Fat32 is pretty much the standard system used by the vast majority of people on
external storage devices. Being unaware of court actions and being unaware of
the strategy MS uses (such as buying-up software patents) does not make us safe
from those issues.

It would be really paranoid to think that Gary might be an MS employee but he is
using fairly standard tactics that would normally be designed by a competitor to
disrupt a community-led group.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/05/2012229/Microsofts-Hottest-New-Profit-Center-Android?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=twitter

rday

Hi Gary,

I generally park things being worked on in one or another of my (mostly way
incomplete) forum websites. The forums serve as chronicles of sorts, so that
I know where the stuff was parked, plus copious notes and such in topic
messages. Also, anybody (registered...) could comment on them, although I
generally do not make notice much of any forum, other than an e-mail
signature or rare explicit links from e-mails. The revised template was
parked there recently, and can be accessed at: LO templates
<http://technicaleditor.livernoisyard.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=56>,
where the template and its AutoText BAU file can be downloaded.

Alfresco is where we are *currently* storing work in progress...

Do I have your permission to retrieve the aforementioned template file
and upload it to Alfresco? Do you release your file under the LGPL3?

Hi,

Quoting Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk>:

> Hi :slight_smile:
> Lol. Why all this change of direction? and why did this suddenly
> occur moments
> AFTER Jean left for a couple of weeks?
>
>
> Ignoring the advice of legal experts based on a quick read of a
> children's fairy
> story does not make any sense to me. From a quick google search
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._TomTom
> http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Microsoft_v.TomTom%282008,_USA%29
> MS sued a company for using fat32, not even the more advanced Ntfs, and won.
> Fat32 is pretty much the standard system used by the vast majority
> of people on
> external storage devices. Being unaware of court actions and being
> unaware of
> the strategy MS uses (such as buying-up software patents) does not
> make us safe
> from those issues.
>
>
> It would be really paranoid to think that Gary might be an MS
> employee but he is
> using fairly standard tactics that would normally be designed by a
> competitor to
> disrupt a community-led group.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/07/05/2012229/Microsofts-Hottest-New-Profit-Center-Android?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=twitter

rday

Unless someone is willing to spend the time and money to properly
research the US legal issues, the safest course is avoid any chance of
putting us into a possible legal crosshairs. I have neither. The problem
is that no one has come forward who is US attorney and knowledgeable on
software related issues to advise us. MS could consider LO as a direct
competitor to MSO and thus would look for our legal blunders committed
out of ignorance of US law.

It may be more tedious for us to make sure our screenshots do not show
anything that would imply a Windows OS but it is safer. I doubt any
Linux distro would be upset if their desktop was identifiable in one of
our screenshots. In fact a subtle plug could made by saying all the
screenshots were made on various Linux distros. Many Windows users think
we are command line using dinosaurs and would be surprised to see a
vaguely familiar desktop.

Yes, you (meaning, anybody) have my permission to retrieve and utilize the revised LO template stored on any of my websites, including the one containing the LO template previously linked to in a message a few days ago. However, I made no explicit effort for releasing my files under LGPL3. I will likely employ Alfresco for the completed version, though.

If LO docs people would care to employ a better template, I suggest that a improved template (like mine provided with no strings attached) be employed instead of the current form, which is OK, but which contains errors and such. Still others errors, such as some confusion still lingering on in the template exposition pertaining to the use of the list paragraph style also will be made before I deemed it completed.

In the interim, anybody is free to use my LO template version or to comment on the changes made so far, in addition to those changes that will follow, whenever I get around to them. No permission need be asked for employing anything of mine that I park on my own personal websites. Especially after I made them available previously.

Eventually, I will remove any OOo and LO branding info from my revised OOo/LO templates, upon which I provided much design input during the past five years, in order to produce a generic, standard template that most anybody could employ for their own personal or organizational use.

Gary

One would have to be extremely paranoid to even think that Microsoft would bother suing anybody or any organization over any screenshots with the Windows XP theme appearing in any non-MS documents. (Most people, even Microsoft, have lives...) Especially considering that Windows XP is nearly a decade old and is not even officially supported by Microsoft any longer, as MS considers Windows XP as being economically obsolete, for sales purposes.

Gary

Hi :slight_smile:
How about if we sold LibreOffice on usb-sticks that could be read by Windows?
Would it be paranoid to think that MS might bother to chase to chase us if we
did that?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: