GC chapter 2 Enter, edit, format

Downloaded file to go through Jean's suggestions.

Jean, are all the figures for the conditional formatting no good? Or is it
just ones that seem fuzzy?

Cheers

Shelagh

From memory, they're all fuzzy; also too pale and with poor contrast. So were a lot of others.

--Jean

Ok, will try to fix them up.

Maybe I need to change my screenshot application.

Shelagh

I think it may have more to do with the hardware in use. I cannot get
a decent screenshot from some of my computers, while others work fine,
though better if I use an external monitor instead of the laptop's
monitor. Not that I know much about the whole subject.

BTW, we prefer to have screen captures from Linux, though that's not a
strict requirement. Linux first; Mac second; Windows only as a last
resort. A lot of the older screenshots are from Windows, so when we
need to replace them for other reasons, we try to replace them with
Linux pix whenever possible.

(A lot of the fuzzy old pix in this book and others were done by me
from an old Windows laptop. At the time, the choice was including
substandard pix and getting the book done, or waiting around for
months -- if ever -- for someone to do better pix.)

--Jean

Hello Shelagh

If you are using a Linux system (I use Ubuntu) then Shutter is a good screen capture program and easy to operate. You can capture screen shots and save them as PNG format, which is the preferred format for graphics. You then need another program to do any cropping which is where LO Draw can be useful. There is also GIMP Image Editor, but I have never used it, but I believe it is a good one.

Regards

PeterS

Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Hi Peter

I have shutter, but haven't used it yet. I do use Gimp as well but using
draw sounds like a good plan. I might play around with that. Some of the
fuzzy seems to occur when I have a larger picture that gets shrunk to fit a
space. The text in particular seems to fade to grey.

Cheers

Shelagh

Hi :slight_smile:
Does the fuzziness from shrinking seem to be created in Gimp?

With Gimp i recently found that colours sometimes seem to be replaced by similar but slightly different ones.  i'd not really noticed it before or thought it was a result of 'professional' graphic designers (or their tools) being deliberately obtuse.  I was able to install tons of add-ons (well about 4(ish)) and the problem seems to be fixed.  Now i might need to find out which add-on was the 1 that fixed it in order to install that 1 across all machines i use and perhaps right across the office jic anyone else starts using Gimp.

Dodging the issues and moving to Draw might well be better.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi Tom

It may be. I do use Gimp.

I might just try working with draw. Gimp does horrible arrows. and
sometimes you need arrows. :slight_smile:

Isn't that called eating your own dog food?

Cheers

sShelagh

Hi :slight_smile:
Yes, using Draw would be more ideal and yes that is known as "eating your own dogfood" although i have begun to see that phrase as a potentially offensive in certain cultures.

I do hand-drawn arrows in the hope that they look friendly and cute or just avoid them entirely.

Regards from

Tom :0

Hello

Draw does have a good selection of arrows and are easy to use. Just remember to finish the arrow at the object you are pointing at and the arrow head will be pointing at the object.

Draw is also good for adding text labels to a figure, but be aware of font sizes so that the text does not appear too big on the figure, especially when you place it in a frame in Writer. I normally use 12 point, which comes out in Writer reasonably well.

Regards

Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Hello

Jean would like me to look at Chapter 2 and work my magic on it.

I have now downloaded the draft file of Chapter 2 from the Feedback folder
and this file is dated 2013-06-23 so that I can make a start. If anyone else
has comments to make, then please send them to me.

I have also downloaded the files that Shelagh used as data for this chapter.

It will take me a few days, so please watch this space for news.

Regards

PeterS