Re: [libreoffice-users] Paragraph styles

Hi :)
In MS Office styles are an excessive waste of time.  You just have to accept that documents will 
have changing fonts, bullet-point sizes, mis-numbering in lists and even changes in language used 
by spell checkers.  


In LibreOffice just start by using the default ones.  Don't even set-up new ones.  Instantly you 
see a rise in quality and productivity.  Then show how changing the defaults ripples through the 
whole document but keeps it looking very high quality.  



The problem is that people have become so accustomed to the poor quality of documents that anyone 
insisting on higher quality is seen as a fuddy-duddy, someone to ignore and ridicule even if that 
person is in authority.  


I recommend mentioning it briefly but move on swiftly.  You can't teach tricks to people that don't 
want to learn.  Perhaps have an "advanced class" where people have to pay per lesson as an extra 
for more detail on set topics, perhaps as arranged out-of-school lessons on an individual basis but 
make sure it's somewhere public.  

Regards from 
Tom :)






> ________________________________
> From: Kevin O'Brien <zwilnik@zwilnik.com>
> To: users@global.libreoffice.org 
> Sent: Monday, 29 April 2013, 19:08
> Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Paragraph styles
>
>
> On 4/29/2013 2:00 PM, Virgil Arrington wrote:
> > I'd like to get some general opinions about paragraph styles.
> >
> > I am a retired lawyer who led a local government law office. When I 
> > was working at that office, I tried in vain to get my employees to use 
> > paragraph styles. For them, styles were a bother to set up and 
> > maintain. I love using them, but then I'm as much a word processor 
> > junkie as I am an end-user.
> >
> > Now, I teach a paralegal course in technology at my local university. 
> > I recently spent three weeks teaching styles to my students and they 
> > have resisted me all the way. My sense is that people just trying to 
> > get their work done see paragraph styles as an nuisance, not 
> > appreciating the amount of time they can save by investing a little at 
> > the beginning.
> >
> > What about the rest of you. Do you use styles? Do you find that other 
> > less-techy types avoid them?
> >
> > It makes me wonder if there is a way to make them more accessible to 
> > people less inclined to invest time in their technology as opposed to 
> > getting a task done.
> >
> > Virgil
>
> I am with you, Virgil. I just taught some folks at a convention this 
> weekend about this. My way of doing this combines Styles and Templates 
> in such a way as to automate the workflow, which is a tangible benefit 
> you can see right up front. My default template has a modified Heading 1 
> that it opens to automatically. That is set to go to a Heading 2 as the 
> next style, and the Heading 2 is set to go to a Paragraph style as the 
> next one. This is what I do for my workflow, which tends to be memos and 
> technical writing, but I think anyone can see the payoff this way since 
> it reduces a lot of work once you set it up.
>
> Regards,
>
> -- 
> Kevin B. O'Brien
> zwilnik@zwilnik.com
> A damsel with a dulcimer in a vision once I saw.
>
>
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