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OpenOffice.org Writer The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word

By Jean Hollis Weber
July 2004
Pages: 234
ISBN 10: 0-596-00826-0 | ISBN 13: 9780596008260
(Average of 3 Customer Reviews)

Description

This handy reference is packed with essential information to help you learn OOoWriter including how to write, edit, and review documents; control page layout; use templates and styles effectively; insert, edit and create graphics, and much more--even how to make a smooth transition from Microsoft Word. With the complete office suite included on a CD, OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word makes using Writer an easy decision.
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Featured customer reviews

Well written. Great find!,  May 15 2005
Submitted by dpeach   [Respond | View]

O'Reilly made a great choice in picking up this previously self published book, “Taming OpenOffice.org Writer,” and adding it to their collection. The author has a great style which is very easy to read.

For someone already familiar with word processing applications this book is a great help in showing how OpenOffice.org Writer accomplishes the task. It is written for someone who has experience in this type of software. As the subtitle is “The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word” you can imagine that much of the differences she shows are differences between Writer and Word.

The author does a great job at showing what can and cannot be done with OOo. She does not pretend that OOo Writer is perfect and is quick to show how to avoid some common pitfalls. The book is refreshing in that it does admit some weaknesses of the software, but also provides ways around the problems.

Because it is written for current users of word processors, it gives few examples of what can be done with the features. If you already know what you want to accomplish but are unsure of how it is done in Writer, then this book is a great help.

One of the strengths of OOo is “Styles.” The author explained how to use styles in a very concise manner. The only thing lacking was a thorough explanation as to why someone should use styles. Other word processors handle formatting on a paragraph to paragraph, or word to word basis. OOo handles its formatting through styles, though you can do it the wrong way if you like. Styles are document wide formating and is much more powerful. But the book lacked the convincing paragraph or two as to why one should try to learn to use the Stylist.

There are lots of screen captures. Of which 183 are dialog boxes or menus. The other 8 show something other than those 2 items. Precisely two, and only two are an example of actual text being formated. The problem I have with this is if I go through the steps that are given in the book, I can, without fail, end up at the same dialog box as the book references. What would have been more to my liking would have been to see more examples of how you can use OOo to put text on a page.

The saving grace of this though is the one huge example that the book shows of what can be done with OOo...the entire book was written in and typeset from OOo Writer. Anything you see in the book can be done with the OOo Writer program. That is a testimony to the power of the tool. Because of this, the author goes into great detail as to how to manage large documents with Writer. This is something that OOo does very well. With its Stylist to help manage the uniform formatting and the Navigator to help manage a large document, OOo not only competes for MS Word's secretarial market, but WordPerfect's dominance in the legal and governmental fields.

I look forward to the release of OpenOffice.org 2.0. I hope that O'Reilly will work with the author to produce a new version of the book in line with the new version and features of the software. As well, I would like to see O'Reilly do a book on each of the components in the OpenOffice.org suite.


Most useful book on OpenOffice.org Writer,  October 30 2004
Submitted by pitonyak   [Respond | View]

I consider Jean's coverage of OpenOffice.org Writer the most useful source of advanced useful information I have found. I wrote a book using OpenOffice.org and I still learned a lot of excellent above average useful imformation from this book.


A well crafted and technically correct presentation,  October 07 2004
Submitted by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay   [Respond | View]

I have blogged the review here. A small quote goes With the Linux Desktop market looking exceedingly upbeat, a well crafted book on one of the most important components of the desktop suite is always required. This book neatly addresses the niche. Neither too verbose, nor too light it is a well balanced presentation in the usual style from an author who is well respected and known for her competence with the software suite.

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Media reviews
"Weber's text is well written and guides the reader through the processes she describes in a logical way. She avoids taking the reader off on tangents: she does point out other possibilities or options without straying from the point she is covering. "
-- Bob Moffat, NorthWest Apple Pickers Mac User Group

"While you may be intrigued by OpenOffice, the open-source suite of programs, at one point you would have been on your own in training yourself to use it. That’s starting to change. There's now a Dummies and a Teach Yourself book, but they normally just scratch the surface. OpenOffice.org Writer by Jean Hollis Weber is one of the first books I’ve seen that focuses on how to use the word processing component of the free software...The ample illustrations and layout of the book show what is possible with the software. At one time, the only documentation for OpenOffice was written by geeks and for geeks. This book is a definite step up."
--Bruce Kratofil, Blogcritics.org, May 2005

"An eminently practical manual that deals with features required for professional-level documents and shows how to make a smooth transition from MS Word. A companion CD contains the most recent (at the time of writing) version of OOo for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Because StarOffice and OOo use the same source code, the book can be used as a manual for StarWriter."
--Major Keary, PC Update, December 2004

"If your goal is office memos, letters, and notices, OpenOffice.org for Dummies will do. If you need to write articles or books, term papers or dissertations, OpenOffice.org Writer is for you. I've never met Ms. Weber, but I now thank her daily."
--Peter H. Salus, Unix Review, December 2004

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