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Calc http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Regular_Expressions_in_CalcWriterhttp://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Regular_Expressions_in_Writer

I talked in this post about how to use regular expressions in filters.  The key point is that where you would use * in Excel, you use .* in Calc. Filters aren't the only place where regular expressions come up.  Let's say you want to count the number of people whose last name ends in "son" in a big list of names, range C5:C300. You can use COUNTIF. Here's an example. First you have the range, then the text you want to find in the range. The result is the number of time that text was found in the range. I hit Return and I get the correct result, 2. (Only 2 because I'm lazy and didn't create 300+ sample names for this blog. ;>  )

I posted a blog here about how to modify OpenOffice.org Calc to make the Delete key just delete, and another key like the Backspace key bring up that little delete window. Here's another little modification. A lot of folks who use Excel are used to pressing Enter or Return to go down one row and all the way to the beginning of the row. If you're on E4 and press Enter, then you are suddenly at F1. When you press Enter in Calc, however, you just go down one, like from E4 to F4. You can go under Tools > Options > Calc > General and change what the Enter key does, but you can't change it there to doing it the Excel Way.

This looks pretty fantastic. New features for charting coming in OpenOffice.org 2.4. http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/new_chart_features_in_openoffice and more here: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Chart2/Features2.4 To try it out, click here for the announcement and download info. Here's just one of the new features, quoting from this post.

In Excel and in Calc, you can create a carriage return, aka line break, to go to a new line within the same cell. You do this by pressing Ctrl Enter to go to a new line. However. In Excel you can do this with your cursor in the input field at the top or in the cell. In Calc, your cursor needs to be in the cell.

It's the little things, isn't it. In OpenOffice.org Calc, you have to press Backspace to delete cell contents instead of pressing Delete like in Excel. Press Delete in Calc, and you get a Delete window that lets you delete formats, text, formulas and/or other elements, a very useful feature. It just might not be quite what you expect. Some folks note this as one of the issues with OpenOffice, like the Delete key thing.  That blog certainly isn't the only one; I'm just listing it as an example and to....well, just keep reading. I think Greg C's point in the blog is just that the Delete-versus-Backspace is an unnecessary difference from MS Office.

It's the little things, isn't it. In OpenOffice.org Calc, you have to press Backspace to delete cell contents instead of pressing Delete like in Excel. Press Delete in Calc, and you get a Delete window that lets you delete formats, text, formulas and/or other elements, a very useful feature. It just might not be quite what you expect. Some folks note this as one of the issues with OpenOffice, like the Delete key thing.  That blog certainly isn't the only one; I'm just listing it as an example and to....well, just keep reading. I think Greg C's point in the blog is just that the Delete-versus-Backspace is an unnecessary difference from MS Office.