Free Software Linux

Download it now, use it now. http://glabels.sourceforge.net/ This is a beautiful program, a well-balanced combination of power, simplicity, good design, and ease of use. Thanks to Keith for pointing it out to me. There's no Windows or Mac version, sadly. Among the things you can do are:- automatically (no effort on your party) suppress empty address lines- do bar codes- point straight to a CSV or similar format file to bring in records- deselect records you don't want to print- add graphics and drawing shapes- apply formatting- easily preview the whole sheet Here's a screen shot with a summary of what you do. I'll do more detailed instructions later but here's the quick info. I love it.

I've been blogging about sorting for a while:

• Easy sorting
• Standard, more powerful sorting
• Sorting by a custom sort order

There's just one more thing to mention: creating your own custom sort order. Existing sort orders are things like Monday Tuesday Wednesday (the right order, which is not alphabetical). But let's say you've got things you want in a certain logical but non-alphabetical order that aren't already set up in OpenOffice.org: titles of books or people, procedures done in a certain order, or your own abbreviations for the days of the week. You can create sort orders for those very easily so you can sort by them.

I've written an article for TechTarget.com about using master documents in OpenOffice.org Writer. http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid39_gci1230368,00.html Master documents are used to combine lots of other Writer documents. They're similar to Word master files or Frame book files in that they organize your subdocuments, let you create a unified table of contents, etc.  They're a bit picky but once you've got them set up, they work quite reliably.

For the longest time, the really easy way of bringing database content into a document didn't work in Calc spreadsheets. At least, not for me. But now in 2.4 it does. So here you go. It's the same approach you use in Writer, just a little more limited.

Choose View > Data sources or  press F4.

Expand the DB you want, then the table or query you want. Select the table or query name.

Click on the upper left corner as shown, the un-obvious little gray square.

 

Click and hold down and drag into the document. And you'll get your data.

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For the longest time, the really easy way of bringing database content into a document didn't work in Calc spreadsheets. At least, not for me. But now in 2.4 it does. So here you go. It's the same approach you use in Writer, just a little more limited.

Choose View > Data sources or  press F4.

Expand the DB you want, then the table or query you want. Select the table or query name.

Click on the upper left corner as shown, the un-obvious little gray square.

 

Click and hold down and drag into the document. And you'll get your data.

When it comes to cells, I like my content to look either like the first cell, or the second cell. If there's enough room for all the content; great. If there isn't, I like a nice wrap.

To wrap content in a cell, select the cell or cells then choose Format > Cells, Alignment tab, and select Wrap Text Automatically.

I've been blogging about sorting for a while:

• Easy sorting
• Standard, more powerful sorting
• Sorting by a custom sort order

There's just one more thing to mention: creating your own custom sort order. Existing sort orders are things like Monday Tuesday Wednesday (the right order, which is not alphabetical). But let's say you've got things you want in a certain logical but non-alphabetical order that aren't already set up in OpenOffice.org: titles of books or people, procedures done in a certain order, or your own abbreviations for the days of the week. You can create sort orders for those very easily so you can sort by them.

I've written an article for TechTarget.com about using master documents in OpenOffice.org Writer. http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid39_gci1230368,00.html Master documents are used to combine lots of other Writer documents. They're similar to Word master files or Frame book files in that they organize your subdocuments, let you create a unified table of contents, etc.  They're a bit picky but once you've got them set up, they work quite reliably.

So there you are. You've got a whole bunch of people signed up for various events you're planning. Or they've ordered a bunch of your products. Some have signed up for more than one event; some have ordered more than one product.  You want to just get a list of the customers who've signed up. If a customer has signed up for three events, you just want her name to appear once. You just want the unique values. One thing you can do is use the Standard Filter. Select the column of data, either with the heading or without. Choose Data > Filter > Standard Filter.

You want to do some good, hard sorting. Not just sorting by the first column, but by perhaps the third column. Maybe you want to sort first by state, then by city, then by last name. For that, you need the Sort window under Data > Sort. You have your data.  Select all the data to sort, and either select the headings or not. You're good either way. Choose Data > Sort.

Here's one way to change Calc so that grid lines aren't displayed. It will affect all spreadsheets, not just the current one. Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Appearance. Scroll down to the settings for Calc, and select White as the color for the gridlines. Then click OK. (Click the following illustration to see it full size.)

Here's one way to change Calc so that grid lines aren't displayed. It will affect all spreadsheets, not just the current one.

Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Appearance. Scroll down to the settings for Calc, and select White as the color for the gridlines. Then click OK.

(Click the following illustration to see it full size.)

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I just started using feature this recently, for my LinuxWorld presentation. It's very nice. Anytime you can reference some text, rather than embedding it in the formatting, it's good. Some background: under Data > Validity, you can control what people can enter in spreadsheets, and offer them help in the form of lists, help tips, etc. I wrote about the Validity tools here http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/01/openofficeorg_c.html