On Friday 13 January 2006 07:37 pm, Cary Howe wrote: > One massive problem with every spreedsheet software I've ever seen > including the one in Open Office is they assume you already know how to use > them. Even the help assumes you already know their naming conventions and > how their command structure works. Well guess what if I knew how to use it > why would I be digging in help? Unfortunately I'm guessing there isn't even > a Dummies book on Open Office. May be there is? I've been using > Spreadsheets for ten years and to this day all I can do is total a single > column of numbers. Now Open Office is wonderful if I want to add colors or > do many fancy formating commands but it still assumes you know the basics. > All I want to do is link two cells so when one totals the amount updates at > another location so it passively updates the second column. About as basic > as you can get yet I don't even know what linking two cells is called let > alone have a clue how to do it. I'm not kidding ten years and I have yet to > be able to figure it out. I don't have time for a bloody accounting class > so I can do a few basic things with a spreed sheet. I'm shocked the help > isn't better since the word processor is amazing and extremely easy to use. > I literally don't need to do anything fancier than linking a cell total > with an entry in a new column. Do I need to get a degree to be able to do > that? Just frustriating that every software out there for doing > spreedsheets assumes prior knowledge. I've used other sheets that other > people have set up but I haven't a clue how to do it myself. In graphics > I'm a high end user but mostly use spreedsheets for basic budgeting. They'd > be 1000X more useful if I could do slightly more with them. I don't even > need formulas just basic linking. Help!!!!!! > > Open Office is amazing but the Calc is incomprehensible to the novice. If > it was a graphics software I could probably select Cell A then holding down > the shift key drag it to Cell B and they'd be linked. Office software could > learn a lot from how graphics software works. In some fundimental ways > office software hasn't changed much in ten years or more. Graphics software > has made quantum leaps in the last ten years when it comes to user > interfaces. Office software may have increased functions but they still > aren't in anyway intuitive so there's a huge potential for improvement. You > want to blow away Microsoft Office instead of following it? Make the > interface intuitive then they'll be scrambling to keep up. I should be able > to right click on a cell and define it as a parent then click on a second > cell and define it as a child. I could then while that's buffered click on > several locations and create multiple children to the parent cell. It's how > animators tree functions and blows away the best accounting software on the > planet for ease of use and power. In Maya I can open up the parent tree and > manually drag the links around. I should be able to do the same in a > spreadsheet. Like I say spreedsheet are still in the dark ages. Most of the > functions should be drag and drop. Even web pages linking is child's play. > Why can't it be the same for spreedsheets? > > Cary
From another member of this mailing list: (These are links to documentation.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://documentation.openoffice.org./manuals/index.html Individual chapters: http://documentation.openoffice.org./manuals/oooauthors2/index.html The calc guide (I've broken the link in two to fit Gmane's posting page) http://documentation.openoffice.org./manuals/oooauthors2/0107GS-[break] GettingStartedWithCalc.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
