OpenOffice.org Help TNT: Tips'n'Tricks that somehow didn't make it to the help (yet).

Starting with OOo 2.0.3, a new Export feature was introduced to simplify the deployment of BASIC code for all users who share the same installation.

1. Open the BASIC Macro Organizer and create a new BASIC library (choose "Tools - Macros - Organize Macros - OOo BASIC", then click Organizer, then click Libraries tab, then click New). Enter a name for your library.
   
2. Click Edit and write your BASIC code.
3. Again open the Macro Organizer, then click the new Export button to export your BASIC code as a UNO extension file (formerly known as a UNO package)

Now every user can choose "Tools - Package Manager" (which will later be called Extension Manager) to add the new file to the user's installation. But with many users on a shared installation, it is more comfortable when the Admin starts unopkg to install the extension for all users.

1. Become root user with write permission for the shared installation of OOo.
2. In a terminal window, CD to {install_dir}/program and enter the following command
   
3. unopkg add --shared path_to_UNO_extension_file/UNO_extension_filename
   

Note: The Export button is new in OOo 2.0.3. It is only activated for your own libraries.
Call unopkg without parameter for a short help.

The OpenOffice.org Conference in Lyon took place from Sep 11 to Sep 13, 2006. (See the Web page at http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2006/ )
The StarOffice Team from Sun in Hamburg was very present, with about 24 developers, wearing t-shirts with the logo "Sun OpenOffice.org Team". Frank and Uwe from the Technical Documentation team gave a short presentation with the title "OOo documentation - Online help and Beyond".

All presentations were recorded and streamed live to the Internet, by  http://ooocon-arnes.kiberpipa.org/articles/media.html

 

Unfortunately, we had only less than 40 minutes for our presentation. 45 minutes were scheduled, but they always start later, and at the end the buses already waited with running engines to take us all to the townhall meeting with the mayor of Lyon. So we had no time for Q&A following the presentation, but we asked and answered questions all the remaining time of the three days.

We tried as much as possible to be nice ambassadors of documentation.openoffice.org.

Presentations were a good mix of technical lessons and marketing overviews. But most important in my opinion was the chance to meet all those community members and to speak to the persons of which you only had read the names before.

My personal highlights:
- so many nice people at the conference to talk with, so many new ideas
- the townhall evening party!
- very scenic city of Lyon, this city is really worth a holiday trip  http://www.lyon.fr/vdl/sections/en/tourisme/copy_of_patrimoine/

My personal warning:
- beware of the Lyon food specialties unless you are really brave

Florian Effenberger of the german marketing project made the following photo of Frank (left) and Uwe (right)
Photo of Frank and Uwe at OOo Conf
See more photos and links to even more photos in Erwin's recommended Blog.

So at the end we are sure that this conference was not a one time event. It was much more than that: a highlight to celebrate the ongoing collaboration of Sun (and the other companies that attended the conference) with the OpenOffice.org community. This collaboration is already working very good, and will get better every day.

A new application help development e-mail list exists and waits for your ideas, comments and praise of and about the application help (aka "Online Help".

How can we improve the application help? What would you like to see as new contents? How would you like to improve the Help Viewer? What is missing or what should be removed from the Help?
How can we get more feedback from help users to improve the help?
How can we more closely link the authors of the OOo community documentation and the authors of help at Sun?

The list is called "dev-help", the mail address is dev-help@documentation.openoffice.org
Note: the mail list called "online_help" will be removed soon, because the name tempted some users to ask for help online.

You may subscribe to the list at http://documentation.openoffice.org/servlets/ProjectMailingListList

This list is not intended to answer support questions, except for the rare occasion that someone needs help how to use the help.