OpenOffice - .79"

This just in from Nic Duquette, who saw one of the pieces on Margins out this week.

"OpenOffice.org comes with default margins of 0.79" on each side. I believe it's the very distant number-two office suite."

I have not tried OpenOffice.org yet (I've got my hands full dealing with the recent switch I made from PC to Mac!), so I can't advise on how well the software works. But given the software's progressive nature, it sounds like it's definitely worth checking it out for those of you undeclared software peeps.

Comments

[Thomas Stafford]

I use Open Office because it is free and for my purposes, it is compatible with Word and Excel. I found out how to change the default margins from the Open Office Community Forum. Here are the instructions:
1.Create a new document, add or modify styles, and change other settings as you desire.
2.From the File menu, choose Templates -> Save.
3.Give the template a name.
4.Select a category in the Categories list (for example, My Templates).
5.Click OK to save the template.
6.Choose File -> Templates -> Organize.
7.In the Categories list, double-click on the My Templates folder.
8.Right-click on the template you want to use and choose Set as Default Template from the menu.
9.Click the Close button.

[jserra]

I know you advise users that there isn't a way to permanently change
their margin settings, but mac users on word 2008, and possibly 2004,
can edit the template file word uses so when a user selects to create
a new blank document it uses the new settings.

All the user needs to do is find the template file. For word 2008,
the normal template file is located at:

Users home directory >Library>Application
Support>Microsoft>Office>User Templates>Normal.dotm

If they navigate to the above file, open it, change their margins and
save the file, each time they start a new document it will have the
new settings. IT IS IMPORTANT THEY KEEP THE FILENAME EXACTLY AS IT
IS: Normal.dotm.

As I was typing this I decided to look through my old files and see
where ms office 2004 kept its default template. Locate the file the
same was as described above only go to this directory.

Users home directory>Documents>Microsoft user data>Normal.dot

The file on my system does not have a file extension attached, but it
recognizes the file as a .dot. USERS SHOULD OPEN THE (NORMAL) FILE
FROM WORD BY GOING TO FILE>OPEN. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT NO OPEN BLANK
DOCUMENTS EXIST OR WORD WILL NOT LET USERS SAVE THE (NORMAL) FILE.

I know if there is a way to do this on a mac that the windows version
must work the same.

I hope this helps your users change the margins in a more hassle free way.

[jserra]

I know you advise users that there isn't a way to permanently change
their margin settings, but mac users on word 2008, and possibly 2004,
can edit the template file word uses so when a user selects to create
a new blank document it uses the new settings.

All the user needs to do is find the template file. For word 2008,
the normal template file is located at:

Users home directory >Library>Application
Support>Microsoft>Office>User Templates>Normal.dotm

If they navigate to the above file, open it, change their margins and
save the file, each time they start a new document it will have the
new settings. IT IS IMPORTANT THEY KEEP THE FILENAME EXACTLY AS IT
IS: Normal.dotm.

As I was typing this I decided to look through my old files and see
where ms office 2004 kept its default template. Locate the file the
same was as described above only go to this directory.

Users home directory>Documents>Microsoft user data>Normal.dot

The file on my system does not have a file extension attached, but it
recognizes the file as a .dot. USERS SHOULD OPEN THE (NORMAL) FILE
FROM WORD BY GOING TO FILE>OPEN. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT NO OPEN BLANK
DOCUMENTS EXIST OR WORD WILL NOT LET USERS SAVE THE (NORMAL) FILE.

I know if there is a way to do this on a mac that the windows version
must work the same.

I hope this helps your users change the margins in a more hassle free way.

[Michael]

OpenOffice and its "native Mac" clone NeoOffice are incredible bloatware. They're hard to use and use up oodles of RAM.

I used to use TextEdit a lot, but it does not let you change your margins. If you edit the RTF source and change them manually, TextEdit automatically increases the point size in Steve Jobs endless hate-the-earth arrogance.

I just started using an editor called Bean:
* It's free and open source.
* It uses very little RAM and is very fast.
* To change the default margins,
simply select Preferences from the application menu,
click on the Style tab,
and enter the new reduced values.

Voila! Works for every new document!

[Michael]

Hint #2:

When writing: abbreviate!
Very common abbreviations are actually easier to read.
It's easier to read "12%" than "12 percent."
And it's much easier and takes up much less space to write numbers in digits instead of spelling them out in words.

[Michael]

Hint #2:

When writing: abbreviate!
Very common abbreviations are actually easier to read.
It's easier to read "12%" than "12 percent."
And it's much easier and takes up much less space to write numbers in digits instead of spelling them out in words.