chart module: Vote for the new default colors

Do you want to see the default chart colors changed? So, please, just go to that page and vote: http://ui.openoffice.org/VisualDesign/OOoChart_colors_drafts.html

Chart Module : integration candidate 2 (m11)

A new preview release of the new chart module was delivered today. Here are the interresting links:

• Download the new module
• What's new in the new chart?
• What's new in milestone 11?
• How to help testing and reporting issues?
• Installation notes

Help needed: If you want to help too improve the new chart module, here are some things you can do:

• testing the milestone 11 and declaring issues
• Writing a nice web page on the wiki showcasing the new chart module (showing new features with screenshots and a nice layout...). As the integration is approaching, having marketing material becomes critical. Here is the current page which can be improved.

Thanks: We would like to thanks the persons that helped in testing this new chart module to achieve a bug-free release. We would like to encourage everybody to continue hunting bugs as this is really important to improve the quality of the product.

Mono brings Visual Basic programs to Linux

After the agreement between Sun and Novell to support VBA in OpenOffice.org, The Mono Projects announced a that it now features a VB compiler: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3057967810.html

Will OOo have its own VSTOOo (Visual Studio Tools for OpenOffice.org) so that we can develop using the .Net framework ;-)

[QA] Linux Desktop Testing Project (LDTP) 0.8 is out

Again a good news: the new release of LDTP is ready. LDTP is a functionnal testing environment, meaning that you can reproduce users clicks on your UI. In case you don't know about it yet, you should have a look at their website: http://ldtp.freedesktop.org/ And for the Sun guys, a demo of the scenario recorder using Netbeans: http://people.freedesktop.org/~nagappan/ldtpguidemo.html

"Sun and Novell work together on a common OpenOffice.org VBA story"

What a great news! Finally, Novell and Sun join effort to improve VBA support in OpenOffice.org! That's what I just read from Jürgen Schmidt blog entry:

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/sun_and_novell_work_together

That means that in the future, even Ms Office documents with macro will be imported in OpenOffice.org. Fantastic!

OpenOffice.org Calc Tips : Scaling prints

Here is an interresting use case. I have the following set of data: many lines and a few columns. You can have an idea of how the data looks in the screenshot (data range : A1:L159): What I want to do is to print all the columns on the same sheet and I don't care of the number sheets for the lines. How would you do that? Any hint? Currently, I see two way to do it.

The first one, is quite an easy one: use the "Page break preview". Select "View > Page break Preview". You should see something similar to the screenshot: Then, just click on the vertical blue line showing the end of "page 1" and drag it to the end of your data. And that's it.

The second method is not that easy to find. It does use the page formating dialog. Select Format > Page... and click on the sheet page. You should see something similar to this screenshot. In the "Scale" area, select "Fit print range(s) to width/heigth" and then just click on the hegth text box and remove the "1". It should look like the screenshot now: Then just click on the "Ok" button. By removing the "1", you explain to OOo that it has to take care of the number of pages for the heigth. To check the result, just have a look at the print preview.

PS: I agree, that having a value called "*", "I don't care" or anything else could make this easier for users. Maybe an issue should be reported about that ?