NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Using Calc.
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2009 Jan 18, 00:21 -0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2009 Jan 18, 00:21 -0000
Responding to my failed quest for a decent printed manual for Calc (the spreadsheet program that comes free with Open Office) comparable with the various 1000-page manuals that exist for Excel- Frank had written, in [7022] George, you're looking for: "a better printed manual for Calc" Go to google books, type in Open Office, click Search. There are quite a few manuals for the software and some are available in "Limited Preview" which should mean that you can read some chapters online (but unfortunately, that may not work from an IP based in the UK due to copyright laws). If that doesn't work, hit a big bookstore (in the US, Borders usually has the better selection). There are many choices --be sure to look for one that's up-to-date. Of course, if you have to spend $40 or so for the documentation... suddenly it's not the "free" solution it appeared to be." ==================== I already had a printed manual for Open Office, which devoted only 140 pages to Calc, and so provided insufficient detail, in my view. I concluded that the detailed Calc manual I was looking for didn't exist. Frank reiterated- | The problem, George, is that there are in fact a great many of these books available. There "may" be a monolithic, tell-it-all (and expensive) manual among them, but is that really what you're looking for? ================== Yes it is. And searching in a similar way to that suggested by Frank, I have not found one that deals with a recent version of Calc (mine came with Open Office 2.0, 2 or 3 years ago) in any more detail that the 140 pages provided in the book by Perry that I referred to. I am not looking for another single volume attempting (and failing) to cover all aspects of Open Office. If Frank can show my where my search is going wrong, or even better, discover details of just one of the "great many of these books available", that meets my requirement, I would be grateful. ===================== I had mentioned one of the problems I had come across- "But (for example) if you try using a spreadsheet to do any sort of recursion or accumulation, you soon find there are traps set to avoid "circular references". To which Frank replied- "Yes, circular references are bad." I disagree. Circular references, in which a cell tries to calculate a result that depends on its previous value, are not in themselves "bad". Sometimes they are necessary. But you have to find a way to stop the automatic recalculation, usually enabled "by default", that would otherwise resuilt in an endless loop. And how to do that is a matter that tends to be deeply hidden in the works, and in the documentation. "Maybe you could spell out what it is you're trying to do? There might be a simple solution, and it is apparent that there are plenty of people on NavList who can help. " It was just an example of a trouble I've had. That job was successfully completed ages ago, using Excel, because I could discover how, from the Excel manual. I've little doubt it could have been done using Calc instead, if only I could have found out how. Now, I would probably do it using VBA instead. George. contact George Huxtable, at george@hux.me.uk or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---