Hidden Treasures in OpenOffice 2.0's Chart Tool 188
Jane Walker writes "Take a tour of the multi-layered charting tools of OpenOffice 2.0's Charting Wizard, as you learn to create, edit and master the art of making a polished chart." From the article: "The chart features in OpenOffice are like a mystery-lover's dream vacation: a huge, mysterious old house with lots of long halls, secret bookcases, dark closets and creaky doors that, when you peer behind them, reveal wonderful secrets."
Yarrrr! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yarrrr! (Score:2)
It's a very vivid image, too - and I *really* would like to know exactly where it comes from, because it sure is weird.
Re:Yarrrr! (Score:3, Funny)
Some of those water world levels had you swimming down to find treasure chests that'd open up with a nice creak. Had giant clams too
ash
Re:Yarrrr! (Score:2)
Personally, I think it may have been a cartoon or maybe a children's book or even a movie or so that I saw when I was young, but I have no idea which it may have been. Oh well.
Re:Yarrrr! (Score:2)
Re:Yarrrr! (Score:2)
Re:Yarrrr! (Score:2)
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Informative)
Hidden Treasures? (Score:5, Insightful)
"mystery-lover's dream vacation"?
"huge, mysterious old house with lots of long halls, secret bookcases, dark closets and creaky doors that, when you peer behind them, reveal wonderful secrets"?
Here's a hint: if you're trying to write a positive review of software, try not to use analogies that indicate that the UI is arcane and unintuitive!
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:2)
Hint #2: This is also an average consumer's worst nightmare.
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:5, Insightful)
More importantly, don't make normal old features (available in every other data charting software) out to be something more than they are. I found the article to be nothing but boring and sensationalist.
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:2)
OpenOffice's charting functionality just doesn't have that much stuff that's 'hidden' -- unless you're completely unfamiliar with Excel's charting tools which work almost exactly the same.
God forbid this was an Microsoft Office review (Score:2, Insightful)
"At least it's getting slap on the wrist I suppose."
Anyway, I don't mind this review
Re:God forbid this was an Microsoft Office review (Score:2)
There's no way in hell spin like this would be tolerated on slashdot.
Bullshit. The only thing even possibly biased in the entire review is the one paragraph "teaser" at the beginning designed to get the reader in. And it's not even biased, it's just making an odd comparison with something completely unrelated.
Anyway, I don't mind this review .. but would like to see reviews of Microsoft products well tolerated on here in a balanced manner.
When M$ tolerates balanced reviews on their own website the
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:2, Informative)
Focus on the facts (Score:2)
If I wanted to read poetic drivvel, I would not try to find it on /.!
Actually ... (Score:2)
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:2)
Either that or you badly need a reality check.
Re:Hidden Treasures? (Score:2)
Point a finger publicly and see the "response" you get.
Predictable responses:
1. 50% patriots in slashdot would tear you up and the mods would mod you so low that you would be invisible.
2. 50% would agree with your conspiracy theory and point out Area-51 and moon landings as proof.
3. The rest (yeah delibrately) would laugh silently while they map your (and others) IP address to real world address and send out Erasers-in-reverse to e
Secret bookcases? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Secret bookcases? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Secret bookcases? (Score:4, Insightful)
Some things by their nature are always going to at least somewhat complicated if they give you any amount of control over the data layout and graphical design. Charting being one of them.
The reason has little to do with the software but rather with the fact that many of the decisions to be made are arbitrary. There's no one best way of doing it, and depending on what you happen to be doing in particular (the field, existing standards, your audience, your data set) you may have very different rankings on what would be "better" ways of laying things out or what to display and how.
For 19.95 A LIMITED TIME! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:For 19.95 A LIMITED TIME! (Score:5, Funny)
BITCH!
Now you can say you've been physically assaulted by an infomercial too
Sorry for slapping you dude.
Re:For 19.95 A LIMITED TIME! (Score:2)
~ $ USE="binfilter java mozilla xml2" ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge openoffice
Re:For 19.95 A LIMITED TIME! (Score:2)
Re:For 19.95 A LIMITED TIME! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:For 19.95 A LIMITED TIME! (Score:2)
I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, they perfectly emulate Microsoft Excel charts: you get to click around with the mouse, hoping you'll hit the magic spot to get the context menu for the attribute you want. "Ok, X-axis. Last time it I clicked here and then here. I mean here, wait over here." There's not even a damned menu that shows all the options.
Whereas, with gnuplot I get no GUI but reproducible results from a simple text file. With gnuplot, I can set the colors, I can set the output size, I can specify the output format. No magic, no "secret bookcases." And I can pipe the data from other processes.
gnuplot wins for anything serious.
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:5, Insightful)
However, despite how bad Excel's graph capabilities are, you may be interested to know that there is a better way to select and modify graph items. Instead of right-clicking madly, open up the "Chart" toolbar (right-click on the toolbar near the top and make the "Chart" one visible). When you select a graph, the toolbar will list all the items ("Data series 1", "Data series 2", "x-axis", etc.). You can now pick the one you want and open its properties quickly. This allows you to "get" the item you want.
That having been said, it's a frustrating experience. There is no good way, for instance, to have proper-looking scientific/exponential notation on a graph in either Excel or OO.o calc. These are the types of things that I think OO.o could really be *ahead* of MS Office... It wouldn't take much programming (compared to what has already been done), and it would make OO.o immediately more useful than MS Office for certain tasks.
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:2)
Three words: open document format.
Actually, let me make that six: open document format in plain text
There's an API for it for C++, Java, and python. All your moves can be documented.
I believe that there are also several other APIs in other languages that write directly to the docs.
Of course, given the fact that it's all in XML, it wouldn't be so bad to do something simple,
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:5, Informative)
R in PostgreSQL (Score:2)
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:2)
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:2, Interesting)
http://labplot.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
http://soft.proindependent.com/qtiplot.html [proindependent.com]
http://scigraphica.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
These are typically better than oocalc for more sophisticated analysis (labplot uses the very powerful GNU Scientific libs [gnu.org] as backends). Also, better 3-D graphics using the qwt libraries [sourceforge.net].
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:2)
Why don't you document what you need in the OpenOffice Issuezilla? [openoffice.org]
Re:I don't like haunted house interfaces (Score:2)
Let the flamefest begin!
But can it compete with MS-Office!? (Score:5, Funny)
Slow news day (Score:4, Funny)
I'm scared. (Score:5, Funny)
Some more fun with OpenOffice.org (Score:5, Informative)
=Game("StarWars")
Enjoy!
(Thanks to ChrisWhite on IRC a few months ago for this tidbit...)
Re:Some more fun with OpenOffice.org (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Some more fun with OpenOffice.org (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, thanks ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh, thanks ... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Oh, thanks ... (Score:2)
SON OF A BITCH! (Score:4, Interesting)
Grow up, folks. Stupid stunts like this hurt far more than they help. From now on, whenever people bitch about how slow OOo is, MS fanboys will have legitimate reasons to point and laugh. For that matter, I probably will too. Is it slow because it's complex and powerful, or slow because there are 300 other Easter eggs hiding out in there?
Seriously, yank this crap out and forget it never existed.
Usability, is that you? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Usability, is that you? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is an generic problem with open source GUI programs. Some features are reached through menus, some through toolbars, and some by right clicking. The interface tends to be determined more by who added the feature than by coherent design.
The original "Macintosh User Interface Guidelines" are still a good read. You may disagree with some of them, but if you have no idea what they are, you shouldn't be designing interfaces.
Re:Usability, is that you? (Score:2)
Um, OpenOffice has a very long history as being a commercial, closed source program (Star Office). It has changed since its Open Source release, yes, but not that much so that you wouldn't feel at home. And I bet people wouldn't bash its GUI, if it still were a commercial program.
Oh wait, it is still commercial! [sun.com] I think OOo 2.0 and also Star Office have a nice GUI, which is highly customizable and allows for a lot of efficient keyboard shortcuts. I also think that the changes from 1.x to 2.0 increased u
Re:Usability, is that you? (Score:5, Funny)
>Make chart.
Can't do that now.
>Launch OpenOffice
You are magically transported from the chair, though the monitor, to the other side, a huge, mysterious old house with lots of long halls, secret bookcases, dark closets and creaky doors. It is getting very dark. You could be eaten by a grue.
>Light lantern. Make chart.
Re:Usability, is that you? (Score:3, Funny)
Don't you mean GOTO the lab and enter the code?
Re:Usability, is that you? (Score:2)
Made unusable by design (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm trying to type and the the blasted thing is auto indenting, auto fixing, auto guessing my words and generally pissing me off. And finding those and more aggrivating options to turn off, is akin to battling library version conflicts while compiling in linux.
Re:Made unusable by design (Score:3, Funny)
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Once your past the first few paragraphs... (Score:1)
Once you're past the first few paragraphs it's a typical intro level tutorial. The article does not take you into any undocumented/hidden features, easter eggs, or into some Myst-like labyrinth of sub-menus. A typically written "Getting Started with..." guild for OO.o charts.
I Saw This Movie (Score:5, Funny)
I saw this movie. You're going to die horribly.
/. user, you're going to die a virgin.
And since you're a
Edward Tufte ... (Score:3, Insightful)
would be a good place to start
Re:Edward Tufte ... (Score:3, Insightful)
I was looking for some choie Tufte quotes on the futility of representing data on a low resolution [projection] screen, and I found this: Does PowerPoint make you stupid? [presentations.com], a pretty harsh slam of Tufte's disdain for PowerPoint. For those unfamiliar, Tufte hates PowerPoint the tool. He blames PowerPoint itself in part for the Columbia disaster [edwardtufte.com].
The first article I linked defends PowerPoint on the grounds that in the wrong hands, PowerPoint can make horrible presentations, much like anything in the wrong ha
What are you trying to say? (Score:4, Insightful)
So in other words, you're saying that its user interface is a complete and utter failure?
Re:What are you trying to say? (Score:2)
Who do you think is the target audience of a product called “OpenOffice”?
hehe nice timing (10 years behind post) (Score:2, Interesting)
OMFG! error bars! (Score:2, Informative)
It needs one more room (Score:2, Insightful)
due for a rewrite (Score:5, Interesting)
Some Power OO Charting Tips for Hackers (Score:2)
Re:Some Power OO Charting Tips for Hackers (Score:2)
Its not automatic.
I don't mean to be a sexist, but (Score:3, Interesting)
Somehow when I read that, I kinda figured the article had to be written by a woman. If it was written by a man, it perhaps could have been written like this;
"Some of the chart features in OOo are convoluted and hidden. Some may find it annoying, and others may find it surprisingly enriching."
Re:I don't mean to be a sexist, but (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I don't mean to be a sexist, but (Score:2)
s/some/most/g
unfortunately, they suck (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:unfortunately, they suck (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:unfortunately, they suck (Score:2)
Re:unfortunately, they suck (Score:2)
Make plots in programs designed to make plots (Score:2)
Re:unfortunately, they suck (Score:2)
You Know (Score:3, Insightful)
Calming the ghosts (Score:2)
Try this... (Score:5, Interesting)
Then resize the chart. Eat, grind, churn, overheat.
Head over to GNUPlot. Plots those hundreds of data points in under a second. Thank you.
Re:Try this... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Try this... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Try this... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Try this... (Score:4, Interesting)
Agree completely. My typical data analysis goes something like this: I have several 2D (x&y) data sets. I add more as time passes, creating an abstract time axis. I'd like to able to do something like:
Perhaps that isn't a very clear picture of what I'm doing, but if anyone knows of something that can do such a thing, or a better workflow, please speak up. In the past, I have used octave + gnuplot, but the procedural style of octave is a drag (doesn't auto-update like, say, excel does when something changes), and it's difficult to "save" a data manipulation session (scripts may be written, but transporting them to other data sets may not be so easy). Perhaps the only way to go is to bite the bullet and make scripts... Also, tweaking a plot with gnuplot is a tedious code, compile, run cycle. Saving the parameters of a GUI plot (like excel, kaleidagraph, etc.) for reuse is difficult howerver. Isn't there something that does both?
Ploticus; Grace; matplotlib.... (Score:2)
Scripts aren a good idea (and programs like ploticus may have the autmation you seek down to a tee), but nearly all high-level plotting software which has a nice GUI also has some way of not only templating, but also saving plotting styles. One can even just replace the data in a plot that is alre
Re:Try this... (Score:2)
-???
-Profit!
All this eating and grinding and resizing without any hope of a black box mechanism leading to profit is surely the undoing of that project.
NOW I get it! (Score:2, Funny)
No one told me it was a VIDEO GAME! Now it makes sense! Who sells the official OO.ogre joystick?
Value labels? (Score:3, Informative)
I create a bar chart (showing time to completion for various benchmarks) from a spreadsheet. So far so good. Next I consider: gee, it would sure be great if each bar was labeled with its value. For instance, if a bar has the value 86.51, it should have the text "86.51" floating somewhere in its vicinity. Unfortunately, no option to enable such behavior (which seems as though it would be the expected behavior for most users) seems to exist, so I resort to inserting text over the chart.
I think I'll stick with gnuplot or similar in the future.
Reviews Like This... (Score:2)
No serious business is going to have its employees use OpenOffice when, for less than $400 per desktop, can buy Office and save on employee training, collaboration, and efficiency.
Panic room (Score:2, Insightful)
http://www.reactos.org/archives/public/ros-dev/200 5-March/002423.html [reactos.org]
Grapher, perhaps? (208K download)
http://students.washington.edu/bellc/grapher/viewp ic.php?pic=screenshots/gph0_93/gridlock.gif [washington.edu]
Or Gnumeric? (15M)
http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/images/gnum eric-sample.png [gnome.org]
Many lying astroturfers here - try OO yourself (Score:2, Interesting)
Be warned that many of the comments and FUD here are by lying astroturfers [wikipedia.org]. Probably sock puppets [wikipedia.org] too.
The reality is that this review is a useful introduction to open office chart, and open office chart and open office in general work just fine.
Remember, OO is open source; you can download it any time you like and make your own decision. No need to believe me or the astroturfers.
M$ and other companies have multi-million dollar incentives to pollute forums like slashdot. e.g. M$ makes $40,000,000,000+
Re:Many lying astroturfers here - try OO yourself (Score:2)
Warning: the parent post has been mod'ed down from +4 to +1. Probably by astroturfers who don't like being exposed for the lowlife they are.
---
Marketing talk is not just cheap, it has negative value. Free speech can be compromised just as much by too much noise as too little signal.
Re:Many lying astroturfers here - try OO yourself (Score:2)
And many are not. That's the interesting thing about open forums such as /.. If a turfer says "oo chart can't do X", then there are bound to be a bunch of people who know damn well it can, and will reply that way.
Astroturfers aren't that stupid. Marketers are masters of innuendo and half truths and they use that skill to the max. Most everything they say is a half truth designed to misdirect the reader without actually being falsifiable.
Now, that's not to say that they can't spread general FUD (e.g.
Definitely the weak point in OOo (Score:3, Informative)