I'm beginning to use openoffice, i'm switching from Word (Wndows) to OpenOffice writer (Linux) and i like it! What's great is that it has function to save the file in pdf format. That you can't find in Word.
Though i ran in a rather strange problem. In the object bar there are three icons on the right, triple A. One is for Paragraph Background, one is for highlighting and one is for font color. When i click on Paragraph Background font palette comes up. that's not case for the other two?! nothing happens. nothing comes up, so i can't, kinda use it. though i've been clicking on one icon for a 10-15 seconds and then accidently palette came up. something's unusually wrong.
any ideas to what is that about?txh.

Sounds like a number of things could be going on: Which window manager are you using? I found that Ooo acts totally differently in KDE (at home) than in my preferred wm at work, Afterstep. It may just be something to get used to

Or, it could be a bug. You could upgrade to 2.0...see if that fixes it. If it doesn't, then it's something with your system, or your interface. It may not actually be a problem, too. It may just be something that's different from what you're used to -- maybe the buttons are greyed out and it's hard to see because of your desktop theme?

Joel

wao, incredible! i found out. You would never guess.
But you gave me idea where to start. I have Mandrake10.1 and everything should work. It's just as you said 'It may just be something that's different from what you're used to'. But it's anyway bit unlogical. I found out in the help.
What you need to do is click and hold the mouse button, then the palette appears! It's bit unlogical cuz Paragraph Background doesn't work that way.
Hey, maybe is possible to one day live completely without Win.
I don't hate Mike, it's just that sometimes i fell i'm been cheated.
and i want more freedom, which is possible with linux, windows just tie you up.
I don't know why but when i search Internet on my Mandrake i find everything i need, very useful, when i search on Windows it's half that good!?
So, i'm choosing Lin.

Is there a reason you are still running OpenOffice 1.x instead of OpenOffice 2.x ?
Theres been quite a few nice improvements in the 2.x version over the old 1.x

Just something to think about.

How can i upgrade to 2.x? I never tried upgrading.

Use the package manager on your machine to try and get a Mandrake-specific package. IF this is still an old version, then you can download and install a package from Openoffice.org (the website). That should be the latest version.

The nice thing about packages is that any dependencies are already resolved, however with source you don't need to wait for the maintainers to catch up with the latest versions.

Openoffice.org is great if you like using word processors, spreadsheets etc. However, as always, there are alternatives (Latex, dealing directly with text, etc). I find that Openoffice is such a great imitation that they've even copied the bad stuff in the name of compatibility. There's also Gnome Office, KOffice, etc.

Joel