Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Using and Formatting Logical Functions in Calc

On 06/29/2012 04:10 AM, Andreas Säger wrote:
> Am 29.06.2012 09:04, Tom Davies wrote:
> > Hi :)
> > It makes a lot of sense.  Hopefully the proper LO documentation is 
> > far better than most!  The Pdfs allow you to click on items in the 
> > Table-of-Contents and has other clickable links to help you navigate 
> > to where you want quickly.
> >
> > The built-in help is probably fairly poor right now.  The docs team 
> > needs more people even to get through the proper full guides let 
> > alone important extras like the built-in help or the Faq.  On the 
> > plus side they are really getting through the work and the 3.4.x 
> > guides have been pulled together in an amazingly short  time.
> >
> > They have an excellent team right now even though some of the regular 
> > long-term stars appear to be taking a breather (or are they working 
> > hard behind the scenes?  It's difficult to know)
> >
> > Regards from
> > Tom :)
>
> BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Fanboyism by Tom.
>
> Back on topic:
> Calc is almost identical to Excel and Gnumeric. Point! Conceptually is 
> still similar to any spreadsheet since 1979 (a reference sheet for 
> VisiCalc is still online).
> A function reference for Excel or Gnumeric can help you to work with 
> Calc if you really understand the content and that it does not apply 
> literally.
>
> There is no need to know each and every function in detail. What you 
> need to know _and_understand_ is:
> - Text vs. Number (and vs. Boolean in other applications)
> - Format vs. Value (percent, bool, date/time formatting in particular)
> - Relative vs. absolute reference
> - The lookup functions of all spreadsheets are somewhat special. In 
> the first place they had been designed for something that is not that 
> much required by today's spreadsheet users.
> - The most serious incompatibility between Calc and anything else is 
> the radically awkward string processing which makes it unusable for 
> too many of today's users.

I wonder how much of the current functionality of LO is based upon the 
early days of OOo?  Excel's functionality goes back towards its early 
Office 95/98 days.  Much of it is fixed back then and not totally 
re-designed for today's need.

Yes, there are issues with Calc that need resolving, but OOo/LO could 
not copy MSO's functions "exactly" due to software copyrights.  So the 
designers, in the early days, had to do something different.  We are 
living with that decision today.

Yes, no one can/could know all the details of the included functions.  
MS use to boast how many 100's of new functions we in the newest version 
of Office.  So with Calc, how many 100's of functions or abilities are 
in our resources to do the work we need to do in Calc's spreadsheet?

Yes, there always something in the documentation that needs to be filled 
in.  There are always going to be things you want to do that are not 
explained in a way that helps you.  I have see that for the past 35-40 
years in the tech fields I have dealt with; electronics, computer 
hardware, and computer programming.

Is there a place where users can "drop off" a description on how to do 
something that is not explained in the current documentation? The 
current docs are "guides" and not "how-to" books.  For me, "how-to" 
books are more example driven where there are 100's of examples on how 
to do specific "things".  Then there is the detailed reference books.  
Look at Python books.  You get a basic guide book, a thicker "how-to" 
book, and a thick resource book explaining in detail all the built in 
functions in the various resource libraries.  You cannot expect our doc 
people to create a "guide" that does all three at the same time.

If there are "pages" missing in the documentation or help system, and 
you know what is needed in those missing pages, write it up and offer it 
to the doc people so they do not need to "research it" for themselves.  
IF you created some working routine that explains how some function 
works properly, then summit it as a working example. There has to be a 
place for you to do just that.

I have added to the FAQ wiki page about adding MS fonts to Linux to be 
used in LO.  Where to get the MS core fonts and substitute ones. But 
that is something not everyone would want to do.  So there has to be a 
place to have an example "dropped off" with text explaining how it works 
or the details of the example.

sorry if I seem to be rambling. . . I is in the "wee hours" for me here  
Since I could not sleep, I decided to look at the email lists.

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