Sun StarOffice 5.1 Fast & Easy [Paperback]

Brian Proffitt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0761524479 | ISBN-13: 978-0761524472 | Publication Date: December 8, 1999 | Edition: 1

Sun StarOffice is the highly acclaimed, freeware office suite for the popular Linux operating system. With Sun StarOffice 5.1 Fast & Easy, you get task-oriented, step-by-step instructions for using the word processing, spreadsheet, graphic design, presentation, database, and event planning software. This highly visual guide provides you with straightforward instruction to get up to speed quickly.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brian Proffitt is a professional author and Linux computer consultant. His is the author of "Install, Configure, and Customize Red Hat Linux 7" and "XHTML Fast & Easy Web Development" from Premier Press. Brian has developed more than 50 computer books and has provided technical editing for dozens more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (December 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761524479
• ISBN-13: 978-0761524472
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,368,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be productive with StarOffice 5.1, "Fast & Easy"., March 31, 2000

By 

Chris Montalbano (Birmingham, AL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sun StarOffice 5.1 Fast & Easy (Paperback)

Like the title suggests, "Fast & Easy". This a great manual for starting out with Sun's StarOffice 5.1. It is an illustrated manual that guides you through every monule of StarOffice 5.1 by using easy to understand examples. It's like using an illustrated tutorial. You learn how to work with and customize the desktop. There is excelent coverage of using and integrateing StarWriter, StarCalc, StarBase, StarImpress, StarDraw, StarMail, StarDiscussion & StarSchedule. I never new StarOffice could do so much till I got this book. If you are new to Linux and you want to get to know what you really have available to you on the production side of your office, get this book and learn how to use StarOffice.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars As limited and simplistic as the Windows version, November 13, 2000

By 

Jim Jacobson (Torrance, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sun StarOffice 5.1 Fast & Easy (Paperback)

I gave Brian another chance, hoping the Linux version of his book would be techier, somehow. But it's still the same simplistic (as opposed to simplified) approach.

For example, I couldn't find anything on how to set up printing in the Linux/Solaris window. (Printing is fairly important to me.) This extremely complex window isn't covered anywhere; I had to blunder through on my own to figure out how to do duplex printing and to figure out all the printing options.

"Linux" isn't anywhere in the index, even.

Yes, there are nice pictures everywhere, and what it covers it covers nicely. But as with the Windows book, this book mostly documents the things you could figure out on your own. It seems to have taken the approach of "Leave out all the hard stuff." Leaving the hard features out of the book doesn't mean you won't encounter them (late at night, before a deadline) in StarOffice.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the beginning StarOffice user..., July 10, 2000

By 

Christopher Cooper - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sun StarOffice 5.1 Fast & Easy (Paperback)

This is an excellent resource for the person who is new to the StarOffice Suite. This book provides excellent writing and illustrations to demonstrate the basic principles of using StarOffice 5.1

The book covers all of the basic techniques of using: StarWriter (Word Processing), StarCalc (Spreadsheet), StarBase (Database), StarImpress (Presentation), StarDraw (Graphic Design), StarMail & StarDiscussion (Mail and News Reader), and the StarSchedule (Scheduler).

StarOffice 5.1 software runs native on the all-major operating systems and this book's topics cover ideas that can be applied across the operating system board. What works on StarOffice for Linux will probably work for StarOffice for Windows - there is very little difference between the specific OS versions. You need not buy a separate book for each OS you run.

This may not be the best StarOffice book out there - but it is perfect for the new user and is probably the best new user guide. Unlike other new user guides - the material is not written for `Idiots' or `Dummies.' It is written by professionals for professionals and doesn't have jokes on every other page, but what it does have that other books do not are colorful tutorials - which almost guarantee the user success.

I recently loaded up StarOffice 5.2 and this book will still be useful for anyone who uses this for the upgraded version. It probably won't be necessary to buy a new book with the new version.

For advance users of StarOffice or similar Office Suites, or the user who needs more then a basic knowledge of StarOffice - this book will provide very little for you. There are several other books out there that cover StarOffice, macros and "tweaking" in greater detail.