Rating: 
Summary: Audience?
Review: The book is good. It got my blood pressure up, though, when they spent the first 164 pages telling me how to install, migrate from other office suites, etc. Then finally we got to the OOo instructional material. I think most readers are not getting their very first exposure to OOo with this book. As a free application, most will have poked around in an installation of the free OOo and then decided to buy a book. For that reason, I feel they didn't spend much time thinking about their audience. Ok to start with kudos to the application, but then get to the meat of OOo. Don't waste my time plowing through a bunch of stuff I have already handled with the help fiies of the free download! Notwithstanding the books good content, I feel the authors and publishers deserve a slap to wake them up for the next edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Do not believe the hype
Review: The folks who promote this as a "viable alternative" to Microsoft Office are just like the terrorists in Iraq who refuse to recognize the legimacy of the new Iraqi government and will do anything militant to advance their interests. The truth is (from someone who's evaluated both extensively), Open Office is no Microsoft Office. It has a generally crude interface; its performance is sluggish at times; it has fewer featuers and missing some very useful features that have made millions love MS Office; and, finally, it's not compatible with MS Office documents. In fact, the much-maligned Wordperfect suite (also free if you look around) is much better and more stable. The only good thing about Open Office is it's free, but it's only because Sun wants to use its users as guinea pigs in its grand experiment to exterminate Microsoft, its competitor, just like how al Qaeda is using kiddies to suicide-bomb anyone who's not into their extremist version of Islam.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Book
Review: The OpenOffice.org Resource Kit book is an outstanding reference to the OpenOffice.org suite. We have been using OpenOffice.org at our organization for some months now, but we were not aware of many of the features available. This book is a really first-rate source of information on ALL of the tools that are available in the software.Not only does the book cover the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software, but also the drawing and image editing tool, ODBC database access, the HTML editor, and other less-used features. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Does not include Java 2 Runtime Environment
Review: This book is essential to the productive use of OpenOffice.org 1.0.x. It is well written and includes a copious section detailing all of the programs in the suite. Java can be easily downloaded from Sun's website.
Rating:
Summary: Sheep's bladders and oatmeal, it's all there.
Review: This manual is exhaustive and witty at the same time. Solveig likes to brag that it is so well indexed that it even references sheep's bladders and oatmeal. I checked up on it, and yeah, the book really does talk about those two subjects, as well as, of course, exhaustinvely explaining how to use OOo. Look for references to the Monty Python movie, Search for the Holy Grail. (Hint: what is the air speed of a swallow?).
Rating:
Summary: Sheep's bladders and oatmeal, it's all there.
Review: This manual is exhaustive and witty at the same time. Solveig likes to brag that it is so well indexed that it even references sheep's bladders and oatmeal. I checked up on it, and yeah, the book really does talk about those two subjects, as well as, of course, exhaustinvely explaining how to use OOo. Look for references to the Monty Python movie, Search for the Holy Grail. (Hint: what is the air speed of a swallow?).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Replacement for MS Office
Review: With Microsoft about to make another snatch at your wallet with its release of MS Office 2003, it's more than ever worth knowing that you don't have to succumb, you don't have to shell out the $149-$499 Bill Gates plans to charge you in order to maintain the 76% profit margin he earns on the sale of his software suite. You can, instead, order The OpenOffice.Org 1.0 Resource Kit for $28 and receive a superb office suite, complete with a well-written 1,000-page manual that covers all of the integrated programs. Or, if you have broadband, you can go straight to the web site in the title and download the entire suite for free! I discovered the OpenOffice.org software about a month ago and downloaded it on my office computer. My professional responsibilities call for heavy use of a word processor and light use of a spread sheet. I was able to download, install, and run OpenOffice.org without a hitch and found that these two functions, at least, are superb replacements for the MS Office software I had been using. Since my home computer has only a dial-up line, I ordered The OpenOffice.Org 1.0 Resource Kit for that and again had perfect success loading the suite from the included CD-ROM. I recommend the latter approach, in fact, even if you do have broadband, since the thorough, lucid manual will allow you, in short order, to make fuller use of the software than before. I am myself, for example, making much better use of the OpenOffice.org spread sheet than I ever made of Excel because of the detailed instructions in the manual. The software and the manual have both made a believer of me. OpenOffice.org seems to me the most usable software yet to come out of the "open source" movement (I have hopes for Linux but they haven't yet been fulfilled). I have used OpenOffice.org to open and revise MS Word documents and Excel spread sheets and to save them in both the compact, efficient XML file format and the baggier MS Office format for the use of colleagues. As a private user in a professional setting, I have been completely satisfied with this software and guide. As a result, it gives me great pleasure these days to look at Bill Gates' absurd prices for his now-obsolete product and to know that this is money I never need to give him again. So if you're looking for a complete, full-featured suite of the common office programs, you have a choice: You can spend less than $30 for this book and CD-ROM, or you can spend hundreds for MS Office. My advice: spend the $30, keep the hundreds.
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