Open Office Basic: An Introduction

This is not a book about using the programs contained in the Open Office suite. It is, instead, a manual for using Open Office Basic, one of the macro programs available when you download the free Open Office software. If you aren't familiar with macro programming, or if you haven't any experience at all in programming, this book--as the other reviewers attest--will do nothing but confuse you. If you want help with the word processing, spreadsheets, databases, or the presentation program contained within Open Office, your best bet, really, is to use the help files that come with the suite. They are as good as any I've ever seen, and it's easy to copy and paste the examples from their help files into your macro modules and make small modifications to them. Also, Wikipedia has a lot of help files for Open Office, which is not surprising since the community of folks who created Wikipedia are the same folks, it seems, who created the Open Office Suite software.Open Office Basic isn't the only macro programming or scripting language available to you in Open Office. Java, for one, takes only a simple download from the Apache website to be added to the suite (see the help file). If you already know Visual Basic for Applications or you have some other experience in any kind of software programming, you won't be confused by what this book covers; however, you will find many things written in the book to be inaccurate. The sample "load dialog" example given in the book, for instance, doesn't work, but the example I copied from the help file ran on the first try. The solution for making use of what you can in the book is to always compare the book's examples with the macro and programming chapter in the Open Office help file. Why bother with the book then? Good question. The book's copyright is 2012, and I believe there have been many releases of the software since that date, accounting, no doubt, for the discrepancies.It isn't an expensive book, and I, unfortunately, am of the generation that wants to hold a book in my hands while I'm learning a new program. Maybe you're lucky and you don't need the tactile reassurance. If so, don't waste your money on this book. It is very, very bare bones. However, it is nice to have easy and quick access to variable naming rules and scoping information and other common programming issues without having to wade through the help files to find it.One last thing, you probably should be comfortable with object oriented programming in order to understand this book.And one more last, last thing. I find using the macro recorder the best way to see how the macro language is structured. If I had it to do over, I'd probably use the recorded and the help file and bypass this book.Open Office is a great program which I have used for several years without problems and without missing the expensive Microsoft Office alternative. I hope I might have cleared up some of the confusion the other reviewers have had about this book. It's poorly bound, and I'm sure the pages will be falling out of it in short order. Well, that's modern life I suppose. It's essentially a Kindle book printed in Kentucky.

Great book to learn the Basic language. The author also includes difference between a Basic and VBA. It is a good book.

BOOK IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT IS WAS, IT WAS RETURNED

You have to be a computer whiz to understand this.

No docs on the inside operation of the program.

I didn't realize this particular book was for computer programming Basic, not basics of Open Office. I suppose it is useful but not for my needs.

I was looking for a "how to" book, not a book on computer programming. It was of no use to me. I gave it away to charity, hoping someone else could use it.

I thought it was a book on the basics of Open Office and not on the programing language Open Office Basic

If this was a basic introduction then the mind boggles what a more comprehensive guide would have been. My feelings are that one would have to have a professorship to understand any of it.It was my own stupidity in not buying the How to Use open Office Writer 3.3 by Kerie Hinchliffe which has suited my needs.

Perfect as quick reference manual and for all experienced software developers, who want to get an entry point to OO-Basic. But not suitable for people who want to learn OO-Basis and have no glue of software development at all - for these people the intoduction is too short.