{"id":6803,"date":"2024-12-01T01:18:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T01:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/?p=6803"},"modified":"2024-12-01T01:18:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T01:18:44","slug":"desktop-linux-unveiled-chapter-7-desktop-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/12\/01\/desktop-linux-unveiled-chapter-7-desktop-applications\/","title":{"rendered":"Desktop Linux: Unveiled Chapter 7: Desktop applications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Previous chapter:<\/strong> Desktop Linux: Unveiled Chapter 6: Upgrading the Operating System<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using your computer of course requires some software beyond the base operating system; fortunately, most desktop linux distributions not only have repositories of freely installable software, often more common software as decided by the distro’s maintainers are pre-installed on the system at the same time as system installation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post is concentrating on the popular office suite LibreOffice which includes a drawing program, a word processor, a spreadsheet application, and a database application. While this post will show a few functions of each part, it is in no way intended to be a tutorial, but rather a cursory demonstration of each, leaving the exploration of each to you, the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post I occasionally refer to operating systems beyond Linux. Also, contrary to my usual habit of not editorializing in this series, I offer the following: Many Linux software suites are largely, although importantly, not completely compatible with other known equivalents on other systems. They will often be able to open and edit files created by them; however, the compatibility and drop-in replacement value of each piece of software for the other (regardless of in which order) is often variable, sometimes quite substantially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that occasionally, some screenshots were taken at different times for the sake of completeness, but presented in the order seen here, for the sake of the narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinning Apps to the Dock:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start from the Activities (hot corner in the upper left hand corner (the horizontal bar; either just quickly move the mouse there, or if necessary, click on the the horizontal bar):<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Activites screen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I searched for “Lib” which brought up three of LibreOffice’s apps: Writer, Calc, and Impress, and I right clicked each one …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Searching for installed LibreOffice components<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… each of which I pinned to the dock at the bottom, one at a time:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Pinning icons to the dock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Templates:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note:<\/strong> In this post, the use of existing document templates found on the internet will be generously relied upon in order to demonstrate in a cursory fashion some of the resources available to desktop users — both of free software packages and other systems as well — as well as to simplify the mounting and development of the narrative using said existing documents. The site www.freedesktop.org, by happenstance, is frequently used, as is the templates section of www.libreoffice.org. Of note, especially on the former site, there are a number of templates which are in languages other than English, and some which have been on the site for several years, using older formats. Hopefully, the language barriers as the cases may be will not be too difficult to surmount given online translation services, while the older file formats are normally seamlessly supported by current software suites, with the ability to save in modern formats.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Users are of course free to create documents from scratch as they would on any system.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to the activities screen, choose the Firefox icon (orange and blue, on the left at the bottom):<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Firefox launched<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the address bar, enter the address of a search engine, such as www.duckduckgo.com:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Navigating to a search engine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Search for templates. In this case, I specifically asked for templates appropriate for LibreOffice, which brought me to www.opendesktop.org:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Navigating to opendesktop.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the search bar, I searched for LibreOffice, which gave me the following options:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Searching for LibreOffice templates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and chose for ODF Text Templates (for word processessing):<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sorting for odf files<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Sorting for odf files<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Browsing through the templates, I chose a CV template, for “Tux the Penguin — Brand Ambassador and Mascot”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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CV template chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… which I downloaded:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Downloading the CV template<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the activities screen, I opened up the Files application:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Files program launched<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Drawing:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

… and this is where I learned that the downloaded CV template was not what it seemed. \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like other popular desktops, Fedora Linux has several fully functional and fully featured drawing software. One such piece is LibreOffice Draw, which functions similarly to Microsoft Visio, allowing for some basic-to-not-so basic graphical manipulations, editing, basic draughting, and inserting texts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Files program just opened, I navigated to the Downloads directory, where the CV was located after downloading, and despite having believed that the CV I had downloaded was a text document, the file format in fact proved to be a drawing format:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Downloads directory inspected<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I double-clicked on the CV file, which, since LibreOffice Draw isn’t always a part of a Fedora base installation, launched the software store, and having found LibreOffice Draw in the Fedora repositories, offered to install it, which I accepted:<\/p>\n\n\n

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CV file double-clicked, launching the software store in order to install required software<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once LibreOffice Draw had been installed, I asked that it be launched:<\/p>\n\n\n

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LibreOffice Draw installed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After closing the offer to see the “What’s New” notes, I went to the File dropdown menu to open the file:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Opening the CV template<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and navigated over to the Downloads directory, where the CV was located.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Navigating to the downloads directory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I clicked on the CV file to open it:<\/p>\n\n\n

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CV file opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In Draw — depending on the nature of the input file — various existing texts can be modified, as well as many basic-to-not-so-basic graphical manipulations. In the case of this file, the file was designed such that the text could be modified:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Editing the text of the CV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To manipulate images, the picture of Tux (the penguin) was double-clicked to select it, the right mouse button was clicked, and the “Rotate or Flip” option was selected:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Manipulating the penguin image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and I chose to flip the picture of Tux upside-down:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Penguin image flipped upside down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some modestly — or more complex — drawings, including multimedia documents such as the CV shown above, can be created and \/ or modified, which I leave to the reader to explore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word Processor:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like other popular desktops, Fedora Linux has several fully functional and fully featured word processing software suites. One of the more popular such pieces is LibreOffice Writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I returned to the opendesktop.org website, and chose a business card template to open in a word processor — LibreOffice Writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I navigated to find a business card template:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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opendesktop.org template for business cards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and downloaded the file:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Business card template downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Similar to how the CV above was opened, the business card template was opened, without having to go through the installation of LibreOffice Writer:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Business card template opened in LibreOffice Writer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The text of the first card was changed to a “Desktop Linux: Revealed” theme:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Name and contact details on first card changed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The modifications were also saved:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Saving modified business card file<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
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Saving modified business card file<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Returning to the opendesktop.org templates, I chose the “Organica Business Forms” to download:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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More Writer templates viewed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The page for the Organica Business Forms was opened:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Business Forms template page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and the file downloaded:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Downloading template<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
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Template downloaded and directory opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The business forms were compressed in the .tar format, analogous to .zip files:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Directory with downloaded file, which was double clicked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The archive was double-clicked, revealing a directory contained within:<\/p>\n\n\n

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.tar file double clicked, opening up the archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The directory was double-clicked, revealing several templates: Business cards (different from above), a fax cover sheet, four different kinds and sizes of labels, an invoice, and a letter:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Various files in archive revealed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Going back to Writer, the letter file was double-clicked, which again opened the file in LibreOffice Writer:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Letter file opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A space was added between two paragraphs:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Spaced added between paragraphs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “Table” drop down menu was opened:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Table drop-down menu opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and the “Insert Table” option was chosen:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Insert Table option chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… which opened up a window to determine some settings for the table to be inserted:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Window opened to set table characteristics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A table with five columns and five rows was selected:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Table settings changed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The table was selected, and the right mouse button was clicked, revealing a contextual menu:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Contextual menu opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The option “Table Properties” was selected, bringing up a window:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Table properties window opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The button for all lines under “Line Arrangement” was chosen in the Borders tab, in order to insert borders around all the cells of the table:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Table borders changed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “Ok” button was pressed, returning me to the document, showing now all the cells of the table with borders:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Table added to letter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Text was added to a cell in the upper left hand corner (“Linux Desktop”):<\/p>\n\n\n

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Text added to table cells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A number of other cells were filled in:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Text added to table cells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “File” drop down menu was opened:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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File menu opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and the file was saved:<\/p>\n\n\n

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File saved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As with the previous section, I leave it to the reader to further explore LibreOffice Writer to see the various options in the various menus, and the various kinds of text documents that can be created. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spreadsheets:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like other popular desktops, Fedora Linux has several fully functional and fully featured spreadsheet software. One of the most popular such pieces is LibreOffice Calc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After saving the business cards, I returned to the freedesktop.org website, browsing the spreadsheet templates:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
opendesktop.org page sorting for spreadsheets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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opendesktop.org page sorting for spreadsheets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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opendesktop.org page sorting for spreadsheets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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opendesktop.org page sorting for spreadsheets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose the Amortization Schedule:<\/p>\n\n\n

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opendesktop.org page with amortization schedule<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The amortization Schedule was downloaded:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Amortization schedule downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
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Amortization schedule downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Similarly to previous files, the Amortization Schedule was opened (file double clicked in the file download directory).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Amortization schedule opened in LibreOffice Calc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Several of the balance figures was selected, revealing how the value us calculated in the formula bar:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Amortization schedule, cell calculation revealed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Amortization schedule, cell calculation revealed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Amortization schedule, cell calculation revealed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose to modify the table, by adding a value of 1000 in the “Extra Principle Payment”, to change the values of “New Balance” …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Value changed to 1000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and then I changed the value to 500 to see how it affected the values of “New Balance”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again I leave it to the reader to further explore mounting spreadsheets of their own using their own data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slide Shows \/ Presentations<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the opendesktop.org collection of templates, I chose a slide show template to download:<\/p>\n\n\n

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opendesktop.org page sorting for a presentation template<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose a template to download …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Presentation template downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and downloaded it:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Presentation template downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Presentation template downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Again through the files directory, I double-clicked on the downloaded file:<\/p>\n\n\n

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File in download directory double clicked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… which opened up the file in LibreOffice Impress:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Presentation opened in LibreOffice Impress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I began editing the title line — in the process, using the wrong branding for this series!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Text modified<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The text colour, white, didn’t have enough contrast for my taste, so I selected the text …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Text colour modified<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and went into the options area on the right to by clicking on the letter “A” with a red underline, to change the font colour:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Text colour changed through menu icons on the right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The font colour was changed to a greenish-blue colour:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Text colour changed to a greenish-blue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
\"\"Text colour changed to a greenish-blue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Other text was changed and added:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Text added below title<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I changed to the second page, and similarly started to change the text:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Navigating to second page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Text can be changed as per your needs, as well as pages added through copy \/ paste or other wizards available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drop-down file menu was chosen, so that I could save the file:<\/p>\n\n\n

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File drop down menu to save the file<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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File saved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once the file was saved, I opened up the drop-down file menu again, and chose “Export As” so that I could export the file as a PDF. (Editorial note<\/strong>: As mentioned earlier, while there is a good amount of compatibility between LibreOffice and other office suites, it can be disappointingly incomplete, which I have particularly seen and experienced with — but not only — slide shows. For more of a discussion of such from the perspective of the usefulness of PDFs, please see my post on the subject<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The file drop-down menu was clicked again, and the option “Export As” was clicked:<\/p>\n\n\n

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File menu opened to export the file as a PDF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Exporting to PDFs can be rather easy and direct, or, as I am going to show a little bit here, allows for a large amount of choices …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Options window for PDF options<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… including protecting PDFs with passwords for opening:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tab with options for password setting for opening PDFs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Setting passwords for PDFs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Passwords were set for both opening as well as for “permission” which means to allow editing of the PDF (see my post on the subject<\/a>), and the slide show was exported as a PDF:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Setting passwords for PDFs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and the OK button was clicked:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Presentation exported to PDF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As usual, I leave to the reader to explore further. Also, within LibreOffice itself it has a wizard to help the user create a number of presentations with various backgrounds and layouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Database:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LibreOffice also includes a database module, called “Base”, which is similar to Microsoft Access; it is essentially a front end manager — a gui interface — for the actual database software behind it that it leverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I show a properly mounted database, I will show some screenshots about how to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting from the home screen, the activities corner (hot corner) in the upper left was clicked:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Desktop screen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the Activies screen, “libreoffice base” was typed into the search bar, and the option to install LibreOffice Base, which is not always installed in a base install, was offered:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Activities screen accessed, and “libreoffice base” searched for; the option to install Base was offered<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The option was double-clicked, which brought up the “software store” with the choice of LibreOffice Base …<\/p>\n\n\n

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Software store opened to allow for installation of Base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I double-clicked on the option, bringing up the information page on the package and the offer to install it:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Description page for Base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I clicked the “Install” button:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Base installing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once LibreOffice Base was installed, an “Open” button presented itself:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Base opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “Open” button was clicked, lauching LibreOffice:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Base opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A wizard came up to select a database:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wizard opened to allow choice to launch Base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The presented option was accepted, and the “Next>” button was clicked, bringing up a “Save and proceed” window:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Save and proceed window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “Finish” button was clicked, opening a Save window:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Finish button clicked, allowing for the creation of a database<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once that was done, the following screen came up, in order to start creating a database:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Initial screen for creating a database<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Note that from this point on, I am showing some very basic things, and I will soon recommend a tutorial, which will better show how to use the software than I could ever present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I clicked on the “Table” icon, which brought up a Table Wizard:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Table Wizard launched<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose the “Personal” category, on the premise — in the context of this post, anyway which presumes that many readers may be seeking to use linux at home and not just at the office, and that a database might not as easily appear to be a personal piece of software.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Personal category chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I pulled down the suggested list of topics: <\/p>\n\n\n

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Suggested list of topics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and chose “Recipes” for what I presume are obvious reasons — we all eat, and presumably many people have a personal collection of varying sizes (here’s my collection of recipes<\/a>, incidentally NOT in a database format, at https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/food<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Recipe option chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some field names were suggested:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Field names suggested<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I clicked on “Name”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Name selected<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… which moved it over to the column on the right:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Name field moved to right window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I also chose other sample tables:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Ingredients field chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Utensils field chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
Instructions field chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
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Description field chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… at which point, I clicked on the “Finish” button, leading to the following screen:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Finish button clicked, leading to a data entry page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I started entering data:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Data entered<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose to save my changes:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Database saved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At this point, I am going to direct you to a far better tutorial than I could ever present, even in the most cursory of fashions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of the writing of this post, a rather complete tutorial on using Base can be found at thefrugalcomputerguy.com\/seriespg.php?ser=15\/<\/a> (no doubt amongst countless other similarly excellent resources):<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
TheFrugalComputerGuy.com LibreOffice Base tutorial page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
TheFrugalComputerGuy.com LibreOffice Base tutorial page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Although I think it best to leave the tutorial to TheFrugalComputerGuy, I will show a small database in action:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting again at the desktop screen:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Desktop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The activities screen was accessed through the upper left hand hot corner with the mouse:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Activities screen with the dock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Firefox icon (orange, on the left on the dock at the bottom) was clicked:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Firefox web browser launched<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I went to my favourite search engine, duckduckgo.com:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Search engine opened (in this case www.duckduckgo.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and I searched for “libreoffice base templates”:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Searching for Base templates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
Searching for Base templates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose the “Templates & Extensions” link, the second link above, at the LibreOffice.org site itself:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Templates at libreoffice.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I clicked on the green “plus” sign to the right of “Boost your creativity with templates”:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Template link clicked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… which led to the following page:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Templates page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the left, there are a number of filters under “Add tag filters:”, and clicked on “Base”, bringing up the following page:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Page with templates for Base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I chose the “MyRecipes” template for LibreOffice Base:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Page for a recipes database<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I scrolled down to quickly assess the files, finding them eminently interesting for the task at hand:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Template description<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The download button was clicked, and the file downloaded:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Template downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The files program was opened, and the newly downloaded file was highlighted:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Downloads directory opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The .zip file was double-clicked, creating a directory of the files (ok I accidentally created the directory three times!)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
.zip archive opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One of the directories was double-clicked and opened:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Archive consulted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “ReadMe.txt” file was double-clicked and opened:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
readme file consulted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The .odt file was opened as well:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Instructions and general description file checked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “MyRecipes1.jpg” file was double-clicked, opening a screenshot:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Screenshot of database operating consulted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The FoodPix directory was opened, showing pictures of the recipes in the database:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Pictures included in the archive viewed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

From the database’s main directory, the database was opened:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Database opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After looking about, the “UpdateRecipes” option was selected:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
One of the options selected<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Which opened up one of the recipes:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
One of the recipes in the database<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The database author chose to have an active Pantry list with checkable items, no doubt based at least partly on their recipes; by having it dynamic, when asked to create purchasing lists, the database can exclude pantry items already on hand:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Pantry list<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Said shopping lists can be generated from the “1MainMenuSwitchboard” option:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Main menu switchboard created by the author to navigate through their recipes and other functions they programmed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Given that the “switchboard” is based on macros, the Tools pull down menu was opened::<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Tools menu opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and the “Options” option was clicked:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
“Options” option clicked, opening an options window <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Security option was chosen:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Security option chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… and the “Macro Security” button was clicked. The security level was set to low, as per the author’s suggestion:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Macro security options changed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Back to the Switchboard:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Database main menu opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “Mark Recipe List” button was clicked, and I decided to mark three of the recipes:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Recipes chosen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In trying to close the window, a window asked if I wanted to save my changes, to which I clicked “yes”.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Window closed and changes saved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The “Grocery List for Marked Recipes” button was clicked:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Grocery list option chosen from main menu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

… producing a grocery list based on the recipes, which was automatically opened in LibreOffice Writer:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Grocery list created for the selected recipes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The next chapter will look at graphics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previous chapter: Desktop Linux: Unveiled Chapter 6: Upgrading the Operating System Using your computer of course requires some software beyond the base operating system; fortunately, most desktop linux distributions not only have repositories of freely installable software, often more common software as decided by the distro’s maintainers are pre-installed on the system at the same … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Desktop Linux: Unveiled Chapter 7: Desktop applications”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,34,63,109,132,33,148],"tags":[301,302,26,303,62,73,30,24,305,304],"class_list":["post-6803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apps","category-computers","category-fedora-linux","category-free-software","category-libreoffice","category-linux","category-software","tag-base","tag-calc","tag-computers","tag-draw","tag-fedora","tag-libreoffice","tag-linux","tag-pdf","tag-templates","tag-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6803"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7028,"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6803\/revisions\/7028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malak.ca\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}