If you use the open source Mozilla Thunderbird email client, you’re probably familiar with its powerful address book features: import and export, online status information for your friends, even synchronization. But one thing that’s not so obvious is how to do a mail merge to your address book contacts. Fortunately, where there’s a will — and some source code — there is a way.
By Nathan Willis
If you’re planning your wedding (congratulations!), you might take a look at who is using Twitter to promote their wedding-planning skills. While you probably want to keep your wedding under budget (like using Worldlabel labels to decorate, for mailing and other crafty ideas), you can find someone on Twitter who can help you stay within your financial means — whether or not that budget is big or small. To that end, we’ve gathered the top 25 Twitter users who focus on bridal planning so you don’t have to do the searching. Continue reading
MyPaint is a lightweight, easy-to-use open source painting application that you might not have heard of before. Unlike some of the more mature open source raster-graphics applications (such as Krita or Gimp), MyPaint doesn’t try to do everything: it’s not a photo editor, it doesn’t bother with paths, geometric shapes, text manipulation, or fancy masking options. Instead, it focuses on one and only one use: painting.
By Nathan Willis
“MyPaint’s default interface, which make the canvas prominent and takes up as little space as possible for the tools. You can click on a new brush or a color from the palette with the pen stylus.”
MyPaint is built around use with pressure-sensitive graphics tablets, and puts natural-media-simulation first. There is only one “tool” per se, the paintbrush with which you draw directly onto the image. However, you can choose from dozens of different profiles with which to use that brush, simulating everything from charcoal to pencil, to ink to watercolor. Each has a different behavior, including the way it responds to pressure, speed, changes in direction, and interacting with pixels already on the canvas.
Designed file folder labels for Openoffice.org Writer in OpenDocument Format Templates
There are a few types available: Designed Alphabetical, Numerical, Colored Bar and Framed File folder labels for free in Openoffice.org Writer templates. TIP: first print on plain paper and trace of label sheet to make sure everything is aligned. Folder labels are size: 3.4375″ x 0.667″, 30 labels on 8.5 x 11″ US letter size sheets. (Works with Avery® 5066, 5366 and 8366. Worldlabel # WL-200)
Perhaps you want a blank file folder template (.ott) and here your can follow how to make labels with Openoffice.org
The AutoText tool is much more useful than you might think. In fact, it hides a few clever features that can make your word processing more efficient. But let’s start from the very beginning. As you might know, the AutoText tool allows you to insert frequently used text snippets using abbreviations.
BY DMITRI POPOV
Although OpenOffice.org is a competent productivity suite, you can add some nifty features to it using extensions. There are hundreds of nifty extensions available in the official extension repository. Some of them add a feature or two, while others take OpenOffice.org to a whole new level. The AuthorSupportTool (AST) extension belongs to the latter category. AST not just adds some random features to OpenOffice.org Writer, it dramatically enhances the word processor’s functionality, turning it into a powerful tool for working on research papers and complex documents.
By Dmitri Popov
by Nathan Willis
The open source 3-D modeler Blender can perform so many different jobs that it can get a little intimidating. In addition to designing three-dimensional objects, Blender can handle rigging, character animation, kinematics, video editing, video game design, and in fact almost the entire tool chain required to produce a 3-D movie. Fortunately, if you have more modest goals in mind — say, simply creating a 3-D logo, Blender can do the job without forcing you through the entire learning curve … if you know where to look for help.
“The Blender user interface; even at start-up it can be intimidating to the new user, so it is helpful to run through a tutorial just to familiarize yourself with the tools.”
Office applications like OpenOffice.org can bring out the worst in people. The same people who wouldn’t dream of driving a car without a few lessons will start pounding away in a word processor as though it were a typewriter, ignoring basic features like styles and templates. In the end, they may produce the documents they want, but only with far more effort than is necessary. They might as well be pushing a car instead of turning the ignition key.
Nothing stops you if you really want to format manually, any more than anything prevents you from using the soles of your shoes to slow down a car instead of the brake. OpenOffice.org does nothing to stop you from indenting each new paragraph in Writer or setting each number format in a Calc cell on its own. For small, unusual documents, manual formatting may even be quicker.
By Bruce Byfield
For your personal use only
Your free fillable Valentine’s correspondence set is here and ready for you to use immediately: a card, envelope round label (WL-350) seal and a wrap-around envelope label (WL-7000).
Joan Vieweger, Co-Founder of Choclatique…chocolates out of the box!, provided us with some beautiful images to show how she uses Worldlabel labels for her merchandise. After you take a look at this packaging, you might remember that Valentine’s Day is just SIX DAYS away! Before you get caught short, you might visit Choclatique. They were Voted “Most Gifted Chocolatier” by the International Chocolate Salon last year!