[Solved] Formulas

[bmac]

Welcome beginner. What is your question or comment?
Please try to briefly and clearly tell us: What you want, What you tried, and What happened.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually, as I look more closely, I don't see how I can use OOo to do chemistry or other formulas like I can with Math Type for MS Word.
Is there a similar download for OOo?

[thomasjk]

OOo does have a Math(formula) application which is included in the download. See this link http://documentation.openoffice.org/man ... thMath.pdf.

[bmac]

It looks fairly complicated, and, for example, the square root graphic looks weird.

If this is all there is, OK, but I would think there would be a more user friendly mod where I don't have to memorize or look up commands, I have enough memorizing to do with school.

[Dave]

I have enough memorizing to do with school.

School is about learning, and the memorising you'll have to do after you graduate and expect someone to pay you for your talents will make school pale in comparison. You can use MathType along with OpenOffice if you'd prefer. You just have to learn how. I use it this way all the time. It's stand-alone separate, not embedded in the program, so you have to copy/paste ...but so what, if it works? Of course, if you already have Word, why not just use that? As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

David.

[acknak]

Do you have View > Selection turned on?

You still have to deal with the formula as coded text, but at least you have a palette to help you with most things.

[bmac]

Blow it out your hole David.

First off, I've already had one career for eleven years as a firefighter, had to do plenty of memorizing with that. Second, I'm going to school to be a nurse, plenty of memorizing still with that path and, I know, more to come. And, since you want to be personal about it and give me unrequested life advice, my wife is going to medical school and does so much memorizing that I get to do all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc.

My point was that I didn't feel like learning a whole new set of keystrokes when I'm typing out my organic chemistry formulas. With math type I can press a button that delivers, say, a fraction. Pretty handy for that sort of app. And since I've already memorized what a fraction looks like, I'm not sure that I want to take the time to learn to type a_b. It gets worse with stats. I don't even see subscript and superscript.

If you're trying to defend the utility of OO, well, again, thanks but I wouldn't be here if I didn't see the usefulness of open source.

Maybe you should just take it out on your friends.

If you have any.

[Hagar Delest]

Please don't be angry, you just met an old ( ) math teacher who could have his point if the user had been a young undergraduate.

Personally, I do understand you, but I could only because you've given the background afterwards, we could not have guessed it from the beginning.

I've moved the thread to the Math forum BTW, you may find some useful tips inside (see also the tutorial section of the forum). I think that acknak information should suit your need.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

Off-topic: what a hard time for moderators, I don't know if it's the moon or the first anniversary of the forum in few days that is wrecking everybody's hormones but there is something special in the air!

[Dave]

My point was that I didn't feel like learning a whole new set of keystrokes when I'm typing out my organic chemistry formulas. With math type I can press a button that delivers, say, a fraction.

I'll ignore the ignorance ...which I hope you don't carry with you into your new profession. However, I WAS trying to help when I said "You can use MathType along with OpenOffice if you'd prefer." You have nothing new to learn, except how to get your MathType formula into Writer with copy/paste. As I said, I do it all the time, and if you were not so ignorant, I'd have found out just what you needed and helped further. Also, it was sound advice to keep using what you already have; if you can do what you need using Word, then simply use that. As it is, I'm done.

David.

[acknak]

As a moderator, I have to butt in here: Please stop making disrespectful personal comments. It does not accomplish anything except to stir up trouble and distract from moving toward a solution.

We're all trying to help. If you don't appreciate someone's advice, just let it go.

A desire to avoid learning a new skill is not "ignorance". Your opinion is your own, but such personal judgments are not appropriate here.

Further such comments will cause the thread to be locked.

[Dave]

As a moderator, I have to butt in here: Please stop making disrespectful personal comments. It does not accomplish anything except to stir up trouble and distract from moving toward a solution.

We're all trying to help. If you don't appreciate someone's advice, just let it go.

A desire to avoid learning a new skill is not "ignorance". Your opinion is your own, but such personal judgments are not appropriate here.

Further such comments will cause the thread to be locked.

"Ignorance" by definition means simply "Lack of knowledge." It also means a term of endearment toward someone who speaks foul language, as did he.

You chastise me, but not the ignoramous who made such rude comments. If you had really read my reply, and if you were the least bit familiar with MathType, you'd have seen that I was pointing him in the right direction, an intent he chose to misinterpret, and his reply seemed to give you such pleasure. You, on the other hand, gave absolutely no solution whatsoever. They say no good deed goes unpunished. Perhaps I'm better off not trying to help, but by being more like him. So, I paraphrase him: Blow it out your hole, acknack. ...How does it feel to you?

Now, strut your stuff and lock it. I'm done; this forum is no longer a pleasure, and no longer on my list, not locked, just gone.

David.

[Hagar Delest]

Shame on you 3.

What's the point making harsh comments on what we guess at first then escalating and then between power users????

bmac, please understand that both you and David have a specific background and not knowing it led to this situation. You can't help a teacher to have sometimes harsh comments, he just tries to educate (he has been drilled to do that). Just bad luck that it happened to you, not really an undergraduate. Even if you were focused on the first part of his post, he indeed did help you giving you his own way of working.

bmac, perhaps some kind words would improve the situation here.

[acknak]

I guess my "chastisement" came across differently than I meant. I intended it to be a reminder to both of you that derogatory personal comments are not appropriate here. I tried hard not to make my warning personal; apparently I failed, although I still don't understand how.

It's as simple as this: once people start making personal comments, the thread is likely to blow up into a destructive and distracting waste of everybody's time. Such comments are against not only our guidelines, but against the site Terms of Use. As such, there would be justification for simply banning from the site anyone who make such derogatory comments. Does that seem like a good solution?

As moderator, I feel a responsibility to do something. I thought that a warning would be sufficient, and preferable to outright locking the thread, but either it came across wrong, or maybe I'm the only one who sees a problem here.

What would you propose a moderator should do when a thread begins to veer off track?

At what point is it necessary to step in and do something--when smoke appears, or when the flames have destroyed the building?

[Hagar Delest]

See my thread in the Admin forum.

It went off the track because both bmac and Dave have made suppositions about each others. I also failed in trying to make them laugh about it: 2 people with 2 very different backgrounds meeting but just seeing a part of the picture. I agree that according to the first OP post, we could not think who he really was. And he couldn't know who Dave is. Once the presentations have been done, then OK, no need put some oil on the fire (direct translation of a French saying), just let the smoke evaporate.

Again, that's an emotional outburst case here. I'm quite sure that bmac will take the whole picture now. And in such case, I think that we have to let it cool down calmly and see what happens (as long as we feel any emotional context, I think we should tolerate some borderline area). Then if the rant goes on, I agree, thread to be locked immediately.

[Dave]

It went off the track because both bmac and Dave have made suppositions about each others.

OK, I was a but touchy. However...

1. I did try to give good sound advice, as I have always done.
2. I was sworn at, even though the intentions were good intentions [I REALLY do know how to use Mathtype to advantage with OpenOffice, and really do use it constantly in that fashion. I've used it for years to produce PDF files for transfer of information when tutoring. I tutor locally by email for donations for cancer research ...for free, and it is a great advantage to have this combination of software.]
3. I thought that "blow" comment to be ignorant ...and still do!
4. Acknack's response was to state, "A desire to avoid learning a new skill is not "ignorance". Your opinion is your own, but such personal judgments are not appropriate here." was directed a me, whereas there was not the same or stronger response to "blow it out your hole.", which made me feel that acknack's response was a little one-sided, and which then prompted my own in reply ..to make the point that if that was viable and my "ignorant" was not, then, why not?

I simply don't like being threatened [I received the same reply from bmac in my PM box.] I have been here to help in any way I can, and have done so in various newsgroups for decades. The world will still turn without me.

David.

[Hagar Delest]

I simply don't like being threatened

As everybody I guess. But if a warning has to be given, both parties deserved it here. Next time, we'll see if keeping from warning to let the situation calm down is a better solution.

The world will still turn without me.

But a bit less fast perhaps.

Note that bmac has tagged the thread as solved and may use your proposal!

[acknak]

... whereas there was not the same or stronger response to "blow it out your hole.", which made me feel that acknack's response was a little one-sided...

Although I specifically tried to address both equally, I can see how you would feel that way and I am truly sorry to have offended you by that.

I agree with you that bmac's words were harsher, but there is no way (I'm no Solomon) to respond proportionally in a situation like this. If I had found his post sooner, before anyone had responded to it, I would have taken more decisive action. Once the thread moves on, it becomes a problem to go back and start editing content that people have responded to.

I know you always give sound advice from long experience and a sincere desire to help, but new people here do not know you or your background--as Hagar well points out.

I have some ideas here, but I'm going to switch to a different thread because it's really off of this topic: http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 49&t=12330