[Solved]Tribulations of education in the electronic age

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ArnoDyck
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Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 3:20 am

[Solved]Tribulations of education in the electronic age

Post by ArnoDyck »

I recently started attending a local university as a mature student. I have access to the lecture slides as .pdf files but they are missing a lot of information which we are expected to take notes on in class. My notes are hand written, but afterward I open the .pdf file with draw and try to type them into the slides. It gives me a chance to go over the material for a second time, and have a legible copy.

Typing the notes this way is really hard the program does not behave in a consistent way it is not intuitive and I can't figure out how to turn off the automatic capitalization. Sometimes I can add text to a slide starting where I click. Sometimes you can only start typing in the right upper corner, in which case the other stuff on the slide disappears temporarily and you have to remember where it was in order not to type over it. Sometimes typing produces characters in a vertical line instead of horizontal. Like the proverbial box of chocolates you never know what to expect. It probably works great for folks who are good at programing, but I'm a computer idiot.

The course I'm taking also has some chapter review questions that are in wps format. So far I have not been able to find a good solution to this problem. I did search on here but found a link in a thread that pointed me to a list of threads several of which had links pointing me to the same list of threads. I'm wondering if there's a way to stream line the information so folks don't end up going in circles. I'm not crazy about the on line service, I don't have office so can't use the microsoft tool. I also tried installing LibreOffice but the installer fails every time.

So far I'm planning to just put up with it as is and forget about opening the wps files. But I post this on the chance someone an idea or two that won't make my head hurt too much :knock:
Last edited by thomasjk on Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Mark thread [Solved] and add green checkmark
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RoryOF
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Re: Tribulations of education in the electronic age

Post by RoryOF »

Use http://www.zamzar.com to convert the .wps files. Simple, effective, quick. It's free, it works!

Adding text to a PDF file on the scale you are undertaking may push OpenOffice's PDF import filter to its limits. Perhaps you should seek another tool specifically designed for such a task?
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Tribulations of education in the electronic age

Post by Hagar Delest »

Honestly, if you want to modify the PDF, few chances to get a good result. Better start a new Writer document, copy and paste the PDF text inside and add your notes. In case of pictures, copy them, paste them in a picture manager and save them to the proper format then insert them in the text file.

WPS is not the best format, you could ask the teacher why he doesn't use true standards like ODF (native format of AOO). By chosing a proprietary format, the addressees must buy the relevant application.

Please add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.
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ArnoDyck
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Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 3:20 am

Re: Tribulations of education in the electronic age

Post by ArnoDyck »

Do you folks think zamzar is a good way to go?

today I bought a new asus k55v and canceled the dell vostro 3750 that has had it's delivery date pushed back twice. The new computer comes with office starter so I downloaded the microsoft plugin to view wps files and it worked. So I'll call that one solved.

Dang Hagar, few chances eh? I'll give your suggestion a try and report back on how it turns out
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