Plan-B for Software Documentation

This weekend something amazing happened to the traffic at Plan-B for OpenOffice.org. It doubled!

Why? Someone discovered the Open Office Calc video table of content page using the StumbledUpon Toolbar and must have shared it with her friends. And the crowd was really interested. Visitors that came from Stumbledupon stayed 35% longer than average visitors and their bounce rate was half of the usual average.

We at Plan-B for OpenOffice.org do love feedback from our users. On average, about 50% send us back a thank you for our answers to their OpenOffice questions. Some of the best we publish on our testimonials pages.

Dear users and readers keep them coming. We love your feedback and appreciate a thank you any time. It is so rewarding!

Here are the new screencast video topics for he week beginning August 27th. We did continue to concentrate on creating database applications with OpenOffice.org Base.

In some of the topics we create, rename, delete and manipulate "database objects". This is a generic term for table, form, view, query or report.

• How to open a generic database object using the toolbar,
• How to rename a generic database object using the toolbar,
• How to delete a generic database object using the toolbar,
• How to edit a generic database object using the toolbar,
• How to denife a new relationship between two tables,
• How to use the design view to create a new query,
• How to use the sql view to create a new query,
• How to add an extra field to a query,
• How to open the results of a query,
• How to copy a query to the clipboard,
• How to paste a query after cut or copy,
• How to rename query,
• How to resize a form element,
• How to rename a form from the application,
• How to delete a form from the application,
• How to access a form for data entry from the context menu,
• How to use a form to edit data records,
• How to enter new records into a table.
• How to delete a table row or record.

In addition we added new glossary entries for database table, form, form wizard, electronic form, database form, database form, table, database table, database record, field label, table-wizard.

This brings Plan-B for OpenOffice.org to 40 screencast videos for OpenOffice.org Base and 204 Open Office glossary terms.

Plan-B for OpenOffice.org celebrates the milestone of 100 help topic screencasts for OpenOffice.org Writer.

This week we added some topics around paragraph formatting and using tab stops. The latest batch contains the following help topics:

• Insert new tab stop
• Remove tab stop
• Understanding tab stop types
• Change tab stop type of existing tab stop
• Change tab stop type for new tab stops
• Setting multiple tab stops
• Insert tab stop fill characters

Plan-B for OpenOffice.org celebrates fast expansion of its help topics supported by screencasts.

Within two weeks, we were able to grow the number of screencasts by 50%. Most new screencasts deal with paragraph formatting.

Some of the new additions are:

• Define space above paragraphs
• Define space below paragraphs
• Keep lines together in a paragraph or keep paragraphs together on the same page
• Also control orphan paragraphs and widow paragraphs on a page

If you like fancy document formatting then you need to check out how to create drop cap letters at the beginning of a paragraph.

We look forward to your comments on the new help topics.

Plan-B for OpenOffice.org has grown to 110 screencasts and 157 glossary entires.

This is our Plan-B approach to documenting the popular open source office suite with screencasts (short videos) and smart search technology that helps you find what you are looking for.

If you have not checked it out, please join the other ~150 a day that visit this site teaching OpenOffice.org. If you like it come back like the growing number of repeat visitors. If you love it, register for more benefits to come.

Looks like Michael Dell, the iconic oner of Dell Computers, is looking deeper into Linux on Dell computers. According to the corporate Biography Michael uses a Laptop with OpenOffice.org on Ubuntu Linux.

I guess Michael did receive the letter from the OpenOffice.org community offering to satisfy the apparent demand for OpenOffice.org on Dell Computers. May be this prompted him to check it out himself.

Dear Michael,
if you need a help with OpenOffice.org, you are very welcome to join Plan-B for OpenOffice.org where we answer questions and demonstrate the features of OpenOffice.org with screencasts.

Truly Yours,
Kaj

On November 14th, Conficio (my company) released "Plan-B™ for OpenOffice.org" a support website for non-technical users. The release is a public beta test and a major milestone in our work.

In our press release titled "Plan-B™ for OpenOffice.org - The innovative support service for non-technical users - starts public beta test" we write:

Plan-B™ for OpenOffice.org is the first website that creates a comprehensive documentation of the application suite based on visual instructions. Kaj Kandler, founder of Conficio, is convinced "Non-technical users learn better with visual instructions like short videos." He says, "We are very excited to offer this new technology to the fast growing user base of OpenOffice.org, the free open source office suite. Plan-B™ for OpenOffice.org especially benefits users who migrate from other office suites." This service, with its easy to understand help topics, supports the on demand needs of users at all levels of expertise.

I’d like to encourage all my readers to check out this new service. I’d appreciate if you would leave a comment on this blog or send me a message through the feedback on every page that contains a screencast.

Expect me to explain the various features and benefits in the next few weeks on this blog.

And by all means, register at Plan-B for OpenOffice.org if you find the service helpful.