Rating: 
Summary: Good book in need of some editing
Review: I use OpenOffice.org and this book is a good book for OpenOffice.org (why wait for the OpenOffice.org Companion book which is basically the same as this book). This book has good instructions on everyday stuff for each an every component of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org. It is especially helpful for OpenOffice.org users because OpenOffice.org does not come with documentation and this is good documentation. One complaint though, the book is in need for a serious editing. There are spelling errors littered throughout the book. Worse yet, some of the grammer is just plain terrible. But those are minor complaints since this is such a good reference book.
Rating:
Summary: My bible
Review: I used the Companion 5.2 til it was dogeared and I got the 6.0 update as soon as it was out. Definitely worth it; lots of stuff is the same but they changed a bunch of stuff too, including all the database connection windows and it's easier now but the mail merge is a lot easier to figure out with the book. It tells you how to do Oracle connections and Access and stuff, with examples. I found out some new stuff too on the drawing program which either they added to the program or the authors didn't document last time. So it's worth getting the new version. I've generally found that if you can do it, it's in the index, and if it's not there, you can't do it.I think the part I like best is they tell you if stuff doesn't work, or if it's hard to do and you should try something else. Like someone who really uses the stuff not just the company line on how it's supposed to work. No actual documentation, still, on how to write macros, but I found some online stuff that workd. Works for OpenOffice.org too, which I just downloaded and seems to be really similar.
Rating: 
Summary: Best StarOffice book
Review: I've looked at all the StarOffice books out now and this is the one I like the best. This one seems better researched in terms of what people need to do, and isn't simply a cataloging of the features in the software and how to choose File > Print. A few of the things I like the best are the tutorials at the beginning of every section, the well documented screen shots and illustrations, addressing common things that are hard to figure out like bringing a text file into a spreadsheet and printing the spreadsheet correctly, and the excellent index.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent For Linux Users
Review: If you use Linux and have just migrated from Windows well its time to move to the free Office Suite, well almost free. This book is EXCELLENT companion to the Sun Staroffice program. It teaches you in one book, how to master StarOffice. Unlike Microsoft Office with it 100's of books this all you need. (BTW: I am a complete beginner, meaning no previous knowledge, and now I have more knowledge of the OS and StarOffice than I have of Windows and Office XP)
Rating:
Summary: Buy it even if you already know StarOffice
Review: It covers the Quirks This book doesn't just tell you how StarOffice is supposed to work, it also tells you about some of its quirks and peculiarities. The book doesn't assume everyone uses Windows and includes information on the Unix/Linux versions. It gives pointers to other resources, such as websites with templates and macro programming information. Book Structure The Getting Started section covers the "why" of StarOffice and the "how" of Setup. The "why" includes "Ten reasons to Use StarOffice". This includes "Bill Gates has enough money, Do you?" and "It has the best drawing program you've never used". Of course the authors are slightly biased but the list contains more fact than propaganda. The Getting Started section also covers differences between StarOffice and OpenOffice.org, comparisons with earlier versions and a summary of features. It then moves on to the more gritty details of installation, configuration and trouble shooting. Not just for beginners My main exposure to StarOffice was with the incredibly powerful Word Processing feature (Writer) I have written a 280 page book about Java Programming and have found that module to be excellent. Despite having considerable experience with it, even a brief reading of the Writer section gave me some ideas about my further use. Notably I am going to remember to use captions for figures and tables in documents in future, so I can automatically generate lists of them for the table of contents. It is interesting to note that the authors describe the Master Document Feature in Writer as being a lot closer to FrameMaker than to Word. If you don't know about it, FrameMaker is a tool used for creating industrial strength documents such as technical manuals and full sized books. The book covers the dull but very important details of areas such as page numbering and chapter settings. This was something that frustrated me when I was learning StarOffice 5.2 and I wanted to ensure that the pages in each chapter had the chapter name at the top. I had to blunder my way about experimenting and fiddling with this, and the vagaries of the Master Document system. My life would have been much easier if I had been able to use a book like this at the time. In addition to the document management features the book covers the more "Page Layout" style features of StarOffice such as the ability to manage columns and to place vertical text running up the page. These are features I was not even aware existed in StarOffice before I read this book. It's big and its packed with information The StarOffice companion has over 1030 pages, but it is really bigger than it sounds because it is very dense. Although it has many screen shots, plenty of use is made of text based instructions. Instead of repeating instructions, the text will often point you to the page where a concept was first explained. This does break up the flow of instructions but it also means that the book contains more information than if they had repeated the text every time it was needed. I found the section on the graphics module useful because I had not realised how StarOffice has some slightly non-standard ways of working with menus and selections. For example I spent quite a bit of time trying to get the 3d shapes menu to pop out and show all the possible shape options. It was only on a closer reading of the text of this book did I appreciate that you need to click and hold down the mouse for a few seconds before the menu pops out. The writing style The tone of the book comes across as being created by people who like the program rather than a creation of a faceless corporation. Thus in the graphics section they have included the amusing Moose with moving fly graphic that is used for the logo of the JavaRanch website. Here is an example of the text style from the section on macros. "Macros can do things like open a file when you do a particular task, process data, or take your grandmothers' credit cards and buy $3000 worth of cat toys". If you use StarOffice you need this book The StarOffice suite has a huge amount of functionality and this book covers most of the features you are ever likely to use. It doesn't try to do it in a visual style with a screen shot for every mouse click but includes plenty of text instructions. The book is in paperback and has a 40 page alphabetical index. I learnt a huge amount of new features despite having worked with the application for over two years. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who intends to use StarOffice.
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Summary: EXCITING COMPANION FOR AN AFFORDABLE SUITE
Review: Just like the StarOffice 6.0 Applications Suite opened an affordable door to exciting computing, this book paves the way for a smooth initiation into all that the software has to offer.
Devoting the necessary time for this comprehensive text would ensure that you get the most from the software. Your work will become easier and more efficient. You will discover how to correlate various Application Programmes in order to generate optimum productivity. This book is voluminous and versatile. Each section was structured independently; thus, you can start from any chapter of your choice and still feel at home. Information blending was superbly done, although that most advanced StarOffice 6.0 users may not be amused to see simple definitions stretching into paragraphs.
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference
Review: Polished reference work. Well written if a bit terse, but there is a lot of ground to cover in only 1000+ pages! Great cross references and index. Excellent and appreciated cross references within text and to on-line support sites. Not intended as a teaching tool. It has minimum examples and excercises. Frank about current bugs and inadequacies (few though they may be.) Overall, similar in usefullness to the "Star Office Users Guide", just a lot more information and a bigger package. Definitely worth getting if you don't have the user's guide.
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference
Review: Polished reference work. Well written if a bit terse, but there is a lot of ground to cover in only 1000+ pages! Great cross references and index. Excellent and appreciated cross references within text and to on-line support sites. Not intended as a teaching tool. It has minimum examples and excercises. Frank about current bugs and inadequacies (few though they may be.) Overall, similar in usefullness to the "Star Office Users Guide", just a lot more information and a bigger package. Definitely worth getting if you don't have the user's guide.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but forgot to run it through the spellcheck
Review: This book has frustrated me more than twice. It has a bunch of typos, refers to commands and options that don't exist (on the Windows version anyway), and check out the index for those of you that have it. The first entry under 'O' is oatmeal on page 478. I wondered "what could the word oatmeal be doing in this book?" So I headed to page 478 and couldn't find it anywhere on the page! If someone can point it out to me, let me know. Other than those complaints, the book is okay. The topics kind of jump around not seeming to flow just right. I'm absolutely new to StarOffice and being a Microsoft Office user for the past 8 years it's helped me find the same features I'm used to in Office. Good for the beginner, but watch out for the errors in the text!
Rating:
Summary: Nice book
Review: This book is pretty much what you want in a book. It starts off with the basics like creating new files and formatting and templates. Plus showstoppers and common problems are addressed early on intead of being buried. These writers have obviously done a lot of research into what using StarOffice is really like because a lot of my questions were answered in the first chapter past the install. Stuff like how to turn off autoformatting ("turning off annoying features!" is the title of the section), having your .doc files suddenly opening in StarOffice, bringing text files into spreadsheets, setting up graphics so they don't bring your system to a crawl, and a lot of other stuff. I'm not a new user so haven't used the tutorials much--there's one for every application--but I skimmed a few of them and think they would be very helpful to new users. There are some typos but the book came out very soon after StarOffice 6 hit the stores and I was happy to have it that soon. There's no way I would have gotten to my current level of SarOffice without having had this book for the last four months.
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