Software

Image of the Ceres spectral editor.

Linux Audio Update: The Fall Fashions

This week's entry looks at a unique new audio editor, some important updates, and a very cool programming environment for graphics (and much more). As always, some tasty treats are cooking in the Linux audio kitchen.
OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org Draw: Objects and Their Problems

OpenOffice.org Draw is all about objects -- items inserted into a document, each of which can be edited independently. In fact, whether you insert a picture from a file or create an object selected from the primitives (basic shapes) in the Drawing toolbar, everything in Draw is a frame. Even text in Draw is an object, and behaves differently from ordinary text in Writer.
Made with Ardour.

An Ecology Of Ardour

This article is a brief report on some of the current news and activities going on in the world of Ardour, Paul Davis's superb open-source digital audio workstation (DAW). What began as a labor of love has become one of the most significant projects in the world of Linux audio and in the more general world of Linux applications development.
openoffice.org logo

OpenOffice.org: Interactions Between Programs

Some people insist that OpenOffice.org should be called an office application instead of an office suite. The distinction that they are trying to make is that the programs in OpenOffice.org share a common code base, instead of being separate programs that are simply bundled together, the way that Microsoft Office's are.

Clonezilla Live

Clonezilla is a bootable CDROM designed for partition backup and restoration. Unlike SystemRescueCD, Clonezilla Live doesn't contain an array of utilities, rather, it is a single, focused tool.
Screenshot

Going fast with DWM

If there was any justice in this world, there would be two cars parked in my driveway. One would be a 1977 Ferrari 308 GTS. The other would be a midnight blue BMW M3 convertible with all the amenities. I'd want the leather seats and power everything.

OpenOffice.org Resource Files

Most users interact with OpenOffice.org on the desktop. But what if you need to do a selective restore on the files that store custom gradients or colors? Troubleshoot why an extension won't install? Share resources with other users? For these kinds of tasks, you need to know a bit about where OpenOffice.org stores its files, and what you can do with them.

CountBeats—BPM Finder

CountBeats is a cracker of a little application—it's simple, yet it covers such a need for so many musicians. To quote the README file: This is a simple little program designed to help you determine the speed of a piece of music on the radio or on a CD.

Creating diagrams in OpenOffice.org Draw and Impress

OpenOffice.org's tools for creating diagrams are easy to ignore. For one thing, their controls are extremely small. For another, they are pitifully under-documented in the online help, which plods through the options without explaining what they are or why you want to use them.
Bristol synth screenshot

News In The Linux Audio World

There's always something noteworthy happening in Linux audio development. This week's news includes reports about a new Linux audio blog, music made by particle acceleration, how to use a laptop as a virtual music stand, synth emulation from the terminal command prompt, and watching the Linux Audio Conference on-line.

PDF Export in OpenOffice.org

Originally, PDF export in OpenOffice.org was limited to three levels of quality, whose exact differences were obscure to most users. But that was many releases ago.
Open Office Base

Connecting Open Office Base Application to SQL

In my last article, Quick and Dirty with Open Office Base, I described my initial experiences with building a simple database application for my wife in Open Office Base, having had no prior experience with the program.
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