I was recently installing Ubuntu on an old Dell for a friend. I don’t try to push Linux on people, but if they want something cheap on an old machine I just tell them what a new version of Windows costs. At that point they either go buy a new machine instead or ask me more about Linux.
Once we get to that point I ask a them a few questions about how they use their personal computer. This recent situation called for compact disc booklet templates and a greeting card making application. In order to avoid complexity I rarely tell non-designers/tech geeks to give Inkscape, Scribus or the GIMP a try. What this means is finding some specialized application that makes the desired task super simple. If that isn’t available I turn to OpenOffice.
OpenOffice is surprisingly versatile and effective at the same time. There are also hidden benefits to using it, like dynamically generating letters for a small company with the power of OO’s mail merge tools or using embedded spreadsheets to create tables of data within a layout. Cool stuff that the professional-focused graphics tools leave to more specialized programs.
The end result, anyway, is that I decided to create some templates for OpenOffice. The related templates that the usual search engines pointed me to were not very good, so I thought providing these as free downloads might be helpful to some folks out there. What I have is a CD Booklet and Tray template and a Greeting Card template for OpenOffice Draw. Enjoy.
Simple succinct and successful, thank you. May your Google ranking remain high.
Takk! (which is Norwegian for Thank you!)
Just what I needed today. Some modification (A4 paper size and other minor adjustments), and a text change and I have a “home-made” birthday card.
great! thank you!
perfect, thank you!
Hmmm. For me, the CD tray came out 143 x 111 mm when I used NeoOffice on a Mac with the Mac’s print-to-pdf, and then printed from the PDF. The scaling was 100% at each step, but obviously it is off somewhere…
… but correctly when I moved the .odg file to the computer with the printer and printed directly from NeoOffice. Thanks!