{"id":4320,"date":"2011-12-20T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/?p=4320"},"modified":"2011-12-17T22:17:40","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T03:17:40","slug":"it-happens-every-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/it-happens-every-year\/","title":{"rendered":"It Happens Every Year."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This year's Christmas card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I just finished mailing off this year’s Christmas card.<\/p>\n

Every year, I create a special Christmas card based on one of my comic features. \u00a0 This year, I used my I Knew That!<\/strong><\/em> comic game panel feature for the card design. \u00a0 I have the card professionally printed and then spend\u00a0about\u00a0two to three days, signing them and stuffing envelopes. \u00a0The card gets sent to about 100 plus family members and friends.<\/p>\n

As many readers of this blog know, I run Linux on all my computers. \u00a0And because I run Linux, I have access to a lot of terrific open source applications to help get my cartoon work done. \u00a0One \u00a0such program is Scribus<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0 Scribus<\/a> is a powerful desktop publishing program and I use it each year to design my card. \u00a0After the card is designed in Scribus, I can then output as a high quality PDF and email\/upload to a printing service.<\/p>\n

In additon, I use LibreOffice<\/a> to compile the addresses of all the recipients. (LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. \u00a0Essentially, it’s the same program. You can read about this\u00a0development\u00a0\u00a0change\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I use Libreoffice each year to print address labels of all the folks in my database that are going to be mailed a card. \u00a0And every year, I need to remind myself how to do this. \u00a0It’s really the only time I use the\u00a0mail-merge\u00a0aspect of the program. If I used it every week, it’d be a snap. \u00a0But, once a\u00a0year? Well, I need a quick\u00a0refresher\u00a0course.<\/p>\n

Luckily, there’s a terrific blog where all\u00a0this\u00a0information is covered. \u00a0It’s called OpenOffice.org Training, tips, and Ideas<\/a><\/strong>. <\/em>It’s by <\/em>Solvieg Haugland and she does a terrific job in explaining the in,\u00a0outs, and nuances of making OpenOffice\/LibreOffice work for you.<\/p>\n

So, when I need to output my labels, I merely punch up this blog and go to this page.<\/a><\/p>\n

After I refreshed my memory, I was able to print out my address labels in a couple of minutes. \u00a0No problem. \u00a0I ran the LibreOffice label routine, loaded my labels and hit the print button.<\/p>\n

Who needs MSOffice? \u00a0 LibreOffice is just as powerful and feature rich. \u00a0And, the price can’t be beat. \u00a0FREE!<\/strong><\/p>\n

After my labels printed, it was simply a matter of afixing\u00a0them\u00a0to the envelope, sticking on a stamp, signing the card, and stuffing the envelope.<\/p>\n

I had a lot of fun creating this year’s card. \u00a0And it was all done in Linux<\/a>. \u00a0So, if you think you can’t do this kind of thing in Linux<\/a>, think again. \u00a0It’s easier than you think. And, if you get stuck on how to do something, there are thousands of resources right at your fingertips. The Linux<\/a> community is populated by\u00a0incredibly\u00a0helpful folks. \u00a0They love using Linux and they want you to be successful in using Linux, too.<\/p>\n

So, make it a Merry Christmas. \u00a0Get Linux<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished mailing off this year’s Christmas card. Every year, I create a special Christmas card based on one of my comic features. \u00a0 This year, I used my I Knew That! comic game panel feature for the card design. \u00a0 I have the card professionally printed and then spend\u00a0about\u00a0two to three days, signing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[85,520,1274,521,9,522,10,87],"class_list":["post-4320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-card","tag-i-knew-that","tag-libreoffice","tag-linux","tag-openoffice","tag-pclinuxos","tag-scribus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4320"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4358,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4320\/revisions\/4358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgetoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}