This is a great guide to some things that don’t translate well when you save into the Microsoft .doc format from OpenOffice.org Writer. Some highlights:
Mail merge prints field names, not content. If you save your mail merge document in Word format, then print, all you’ll get is the names of the fields, like Firstname, rather [...]

The Ubuntu Tips blog suggests using the XFCE window manager as a replacement for Compiz and Metacity in GNOME. From the original post:

If you can’t get compiz to work on your machine, or you just to run a compositing window manager with shadows and true transparency without having to deal with hangs and memory [...]

There are a couple scripts that add video conversion features to Nautilus (here’s one) but this is first one I’ve heard of that integrates into KDE. This script, highlighted by the FOSSwire blog, adds a right click menu that lets you easily convert videos into multiple formats. From FOSSwire:
The script itself is very simple, such [...]

My plans for this Thanksgiving took me out of town for several days…but I had a lot of work to do, so I began to prep my laptop for the trip. Now this is a pretty old Dell Inspiron 8200…256 MB of RAM, 1.6 GHz processor…nothing grand. Usually I keep Puppy Linux on it, but [...]

Well, it’s been a great fall so far on this blog. Readership is growing, (thanks for the feedback!) I’ve started a podcast, and heck, I’ve even been interviewed by Dave from the LottaLinuxLinks Linux User Podcast. Couldn’t ask for more to be thankful for. I’ll be taking some time off this week to travel and [...]