FOSSwire

It's about time for another quick tip, and this one relates to the premier open source office suite, OpenOffice.org.

Using the built-in heading styles in your Writer document means that OOo can handle the styling automatically for you and also you can generate tables of contents and more with the built-in tools. Note that this tip assumes that all your headings are set up in this way.

In some documents, you might want or need to number your headings. Again, rather than typing numbers in each heading manually, you can set up your heading styles to number this for you.

This even works with hierarchy - your Heading 1 can be numbered '1' and a Heading 2 underneath it will then be '1.1', for example.

To set this up, first go to Tools > Outline Numbering.

In this dialogue box, simply pick the heading level on the left and then choose the numbering style you want from the Number box.

Repeat this process for any of the other heading levels (e.g. Heading 2, Heading 3). In this way you can quickly build up the hierarchical numbering system using whatever numbering style (1, I, i, a) you prefer. While you're here, you might want to go to the Position tab and change the minimum spacing between the numbering and the text of the heading so it isn't squashed up.

Once you've set your headings up the way you like, OK that dialogue. Any existing headings in the document will gain the numbers and future headings will be numbered as you've indicated. You won't have to bother manually renumbering things if you later decide to cut and paste something into a different place.

And if you're going to need this a lot, you could also save a template with this style already set up.

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OpenOffice.org, while often criticised for its slightly antiquated interface, is arguably the most popular free software and open source office suite and in many cases, a good alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous software system.

However, like many bits of software, it does have its annoyances. One of these is the 'help agent'. It is almost akin to the hated Office Assistant ('clippy') and pops up from time to time to tell you supposedly helpful things, like how it just corrected something you typed.

Note: today's tip is applicable to all systems where you can run OOo - Windows, Linux (and other Unix) and Mac OS X.

If the popup is really annoying you by being visually distracting, or if just gets on your nerves that it is popping up and trying far too hard to be helpful, it is easy to disable entirely.

To do so, go to Tools > Options and go to the General category.

On that screen, simply uncheck 'Help Agent', click OK, and the little light bulb should bug you no longer.

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Many financial applications, such as KMyMoney, can be very useful, however there is often quite a learning curve associated with them.

Buddi is an open source personal budgeting application for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X that is designed to keep things very simple, yet still be usable for the average home user to keep track of their finances.

Installation

Buddi is written in Java, and thus needs you to have a working installation of Java on your system to run. Whether you have Java and how to get it differs depending on your operating system. Mac users should be fine, Windows users can grab an installer, and this guide should help Linux users.

Once you've got Java, you can get the appropriate download for your system from the Downloads page. Here on Kubuntu Linux, I get the .deb and double-click it to install (which actually does Java as well for me if I don't have it, but your results might differ).

Interface Impressions

On the Linux platform (and possibly elsewhere too), Buddi unfortunately sports a rather generic, and ugly, Java interface. This makes integration with the rest of your desktop poor. This is a symptom of the way it is developed and its cross platform Java nature, however, and something that can be difficult to avoid.

The main interface is divided into three simple tabs for accounts, budgets and reports. Unlike some competing programs, it's a nice simple setup that is easy to digest and understand.

The first two tabs also work as you expect and it's obvious how to use them. Aside from some commands being hidden away on the Edit menu, where it's not immediately obvious to look, these two modules work as advertised and it's really easy to get to grips with them.

On the subject of those Edit menu commands, it would be much better from an interface point of view to use a toolbar, with graphical buttons for the most frequently used commands, like Create Budget Category, for example.

The final tab, for reports, however, came across to me as working in a bit of a confusing way.

You select a report to view from a relevant drop-down box, but then there is an unnerving delay when it's not clear whether that action worked, or didn't. Turns out what is happening is that your web browser is being loaded, to display the report as an HTML file.

The reports are a good way of getting your data back out of the application and present the information in a clear way, but I think it wouldn't hurt here to make it more clear that your browser would be invoked, and that there might be some delay.

A further criticism, which might be more to do with my Java setup, is that my default browser wasn't loaded for some reason, instead it loaded in a different browser installed on the system.

Functionality

Buddi isn't trying to do everything. Far from that, Buddi tries to be simple and is even described as being aimed at those with little financial experience.

Functionality wise, though, it offers enough to do basic financial recording and reporting. Transactions can be performed on your accounts, allowing you to keep track of what's going in and coming out of your account.

These transactions can be linked to Budget categories and then allow you to track what you planned against what's actually being spent in each category.

Speaking of those Budget categories, it's trivial to add custom incoming and outgoing categories of different types to personalise your records and ease the process of tracking your personal data.

As I've already mentioned, the Reports are also good, giving you a nice overview of how well reality is matching with your budgeting, and allowing you to drill down into the categories and transactions to see where everything is going.

One final thing to say is you have to remember to save your accounts to a file, and then manually use File > Open when you relaunch the program to load in your saved data. It would be nice here to have Buddi remember your last file, and automatically open it.

Overall

Buddi doesn't try to be too clever or complicated, and I personally think it succeeds in offering a simple solution for people who want to do basic personal budgeting.

While I do have some minor interface concerns, I can't emphasise enough how simple Buddi is to use. Even if there are quirks, it's likely that most people will quickly learn how to master the application given a bit of time.

If you want a budgeting solution a bit lighter than the others (and don't mind braving a distinctly Java-y interface on Linux), Buddi is a win.