Hmm, I don't know what I did, but somehow OOo has switched over to centimetres. Well . . . rather halfheartedly, so I first had defaults such as "2.54 cm" (what a coincidence). Hansen:

Then you might wanna edit your default template to be "A4".

It's not at all obvious what or where the default template is, let alone how it can be edited. But I created a blank page and saved that as a template; we'll see if that works. (Meanwhile, Haugland and Jones' monster book on OOo says on p. 263 (and perhaps elsewhere): "To change the default fonts or template, see *Changing Default Fonts and the Default Template* on page 178". Go to "Changing Default Fonts and the Default Template" on page 178, and you first see an introductory paragraph and then: "To change the default fonts or template, see *Changing Default Fonts and the Default Template* on page 178". Ah. Carlos:

Tools/Options/language Settings/languages/locale, I set "spanish(Spain)"

the weather applet . . . should use the settings of the country the whole system was configured for

Sorry, but I can't make sense of this approach. Which is the country for which my whole system should be configured? My first language is English, but I live (for much of the year) in Japan. I'm slightly more used to American than British spellings (but can't get at all worked up about the differences). I have a US keyboard. I'm more used to the metric system than to charming old Anglo-American units. I haven't noticed "Letter Size" paper for sale in the last five years, and I've certainly never wanted to buy any. I want to be able to type Japanese and French as well as English. Though this computer is a hefty floortop, my next SuSE project will be a notebook that (irritatingly) is likely to have a Japanese keyboard but that I want to be able to take anywhere. I shan't capriciously demand such extras as the ability to input Chinese and Korean on the off chance that a Chinese or Korean friend might want to use it for a few minutes (though see below); however, it seems quite reasonable to me that my choices of menu/help language, keyboard arrangement, front-end processor (or input method editor or whatever Canna/Kinput etc are called in the Linuxworld), page size, units, and physical (time-zone etc.) location are pretty much independent of each other. Actually this is a bit of a sore point, as my KDE has a Japanese-language interface (through no wish of mine) and displays manpages in Japanese (garbled until I reset the encoding system), my OOo has an English-language interface and is incapable of formatting any *combination* of Japanese and English -- the addition of English to any line seems to make it regard Japanese text on that line as consisting of a humongously long *word* to be pushed onto the next line -- etc. etc. I bought 8.2 Personal, because (a) it was cheaper than Professional, (b) I had no delusions of professionalness, (c) I thought that the only difference between the two was the greater suitability of Professional for use in a server. It turned out that Personal skipped the Japanese ingredients, and I probably screwed up somewhere. I'm willing to splurge for a copy of Professional -- especially as I can probably charge my employer for it -- but if I do buy it, I hope its installation routine allows me to make independent choices for each of menu language, input languages, keyboard arrangement, units, etc.

...

Is SuSEgnuLinux more ruggedly American than 'Doze,

Fergus:

No! It's more ruggedly international outward looking.

Whatever are our views on 'Doze, they're clearly OT on this list. Still . . . one thing that did impress me about the hundreds of 'Doze computers available to students on the Essex University campus is that after you log on to any given machine you can choose any among dozens of input methods -- Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Baltic, etc. etc., and can easily switch in mid-document. (That was convenient for me, as I had to put in a very little Chinese.) As this is not something I need for my own SuSE machine, advice on how to effect it would be wasted on me -- but I do idly wonder if it's possible.

Now, come on for a mo - when something flies by you on the motorway, do you really say 'Blimey guv, 'e must have been doing over 130 kilometres an hour!'

Ah, well, aside from the fact that I don't usually address the missus as "guv", and might be talking in Japanese . . . yes!

Hansen:

Just use the OOo help and search for "default template", there's all the information you need, including a step by step guide...

Done already. Sorry that I don't seem to have made that clear. What happened the first time around was that I couldn't find the right menu item; this morning I gave up that attempt and instead looked in the help file and there it was. -- Powered by http://www.tepco.co.jp/index-e.html

The 03.08.01 at 14:08, Peter Evans wrote:

Carlos:

...

Tools/Options/language Settings/languages/locale, I set "spanish(Spain)"

(That was for open office alone)

...

the weather applet . . . should use the settings of the country the whole system was configured for

(and that, a general comentary)

Sorry, but I can't make sense of this approach. Which is the country for which my whole system should be configured?

In your case, big problem O;-) I meant the one that the suse install asks soon after it starts. It goes into the "LANG=" settings, date/time, locale, and others: the default one, because every user can have a different one.

My first language is English, but I live (for much of the year) in Japan. I'm slightly more used to American than British spellings (but can't get at all worked up about the differences). I have a US keyboard.

I understand. I have my language setting as "LANG=en_US", but I use a spanish keyboard (and an US one on another, older, PC). I like man pages and programs in english, I'm not confortable with translations. But then, programs as OO default to US english, till I tell it otherwise.

I'm more used to the metric system than to charming old Anglo-American units. I haven't noticed "Letter Size" paper for sale in the last five years, and I've certainly never wanted to buy any. I want to be able to

When I lived in Ottawa I was surprised that they didn't even know what an A4 size is, I could only find letter sized paper. They are supposed to be metric (or International System), but they still use inches and such: understandable as they are so close to the US. So I then discovered that Standards are not really so "standard" :-) Heh! Two of the Nasa missions to Mars failed because some software did calculations in imperial units, whereas the Nasa had specified and used the International System for every adjustement. Crash! But this is too much Off Topic here, I guess O:-)

I bought 8.2 Personal, because (a) it was cheaper than Professional, (b) I had no delusions of professionalness, (c) I thought that the only difference between the two was the greater suitability of Professional for use in a server. It turned out that Personal skipped the Japanese

In my opinion, there is nothing "proffesional" about the professional version. It's only that the "personal" has so much less software included. Bad choice of names, I'm afraid. If I buy proffesional equipment I expect it no never fail, have no glitches, everything fully tested and fully guaranteed - an answer like "not covered by the free install support" is unthinkable on a proffesional product in my country.

ingredients, and I probably screwed up somewhere. I'm willing to splurge for a copy of Professional -- especially as I can probably charge my employer for it -- but if I do buy it, I hope its installation routine allows me to make independent choices for each of menu language, input languages, keyboard arrangement, units, etc.

I'm not fully sure of that. Keyboard, yes. And some settings for the console... but you can not type japaneese on a console, I think. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson