Table of Contents

From The Chief Editor's Desk

Google Drive On Linux: Little More Than Homebrew Solutions

ms_meme's Nook: Thanks To The Guys And Gals Of PCLOS

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Revisiting Using Kanban on PCLinuxOS: Installing Kanboard

Running Silent Hill 2 DC On PCLinuxOS

Tip Top Tips: Send Email From The Command Line With Sendmail Using A Gmail Account

Testimonial: From Distro To Distro To PCLinuxOS ... Or How I Quit Hopping

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: dougmack

ms_meme's Nook: I Survived

Game Zone: ZeGame

GIMP Tutorial: Create Abstract Glass Art

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe

LibreOffice: Calc Shortcuts

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk

November is the time for lots of things in the U.S. And, no, it doesn't mean the start of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers began rolling out Christmas merchandise right around the Labor Day weekend, which is at the end of August and beginning of September.

November is when Daylight Savings Time (DST) ends throughout much of the U.S. This year, DST comes to an end on November 6, at 2 a.m. (as if many of us are up at that hour to change our clocks, anyway). Don't forget the old saying, "Spring forward, Fall back" to remember to turn your clocks back one hour before heading off to bed on November 5. Otherwise, you'll lose that extra hour of sleep that was robbed from you on March 13, when DST began.

November is when Fall really hits, as temperatures drop as much as the leaves from the trees. The hours of daylight become shorter the nearer we get to the Winter solstice (December 21). For my wife and me, it means that it's dark when we go to work, and dark when we come home. Were it not for the windows in the hospital, we'd never see the sun.

November, around my neck of the woods (Missouri), means that the rifle Fall hunting season for deer is close at hand. Deer hunting by archery methods has already been going on since September 15, and goes until January 15, 2017. Rifle hunting season is only a short 10 or 11 days, starting November 12. Bet you can't guess where I'll be that weekend, huh? I've already been out in the woods on four separate occasions already, hunting with archery methods. Due to other commitments, each trip has been only for a few hours at a time.

Towards the end of the month, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Originally rooted in lore surrounding the first Fall harvest (or lack thereof, depending on your reference source) of the first permanent English settlement in North America, it's more of a time for Americans to express thanks for the things in their life that they are thankful for.

For me, I'm thankful for the wonderful family we have built. I have a wonderful, supportive and loving wife (Laura), and two healthy, awesome children ... Ryan and Lexi. In a broader sense, I'm thankful for my decent job, having a decent home, and relatively good health. At my job at the hospital, I see so many who are so much less fortunate, on a daily basis.

Closer to the computing world and this magazine, I'm thankful for all that Meemaw and YouCanToo do to help with the magazine every month. I'm thankful for all of the magazine's contributors, regardless if they are one time contributors, semi-regular contributors, or regular monthly contributors. I'm thankful for our packagers and Texstar for creating and maintaining PCLinuxOS, without whom none of this would be possible.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity and prosperity.

Google Drive On Linux: Little More Than Homebrew Solutions

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

WAAAAAAY back, in 2012, Google launched its cloud storage product, aptly named Google Drive. The launch was accompanied by Windows and Mac clients that allowed Google Drive to function on those desktop computers much in the same manner as Dropbox does. However, Linux users were told to "hang tight" because they were working on a Linux desktop client. Well, nearly 4 1/2 years later, Linux users are still waiting, still "hanging tight."

Google Drive is a collection point for all of your images uploaded to Google Photos, as well as all of your documents from Google Docs, plus any "other" files you upload for safe keeping to the Google Drive cloud.

It's beginning to look as if the "do no evil" folks at Google have passed Linux users right on by ... once again. Thankfully, as is so ingrained in Linux's DNA, the Linux community has pulled together and created largely homegrown, homebrew solutions.

I'm not going to try to sell you on using Google Drive. Google has made its bed, and they must now lie in it. I fully realize that there are strong feelings towards Google, both for and (mostly) against among Linux users. So, if you are inclined to use Google's products and services, this article will have relevance for you. But, if you are one of the many who choose to avoid the use of Google products and services, then I doubt you've even read this far. In fact, I'd be surprised if you read beyond the headline.

Background

Shortly before the launch of Google Drive, Google replaced the operating system on all of their computers running Windows with a custom, in-house version of Ubuntu Linux, often referred to as Goobuntu.

Despite the fact that almost the entire backbone of Google is run on Linux, it remains a mystery as to why Google continues to ignore Linux and Linux users. In other words, Google uses Linux to make nearly all of its profits, but refuses to give anything back to the Linux community.

It has come out that Google does, indeed, have a Linux version of the Google Drive desktop client. Let's look at the proof, as evidenced in a February 15, 2015 article by Chris Hoffman for PC World magazine.

First, included in the screenshot directory for the 2014 release of the desktop client for Mac are two images (setup_taskbar_lin.png, top, and setup_drive_folder_lin.png, bottom) that are very obviously depicting the desktop client running on Linux.

Next is a comment on a Reddit forum topic that reads like this:

[--]popeydc 300 points 9 months ago I was chatting to a Google employee a while back who was surprised to hear the Google Drive client he uses internally on Linux hadn't been released publicly. So (if his comment is to be believed) they have a Google Drive desktop client for Linux, [but they] just haven't released it.

Other commenters go on about how Google doesn't want to provide support for the Google Drive desktop client for Linux. That is, until one commenter points out that Google doesn't provide support for most of their other products, either. Without a doubt, that commenter hit a nerve, because even I have noticed that support for Google's other products is minimal at best.

So, what's a Linux user to do?

Use the web interface

From Day One, this has been the ONLY way that I've ever accessed Google Drive. Why? Because nothing else was available. Just point a browser tab to https://drive.google.com, and you'll have access to all of your files, documents and images stored in Google Drive.

It's as easy as pie to use. Press on the "New" button in the upper left corner, and select the task you want to complete. But all of your work must be done in a browser window.

Install Grive2 from the PCLinuxOS repo

Grive2 was recently packaged and sent to the PCLinuxOS repository. GUI-only users won't be happy, because Grive2 is a command line utility. Don't let that turn you off, because Grive2 is very easy to use from the command line.

Using Grive2 is fairly simple. On its first run, there are a few things you will need to do to set it up.

First, make a directory in your /home directory for your Google Drive files. I call mine GoogleDrive, but you can call it whatever you want.

Next, issue the command grive -a. Keep your terminal window open, and copy the link provided into your browser. That link will open and ask for permission to connect to your Google Drive account. Select "Allow" and copy the provided code from your browser into your terminal session, where it is awaiting the input of the code. As soon as you do this, the sync between Google Drive and your selected directory will start. Depending on how much data you have stored on Google Drive, this could go fairly quickly, or it could take quite a while. On my Google Drive account, I would have to leave it to run overnight, since I use my Google Drive for the production of the magazine. Yes, I have a LOT of files stored there (most are related to the magazine production).

On subsequent uses, things are much, much easier. Simply launch your terminal, switch to your GoogleDrive folder, and issue the command grive.

There are a couple of things that Grive2 cannot do. First, it cannot automatically sync your folders and Google Drive. Second, it cannot automatically convert your Google Docs documents to *.doc, *.docx, *.odt, etc.

The first limitation is fairly easy to overcome, even if it doesn't fully implement an immediate, automatic sync. Let's say you want to sync your GoogleDrive folder (be sure to use the name you gave the directory when you created it) at 0300 every day. Simply launch your terminal, and enter crontab -e. Then, enter 00 03 * * * grive --path /home/youruser/GoogleDrive/. Of course, you will replace "youruser" with your actual username.

When I first used Grive2, I was shocked to see some *.doc, *.docx, *.xls and other "office" files show up in my GoogleDrive folder. But, upon closer examination, I discovered that these were files that I had stashed on Google Drive some time ago, for safe keeping.

You can read more about how to use Grive2 here.

Use InSync

InSync is a commercial product that installs easily on PCLinuxOS by way of ready-made RPM files. It's available for Linux, Windows and Mac computers.

As a commercial product, it does everything you might expect for a bona fide Google Drive desktop client to do. Here's a snapshot from their website that lists its capabilities:

I installed it on my computer with ease and without any major issues. If you're the least bit hesitant to install from outside the official PCLinuxOS repository, you would be best advised to skip using this program. To proceed, you will first need to download the RPM file. Next, open up a terminal session, and su to root. At the root prompt, enter rpm -ivh insync-1.3.10.36104-fc17.x86_64.rpm. Wait for the installation to complete (it won't take but just a few seconds), then type exit at the root prompt. Close your terminal session. You should find InSync installed under the Internet category of your PC menu. The installer tried to also install Thunar extensions (since I use Xfce), but failed when it couldn't find Yum (the installer that Fedora uses) on my system.

Typically, pricing is fairly affordable. For a private user with just one Google account to sync to, the price is a one time $25 (U.S.) fee. For a "pro user" with up to three Google accounts to sync with, the price is $25 per year. Under the "business" plan, it costs $25 per Google account. Of course, support is faster for the pro and business plans. I, along with Texstar, were lucky and got a free private user account when InSync was running a special promotion. So, keep your eyes peeled (and keep checking back), and you might also get lucky to get a free private user account.

overGrive

overGrive was born as an Ubuntu *.ppa file, giving Ubuntu users the features on the desktop that Google promised all those years ago. However, the original grive program stopped working when Google changed their API to interface with Google Drive. Google is notorious for doing these types of things, often without warning.

overGrive runs in your Linux desktop's panel

By the time that grive was "fixed" (and became the command line utility grive2 in the process), those who had made the original Ubuntu *.ppa file decided to "market" it to all Linux users. On the overGrive home page are download links for Ubuntu (obviously), a Fedora/openSUSE RPM file, and an Arch *.xz package file. A license (only one is needed per Google Drive account) will only cost you $4.99 (U.S.).

To be honest, I haven't tried overGrive myself. However, there are plenty of reports on the internet of it working especially well. Below is a list of what overGrive can do for you (from the overGrive home page).

Auto Sync Google Drive to your computer
Auto Sync Local Files to Google Drive
Select Google Drive Folder
Select Google Drive Folders to Sync
Convert Google Docs to Office File Formats for offline editing
Convert Office Files back to Google Docs formats **
Sync Multiple Accounts *
Support

* License required for each account. ** Conversion back to Google Docs format only for original Google Documents.

overGrive is available for, and integrates with, the Unity, Gnome, KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon and LXDE desktops. The installation instructions for Fedora and openSUSE should work for PCLinuxOS users, with modifications -- should you choose to attempt to install it. Two main modifications involve the use of sudo (PCLinuxOS does not typically use sudo), and replacing references to the Yum package manager with Synaptic.

Full detailed instructions on how to install overGrive on PCLinuxOS are well beyond the scope of this article. Instead, it is mentioned here to only alert you to its existence. Its use is entirely up to you -- of course. As usual, the standard admonishment about not installing from outside the official PCLinuxOS repository applies, turning your standard PCLinuxOS installation into a non-standard installation.

drive

Drive is another command line utility to access Google Drive. Below is the initial description for drive, from its page on GitHub.

drive is a tiny program to pull or push Google Drive files.

drive was originally developed by Burcu Dogan while working on the Google Drive team. Since she is very busy and no longer able to maintain it, I took over drive on Thursday, 1st January 2015. This repository contains the latest version of the code.

The "I" who took over drive is Emmanuel T. Odeke. Drive is currently undergoing active and ongoing development on GitHub.

While not providing background sync of files stored on Google Drive, it does appear to be quite full featured -- at least, according to the very, very long description on GitHub. In fact, it appears to be so full featured that it may be difficult for many to use.

I downloaded drive, but found myself unable to compile it, much less run it. It requires the use of something called "Go," version 1.5.X or higher, according to the instructions. Perhaps compilation can be accomplished by someone with a better understanding than I possess (such as our packaging team), but doing so is definitely higher than my current pay grade.

Even after getting it successfully compiled and running, using drive will take you some time to master, with all of its options. I'm certain that there are some "shortcuts" (like commands you would use all the time) to learning how to run it, but the instructions (while thorough) are a bit overwhelming. The command line is a comforting friend to me (and becoming more comfortable as time goes on) and I'm overwhelmed by the instructions on how to run drive. I can only imagine how a GUI user who goes out of their way to avoid the command line might feel trying to use drive.

Summary

Google has continued along its long and chosen path of not supporting Linux users. This is the course they have chosen, despite using Linux as the backbone of their entire operation. "Do no evil" might as well be "do nothing for Linux users, but use Linux to make all of our profits." Is it any wonder why so many people distrust Google? I know there are other reasons for the hostility expressed towards Google, but promising and failing to deliver a Linux desktop client for Google Drive only adds to the pain, frustration, hatred and distrust.

Given the chance, Linux users and the Linux community can and will come up with their own homebrewed solutions. Other enterprising people and companies will fill in the remaining vacuum with commercial solutions.

If you're looking for a Linux desktop client to access files stored on Google Drive, you should find Grive2 and InSync adequately sufficient to fulfill your needs rather well.

ms_meme's Nook: Thanks To The Guys And Gals Of PCLOS

OGG                                         MP3

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Creamy Spinach & Sausage Pasta

Ingredients

6 oz. smoked sausage
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes w/chiles
2 cups chicken broth
8 oz. pasta
3 cups fresh spinach
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded monterrey jack
1 whole green onion

Instructions

Thinly slice the smoked sausage and add it to a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the sausage over medium heat until it is nicely browned (about 5-7 minutes). Drain off the excess fat.

Dice the onion and add it to the skillet. Continue to saute until the onion has softened (about 5 minutes). Add the can of diced tomatoes with chiles and the chicken broth. Stir to combine and dissolve any browned bits off of the bottom of the skillet.

Add the uncooked pasta to the skillet and make sure it is all submerged under the liquid. Place a lid on the skillet and allow the mixture to come up to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for about ten minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Stir once or twice while the pasta cooks to keep it from sticking.

Stir in the fresh spinach, one cup at a time, until wilted. If you add it all at once, the skillet will be too full to stir. Keep the heat on while adding the spinach, so the liquid will continue to simmer and thicken.

Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top, replace the lid, and let it sit for a few minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Slice the green onions and sprinkle them over top. Serve hot!

Serves: 4

Revisiting Using Kanban on PCLinuxOS: Installing Kanboard

by horusfalcon

During a recent fresh installation of PCLinuxOS, I had occasion to install Kanboard again, so I opened the September 2016 Issue where this article was originally published. In following my own instructions, I found a couple of items that needed to be revised, so here I am. I apologize for any confusion my errors may have caused.

DISCLAIMER: Kanboard is not a part of the official PCLinuxOS software repository. As such, you should not expect official support for it via the PCLinuxOS forums. If I see someone needing help, I'll do my best, but there are no guarantees expressed or implied with regard to its use.

PART I: WHAT IS KANBAN?

So what is Kanban, anyway? The word is Japanese for "billboard". The history of Kanban started with Toyota Motor Corporation. From there it has become an accepted part of lean manufacturing processes in businesses the world over.

Briefly, Kanban is a simple inventory control/project management tool that uses objects (task or signal cards) to track parts status and critical processes of a project.

Originally, Kanban used a tracking board (a corkboard, typically) on which signal cards were moved from one status lane to the next to indicate movement through the workflow. These, in turn, triggered the generation of Kanban cards that tell each supplier in the workflow when to have parts or subassemblies ready for their downstream customers.

A typical Kanban board is shown below with a few simple tasks:

(Figure 1: image courtesy of https://kanboard.net/)

A much more technical (and more accurate) description of Kanban is given at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban

for any who are interested.

As the information age matured, physical cards were replaced with software triggers and email notifications, but the principles remain the same. Electronic kanban boards are also good graphical representations of project status.

My tribulations in getting Kanboard to run are in this thread: Kanboard on PCLinuxOS It's not necessary to read it unless you want to subject yourself to every step of my journey to install Kanboard on my PCLinuxOS-powered laptop. Fortunately, I have learned enough along the way that your journey to get Kanboard working should be much easier going than mine was.

So... why do I use Kanban? I've adopted and adapted it as a focus tool to help me control the flow of writing projects on which I'm presently working. This has different working principles than more orthodox Kanban does as I'm the sole supplier and customer, but it helps me stay focused on what's next to be done, and (especially) where interdependencies exist in my work. It has helped me meet deadlines, and that's the most important thing. When I first learned there was an application for creating and maintaining an electronic Kanban board in Linux, I knew I had to get it working.

If your business or even your personal projects could benefit from the type of tracking Kanban provides, the solution is at hand. Meet Kanboard.

PART II: DOWNLOADING KANBOARD:

Kanboard is a web-based Kanban board application written in PHP. It can be found at:

https://kanboard.net/downloads

Once on the Kanboard website, look around. There is a comprehensive set of documentation, plugins (which I've not tried yet) to enhance its functionality, news about Kanboard's development, and other great resources for Kanboard users.

Download the latest stable version of Kanboard from the website, and save it somewhere you'll be able to find it for later use.

PART III: MEETING THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Hardware-wise, any system that can run PCLinuxOS and has reasonably good display resolution should be able to run Kanboard. There are, however, some software prerequisites that must be installed prior to installing the Kanboard software. For PCLinuxOS, these have been made very simple.

The system requirements for Kanboard are listed at:

https://kanboard.net/documentation/requirements

The Kanboard website lists several non-PCLinuxOS distributions of Linux as being compatible. I can personally vouch for the compatibility of PCLinuxOS as well.

NOTE: Before adding any packages from the repository or installing software from an archive, it is always a good idea to ensure your PCLinuxOS system is fully updated. Instruction for how this is done may be found at:

http://pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/Update_Your_PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS has made meeting all the software requirements for Kanboard truly easy. Open Synaptic Package Manager, give the root password when prompted, and install task-lamp. This will install and configure a web server (Apache), a database (MySQL), and PHP5 all in the same operation. It will also set up the locations to which Kanboard should be unpacked.

NOTE: It is best to install task-lamp on a freshly installed PCLinuxOS system, but so long as you have not previously re-configured PHP or MySQL, installing task-lamp will get you where you need to be in one step.

PART IV: INSTALLING KANBOARD:

Here's where we do something with that archive file downloaded in Part II. First, as root, copy the archive file to /var/www/html/. You will need to be root to be able to write to that folder. To do the copying using a shell session, do:

[username@localhost ~]$ su
Password: {key in the root password here and press Enter.}
[root@localhost username]# cp /path-to/kanboard-1.0.34.zip
/var/www/html/kanboard-1.0.34.zip

NOTE: the placeholder "username" above will be replaced with your user name. The placeholder "/path-to/" will be replaced by the actual path where the archive file is stored. The actual file name used should be that of the latest stable version of Kanboard (which, as of this writing, is 1.0.34.)

If you are more comfortable working from a root-enabled file manager, by all means use the tools that suit you best. The important thing here is to place the file in the folder /var/www/html/
Once the archive is copied, give the following shell commands as root to unpack the archive:

[root@localhost username]# cd /var/www/html
[root@localhost html]# unzip kanboard-1.0.34.zip

Fortunately, unzip is in the Synaptic repositories for PCLinuxOS, and is installed by default.

Instructions previously published used tar -xzvf, which only works on gzipped archives. Apparently the file format has changed with 1.0.34, and this method no longer works. If you tried this, you probably saw the following error messages:

gzip: stdin has more than one entry--rest ignored
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

The corrected instructions above work with the latest version.

If you are more comfortable using a graphical tool to unpack the archive, it can easily be done with Ark. Open your favorite root-enabled file manager (entering your root password when prompted), and navigate to /var/www/html/. Right-click on the file kanboard-1.0.34.zip, and select Ark as shown.

(Figure 2: Using Root PCManFM to Extract the Archive)

This will open Ark in a new window, showing the contents of the archive file:

(Figure 3: Ark Showing the Archive File Contents)

Click on Extract, as shown above, and a new window opens to allow you to select where to extract the file. The correct location for extraction is highlighted in the figure below:

(Figure 4: Ark File Navigation Window Showing Correct Path for Extraction)

If you don't see this folder, navigate to it before continuing. (Note the full path shown below the folder tree window.) Clicking OK after this folder is chosen will start the extraction process. Once extraction has completed, all windows associated with Ark may be safely closed.

At this point Kanboard is installed. To get it to run properly we must first do a little post-install configuration.

PART V: CONFIGURING PERMISSIONS FOR KANBOARD

To be able to edit projects in Kanboard, the user must have write permissions on the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data.

The best way to accomplish this is, as root, to add the user to the group apache, then assign ownership of the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data to the apache group. Finally, assign write permission to the folder's owner and group.

The group and user operations can be done from the PCLinuxOS Control Center very easily without recourse to a shell. Click the icon on the taskbar for Configure your Computer to start PCLinuxOS Control Center, enter the administrative (root) password when prompted, and then select System from the sidebar at left as shown.

(Figure 5: PCLinuxOS Control Center System Menu)

From the System Menu, click on Manage users on system. This brings up:

(Figure 6: PCLinuxOS Control Center Users and Groups Dialog)

NOTE: my user details are obscured above for reasons of privacy and security.

In the Users and groups dialog, click to highlight your username, then click Actions and select Edit from the drop-down menu. This will open the user's profile dialog:

(Figure 7: Edit Groups/Users Dialog)

From here, click on Groups at the top right corner in the menu bar. This will open the group list for the selected user.

(Figure 8: Edit Groups/Users, showing Groups Tab)

From here, click to select the group apache as shown above. The check mark in the picture above shows it is already selected for my user, and if this is already checked for you, no further action is needed as you are already a member of the group. If the box has no check, click it to put one there, then click Ok. This completes the user edits needed, for this user. Do the same for any other users who may need access to Kanboard, and close the Users and Groups window and the PCLinuxOS Control Center windows when done.

The assigning of permissions to the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data can be accomplished easily enough as root by editing the properties of the folder from within any file manager (Dolphin, Caja, PCManFM, Nautilus, and others should be able to do this easily). I will show PCManFM in use in my examples to follow, as I am using LXDE for my desktop environment.

Root PCManFM is available from the PCLinuxOS start menu under File Tools from LXDE. Click to start it, and a dialog box will open requesting the administrative (root) password. After this is entered correctly, the file manager window will open, showing root's home folder.

(Figure 9: Root PCManFM)

From here, click on the blue "up arrow" shown under Bookmarks in the picture above. Similar controls exist for most any file manager you might be using. The folder you wish to navigate to is /var/www/html/kanboard/, so that the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data is displayed as an icon:

(Figure 10: PCManFM showing the data folder highlighted)

Right-click on the data folder icon and select Properties from the context menu. This will bring up the folder properties dialog:

(Figure 11: PCManFM showing Properties Dialog for the data folder)

Click on the Permission tab of this dialog, and it will display:

(Figure 12: Setting folder permissions)

If the values in the dialog box do not appear as shown, click, type and/or select to change them as shown. This will assign the folder to the proper owner and group (in the top section), and will grant the owner and selected group (and hence any users in that group) the proper permissions. Click OK after all selections are made, the dialog will close and all changes to the folder's permissions will be saved. Close Root PCManFM at this time (unless other actions requiring root access remain to be done).

PART VI: STARTING THE WEB SERVER

This entire topic was overlooked in the previous edition of this article. It is essential to the proper operation of Kanboard.

Before attempting to use Kanboard, a working web server must be running. Apache provides httpd as the daemon which runs this server.

While it is possible to issue shell commands to start the web server, a better approach is to use PCLinuxOS Control Center. Shown below is the System Menu. Click on the icon in the upper right for Manage system services by enabling or disabling them as shown by the cursor position in the figure.

(Figure 13: PCLinuxOS Control Center System Menu)

This will open the System Services window:

(Figure 14: System Services)

The cursor in this figure shows that httpd is not selected to start at boot. Click the box to put a checkmark in it. This will start the web server each time the machine starts up.

(Figure 15: Starting httpd)

The web server is still not running, as the system has not been restarted. Instead of rebooting, clicking the Start button next to httpd (shown by the cursor position) will cause it to start. At this point, once the word stopped changes to running, click the Ok button at bottom right to close this window. After that, PCLinuxOS Control Center may be safely closed.

PART VII: STARTING KANBOARD

The hard work is done. To start Kanboard, open a web browser (I use Pale Moon, but Firefox, Chrome, and others should also work fine) and point your browser to:

http://localhost/kanboard

This will open a login dialog. The first time you log in to Kanboard, you should log in as the user admin with the default password admin, and, as your first official act, change this default to something more secure. Click the purple circle icon in the upper right to open the admin user's settings menu

(Figure 16: Kanban Admin's Dashboard with Settings Menu open)

Click on My profile to open admin's profile. When the dashboard loads, look under Actions in the sidebar at left:

(Figure 17: Admin's Profile showing Actions Menu at left)

Click Change password and get to it. Please write your new password down in a notebook or otherwise ensure you can remember it. If you lose or forget it, you will be unable to login as admin.

While you're in the dashboard, look up at the top left. A set of links there allow for group and user management. Click New local user to add a new user (like your normal local user) to Kanboard as a user.

(Figure 18: Admin's Dashboard showing User/Group Management Links)

The shot below shows the dialog for adding a new local user. To be clear, the term local user means a Linux user local to the machine. All that is really required to be entered here is the username, password, and password confirmation. All the details at right can be added later on if other members need to be added to this user's projects.

(Figure 19: Adding a New Local User to Kanboard)

If, for example, we wished to add the local user johnboy to kanboard, we would enter johnboy for the Username, and a temporary password (e.g., temp1234) that the user could change on their first time logging in. Click save, and the local user is added. Admin (or johnboy) could edit johnboy's details later via the dashboard.

PART VIII: CONCLUSIONS

That's as far as I will take you for now. Once you create a local user for yourself, knock around and play with Kanboard. If you want to do it the easy way, the documentation is accessible from the dashboard (see Figure 16, above), and more information for Kanboard can be found at:

https://kanboard.net/features and elsewhere on the Kanboard website.

Such features as plugins, remote users and collaborative features others may find useful are beyond my present use case, so I leave them for you all to explore as you may need. Kanboard is really simple to use for something so packed with features, and should serve well for any Kanban needs most folks will have.

Running Silent Hill 2 DC On PCLinuxOS

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

After barely surviving the first game, you return to Silent Hill ...

Silent Hill 2 is the second episode of the survival horror game franchise Silent Hill. The game was released in late 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and was ported to the Microsoft Xbox later that year, and then the PC the following year (2002).

While the game takes place in the homonymous city of the series, it is not a direct sequel to the events and characters from the first game, and occurs at an unspecified date between this and the third game. This episode focuses on a new character, James Sunderland, who enters the city after receiving a letter written by his late wife Mary, saying she is waiting for him in their "special place" in Silent Hill.

The PC version

The PC version of Silent Hill 2 was released in December 2002, made by Creature Labs and published by Konami. The PC version is equivalent to the Xbox version and the PS2 version "Greatest Hits," including the Mary scenario and the extra ending. In Europe, it had the same caption in the label PS2 Platinum. Additional features include the ability to save anywhere, QuickSave and Quickload, and a movie menu to view trailers of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, and any movie in the game, once it has been seen by the player.

How to install it in PCLinuxOS?

You will need Winetricks. In Winetricks select the Default Wine prefix.

Select "Install a Windows DLL or Component."

Now, look for DirectX9 (d3dx9_36) and mark it for installation.

Now, you’re ready to do the game installation.

The game comes on three (3) CDs. To install it correctly, the CDs have to be copied to the hard drive. I recommend the desktop area, as it will be more viewable, and will be temporary..

Create three (3) folders on your desktop: CD1, CD2 and CD3

Copy the entire CD1 to the CD1 folder.

Copy the entire CD2 to the CD2 folder.

Copy the entire CD3 to the CD3 folder.

Now, rename the folder CD1 to CD_ROM.

Run setup.exe from the game, and start installing normally.

It will then ask to put the CD2.

Here's the catch: rename the folder CD_ROM back to CD1, and the folder CD2 toCD_ROM.

Press OK in the game installer.

It will continue installing normally.

When asked to change the CD's, the only thing that you will do is rename the folders. That is, when the installer asks for CD3, rename the CD3 folder to CD_ROM and so on.

Ok, installation finished.

The program prompts to install DirectX8 during installation. Refuse to install this and move on. It is not necessary, and the game runs very well, especially since you installed DirectX9 before installing the game.

Playing Silent Hill 2 on modern computers

Silent Hill 2 was created in a time when computers with more than one core did not exist. Therefore, it does not run right on multicore machines. To be able to run SH2 in today's computers, you must use a utility, SH2Proxy.

What does SH2Proxy do?

Allows windowed mode

Custom Resolution

Borderless game window

Game window positioning

Performs with different parameters (defined in a cli or in an .ini file)

Automatically sets the game to run in only one core. (core affinity)

And, it can be configured in an .ini file, sh2proxy.ini

The utility can be downloaded here, and you must replace the sh2pc.exe program, which is in /home/~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files /Konami/ Silent Hill 2.

The game runs well even on modest hardware. Minimum video memory to run is 32MB of VRAM.

It has some glitches with Intel video cards, but it is nothing that prevents the game from running.

Have fun in the foggy haunted city.

Tip Top Tips: Send Email From The Command Line With Sendmail Using A Gmail Account

Editor's Note: Tip Top Tips is a monthly column in The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Each month, we will feature -- and possibly even expand upon -- one tip from the PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine will not accept independent tip submissions specifically intended for inclusion in the Tip Top Tips column. Rather, if you have a tip, share it in the PCLinuxOS forum's "Tips & Tricks" section. Your tip just may be selected for publication in The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

This month's tip comes from PCLinuxOS forum member MBantz.

I have just completed a project where I needed PCLinuxOS to send emails from a php web form using sendmail. It took me some time to figure out, and perhaps this can be useful. It can also be used to send emails directly from the command line or from scripts.

1) Install sendmail and sendmail-cf from Synaptic

2) Create a Gmail account, log on to this account and allow less secure login (in the Gmail account settings)

3) As root - do the following:

mkdir -m 700 /etc/mail/authinfo/
cd /etc/mail/authinfo

Create a text password file and name it /etc/mail/authinfo/gmail-auth with this content (replace e-mail address and password -after- the colons):

AuthInfo: "U:root" "I:gmailusername" "P:gmailpassword"

Then, create sendmail database map:

makemap hash gmail-auth < gmail-auth

Put these lines in your /etc/mail/sendmail.mc configuration - just above the first MAILER definition line:

define(`SMART_HOST',`[smtp.gmail.com]')dnl

define(`RELAY_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl

define(`ESMTP_MAILER_ARGS', `TCP $h 587')dnl

define(`confAUTH_OPTIONS', `A p')dnl

TRUST_AUTH_MECH(`EXTERNAL DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl

define(`confAUTH_MECHANISMS', `EXTERNAL GSSAPI DIGEST-MD5 CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN')dnl

FEATURE(`authinfo',`hash -o /etc/mail/authinfo/gmail-auth.db')dnl

Then, refresh sendmail config:

make -C /etc/mail

4) Configure automatic start of sendmail:

Still as root:

Edit the file

/etc/sysconfig/sendmail

and add this line:

DAEMON="yes"

Then, start sendmail service:

service sendmail start

Test with:

echo "Just testing my sendmail gmail relay" | mail -s "Sendmail gmail Relay" my-email@my-domain.com

Cheers!

Editor's note: Google will limit individual users to 500 emails per 24 hour period using a third party agent, such as sendmail. Users needing to send more than 500 emails per 24 hour period should look into a business account with Google, or a different email provider.

Testimonial: From Distro To Distro To PCLinuxOS ... Or How I Quit Hopping

by kvonlinux

Hello, everyone!

I was a [expletive deleted] user my entire life (as far as personal PC use was concerned).

...until two months ago - when I discovered Linux.

I had heard of Linux, of course. I had simply never felt the need to stray from the beaten path, but, recently, I've had plenty of free time on my hands, so I decided to delve into the Linux universe, and I have been enjoying the heck out of learning as many ins and outs as possible every day since!

In the beginning, I had no idea which distro to try. (I didn't even realize that I wouldn't be stuck with the first one I picked. (I am a lifelong [expletive deleted] user, remember?))

A few online searches led me to the 'top ten distros' (which varied from site to site, except for the number one and runner-up), so I decided to go for the distro which all the sites proclaimed to be this year's 'number one distro'. (Later I learned that the sites were listing the top ten searched-for distros, but I digress.)

At first, I was afraid of even attempting to partition my hard drive, so I installed it on an external USB drive and was pleasantly surprised how simple the (guided, GUI) installation process was (although, at the time, I had no idea that anything even existed which wasn't guided with a GUI). The desktop environment (a term which I was also unfamiliar with) was nearly identical to the one I had been accustomed to for the past thirty years, and I found that I now had access to something called a "BASH terminal" (which I'd read about online, but couldn't access because I had the Home version of [expletive deleted] as opposed to the Pro version - the latter being the more expensive version with all the features one actually wants and needs in their OS) as well as thousands of free applications - most of which I preferred to their paid counterparts!

I played with my new, green OS for about a week before I decided to search for a different distro -- one which would be more of a challenge to install as well as to use, and, this time, I went for [distro(X)] so I could learn more about the way Linux worked by installing and configuring each part of my system piece by piece. I got it going on my first attempt (with a little help from Pacman and elinks), and I was quite fond of the rolling release model. It took me about a week to get everything I wanted and needed installed and configured, but I was (and still am) quite pleased with the outcome. So...

I decided to try out the rest of the "top ten" distros (seeming how I now had an app called Virtualbox and could now install whatever OS I pleased without having to replace my existing system), and I think I went through around 25 of them (remember: each site listed different distros in their respective top-ten listing) before I finally landed on PCLinuxOS 2016: The Full Monty Edition.

WOW!!!

This distro has EVERYTHING loaded straight out of the box!

It has every single thing I'd installed into my [distro(x)] system, plus many more! (And that's saying something, because I had downloaded every app I came across in the repositories that I thought anyone I ever knew might benefit from!)

It is extremely easy to use.

Everything seems to have a sort of .... flow.

It just comes together perfectly. (I don't even feel the urge to personalize anything yet!)

...and any time I feel up to more of a challenge, I can always pop open a terminal, and the Full Monty Document Portal will guide me down the path to computational enlightenment! I love it!

It is also visually stunning - especially the 6 different work-spaces (hopefully I'm using the proper terminology when I refer to them as 'work-spaces'). I find that aspect particularly awesome, and so do my friends who stop by and notice my new, eye-catching OS. (It's the bull that catches their eye, I think.)

Anyways ....

I am glad I found PCLinuxOS.

It is now on my hard drive, and I am using it productively as well as learning new things from it every day!

Keep up the good work, everybody!

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: dougmack

As told to YouCanToo

What is your name/username?
Doug McGarrett/dougmack

How old are you?
78

Are you married, single?
Divorced for 40 years.

How about Kids, Grandkids ?
3 grown children, 6 grandkids.

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?
I'm a dog person. My present housemate is a Norwegian Elkhound named Thor.

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?
I'm a retired RF (radio frequency) Engineer. When I was working, I designed radio receivers, transmitters, test equipment, and some antennas for the low microwave region.

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery
I live in Rocky Point, Long Island, NY. It's still "countryish" even though it is 50 miles from New York City. It's about 14 miles from a major shopping mall. Rocky Point is on the North Shore of Long Island; I'm about six tenths of a mile from Long Island Sound. Walking distance if you don't mind hills! Rocky Point was originally a summer community, and even had a railroad station up until 1940. It is now all single-family homes, many of them, including mine, converted and expanded from summer cottages.

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?
Several colleges on Long Island. I never got the degree.

What kind of things do you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?
I still do a little electronic construction -- small circuits for various useful things. I'm an Extra Class radio amateur (WA2SAY) although I'm not terribly active at present. I play piano, Hammond organ, guitar, and Dobro (an acoustic steel guitar). I used to gig out on weekends. I am the editor of a small circulation Newsletter for the Pedal Steel Guitar Association. I get the email lists from Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora, also sdr radio, and occasionally answer one.

Why and when did you start using Linux?
I got interested in Linux back in the 1990s, while I was still working. There were software engineers whom I could look to for assistance. I was curious about this Unix-like system. (I was first exposed to computing at work in the late 60s, when the hardware was a Teletype machine and an acoustic modem connecting to someplace in Texas. The programming languages were BASIC and Fortran. I learned BASIC then.) Over the ensuing years, I did a little simple programming at work, and after a while, I built the Big Board computer for home use. I also took a course in Pascal at a local college, and did some engineering programming in that language. I first tried out Linux about 1997 or so, and futzed around with various distros for a couple of years. I ran RedHat for a while, and discovered PCLinuxOS around 2005, I think it was. I have looked at a few other distros since, including Ubuntu and Mint, and a couple of others that seem to have disappeared. I've always come back to PCLinuxOS. I like the KDE interface, Synaptic package manager, and the RPM system, which allows me to get some apps that are not presently available in the repos, like the SoftMaker Office package, DraftSight, and LightScribe. The PCLinuxOS Forum is extremely helpful! In the Fall of 2010, I took a one-semester course in Linux at the local Community College. I scored a B+! I have Windows on some of my computers, but I very seldom use it -- mainly for music apps, which I consider fairly useless in Linux. As a matter of fact, I frequently have to email my son with questions on how to use Windows, since I have forgotten quite a bit, and also because Microsoft keeps changing the terminology from release to release.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by YouCanToo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum member. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.

If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

ms_meme's Nook: I Survived

OGG                                         MP3

Game Zone: ZeGame

by daiashi

About The Game

ZeGame is a game about using your head to solve puzzles. There are two game modes, with 160 levels spanning eight worlds. Each world has its own backdrop and sound theme.

There is also a map editor available for free as well. You basically move your mouse around to get the best view or angle and then use your arrow keys (or w,a,s,d) to move the block along its path to the end or final object. ZeGame starts out simple and later tests your Patience. If you're a calm person, the soft music and mechanics of the game will put you to sleep. Final words: Very well made and a great time passer.

Eight worlds and 160 levels

Stunning backgrounds for each world

A level editor

Browse levels made by the community

Achievements and cards

Steam Cloud support

Leaderboards

Two game modes

Controller support

System requirements:

Fully updated PCLinuxOS and Steam

Hardware:

OS: PCLinuxOS

Processor: SSE2 instruction set support

Memory: 300 MB RAM

Graphics: Intel 4000

Storage: 100 MB available space

About The Company

A game by: Jespertheend
Sound design: Selle Sellink
Scored by: New Hansen
Based in the Netherlands

Some Gameplay Screenshots

Getting It To Run

Install Steam (if you don't have it installed already), then start it. You will need to create a new account, if you do not already have one. Once you have Steam up and running, go to the store tab. Click on the Linux tab if you wish and search for ZeGame. Click on and download the demo. If you have updated your system, including graphics drivers, you should be good to go.

ZeGame

GIMP Tutorial: Create Abstract Glass Art

by Meemaw

I found this one on http://mygimptutorial.com/ and it looks really neat. It creates shapes that appear to be cut glass with light reflecting on and through them.

This one takes a little practice as colors tend to blend more than you want them to. You can use different gradients and get different effects, but let's do the basic steps that resulted in the image above.

Create a new image, size 1024x768, making sure the background is white.

Select the Blend tool and set Mode to Difference and the Shape to Radial. The original tutorial used Land1 as the gradient, so we will do that.

You will want to create eight gradients: one from each corner to the opposite corner. You can see I have already done 3 of those:

You also want one from each corner to the center. This one is my first:

When you're finished, the image should look similar to this:

You might also notice that the color in your last corner is much brighter, so let's adjust the brightness there. In this one, my bottom left corner is too bright. Click on the Fuzzy Select tool, set the threshold to 45, and also enable Feather edges and set them to 5. Holding down the Shift key, click once in the corner:

Keep holding Shift and click on all the light areas in that corner until your selection looks similar to this:

Click on Colors > Brightness-Contrast. Set the Brightness to at least -60 and Contrast to at least 20. You might have to experiment to get your corners closer to even. I ended up setting mine to Brightness -75 and Contrast 30.

When it looks closer to the other corners, then click on Select > None to go back to the entire drawing.

Just in case you also have a corner that is too dark, you can use the Fuzzy Select tool again. Set the threshold to 30 this time. Just like before, hold the Shift key and click until you have a selection like you had before. It might be a little more difficult. If it wants to select more than you need (like parts of the center), set your threshold down a little bit and try again.

This time set Brightness to at least 70 and Contrast to 45. My upper left corner was very dark, so I experimented a bit and ended up setting the Brightness to 80 and the Contrast to 30, and mine turned out like this:

Again, click on Select > None. This might be a good time to save your work, if you haven't already.

To make this look a bit more "glassy", let's add some blur to soften some of the edges. Click on Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the blur radius to 2.

Now it should look similar to this:

Now duplicate the layer. (In your layers dialog, click on the Duplicate Layer button.)

Making sure you have the top layer selected, go to Colors > Desaturate.

The layer will be gray, so now select Colors > Colorize. Set the Hue to 100, and the Saturation to 60. This will give your image a nice green color, kind of like old glass.

One last thing you can do is to lower the opacity of the green layer to around 75 (in the Layers dialog), so your background layer will shine through and make it look like it's reflecting colors through it.

This is one you can experiment with, substituting other gradients (some don't work as well as others!), other colors in the colorize step and other gradient shapes. I tried one with the Radial Rainbow gradient and did the first four gradient paths (clear across the rectangle), then reversed the gradient and did one path from the center of the rectangle to below the image. Surprisingly, I didn't have to lighten or darken anything. Then I duplicated and desaturated the layer, but then when I colorized, my hue was set to 360 and Saturation down to 40 or 50. I then set the opacity of the layer to 90. Here is my result. Weird, huh? Definitely not as "glassy".

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe

Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker™ SuperMoist™ yellow cake mix
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) regular active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 container Betty Crocker™ Rich & Creamy cream cheese frosting

Directions

1. Grease 13x9-inch pan or 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with shortening or cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, 1 cup of the flour and the yeast. Add water; stir with wooden spoon until dough forms. Add the remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time, stirring after each addition, until a soft dough forms. You may not need all of the flour. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. Gently punch down dough, and then reshape it into a ball. Let rest for a few minutes. Meanwhile, have melted butter ready, and in a small bowl, mix brown sugar and cinnamon.

4. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into large rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Starting with 1 long end, tightly roll up dough into a log. Cut into 12 rolls.

5. Place rolls in pan(s); cover with plastic wrap. Let rise about 30 minutes while you heat oven to 375°F.

6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; spread with frosting. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Options: Add colorful sprinkles to liven things up or for a child’s birthday.

LibreOffice: Calc Shortcuts

by Meemaw

I get emails from many sources in my job. I recently got one from one of the office supply companies I purchase from, telling me all the wonderful shortcuts that MS Excel has to simplify your work. After reading it, I decided to check LibreOffice Calc and see which ones work there, since I use Calc instead of Excel at work.

Shortcuts to Navigate More Smoothly

What follows are a few keyboard shortcuts you can use to move around your spreadsheet a little faster.

Move to the last cell in a worksheet

Sometimes you need to jump to the last records of data quickly. To do this, use <CTRL> + End (if your End key is on your keypad, as it is on my laptop, be sure to turn off your number lock.)

Move from sheet to sheet

Move to the next worksheet by pressing <CTRL> + Page down. Move to the previous sheet with <CTRL> + Page Up (again, if those keys are on your keypad, be sure to turn off your number lock).

Move to the edge of a range of data

If you have a large range of data, you can quickly move to the right, left, top, or bottom by pressing the <CTRL> + arrow key of the direction you want to go. I tried this with my Christmas card addresses, and I should warn you about any empty cells that you may have. I have some addresses that I took out because the people had moved and I didn't have new addresses yet. When I clicked <CTRL> + down arrow in the address column, the cursor went down to the last filled cell in that column, but when I chose the name column, which is all complete, the <CTRL> + down arrow succeeded in going clear to the bottom.

Cutting Data Entry Time

Data entry is time consuming no matter what spreadsheet or program you use, so let's look at some shortcuts that work in LibreOffice.

Quickly Copy a Formula

At work, I have a spreadsheet created for my payroll records. In a spreadsheet, anything you need to calculate must have a formula, or you do it yourself and enter the answer. So here, it is Hours Worked times Hourly Wage for one calculation, Calculate Social Security Withheld for another, Sum the Deductions and Subtract Deductions from the Gross Pay for two more! The pay period is twice a month, so for a year there are twenty-four pay periods, and four times twenty-four formula entries. Whew! Let's see if we can do it faster. Put your formula into the first row. In my example, I have entered the formula for calculating Social Security deductions (total wages multiplied by .0765).

Instead of copying and pasting this all the way down, you can click the cell with the formula, which in this sheet is cell H2. Now hold you mouse over the bottom right corner until the cursor turns into a plus sign. Click and drag your mouse pointer down the rows you want the formula in. This will repeat and adjust the formula for each cell in the column. If you have data entered, it will calculate it as well.

Freeze Cells

When you have many columns and rows of data, it can be difficult to remember what each column is once you scroll down. If you have several data columns that have similar data (like records of month-to-month sales for many people, or sales of individual items), you run the risk of entering the data incorrectly.

Rather than lose visibility of column headings or row names while scrolling, you can Freeze the Cells. To do this, place the cursor below the column heading and to the right of the names. That would be cell B2.

Go to View and then Freeze Cells and then you have three choices: Freeze Rows and Columns, Freeze First Row or Freeze First Column. Do whichever works best for the data you have.

This will make the row and/or column headings stationary so you can see them while you enter your data.

How to Make Projections

If you have a data group, you might want to try to predict future values. For example, I might have a spreadsheet of employee sales over a 12-month period. It would be helpful to find a trend to see what the future might be.

This can be done with a function called FORECAST. Using a spreadsheet of employee sales, I might be able to see the trend of sales over the next few months.

I have nine employees and period-by-period sames for 12 months. Let's say I need to try to determine how much inventory I might need for future months by looking at past months' sales. One way to do this is to use the FORECAST function, which will look at the trend of the sales and extrapolate into future numbers. We'll use Amanda's sales, so go to cell N2 and enter in the following formula:

=FORECAST(N$1,$B2:$M2,$B$1:$M$1)

To break down this formula, you need three key components.

The first part is the current period we are in, which is cell N1. This is period 13. For this formula to work, you need to have the period numbers like they are in row 1. By putting a dollar sign in front of the 1, Calc will always refer to row 1.

The second part is the range of cells that Calc needs to find the trend for. In this case, the range is cells B2 to M2. You need to put a dollar sign in front of the B to anchor it, so when you copy it across, the first column is always B.

The third part of the formula is the range of the periods to look at: cells B1 to M1. Both the second and third parts need to span the same columns. For this, we need to put a dollar sign in front of the B to make it stay there and in front of both 1s (so it's always looking at row 1).

Once you do this, you can do a quick copy to copy it down the rows and over to the right for period 14 and 15, just like we copied the formula earlier. This will produce a projection of future sales over the next 3 periods.

Pivot Tables

If you have loads of data and it's hard to sift through it all, you might use a Pivot Table. A Pivot Table summarizes a large table of data into a smaller one to see the totals. Let's first look at our table:

This is a table of purchases by employees and their categories and costs. A Pivot Table allows you to summarize it. To create a Pivot Table, place the cursor anywhere on the table where you'd like to summarize. Then click Insert and then Pivot Table.

You will get a small window asking if you want the range chosen by Calc (which is probably all of your data), or if you want to specify a different range, or even select a different source (other than the spreadsheet you have open). I chose Current Selection.

The Pivot Table window will appear. Up at the top, you are given your fields and you should drag them to the appropriate box to display your summary. What I want to do is see the totals spent for the four categories Machinery, Supplies, Labor and Miscellaneous. To do that, I will drag the field named "Type" to the Row Fields box so the types will be in my table, one to a row. Then I will drag the field named "Cost" to my Data Fields box. It should show up with the word Sum as well.

You need to expand the Options and Source and Destination sections at the bottom. You have several options, but I just want the sum of each type, so I will choose "Total Rows". Also, the range of the table should be filled in. If not, fill it in manually. Then you can choose to display your data on a New Sheet or in a Selection on the same sheet. If you choose Selection, you can shrink the window and highlight the selection where you want the data to appear. I chose New Sheet.

When you get your configuration filled in (depending on what you want), and click OK, you will be taken to your new sheet:

Now, if I want a summary of how much each person spent, I would drag the field "Name" to the Row Fields box and "Cost" to the Data Fields box. The result is a list of how much each person spent on another sheet. If you like, you can always copy everything over to the first sheet (or in your configuration window, you can choose range destination and select the cells on sheet one).

You can even see how much was purchased on a certain date by dragging Date to the Row Fields box. Depending on the fields that you have in your spreadsheet, you can summarize in many different ways.

LO Calc is a great tool! The wonderful programmers for this office suite have labored long and hard to make sure it will do everything that the higher priced office suite will do, and they are doing an excellent job. One of the things they have done is to make sure that LO Calc is "keyboard compatible" with Excel, which is smart when you consider the market penetration of Excel and the rest of the Microsoft Office suite. This way, when users switch from using Excel to LO Calc, all the keyboard shortcuts that the user was accustomed to using in Excel also do the very same thing in LO Calc. It certainly does everything I need it to do.

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

GIMP Terms Crossword

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

PCLinuxOS Word Find: November 2016
GIMP Terms

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by Hertz, October 3, 2016, running KDE

Posted by Agust, October 8, 2016, running e20

Posted by jogurtmen, October 15, 2016, running KDE

Posted by Meemaw, October 17, 2016, running Xfce

Posted by OnlyHuman, October 8, 2016, running e17

Posted by Orion, October 8, 2016, running Xfce

Posted by parnote, October 2, 2016, running Xfce

Posted by tuxlink, October 4, 2016, running KDE

Posted by weirdwolf, October 18, 2016, running LXDE

Posted by YouCanToo, October 3, 2016, running KDE