Community Member Monday: Don Matschull
TXDon (aka Don Matschull) is a regular on our Ask LibreOffice website, helping users with their questions. He also maintains a YouTube channel with video tutorials about the suite, and has created courses on Udemy. We chatted with him about his work – and here’s what he had to say.
Don Matschull: I really want to help others learn about what LibreOffice has to offer. I especially want to emphasize the advantage of using styles rather than trying to use LibreOffice Writer like other applications with direct formatting.
In the past, I tended to learn just enough about an application to accomplish the task at hand. After using one application for years, I had some extra time and started to read more of the user manual and other books. I quickly learned that I could have saved hours, days, months of time if I had delved more deeply when I first started using the application. Now, I try to gain a deeper knowledge of the application I am working with.
As I learn, I like to share the knowledge I’ve gained. Trying to explain something helps me understand it even better. When researching a topic, I tend to check the user guides, help files, do internet searches for written and video tutorials, and use help forums such as Ask LibreOffice. Often, I find only bits and pieces of what I want to know and end up experimenting until I’m satisfied that I have a decent grasp of the subject. Then, I try to share what I’ve learned to keep others from having to spend the time and frustration I spent learning.
I try to design my courses in a somewhat logical progression, though this can be difficult because of the way topics can be interrelated. My YouTube videos are more spontaneous. The biggest difficulty with these is trying to keep them short while also covering the topic in more than a superficial manner.
My next video will probably be about how to make lists more distinctive and attractive. Then, I expect to discuss the new features and changes introduced by LibreOffice 7.6 when it reaches the point that version 7.5 now holds.
Eventually, I would like to prepare a whole new course or more on LibreOffice Writer incorporating audio and video techniques I learned since my initial course.