Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 February 24

= February 24 =

organizational chart
Hi. I've been tasked with producing an organizational chart with photos and titles and positions of about 40 people. What free software would be good for this? The structure is quite complex. I am familiar with inkscape, but this doesn't seem quite the right tool. I am learning to use scribus, but this isn't quite right either. Can anyone advise? Robinh (talk) 06:36, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * OpenOffice.org Draw is a free software tool for creating structured drawings. It has a user interface that I would describe as "half way between Microsoft Visio and PowerPoint."  There are plenty of other options; you can draw things in GIMP, but it's probably not the tool you'd use for an org-chart.  We have a List of concept- and mind-mapping software, including some with nice graphical features.  FreeMind can be used to draw tree-like structures very quickly and easily, with some limitations on the layout.  Nimur (talk) 08:06, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

I've used a web app site called LucidChart to create organizational charts before, and it works pretty well. 192.84.79.2 (talk) 11:32, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * thanks guys. I didn't kno about either of these suggestions. best wishes, 222.153.61.63 (talk) 04:24, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Notable Wikipedians who are regular contributors or administrators?
So I was just wondering if there are any notable Wikipedians who regularly spend their time contributing to the encyclopedia at present, has rights such as rollback, account creator etc. or is even an administrator. It's unlikely there are any but I would still like to know. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 14:02, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * You can look through Wikipedians with articles; you'll need to use other tools to see who has what rights, and use your own standards for who really passes for notable. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:10, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * There are some known ones (an old category Category:Notable Wikipedians now redirects to another one). There are probably also some unknown ones contributing anonymously.  67.117.145.9 (talk) 16:41, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I consider many of the contributors on the list of reference-desk regulars to be "notable." For some of our more prolific contributors, I can often identify who the author was (by tone and style), long before I scroll down to their signature.  I'd say that any author skilled enough that their voice is distinctive counts as "notable" in some contexts.  (I would not use this as a criteria for Wikipedia article space inclusion, where we have a more stringent set of criteria).  Nimur (talk) 17:55, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I meant notable Wikipedians, as in those Wikipedians who are at Wikipedians with articles. Are there any examples? Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 23:40, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
 * User:Jimbo Wales, of course. → Σ  τ  c . 03:01, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Aside from Jimbo, of course. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 03:14, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The only one who I know off the top of my head is Cory Doctorow but I don't know if he contributes to anything outside his own article and those of his books and work. Might be worth a look though.  Dismas |(talk) 03:18, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * User:MGodwin, legal counsel for the WMF. → Σ  τ  c . 04:27, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Anyone aside from Jimbo or anyone Wikipedia-related. Not even Angela or Larry. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 04:33, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Elonka Dunin is the only one I can think of right now. sonia ♫ 04:59, 25 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Does that mean you want to exclude anyone who got involved in the WMF after they were prolific editors (and quite a while after the founding)? If so, what sort of level? Do you include arbcom? Oversighters? Checkusers? While these people will generally be selected by the community there's also some WMF involvement. Nil Einne (talk) 19:32, 25 February 2012 (UTC)


 * MGodwin hasn't been legal counsel for a while (resigned in October 2010), see Meta:General Counsel. Geoff Brigham has been the counsel since 2011 and is currently a redlink Nil Einne (talk) 19:32, 25 February 2012 (UTC)


 * There are several more that I know of, but I don't feel comfortable naming them. 67.117.145.9 (talk) 05:28, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Here are a few that I noticed.
 * Admins:
 * (Arthur Rubin)
 * (Simon Pulsifer) - The ultimate in notable Wikipedians. He's notable because he edits.
 * (Michael Snow (attorney))


 * Rollbackers:
 * (Dave Snowden)
 * (Andrea James)
 * (Sue Gardner)
 * (William Connolley) - was an admin at one time.

No doubt there are others but those are the names that jumped out at me. Not sure if they are all current contributors or not. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 11:58, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

Word - Libreoffice conversion
Is there someplace to find answers to questions of this sort:


 * In Microsoft Word I can use "XXX". Is there an equivalent thing to use in LibreOffice?

For example:


 * In Microsoft Word I can use ^p in a find and replace command to represent a paragraph mark (eg, to replace commas with paragraph marks). Is there a way to do this in LibreOffice?

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 22:14, 24 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Though not official, a quick Google revealed . Though I suppose you might be looking for something like an FAQ of how-to's. --Melab±1 &#9742; 00:43, 25 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you Melab-1. In my limited experience of LibreOffice, unofficial seems more useful than "official".  Following your lead, I got to a wiki where my specific question was answered, at this URL:


 * http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Regular_Expressions_in_Writer#Positional_match_.5E__.24__.5C.3C__.5C.3E


 * I am including this URL in case someone else looking for the same information arrives here. I gather the mechanism of "find and replace" in LibreOffice is more complicated and, if one understands it, more useful than in Word.  Wanderer57 (talk) 02:55, 25 February 2012 (UTC)


 * You might find this useful (official) if you are interested in special find and replace functions. SmartSE (talk) 17:23, 26 February 2012 (UTC)