Online Support Service for Non-Technical Users of OpenOffice.org Launches Public Beta

WebKnowHow
Wednesday, November 15, 2006; 03:15 AM

Conficio announced the public beta phase of its Plan-B for OpenOffice.org support service. This service allows anyone, especially non technical users, to find answers to their questions quickly and to understand the documentation effortless. Plan-B is a new technology that documents software with short videos (screencasts) and offers smart search technology for improved indexing.

The new service is demonstrated at
http://openoffice.screencast-tutorials.com/index

Accordig to its creators, Plan-B for OpenOffice.org is the first website that creates a comprehensive documentation of the application suite based on visual instructions. Kaj Kandler, founder of Conficio, is convinced "Non-technical users learn better with visual instructions like short videos." He says, "We are very excited to offer this new technology to the fast growing user base of OpenOffice.org, the free open source office suite. Plan-B for OpenOffice.org especially benefits users who migrate from other office suites." This service, with its easy to understand help topics, supports the on demand needs of users at all levels of expertise.

To address the most common user complaint about software documentation, "I can't find what I'm looking for," Plan-B for OpenOffice.org employs smart search technology which understands the users' language. The self learning search engine translates search keywords into the "application language" that is used in the documentation. This allows a user to find precisely the right help topic, even when he or she does not know the exact word for a search query. The search engine gets smarter with every query performed, as it learns the "user language" by watching all input to the website.

In addition to visual documentation and smart search, Plan-B also offers interactive support to OpenOffice.org users. This service allows users to submit their question to a help desk and get expert advice on how to solve their issue.

The public beta test is open to all users who want to improve their skills in OpenOffice.org or simply explore an innovative technology. To sign up for the public beta test go to:
http://openoffice.screencast-tutorials.com/auth/register

OpenOffice.org is the leading open source office suite. It is the office suite with the second largest market share. OpenOffice.org includes applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, drawing, formula editing and database manipulation.