Cube Root in OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org doesn’t seem to have any built-in functions for cube roots, but there’s an easy workaround. To find the nth root, use powers to the nth fraction. Probably easier to illustrate than to explain with my rusty math skills. 😉

I mean this:

You need to use the brackets because otherwise the power would take precedence over the division.

Turning off Date conversions in OpenOffice.org

Yesterday, I had the problem that a number range I entered in a table (“3-4”) was changed into a date by OpenOffice. Never saw that happen before, I think it must be a new functionality. I tried to switch it off but found nothing in the Auto Correction options. The developers put the option in a weird spot:

  • Right click on the table
  • Click the “Number recognition” menu item to deactivate it

A loud “Hooray” for weird defaults.